Sunday 21 January 2018

UKIP MEPs well on course to hit 2019 target number of resignations

Back in 2014, I ran a Fun Online Poll on the topic of how many UKIP MEPs would have resigned by 2019 (the end of the current term of the current EU Parliament).

During previous terms, on average just over a quarter of their MEPs resigned/were sacked (summary here). Having gained 24 MEPs - the highest number of MEPs of any UK party in the 2014 elections, please note - I would expect at least six of them to have resigned/been sacked by the middle of next year.

The weighted average result in the Poll was six, although the results were pretty evenly spread between "none" and "more than half".

According to the BBC, their sixth MEP resigned yesterday, which the BBC says that brings them down to 18.

The UKIP page still shows 19 (having promptly removed Jonathan Arnott). I suspect that the difference is because one UKIP MEP, Roger Helmer didn't resign or leave UKIP, he did the decent thing and retired, which allowed somebody else to take his seat (as a UKIP MEP). So a bit of misreporting by the BBC there, methinks.
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On a personal note, I really liked Jonathan Arnott. He was highly intelligent, approachable and seemed pretty liberal. IMHO he was too good for UKIP, but I couldn't swing him round to a more Georgist point of view.

5 comments:

Rich Tee said...

Helmer says he retired:
https://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-european-parliament-an-apology/

Mark Wadsworth said...

RT, yup. BBC misreporting.

James Higham said...

Uncanny ability to implode.

Lola said...

Do you think that Arnott probably did not take on Georgism because of the difficult politics of it - the Great British Public having been brainwashed?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, nearing critical mass at the moment, when it all goes BANG!

L, I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, so yes.