So Robert Kilroy-Silk, the fallen idol of daytime TV, has failed to win the backing of a majority of the United Kingdom Independence Party's local chairmen in his bid to replace Roger Knapman as Ukip's leader. The party's highest-profile MEP isn't going to let a 'farcical' straw poll stand in his way, however. He has accused Ukip of being run by a 'cabal' headed by Nigel Farage, the Ukip MEP for the South-East, and says it's time for the party to grow up and get serious. Suggesting that the chairmen were subject to 'Mugabe-style' intimidation from the cabal, Kilroy-Silk has demanded a poll of the party's entire membership - all 28,000 of them - and said that for him to keep quiet now 'would be a fraud on the British electorate'. Judging from the disproportionate amount of media coverage he's getting (even from the LRB; at least it's only in Short Cuts), you could be forgiven for thinking there ought to be a referendum on the matter.

LRB 4 November 2004 | PDF Download