Farage in talks with Grillo over EU grouping

Breitbart London is reporting that Nigel Farage is looking to do a deal with Beppe Grillo, the leader of the Italian anti-establishment Five Star Movement to form a group in the EU Parliament.

Under EU rules, groups have to have at least 25 members from parties in 7 different countries to be able to access funding and places on committees.

Grillo and Farage are both well known for their scathing attacks on traitorous politicians and admire each others' work. A deal with Grillo could help attract a much wider range of prospective partners and scupper David Cameron's attempts to woo UKIP's current partners away from the eurosceptic EFD group and into the Conservatives' europhile ECR group.

Thurrock Labour and Tories plotted coalition before elections

The Conservatives and Labour Party in Thurrock held secret talks weeks before the election to discuss a coalition to try and freeze UKIP out of their cosy club.

UKIP won 6 seats on Thurrock Council last week and the Conservatives lost control of the council. It appears that both Labour and the Conservatives expected to get a good kicking at the ballot box and hatched a plan to frustrate voters and keep power in their hands.

After last year's local elections, UKIP groups set about dismantling the cabinet system that has been undermining accountability in local government for years and bringing about a return to the committee system that ensures all councillors have a part to play in how the council is run, not just a minority of the councillors from the party that got the largest minority of votes. It seems that a lust for power and the lucrative allowances cabinet members reward themselves with have helped Labour and the Conservatives to find common ground after opposing each other for decades.

Dan Hodges and the Cultural Terrorism of the Metropolitan Elite

The perception of “London” – by which I really mean the Metropolitan elite -  as  culturally and economically a place apart has been growing for some time now, but it has surely now really crystallised in the public minds over the last few weeks as to just how far removed from the rest of Britain it really is. The orchestrated smear campaign against UKIP was one of the most peculiar and grotesque things I have seen in all my years in watching politics, but also one of the most revealing. Before our eyes the faux competition and petty rivalries between different wings of the Establishment melted away as they all began to sing from the same hymn sheet.

That hymn was a hymn of hate against UKIP, with every smear possible dredged up in a desperate attempt to stop our advance. By extension it was an attack on anyone sympathetic to UKIP’s views. It reached its nadir in the articles of the Telegraph’s Dan Hodges. Accusing UKIP as being a racist party on the ground that UKIP wanted to limit European immigration, his utterances became ever more demented as time went on. Yesterday’s article reached new depths by accusing UKIP of wanting a “culture war’ with London, adding for good measure how superior he felt to the UKIP-voting classes.

However, Hodges distasteful contempt does show a wider, if painful truth: we have to recognise that much of London and the rest of us have what parting couples call “irreconcilable differences” and agree terms of separation.

London has become the mecca for the international sovereign individual. Often but not always particularly wealthy, they compromise highly educated and mobile people whose skills are very much in demand and have, if anything, too many opportunities rather than too few.  The congratulate themselves on their diversity, and yet their cultural standpoints are remarkably homogenous; essentially rootless, this gilded minority think only in terms of the future, never the past, and only ever consider relocating to other international elite cities rather than somewhere more parochial: anyone overhearing conversations on the tube in London is much more likely to hear reference to relocating to San Francisco or Paris rather than they are Leeds or Edinburgh.

To these people, the very concept of nationhood is hopelessly outmoded and ergo discrimination on the basis of nationality is as ridiculous as discrimination on the basis of race: in their minds, the very word racist has mutated to cover either case. Dan Hodges outburst that UKIP must be a “racist” party for wanting to limit European immigration makes perfect sense from this standpoint.

However, what Hodges and his ilk cannot comprehend is that nationality and nationhood confer definite social advantages whereas true racism does not. A common culture that allows for a degree of shared sacrifice is an obvious one, but also is the feeling that your life is part of a greater whole, a shared endeavour.

Even if we shoot for the stars, most of us end living fairly humdrum lives, and we console ourselves that in our small way we are contributing the life of the society around us: carrying the torch from our fathers generation before handing it on to our children. What comes to matter to most of us in the end is “Faith, Family and Flag”, as Phillip Glasman, the author of “Blue Labour” presciently put it. In a world of huge and persistent inequalities, where people can easily made to feel failures if they are not millionaires, to deny people the sense of meaning that comes with nationhood and identity is both cruel and psychologically deeply harmful. However, that is anathema to the atomised, constantly churning world preferred by the elites, and imposition of that elite culture on the unwilling majority is increasingly seen by the rest of us as nothing less than a form of cultural terrorism. 

UKIP May Have Caused An Earthquake, But Political Class Leopard's Will Never Change Their Spots

Now all the celebrations have started to die down, it is time to reflect on how UKIP's triumph in the local and latterly European elections will affect our political culture going forward.

There is finally evidence that the political class is facing up to the fact, however reluctantly, that is rule is widely despised and major change is inevitable.

Perhaps the most insightful comment came, surprisingly, from the Liberal Democrats Lynn Featherstone, who rightly observed that the political classes seemed to have "lost their humanity" from the perspective of the average voter. Such an admission was quite a turn-up from Featherstone, who only a few months ago was castigating those of us who were, and are, against gay marriage as mere bigots. I look forward to her apology, but I won't hold my breath.

However, a better world than "humanity" to use would perhaps have been "humility". And therein lies the problem for the Political Class - it never had any humility in the first place. If we were talking about a group of people who had been in power and had just become corrupted over time, as all who spend too long in power tend to do, then the problem would be reasonably soluble: spend a period in the wilderness where they could lick their wounds and reconnect with the electorate.

Instead, the problems for the Political Class go much, much deeper. We are talking about a group of people so monstrously vain and arrogant that they went straight into politics as a career with no proper experience of life at all. Moreover, most of this repulsive group lack the skills to do much else with their stunted lives. For them to have a damascene conversion and realise the terrible error of their ways and resign from public life would be welcome but is hardly likely. No doubt they and the legacy parties they represent will strive to reconnect with the voters they have so completely alienated, but such reconnection is impossible because it implies there was ever a connection between this remote group and the rest of us in the first place.

Politics is perhaps the one career where to do a good job you should have done something else entirely different first, and for a considerable time. These people simply have no hinterland, no experience of life to draw, or a career to fall back upon after politics. For these reasons the Political Class leopard's will never really change their spots, and they will fight like tigers (or leopards) to retain the power of privilege of the only world most of them have ever known.

Unfortunately, we will continue to be lumbered with them for sometime yet as they enter their twilight years after so very long in the noon day sun.

EU election results (updated 1:05)

It's been a great night for UKIP so far with just three regions declared and six UKIP MEPs elected, representing a 100% increase across those three regions.

• UKIP has secured its first MEP in the North East of England euroregion - Jonathan Arnott.
• In the East of England euroregion, Roger Helmer was re-elected and Margot Parker joins him as a second MEP.
• In the South West of England, UKIP has two MEPs - William Dartmouth and Julia Reed.
• In Yorkshire & the Humber, UKIP has gone from 1 MEP to 3 - Amjid Bashir, Jane Collins and Mike Hookem.
• UKIP has also kept its MEP in Wales with Nathan Gill elected to replace John Bufton.
• In the North West of England, UKIP has gone from 1 to 3 MEPs - Paul Nuttall is re-elected and joined by Louise Bours and Steve Woolfe
• Sky are reporting that from the figures so far, UKIP has gained a seat in Scotland
• UKIP has gone from 2 to 3 MEPs in the West Midlands - Jill Seymour, Jim Carver and Bill Etheridge
• In the South East of England, UKIP has 4 MEPs elected - Nigel Farage, Janice Atkinson, Diane James and Ray Finch
• London is late declaring due to a recount but we don't expect any surprises

Hope not Hate congratulate BNP "independent" for beating UKIP

You can't make this sort of stuff up ...

UKIP NI Cllr Henry Reilly re-elected

Congratulations to UKIP's Cllr Henry Reilly who has been re-elected in the Mournes.

Not only did Henry secure re-election, he came top of the list for the ward with 1,964 first preference votes. Henry is also UKIP's candidate for Northern Ireland in the EU election.

Elections in Northern Ireland are conducted under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system where candidates are ranked in order of preference and the least popular candidates are eliminated in a series of rounds based on first preference, second preference, third preference, etc. It's almost impossible to predict without seeing the ballot papers and having a really good memory because the lowest scoring survivor from one round can be the highest scoring in the next.

A night of success for UKIP

UKIP has seen some amazing results overnight in the local elections, depriving the Tories of control of a couple of councils in Essex and making big gains in several councils.

The result everyone will be talking about this morning is Rotherham where UKIP gained won 10 seats, becoming the opposition party. Had the whole council been up for election rather than being elected by thirds, UKIP would probably be in control of the council this morning.

Essex is the big success story of the night with UKIP taking a plethora of seats in Southend, Thurrock, Basildon and Castle Point and depriving the Conservatives of control of two councils and their leaders.

UKIP also won seats in Dudley, Sandwell and Cannock Chase. Husband and wife duo Bill Etheridge who is third on the MEP list for the West Midlands and Star Etheridge who is UKIP's disability spokeswoman both won council seats yesterday.

You can keep up to date with results as we get them on the Bloggers4UKIP Facebook page.

Reports of law breaking at polling stations

We haven't seen any reports of voter intimidation targeted at UKIP yet which was always going to be a risk with the recent escalation of the violence and intimidation against UKIP but there have been reports throughout the day of breaches of electoral law and Electoral Commission guidelines.

The reports seem to come primarily from London and the Breitbart London website has some particularly worrying findings of their own in Tower Hamlets where police have been stationed in every polling station in an attempt to clamp down on electoral fraud.

Tower Hamlets council have spent the last 3 months visiting homes with large numbers of postal voters registered and have removed over 5,000 people from the electoral register. The Returning Officer for Tower Hamlets has issued guidance that says no more than two tellers are allowed at any polling station and they must maintain their distance from the entrance. Breitbart London have found groups of Labour and Tower Hamlets First representatives congregating outside polling stations, stopping people from going in and telling them how they should vote. In one polling station they even found someone inside who claimed to be a volunteer helping the council wearing a Labour rosette and when they challenged polling station staff over it they were thrown out.

Across London and in some other places there have been reports of the bottom of ballot papers being tightly folded to hide UKIP. Some voters have complained to local UKIP representatives and this website that there was no option to vote UKIP on their ballot papers. UKIP is standing a full slate of candidates in every euroregion of the UK, every EU ballot paper has an entry for UKIP. This is exactly what happened in the 2009 EU elections when UKIP went as far as preparing a legal challenge to the result.

Anti-UKIP BBC editor relieved of election duties

Guido is reporting that BBC elections hack Jasmine Lawrence has been relieved of her duties for the elections this week.

BBC News Channel deputy editor Lawrence has been posting anti-UKIP comments on Twitter during the election period despite the obvious need to appear non-partisan, especially when the BBC have been slated for institutional left wing bias.

The Establishment Went All Out To Crush UKIP. In Doing So, It Has Surely Destroyed Itself.

Those of us who were always vehemently against the lunacy of a Tory-UKIP pact, or for that matter any other form of pact, can rest easy, for the next ten years at least. The way the entire establishment, and the Tory party in particular, has sought to smear UKIP once again as racists, xenophobes, homophobes and all-around-the-houses-aphobes during the past few weeks has put a nuclear blast-proof shield wall in the way of such a prospect. The vast majority of UKIP members would rather eat their own intestines than enter a pact with the Tories, and probably anyone else for that matter.

When I started writing this blog entry I was tempted to write an entry in the sarcastic 'Agent Cameron' style, so central is this arrogant, bungling fool as a recruiting sergeant to the UKIP cause. It's not as though I am short of material: this week it was revealed that Tory central office entered into a pact with the Guardian - the Guardian, for goodness sake - to feed it anti-UKIP stories as long as the paper didn't reveal the source. It is difficult to know whom of the two will be most embarrassed by this, but Cameron has surely surpassed our wildest expectations by demoralising both Tories and the Liberal Left in the same gesture.

But this is not a time for humour. It is a time for deep and genuine anger at the way not only UKIP but the entire democratic process has been traduced and rubbished by the vicious smears and distortions we had had to endure. You don't have to be even remotely sympathetic to UKIP to be truly revolted to see what our forefathers fought and died for cheapened by a shallow, rent-seeking Political Class which is clearly at the same time both arrogant and terrified.

It is, very slowly, dawning on some  commentators and pundits that something rather big is happening, but they live in denial over how big this could truly get: writing in the Telegraph, Tim Stanley at least acknowledged how utterly loathed the Metropolitan elite is outside of it's London bubble-world, and that UKIP was at the centre of the backlash against it's insufferably smug, arrogant assumptions. However, he then went on to ruin his piece by smirking at UKIP's hankering for another Britain before complacently adding that of course people would fall back into line at the next General Election.

Well, Tim is right on one score, we do hanker for another Britain: one where democracy isn't cheapened and the people aren't treated like annoying peasants by a Political and Media Class wholly divorced from the real world. When questioned about the morality of their concerted smear campaign, they have bleated that "UKIP can expect the same levels of scrutiny as anyone else if it wants to play in the big leagues." But we have not received the same level of scrutiny, we have received a witch-hunt. UKIP's policies have not been scrutinised in any meaningful way by the media as the public has a right to expect. Instead, admittedly distasteful comments by very minor figures in the party, some of them dating back several years, have been dredged up and paraded as evidence of UKIP's institutionalised evil. Meanwhile, 17 members of the LibLabCon parties were arrested on serious charges. What did we hear of this from the mainstream media? ALMOST NOTHING.

As many have noted, none of us have seen anything quite like the past few weeks. The entire political and media classes have shown a united and very ugly face against a single political upstart party that it saw as a threat. Those who thought the expression "LibLabCon" was a hysterical overreaction to the status quo have been given pause for thought. Those who thought naively that the advent of the internet had forced the mainstream media to serve it's readers rather than the needs of rich proprietors have been proved spectacularly wrong. Those who thought we continue to live in a democracy must now accept, however grudgingly, that this is a tenuous assumption at best.

Not just UKIP supporters but the entire British public must be deeply uneasy about the sickness revealed at the heart of our national life. In exposing it's true face to the public, the establishment has surely now destroyed itself.

Vote UKIP. Get Freedom.

Labour Deputy Council Leader suspended over electoral fraud allegation

The Labour Deputy Leader of Hyndburn Council has been suspended after her father reported her to the police for electoral fraud.

UKIP candidate Malcolm Pritchard reported his daughter Clare Pritchard to the council's Returning Officer alleging that she allowed four people who live in a different ward to register at her address, allowing them to vote for her in tomorrow's council election. The Returning Officer called in the police to investigate the allegations and the Labour Party has suspended her membership and removed her as Deputy Leader of the council and from the committees she sits on.

Labour donor defects to UKIP

One of Labour's major donors and advisers has defected to UKIP and encouraged Labour members to vote UKIP.

Ian Wallace has resigned as a member of Labour's Finance & Industry Group (LFIG) and joined UKIP. He was, until very recently, a paid up member of the Labour Party and a member of the Thousand Club which is for members who donate between £1,200 and £5,000 per year. He said that he has become "increasingly disillusioned with the direction the Labour Party has taken".

Newham Conservatives in hot water over leaflets again

Another of Newham Conservatives' leaflets have caused controversy - and this time involving the police.

Earlier this month Newham Conservatives attracted widespread criticism for distributing a sectarian leaflet targeting the Muslim vote by promising to give them special treatment. Their latest offering criticises the number of gays and atheists running the council. The leaflets don't bear the required imprint and are therefore illegal. They have been reported to the Met Police by Newham Labour Party.

Sectarian Conservative leaflet distributed earlier this month

UKIP candidate falsely accused of being a Nazi sympathiser

A UKIP candidate in Hastings accused of being a Nazi sympathiser because of his tattoos has explained the story behind them.

Pictures of one of Kevin O'Doherty's arms were published online with claims that the tattoos were Nazi symbols. He has explained to his local paper, The Argus, that in fact the tattoos on his left arm are symbols of evil whilst the tattoos on his right arm are symbols of good. The symbols of evil that were supposedly Nazi symbols are an eagle and British fighter planes protecting the Star of David. The symbols of good on his other arm are God, a gay symbol and a dove of peace. He says the only tattoo he has any regrets about is the dove of peace which looks a bit like the Lib Dem logo.

He goes on to suggest that being a gay man living in a civil partnership with a Belgian might disqualify him from joining the Nazis should he ever feel inclined to do so. Still, that sort of thing isn't going to stop anti-democracy campaigners from screaming abuse at him in the street as we've seen from the treatment of our black and Asian candidates who've had racial abuse hurled at them whilst being called racists.

UKIP candidate stabbed in face

A UKIP candidate in Blackburn has been stabbed in the face in an apparent hate crime.

Bobby Anwar says that he, his wife and children have been subjected to racial abuse from their Muslim neighbours who call them "Kafir" and "N**ger" for about 5 years and it has culminated in this attack at the weekend.

Anwar believes the attack to be politically motivated as the neighbours are Labour supporters. His eye socket has been fractured and he has had surgery to insert a metal plate. If the attack was politically motivated then the media and trade union funded hate groups have some serious questions to answer. Their campaign against UKIP started with insults on social media, then it was stealing and defacing posters, then it escalated to screaming abuse in the faces of candidates and then one MEP having a brick thrown through his window and another MEP having to call the police when an intruder entered their property. It was only a matter of time before the hate campaign resulted in someone being seriously injured.

The police are investigating the assault on Anwar and a man has been bailed on suspicion of causing Grevous Bodily Harm with intent. But the investigation that we do need is into the appalling behaviour of trade union funded anti-democracy groups like Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism who have encouraged, facilitated and funded a campaign of criminal activism against UKIP and its candidates. They have lied, cheated, stolen and abused UKIP candidates and gone far beyond what any reasonable person would consider to be simply exercising democratic rights. This is organised crime and it needs to be stopped before this kind of violent, criminal behaviour becomes the norm and the only people who are safe in elections are those who have the backing of violent groups of left wing fascists.

Will The LibDem "Hedgehog" Hold?

In all the sound and fury surrounding UKIP in these last few weeks, we have completely lost sight that local council elections are also taking place tomorrow.

One of the most significant implications of these will be whether the LibDem strategy of a "hedgehog" defence will be vindicated. This in turn has very significant implications for the future course of British politics after the next general election.

As the name implies, a "hedgehog" defence involves concentrating your resources into very tight, highly defended areas. Given their low overall poll ratings and the British election system which rewards localised concentrations of strength, the LibDems hope they can not only avoid annihilation but also actually cement their place as part of a coalition government after the next election. When Nick Clegg said he wanted to be Deputy Prime Minister for the next ten years, perhaps he really meant it. Horrifying as it sounds, it is a potentially possible.

When the results roll in, Clegg and LibDems can expect a drubbing from all media sheep about their abysmal performance in the European elections and no doubt a few jokes about the "party of in" being the "party whose out", etc, etc. However, all that will already have been discounted by LibDem insiders. What will decide Nick Clegg's future is the local council results in those constituencies which have sitting LibDem MP's and where for years now the party has been concentrating it's campaigning resources.

The success or otherwise of the hedgehog defence will send a very strong signal as to whether  the LibDem's will retain a substantial block of MP's after the next general election, and with it considerable power within a coalition government with either the Tories or Labour.  Forget all the predictably hysterical headlines about UKIP's performance tomorrow: it is this which will show whether or not we continue to have feeble, tepid pro-European Metropolitan elite government for years or even decades to come.

"Romanian" anti-democracy campaigners in Croydon weren't even Romanian

The "Romanian" anti-democracy protesters calling UKIP's black and Asian candidates in Croydon racists turned out not to be Romanian after all!

UKIP racism protester fail

An anti-democracy campaigner was determined not to let the fact that most of the UKIPpers out on the street in Croydon today were black distract her from her mission of telling everyone how racist UKIP are.

Sheriff of Gloucester apologises for lying on election leaflet

A Labour councillor in Gloucester has apologised for making false claims in his election leaflet.

Cllr Said Hansdot, Sheriff of Gloucester, claims that he is a trustee of St James City farm in his leaflet for the local election this week but he isn't. He has apologised for lying but offers no explanation as to how the false claim appears on his leaflet.

Labour MP demands withdrawal of Labour leaflet

The Labour MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, has demanded a Labour local election leaflet for her constituency be shredded after the local party made up quotes from her.

The leaflet claims that Hoey is backing local candidate Nigel Haselden but she describes this as a "fabrication" and "work of fiction".

I value honesty and integrity. I did not write these words and do not agree with them. The quote attributed to me was not approved and is a total work of fiction. I asked for the leaflets to be withdrawn as soon as I found out.

I think that the public have a right to know when something goes into an election leaflet that is not accurate and I would have expected to be asked, rather than having quotes made up on my behalf.

Big Brother spy boxes to be fitted to all new cars from 2015

An EU directive will require all new cars produced from October next year to be fitted with a spy box.

Black boxes called telematics devices will be fitted to cars that will track drivers and report their driving habits back to insurance companies who will set premiums based on the results. People without such black boxes will pay higher insurance premiums or may be refused insurance altogether.

The EU is introducing these tracking devices under the guise of safety - emergency services will be able to locate vehicles if there is an accident. This is one of the most worrying aspects of these spy boxes because whilst it is certainly useful for the emergency services to be able to tell where a crashed vehicle is, it means that anyone with access to your spy box can find out where you are at any time. Access to the boxes will of course be limited at first to reassure motorists that they aren't being tracked by all and sundry but tracking will become routine as those controls are weakened once motorists accept them as an unavoidable part of driving.

The mandatory use of spy boxes poses a massive privacy and security risk. If the British government can sell the most intimate details of our physical and mental health to private companies then they certainly won't have any qualms about selling access to our location and driving data to private companies. Our internet use is tracked, our phone use is tracked, we are tracked by CCTV wherever we go, we are tracked on public transport, now private car journeys are going to be tracked.

There will be those who say if you nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear but that is a short-sighted view. You may trust those in power now to use this ability to track your every move benignly (or at least confine the abuses of such power to a minimum so you don't have to worry about it) but how do you know you can trust the next lot that get into power? The term "Big Brother" gets banded about so often its meaning has been diminished but in this case it really is like something out of a George Orwell novel.

Labour councillor prosecuted for firearms offence

A Labour councillor in Leicester has been fined £2,600 for possession of an unlicensed firearm.

Former Lord Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Robert Wann, disturbed two suspected wood thieves in his pub car park whilst carrying the shotgun in a display case. He reported the matter to the police who charged him with possession of an unlicensed shotgun. The gun had been disabled by removing the firing pins but non-permanent decommissioning still requires a licence.

Cllr Wann was fined £2,600 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £120 victim surcharge although it's not clear who the victim is in this case.

Labour activist makes homophobic remarks against councillor

A West Derby Labour activist has been warned by the Labour Party to stop posting about his Liberal Party rival after a number of complaints about his homophobic comments.

Stephen Poulson has been making offensive comments about Liverpool's first openly gay councillor, Cllr Steve Radford, for two years and the latest comments led to him to take legal advice. Poulson had suggested that Cllr Radford had a "sexual bias" in his position as chair of a Scouts group and claimed that he kept a gimp sex slave in his cellar.

Poulson has been threatened with expulsion from the Labour Party if he continues to harass Cllr Radford. He says that his opinions are his own and not the Labour Party's, Cllr Radford says that the Labour Party haven't done enough to deal with Poulson's homophobia.

Earlier this week the Local Government Association criticised Labour-run Thanet District Council for not doing enough to tackle toxic and homophobic behaviour, resulting in the resignation of the Labour leader. Applying the same logic that the media use for UKIP, we should expect all the papers to denounce the Labour Party as homophobic and Ed Miliband's next interview to be dominated by questions about Labour Party homophobia.

Conservative councillor convicted of firearms offence

A Conservative councillor in Chingford has been given a 9 month suspended sentence after threatening a neighbour with a loaded air pistol.

Cllr Nick Buckmaster threatened his neighbour after an altercation over a cat which Buckmaster believed to belong to his neighbour entered his home and sprayed his kitchen. When his neighbour told him he didn't own a cat and closed the door on him he pointed the pistol at him through the window. The neighbour, who is a bailiff trained in mixed martial arts, punched Cllr Buckmaster in the face, knocking him to the floor.

Newham Conservatives deliver "sectarian" leaflet

London Borough of Newham Conservatives have delivered a "sectarian" leaflet targeting the Muslim vote.

The leaflet features a mosque watermark and is translated into Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali. It gives 10 reasons why Muslims in Newham should vote Conservative, including free parking during Friday prayers and taking religious beliefs and needs into account when making planning decisions.

Only 16.7% of Newham residents are white British and residents are seeing this less "appealing tot he Muslim community" as the local Tory agent puts it and more a divisive and sectarian bribe.

Conservative councillor arrested over allegations of impersonating a barrister

A Conservative councillor in Guildford has claimed an investigation into her falsely claiming to be a barrister is in fact a racist campaign against her to undermine the council's local plan.

Cllr Monika Juneja has been claiming to be a barrister but was allegedly never called to the bar which means she isn't allowed to call herself a barrister and would be committing an offence to do so. Guildford Borough Council investigated Cllr Juneja and decided that she hadn't broken any rules but it was later discovered that the borough council had been incorrectly told by the Bar Council that it wasn't illegal to pretend to be a barrister when it is. Guildford Borough Council declined to re-open their investigation in Cllr Juneja's conduct.

The punishment for impersonating a barrister ranges from a fine up to two years in prison.

Labour councillor's benefit fraud trial postponed

A controversial single mother of 10 elected as a Labour councillor has had her trial for benefits fraud postponed again to October - two years after the investigations into her began.

Cllr Claire Baldwin courted controversy when she was elected in Tilbury when she was found to owe thousands of pounds in council tax and council housing benefit and to have been convicted of failing to ensure two of her children attended school. When her council laptop went missing there were calls for her to resign but she refused.

The hearing has been adjourned until October after the judge described the case as a "shambolic state of affairs".

Lib Dem benefit cheat councillor blocked from council committees

A Lib Dem councillor in Tiverton has been blocked from membership of any council committees by his fellow councillors after being convicted of benefit fraud.

Cllr Kevin Wilson had applied to be a member of Tiverton Town Council's Finance & General Purposes and Planning Committees but councillors voted to block his membership of any committees because they don't want to be seen to be endorsing a convicted criminal.

Wilson was given a suspended prison sentence earlier this year for committing benefit fraud of £3,800 which he used to subsidise his daughter's public school fees. He apologised but refused to resign as a councillor.

Conservative councillor banned for drink driving

A Conservative councillor in Lincolnshire has been convicted of drink driving.

East Lindsey District Councillor Lesley-Jayne Marfleet was seen driving erratically by the police who pulled her over and breathalysed her after seeing that she was visibly drunk. She was found to be two and a half times over the drink drive limit.

She has been banned from driving for 25 months.

Five Middlesborough councillors resign from Labour group

Five Labour councillors in Middlesborough have resigned from the Labour group, accusing them of racism and being morally bankrupt.

Cllrs Len Junier, Pervaz Khan, Sajaad Khan, Derek Loughborough and John McPartland have all cited various reasons for resigning and have formed an independent group on the council. The most damning accusations come from Cllr Kahn who accused the Labour group of being racist and Cllr McPartland who described the Labour group as "morally bankrupt".

Police called in over Labour postal vote fraud complaint in Slough

The police have been called in to investigate postal vote fraud in Slough after a voter has claimed to have been pressured into voting for the Labour candidate.

A resident has told police that Labour candidate Fatima Mansoor stood over her while she filled in her postal vote, pressuring her into voting for her. Mansoor denies the claims and says that she was just advising her on how to fill in a postal vote and then took the sealed envelope and posted it for her.

Here's what the law says on postal votes, courtesy of the Electoral Commission. We'll leave you to make your mind up whether Mansoor has done anything wrong:

20. You should not touch or handle anyone else’s ballot paper. If you are asked for assistance in completing a ballot paper, you should always refer the voter to the Returning Officer’s staff at the elections office who can arrange a home visit if necessary. Assistance will also be available forelectors at polling stations.
21. It is absolutely clear that anyone acting on behalf of a party or campaign should not solicit the collection of any ballot paper. Wherever practical, the voter should be encouraged to post or deliver the completed ballot paper themselves.
22. It is recognised that people working for a party or a campaign may be approached by a voter who is unable to post their ballot paper or make arrangements for it to be returned in time. If you are asked to take the completed ballot paper, you should ensure that the voter has sealed it first and then post it or take it to a polling station or office of the Returning Officer immediately, without interfering in any way with the package.
23. If you are with a voter when they complete their ballot paper, remember they should complete it in secret. Equally, you should ensure that the voter seals the envelopes personally and immediately. If you are asked to give advice, it is acceptable and often helpful to explain the voting process but do not offer to help anyone to complete their ballot paper.
24. If you are in any doubt about the probity or propriety of your actions, you should ask yourself the question, ‘What would a reasonable observer think?’.

Conservative fraudster arrested for electoral offences

A Conservative council candidate in London has been arrested for suspected electoral offences.

Michael Fadaka has a conviction for a £30k benefit fraud which was brought against him by Enfield Council - the same council he is standing for election to. Fadaka failed to mention the 12 month suspended sentence he was given in 2011 for the offence which means he is unable to stand for election anywhere in England and Wales until 2016.

It is too late to remove Fadaka's name from the ballot paper.

Tower Hamlets Conservative candidate being investigated by police

The Conservative Party have suspended one of their candidates in Tower Hamlets while he is being investigated by the police over his eligibility to stand in the election.

Allegations over Jewel Islam's financial history and business dealings that might make him ineligible to stand are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

Further commentary on the Trial by Jeory website.

Foot fetishist Lib Dem apologises for sleazy Twitter account

A pervy Lib Dem council candidate in Surrey is being investigated by his party's regional office over his sleazy Twitter account.

Mark Regan, who is standing for election to Mole Valley District Council, tweeted "love to lick and kiss feet" and was looking for large single women in Surrey. He also retweeted content from swinging and porn accounts.

His local Lib Dem branch are standing by him, saying that he's an "ideal candidate" on his website but their regional office might be harder to convince. He has apologised for any offence caused.

Portsmouth Lib Dems can't spell "Portsmouth"

The Lib Dems in Portsmouth have been ridiculed by locals after mis-spelling "Porstmouth" on their election leaflets.

Unlike the UKIP candidate who thought UKIP had deliberately been put at the bottom of the list on the ballot paper, the Lib Dems' literacy malfunction hasn't made the front page of the Huffington Post or Guardian. In fact, it's not even mentioned on the Huffington Post's fawning altar to the yellow party.

To be fair to the Lib Dems (it's cruel to mock the afflicted after all) they say that the Tories in Portsmouth put out leaflets with the phone number for Tamworth Borough Council instead of Portsmouth City Council. If this is representative of the attention to detail you get from the Tories and Lib Dems in Portsmouth, it's no wonder they didn't take the complaints against Mike Hancock seriously until the police got involved.

Labour leader of Thanet District Council resigns

The Labour leader of Thanet District Council has resigned after the Local Government Association criticised the council for not stopping tackling toxic and homophobic behaviour and "hostility and discourtesy".

The BBC reports Cllr Clive Hart resigning because of the LGA's report and blaming the disgraceful behaviour on a tiny minority of councillors in his resignation letter but Kent Online tells a different story, quoting Cllr Hart as saying that he's resigning because of "futile and vexatious complaints and information requests" during council meetings from Green Party councillor, Ian Driver. It was Cllr Driver who helped organise the violent protest in Kent in January during which local UAF/SWP activist and one of Cllr Driver's supporters, Andrew Scott, assault Nigel Farage with a placard. He was subsequently fined and sentenced to community service for the assault.

Thanet District Council - which has previously been criticised for the suspicion of "secrecy and corruption" at the council - is preparing an action plan to address the LGA's report.

Tower Hamlets council candidate accuses Tory councillor of being KKK Grand Wizard

A council candidate in Tower Hamlets has apologised for calling a Conservative councillor a Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard.

Tower Hamlets First candidate for St Katherine's & Wapping, Stuart Madwell, made the offensive (and libellous) comments on Facebook about Conservative councillor Peter Golds. The comments have been reported to the police and Cllr Golds is taking legal advice.

Tower Hamlets First is the party the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, represents. Rahman was recently investigated by the police over claims that he had illegally doubled funding for Bangladeshi groups in Tower Hamlets to buy support.

Independent panel resigns in protest at Conservative councillors' allowances

Council Leader, David Hodge

All three members of Surrey County Council's Independent Remuneration Panel have resigned in protest at Conservative councillors rewarding themselves with huge pay rises.

The IRP makes recommendations on councillors' allowances, including Special Responsibility Allowances which are paid to those councillors who are expected to do more than the average councillor because of a specific role. Surrey's IRP made a number of recommendations on SRAs which the ruling Conservatives largely ignored, including:

• Increasing the Leader of the Council's allowance from £27k to £43k when the IRP only recommended an increase to £35,548
• Increasing the Deputy Leader's allowance from £19,500 to £31,250 when the IRP only recommended an increase to £30,333
• Implementing the pay increases immediately rather than phasing them in over a period of time

The Chairman of the IRP, Cathy Rollison, said:

This flagrant disregard for the carefully considered recommendations of its own IRP has left us with no alternative but to resign.

Like most members of the public, we do not believe that it is right for councillors to award themselves pay rises, against the advice of an independent panel.

Gerard Batten MEP's home attacked

UKIP's London MEP, Gerard Batten, has had bricks thrown through the windows of his house.

Gerard and his wife were woken twice in the early hours by the sound of bricks being thrown at their windows. The police are reviewing CCTV footage in the hope of catching the perpetrators.

Left wing extremists linked to trade union backed hate groups Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism have been escalating their attacks on UKIP members, moving on from verbal abuse to physical assaults and criminal damage and now a cowardly attack on an MEP's home in the early hours of the morning. Far left extremists have been sharing the home addresses of UKIP MEPs on social media and encouraging people to "pay them a visit".

Nigel Farage said:

I've just heard the disgraceful news that my colleague Gerard Batten MEP's house was attacked with bricks. The attack on his home is a direct consequence of the media campaign against UKIP.

H/T Roger Viggers

Newark By-election Candidates

The candidates for the Newark by-election to replace Tory cash for questions MP Patrick Mercer have been announced.

Major Parties
Party	Candidate
UKIP	Roger Helmer
Conservative	Robert Jenrick
Labour	Michael Payne

Minor Parties/Independents
Party	Candidate
Bus Pass Elvis	David Bishop
Green	David Kirwan
Independent	Paul Baggaley
Independent	Andy Hayes
Lib Dem	David Watts
Monster Raving Loony	Nick The Flying Brick
Patriotic Socialist	Lee Woods
Stop Commercial Banks Owning Britain's Money	Dick Rodgers

The real rebuttal of those Lab/Green Lies - courtsy @dinofancellu http://dinofancellu.com

**edit** here is some more info...

Another Cast Iron Guarantee™ from Dave

David Cameron has given another Cast Iron Guarantee™ of an EU referendum and says he won't be Prime Minister if he can't deliver one.

Cast Iron Dave (as we like to call him) says that he thinks it's important he carries out several years of negotiation before holding a referendum and is confident that he can get meaningful change because the eurozone countries was more changes to support their fiscal union. He says that regardless of the outcome of his negotiations he'll hold the referendum anyway and that's a Cast Iron Guarantee™.

Let's examine this in a bit more depth ...

Is negotiating before a referendum useful?
For Cameron it is, yes. He can "negotiate" some superficial changes to the EU that will be ultimately meaningless and cost us more of our sovereignty and money and the spin doctors can package it up as a big coup for David Cameron and a major blow to the EU's plans for ever closer union. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, once we tell the EU that we're leaving we then have to spend the next two years negotiating to see if there's a way we can be convinced to stay. Negotiating now is only useful if you need propaganda for the campaign to stay in.

Can meaningful change be achieved?
Since the Lisbon Treaty was signed we have to give two years' notice that we're leaving and we're required to spend those two years negotiating with them. It's during those two years that any meaningful negotiation might take place, not before it and not when Cameron has already told the EU that he wants to stay in and will campaign for us to stay in regardless of the outcome of his negotiations. The threat of a referendum on our membership was Cameron's ace card and he wasted it by very publicly announcing that he would want to stay in the EU regardless of the outcome of negotiations. It doesn't matter that the eurozone countries want change as well because what they want is more integration and more power for the EU, not less and there is no legal mechanism for taking power off the EU, only to give it more.

Will we ever get a referendum?
Doubtful. We had a Cast Iron Guarantee™ of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and it turned out to be worthless. Cameron whipped his MPs to vote against a referendum in 2011 when it finally got to parliament after a 100,000 signature petition forced the issue to ensure that no referendum took place in this parliament. He got a Bill through parliament to legislate for a referendum in 2017 if the Conservatives win the next election outright which is extremely unlikely and any politician that feels the need to pass a law to make them keep a promise clearly can't be trusted anyway. Not that the law will actually force him to hold a referendum anyway because as we saw with Labour's pinky promise law not to introduce the university tax in England in 2001, laws can be repealed as easily as they're made when you have an outright majority.

UKIP's racist black, Asian, eastern European and Jewish candidates

Here are some of the black, Asian, eastern European and Jewish UKIP candidates who were subjected to racial abuse by far left extremists from trade union funded hate groups this week. They're all racists, apparently.

Conservative ex-mayor charged with possession of indecent images of children

A former Conservative mayor of Weston-super-Mare has appeared in court to face 11 charges of making indecent photos of children.

Philip Judd was still a Conservative councillor and mayor of Weston and a school governor when he was arrested for possession of indecent photos of children last year. He resigned as a councillor and school governor.

He has been given unconditional bail and is due back in court again on 3rd June.

English Democrats MEP candidate calls for forced repatriation of immigrants

An English Democrats MEP candidate in the East Midlands euroregion has called for the forced repatriation of immigrants and their descendants.

Oliver Healey is number four on the MEP list for the English Democrats in the East Midlands despite living in Telford which is in the West Midlands euroregion. He has been promoting his policy that "repatriation either voluntary or compulsory must now begin".

In a fairly lengthy discussion on the British Democracy Forum with UKIP supporters, Healey spouts reams and reams of pseudo-intellectual nonsense repeatedly calling for the forced repatriation of immigrants and their descendants.

The English Democrats aren't having much luck with their MEP candidates. South east of England candidate, Julia Gasper, who was forced to resign from UKIP after calling gay rights a "lunatics charter" and linking homosexuality with bestiality, wrote on her blog that there are "too many gay people" in position of power and said that World Aids Day is responsible for spreading disease around the world. Meanwhile, their lead candidate for the south east of England and EDL activist, Steve Uncles, is due to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on June 12th to answer 10 twice-denied charges of electoral fraud relating to the local elections last year.

If you'd like more information on how the English Democrats would manage this forced repatriation of 6m people or prevent gays from becoming MPs, you can ring their campaign hotline on 01293 873894.

Respect candidate has electoral fraud conviction

The Respect Party have been accused of hypocrisy for condemning ballot-rigging whilst putting up a candidate who has a conviction for electoral fraud.

Arshad Ali, who stepped down as chairman of the party in 2012 when his conviction became public knowledge, spent 6 weeks in prison in 1997 for his part in fiddling Labour's landslide election victory.

The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems on Bradford City Council have called for a change to the law that would ban anyone convicted of electoral fraud from standing for public office for life.

Anti-UKIP protesters shout racist abuse at black and Asian candidates

Nigel Farage appeared at a meeting in London with a selection of UKIP candidates from ethnic minorities to ask how UKIP can be a racist party with so many BME candidates.

If you listen carefully you can hear the left wing extremists shouting racist abuse at them, including "coconut" and "oreo" - brown on the outside, white on the inside. It's not uncommon to hear black and Asian people call each other these names as banter but when it's screamed across a public auditorium at people you're branding racists it's clearly racial abuse.