Nd Christine Hamilton on Ukip campaign trail
to wait until next time. night before they were in indod Wells; after leaving me eaded to Criccieth. Merthyr, seeing them soon. almost certain to take the on my drive from Cardiff, placards you see are for Cymru and the Lib Dems. unted just three Tory posters. more posters on display woefully under-attended and Crime Commissioner than for Ukip.
It’s fairly certain they will re-enter politics next week and into another political bubble, but neither has any idea what to expect.
Neil admits he’s never actually been into the Senedd, but thinks that come May 6 he will be one of “seven, eight or nine” Ukip members.
He feels the vote is getting stronger in South Wales West as a result of the steel crisis. He, along with Ukip deputy leader Paul Nuttall, who joins us, is adamant there is a future for the party, regardless of the result of June 23’s EU referendum.
And Neil wants to be at the fore of that, even if the party’s headlinegrabbing leader, Nigel Farage, doesn’t want him to be there.
But he’s had to fight to get this far. The party, despite being just a handful of years old, is publicly divided.
Farage was alleged to have mounted a campaign to stop Neil getting on the list.
“I think it’s a sign Ukip are growing up,” Neil tells me.
“I have been around a long time, I have seen it all before. I lived through the Thatcher years, I was a minister in the Major government where we were tearing each other’s eyes out. What has been happening in Ukip in Wales is actually just a few people at the top who have been making a lot of noise.
“It’s not affected the ordinary members of Ukip who voted as they did.
“You’d have to be a political anorak to know about it. It hasn’t, in the event, done anything very much to damage us.”
But he accepts there have been six months of “negative, destructive” noise coming from the party.
“We will have Assembly Members and we will be an important force for good in Welsh politics.”
But will those “noisy” few at the top change?
Neil won’t admit or deny he wants to oust Nathan Gill as Wales’ Ukip leader.
As long as they get three Assembly members there will be a Ukip group and there will need to be an Assembly group leader.
“Nathan Gill is Nigel Farage’s appointed leader, but the Assembly Members will have to appoint their own leader who will be in that position.
“I am not campaigning to be the leader of anything in Wales, but my main focus is to get as powerful a group as possible elected and for that group to act cohesively in the future and make the biggest impact in the Assembly and in wider politics.
“I, along with Mark Reckless, have a lot of political and parliamentary experience so I think we have got a lot to offer in terms of advice and direction.
“I have firm ideas of how we should operate after May 5 as a leading force in politics in Wales and the UK,” he says.
They have said the best way to serve their region won’t be to live in one place, but to travel around in a mobile home. They dismiss claims it’s a gimmick – “it’s an idea that suddenly popped into my head,” Neil insists.
Having seen them at work, I have very little doubt it will happen – an idea pops into Neil’s head, and Christine makes it happen.