UKIP on 7% in YouGov poll

UKIP is on 7% in tonight's YouGov poll and 2% ahead of the Lib Dems in the midlands/Wales polling region.

The Lib Dems are on 8% nationally, level with UKIP on 10% in the south of England and on 5% in the midlands/Wales compared to UKIP's 7%.

UKIP could hold the balance of power in London

UKIP could hold the balance of power in the London Assembly after Thursday's election if a YouGov survey for the London Evening Standard is correct.

According to YouGov, Labour are expected to end up with 12 seats, the Tories with 10, the Lib Dems with 2, UKIP with 1 and the Greens and BNP to lose their single seats.  A ConDem coalition would have 12 seats, the same as Labour leaving UKIP holding the balance of power.

A UKIP assembly member sharing the London Assembly with a 12 member ConDem coalition and 12 Labour members would be king maker - neither faction would be able to form an administration without the support of the UKIP member.

Sadly the news isn't quite as positive for mayoral candidate, Lawrence Webb, who is sitting on 3% behind Boris, Red Ken and Brian Paddick.

Letter to Eric Pickles

As reported yesterday, the EU Commission intends to force the British Department for English Culture, English Media and English Sport to fly the EU logo all year round from its headquarters at Eland House.

We have helpfully sent Eric Pickles a solution that doesn't involve the futile act of openly defying the EU Commission (the EU always wins) or the obvious solution of doing what most people want and getting the hell out of the EU.

Dear Mr Pickles,

I read with interest your apparent outrage that the EU Commission is intending to force you to fly their logo over Eland House because your department spends taxpayers' money that is laundered through the EU in the guise of development funding.  I have a solution that doesn't involve leaving the EU or openly defying the EU Commission which, of course, your leader won't allow you to do.

Your department issues the guidance on the flying of flags from public buildings and said guidance includes respecting the order of precedence of flags.  In this order of precedence, the Royal Standard is first, followed by the union flag and then our national flags.  Eland House has two flag poles so the answer is to fly both the British and English flags, leaving no room for the EU logo which falls much further down the order of precedence, below the armed services' ensigns, the UN flag and the Commonwealth flag.

As a happy co-incidence, this would also serve to remind those working in Eland House that they are part of a British government department that, thanks to devolution, has jurisdiction only over England and would also inform voters in England of the same.  It is entirely appropriate that public buildings fly the English flag in England just as they fly the Scottish and Welsh flags in Scotland and Wales and it would leave no room for the EU logo in most cases.  All it takes is a change to your department's guidelines on flag flying that all public buildings in England or that are de facto devolved English departments (such as the Student Loan Company in Glasgow) that have a second flag pole should fly the English flag alongside the union flag and you can keep face without having to attempt to defy the EU Commission with all the embarrassing backtracking required when they slap you down.

Kind Regards,

Stuart Parr
Bloggers4UKIP

Sorry, Dan, but we are no longer interested

Yet again Dan Hannan has been calling on the Tory Party to come to some rapprochement with UKIP. Following on from his earlier blogpost calling for some kind of merger, he now suggests an unspecified form of 'pact'. Spooked like most Tories by UKIP's rise, his thesis is that unless the eurosceptic vote is united, the Europhiles will remain in the ascendant.

Well, the first thing to say about that is that in the days when the eurosceptic vote was more or less united within the Tory Party it didn't seem to advance our cause very much.

Been there and bought the T-shirt, thank you very much.

However, a much more significant point is that it shows how little commentator's of point left and right really understand what the rise of UKIP demonstrates: still stuck in the days when UKIP was more or less a single issue pressure group, they remain resolutely behind the curve in understanding that UKIP are emerging as a fully-fledged broadly libertarian party which is attracting people - particularly young Libertarian's - for positive reasons.

What is going on is the full de-merging of the classical Liberal and Tory wings of the Conservative Party. Are not UKIP the modern-day incarnation of the Whigs? Radical, committed, fractious, visionary and courageous. And are not the Tories...well, the Tories: pragmatic, cynical, cowardly, defeatist, myopic and elitist.

For UKIP to accept any kind of merger with the Tories would be akin to a puny kid who through sheer guts and determination trains himself up to be a professional athlete, only to then think it a good idea to inject cancer cells into his own bloodstream. For the cynicism of Toryism corrupts everything it comes into contact with: time and again we see the careers of good and principled men and women in the Conservative Party being brought down by those who believe in power at any price.

If you want to see what would happen to UKIP in a merged UKIP / Tory party, then you need to look no further than Mr. Hannan's own career. A well-meaning idealist who constantly deludes himself and his readers with his belief in a better Tory tomorrow, he has been left with egg all over his face time and again, most notably perhaps when he assured us that Ol' Cast Iron was working hard for a veto on the Lisbon Treaty. His more worldly comrade-in-arms, Douglas Carswell, is plainly now very disillusioned, likening Cameron to Heath.

The strange thing about both Hannan and Carswell is that both men are well-read with a strong grasp of political history, and yet they remain in denial about the true nature of the party they belong to, deluding themselves that there is something called the 'Tory soul' that can, presumably, be reclaimed.

But there is no such thing as the Tory soul, and never has been. As Boris Johnson (amongst many others) once correctly observed, the party exists purely for the pursuit of power. A correct reading of history shows that for the most part the Conservative Party only does the right thing, or for that matter the wrong thing,  out of fear of losing power to others. It therefore makes far more sense for UKIP to bully the Tory party from the outside rather than be suffocated by it's cold and cynical embrace from within.

Pickles told to fly flag over DCMS offices

The EU Commission has drawn up a proposal to force any organisation handling development money laundered through the EU to fly the EU flag permanently.

The rule change is an enhancement of existing rules that require said organisations to put the EU logo on all their stationary and on plaques to tell the world that the EU has graciously and beneficently given us back a fraction of the £50m a day we give them and all they've modestly asked for in return for such a selfless and generous act is to have their logo displayed everywhere.

Eric Pickles has criticised the plan because it means that the EU flag will gave to be flown over the offices of the British Department for English Media, English Culture and English Sport all year round rather than just for "Europe Week".  Eland House has two flag poles so there's no excuse for not flying the EU logo alongside the union flag but there is a quite simple answer, other than leaving the obvious one of leaving the EU: the English flag comes above the EU logo in the order of precedence and as culture, media and sport are devolved, Eric Pickles' department is a de facto English department and it would be entirely appropriate to fly it above his offices.

All it takes is a simple change to the flag flying rules his department issues saying the English flag should be flown over British government departments that are de facto devolved English departments and the EU Commission will have failed to get the EU logo over Eland House.  It would also have the beneficial effect of reminding Mr Pickles which country he works for and informing the electorate which British government departments are devolved.

Killing three birds with one stone, that's an efficiency Eric Pickles must surely approve of?  We'll write to him and suggest it, I'm sure he'll be terribly grateful.

1.4m Tory voters switch allegiances to UKIP

The Sun reports that up to 1.4m Tory voters have switched allegiances to UKIP according to the YouGov/Sunday Times poll that has UKIP on 10% ahead of the elections on Thursday.

As we've already said, the data behind the results isn't available but the Sun have obviously got their hands on it because they also predict up to 300 Lib Dem councillors losing their seats, 400 lost seats for the Tories and for Red Ken to lose the London mayor election.

The Sun says that if the 1.4m people who said they'll vote UKIP do so then UKIP will be the largest UK party in the EU Parliament after the 2014 EU elections.  More importantly, if the half a million or so that are due to vote in elections on Thursday go through with their intention of voting UKIP we could see a vote of no confidence in this useless coalition and a vote of no confidence in the whole establishment in the ensuing general election.

UKIP on 10% in YouGov poll

YouGov has UKIP on 10% versus the Lib Dems' 11% in a poll for the Sunday Times today.

The Tories are on just 29% whilst Labour are inexplicably way out in front on 40%.  Presumably lots of voters have really short memories or maybe it's just that Labour seem to be doing the sensible thing for once and are keeping Ed Dave Ed out of the media spotlight so people can't see what a useless cretin, completely devoid of charisma or backbone.

There's no breakdown of the results available so we can't see where the LabLabCon are feeling the pain but hopefully it'll be in the ballot box on Thursday.

Chorley Tories running scared of UKIP

Desperate Tories in Chorley have put out a leaflet trying to scare people off voting for UKIP by claiming that a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour.

The leaflet makes no mention of policy at all and the only "positive" message is that their MP voted for a referendum on "Europe" a few months ago, referring to the vote on a referendum on membership of the EU (geography isn't negotiable) in which their leader whipped his MPs to vote against holding a referendum.

According to the leaflet "UKIP can't win here" which is probably what the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem candidates in East Sussex thought, right up until the results of the Seaford Town Council by-election were announced on Thursday night.

Remember, if you vote Conservative in Chorley, there is a very real risk you will end up with another Conservative or Labour council.  UKIP candidates for Chorley and the rest of the north west of England are listed on the UKIP website.

Teresa Gorman joins UKIP, rumours of more defections

Former Tory MP, Teresa Gorman, has gone public as a member of UKIP and is urging people to vote UKIP in the upcoming elections.

Gorman was a Maastricht rebel, openly criticising John Major's decision to ratify the Maastricht Treaty which created the political European Union from the European Community, the €uro and forced an EU citizenship on everyone who lives in an EU member state.

The Tories under the traitor Ted Heath took us into what is now the EU back in the 70s and the Tories have been behind every major power grab since, apart from the Lisbon Treaty which they were simply complicit in.  There have only been two opportunities for a referendum on membership of the EU - once in the 70s when Heath's government lied to the electorate to secure the yes vote and once last year when Cameron whipped his MPs to deny us the referendum we demanded.

Rumours still abound that one or more Tory MPs are planning to defect to UKIP with Angela Watkinson the latest one linked to the party.  Guido posted a list with odds a couple of weeks ago, suggesting Mark Pritchard and Bill Cash the most likely defectors, followed by George Eustice and Douglas Carswell and then Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorres.

• Mark Pritchard is Tory through and through and the Chairman of UKIP Telford & Wrekin branch is his former private secretary.  It wasn't a happy parting of company.  It's also my branch and we have ... history.
• Bill Cash was a Maastricht rebel like Angela Watkinson but other than produce some leaflets on the EU, has done very little to oppose our membership.
• George Eustice was a UKIP candidate in the 1999 EU elections but was turned by the Tories through his involvement with them when he worked in PR.
• Jacob Rees-Mogg is pretty rebellious (and co-incidentally contested Mark Pritchard's seat in 2001) but he's also a Cornish regionalist and an old Etonian - UKIP is possibly a little uncouth for Rees-Mogg.
• Nadine Dorres seems to be pretty disillusioned with the Tories at the moment - she's slating them again today on ConHome - but then who isn't?  She does seem to be trying to turn the Tories into UKIP though which is pretty futile but does make her probably the most likely one to defect.

It is very unlikely that just one MP will defect to UKIP so if Tory MPs have been talking to UKIP about defecting, they're probably waiting for another one or two to make the same pledge.

Keep Calm Greece

A crib sheet for Greek voters, shamelessly stolen off Facebook:

EU Commission wants 6.8% budget increase

The EU Commission wants another 6.8% increase in its budget this year - an increase of £1bn for the UK alone.

The EC says it needs the money to meet spending commitments which is interesting because that would suggest they have a 6.8% public spending deficit which is 2.8% over the arbitrary one-size-fits-all target of 3% that they are enforcing for all member states.  The Dutch government has just collapsed because they couldn't get through the necessary spending cuts to get their deficit (which is not far off the EU Commission's deficit) down to the EU's limit of 3%, shouldn't Emperor Barroso fall on his sword as well?  We can but hope.

Luckily, Cameron says that it's an unacceptable increase and so does the rabid europhile leader of the Tory MEPs, Richard Ashworth, so their plans are thwarted.  That's a Cast Iron Guarantee™.

UKIP MEP, Marta Andreasen, said:

[It's] selfish, unrealistic and insulting to taxpayers already under the cosh. This demand is cloud-cuckoo land stuff. Have the European Commission finally completely lost their grip on reality?

I think the answer is, they lost their grip on reality some time in the 60s.

Another great result for UKIP in Skegness

Another great result for UKIP yesterday, sadly not enough for a win though.

Chris Pain contested a Skegness Town Council seat yesterday and came second, beating the Tory candidate (no Lib Dem, a sign of things to come?).

The results were:

Lab 40.07%
UKIP 31.95%
Con 27.96%

Another great result, just a shame it wasn't enough for the win.

UKIP win Seaford Town Council seat

UKIP's Alan Latham was elected to Seaford Town Council yesterday, beating the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems.

The result was:

UKIP 428

Con 365

LD 344

Lab 105

Well done Alan, that's a great result.

UKIP and Lib Dems level again in YouGov poll

UKIP is level pegging with the Lib Dems again in tonight's YouGov poll.

Both UKIP and the Lib Dems are on 9% overall with UKIP out-polling the Lib Dems in the south of England and YouGov's Midlands/Wales polling region.

The combined vote share of the SNP, Plaid Cymru, BNP, Greens, Respect and "other" is only 9% which begs the question, once again, why do YouGov still lump UKIP in with the "others" when clearly it isn't?

UKIP 1% behind Lib dems in today's YouGov poll

The latest YouGov daily poll is out and UKIP is 1% behind the Lib Dems on 8%.

UKIP is up to 5% in Scotland which is certainly unusual and beating the Lib Dems in the south of England where we're on 12% versus the Lib Dems' 10%.

Once again UKIP is outpolling the Lib Dems amongst the older generation and working class.  12% of people who voted Conservative in 2010 intend to vote UKIP next week.

It's not rocket science: Vote UKIP

It's just over a week until the English local elections and the ConDems (but mainly the Tories) are starting to panic about the UKIP effect.

The Lib Dems are flapping for obvious reasons - UKIP topped them in the polls for two days last week and the two were level last night.  The Lib Dem propaganda machine (and it's very effective) will be gearing up over the next week to explain to prospective Lib Dem voters just how desperate things are for them.

The Tories are flapping because they stand to lose the most to UKIP.  They're putting out the message that a vote for UKIP in London is a vote for Red Ken.  Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess but it speaks volumes about the Tories.

Let's be very clear about this.  If you agree with UKIP on the EU, on the economy, on schools, on health, on defence, on transport, then vote for UKIP.  Forget about whether Boris or Ken or the Tories or Labour will win - your vote alone is unlikely to make a difference but even if it does, so what?  If everyone voted for the party or candidate they wanted to win, politics would be so much different.

If you vote for someone you don't want because you think it'll stop someone else you don't want from winning you're probably going to end up being represented by someone you don't want.  It's not rocket science.

UKIP level with Lib Dems in YouGov poll

UKIP is back on the up again in YouGov's daily polling, level pegging with the Lib Dems on 8%.

The Lib Dems find most of their support amongst younger voters which is frankly bizarre given their betrayal of English students over tuition fees.  UKIP and the Lib Dems are level on 9% in YouGov's Midlands/Wales "region" and level on 2% in Scotland but UKIP is outpolling the Lib Dems in the north of England.

EU Investment Bank hedges on €uro failure

The EU Investment Bank (EIB) has inserted clauses in a loan agreement with Greek power company, Public Power Corporation, to cover the eventuality of Greece leaving the €uro.

The EIB says that it will insert similar clauses in all its agreements with Greek, Portuguese and Irish companies and eventually with companies from all EU member states. The loan agreements will also be governed under English law (not "British" law as Ekathimerini incorrectly reported at first - there's no such thing, we corrected them) which gives them better protection.

The €urozone and EU are unravelling - the people know it, the media knows it, the banks know it, only the politicians are in denial.

Latest defector to UKIP writes on IndHome

Independence Home has an article from the latest Tory defector to UKIP, Leon French.

French has joined UKIP because it is a eurosceptic, pro-business, low tax party.  He explains that when he first looked at UKIP he dismissed the party as the "friendlier face of the BNP" but has since realised how wrong he was.

Welcome to UKIP Leon.

Geert Wilders brings down Dutch government

The Dutch Prime Minister has resigned, triggering an election after Geert Wilders withdrew support for a €16bn EU-imposed austerity programme.

Wilders' Freedom Party isn't part of the ruling coalition but Mark Rutte's minority government relied on their support to govern.

The Dutch economy is one of the strongest in Europe and their national debt is only 65% of GDP which is about 7 and a half times smaller than the UK but their budget deficit is expected to top 4.7% which is way above the EU's one size fits all target of 3%.

It will be a few weeks to organise an election, during which time a caretaker government can inflict some EU-mandated damage as their neighbours in Belgium found out.

Happy St George's Day

Forget Herman Van Rompuy, The Real Assassins of European Democracy are Judges

Judges and mainstream politicians profess to love the concept of the separation of powers. It is a cornerstone of democracy and was famously advocated by the great liberal thinker Montesquieu.

It was in honour of this principle that in 2010, the House of Lords, which for hundreds of years was our highest court of appeal was stripped of its judicial function and a new Supreme Court of the UK was established. Of course, this measure has little practical effect but so important is the separation of powers principle that we must make even symbolic moves to achieve it.

Yet one Court which has supremacy over our new so-called “Supreme” Court is the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . In the infamous case of Van Gend en Loos in 1963 the ECJ asserted that the EC Treaty created a ‘new legal order of international law for the benefit of which the states have limited their sovereign rights’. This means that, as the ECJ sees it, member states have collectively surrendered a portion of their sovereignty into a new legal entity.

There was certainly no legal precedent for the decision in Van Gend en Loos. The judges merely decided that a new European legal system should be created and they would be the ones to establish it. The case itself concerned a very obscure element of trade law so, at the time, nobody realised its full ramifications.

Of course, the ECJ is not the only “European court” which has been detrimental for British and European democracy, there is also its cousin, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Most people now realise this in light of their many recent judgements which defy common sense, such as, the ruling that prisoners cannot be denied the right to vote.

But, what most people don’t know is that the European Court of Human Rights has a very specific agenda to promote.

 The legal academic Francois Du Bois has explained that one of the reasons that English law has struggled so much to adapt to human rights law is that the European Court of Human Rights is based on a theory called “distributive justice”. The theory of distributive justice means that the Court should do what it think is right to achieve a ‘socially just’ result. This gives the court a very wide discretion about how the case should be decided and takes factors into account such as the parties’ positions in society or wealth.

The European Courts have no respect for the separation of powers and are unquestionably political institutions pushing their own agendas. For the ECJ, it is one of European integration and for the European Court of Human Rights it’s the distributive justice of John Rawls. Sadly, complex legal arguments and jargon are being used to blind the peoples of Europe from reality, but it is a reality more and more people are beginning to be able to see.

Julien Conway is Director of UKIP Friends of Israel
Twitter.com/julienconway

UKIP temporarily back in fourth in YouGov polls

The last two daily polls by YouGov have UKIP back in fourth place - a statistical anomaly or margin of error, I'm sure.

Wednesday's poll had the Lib Dems on 10% and UKIP on 8% with UKIP outpolling the Lib Dems in the north of England and midlands/Wales whilst Thursday's poll had the Lib Dems on 8% and UKIP on 7% with UKIP outpolling the Lib Dems in the north of England and level in midlands/Wales.

It's great to see UKIP polling so well and beating the Lib Dems in polling but the regional figures have to be taken with a pinch of salt because the sample is too small.  You need at least 1,000 respondents to provide an accurate prediction which is why the figures can fluctuate by 2 or 3% easily, especially when the numbers are relatively low as they are for the Lib Dems and UKIP.  They are still useful though because they show a trend over time that evens out the daily fluctuations caused by the low sample size and the trend is pretty consistent and good news for UKIP.

I'm sure UKIP will be back in its rightful third place in the next couple of polls, especially if YouGov follow the lead of the other polling companies and offer UKIP as an option alongside the LibLabCon.

UKIP maintaining lead over Lib Dems in second YouGov poll

YouGov have UKIP on 9% and in third place again tonight.

The "regional" breakdown is much the same as yesterday although support in the north is down slightly and support in Scotland is up slightly.

YouGov is still only mentioning the LibLabCon in its headlines and lumping UKIP in with the "other" parties despite half of the voting intention for the "other" parties being for UKIP.

Opinium Research has UKIP on third as well

Another polling company - Opinium Research - has published a poll today putting UKIP in third place, ahead of the Lib Dems.

The Opinium poll backs up YouGov's findings in yesterday's polling that UKIP have overtaken the Lib Dems.  The data tables haven't been published which is a shame because it would be interesting to see the breakdown for the midlands and Wales which YouGov combines into a meaningless polling region.

UKIP in 3rd place in YouGov poll

UKIP has overtaken the Lib Dems for the first time in a YouGov daily poll.

Last night's YouGov/Sun daily poll has Labour way out in front on 43%, the Tories languishing on 32%, UKIP on 9% and the Lib Dems down to fourth place with 8%.

The "regional" breakdown is very interesting.  The area where UKIP has most support is in the north of England where we are on 12% against the Tories' 22%.  Labour is way ahead on 56%, by far it's highest level of support.  UKIP is on 6% in London and 10% in the rest of the south of England - the Lib Dems are on just 11% in the south of England.

In the Midlands and Wales UKIP is on 8% against 5% for the Lib Dems although the true level of support for UKIP in the midlands is unknown because YouGov lumps it in with Wales, producing nonsense results.  Most surprising of all is that UKIP are on 3% in Scotland whilst the SNP are on 46% - proof that UKIP's old anti-devolution policy is not something the Scots will buy into.

The Greens are on 2% or 3% in every polling "region" in England, including London and 1% in Scotland.  This makes the BBC's promotion of the Greens and exclusion of UKIP in London election programming even more indefensible.  For one day at least, UKIP is the third party in the UK.

It's also time YouGov took UKIP out of the "other" section and put the party on a level footing with the LibLabCon.  Despite UKIP being in third in this poll, YouGov's headline was still "Latest YouGov/Sun results 16th April CON 32%, LAB 43%, LD 8%; APP -40".  Survation and Angus Reid both treat UKIP equally, including the party on graphics and in headline figures, it's time YouGov caught up with their competitors and stopped trying to unduly influence elections by promoting the status quo parties.

Pandya's propaganda is scraping the bottom of the barrel

Disastrous former UKIP candidate, Abhijit Pandya, has written a propaganda piece in the Telegraph for his masters in the Conservative Party on "why no decent Tory should vote UKIP".

"Islam is a degenerate religion"

Pandya was the utterly useless UKIP candidate for Harrow in the 2010 general election and then an unmitigated disaster in the Leicester South by-election where he called Islam a degenerate religion and called for workshy muslims to be deported.  At the time he was committing political suicide in Leicester South (1 in 5 people in the constituency are muslims) he was head of research for UKIP - a position that he was forced to resign shortly afterwards.

After losing his job as head of research for UKIP, he resigned from the party and went back to the Tories where they apparently welcome the kind of intolerance that Pandya spouts and that attracts the attention of Islamophobia Watch.  Which leads nicely onto his anti-UKIP rant in the Torygraph.

He says that UKIP is obsessed with "infantile stunts" that do "nothing to curb the powers of the EU".  He says that it is "extraordinary" that UKIP hasn't adopted a strategy of amending EU legislation to undermine "European law".

It is because of the "infantile stunts" that UKIP - and Nigel Farage in particular - are so well known.  Most people in the UK (wrongly) don't take the EU Parliament and its elections seriously so for UKIP to get enough votes in an election to an establishment that most people know very little about in an election most people don't care about takes some serious publicity and if you're not one of the multi-millionaire, state-funded political parties then you will only get that from headline-grabbing publicity stunts.  If Pandya had used some of his time as head of research researching ways to win elections without "infantile stunts" he might have kept his job a bit longer.

It is also because of his beloved Conservative Party that the EU Parliament manages to pass so many damaging, undemocratic laws that undermine our interests.  If the Tories stopped splitting the eurosceptic vote, UKIP would be representing the views of the majority as the majority party in the EU Parliament.  At the very least, if the Tories came good on the eurosceptic credentials they profess to have at elections and followed UKIP's lead in voting against EU laws that are not in our national interest instead of collaborating with their fellow eurofederalists the flow of bad EU legislation could be stemmed.

Pandya goes on to claim that UKIP MEPs have gone native and suggests that they have a poor record on "expenses".  If Pandya had spent his time as head of research researching where MEPs get their money from, he'd know that all MEPs are given the same allowance, paid directly to independent accountants and that there is no system of expenses.

He is uncharacteristically accurate when he says that UKIP is split in the opposite way to the Tories in that they are split on the EU but united on most other issues whereas UKIP is united on the EU and split on most other issues.  The split is quite superficial though and UKIP is becoming increasingly centrist as a result of the healthy mixture of left and right in the membership.  It hasn't resulted in the kind of defections that the Tories are experiencing every few weeks, for example.  If Pandya had spend some of his time as head of research researching the views of the membership he'd have known that.

After that very brief moment of lucidity, Pandya makes the bizarre assertion that UKIP is anti-union because of the recent announcement that the party is changing its policy on devolution from opposition to support.

Thus we have a self-proclaimed "UK" Independence Party that doesn't want a "UK". This is the level of absurdity Ukip operates under. A sharp contrast to Lady Thatcher's handbrake on Scottish devolution in her first term.

It may have escaped Pandya's notice but the Conservative and Unionist Party also support devolution, the only difference being that UKIP doesn't discriminate against England as far as devolution is concerned unlike the Tories.  If it is absurd that the UK Independence Party should support devolution, which is inherently unionist, because it says "UK" in the party's name then it surely just as absurd that the Conservative and Unionist Party supports it when it says "Unionist" in the party's name?  Pandya might have known this if he'd spent some of his time as head of research researching devolution and the Tories.

Pandya says that UKIP is opposed to immigration "in absolute terms" which is of course absolutely wrong.  UKIP is opposed to uncontrolled immigration and proposes a 5 year ban on economic immigration after which economic immigration would be reinstated with a points system to ensure we only get immigrants in the quantities we need with the skills we need.  The Tories, on the other hand, want a cap on non-EU immigration with no moratorium to allow unemployed people already living here to fill vacancies and maintaining uncontrolled immigration from the EU.  If Pandya had spent some of his time as head of research researching his own party's immigration policy he'd have known that.

Pandya moves promptly on to another lie, claiming that the Hamilton's "have been given places on UKIP's National Executive Committee".  Nobody is given a place on the NEC, they are elected to it by the membership.  Neil Hamilton stood for election to the NEC and he was elected to it by a ballot of the membership.  If Pandya had spent some of his time as head of research researching how his own party works he'd have known that.

He finishes off saying that bringing down the Tories would benefit Labour "and another Labour victory is the last thing the country needs".  He's partly right - the last thing the country needs is a Labour, Tory or Lib Dem victory.  All of them are wedded to the anti-democratic EU and committed to establishing a police state and all of them are economically illiterate and fundamentally dishonest.

Every time Pandya puts pen to paper, he shows the full extent of his ignorance and extremist opinions.  Pandya is exactly the sort of person we don't want or need in UKIP and exactly the sort of person who we want to see in the Tories, lost amongst all the other fake eurosceptics and kept out of harm's way.

I'll leave you with a reminder of Abhijit Pandya's description of David Cameron less than 6 months ago:

Simply a lazy, boozy holiday seeking charlatan practising the shallow, intellectually vacant, dark arts of public relations at the tax-payer’s expense to enjoy the emotional Prozac like boost that comes from the self-congratulation of being in office.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out Anhijit.

Osborne offers £10bn to bail out €uro again

George Osbourne has said that he is willing to hand over £10bn more of our money, extorted from us on pain of imprisonment, to give to the IMF so it can bail out the €uro.

Unemployment is through the roof, companies are going under at a rate of knots, services are being cut to save money and the Chancellor thinks that a good use of our hard earned money is to give it to the IMF money laundering operation to prop up the failing €uro.

And this is from a Tory government that fought the last election claiming it was eurosceptic.

UKIP GOODIES FOR FREE MARPLE

Try to imagine a Marple that is true to the real British soul,here are some of the goodies we can have, EDUCATION:- The children of England are not being educated, they are being manipulated in to position.That position is to be brought up with such false ideas that it makes them accept defeat and overthrow of "all they can be" to "satisfactory slaves" unable to complain.What brought this situation about was a plan to change the minds of Britons from being a Christian Nation into being a Godless Nation.All they want now is a good job with good money, all else sinks down in the mind.We at UKIP want to bring back the true moral Briton who have good things swirling around in their minds.and not just good times and money, to achieve this we have to have not just free schools but a "Free pure school" That totally goes against the normal way.Honest true well mannered people with feeling, strength of soul, and clean minded. these are what our Government want to rid the Nation of.If you are not outraged at what we have become,you need to change your mind and go back to the better ways of our ancestors. UKIP council in Marple will attempt to remove tax on fuel for our members and voters. We do not want you to be robbed. let the EU supporters be robbed. UKIP have the theoretical right to "demand" and I will make these demands. UKIP have a right to demand a share in the Police so we can unchain them and defend the town better.for our members and voters.I mean like Police who are not subject to political correctness, this would mean a station in Marple for our own superior Force. The Government have told people to move around the Nation looking for work, at the same time,fuel has gone up public transport has gone up wages are becoming useless they are so low, how do you travel.UKIP will find a way round this problem. UKIP Security ideas to protect and prepare for civil unrest or foreign threat against the town is a visionary one, but cant say more than that. UKIP will organise an ample food bank for those in poverty for the future,I believe this will be needed more often than is. UKIP will have aa special housing policy to make sure nobody in the town is without a roof.

ALTERNATIVE MARPLE COUNCIL

An alternative Council means as follows- We the British people of Marple town are entitled to have a Council that is not subject to foreign demands, if you are subject to foreign demands then you are not free in your own right. you are a defeated town in real terms, because the free English desire is crushed.So, I propose that UKIP be given their own office and run a free English council apart from the Brussels controlled Council.And only for those who vote UKIP. If you do not vote UKIP then I assume you want to be ripped off in the normal way and assist in the overthrow of your freedom. We in Marple do not need a referendum.We need to legally take our rights, it is not illegal to ignore our oppressors, the French do it all the time.I can not be beaten in this legally. Can only be beaten by unlawful bullying by bent officials who are in the pay of the pro EU camps.Vote UKIP and give yourself a chance.

RENT AND GO IN MARPLE TOWN

My local town of Marple seems to have an on going problem as regards small businesses trying to make a start. They hear that this is a town of many well to do folks and think it is a good place to start a business.Well not really.Rent and Council tax can bleed your profits to such an extent it can send you packing, and it does.But,while you were there you fed the council with extra riches.however that does not help your business dreams does it? I am the UKIP candidate for "Marple north" I want this problem sorted out,Governments and councils are seemingly obsessed with rip off charges.I can bring these down,and bring them down I will as regards Council taxes at least.We want you to prosper, like we need small Government we also need smaller cheaper councils, without this small new businesses will fall by the wayside as usual. so vote UKIP at your local Elections and help us to help you keep your profits.

Greek elections to be held in May

The unelected Greek Prime Minister/EU regional administrator, Lucas Papademos, has announced elections next month.

Papademos is a former governor of the EU Central Bank and was appointed Prime Minister of Greece when the EU overthrew the elected Greek Prime Minister for announcing a referendum on the austerity measures the EU was imposing on the country.

The main parties in Greece all supported the EU coup d'état, the appointment of an EU administrator as Prime Minister and the deep austerity that has caused severe hardship to millions of Greeks and they are expected to pay for their treachery at the polls on 6th May.

Since EU austerity measures were put in place in Greece, unemployment has hit almost 21% and some Greeks have been abandoning their children on the streets because they can't afford to feed them.  The suicide rate in Greece has gone up 40% since the start of EU austerity and an estimated 20,000 Athenians have been made homeless out of a population of about 660,000.

There is a gap in the Greek political system for a Greek version of UKIP - a party opposed to the EU and committed to a sustainable low tax economy, small government and personal freedoms.  Anyone opposing EU austerity and the reintroduction of the Drachma is bound to make a significant impact in the elections.  Anyone pledging to instigate criminal proceedings against Papademos and his co-conspirators for their part in the EU coup d'état will probably win a landslide.

The Tory Party Identity Crisis

Lately there have been a whole raft of articles on the parlous state of the Tory Party, some of them unintentionally hilarious. For example, in a recent post on his blog Dan Hannan stated - apparently seriously - that "Conservatives go into politics to do things". Several more right-wingers have written similar tripe in the same vein, so much so that you can hardly open a newspaper or blog without hearing how the party has ' abandoned its values'.

And precisely what values are those, then?

It's amazing how little Tory politicians understand their own party or it's history - or more importantly, perhaps, do not want to,

Throughout most of it's history the Tory party travelled light ideologically. It's only one guiding principle was to protect the right to rule of an elite in a cynical conspiracy to power.  Canny enough not to tempt revolution by being too stubborn in holding onto all privilege, it saw its role as giving ground gracefully and pragmatically to it's opponents so that at least some or most of the established order was preserved.

In the earlier stages of it's history this utterly cynical outlook to governing - what Disraeli famously described as 'Tory men and Whig measures' - wasn't all bad in its outcomes: serious reform was often enacted pragmatically and with sensitivity to existing institutions, without the year-zero mentality that radicals are prone to.

However, the major weakness of the Tory approach was that the Tory party in government is very largely defined by the ideas of others. In the 19th Century when the ideas of the Whigs were largely benign, that may have been acceptable, but after the Second World War especially the ideas on the so-called 'progressive' wing of politics - economic and cultural marxism, supranationalism in the form of the EU - have largely proved both wrong, often deeply destructive and sometimes downright malevolent.

In this context the Tory tradition of pragmatic surrender has proved largely a disaster for Britain. Only the Thatcher government  (partially) reversed the otherwise malign trend over the past 60 years or so. But very significantly, Thatcher was often accused by her foes - not least on the 'Wet' wing of the Tory party - as being not a Tory but a "19th Century Liberal".

And it is the radicalism of the Thatcher years that many of today's right-wing Tories - entirely mistakenly - confuse with true Tory principles. In fact, these were largely inherited from factions of within the original Liberal party who split and joined the Tories, not least the Liberal Unionists who joined the tories to form the 'Conservative and Unionist' party during the  Irish home crisis in the early part of the 20th Century.

In the face of an increasingly restive electorate thoroughly fed up with the direction of travel being taken by Britain's elites, the  current schizophrenia within the Tory Party, between a 'Wet', pseudo-aristocratic Tory leadership  which is content to pander to anti-Liberal (in the true meaning of the word) ideas and it's radical Liberal wing is no longer sustainable. Hence the plummeting Tory membership, steady rise of UKIP, and the snowballing defections of senior Tories to UKIP's ranks.

In fact, viewed in a historical context, the rise of UKIP, a broadly speaking Libertarian Party, may herald a full-scale  de-merging of the Liberal tradition from the Tory one and reemergence of a strong Libertarian tradition in British politics.

Let us hope and pray for such an outcome.

Priti Patel; the plastic Eurosceptic and paper tiger

Amongst some UKIP circles Priti Patel, the Conservative Party's rising star is spoken about with awe and fantastical admiration inspired by outright ignorance. Up until now I've just accepted it. As far as I'm concerned she is a plastic Eurosceptic and nothing more than a paper tiger.

Many consider her as some sort of Eurosceptic hero, a champion of right wing politics. She isn't. Making token comments and populist soundbytes, as we surely should be learning about Daniel Hannan MEP does not make you a genuine article. It just makes you someone who is not only playing the game but playing the people.

An article from The Daily Telegraph has her headlining the notion of a new breed of Eurosceptic Tory MPs. Conservative Home also has her highlighted in a blog post about 'a new Eurosceptic group'. A post on Ian Dale's blog states 'many believe her to be 'emerging as the most effective Eurosceptic voice of the Parliamentary class of 2010.'

Perhaps some people perceive her as a 'Eurosceptic voice' as she headed the press office of the now defunct Referendum Party but her Eurosceptic credentials end there. Just as heading a press office for the Referendum Party doesn't make you a Eurosceptic answering the phones in whorehouse doesn't make you a pimp.

A basic look at her voting record in parliament shows her to be anything but Eurosceptic. In fact, the popular website theyworkforyou.com sums up her voting record for EU issues as 'voted very strongly for stronger EU integration'. A closer look at exactly what she's voted for provides a more detailed case.

Another description Priti Patel MP is given is a 'rebel', an MP who speaks her mind and isn't afraid to stand up to her own party. Again, this is a misnomer. She has time and time again sided with exactly what her party has told her to side with. The website Public Whip rates her as having rebelled just once out of 400 times. Hardly a candidate for a James Dean movie.

In my opinion the only difference between Daniel Hannan, another plastic Eurosceptic, and Priti Patel is that at least Hannan does it with a bit of class.

Looks like a UKIPper, talks like a UKIPper, acts like a Tory

UKIP in his heart,
Tory in his pocket

The latest gem from the Tory vote splitter, Dan Hannan MEP, is priceless:

I think I've decided what to do when I put myself out of a job as an MEP. The next big task, once we're safely out of the EU, will be to repair the Anglosphere: the community of free English-speaking democracies.

He looks like a UKIPper, talks like a UKIPper but acts like a Tory.  He talks up his eurosceptic credentials but he's still supporting the most pro-EU Tory government since Ted Heath and serving the only Tory prime minister ever to actively campaign against a referendum on our membership of the EU.

Dan Hannan isn't a real eurosceptic and he does very little to advance the cause of euroscepticism by splitting the eurosceptic vote and attracting eurosceptics to the europhile Tories.  The only way he's going to put himself out of a job is by doing the decent thing and resigning as an MEP.

EU VAT rules could cause churches to fall into disrepair

The Diocese of Hereford is warning that many historical church buildings could fall into disrepair because of a change in VAT rules that will force it to pay VAT on building repairs.

What the Diocese of Hereford fails to mention - probably through ignorance - is that this VAT change is down to EU rules.  The EU won't allow the British government to reduce or abolish VAT and the British government's lobbying for the EU to abolish VAT on repairs to church buildings has been unsuccessful.  To help the Church, the British government has been spending taxpayers' money on grants to cover the cost of the VAT on building repairs.

The Church's VAT bill for building repairs is £38m and 0.3% of that is paid over to the EU for what they laughably call their "own resources" budget.  So that's a £114k hidden contribution to the EU because the British government refuses to defy the EU over charging VAT on repairs to Church buildings even though it is the British government's policy that the Church shouldn't have to pay VAT on repairing its buildings and now the Church is saying that it won't be able to afford to repair its buildings because they're going to have to pay the EU's VAT.

UKIP on 11% in Survation poll

A Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday has UKIP level pegging with the Lib Dems on 11%.

The survey will make dismal reading for all three LibLabCon leaders: 68% think "we're all in this together" doesn't apply to ministers, 64% think Cameron is nepotistic, 42% think Ed Miliband is nepotistic (30% don't), more people would rather have dinner with George Galloway than Ed Miliband and Boris Johnson is three times more popular than any of the party leaders as a dinner party guest.

A couple of weeks ago, Survation had UKIP on 8% and the Lib Dems on 11%.  UKIP is making gains but it's not at the expense of the Lib Dems whose share of the vote has stagnated.  Comparing the latest figures with those from Survation's poll in March, UKIP's gain has mainly come at Labour's expense who have dropped from 39% to 35%.

City State London

Allister Heath of City AM writes that 'Boris is right to want to transform London into a city state'.

 London is to England what Singapore is to Malaysia, Hong Kong to China or New York to America. Not only economically dominant but with a social and cultural demography radically different from it's hinterland. Compared to the rest of the country London is, of course, far more affluent, far more multicultural, far younger, far more gay and far more single than Britain as a whole.

Not surprisingly then that London is far more left-liberal in its political attitudes  than the rest of Britain. This would not matter, except that unlike New York, Singapore or Hong Kong, London is also the capital of its hinterland country: thus the perceptions of our  political rulers are strongly distorted by Metropolitan attitudes often wildly different from the rest of the country. The situation is greatly exacerbated by our highly centralised form of government, which means none of us can escape the effect those attitudes have on our daily lives, wherever in Britain we happen to live.

Its therefore no wonder that our masters so often seem to woefully out of touch with the country they purport to govern with the result that the people are giving up on politics, or that London's dominance is deeply resented. In fact the push for Scottish independence is not so much the result of alienation from England but with alienation from what they see as London's culturally arrogant and semi-colonial rule. But you could probably find pretty much the same feelings in Leeds, Sheffield or Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle or Cardiff.

The Mayor  limits his analysis to economics and taxation, but isn't there even stronger grounds for giving London much greater autonomy from the rest of Britain on a whole range of issues? Take for instance the issue of immigration. If London feels it needs large quantities of foreign labour to fill its skills shortages, then why not issue visas that allow the recipient to work only in the London area? Instead, we have immigration policies largely suited to the London economy imposed unwillingly on the entire country.

Of course, a proper commitment to localism and devolution, not just the same old empty promises of our present coalition, would also greatly help the situation. Ultimately, it's not just London that needs autonomy from Britain in order to prosper, but if the Union is to survive, and British society is to  function correctly the rest of the country desperately needs more autonomy from London.

Why Cameron's 'Big Society' vision will never catch on

This posting is going to kind to David Cameron - not, I assure you, something that will be a regular occurrence.

We have heard yet again in the last few days of yet another plan to resurrect his vision of the 'Big Society'. Yet again, it's almost complete lack of resonance with the public to date is explained as merely a matter of poor communication, and we are promised this time it will be different.

It maybe true that poor communication is an issue. Also true that the 'push me pull you' effect that this wretched coalition government has on policy generally means that,  while some policies will help the voluntary sector (e.g. "free schools") others are destructive (recent changes in tax policy; the Equality Act) or profoundly  alienating to important players such as religious groups (e.g. gay 'marriage').

However, the bigger reason that the policy will never catch on is that in runs counter to human imaginative capabilities.

John Lennon famously said: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".


This encapsulates one of the problems with selling the Big Society vision perfectly. Unfortunately, especially in our younger years, what grabs our imagination are the great dreams we have for ourselves: the beautiful trophy partner, the powerful sports car, the big house and the glittering career. It's true that, even if these great dreams are realised, they often leave us strangely unfulfilled, and what we look back with affection at is often the very small things that seemed entirely trivial at the time but in fact were our happiest moments. Often, a good number of those moments are provided by involvement in local voluntary institutions such as our church, cricket club or scout troop. Apart from the social good it does, it is for that reason that increasing voluntary participation in society is a very good idea and likely to significantly increase the sum of human happiness.

However, even when voluntarism does grab our imaginations, it does so because its impact is small, local and impacts people we care about. To try to sell what is by necessity an intimate experience as a remote, grand vision for society generally is completely contradictory, impossibly confusing and doomed to fail.

David Cameron is entirely right in trying to build a 'Big Society', but extremely foolish to think he could ever sell this vision to the wider public. By trying to do so, there is tragically now a significant risk that he will make such initiatives the focus of widespread derision. Instead, he should have quietly got on with taking the measures necessary for creating a more fertile ground into which voluntarism could have spread its roots and flourish, knowing that he was very unlikely ever to get any credit for doing so.

BBC promoting Greens in London

Last night the BBC ran a special edition of Newsnight in which they invited four candidates for London mayor.

The Tories and Labour were, of course represented, as the two biggest parties by far.  The Lib Dems were invited, not because they are going to win, but presumably because they're part of the coalition and of course their candidate is a gay ex-copper which ticks the diversity boxes.

So who was the fourth candidate invited on the programme?  Logic would tell you it would be the candidate for the party consistently polling in 4th place (sometimes 3rd) in London, the fourth largest party in the UK.  But logic doesn't apply in the BBC, just institutional bias and political agendas so naturally the BBC chose the Greens who fill the three main criteria for getting on a BBC election programme of being on the far left, environmentalists and not being UKIP.

So many times we see the BBC unduly influence elections by ignoring the UKIP candidate and promoting a no-hoper Green extremist for no other reason than because in the mind of your average BBC producer, that is how the world should be.  If you're not a europhile environmentalist then you're a far right extremist who must never be given the oxygen of publicity, regardless of what the electorate says.

We've seen this happen so many times in elections.  In Norwich, Glenn Tingle was polling well ahead of the Greens and his opponents were even predicting a UKIP win and then the BBC propaganda machine kicked in and suddenly UKIP was on the fringes and it was a battle between the LibLabCon and the loony Greens.  Even the Tory fifth columnist Dan Hannan criticised the BBC's bias against UKIP.  In 2010, Lord Pearson threatened to issue legal proceedings against the BBC if they didn't stop their political bias against UKIP in their American-style "Leaders Debate".  In the run-up to last year's vote on an EU referendum in the Commons the BBC pulled Nigel Farage from an appearance on Breakfast at the last minute so they could replace him with a pro-EU Tory instead.  These are just a few of many examples of institutional bias, politicking and gerrymandering at the BBC.

I have sent the following complaint to the BBC today, I would urge you to do the same:

In last night's GLA election themed Newsnight, you had four candidates for the London Mayor: Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Green.  Despite the fact that UKIP have been consistently out-polling the Greens in every opinion poll by 2% you chose to promote the Green candidate.  UKIP has even been polling above the Lib Dems at times. This is exactly what you do whenever UKIP is doing well in pre-election polling: you invite on the LibLabCon and UKIP's place is always filled by a Green.

Your excuse will no doubt be that the Greens have two assembly members but that has no bearing on the mayoral election and is a reflection of public opinion in 2008, not 2012 so I don't want to hear it as an excuse. I want to know why the BBC's inherent bias against UKIP and in favour of environmentalists (with emphasis on the "mental") is allowed to so obviously surface in persistent discrimination against UKIP, why the BBC's legal obligation to be impartial is ignored where UKIP are involved and why the BBC seeks to unduly influence elections by promoting candidates that it would like to win over those that polling shows are most popular with the electorate.

I don't want excuses, I don't want denials, I just want an explanation as to why you aren't doing your job properly and a promise to put in place immediate steps to end the BBC's political bias.

30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falklands

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands.

It was marked here by remembrance services and in Argentina by sabre rattling speeches by politicians pledging to uphold their illegitimate claim to the islands.

Cast Iron Dave has given a Cast Iron Guarantee™ to uphold the right of Falkland Islanders to decide whether they want to belong to the UK or Argentina – a promise he’s going to struggle to keep now that we’ve decommissioned our last aircraft carrier and we’re reliant on the French for military support.

The closest friendly country (if you can call it friendly) to the Falklands is French Guiana. The closest British Overseas Territory is the Pitcairn Islands which has no facilities that could be used for a military excursion. The closest friendly countries capable of being used as a launchpad for military action are South Africa and New Zealand. Our closest military base is 2,400 away at Tristan da Cunha. The US is siding with Argentina, as is most of South America.

A spangly new destroyer, HMS Dauntless, is on its way to the Falklands and defences on the islands have been bolstered but that won’t stop the continued harassment of Falkland Islanders in non-military ways: threats of legal action against companies doing business in the Falklands, banning Falklands flagged boats from ports and enlisting the help of their neighbours to harass the islanders.

Of course we should defend the right of the Falkland Islanders to choose whether they want to remain a British Overseas Territory or not and everyone has the right to live without harassment or fear but if we are going to make a promise to the Falkland Islanders to protect them then we need to be able to back up that promise with some action. Right now we’re not in a position to do that thanks to the criminally irresponsible behaviour of successive British governments who have run down our military and over-extended our forces fighting illegal and unwinnable wars.

Cross-posted from: Wonko's World