The task at hand...

The face of the real enemy

When I migrated to this blog it was with the intention of breaking with persistent attacks on Ukip. I think this blog has achieved that. After all, it is now unfair to single out Ukip when the entire eurosceptic edifice is woefully underperforming.

More to the point, the election is over and Ukip has ceased to be important. Some have asked why I do not attack Labour now that Labour are manifestly worse than Ukip. Put simply, I don't need to. I never had any expectations or demand of Labour. I never wanted them to perform better because they have never represented a proposition I support.

The ferocity of my attacks on Ukip we stepped up toweard the election because it became clear that Ukip was not going to moderate its own behaviour or improve its conduct and so it became a matter of necessity to damage Ukip's prospects. Had they had more MPs, there is a goodly chance they would be taking a much more prominent role in the referendum and that could not be allowed to happen.

That is why I campaigned hard on the internet to furnish anti-Ukip people with all the information they could use. It's interesting now that select anti-Ukip bloggers and Tweeters can offer a better commentary on the inner wrangling of eurosceptics than the so called experts like Matthew Goodwin. I would like to think I had some part in that. I know my little blog caused a many to think twice about Ukip and help set the tone against them and if I am in some way partially responsible for Ukip failing to make a Westminster breakthrough, then I wasn't wasting my time. I know that since the election many Ukip activists have quit the party on the basis of things I have said.

I will admit, some of my posts on the Complete Bastard blog were flying close to the edge and unfairly tarring some good people, but there is a huge difference between the Ukippers you meet in person and the kippers they are when they get anywhere near an internet connection. In that respect, for me, it was open season. The worst elements of Ukip needed to be held aloft as a mirror for those activists who were still under the misapprehension Ukip was a moderate party with a sensible approach. In that regard, I make no apology. I still think anybody wanting to have an active role online in the coming referendum serves the cause best by having no visible links to Ukip.

Now that the Ukip threat is contained, I'm not going to turn my guns on Labour since the entire media machine is focussed on Corbyn and his motley crew and the public will see them for what they are. I have no love of the anti-Ukip mob either. They shouted all the way through the election about Ukip's bigotry, but in the end, these people are also bigots. Show them the truth about the EU and they fall back on the usual hackneyed memes about the EU, persisting in telling a lie they know to be untrue. Many of them are Cornbynites and a Labour government run by Corbyn is every bit as unpalatable as a referendum run by Ukip. But since neither is now going to happen, I'm content to focus on other things.

In this respect, I'm not going to expend too much effort attacking the other campaigns. They are just another obstacle on the battlefield. The witless prattle from eurosceptics will at least keep the opposition campaign busy - but I will be focussing most of my attention on the real enemy in this. David Cameron. Ukippers are keen to point out that we wouldn't have a referendum were it not for Ukip, but in the end we have a referendum because people voted for a Conservative government. I was one of them. Now that we have that referendum it's open season on Cameron and it all hinges on painting Cameron as the dodgy used car salesman selling us a lemon.

They are going to sell us a new relationship with the EU. We must point out that it's exactly the same master-slave relationship with a smaller influence in EU policy. To that end, Business for Elliot, Leave.EU, British Influence, Ukip and Business for New Europe are all completely irrelevant to the battle. Lemming like calls for unity with any of the Leave campaigns must be resisted. I have found that online skirmishes, I have the upper hand by letting people attack the decoy campaigns, and then agreeing with them and taking a line they have no preprepared arguments for. They don't quite know how to handle free thinkers. In that, I welcome any Ukip refugees who want to pitch in fighting the real battle. Your former tribe is now spent and though a hindrance to the effort, only a minor one because they were defeated at the election.

Our success depends on a core of campaigners who won't wait for the main campaign and do not seek leadership. This will be won by a small band of coordinated people working to promote a particular message who do not feel duty bound to uphold the stupidity of our own side. There is no harm in attacking the Brexit main efforts and we'll look more stupid if we don't.

We will have to pick our battles selectively, wasting little time on pointless or unwinnable battles and focus on the main objective. That hinges on undermining the credibility of David "Phantom Veto" Cameron. In that we will find we have many sympathetic ears on the left and right. As much as the Tories won the election, 76% of the public did not vote for them. Thinking of it in those terms, we ought to be embarrassed if we don't win this.