Robert Kilroy-Silk: mentalist
If anyone else saw the permatanned buffoon on Channel Four News just now, you'll know exactly what I mean. I hope they get video of that up - or at the very least a transcript (I'll keep a lookout). It was a perfect Kilroy moment - self-righteous, arrogant, aggressive, and packed with a range of vague assertions (and outright lies) backed up with nothingness. The long and the short of it? As expected, he's finally quit UKIP.
UKIP have come up with some amusing responses, slagging off Kilroy's supposed new party, allegedly to be called Veritas (Latin for "truth"): "'He's going to call it "Vanitas" we hear,' UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said sarcastically. 'We've got its manifesto. It has nothing new to offer voters other than the opportunity to swoon at Kilroy-Silk's feet.'"
Here's Kilroy's take:
"I have to say that [UKIP] is regarded by those outside it as a joke. I am ashamed to be a member. I cannot ask people to vote for it because it has no policies, no spokespersons, no energy, no vision, no idea of how Britain should be governed.So, only a few months after being elected as an MEP (and promising to "wreck" the EU), Kilroy's going to run away from his Brussels seat - abandoning the constituents who voted for him in their droves - in the vain pursuit of a return to Westminster. Hardly shows much loyalty to his constituents, does it?
"Instead I shall advise people not to vote for the party. To do otherwise will be to be dishonest, to pretend that the party has a purpose - when in fact it is a charade, an empty vessel.
"But while Ukip has turned its back on the British people, I shall not. I will be standing, at the next general election. I shall be leading a vigorous campaign for the causes I believe in.
"And, unlike the old parties, we shall be honest, open and straight".
He hasn't got a hope in hell - superb! Roll on the General Election and Kilroy's humiliating defeat!
It's truly fantastic to have people like Kilroy running around the shop - they're always good for a laugh. The only trouble is, after having a good chuckle you start to realise that some people actually think he's a sensible and respectable chap who's fully worthy of their votes...
Could Kilroy be the final proof that democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be?
Friday morning update: Lenin has some great turns of phrase to sum this up, and Tim Worstall spots some interesting internet-related tidbits, following the Honourable Fiend's note that websites for "Veritas" seem already to be taken. Meanwhile, Nick Barlow is conducting a survey to find out what people reckon Kilroy's chances are. Not great, by the looks of things... But as has been pointed out in the comments, we don't want to jinx it now, do we?
(By the by, can someone with better knowledge of the new electoral laws tell me whether he has to quit as an MEP before running, or only if he wins? Either way, he's surely going to have to fundraise and campaign - he can hardly do that while fulfilling his Brussels duties, can he?)
6 Comments:
Even the Great British public couldn't be that stupid... could they?
What are a MEP's Brussels duties?
Alex Dakers
Alex - the primary duty (beyond representing the concerns of their constituents in the European Parliament, obviously) is one Eurosceptics should more than support - to hold the European Commission to account, and question all legislation which the Commission proposes.
As Kilroy was elected on the basis of his hostility to the EU, presumably his constituents are expecting him to be particularly vocal in his scrutiny of Commission activities. Quite how he'll be able to do that while charging around in a doomed effort to get a Westminster seat I have no idea.
There's a bit more explanation here and here - although as these both come from the BBC, I imagine they will be taken as being pro-EU propaganda...
Toby - there is that, I suppose... Kilroy's activities do seem entirely designed to ensure that any accusations that MEPs are money-grabbing scroungers who do no work are justified, albeit only in one case...
Like you, I would just love to think that no one would actually vote for him, but then again...Still, I was given hope a while back when I spoke to a women of a certain age (you know, the ones we all seem to believe are most likely to be taken in by his 'mature good looks') who said that she and all her friends thought that he is a nasty, self-serving piece of crap.
James
I cannot stand Kilroy, he is such an arrogant person - why some people cannot see this I don't know.
theguest
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