Criminal attacks against UKIP this month

With the start of the election campaign today, it's worth recapping on the hate campaigning of Labour supporters this month ...

Windows were smashed and paint thrown over UKIP MEP Jim Carver's office in Kidderminster. The police were already investigating racist tweets directed at him before the attack.

A UKIP county councillor's garage and walls in Kent were graffiti'd with abusive phrases such as "fuck UKIP", "UKIP Twats", "UKIP Biggots" [sic] and "racist scum". The same happened last year.

A UKIP supporter's house in Dover was pelted with eggs because they had a UKIP poster in the window.

The UKIP office in Blyth was vandalised with "Nazi scum" spray painted on the shutters.

A UKIP supporter's large UKIP sign was vandalised by fascists in Brighton & Hove who entered his property to smash up the sign.

Nigel Farage and his family were subjected to intimidation and verbal abuse while they were eating Sunday lunch in a pub in an attack that terrified his children so much that they went missing. The left wing extremists behind the attack on Nigel and his family were variously supporters of Labour, Green, UAF, Hope not Hate and trade unionists and the organiser was the idiot who superglued himself to Gordon Brown in 2008 when he was more interested in stopping the weather than trying to undermine the democratic process.

Can UKIP win in Portsmouth South?

The decision of Mike Hancock, the current MP for Portsmouth South, to stand again as an independent candidate opens up the opportunity of a UKIP win in this constituency, which must be regarded as prime UKIP territory.

Hancock was thoroughly disgraced and had the Liberal Democrat whip withdrawn after he was forced to apologise for sordid and inappropriate conduct after sexually pursuing a constituent with mental health problems, which he was forced to apologise for in 2014.

I used to live in Portsmouth South and rumours of Hancock's sexually predatory nature had been circulating in the constituency for more than a decade before his sleazy conduct was finally exposed. Like most Lib Dems Hancock is a cynical careerist and it is speculated that his decision to stand again is just to gain the MP severance allowance of £33,000 he would otherwise lose by voluntarily standing down - an allegation Hancock has, of course, denied. He certainly has form for cynical campaigning in the amoral Lib Dem tradition, heavily distorting the truth about rival candidates in his election literature. Despite his party's rabid pro-Europeanism, he also once campaigned on a platform to give people a referendum on Europe in what is a strongly nationalist constituency thanks to the Royal Naval and military traditions of the area - a classic case of the Lib Dems telling local voters what they want to hear whether or not it is party policy.

It's hard not to take pleasure in the fact that  the Lib Dems have once again found their cynicism has come back to haunt them. Currently the party have a majority of 5,200 in the constituency over the second place Tories but with Hancock standing as an independent this will split the vote: despite his despicable behaviour, like all Lib Dem MPs Hancock will have worked hard to gain a personal following down the years so this should count in his favour. Secondly the general unpopularity of the Lib Dems nationally will severely dent their chances.

The question is: can UKIP win it? In many ways it is prime UKIP country, demographically having a strong white working class make up. UKIPs defence policies and promise to spend more on the Navy will go down very well there given the town's proud naval traditions and reliance on defence industries. UKIP got 24% of the vote in the 2014 local elections for the city council and gained 6 councillors from a standing start. A local UKIP branch has also been formed in the area.

Realistically the Tories, who got 33% of the vote in 2010 must now be the favourites to take the seat but UKIP may well come a strong second and turn the seat into a future three way marginal.

Who knows - we may just win it!

UKIP Brighton & Hove councillor calls for reserves to be used to save children's centres

UKIP Brighton & Hove City Councillor, Leigh Farrow, has called for some of the council's £39.5m reserves to be used to save children's centres that are under threat of closure.

The council's Chief Financial Officer says that the council needs to keep only £9m for contingency but the ruling Greens would rather cut front line services or put up council tax by 6% and then blame the British government.

Derbyshire Conservative councillor brought position into disrepute

A Conservative district councillor in Derbyshire has been reprimanded for bringing his position into disrepute.

Cllr Martyn Ford was found to have brought his position into disrepute with an aggressive campaign against a funeral director who wanted to convert a closed village pub into a funeral parlour. Ford claimed that posts to Facebook and Twitter were "in jest" but they were deemed to be threatening an intimidating by the council's standards committee.

Former Lib Dem PPC under investigation for being a company director whilst banned

A former Lib Dem PPC is being investigated by the police for becoming a director of a company whilst being banned.

Dr Vincent McKee was banned from being a company director for 14 years after receiving a two and a half year prison sentence for fraud.

McKee ripped off students using his old companies which were eventually wound up and he was charged with 25 counts of fraud and one of breaching professional due diligence. He has since set up another company pitched at students, charging up to £1k for rewriting their essays for them.

McKee claims that the business is only a partnership and isn't incorporated so he hasn't broken any laws. However, the Companies House website clearly shows that the company was incorporated in 2014 and registered at his home address.

Stafford Labour councillor charged with misconduct in public office

The Stafford Labour Party have suspended one of their councillors after he was charged with misconduct in public office.

Cllr Rowan Draper is the secretary of Littleworth Labour and a founder member of Young Labour. The Staffordshire Newsletter have tried to get more information on the misconduct charge but the Labour Party have closed ranks. The maximum punishment for misconduct in public office is life imprisonment.

Lib Dem councillor and PPC arrested for child sex offences

A Lib Dem councillor and PPC in Ashfield has been arrested over accusations of child sex abuse.

Cllr Jason Zadrozny was arrested by Nottinghamshire Police to answer allegations of "buggery and gross indecency with a male under 16 between September 2003 and April 2004, sexual activity with a child between May 2004 and December 2007 and an allegation of meeting a child under 16 following sexual grooming from May 2004 and December 2007".

Zadrozny has resigned as a PPC and been suspended by the Liberal Democrats.

Former Labour chairman Harriet Yeo replaces Janice Atkinson in Folkestone & Hythe

Janice Atkinson has been replaced with former Labour Party chairman, Harriet Yeo, as UKIP PPC for Folkestone & Hythe.

Atkinson has been expelled from the party along with her chief of staff over a dodgy expense claim.

Yeo was chairman of the Labour Party between 2012-13, a member of the Labour Party's national executive and Treasurer and President of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) trade union. She resigned from the Labour Party earlier this year and announced her support for UKIP but stopped short of joining the party. She has now joined the party and will contest the Folkestone & Hythe seat for UKIP.

Janice Atkinson expelled over dodgy expense claim

Janice Atkinson and her chief of staff, Christine Hewitt, have been expelled from the party over a secret recording showing Hewitt haggling with a restaurant for a higher bill to make a fraudulent expenses claim.

MEPs aren't allowed to claim expenses for food so it's either a claim by her staff or Atkinson was claiming through the EFDD group. It's unlikely that Atkinson has been expelled because her staff were doing something behind her back so presumably it's the latter.

The following statement has been released:

Janice Atkinson MEP and Christine Hewitt (assistant to Janice Atkinson) have been found to have brought the party into disrepute. As a result they have been expelled from UK Independence Party. They have 14 days to appeal.

This means that Ms Atkinson no longer represents UKIP in the European Parliament and she will no longer be our prospective parliamentary candidate for Folkestone and Hythe.

Tory PPC for Dudley North tries to recruit EDL to campaign for him

The Conservative candidate for Dudley North, Afzal Amin, has been suspended after trying to get the EDL to fake a protest in Dudley and break election law by paying EDL supporters to campaign for him.

Amin met with the leader of the EDL, Steve Eddowes and former leader Tommy Robinson on several occasions. During these meetings he asked them to announce a protest in Dudley that would never happen so that he could claim to have convinced them to back down and look good to voters. He also said he wanted to pay Tommy Robinson to get EDL supporters to campaign for him which is illegal.

The prospect of another EDL protest so soon after the previous one which resulted in a number of arrests of far left thugs from Unite Against Fascism would have inflamed racial tensions and spread fear far beyond Dudley. Amin clearly gives no thought to the effects of his dishonest scaremongering and only cares about winning the election, even if he has to break the law in the process.

Dudley North is a key marginal currently held by Labour's Ian Austin MP and a UKIP target seat. Polls show that UKIP's Bill Etheridge MEP is drawing level with Austin with the Tories a distant, vote-splitting third. They had very little chance of winning Dudley North before this story, they won't even be coming close now. The best thing the Conservatives can do to prevent Labour winning is sack Amin and not bother replacing him because a vote for the Conservatives in Dudley North is a vote for Ian Austin and Ed Miliband.

Former Labour mayor and councillor jailed for theft and fraud

The former Labour mayor of North Lincolnshire has been given a three and a half year prison sentence for defrauding a Yemeni man.

Jawaid Ishaq was a Labour councillor for 30 years, the Labour mayor of Sunderland and the Labour mayor of North Lincolnshire. He faked a power of attorney and helped himself to shares and bank accounts owned by Ali Sultan, defrauding him of £66k. He was found guilty of 9 charges of fraud and one of theft and cleared of a further 5 charges of fraud and another of theft.

Derby Labour attack UKIP councillor for missing meeting after suffering stroke

The Labour Party in Derby are putting out a leaflet claiming credit for UKIP's hard work tackling parking problems Chaddesden and criticising the UKIP councillor who's actually been doing the work for not attending a meeting when he was recovering from a stroke.

UKIP councillor, Bill Wright, has been visiting shops on Sussex Circus and talking to council officers to get action on parking problems. He missed a recent meeting regarding the parking issues after suffering from a stroke but it seems that isn't a valid excuse for the dirty tricks department of the local Labour Party.

Former Lib Dem councillor "acting like a predatory paedophile"

A Lib Dem ex-councillor has been given a 2 year suspended sentence for child sex offences.

Bob Thompson was described as "acting like a predatory paedophile" by the judge who said he couldn't give him a sex offender treatment programme because he refused to accept that he had done anything wrong. He gave him a two year prison sentence suspended for two years because of his ill health.

We already know that Thompson likes them young after marrying a Gambian woman half his age in 2008. He met his wife Fatou when he was 52 and she was 26 and living in a hut with her young daughter. He converted to Islam and married her within a week and then spent a year getting her a visa.

Thompson will be electronically tagged for a year and has been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Janice Atkinson MEP suspended

Janice Atkinson MEP has been suspended from the party after one of her staff was videoed allegedly trying to inflate a restaurant bill so she could claim it on expenses.

A party spokesman said:

The party is incredibly disappointed with Ms. Atkinson, who appears to have exercised extremely poor judgement in acting in a way that the party has never, and would never condone. The party has acted swiftly and immediately, and just as we showed when we suspended another MEP for financial irregularities, we always maintain a zero tolerance attitude towards acts of this nature.

Conservative councillors in Medway defect to UKIP

Delighted to welcome two Medway councillors from the Tories to #UKIP today, Cllr Tom Mason and Cllr Vaughan Hewett: pic.twitter.com/Zxm9vQzLB6
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 19, 2015

Conservative councillor faces deselection over racist and sexist jokes

A Conservative councillor on Hinkley & Bosworth Borough Council is facing deselection after sending "funny" emails with racist and sexist jokes to colleagues.

Cllr Peter Batty was forced to resign as leader of the Conservative group on the council last month and now faces deselection by Charnwood Conservative Association.

Conservative candidate jailed for electoral fraud

A Conservative council candidate charged with making a false declaration on his nomination papers has been given a 6 month sentence for electoral fraud.

Michael Fadaka put himself forward as a Conservative candidate for Enfield Council in last year's local elections but he was barred from elected office until 2016 because of a previous conviction for a £30k benefit fraud secured by Enfield Council itself.

Fadaka admitted to making a false declaration in February this year and was sentenced to 6 months in prison at Wood Green Crown Court today.

Living Wage - Road to Hell, Paved with (aparantly) Good Intentions.

Living wage - a factual calculation of an indicative figure for an annual income requried by a person based on their family situation (single, part of a couple, with out kids, with 1 kid, 2, 3...) to have the minimum 'acceptible' quality of life.

You can argue over what the minumum acceptible quality of life is (from absolutely nothing, to palaces and riches) - or about whether certain family situations should be 'permitted', or how detailed/general the different groups should be, and even where the 'wage' should come from (who pays it) but the principle of a 'Living Wage' is fact, not opinion.

Having said that, Living Wage is oriented to 'earnings' - so excludes in-work benefits etc - I'd rather see a 'Living Income' so the division between benefits and earnings is more transparent. I would especailly like this as in-work benefits are often related to income - so vary one and the other vairies too.

The Living Wage Foundation are the good/bad guys here... they are a charity that have claimed the 'Living Wage' mantle - they calculate a figure and then get grants from government to promote it and income from employers who want their acreditiation.

The Living Wage Foundation calculation arrives at two figures - one for London and one for the rest of the UK.

To arrive at the figure, figures are calculated for various different family situations (which obviously vary hugely - in 2014 from £5.70 for a member of a couple, £8.30 for a single, through a whole range up to £21.10 for a single parent with three chidlren) these indivdiual figures are weighted and averaged (in 2014 to £9.20) and then it is adjusted so acredited employers aren't asked for to pay too much of an increase - in 2014 the adjusted figure was £7.95 (a reduction of £1.35).

As you can see the final published 'Living Wage' is insufficient for every class of family member except a member of a childless couple. However despite this, the 'acredition' will give employers  a solid excuse to pay this low figure, and indeed to boast about it.

So really they are just selling indulgnces like the medieval roman catholic church.

(First Pubished at http://free-english-people.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/living-wage-locking-in-poverty-for-all.html)

Lib Dem PPC tells undercover reporter how to make fraudulent donations

The Lib Dems' chief fundraiser, racial equality spokesman and PPC for Brent Central, Ibrahim Taguri, has been caught in a sting by the Independent telling an undercover reporter posing as an Indian businessman how to fraudulently donate money to the Lib Dems in secret,

Some of the ways Taguri told the reporter to cheat the system include backdating cheques so they can be declared against a different financial year, splitting donations between himself and his wife and giving his cousins the money so they can donate it in smaller amounts between them.

As well as telling him how to commit fraud he also explained that his donations would but him "help" from the party, including putting the reporter in touch with someone at the GLA who might be able to help him get grants for this fictional housing company and dinners with cabinet ministers including Nick Clegg.

Taguri has voluntarily withdrawn himself from the Lib Dem whip and will stand as an independent candidate in the May election but intends to return to the Lib Dems after the election once he has cleared his name. From the Independent's report it looks like he's been caught bang to rights but based on past experience of the Electoral Commission allowing the Lib Dems to keep £2.4m in illegal donations of stolen money from a convicted fraudster he should get away with it.

Conservative councillor in Suffolk refuses to resign despite moving to America

A Conservative county councillor in Suffolk has refused to resign despite moving 4,000 miles away to North Carolina.

Cllr Brian Riley says that he doesn't need to resign because he can still do the job by Skype and email when he's moved to his retirement home in the States. He says that he will visit Suffolk every 6 weeks or so.

Riley need only attend one meeting every 6 months by law to remain a councillor and will continue to be paid £10k a year in allowances.

The local Conservative Party have suspended him.

Tories lose vexatious court case against Mark Reckless

Rochester & Strood Conservatives have lost their vexatious court case against UKIP MP, Mark Reckless.

The Conservatives had hoped to set the dangerous precedent that politicians defecting to another party could be made to repay money their former party had spent on promoting them. Whilst sour grapes no doubt played a big part in the decision to bring the case against Mark Reckless and his agent, Chris Irvine, the Conservative Party will almost certainly have been pushing them to do it in the hope that it would scare other Tory councillors and MPs off defecting to UKIP.

The Conservatives have reportedly been ordered to pay £1,850 in costs.

Liberal Party stand down candidates in Cornwall to support UKIP

The Liberal Party in Cornwall have withdrawn their three general election candidates in the county and urged their members and supporters to vote and support UKIP in May.

After getting feedback from their members, the Liberal Party have written to Dr Robert Smith, the UKIP candidate for Camborne & Redruth, informing him that they are withdrawing their candidates.

Yellow Belly Dave still trying to bottle out of leaders' debates

David Cameron is still trying to bottle out of TV debates, telling the broadcasters that he will only take part in one pre-election debate with at least seven party leaders.

Yellow Belly Dave is refusing to take part in head to head debates with Ed Miliband but offers no reason why, instead whining about the TV companies organising the debates themselves after he refused to co-operate.

If Cameron is refusing to co-operate then the TV companies should revise the format and have one debate with the minor and regional parties - SNP, Plaid, DUP, Greens and Lib Dems - and one with the mainstream parties - Conservatives, Labour and UKIP. If Cameron refuses to turn up then they should just empty chair him.

Labour distributing leaflets telling lies about UKIP and the NHS in Dudley

The Labour Party are distributing leaflets in Dudley falsely claiming that "UKIP want to scrap our free NHS" complete with a fake medical bill.

UKIP is committed to maintaining a free NHS at the point of need. There will be no American-style healthcare system and no UK resident will receive a medical bill for NHS treatment. There is no truth whatsoever in this malicious leaflet and it could be argued that distributing this leaflet knowing that it is false is an offence under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act.

Nazi-grade propaganda that would have made Goebbels look like an amateur

The BBC screened their own mockumentary The Great European Disaster on Sunday night, painting a picture of a Europe with closed borders, forced deportation of immigrants, terrorists advancing on Vienna and airports closing at short notice ... and all because the EU has ceased to exist.

This programme was propaganda at its worst. It was so well produced that it was impossible to tell who was a fictional character and who was the genuine article. It used imagery of Nazi death camps and the genocide in Srebrenica in Bosnia (which happened under the watchful eyes of EU peacekeepers, a fact that they failed to mention). It was a propaganda file for EU federalism and socialism paid for with taxpayers' money and broadcast on a channel that is required by law to be balanced and impartial.

Right at the start the programme used footage of the second world war and quoted Churchill out of context extolling the virtues of a European union. They left out the bit where he said it was for Europe and not for us. They had a fake news report saying that Prime Minister Farage of Great England (the UK has broken up in this fictional future because the EU has collapsed) has deported all immigrants who have lived in the country for less than 10 years. In the programme, Spain has closed all access to Gibraltar because the EU wasn't there to stop them. Just like Spain was doing last year whilst the EU stood by and watched it happen.

Because the EU has collapsed, ISIS is advancing well into Europe with fighting against hordes of invading Muslim terrorists on the streets of Vienna. The collapse of the EU has caused the worst economic disaster in history (worse than the one the EU have presided over) and the break-up of the €uro has caused "carnage". There are power blackouts all over Europe and extreme weather conditions.

In this post-EU future, a child has been deported from England because her immigrant mother doesn't earn enough money (that evil UKIP again), Germans are banned from entering France which is now run by the French National Front and you have to buy a visa before you can travel between different countries, just like you don't have to do for travel to most of the world.

The makers of the programme have taken the most extreme set of circumstances that they can make sound plausible and turned them into an hour and a half of Nazi-grade propaganda that would have made Goebbels look like an amateur. It preyed on every fear, insecurity and prejudice that the population could have and demonised their opponents.

Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the programme has been partly funded by the EU so that it can be translated into other languages to be broadcast across the EU. Our taxes are being used to produce and distribute naked socialist, federalist propaganda across Europe whilst at home it's being peddled by the BBC which has received £2.2m of EU funding in the last 2 years.

Complaints about the BBC's bias can be submitted here and complaints to OFCOM can be submitted here.

University of Sussex students union back down over UKIP ban

The University of Sussex students union has backed down over its decision to ban UKIP's candidate for Brighton Pavilion, Nigel Carter, from their Politics Society's pre-election debate.

A petition was launched on change.org and was signed by 407 people before the decision to lift the ban was announced.