by Samuel Dale
A few years ago I had an interesting lunch at the East India Club in Pall Mall.
I was a guest of then-Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom and was joined by Janice Atkinson, before she was an MEP.
It was an enjoyable meal and they were both good company.
But look at us now. Bloom was kicked out of UKIP just days later when he hit Channel 4’s Michael Crick over the head and called a room of women sluts.
Atkinson became an MEP but was expelled for expenses irregularities. She had also insulted a Thai constituent as a “ting tong”. She later apologised.
And me? A forlorn Blairite journalist in the era of hard left Corbynite dominance. All of us disgraced within our own parties!
Politically, I couldn’t be further from Atkinson and Bloom but they are not always wrong.
For example, at the said lunch Bloom told me that UKIP should support Scottish independence as so much of the SNP’s arguments resembled Ukip’s anti-EU points.
At the very least, Bloom opposed UKIP campaigning forcefully to keep the UK together.
He pointed out how easy it would be to brand them hypocrites when big business opposed an EU exit in the same way they opposed Scottish independence.
Godfrey, we don’t agree on much but you were right.
