Feltham and Heston by-election - Dr Earth dances for UKIP

UKIP's Andrew Charalambous with Jade Jagger

Nigel Farage has got some front. There's no denying that! He says of his party's candidate in the forthcoming Feltham & Heston by-election that "Andrew is an excellent candidate. He fully grasps what matters to the people in this country and will fight tooth and nail for those in Feltham and Heston". Andrew being Andrew Charalambous, UKIP's Housing spokesman.

The UKIP website blurbs on about their candidate.

"Thirty-nine year-old Andrew is a property developer who has spent much of his career helping reduce homelessness in London through an innovative social housing scheme that allows poorer tenants to avoid paying rent and deposits.

Dubbed "a different kind of social entrepreneur" by the Financial Times, he is also founder of Club4Climate, a global environment organisation that launched the the world's first ecological nightclub. The bar, based in King's Cross, features a piezoelectric dance floor that produces electricity by harnessing the movements of people.

Andrew has also served 15 years as a special constable in the City of London and the Honourable Artillery Company. He is a patron of the Leukaemia Society and studied Law at London University before qualifying as a barrister.

In last year's General Election he stood as a Conservative Party candidate in Edmonton."

It was that last point that got me interested. Another defector from Cameron's party? Yes, but not as we know it! All the above makes Andrew sound greener than Caroline Lucas and more socially aware than Iain Duncan Smith. But the Daily Mail got there first. They said he was calling himself Dr.Earth and found this description of him on his website -

"He has completed one of the profoundest spiritual journeys in history. We know of no other living person who has travelled to so many countries on a spiritual quest and been taught by so many great spiritual masters from such a diverse plethora of spiritual systems. He is a tantric master initiated in India. He has dated some of the most beautiful women in the world. Andrew describes himself as the first male feminist. He says "women are definitely the superior sex. Society needs less playboys and more men with family values. I am nothing compared to my brothers who are decent family men with children."

Heady stuff! Andrew Charalambous was the Conservative candidate at Edmonton in the last general election. A Tory parliamentary member said, "It's nuts. It's one thing to stand by the "vote blue, go green" theory, but to say we can solve climate change by dance? The scary thing is he could win the seat. It's a car crash waiting to happen." He didn't win and there was no car crash.

Posted in: Feltham and Heston By-election,UKIP