Senedd Home is no longer updated. This is an archive of the fifth Senedd (September 2017 - March 2021) and is being kept for research and information purposed only. Resultingly, information on this site may be outdated. Senedd Home is no longer updated. This is an archive of the fifth Senedd (September 2017 - March 2021) and is being kept for research and information purposed only. Resultingly, information on this site may be outdated.
Oggy Bloggy Ogwr
State of Wales
Senedd Home
Friday, June 20, 2025
  • Home
  • By Issue
    • 2017-18
      • Autumn 2017
        • Issue 1 (14/09/17)
        • Issue 2 (21/09/17)
        • Issue 3 (28/09/17)
        • Issue 4 (05/10/17)
        • Issue 5 (12/10/17)
        • Issue 6 (19/10/17)
        • Issue 7 (26/10/17)
        • Issue 8 (09/11/17)
        • Issue 9 (16/11/17)
        • Issue 10 (23/11/17)
        • Issue 11 (30/11/17)
        • Issue 12 (07/12/17)
        • Issue 13 (14/12/17)
      • Spring 2018
        • Issue 14 (11/01/18)
        • Issue 15 (18/01/18)
        • Issue 16 (25/01/17)
        • Issue 17 (01/02/18)
        • Issue 18 (08/02/18)
        • Issue 19 (15/02/18)
        • Issue 20 (01/03/18)
        • Issue 21 (08/03/18)
        • Issue 22 (15/03/18)
        • Issue 23 (22/03/18)
      • Summer 2018
        • Issue 24 (19/04/18)
        • Issue 25 (26/04/18)
        • Issue 26 (03/05/18)
        • Issue 27 (10/05/18)
        • Issue 28 (17/05/18)
        • Issue 29 (24/05/18)
        • Issue 30 (07/06/18)
        • Issue 31 (14/06/18)
        • Issue 32 (21/06/18)
        • Issue 33 (28/06/18)
        • Issue 34 (05/07/18)
        • Issue 35 (12/07/18)
        • Issue 36 (19/07/18)
    • 2018-19
      • Autumn 2018
        • Issue 37 (13/09/18)
        • Issue 38 (20/09/18)
        • Issue 39 (27/09/18)
        • Issue 40 (04/10/18)
        • Issue 41 (11/10/18)
        • Issue 42 (18/10/18)
        • Issue 43 (25/10/18)
        • Issue 44 (08/11/18)
        • Issue 45 (15/11/18)
        • Issue 46 (22/11/18)
        • Issue 47 (29/11/18)
        • Issue 48 (06/12/18)
        • Issue 49 (13/12/18)
      • Spring 2019
        • Issue 50 (10/01/19)
        • Issue 51 (17/01/19)
        • Issue 52 (24/01/19)
        • Issue 53 (31/01/19)
        • Issue 54 (07/02/19)
        • Issue 55 (14/02/19)
        • Issue 56 (21/02/19)
        • Issue 57 (07/03/19)
        • Issue 58 (14/03/19)
        • Issue 59 (21/03/19)
        • Issue 60 (28/03/19)
        • Issue 61 (04/04/19)
      • Summer 2019
        • Issue 62 (02/05/19)
        • Issue 63 (09/05/19)
        • Issue 64 (16/05/19)
        • Issue 65 (23/05/19)
        • Issue 66 (06/06/19)
        • Issue 67 (13/06/19)
        • Issue 68 (20/06/19)
        • Issue 69 (27/06/19)
        • Issue 70 (04/07/19)
        • Issue 71 (11/07/19)
        • Issue 72 (18/07/19)
    • 2019-20
      • Autumn 2019
        • Issue 73 (12/09/19)
        • Issue 74 (19/09/19)
        • Issue 75 (26/09/19)
        • Issue 76 (03/10/19)
        • Issue 77 (10/10/19)
        • Issue 78 (17/10/19)
        • Issue 79 (24/10/19)
        • Issue 80 (07/11/19)
        • Issue 81 (14/11/19)
        • Issue 82 (21/11/19)
        • Issue 83 (28/11/19)
        • Issue 84 (05/12/19)
        • Issue 85 (12/12/19)
      • Spring/Summer 2020
        • Issue 86 (09/01/20)
        • Issue 87 (16/01/20)
        • Issue 88 (23/01/20)
        • Issue 89 (30/01/20)
        • Issue 90 (06/02/20)
        • Issue 91 (13/02/20)
        • Issue 92 (27/02/20)
        • Issue 93 (05/03/20)
        • Issue 94 (12/03/20)
        • Issue 95 (19/03/20)
        • Issue 96 (26/03/20)
        • Covid-19 Emergency Senedd (31/03-19/06/20)
        • Issue 97 (25/06/20)
        • Issue 98 (02/07/20)
        • Issue 99 (09/07/20)
        • Issue 100 (16/07/20)
    • 2020-21
      • Autumn 2020
        • Issue 101 (10/09/20)
        • Issue 102 (17/09/20)
        • Issue 103 (24/09/20)
        • Issue 104 (01/10/20)
        • Issue 105 (08/10/20)
        • Issue 106 (15/10/20)
        • Issue 107 (22/10/20)
        • Issue 108 (05/11/20)
        • Issue 109 (12/11/20)
        • Issue 110 (19/11/20)
        • Issue 111 (26/11/20)
        • Issue 112 (03/12/20)
        • Issue 113 (10/12/20)
        • Issue 114 (17/12/20)
      • Spring 2021
        • Issue 115 (14/01/21)
        • Issue 116 (21/01/21)
        • Issue 117 (28/01/21)
        • Issue 118 (04/02/21)
        • Issue 119 (11/02/21)
        • Issue 120 (25/02/21)
        • Issue 121 (04/03/21)
        • Issue 122 (11/03/21)
  • Committees Index
No Result
View All Result
Senedd Home
  • Home
  • By Issue
    • 2017-18
      • Autumn 2017
        • Issue 1 (14/09/17)
        • Issue 2 (21/09/17)
        • Issue 3 (28/09/17)
        • Issue 4 (05/10/17)
        • Issue 5 (12/10/17)
        • Issue 6 (19/10/17)
        • Issue 7 (26/10/17)
        • Issue 8 (09/11/17)
        • Issue 9 (16/11/17)
        • Issue 10 (23/11/17)
        • Issue 11 (30/11/17)
        • Issue 12 (07/12/17)
        • Issue 13 (14/12/17)
      • Spring 2018
        • Issue 14 (11/01/18)
        • Issue 15 (18/01/18)
        • Issue 16 (25/01/17)
        • Issue 17 (01/02/18)
        • Issue 18 (08/02/18)
        • Issue 19 (15/02/18)
        • Issue 20 (01/03/18)
        • Issue 21 (08/03/18)
        • Issue 22 (15/03/18)
        • Issue 23 (22/03/18)
      • Summer 2018
        • Issue 24 (19/04/18)
        • Issue 25 (26/04/18)
        • Issue 26 (03/05/18)
        • Issue 27 (10/05/18)
        • Issue 28 (17/05/18)
        • Issue 29 (24/05/18)
        • Issue 30 (07/06/18)
        • Issue 31 (14/06/18)
        • Issue 32 (21/06/18)
        • Issue 33 (28/06/18)
        • Issue 34 (05/07/18)
        • Issue 35 (12/07/18)
        • Issue 36 (19/07/18)
    • 2018-19
      • Autumn 2018
        • Issue 37 (13/09/18)
        • Issue 38 (20/09/18)
        • Issue 39 (27/09/18)
        • Issue 40 (04/10/18)
        • Issue 41 (11/10/18)
        • Issue 42 (18/10/18)
        • Issue 43 (25/10/18)
        • Issue 44 (08/11/18)
        • Issue 45 (15/11/18)
        • Issue 46 (22/11/18)
        • Issue 47 (29/11/18)
        • Issue 48 (06/12/18)
        • Issue 49 (13/12/18)
      • Spring 2019
        • Issue 50 (10/01/19)
        • Issue 51 (17/01/19)
        • Issue 52 (24/01/19)
        • Issue 53 (31/01/19)
        • Issue 54 (07/02/19)
        • Issue 55 (14/02/19)
        • Issue 56 (21/02/19)
        • Issue 57 (07/03/19)
        • Issue 58 (14/03/19)
        • Issue 59 (21/03/19)
        • Issue 60 (28/03/19)
        • Issue 61 (04/04/19)
      • Summer 2019
        • Issue 62 (02/05/19)
        • Issue 63 (09/05/19)
        • Issue 64 (16/05/19)
        • Issue 65 (23/05/19)
        • Issue 66 (06/06/19)
        • Issue 67 (13/06/19)
        • Issue 68 (20/06/19)
        • Issue 69 (27/06/19)
        • Issue 70 (04/07/19)
        • Issue 71 (11/07/19)
        • Issue 72 (18/07/19)
    • 2019-20
      • Autumn 2019
        • Issue 73 (12/09/19)
        • Issue 74 (19/09/19)
        • Issue 75 (26/09/19)
        • Issue 76 (03/10/19)
        • Issue 77 (10/10/19)
        • Issue 78 (17/10/19)
        • Issue 79 (24/10/19)
        • Issue 80 (07/11/19)
        • Issue 81 (14/11/19)
        • Issue 82 (21/11/19)
        • Issue 83 (28/11/19)
        • Issue 84 (05/12/19)
        • Issue 85 (12/12/19)
      • Spring/Summer 2020
        • Issue 86 (09/01/20)
        • Issue 87 (16/01/20)
        • Issue 88 (23/01/20)
        • Issue 89 (30/01/20)
        • Issue 90 (06/02/20)
        • Issue 91 (13/02/20)
        • Issue 92 (27/02/20)
        • Issue 93 (05/03/20)
        • Issue 94 (12/03/20)
        • Issue 95 (19/03/20)
        • Issue 96 (26/03/20)
        • Covid-19 Emergency Senedd (31/03-19/06/20)
        • Issue 97 (25/06/20)
        • Issue 98 (02/07/20)
        • Issue 99 (09/07/20)
        • Issue 100 (16/07/20)
    • 2020-21
      • Autumn 2020
        • Issue 101 (10/09/20)
        • Issue 102 (17/09/20)
        • Issue 103 (24/09/20)
        • Issue 104 (01/10/20)
        • Issue 105 (08/10/20)
        • Issue 106 (15/10/20)
        • Issue 107 (22/10/20)
        • Issue 108 (05/11/20)
        • Issue 109 (12/11/20)
        • Issue 110 (19/11/20)
        • Issue 111 (26/11/20)
        • Issue 112 (03/12/20)
        • Issue 113 (10/12/20)
        • Issue 114 (17/12/20)
      • Spring 2021
        • Issue 115 (14/01/21)
        • Issue 116 (21/01/21)
        • Issue 117 (28/01/21)
        • Issue 118 (04/02/21)
        • Issue 119 (11/02/21)
        • Issue 120 (25/02/21)
        • Issue 121 (04/03/21)
        • Issue 122 (11/03/21)
  • Committees Index
No Result
View All Result
Senedd Home
No Result
View All Result
Home The Lobby

UKIP Leadership: Silly Season gets sillier

Owen Donovan by Owen Donovan
August 13, 2018
in The Lobby
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Reddit



(Title Image: BBC Wales)

When I started my summer break back in July, I said I would “dip in and out” to cover the four ongoing leadership elections.

The result of the first leadership election (UKIP) was revealed last Friday.

Background & Result

Neil Hamilton AM (UKIP, Mid & West Wales) was ousted as leader less than two months ago and replaced by Caroline Jones AM (UKIP, South Wales West) after persistent in-fighting and a string of bad headlines.

UKIP’s Central Office determined that the membership should decide the Assembly group leader and opted to hold a ballot. Gareth Bennett AM (UKIP, South Wales Central) then threw his name in and in doing so became the first sitting AM since 1999 to openly advocate direct rule from London and suppressing the Welsh language….and he won.

Gareth Bennett AM 269
Neil Hamilton AM 193
Caroline Jones AM* 130

*Caroline Jones was eliminated in the first count.

There’s no detailed breakdown of the ballot, which seem to have been cast by alternative vote (the sort of oversight I’d expect from UKIP). Turnout was 58.7% with 514 votes cast, which would put UKIP’s Welsh membership at around 880 people.

Analysis

The number of votes cast should tell you all you need to know about the state of UKIP’s party machinery in the country, though underestimating their protest vote appeal would be a huge mistake; they got 260,000 votes (constituency and regional list combined) in 2016.

For Neil Hamilton, this is a personal embarrassment. The man seen to be his second-in-command (of sorts) has beaten him to the leadership in an election Neil himself apparently requested. No doubt he’ll take it on the chin.

Caroline Jones – who’s been humiliated by this – has already hinted she might leave the UKIP group. Considering the animosity that exists between Michelle Brown and Gareth Bennett, I would take Michelle’s statement of support for her new leader with a pinch of salt too.

The next flashpoint stands to be the lucrative membership of the Assembly Commission (the body which runs the Assembly) and the large bump in salary that comes with it. Caroline Jones vacated it when she took over the leadership and could be sweetened by being given the role again, while the thought of Neil Hamilton being a Commissioner was so unpalatable to AMs they rejected an appointment for the first time ever.

UKIP have long attempted to disown their anti-self government, anti-Welsh language past by embracing devolution as policy – but is that what the party grassroots wanted and have their elected members always been signed up to it?

Saying he wanted to abolish the Assembly is almost certainly why Gareth Bennett won. While his party colleagues are again trying to distance themselves from it, it should be assumed by the other parties to be official UKIP policy.

While to date Bennett’s outbursts have been rarely picked up outside Wales, as a party leader he’s going to attract far more interest from the Welsh and British media. Every single controversy is going to be amplified tenfold for the sake of headlines and he’ll cause a lot of damage doing so – which I’m going to assume is what he and UKIP want.

What does this mean for Senedd Home?

There’s going to be a change in the editorial style when I return in September anyway, but this development justifies a change in approach towards UKIP generally.

Senedd Home has been very fair to them to date and given UKIP coverage on an equal basis to any other party in the chamber, despite personally finding many their policies and outbursts utterly detestable. They’ve been tolerated because for every outburst there’ll be occasions where they make reasonable contributions and do their jobs. They were elected fair and square and I (perhaps naively) thought they would act more maturely in the spotlight and that everyone might’ve been interested in what they were saying and doing beyond the usual stuff on immigrants and Brexit.

That’s now changed and been (figuratively speaking) thrown back in my face. I’ve finally had enough. I also have to respect the desires of UKIP members in Wales – they don’t want anything to do with the Assembly.

With a far-right London-rule leader in place, I’m going forward under an assumption that UKIP AMs have voluntarily abdicated their parliamentary responsibilities to Wales and are in the Senedd to time-serve until they’re either voted out, pensioned off or the Assembly is permanently abolished. On that basis I would be an idiot to give them an equal platform (no matter how small) and make out that this, and all the preceding oddities and outbursts, is somehow “normal” when UKIP have become an intolerable disruptive influence on Welsh politics and society.

UKIP will now be put behind a soft “cordon sanitaire” on Senedd Home – that I would usually only reserve for the likes of the BNP, and never ever thought I would have to do – until further notice. That doesn’t mean they’ll be “no-platformed”, but in practice sets a much higher bar for them to get any coverage on here:

  • UKIP contributions will only get coverage if it’s a credible and unique point during a debate that would also comply with my Comments Policy, or when it’s otherwise unavoidable (i.e. votes, budget deals, Standards Commissioner reports, Members Bills).
  • When their contributions are covered it’ll be the absolute bare minimum – single sentences rather than paragraphs. UKIP AMs won’t be quoted either, linked to or featured in any videos or alike, everything will be paraphrased.
  • UKIP contributions which involve or stray towards a Reserved Matter as set out in Schedule 1 of the Wales Act 2017 will be ignored. So, for example, if there’s a debate or question on immigration, policing/criminal justice, Brexit & foreign relations, the Constitution or human rights, UKIP’s contributions and questions will be passed over; their leader clearly doesn’t want to be in a position to ask any questions anyway, but for as long as they’re in the chamber it’s “work to rule” for me – devolved policies only.
  • Debates during time allocated to UKIP and short debates from UKIP AMs won’t be selected for coverage; but urgent questions, contributions to other debates (i.e. Members Debates) and emergency questions will be covered as set out above.

When they start treating Wales, and all of the people of Wales, with the due respect we deserve as a nation, as voters and as individual citizens, it’ll be reconsidered. I’m not getting my hopes up.

Tags: Constitutional FutureHomophobia & TransphobiaIaith GymraegImmigration & Free MovementInternal RowsIssue 37Race & RacismUKIP
ShareTweetShareSend

Archive Categories

Tags

Brexit (323) Brexit Party (153) Business Support & Finance (113) Bus Services (74) Cardiff (96) Carmarthenshire (85) Climate Change (73) Conservatives (917) Coronavirus Pandemic 2020-22 (267) Devolved Powers (104) Disability (80) Economy Department (282) Education Department (129) Emergency Senedd (Pandemic) (74) Employment & Skills (124) Environment Department (150) Farming (73) Finance Department (107) First Minister (271) FMQs (115) Health Department (262) Hospital Services (135) Iaith Gymraeg (88) Independents (197) Labour (1191) Lib Dems (159) Local Government (200) Local Government Finance (89) Local Health Boards (111) Mental Health (102) Plaid Cymru (932) Planning (82) Public Health (204) Public Services Department (141) Rail Franchise & Rail Services (91) School Curriculum (84) Senedd Commission (113) Social & Affordable Housing (68) Social Care (100) Tackling Poverty (75) Tax (98) Trade (87) UK Government (162) UKIP (168) Universities (86)
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Copyright

Creative Commons Licence


Senedd Home by Owen Donovan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Archive

Categories

  • Best of the Blogs (114)
  • Brexit & External Affairs (180)
  • Communities & Housing (176)
  • Criminal Justice & Public Safety (73)
  • Culture, Media & Sport (103)
  • Democracy & Constitution (120)
  • Economy & Transport (334)
  • Editorial (64)
  • Education (151)
  • Environment, Energy & Rural Affairs (186)
  • Equality & Social Justice (167)
  • Finance (137)
  • First Minister (201)
  • Health & Social Services (352)
  • Hot Button (87)
  • Senedd Bites (124)
  • The Lobby (173)
  • Video (248)

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Go to State of Wales
  • Go to Oggy Bloggy Ogwr
  • Best of the Blogs
  • Brexit & External Affairs
  • Communities & Housing
  • Criminal Justice & Public Safety
  • Culture, Media & Sport
  • Democracy & Constitution
  • Economy & Transport
  • Editorial
  • Education
  • Environment, Energy & Rural Affairs
  • Equality & Social Justice
  • Finance
  • First Minister
  • Health & Social Services
  • Senedd Bites
  • The Lobby
  • Video