A New Exercise in Democracy? EU Can't Be Serious

Maybe the weather has got to my head, or maybe I'm just trying to avoid the inevitable clasp the inevitable doom of Wolves' position in the Premier League. Either way, someone should ban me from going on any pro-EU websites, most of all the official EU website, Europa.

Lording it up on their website is an article titled "New Exercise in Democracy". Wow I think to myself, perhaps they've all smoked pot in Amsterdam and come to their senses that democracy ain't all that bad. Wrong! The article refers to the and is described as:

Introduced by the Lisbon treaty, the European citizens initiative is intended to make the EU more democratic by giving citizens a more direct say in its policies.

OK, sounds good. I want the EU to consider banning overseas religious preachers. So what do I do? Write a letter? Arrange a meeting? Get the number twenty bus in to town to speak to my local elected representative? None of the above. I need to save up enough money to finance a multinational petition covering at least three EU countries with at least 300,000 (yes, three-hundred-thousand) signatures.

And that's not even half way there. The European Commission then decides whether the interests of those 300,000 people from a minimum of three EU countries is worth their time or own interests shutting it down immediately, or giving it the thumbs up for phase two. Phase two can't be that big a deal can it? After all we've convinced 300,000 people from more than 3 EU countries to sign a petition and then we've convinced the EU Commission that all 300,000 people's interests are worthy of their attention. So what more?

After the thumbs up, we need a total of 700,000 more signatures from a minimum of a total of nine EU countries. Oh and that's not the only thing. You know those signatures I've been banging on about? I slipped up. I need to go back to those 1 million people and convince them to also give me their national identification number, in the form of their social security numbers or passport numbers.

Not only that, due to data protection laws I have to also invest in security measures to protect the information of over 1 million people with a minimum of 7 million pieces of information. The costs of all of this would be a minimum of half a million pounds. That's assuming I get the bare minimum of requirements fulfilled.

Never in the history of mankind has there ever been a physical petition of 300 thousand or more signatures, ever.

A new exercise in democracy? Somehow I doubt it. Somehow, anybody with half a mind would doubt it.

If Liam Fox still believes defence is a sovereign area, why is he handing it to the EU?

The Conservatives (as senior partner in the coalition) continue to show their true colous regarding the European Union.

July 2008, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan asked "Will David Cameron be Britains first Eurosceptic Prime Minister?"

October 2010, another Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer gave the answer "We’ve been handing powers to Brussels faster than Labour" !

This very latest example is in the most sensitive of all soverign issues - that of defence.

In February 2008 Liam Fox (then shadow Defence minister) gave a speech regarding how the Lisbon Treaty will damage the defence of the UK.

As recently as January 2009, Liam Fox sought to establish his (and his parties) EUSceptic credentials, and commitment to the military defence of our soverign nation, with the clear declaration that "We didn't join the EU for defence reasons we have Nato for that".

And again in September 2009, Liam Fox, in an interview with Defence News reiterated his (supposed) belief and commitment that the defence of the UK was not an issue for the EU.

But now, November 2010, Liam Fox is finally reported as continuing David Camerons and the Conservatives embracing of the idea of the UK as simply a region of the EU and no longer a soverign nation. As the FT reports that Liam Fox has abandoned his pledge to take the UK out of the 'European Defence Agency' and now merely seeks to freeze its budget.

Nothing that was said earlier (aparantly sincerely) about how the Lisbon Treaty, the EU, the European Defence Agency would damage the UK as a soverign nation and damage our defensive capability has changed.

So Liam Fox, David Cameron and the Conservative party have some explaining to do - why are they destroying the UK?

Lib Dems drop to 4th place in donations

UKIP received 30% more in donations in the last quarter than the Lib Dems - £454k for UKIP against £350k for the Lib Dems.

Large donations to the Lib Dems appear to have nosedived at the same rate as their membership since they joined the europhile, big state, high tax ConDem coalition.  The ConDem coalition is the antithesis of UKIP's anti-EU, small state, flat tax proposition for an independent UK - no wonder the ConDem coalition is losing members and money.

Donations for LibLabCon and UKIP 2010 Q1-3	Donations for LibLabCon and UKIP 2010 Q1-3
Donations for Conservatives 2010 Q1-3	Donations for Labour 2010 Q1-3
Donations for Lib Dems 2010 Q1-3	Donations for UKIP 2010 Q1-3
Donations for LibLabCon and UKIP 2010 Q1	Donations for LibLabCon and UKIP 2010 Q2
Donations for LibLabCon and UKIP 2010 Q3

As you can see, UKIP's share of donations made to the four main parties has increased quarter on quarter this year while the trend for donations to the LibLabCon is downwards.

Hat-tip: Heaver

If it talks like a fascist and acts like a fascist, it's probably Martin Schulz

UKIP MEP, Godfrey Bloom (a belated happy birthday Godders), has been instructed by the President of the EU Parliament (not to be confused with the President of the EU Commission), Jerzy Buzek, to apologise for quoting Adolf Hitler Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Führer at German MEP, Martin Schulz.

Who vould have ze temerity to do
such a vicked deed?

The nationalist socialist MEP took offence at Godfrey quoting the nationalist socialist former chancellor of his country at him and demanded an apology.  He took further offence when Godders refused to apologise and called him an undemocratic fascist.  I wonder if this Dutch MEP took offence when Schulz called him a fascist (hat-tip: the eurosceptic vote-sink) ... presumably not as Herr Schulz wasn't ordered to apologise and then escorted from the mickey mouse parliament by bouncers in cheap suits the forces of democracy.

Was Godfrey right to quote Hitler at a German MEP?  Possibly not.  Was he wrong to quote Hitler?  Probably not.  Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy so why is Herr Schulz taking offence at being called an undemocratic fascist when he's acting like an undemocratic fascist?  And more importantly, why is Herr Schulz taking offence at being called a fascist when he thinks it's perfectly acceptable to call someone a fascist for demanding that Emperor Barroso publishes details of his expenses?

Daily Express comes out as eurosceptic ... but still supports europhile Tories

Today's Daily Express leads with a call to "GET BRITAIN OUT OF EUROPE".

The Daily Express claims to be the first national newspaper calling for the UK to leave the EU.  They may well be right although I'm pretty sure the Daily Star have previously made the same call.

It's great that a national newspaper is making a crusade out of throwing off the shackles of EU membership but it's a bit of a hollow crusade when they still support the Conservative and ٨ ^European Unionist Party.

The Daily Express is collecting online signatures for a petition to present to Cast Iron Dave.  You can put your name to the by clicking the image below.

Hague must now give us a referendum on Eurozone Lisbon Treaty changes.

We may not be in the Eurozone but it clearly governs our actions.

Officially the bailouts that have been happening within the EU/Eurozone are illegal under the relevant treaties. But as there seems to be no court to enforce these treaties, this fact has been ignored.

However, to now regularise these bailouts, the treaties/laws are to be amended to retrospectively legalise the bailouts.

Prior to the last election and subsequently, after the establishment of the coalition government, David Cameron and his Conservatives have promised the people of the UK that there will be referenda on any future changes to our relationship with the EU that may impact UK sovereignty.

Putting these two issues together, a significant treaty change and the promise of referenda one might have expected a referendum on the proposed changes to the Lisbon Treaty. However, if this is what you expected then you would be disappointed as William Hague has said that there will be no referendum on this matter.

The Conservative governments argument against holding the promised referendum is that the change only affects Eurozone countries, of which the UK is not one, so the change makes no difference to the UK.

However following the initial £7 billion bailout of the Euro/EU/Ireland  it is clear that Eurozone issues are essential to the UK's national interest. Especially as conservative/coalition chancellor George Osborne has refused to rule out possible future bailouts of other Eurozone countries - Portugal, Greece and Italy.

There can now be no argument against having UK referenda on any treaty changes within the EU - even if only Eurozone countries are being targeted. While we are in the EU, then regarding the Euro and Eurozone  'we are all in this together'.

We may not be in the Eurozone but it clearly governs our actions - so where is our referendum?

Ex-MPs: how Britain was conned into joining the 'Common Market'

Thanks to James Goldsmith, we were spared the financial death throes that Eurozone members such as Ireland are now experiencing. We can only hope that the Euro is shredded by the markets, forcing deadly fissures to appear in the EU façade and 'community'.

If Ireland takes IMF cash, it will largely be under the thumb of Britain - the country whose embrace it could not wait to escape as it rushed to the bosom of the EU.

If Ireland takes Merkel's (expropriation) of EU cash, then it can expect to lose its sovereignty to the EU and to be forced to raise its corporation tax,  thereby reducing its competitiveness.

If Ireland does a deal with Britain, it will be even more firmly yoked to Britain than it ever was - this time, via the serfdom which accompanies unpayable debt.

What a a fine mess they've made. If only they'd listened to us and not signed that blasted treaty.

Ah. But the politicos were following a carefully crafted plan - and script. Just as Cameron and Hague are doing today, while they try to convince us of the opposite.

In 2008, before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Eric Deakins, MP for Walthamstow West 1970-74, MP for Walthamstow 1974-87, and junior minister for Trade (1974-76) and the DHSS (1976-79) in Labour governments under Wilson and Callaghan respectively, witnessed and have spoken out against the dishonesty exhibited by a succession of leaders in committing Britain to the European Project.

Described are the aims of the Treaty of Rome, and how in subsequent years the process of integration into a European political entity has gradually been forced through, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the majority of British people.

Little by little, we are being roped in by the EU, aided and abetted by their new best friends, Cameron and Hague, who know a thing or two about twisting language to sound like the truth, so to disguise a cleverly crafted lie.

If we do not make a stand, Britain will be in the Euro one day - or in an incarnation of it, the end game being complete political union under an unelected body of totalitarian technocrats, who will transform Britain into an ex-nation of serfs. Except for the politicos, of course, who will be rewarded handsomely.

The copyright of the video below is held by the Campaign for an Independent Britain.



Ht tip: UKIPWebmaster

Ex-Labour MPs Nigel Spearing and Eric Deakins tell of how the British people were duped. They were both Members of UK Parliament at the time of Britain's entry into the 'Common Market' and witnessed how it was pulled off.(7-video autoplay).



Hat tip: Free Britain Blog

Cross-posted

Bought and sold with leprechaun's gold

The Republic of Ireland has accepted an EU bailout of up to €100bn.

After literally days of feigning resistance, the Vichy Irish government have caved in to pressure from their puppet masters and agreed to hand over effective control of their economy to the European Empire in exchange for a cauldron of leprechaun's gold.

Not only will this EU bailout be part funded by the UK, but Boy George has offered a few billion pounds in contingency loans "to help a friend in need".  And here was me thinking we were on "the brink of bankruptcy".

The EU now controls the Greek economy and the Irish economy.  Portugal, Spain and Italy will be next and then what happens?  We can't afford to bail out the entire continent and the French and Germans certainly aren't in a position to, not when their economies are hobbled by EU regulations.

UKIP to contest Northern Irish elections

UKIP has announced that it intends to contest 7 seats in the Stormont elections in May next year.

It's great that UKIP, which has one councillor in the province, is doing its bit to normalise politics in Northern Ireland but I really couldn't predict whether we will see success in those elections or not.

My gut feeling is that our ridiculous anti-devolution policy will put off a lot of potential voters who won't vote for direct rule from London again and that our even more ridiculous "Britishness" policy will put off eurosceptic Northern Irish voters that don't buy into an outdated concept of enforced British nationalism that borders on cultural imperialism.

But the Northern Irish are a strange lot and there will be a lot of unionists that are looking for an alternative to the sectarian unionists that may be attracted to UKIP.  Then again, the Conservatives stood there in the general election and bombed so maybe they're not yet ready for a London unionist party in Northern Ireland.

UKIP hasn't tried to crack Northern Ireland before so it's worth a punt.  I'd suggest putting most of the money the party was planning to waste standing anti-devolution candidates in the Scottish and Welsh elections into a decent election campaign in Northern Ireland.

Barroso throws his teddy out of his pram

Emperor Barroso has thrown his teddy out of his pram after his plans for a 6% EU budget increase were scuppered by the Poles.

I regret that a small number of member states were not prepared to negotiate in a European spirit.

[...]

I'm extremely disappointed... a solution should have been possible last night. Those that think they have won a victory over 'Brussels' have shot themselves in the foot. They should know that they have dealt a blow to people all over Europe and in the developing world

Don't worry oh great one, I'm sure the matter will be "negotiated" in the "European spirit" by asking the question over and over again until you get the "right" answer.  Or just change a couple of words and don't bother asking again.  That's how it's done in the "European spirit" isn't it?

The EU loan sharks are circling Ireland

The European Empire is trying to convince Ireland to take a bailout which will leave it permanently indebted to the continent.

The loan would come from the slush fund set up to prop up the eurozone and would require the Irish government to hand over effective control of its economy to the EU's financial regulator and the EU Central Bank.

Ireland is part of the "big five" bankrupt member states known as the PIIGS - Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.  Greece has already been bailed out (illegally) by the EU, they're trying to pressure Ireland into taking a bailout (presumably also illegal until France and Germany get their changed Lisbon Treaty) and there are fears that an Irish bailout will lead to pressure for a bailout in Portugal as well.  That would leave only Italy and Spain desperately trying to keep the EU loan sharks at bay.

EU claims "clean bill of health" for failed accounts

The EU Commission has bizarrely announced a "clean bill of health for EU accounts" on its website.  I say "bizarrely" because the EU Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU's accounts for the 16th year in a row.

This doesn't even qualify as propaganda because propaganda implies some element of truth and this is an outright lie.

If a public company couldn't get its accounts signed off for a year it would be expected to de-list from the stock market, investors would lose confidence and the company would suffer sever sanctions for breaking company law.  The EU hasn't had it's accounts signed off by its own internal auditors for 16 years and it gets more power and more money.

The EU is as bent as a €9 note, the British government shouldn't hand over another penny until they deal with the endemic fraud and corruption that infests every department of the corrupt superquango.

YouGov confirms UKIP closing gap on the Lib Dems

Via Independence Home (newly relaunched, incidentally), YouGov has UKIP in 4th place on voting intentions at 4%, only 6% behind the Lib Dems.

The survey results are actually quite interesting.  4% of Conservative voters disapprove of the ConDem government, 24% of Lib Dem voters disapprove.  UKIP's support is spread evenly across the social brackets, whereas the Tories and Lib Dems are for ABC1's (upper/middle class) and Labour for C2DE's (working class).  UKIP is the only major party with even support across the social spectrum.

Most of UKIP's support is in the south and north of England, excluding London.  Support is at its lowest in London where our immigration policy isn't particularly well received amongst the large immigrant population and in Scotland where our anti-devolution policies, right of centre leaning and euroscepticism don't resonate that well with the mostly pro-devolution, socialist, europhile Scots.  The figures for the English midlands are skewed somewhat by being lumped in with Wales.

This survey firmly puts UKIP in fourth place amongst all the UK parties but it's not all good news.  Plaid Cymru and the SNP are on 2% despite only contesting elections in Scotland and Wales which only account for about 12% of the population between them.  While we continue to oppose devolution, we will continue to lose out to the SNP and Plaid Cymru and one day, even the English Democrats.  UKIP voters are also predominantly elderly, with support amongst the 18-24 age bracket swinging in favour of the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

All in all, this is reassuring stuff but it further highlights the need for UKIP to adopt a sensible and popular policy on devolution.  It's all well and good going toe to toe with the LibLabCon but we have to keep an eye on who's sneaking up on us.

EU Parliament demands tax raising powers in exchange for 2.9% budget increase

The EU Parliament has demanded the ability to tax people directly in return for agreeing to a 2.9% budget increase.

Two weeks ago he caved in on the budget increase before he even left the country to demand the EU freeze its budget.  This is after backing down from his demand that they reduce the budget which they want to increase by 6%.

Camoron, naturally, says he opposes the EU being able to tax us directly and has held an emergency meeting with Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi and that they were all "extremely staunch".

So, only one question remains: will this new tax that he's going to agree to come straight out of our wages or will we get a bill that we can refuse to pay?  I'm hoping it's the latter but I expect Hector the EU Tax Collector will be pillaging our wages to make sure we all pay tribute to our imperial masters on the continent.

Details Emerge of Plan to Indoctrinate Britain by EU Since 1970

A fellow blogger who does not want to be named has put to my attention a series of memos which are absolutely mind blowing. I am not one to use hyperbole or to exaggeration something, but the information contained in these secret memos are potentially explosive, especially if the right people get their hands on it and pay it the attention that it deserves.

A confidential memo from 1970 was very silently released not too long ago as a result of the Freedom of Information Act. This is not any memo, it is the one that reveals the extent and nature of plans made to propaganderise and indoctrinate the people of Britain in to becoming "pro-marketeers" (pseudo speak for pro-EU in the 1970's).

I haven't had time to go through the entire memo and other documents, once I do I will submit a fuller report, but for now some of the most shocking of the revelations include:

• evidence that lists of influential pro and anti EEC (EU) people and organisations were drawn up
• these lists included Radio and Television producers
• the Conservative Group for Europe was involved in this indoctrination efforts
• people pro to the EEC/EU project of influence were told to write specifically to The Times, but in a "not-so-obvious way"
• a programme of pro EEC/EU speakers was drawn up to speak at constituencies identified to have an MP who is 'doubtful about entry'
• a campaign of letter writing to those MPs was also promoted
• both the Labour Party AND the Conservative Party were involved with the overall publicity campaign by the EEC/EU (including television scripts)
• promotional films to be shown overseas (in Europe) about Britain to lend "formidabble support to European ends"

With such quotes as:

if distinguished pro-marketeers are quickly identified when visiting Britain, the IAD machine will work all the more efficiently.

The 'IAD machine' here refers to the Information Administration Department, to put it more bluntly, the Ministry of Propaganda.

More information to follow once I look in to all of it and in further detail. I would simply upload the documents myself but I know the severity of all this will be lost in a sea of information. Instead, I will release information incrementally. This is not down to me feeling you, the reader is too stupid or careless, but rather that I, as a reader myself, know the all too fleeting temptation to get lost in a monstrous sea of information.

Watch this space.

EU Referendum Campaign's Casts Another Blow to Cameron's EU Budget Celebrations

The EU Referendum Campaign, has commissioned a poll conducted by ComRes to find out the British publics' views on the monetary contribution made by the United Kingdom to the European Union. The results, cast a devastating blow to David Cameron who is still attempting to play the narrative of a historic win over the EU budget.

In a poll where 1000 members of the public where asked questions found that:

• 59% of people asked believed that it was not right that Britain should be making a contribution of £48million per day to the EU. (33% who were imbeciles believed it was right that Britain makes this contribution, keep an eye on this figure..)
• 74% of people asked believed that the money would be better spent relieving the impact of the Government's spending cuts
• Only 23% of people believed that Britain gets value for money in its membership of the European Union (notice how 33% drops to 23%)
• 68% of people believed that Britain should ask for an immediate reduction in its contribution of the EU budget

This poll shows that the overwhelming majority of the British public do not believe David Cameron when he describes his EU budget negotiation deal as a success.

In light of these poll results James Pryor, the Chief Executive of the EU Referendum Campaign, said:

This poll confirms the ever-increasing disconnect between the political elite and the real people of Britain

with Jon Gaunt, Chief Spokesperson for the campaign adding:

It's not crystal clear that the majority of British people want the £48 million we send every day to Brussels to be spent here in Britain on vital services. How will Britain feel when an EXTRA £450 million is sent to Brussels next year? Surely David Cameron cannot ignore the will of the British people... it's time he gave us OUR say on the EU.

It is becoming increasing clear that the people of Britain need to stand together and demand a referendum on the EU. To show your support visit the official EU Referendum Campaign website by clicking here.

The EU is robbing Peter to pay Paul to rob Peter

George Moonbat is having a bit of a whinge about Vodafone allegedly avoiding £6bn in tax and HMRC letting them off lightly with only a £1.25bn tax bill.

Hector the EU Tax Collector

Without giving any details of what HMRC might be expected to do when Vodafone have legally avoided paying £6bn of tax, he criticises HMRC for not doing more to get more money out of them.  And of course, being the good little eurofederalist that he is, he resolutely avoids discussing where the laws that allowed Vodafone to relocate from the UK to Luxembourg and avoid paying tax to the UK Treasury came from in the first place.

That rare creature - a tolerable left winger - Sunny Hundal has some background on the case and points out that it is an EU law that allows companies like Vodafone to relocate subsidiaries to other EU member states without having to worry about silly things like paying tax.  He doesn't quite go as far as to point out that the EU happily relieves us of billions of pounds of our hard taxes, extracted from us on pain of imprisonment, every year to pay French farmers not to farm and Spanish fisherman to rape our waters, loses £1 in every £4 to inefficiency and fraud and then imposes laws on us that allow incredibly wealthy companies to avoid paying tax by relocating part of their operations to another one of the EU countries that our taxes subsidise.  But it's a step in the right direction - well done Comrade Hundal!

The EU is robbing Peter to pay Paul to rob Peter and still the LibLabCon parties tell us we're better off in the EU than out.

Nuttall appointed Deputy Leader

Nigel Farage's new team has been confirmed by the NEC today and by far the most pleasing and important appointment is Paul Nuttall as Deputy Leader.

The only person who could have really given Farage a run for his money in the leadership election (had he decided to stand) was Paul Nuttall.  He's an excellent speaker, politically astute, down to earth and approachable.

It's not clear whether Lord Monckton is remaining vice-deputy leader or not.  Having two leaders is unusual and not really necessary.  The deputy leader has a clear role - to deputise for the leader - and I don't see why we would ever need two deputies.  Nigel's a hard act to follow but it doesn't take two people!

Steve Crowther is the new Chairman, the Secretary is Michael Greaves and Lord Pearson is head of fundraising with Stephen Woolfe assisting.

Congratulations to all of Nigel's new team.

Clegg confirms Cameron's referendum lie

Nick Cleggover has formally announced Camoron's intention to deprive us of another promised referendum on the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

Camoron promised a "referendum lock" which would prevent any more powers being transferred to the EU or new treaties without a referendum.  It's been 6 months since he lied himself into power and since then he's handed over control of the financial sector to an EU regulator, approval of the national budget budget to an EU quango and signed up to the EU diplomatic corps representing our "interests" abroad.  How many referenda have we had?  None.

Now France and Germany want more powers for the EU over the economies of member states to help them prop up the Euro and to legalise the EU bailout of Greece.  The new powers will require a change to the Lisbon Treaty.  A change to the Lisbon Treaty requires a referendum, the Tories said so less than two months ago:

The lock will mean that any future treaty amendment which seeks to transfer power from the UK to Brussels will require a referendum in this country

- David Lidington, Minister for Europe the EU

Of course Camoron and Cleggover say that the new powers will only apply to members of the Euro but Herman van Rumpy-Pumpy says that the changes he has been asked to come up with will apply to all member states.

How do rank and file Tories put up with this constant betrayal from their leaders?  Almost every day another deceit is exposed, another promise broken, another lie told.  How can their members keep faith in their party when they are repeatedly deceived and their long-held principals abandoned to further the federalist agenda?  I can understand Tory MPs, MEPs and Councillors putting their careers and expenses before their principals but what about the majority of the rapidly declining membership (about 10k per year decline according to this source) who pay to be lied to?

Better The Sinner That Repents

Back in late 2009 I left the party that I loved and dedicated so much of my time for. It was no easy decision, it being one that I agonised over for a long time.

I decided to join the Conservative Party to support their campaign to oust Gordon Brown from power and to place, what I believed, was a Eurosceptic person, in number 10.

It was not a decision I made without any thought. I had read up on David Cameron, impressed by his campaign material before he came to a position of power in the Conservative Party. What many people did not know, was that his election material when seeking to get elected as an MP consisted of such definitive Eurosceptic literature.

This, coupled with the consistent rhetoric of an iron cast guaranteed referendum and the refusal to bow down to Brussels convinced me that this man had to be put in to power. Anything surely was better than Gordon Brown, right?

Several months down the line, when he was elected as our Prime Minister I realised that I was not only wrong for supporting him, but incredibly naive.

I always maintained that my support for the Conservative Party was conditional on their approach towards the EU. I told myself that the day David Cameron goes to Brussels and plays lapdog to Eurocrats would be the day I leave the party. In September of this year I allowed my membership to the party to lapse, refusing on numerous occassions to renew it.

A couple of months down the line, it is clear, crystal clear, that David Cameron and the Conservative Party are taking their own members and supporters for a ride. Everything is rhetoric. I knew, once the old 'hands behind my back' line started (regarding prisoner voting rights), that he had no intention of fighting for the British people.

I was therefore left in a predicament. Do I allow pride to get in the way of doing the right thing and coming back home to UKIP?

The answer to that is simple. Of course I don't allow pride get in the way.

Some people may see this as an opportunity to spend their time bashing away on their keyboards to express their outrage, but I've always believed the measure of a man is his ability to accept a sinner that repents.

The past is history, the present is our concern and the future is what will be ours.

Nigel Farage is the new UKIP leader (again)

The votes have been counted and Nigel Farage was duly elected leader of UKIP today by the membership.

Was it ever going to be a different result?  No.  Was such a convincing victory expected?  Yes.  The only surprise for me was David Campbell Bannerman coming in third behind Tim Congdon but I guess I underestimated the negative effect the Question Time débacle would have on DCB's popularity.

The final results were as follows:

Nigel Farage: 6,085 votes (60.27%)
Tim Congdon: 2,037 (20.18%)
DCB: 1,444 (14.30%)
Winston: 530 (5.25%)

A total of 10,096 votes were cast, which I'm told is over 50% of the voting membership (those with the free membership don't get to vote).  That's better than most local elections!

Just for fun, let's have a look what our new leader would look like if he was elected by proportional representation:

He'd have Nigel Farage's head, torso and arms; Tim Congdon's right leg and feet; DCB's left leg; and Winston's boxing gloves.

Admit it, you're imagining this bizarre parody of the human form stalking Emperor Barosso down the corridors of Strasbourg with a hunting rifle and a bent banana ... or perhaps my fertile imagination is a little too fertile on this occasion.

So where do we go from here?  Nigel's victory was inevitable and for me, it was the best result we could hope for.  Whether you like it or not, Farage is the man most people associate with UKIP and even people who have no interest in politics, no interest in the EU and have never heard of UKIP still know who he is.  We are not a one man band and Farage is certainly not the only talent we have but he is the person the media are interested in, he's the one people vote for and he's the one that an overwhelming majority of the membership want to lead the party.  Politics is about personality more than policy these days and that's something he isn't lacking in.

Whether you voted for Nigel, for DCB, Congdon or Winston, now is the time to get behind our new leader and make a difference.  Ordinary Conservatives are spitting feathers over the repeated betrayal on the EU by Cast Iron Dave.  Only yesterday I was talking to a former UKIPper who left for the Tories and has now realised that UKIP is the only place for eurosceptics and rejoined, bringing two Tories with him.  Lifelong supporters of the Tories are disillusioned with the europhile leadership of their party and are turning to UKIP as the only credible alternative to the unholy trinity of Cameron, Clegg and Clarke, the arch eurofederalists.  Even the guys over at Conservative Home seem to struggle to find something positive to say about Cameron when he's caving in to the EU on an almost daily basis.

Lib Dems are wandering around aimlessly wondering what the hell is going on.  Are they Conservatives now or are they Liberals?  Whether they were Liberals in the first place is debatable but they certainly don't know who they are now, having sold out on pretty much every principle and election pledge they had just to hang off Cast Iron Dave's coat tails.

And Labour.  What can we say about Labour?  They've gone from the heady heights of the Blair era when they seemed like they'd be in power forever and everything they touched turned to gold (it turned out to be fools gold but fools gold is better than no gold and a pile of worthless euros, isn't that right Gordon?) to electoral irrelevance, lacking vision and drive.  So desperate are they for some publicity that they're even criticising Cameron for caving in to the EU!

We have a real chance right now of capitalising on the disaffection amongst the members and supporters of the LibLabCon parties.  They are quite rightly asking why they should continue to support a party that has abandoned its principles over not just the EU but on civil liberties, the economy and freedom of the individual.  The truth is, there is only one party in this country that is committed to freedom of the individual, low taxes, small government and the right of this country to govern itself and that party is UKIP.

But we're not going to attract these people if they see infighting, disorganisation and unhappiness amongst the membership so put a smile on your face and get behind our new leader.  He made us some promises if we elected him; the membership has kept up its side of the bargain so let's give him the opportunity and support he needs to make good on those promises.

Last chance to vote for Leader

Tomorrow is the last chance to vote in the UKIP leadership election.

Ballots have to be received at UKIP Head Office by tomorrow to be counted and the result will be announced on Friday.

David Campbell Bannerman MEP & Head of Policy
	Tim Congdon CBE Former Professor of Economics & UKIP PPC
Nigel Farage MEP, Leader of EFD Group & former Leader
	Winston McKenzie Youth worker & former boxer

How's that votey changey thing going for ya?

So, anyone wondering what rank and file Tories think of Cast Iron Dave's premature capitulation on the EU budget and breaking yet another promise to hold a referendum on EU treaties?

ConservativeHome has the answer ...

Sarah Palin's amusing anti-Obama "how's that hopey changey thing going for ya?" quip was well received by ConservativeHome who called her the "Queen of America's anti-government protesters".

Does anyone know how that "votey changey thing" is going for the Tories?

Osborne’s speech, even though it was spoken on the floor of the House, seemed aimed at pleasing the Conservative Party alone. When he sat down, many Tory back-benchers rose to their feet and cheered and I suddenly felt rather ashamed that I voted Tory at the last election.
- Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator

when Michael Gove backed out of his promise to come and apologise to the parents, pupils and staff he had so badly let down, I felt ashamed to be a Conservative
- Councillor Elaine Costigan, Sandwell MBC

But, after today, I will, briefly, but for the first time since I joined, be ashamed to call myself a Conservative.
- Alan William Collins, Conservative blogger and party activist

It's going well then ...

EU Law: How exactly does the EU penetrate our legal system?

Hi there, according to a rather humourous email I received not enough of us are writing blogs on this site! Thus, I have decided to post here a series of blogs to inform readers about the actual political science (or nonscience/ nonsense) of the EU.

Yes, most of us know our arguments backwards about why the EU is a bad things but can we really get into the nitty gritty detail that our opponents will use to confuse us? Now I know many UKIP members are VERY well informed, not least by the education the party provides, however until recently I personally have not understood the legal side of the EU as much as I would like to.

Thus, as somebody who is qualifying in English Law with European Legal Studies LLB. I feel it might benefit others if I share some of things I have learned in a series of blogs.

This is number one: How does the EU penetrate our legal system.

Well there are 2 main types of law and, of course, the EU has both: primary and secondary law. As you can guess primary law is more important than secondary law.

EU Primary Law is the Treaties such as Maastricht and Lisbon. For our politicians to transform these Treaties and turn them into British law calls they need do is make an Act of Parliament. Simple enough.

Things are more complicated when it comes to secondary law (very much a back-route entrance for the EU to create great legal changes as i will try to explain)

There are two main forms of EU secondary law.

Number 1: Regulations, these are the highest form of EU secondary law and they take ffect without the national authority doing anything. EU Regulations give the legislative bodies of the EU to make whatever law they want and have it implemented in all member states. Weirdly enough this means secondary legislation is in a way of an even higher status than primary legislation. The Treaties require our politicians to make an Act of Parliament to create the laws. A regulation involves our politicians doing NOTHING AT ALL. As soon as the Commission, for example, says something is a law- it's a law.

So regulations are rather dodgy aren't they, give the EU a little bit to much power. Alas, the EU uses them scarcely, or at least the EU is supposed to use them scarcely due to the principle of "subsidiarity". This is the idea that EU laws should as much as possible involve decision making at the lowest level. Thus instead, to maximize local disccression the Eu relies upon directives. A directive is a law that member states must implement in which so ever way they choose to do so.

If a member state takes a long time over making a Directive into national law or fails to do so then they might lose out on the advantages of that law. E.g. If there is an EU law to subsidies British agriculture, the British government wont get that subsidy if it has not implemented the relevant directive. HOWEVER, there is a very obscure principle which comes into play here called direct effect (developed by the ECJ) whereby- let us take this example of subsidies for British agriculture- a farmer might say " look because the UK govt. hasn't made this law I'm losing out". The farmer could take the UK to court and force the law to be made. In this way the EU clearly penetrates right through our legal system.


You will note in all this that it is possible for secondary legislation from the EU to go against primary UK legislation (Acts of Parliament) and this has happened many times. The rule is that the EU law must take precedent and overrule the UK national law. This is a bit of a problem to say the least because secondary legislation is made by lower authorities. So, a very small group of bureaucrats in Brussels can overule laws made by the democratically elected government of the UK. This is often referred to by legal academics as the "Henry VIII Clause" because it's so authoritarian.

I will check over this for typos etc. later. Hope it might be useful for someone who wants a little more info about the fundamental legal aspects of our arguments. Hope to add some more articles to this series soon!

Cameron caves in again - voting rights for prisoners

David Camoron, the vichy Prime Minister, has caved in to the EU for the second time in less than a week, saying that we have no choice but to give prisoners the right to vote.

The EU Court of Human Rights ruled some time ago that it was a breach of EU law to deny prisoners the right to vote and demanded that the 140 year old ban on prisoners voting is repealed.

This is the ideal opportunity for Camoron to rush through his Sovereignty Bill which "Reaffirm[s] the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament" and means that there is no need to be "exasperated" and "furious" at there being no choice but to comply with the ruling of a foreign court.  But rather than rush the Sovereignty Bill through Parliament, reaffirm the sovereignty of the UK Parliament and tell the EU that our own laws are more important than theirs, he has instead reaffirmed the supremacy of the European Empire.

Last week Camoron caved in on the EU budget before he even started negotiations on reducing or freezing it as he'd promised.  This week he's caved in on prisoners voting rights and in the last couple of months he's caved in on an EU financial regulator, caved in on the EU vetting our budget before it's presented to Parliament, caved in on the EU fining national governments that borrow more money than the EU says they can, caved in on the EU diplomatic corps, caved in on the Franco-German demands for a new treaty to give the EU more powers over member states' economies and caved in on the EU immigration deal with India.  Did I miss any?

All of these could be stopped if the Sovereignty Bill was law but there is simply no appetite in the ConDem ruling elite to stem the loss of sovereignty to the EU and that's why the Sovereignty Bill will only become law once a permanent transfer of sovereignty has already taken place, if at all.