Nigel Farage seems to be everywhere these days (except for turning up to propose his own motion). But, curiously, there is one fairly crucial place he isn’t. He’s been selected as UKIP candidate for Thanet South and we’ve been told to expect even more wall-to-wall coverage of the Farage visage, as he seizes a seat at Westminster.
So you’d expect Nigel Farage to be digging in at Thanet South wouldn’t you? You know the sort of thing: being regularly spotted at Thanet Women’s Institute meetings, holding Thanet babies, holding forth about Thanet potholes….that sort of thing.
Well, think on. According to a retweet by the outgoing Tory MP for Thanet South, Nigel Paul Farage Esquire recently did not visit the constituency for at least three months:
“@FarageNo: @MSmithsonPB @LordAshcroft That's what happens when you don't visit the constituency in 3 months.” #desperatelyseekingNigel
— Laura Sandys CBE (@Laura_Sandys) November 27, 2014
The latest Ashcroft poll showed UKIP five points behind the Tories in Thanet South, which is likely to make an imminent Farage Thanet ensconcement even less likely. He recently did turn up for a Thanet meeting but lost interest and left before it ended:
https://twitter.com/FarageNo/status/538318737154519040
Remember when Farage chickened out of standing in the Newark by-election? It sounds as though we’re hearing more “buck, buck, bucking” here in Thanet South. What is it with Farage? Is he afraid of hard work?
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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6 Comments
Looks like I’ve been in Thanet South more often than Nigel Farage recently.
Nice place. Good pubs. You’d think he’d visit more often!
Lucky Thanet babies, I say.
How many mothers would want someone who might smell of beer or stale cigarette smoke breathing in their baby’s faces anyway?
What is the party’s best campaigner doing in Thanet South?
If UKIP win a few seats but Farage isn’t one of the ones elected they will be bound to elect a new leader from among their MPs. I doubt he will like that. It will be entertaining to watch them split into two factions. Kilroy-Silk all over again.
If in a UKIP utopia Britain were to pull out of the EU would Nigel Farage forgo that tax payer funded EU pension pot he has been building up over the past few years? It’s about time Ukippers were put under the spotlight as to what they personally get out of the EU whilst puting nothing in.
Peter Chegwyn
Nice place. Good pubs. You’d think he’d visit more often!
Nice place for the media-constructed Nigel Farage. Probably not such a nice place for the real City fat cat Nigel Farage.