It must have been quite hard for UKIP leader Nigel Farage as he dropped into Somersets flooded river basins to answer why UKIP want to remove ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ from the school curriculum. But now the publicity craving populist is faced by yet another PR disaster as more and more people are finally seeing through his opportunistic right wing non-party. Of course it didn’t help that one of his UKIP councillors blamed the floods on ‘gayness’. But then another blow hit floodbound Farage as one of the 3 recently elected UKIP Somerset county councillors suddenly announced he was quitting the party he was elected to represent less than 9 months ago.
UKIP county councillor for Chard North, Nigel Pearson, has now defected to become an independent. Citing disagreement with the Ukip chairman. He told the Yeovil Express “Due to irreconcilable differences between myself and the chairman of the UKIP Somerset County Committee, I regret that I cannot continue as a member of UKIP.”
Lib Dem ‘dynasties’ paved way for UKIP vote
Labour’s candidate for Chard North, Town Councillor Graham Forsyth, said “At last year’s County Council elections in Chard North the sitting Lib Dem councillor Jenny Kenton stood down. She and her husband and her sister are Chard Town Councillors and Jenny was next in line to be the Mayor of Chard, which she currently is. This is the way for the ruling Lib Dem dynasty as Chard Town Council has been under Lib Dem control for some thirty years.”
Cllr Forsyth continued “Her intended successor was another local pub landlord Jason Baker, who hosts the local Cotley Hunt on Boxing Day and is waiting in the wings to join the ruling Lib Dem fold on the town council. The Lib Dem’s in Chard are Tories in all but name, fully supportive of there collection of local MPs; David Laws, David Heath and Jeremy Brown who sit very happily with there Tory colleagues in Westminster.”
The leader of South Somerset Tory group Martin Wale who is currently a town and district councillor was the expected winner of the contest for Chard North as local people were concerned about having yet another Lib Dem pub landlord representing them. “lets hear it for the beer”; would have been the Lib Dem cry if he had won!
Chard has a high influx of Portuguese and Polish workers with many of the council documentation available in Portuguese and Polish. The intake of these EU workers can be traced back over the last fifteen years as local businesses recruited these workers via employment, travel and accommodation agencies.
With the current government fanning the flames of the immigration issue and bashing the European Union with its “we do not like Johnny Foreigner narrative”; this has sparked concern about the number of legal EU workers in the local area and it’s affect on schools, social housing and local job opportunities. Cllr Forsyth explained “This is an ideal breeding ground for UKIP to exploit and having stood in that election myself I can say that the election material produced by UKIP was very hard hitting on the immigration issues and drove many disaffected Lib Dem voters over to the UKIP camp and so we had the runaway success of Nigel Pearson who as UKIP polled nearly 40% of the total vote. Having congratulated Nigel on his election success following his election I again wish him every success as an independent sitting in County Hall. He always stuck me as a bright intelligent individual and I often wondered what he saw in the UKIP party. I am sure he will continue to serve the all the people of Chard North well.”