UKIP Really is the unspeakably nasty party today

Labour is falling apart, The Tories might just renege on Brexit, Theresa May certainly is not moving fast, the Lib Dems are a joke - UKIP really should be in upbeat mood. But it is not. Its own leadership contest makes that in Labour seem well organised and good humoured. Not only is it tearing itself apart but it is also showing itself just to be unspeakably nasty.

The man who should have taken over from Nigel Farage as leader is a self made ethnically mixed fellow called Steven Woolfe. Myself, the Mrs and Zak Mir spent an enjoyable evening playing pool with him three years ago before he was an MEP and he was plausible and likeable.

UKIP members were backing him overwhelmingly but the party's NEC has ruled he cannot stand. Though there is clear evidence he submitted a nomination in time the NEC does not care. Now three NEC members have quit and party members will choose between a cast of dwarves. Woolfe would have pushed UKIP forward and was really very credible. A serious party would have welcomed him with open arms. He could have torn into Labour in the North.

Instead those who are standing just look like petty little people and the party's NEC look very nasty indeed. The nastiest of the dwarves is Councillor Lisa Duffy, a woman who looks like a beached whale, who today called for all Muslim state schools to be closed. Wow how progressive? Does this imbecile really think that this is going to mean that fewer Muslims become less estranged from mainstream Britain and thus ripe for radicalisation? Of course it will not.

Personally, I resent my taxes going to support any faith based school but Councillor Duffy is not a secularist she is juts a bigot who wants to punish all Moslems for the actions of a few in the hope that she attracts a few more extremists to her cause.

Maybe Islamaphobia is box office among UKIP members right now. If Duffy shows strongly in the leadership poll, then maybe the whole party is nasty. I hope she gets no votes at all as UKIP makes a vague attempt to show that it is a nice party with just a few nasty folks in it. All the evidence of today points in the other direction.