UKIP leader standing down after just 18 days

[ceptimus]

Any large grouping of people tends to fracture into smaller groups over time. I don't think it's just a phenomenon of right wing groups.

Look at the Christian church for example - it's currently split into over a hundred different churches/strands (whatever you want to call them). Only as the total number of Christians begins to significantly reduce will we see the opposite effect where smaller churches start to merge together for survival.

Anyway, providing the government goes ahead with Brexit, UKIP has already fulfilled its purpose - its job is done so it's natural that it should die. The same will most likely happen to the SNP if and when Scotland achieves independence.

 

[MCel58]

Any large grouping of people tends to fracture into smaller groups over time. I don't think it's just a phenomenon of right wing groups.

Look at the Christian church for example - it's currently split into over a hundred different churches/strands (whatever you want to call them). Only as the total number of Christians begins to significantly reduce will we see the opposite effect where smaller churches start to merge together for survival.

Anyway, providing the government goes ahead with Brexit, UKIP has already fulfilled its purpose - its job is done so it's natural that it should die. The same will most likely happen to the SNP if and when Scotland achieves independence.

There is a key difference with the SNP in that they are the ruling administration in Scotland and they are voted into that position by both people who want Independence and those who don't because they have shown themselves capable of running the country and putting forward policies and laws which the electorate want. They may evolve into something else over time but they are basically a left of centre democratic party running à left of centre democratic nation. Their policies are not fascist, they want to encourage immigration, they consider everyone who lives in Scotland to be Scots no matter what their origins and with the lowest population density in the U.K. At 68 people per square km, immigration is not only welcome but necessary in Scotland. If only the weather was better.

 

[Craig B]

Anyway, providing the government goes ahead with Brexit, UKIP has already fulfilled its purpose - its job is done so it's natural that it should die. The same will most likely happen to the SNP if and when Scotland achieves independence.

That will certainly happen, but I hope the independence movement doesn't fall apart the moment a referendum is passed - there will be plenty do do after that, before independence becomes a viable reality - and above all, I hope that pro-independence parliamentarians will refrain from battering one another into unconsciousness, at any stage in the process.

 

[ceptimus]

I think (in the unlikely event that Scottish independence happens) the SNP won't explode nearly as fast as UKIP has.

UKIP has always had a large contingent of loony members, and it's never really held any power (despite having more MEPs than other UK parties). SNP is composed of a greater proportion of the usual career politicians who avoid answering straight questions.

I suppose SNP members are more likely to bore each other to sleep than to knock each other unconscious - and that is to their credit.