It seems that every day there is a news story about that peculiar species, the UKIP Parliamentary Candidate.
Today, we have the good news that their candidate in Rochester and Strood is to stand down and instead support our excellent Conservative PPC there, Mark Reckless.
Yesterday, we heard that the UKIP candidate for Wells will not stand down, despite being asked to do so by his own Party, against a genuine Eurosceptic David Heathcoat-Amory, who has also been, in my view, the most effective Conservative Eurosceptic in Parliament in recent years. We have sat on the European Scrutiny Committee together. For all of us who believe we need more democracy in Europe, David's defeat by a Liberal Democrat, thanks to UKIP votes, would be a disaster for that cause.
Yesterday also, their candidate in Gloucester slammed the Party's own posters, describing them as "highly offensive".
Two days ago, thair candidate in Ilford South resigned over offensive comments about the Queen
And on Tuesday night, their candidate against me in Chelsea and Fulham made an eye-catching election pledge at our first hustings - to move to Britain, if he is elected! To be fair to him, he is quite open on his own website that he does, in fact, live in Paris with his French wife.
Now, that is 5 parliamentary candidates hitting national headlines in just the last 3 days. Is this a deliberate strategy, or does it show what we have always thought, that this is a Party in chaos?
