Farage stands down...

Moe_Zambeek

Didn't see that coming.

On the other hand, he's done what he set out to do and now he can gloat / throw stones from the sidelines / write his memoirs and lead an easier life...

monquixote

I think it's probably a sensible move. 

The Conservatives are now effectively UKIP, but with power and fewer racist views so there is no point in UKIP existing beyond the next couple of years.

They also won't be able to have scores of people sponging off MEP salaries without doing any work now.

stickyfiddle

Urgh. Again? He'll be back as head of the party by Friday.

exocet

Not a complete surprise, he wasn't going to get elected to UK Parliament, he's still an MEP (for a while)  and he can leave others to clean up the mess after him. Will Paul Nuttall replace him? He's really scary.

Blueingreen

I don't know the details, obviously, but I already thought he was finished.

With the referendum past and the Tory party no longer a remain party his raison d'etre has disappeared.  He's unpopular within his own party and has a toxic relationship with Carswell, the party's sole MP and Suzanne Evans it's most articulate spokesperson.  Big donors think he's a liability.

After the referendum he woke up expecting to have somehow gained power and found he had none. He's been going round in a rage ever since, furious that he's being ignored by the people who matter and making noisier and noisier look at me pronouncements as if his opinion carries huge weight when it doesn't.  Hence the ludicrous tirade at the European Parliament.

 Seriously, what did he expect? That the Tories would appoint him as a Brexit negotiator or something?   Why?   They loath him and think he's irrelevant as head of a party that managed one MP even before it lost the main reason why people might vote for it. 

Moe_Zambeek

Don't forget that UKIP is in fact a serious contender for Labour voters in many constituencies. Farage leaving makes that possibility even more realistic. UKIP is no longer just a threat for the Tories - in fact the referendum result may have put that to bed for a good while - but Labour is in disarray and was already bleeding support to UKIP in the NE.

They might need a new name of course...

crunchman

A lot depends on what happens over the next couple of years.  If the Tories sign up to EU-lite under another name, where we still have to allow freedom of movement in exchange for retaining access to the single market, then I could see UKIP getting 30 or 40 seats at the next election at the expense of both Tories and Labour.

If the Tories manage to negotiate a deal that restricts freedom of movement then UKIP's reason to exist disappears.

Jalapeno

All this UK politicing interfered with his milking of the MEP tit !

snakemanStoo

http://newsthump.com/2016/07/04/nigel-farage-announces-his-annual-resignation/

ICBM

He does at least have a sense of humour...

"We have to have a Brexit prime minister," says Nigel Farage.

He says there are three candidates for the Tory leadership who fit the bill but "I'm not going to damn any one of them by offering my support at this time".

TTony

Well, now we really are in trouble.

Of the UK's 3 most popular political parties (by % share of vote, 2015 election), 2 leaders have left their respective parties, and the party has left the other leader.

ICBM

I don't think there has ever been the same sort of vacuum at the top of British politics in the last hundred years, and quite possibly before that as well (I don't know enough about 19th-century politics to know).

My guess is that the problem is that most current politicians - especially the ones who get to the top quickly - are career politicians with little or no real experience or knowledge of leadership in the real world. And Jeremy Corbyn, although I wouldn't call him a career politician really… just someone who has done nothing else.

Mkjackary

I think he will not be in the party but just occasionally pop up and say things like he always does.

And again, once in a blue moon he will actually go to Brussels (where he is payed to go to) as an mep, and give some speach cock slapping all of the non Eurosceptic meps throughout Europe.

And whilst it is funny at times, and actually a lot of it is true, it isn't the most helpfull thing to be poking the EU with a stick saying "I told you so".
Especially not at this time when eu-uk relations need to be strong and good for our negotiations to be as mutually beneficial as possible.

p90fool

So pretty well everyone involved in this utter shambles has now fucked off?

Marvellous.

BigLicks67

Whenever I see Farage I just think that a village has lost it's idiot.

Heartfeltdawn

TTony said:

Well, now we really are in trouble.

Of the UK's 3 most popular political parties (by % share of vote, 2015 election), 2 leaders have left their respective parties, and the party has left the other leader.

As Michael Crick tweeted this morning, once DC stands down, Tim Farron will become the longest serving leader of a UK-wide party. Farage leaves, Nathalie Bennett ends in August, DC going, Corbyn hopefully going. Worse than the Premier League managerial merrygoround. 

octatonic

So he is going to be spending a lot more time about the house eh?

Are we taking bets on how long it will be before his wife leaves him?

stickyfiddle

ICBM said:

I don't think there has ever been the same sort of vacuum at the top of British politics in the last hundred years, and quite possibly before that as well (I don't know enough about 19th-century politics to know).

My guess is that the problem is that most current politicians - especially the ones who get to the top quickly - are career politicians with little or no real experience or knowledge of leadership in the real world. And Jeremy Corbyn, although I wouldn't call him a career politician really… just someone who has done nothing else.

Spot on. I don't think there is a single person in the senior ranks of any of the parties who really knows how to successfully do *anything* except climb the political ranks, because that's what UK politics has been for the last 20+ years.

It's all a bit pathetic really.

octatonic

stickyfiddle said:

ICBM said:

I don't think there has ever been the same sort of vacuum at the top of British politics in the last hundred years, and quite possibly before that as well (I don't know enough about 19th-century politics to know).

My guess is that the problem is that most current politicians - especially the ones who get to the top quickly - are career politicians with little or no real experience or knowledge of leadership in the real world. And Jeremy Corbyn, although I wouldn't call him a career politician really… just someone who has done nothing else.

Spot on. I don't think there is a single person in the senior ranks of any of the parties who really knows how to successfully do *anything* except climb the political ranks, because that's what UK politics has been for the last 20+ years.

It's all a bit pathetic really.

Agree but 'we' make it easy for them too by being increasingly disinterested in politics.

By 'we', I don't necessarily mean you or I, but society in general.

Media bias (on both sides) certainly doesn't help either.

Fretwired

Moe_Zambeek said:

Didn't see that coming.

On the other hand, he's done what he set out to do and now he can gloat / throw stones from the sidelines / write his memoirs and lead an easier life...

Let's see if Leadsom becomes Tory leader (she's funded by a UKIP donor) - a safe seat for Farage? Tories lurch to the right, Corbyn hangs on .... 170+ Labour MPs and Tories on the left form a new centre-based political party.

monquixote

I can't see any Conservatives leaving a party that looks like it's going to be in power for a while.