As a personal opinion it is as valid as the next but to be sure Norris McWhrter in a long and very successful career shared his name with some very strange causes and let us face it to share ones name in publications where the author writes his own forwards telling all how very clever and well informed they are is indeed and indication of Norris McWhirter’s broad minded approach to the issues of self determination, liberty and protest.
I understand his name was also abused by it being added as a patron of one particularly bizarre organisation set up AFTER his death!
Norris, myself and Michael Holmes fought against the kind of shenanigans orchestrated by Farage in UKIP and left the party as a result of this behaviour.
Having shared platforms at speaking engagement with Norris McWhirter I am morally certain he was never a UKIP member and nor did he ever claim to be – perhaps like The Mormons Mr. Atkinson seeks to convert the dead to his cult!
My memory may be at fault but as I recall surely Rodney Atkinson threw his toys out of his pram when defeated in an election, by a very small margin, by Jeffrey Titford who thus became the party leader.
Many in UKIP believed that the support of leading journalists such as Bill Jamieson and Christopher Booker was a far greater asset to UKIP than Rodney Atkinson and what seemed to be his somewhat obsessive anti German cult following who believed all EUrope’s ills were a deep Nazi plot – a view that many realised would destroy the EUroSceptic movement.
I myself, though never a UKIP member and never in anyones political control or pay was very much of the opinion that Rodney Atkinson was hugely outclassed in a leadership bid by Jeffrey Titford, ineffectual as he would clearly be he was what many of us considered a safe pare of hands after the period of great divisions brought about by Michael Holmes.
I, like Christopher Booker and Bill Jamieson was convinced Atkinson was a totally unsuitable candidate for leader, not least of all because of the dishonesty of some he gathered around him, and in the interest of EUroScepticis at the time I circulated two separate letters to every UKIP member stating my personal opinion and reasoning over my own signature and providing my eMail & street address and phone number – not for me the actions of low lifes and cowards to dishonestly spread gossip and lies whilst sheltering in anonymity.
Many will remember Michael Holmes, who Atkinson attributes actions to, who gained control as leader of UKIP in a period when UKIP was VERY short of money and as I recall he made a large donation to the party – few realised that he fairly rapidly and somewhat clandestinely redeemed his very public donation, likely with interest!
Much of Michael Holmes’ apparent credibility was it seems obtained by his particularly imaginitive entry in Who’s Who which bore very little relationship to fact I gather!
In terms of fanciful comment this would seem to be a trait of Mr. Atkinson’s as he claims Norris McWhirter left the party – a party of which he was not a member!
Atkinson himself left the party (was he a member?) having been defeated by Jeffrey Titford and having been legitimately and politically out maneuvered.
Michael Holmes did NOT leave UKIP until, as a UKIP MEP, it became expedient on health grounds after a fairly substantial stroke.
It is for the reasons that have manifest yet again that I feel my decision to act to oppose Atkinson’s efforts to gain control of UKIP were are totally vindicated – sadly UKIP has never managed to attract anyone of suitable caliber as a leader either then, before or since!
I would hasten to add, as I am sure Nigel Farage, were he to have an honest moment, would confirm both my comments above and also the fact that I supported his own position and to this day my opinion is unchanged – that being that I have and do support Nigel Farage as UKIP’s performing monkey and media personality but he will confirm that I have consistently told him he could count on my implacable opposition to his status were he to aspire to or obtain leadership of the party.
Nigel Farage very clearly lacks the intellect, the OQ, the leadership skills, the integrity, the morality, the probity or the ethics to be leader of almost anything – least of all a British Political Campaign for it is clear UKIP has absolutely no role and less ability as a political party – a fact the British public has shown very clearly that it agrees with!
To this day after almost 20 years UKIP has failed on almost every count and are almost totally rejected in the field of domestic politics – currently holding less than 30 serious political positions by election, out of some 19,500 available!
Rodney Atkinson goes on to state:
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
. Re-TWEET my Twitterings
Ukip-vs-EUkip 