UKIP are doing well in the polls at the moment – but here’s bit of advice for Nigel Farage : dump Neil Hamilton.
It’s well known that Farage and Hamilton are mates and, to be fair, it’s a well documented fact that Hamilton has little time for the Fourth Reich but it was a step too far to put him forward as a candidate for the 2014 Euro elections.
It was widely expected that Hamilton would top the list as a candidate in the South West but the UKIP membership had other ideas and refused to endorse him. Bad enough that Hamilton has found his way onto UKIP’s NEC, but now Farage seems set to compound that error of judgement and offer his old mate a plum job within UKIP, possibly as his next chief of staff or deputy secretary general of the party’s group in the European Parliament
The salary for such an “AD” or advisory position is generous, and with allowances, such as ex-patriation and household expenses, could easily make Hamilton around £10,000 a month after tax. Uncharacteristically for the self publicist and his gobby wife, neither of them is making any comment.
I fail to understand why UKIP would want to associate themselves with the disgraced former Tory MP who was accused of accepting cash for questions. Surely if they want to be taken seriously then a man who has been found untrustworthy and who is more suited to appearing in pantomines is not the way to go about it?
A shrewd politician does not hand his enemies ammunition on a plate, Nigel…
Insult me directly by eMail
Dioclese 
It surely can't be all that difficult to find a UKIP candidate who is intelligent; had a proper job; is not a criminal (reformed or otherwise); not held in disdain and contempt by all right minded people; is acceptable to the public;and has a few ideas to put forward. I can think of 3 in my tiny corner of the world (two of whom I would actually vote for). If Farage is serious about his party and wishes to take full advantage of the forthcoming European elections, he should start looking for serious applicants and not clowns.
Penseivat
I agree with you completely. They've tried to hone the selection process but the problem is that any candidate that applies has to pay for his own vetting process and fund his own deposit which means that only people with a few grand to write off can apply.
There's good people out there who simply cannot afford to put themselves forward. The major party don't, of course, have this problem.
I think this sends out the wrong signal as does Farage cosying up to his mate Hamilton who IMHO is a definite turnoff for voters.
Neil Hamilton seems like a UKIP star to me, his rants against anti smoking will hit home with supporters( search for Neil hamilton anti smoking, “Beware encounters of the weird kind” Express.
This banstubating rant warns of all the bans that will follow covering up fags in supermarkets… oh dear Neil, none of those fantasy bans have been implimented that you bansturbated about back in March 2008, they seem as cock eyed now as they did back then.
Blogging UKIP supporters will love him, the rest of the country will make the connection of Tory toff and Farage which is what Farage is in disguise, a rebel tory.
I'm a blogging UKIP supporter and I think the bloke's a cunt!
I also have no problem with Tory rebels – or rebel from any party come to that as long as they're honest about it. Problem is that Hamilton's not honest and as for Farage – well he's in danger of being tarred with the same brush by associating with the guy.
Tories do tend to be arrogant and cliquey. It's their worst characteristic so I see where you're coming from. Farage is falling into the same camp. Looking after his mate. It'll do him no good.
I was unaware of Hamilton's anti-smoking stance so I'll take a look at that. I'm against anything that goes against freedom of choice but he's entitled to his views as long as others aren't forced to comply. That's dictatorship which in my view is unacceptable.
Think I might nominate the bugger on ISAC. Sounds like a worthy candidate. The fucker will do anything for publicity!
Hamilton is not anti smoking, he jumps on the freedom mongers bandwagon that UKIP supporters attach themselves too that bans are about to overcome our lives and make them intolerable.
His 2008 rants are typical of pro UKIP bloggers rants today, bans never got introduced back then and still haven't today.
First they came for smokers now its blah blah, this shite gets trotted out almost daily on blogs but the new bans never appear.
Smoking hasn't been banned and fuck all else too, if your lives are being ruined by the nanny state you need to get yourself some counselling cos its all in your imagination