According to the Lincolnshire County Council website there are 10 county councillors in a group called the “United Kingdom Independence Party” and there are another six in a rival group called “UKIP Lincolnshire.” I like the look of Cllr Richard Fairman, who represents Spalding East and Moulton and is in the “UKIP Lincolnshire” group. Surely Cllr Fairman should cease such nonsense and join the Conservatives? With his splendid handlebar moustache he is clearly a Conservative at heart.
It’s all rather Monty Python. There does seem to be a rule that the smaller a political party the more likely it is to split. The infighting among UKIP’s Euro MPs and among their councillors suggests this does not only apply to the far left.
The “UKIP Lincolnshire” faction had intended to call themselves the “United Kingdom Independence Group” or UKIG. However UKIP have taken legal advice that this could cause confusion. Cllr Chris Pain, who leads the breakaway group, says:
“We could be the Mickey Mouse fan club…it’s not a political party.”
Well, indeed.
Conservative leadership Lincolnshire County Council is proposing to freeze the Council Tax this year. What do UKIP councillors in either group have to say about the budget? Do they support higher spending – like their comrades in Hampshire? Will they table an alternative budget, which council officers would be obliged to assist with, offering a Council Tax cut and specifying where spending would be reduced to finance it?
UKIP in Lincolnshire don’t seem to be concerned with policy details or the concerns of the residents they were elected to represent. Instead UKIP have turned in on themselves and are consumed with bitter personal recriminations and allegations of racism, hacked Facebook pages and secretly recording each others telephone conversations.