It is a truth generally accepted that the UK Independence Party just isn't like other parties. This truth is gloriously illustrated today by the announcement that Sir Dai Llewellyn is to be the Party's candidate for Cardiff North in the Welsh Assembly election.
Today's Western Mail, the largest selling paper has this story as it's front page lead.
Sir Dai says: Wales, vote for me
Apr 4 2007
Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail
IN THE unlikely event that he is elected in Cardiff North on May 3, Sir Dai Llewellyn will be the only AM to have been to Eton and the only one to admit to crashing through a floor while attempting to seduce a friend's girlfriend.
Born in Aberdare on April 2 1946, he is the son of showjumper Sir Harry Llewellyn, who won a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics on his horse Foxhunter.
His brother Roddy is a former consort of Princess Margaret and the two men fell out in the 1970s over claims Sir Dai spilled the beans on his brother's private life to the press. The pair are yet to be fully reconciled.
During a lifetime in high society he has dated a string of actresses, aristocrats and It-girls. In 2005 he fell through a bedroom floor and ended up in the cellar after an ill-fated attempt to woo Nettie McGee, the girlfriend of a friend.
"I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident," he told the Western Mail at the time.
He makes regular appearances in the diary columns of London newspapers and has worn drag among his more outrageous appearances at a fancy dress party.
In the 1970s he was engaged to Beatrice Welles, the daughter of legendary film director Orson Welles. Their tempestuous relationship grew notorious.
Sir Dai told an interviewer, "Our friends stopped inviting us to dinner parties because they considered us a liability. Beatrice had a temper and once punched me unconscious while I was driving along a motorway. Eventually we had a fight to end all fights, drenched each other in brandy, and broke up."
In 1980 he married Vanessa Hubbard, the convent-educated niece of the Duke of Norfolk.
He demonstrated his continuing taste for the high life when he arrived at the wedding, reached out of the car and handed a half-full bottle of champagne to a group of boys. The couple divorced seven years later but insisted they were "the best of friends", adjourning to a nearby club after returning from court.
His decision to stand in the Assembly elections is the culmination of a long-running aversion to the EU and to devolution, and the latest twist in his tempestuous relationship with Wales.
In 1999 he inherited the title of baronetcy from his father, along with a home in Aberbeeg, near Abertillery. In 2002, while "slightly tipsy", he bought six houses in nearby Llanhilleth for £2,000 each, and tried to sell them to young couples for £100 each.
But by the following year he was packing his bags, saying he had been forced out of Wales by rampant nationalism. The traditional Valleys welcome had been replaced by "cold, professional Welshmen", he said, promising only to return across the Severn Bridge for his own funeral.
"This new-found nationalism means we no longer welcome outsiders, and people like myself become targets for thugs and vandals," he said.
"More and more jobs are now handed out on the basis of whether the applicants speak Welsh thus breeding a feeling of exclusivity, a sense of superiority and a dislike of others."
The world according to Sir Dai... - page 2
"Mosquitoes have killed more people than every other animal put together."
Launching a campaign to wipe out the pest in the Costa del Sol.
"I believe that much of what had happened is prompted by the growth of an increasingly xenophobic nationalism that has been stirred up in Wales and encouraged by the Government."
Leaving Wales in 2003 after saying his property had been attacked.
"Wales would be a much greater country without the bully-boy tactics used to ram the Welsh language down her people's throats."
Commenting on the same decision.
"I will come back to Wales only to be buried in the churchyard of Llanvihangel Gobion where I was christened."
His final word on the matter.
"At my age and weight, it's taking me about a month to laugh the ladies into bed."
On the survey claiming British men take 31 minutes to seduce a woman.
The point is of course that with the profesionalisation of British politics the difference between the parties has become paper thin. Any other party would run a mile rather than have somebody like Sir Dai as a representative.
However by restricting the gene pool of those acceptable to the parties as representatives, the country as a whole is left unrepresented. UKIP's message is deadly serious, but they do not believe that you have to be deadly dull and irreproachable to have a serious point to make.
Thank goodness for that. (I think the moustache is a fake)
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