AT LAST........... A DECISION.........NO!

North Wales UKIP has finally responded to my request to attend one of their meetings with a refusal.
Here is a section of that response...



Mr Oddy
There was little enthusiasm for a December meeting at our last meeting, the next will be in January 2010.
You request to attend the next monthly meeting of the North Wales branch was put to the UKIP Wales commitee at its meeting in November.
The unanimous decision was that as a former prominent member of the BNP you should not be allowed to attend.
Your request was further discussed at the North Wales branch meeting three days later with the decision being reached that you should not be invited to attend our meetings and that the result of any application that you may make to join UKIP be awaited. I am therefor unable to extend an invitation to you for you to attend.
Several members made the point that most if not all of us had joined UKIP without ever having attended a branch meeting.


I am not angry at their refusal, slightly bemused and bewildered but not angry. They are worried that I may be a BNP infiltrator, but I could only be that after joining the Party and not by attending one meeting. I could understand close scrutiny if I joined them but what harm could be done at a branch meeting?
I am now left to decide whether to join them or not; it has given me a reminder of how petty political parties can be, we only have to look at our local Conservatives to see that. As an Independent I can do and vote as I please, in a Party I have to toe a line and I don’t know if I could do that.
I do feel sorry for the local members of UKIP if this type of dallying is common practice, good leadership and decision making is crucial to the success of any branch and I don’t think we’ve seen either in this decision.
I have stated I believe UKIP can be a good challenger to the mainstream parties but I think I have gained more information about them through this episode than I would have through attending a meeting; They are weak on decisiveness, still at the Church Hall level in regards to meetings and not pushing themselves on publicity. When it comes to politics you have to be decisive, members and votes can be lost if you are not. Credibility as a Party is fundamental and by meeting in church halls you give the impression more of a local action group rather than that of a political party, the Town Hall hires out the Committee Room and the main Chamber, get in there and show people you have arrived. By now every home in the area should have had a UKIP leaflet, every Saturday the market should be full of activist handing out leaflets and talking to the people and instead of me going to UKIP to find out about them they should be coming to us, you cannot win votes by sitting on your arse and talking about it to the already converted. Perhaps, in a funny way, they may have done me a favour in their refusal.