An article I wrote for UKIP Home

I wrote an article for UKIP Home which has now been published. It is about the leadership election in UKIP. The content is below.

I decided to leave the Conservative Party when Cameron reneged on the EPP pledge. I wasn't thinking of getting involved with UKIP at the time, because despite good intentions, I didn't think they were going anywhere. I was actually thinking of building a campaign website to promote the idea of Peter Hitchens that people should write "NONE OF THE ABOVE" on ballot papers. This changed when David Campbell Bannerman published his campaign website.

I was immediately struck by his clear honest appraisal about Bromley and how UKIP were not attracting the disenchanted voters and this was because "UKIP needs to improve its messages, policies, presentation and brand." I have said for many months that UKIP suffers from severe communication problems and often shoots its own messages in the foot, because of the way they are communicated.

I disagree with Nigel's appraisal of Bromley and fear that with him as leader things may not change enough. Nigel is willing to work harder, but David Campbell Bannerman wants to work smarter as well. A key difference. I believe many UKIP activists are feeling drained and just working them harder will not do, they may become burnt out. If something isn't working, examine to see what is wrong, as it is madness to keep working and working in an ineffective manner.

David Noakes I find scaremongering and a step backwards.

Richard doesn't really grab me as a man of vision. I think of his campaign as a protest vote by the modernisers. Anthony Butcher's 2 horse race claim(Nigel and Richard) seems based upon a ridiculous notion that David Campbell Bannerman shares the blame with current leadership, even though he has only been Chairman since January 2006. I was misled by the claim and Richard has to take the buck for allowing a typical Liberal Democrat tactic onto his website. Not only that, I think it does him harm as I think UKIP Chairman is at least on a par with UKIP Wales Chairman! I find the claim funny now.

David Campbell Bannerman comes across as a man of ideas and action. His credentials are very impressive indeed. He also states the importance of listening to divergent views, getting on with people, and uniting the Party. He is clearly a Consultative leader who knows the importance of input from others. His policies give a good sense of direction and his thinking, but he is clear that they are for discussion, not the next UKIP manifesto completed already, as some others seem to think.

Although an aside on his website, I am impressed by the fact that he is a scriptwriter too. This tells me that as a character creator, he has the ability to think as someone else. We need a leader who can imagine what our enemies would say about our communications and avoid wording things in ways that can be misunderstood. This is crucial for UKIP. We must not shoot ourselves in the foot with our messages.

I do not think anyone would disagree that having a Leader with a thorough understanding of how the media works, is a huge plus, and David does havethat understanding as well as experience in the media. This coupled with marketing such well known brands as Imperial Leather, shows me he has the potential to make a very big difference in the way UKIP is portrayed. UKIP's reputation will be cleaned up and the name of UKIP may yet smell sweet to the public, under his leadership.

For the first time, I see a candidate for UKIP which has me thinking that he could do the Prime Minister's job. Yes, really.