Matthew Steeples salutes the independence of Douglas Carswell MP and praises his having rejected Nigel Farage’s demand that he take £650,000 in “Short money”
When Douglas Carswell MP defected to UKIP in 2014, many Conservatives were disappointed but in contrast to his fellow MP Mark Reckless, few words of anger were expressed. Now, in the wake of Carswell having stood up to Nigel Farage’s demands that he take the £650,000 of Short money – the funds that are given to opposition parties to help finance their backroom operations – that UKIP is entitled to, he has yet again showed himself as a sensible, decent man.
When asked by UKIP’s party secretary to recruit 15 extra staff, Carswell is said to have rejected the proposal and described it to be be “improper”. Of the suggestion, he told the BBC:
“I am not a US senator. I don’t need 15 staff. UKIP is supposed to be different”.
As the former independent MP Martin Bell pointed out in The Guardian yesterday, Douglas Carswell is “an independent MP in all but name”. This man of integrity and honour should be saluted and frankly, we’d go further: Douglas Carswell should be welcomed back into the Conservative fold with aplomb.
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Well said. I second this sentiment. Douglas Carswell is a true Conservative and he should be back in the fold.
Rod, keep your political insights for your pub
We have one or two Victorian black silk top hats by Messers Carswell of London……..sure to be his family
He seems to behave like a gent Matthew
Carswell were noted London hatters
We have a few fine black silk examples
Douglas Carswell appears to behave well……well; sort of well ish, if one overlooks that’ crossing the floor ‘business
Don’t tell the Trottster about the six hundred and fifty ‘ big ones ‘
It is interesting to hear that he is descended from hatters, especially as unlike some UKIP members one can think of, he is clearly not as mad as one.
Elizabeth Jones perhaps? AKA “Farage’s babe”.
Oh, what a tedious comment…
UKIP amassed four million votes…
Let’s all try and be intelligent and ponder why four million voters saw sense in voting UKIP.
This dreary denigrating of UKIP is just sooo tedious and is generally the preserve of unintelligent bores who feel that attacking UKIP makes them seem sophisticated: it doesn’t: it just makes them seem what they are….dreary and uninspired.