Confirmed leadership candidates so far

The deadline for nominations for the leadership of UKIP will be closing soon and six candidates have confirmed their intention to stand so far.

Candidate
Jonathan Arnott MEP
Cllr Lisa Duffy
Bill Etheridge MEP
Elizabeth Jones
Steven Woolfe MEP

Jonathan Arnott is UKIP MEP for the north east of England and served as UKIP General Secretary for 6 years. Arnott is a mathematician and continued as head of maths at Handsworth Christian School until he was elected MEP in 2014. He is officially UKIP's most rebellious MEP but also has the highest voting record of UKIP's MEPs.

Lisa Duffy is a councillor and leader of the UKIP group on Huntingdonshire District Council and a town councillor on Ramsey Town Council, the first UKIP-controlled council in the country which she was also mayor of. Duffy is leader of the UKIP group on Huntingdonshire District and Chief of Staff to Patrick O'Flynn MEP. She has been endorsed by Suzanne Evans.

Bill Etheridge is one of the UKIP MEPs for the West Midlands and councillor on Dudley MBC. Bill is a member of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, CAMRA and is an Associate of the American Legislative Exchange Council. He sits on the EU Regional Development Committee and is being backed for leader by his ex-wife, UKIP disabilities spokesman Star Anderton.

Elizabeth Jones is a member of UKIP's National Executive Council and Deputy Chairman of Lambeth UKIP. Elizabeth has contested 11 elections for UKIP and was a key member of UKIP's election campaign.

Steven Woolfe is one of the UKIP MEPs for the north west of England and a practising barrister. Woolfe is UKIP's financial affairs and City of London spokesman and head of UKIP's Black & Minority Ethnic Association. He has the support of Nathan Gill AM and is currently favourite to succeed Nigel Farage and become the first BME leader of a mainstream political party in the UK.

Economy grows for 14th consecutive quarter

To the disappointment of Remain campaigners, the UK economy grew by 0.6% in the last quarter.

The Office for National Statistics made the surprise announcement today, driving the FTSE 250 past the level it was prior to the EU referendum last month and pushing the FTSE 100 up to a 12 month high.

Despite the scaremongering during the referendum campaign and the continued scaremongering that is still happening more than a month later, the UK economy has continued to grow. The predicted temporary dip in the stock market turned out not to be the global economic apocalypse predicted by George Osborne and the economic "experts" drafted in by Project Fear after all and was just, as expected, a temporary blip.

A new £35m trade agreement has been signed with the US which will see imports of British beef and lamb resumed and at least 10 countries - including China, India and Japan - have committed to negotiating new trade deals with the UK. One of Project Fear's corporate propagandists, GlaxoSmithKline, has announced a £275m investment in the UK today despite threatening to pull out of the country if we voted to leave the EU. Research by Pitchbook for London & Partners has found that $200m of venture capital has been pumped into UK startups since the EU referendum and Chinese property developers are ramping up investment in the UK thanks to the weaker pound. Siemens warned before the referendum that it would cancel a £310m wind turbine operation that would employ 1,000 people if we voted to leave but has decided that it wants the billions of pounds of business it will generate after all and the world's largest telecoms equipment manufacturer, Huawei, is investing £1.32bn in the UK. McDonalds also announced further investment in the UK today with 5,000 new jobs to be created by the end of next year.

It's funny that the more positive news there is about the economy, the quieter the Remainiacs get.

Terrorists decapitate priest in French church

Two armed men have beheaded a priest and critically injured a nun in France before being shot dead by police.

The two men - described as wearing Islamic dress - entered a church in Normandy and took the priest, two nuns and two parishioners hostage. They murdered the priest, critically injured one of the nuns and were then killed by officers. The other three hostages escaped unharmed.

The church is currently being searched for booby traps.

Suicide bomber attacks restaurant near Nuremburg

A Syrian illegal immigrant has blown himself up outside a restaurant in Ansbach, near Nuremburg in Germany.

The suicide bomber was known to police, had had his asylum claim rejected a year ago and was known to have psychiatric problems with suicidal tendencies. Despite being a confirmed bogus asylum seeker he was allowed to stay in Germany because they won't send anyone back to Syria, even if they're not in any danger.

Twelve people were injured in the attack, three of them critical.

Earlier on Sunday another Syrian illegal immigrant killed a pregnant woman with a cleaver and attacked two others before a passing driver knocked him over with his car in Reutlingen.

President Hollande confirms commitment to Le Touquet agreement

Teresa May has met French president Francois Hollande and reaffirmed both sides' commitment to keeping the Le Touquet agreement which moves border controls to the other side of the channel.

Under the terms of the treaty, French officials control the French border in England whilst UK officials control the UK border in France. The juxtaposed border controls allow immigration officials to prevent undesirables crossing their border and then abusing the legal system to prevent deportation.

France has been on lockdown since last week's terrorist attack in Nice and it is currently taking around 90 minutes to clear French border security in Dover. Without the Le Touquet agreement the checks would be carried out on French soil which is a bit like shutting the stable door once the horse has bolted.

The Remain campaign told us that the agreement would be ripped up as soon as we voted to leave the EU but it was obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense that the Le Touquet agreement is of huge benefit to both the UK and France. The French Minister of the Interior confirmed more than once during the referendum campaign that the Le Touquet agreement would not be cancelled and now President Hollande has confirmed that the agreement is here to stay.

German-Iranian terrorist murders children in Munich

An 18 year old German-Iranian has killed and injured a large number of people in Munich in the latest terrorist attack in mainland Europe.

Authorities say that the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" three times during his killing spree and it appears that he may have created a fake Facebook page to lure children into a McDonalds with the promise of free food before shooting them.

In the last fortnight we have seen a terrorist drive a truck through crowds of people in Nice killing 84 people, a terrorist attack a number of people on a train in Bavaria with an axe and knife and now this terrorist attack in Munich. We've also had the attempted abduction this week of an off-duty soldier in England by two men of middle eastern appearance.

Afghan "refugee" attacks train passengers with axe in Germany

A 17 year old Afghan "refugee" has been shot dead after going on the rampage with an axe on a German train.

The teenager came to Europe as an unaccompanied minor a few months ago and had been living with a foster family. He attacked passengers on a train he was travelling in with an axe before running away from the train where he was intercepted by police and shot dead. He was found to be carrying a knife as well as the axe.

One witness claims that the Afghan shouted "Allahu Akhbar" during the attack, suggesting it was an Islamic terrorist attack. It is believed that 21 people have been injured in the attack.

Commentators have been warning that the majority of so-called refugees coming to Europe are young, fit men of fighting age and that they look more like an army than refugees. But Angela Merkel was desperate to fill Germany's factories with cheap labour so she threw open the doors and made a whole continent a dangerous place to live. Terrorist attacks, rapes and physical attacks are a far too regular occurrence in cities with large populations of so-called refugees. Europe is a far more dangerous place than it was a few years ago and Angela Merkel shoulders most of the blame.

Reed Group sees 8% increase in job adverts since Brexit

The Chairman of recruitment company, the Reed Group, says that 150k more jobs were added to their website compared to the same period last year. This represents an 8% increase over last year.

Research by Reed Group shows that 83% of firms have no plans to freeze recruitment following the Leave vote in the EU referendum and for most it is business as usual. The research doesn't appear to say whether this is more or less than before the referendum but if it was more it would have been headline news given that James Reed supported the Remain campaign.

Reed expects the weaker pound to increase jobs in tourism and hospitality and says that jobs growth is across all sectors.

Turkey coup is over, Erdogan back in control

The coup in Turkey has failed overnight despite a section of the military taking control of Ankara and Istanbul.

Troops controlling the bridges across the Bosphorus in Istanbul surrendered and President Erdogan flew into the city to appear on TV.

The coup leaders underestimated the support for Erdogan who used an independent TV station to call for his supporters to take to the streets and defy the curfew. Thousands of people climbed on tanks and faced down troops, undermining the authority of the troops.

For now at least Erdogan is back in control but it remains to be seen how long the military top brass will stand by while he eats away at Turkey's secular state.

[UPDATED 22:19] Military coup in Turkey

The Turkish military have announced that they have deposed President Erdogan and are running the country.

People started reporting a military presence in Ankara about an hour ago and the closure of bridges across the Bosphorus. Tanks are on the streets and helicopters and jets are patrolling the airspace above the city. Skirmishes between the police and army have been reported whilst the police guarding the presidential palace are said to have been disarmed. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked in the country.

The Turkish Prime Minister denied there had been a coup shortly before the military's announcement.

*UPDATE*
The coup appears to have been successful and Erdogan is reported to have left the country in his private jet. Major airports are closed, TRT (the Turkish equivalent of the BBC) has been taken over by the military and a curfew has been imposed.

Top German companies employ just 54 of Germany's 1.1m "refugees"

The wheels are falling off Angela Merkel's immigrant wagon after research has shown that just 54 "refugees" have been given permanent jobs with Germany's big employers and 50 of those are with Deutsche Post.

Germany newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung contacted the top 30 listed companies in Germany to find out how many so-called refugees they were employing and the reason why they didn't employ more, or any at all. The reasons they gave were that the illegal immigrants were just too poorly qualified - even those who were doctors and engineers at home - by German standards.

To encourage German employers to give jobs to illegal immigrants the German government is proposing to allow companies to pay them less than minimum wage and has just introduced laws that will provide 100,000 taxpayer-subsidised jobs.

Immigration has put an enormous toll on German society. Over a million so-called refugees illegally travelled across Europe to Germany last year and a quarter of a million have travelled there this year so far. They don't speak German and are largely unemployable. There are too many people to integrate and large areas of the country are being ghettoised as a result.

Terrorist drives truck into crowds at #BastilleDay celebrations in Nice

A terrorist has driven a truck through crowds leaving a Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice killing at least 60 and injuring 100 more.

French officials have confirmed that it is a terrorist attack and that the driver is known to security services. There are unconfirmed reports of gunmen on the streets.

The EU political class have invited terrorists, rapists and murderers into Europe and denounced anyone who has warned of the danger as a racist or extremist. So successful have they been at this criminally irresponsible social engineering that women have lied about the identity of their rapists rather than admit that they were middle eastern. We are at war and the politicians who are supposed to be protecting us are leaving us defenceless. Serious action needs to be taken to stop the flow of people into Europe and to identify and remove those who are known to pose a risk to the public. No compromises, no human rights lawyers, just get them out and make us safe.

It's time to stand with our friends and neighbours in France against terrorist scum once again.

Judge rules violent paedophile illegal immigrant isn't risk to the public

A violent Somali paedophile has been awarded £105k compensation for unlawful detention.

The illegal immigrant was detained for 20 months after claiming asylum in the UK which the judge ruled was unjustified as he didn't pose a risk to the public.

The unnamed man is currently serving a 21 month sentence for sexually assaulting a child and has previously served a 16 month sentence for slashing someone in the face with a broken mirror. He can't be deported to Somalia because he claims to be gay and to have converted to Christianity.

Mr Justice Jay, the judge that said being a violent paedophile isn't a risk to the public

Microsoft reaffirms its commitment to the UK

Microsoft has reaffirmed its commitment to the UK after the Brexit vote despite scaremongering before the referendum that it might impact on jobs and investment.

The UK accounts for 6-7% of Microsoft's global revenues and its UK datacentres allow the company to tap into hundreds of millions of pounds of lucrative UK government business where strict rules prevent the transfer of data outside the UK.

During the referendum campaign the Remainiacs were spinning that Microsoft might cut jobs and investment if we voted to leave despite Microsoft signing a new 15 year lease on its Reading campus in 2013.

Hungary to hold referendum on relocation of illegal immigrants

Hungary is holding a referendum on whether to accept the EU's quotas for relocating illegal immigrants.

The Hungarians built a big fence across their border to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country, much to the anger of the EU's ruling elite who despise anything that looks like a border in the EU. They have refused to accept the EU's relocation of illegal immigrants which went through on the nod under the Qualified Majority Vote system.

The question will be:

Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?

PwC reports £500m new investment from banks

Around 20 banks and finance companies are planning to invest up to half a billion pounds in the UK following the EU referendum.

PricewaterhouseCoopers - one of the Remain campaign's corporate backers - says that £200m of investment has already been confirmed by a mixture of UK, European and non-EU companies with another £300m in their business plans.

Before the referendum PwC were spinning economic meltdown for the government.

Steve Crowther steps down as UKIP chairman

Steve Crowther has resigned as Party chairman today.

He has been planning his resignation for 12 months regardless of the result of the referendum.

Steve can be as much a Marmite character as Nigel Farage at times but he's the man who gets to translate all the policy decisions that Nigel and others make into action. Sometimes he even gets to know what those decisions are before they're broadcast live on TV!

Party Director, Paul Oakden, is stepping into the Chairman's role until a new leader is elected in September.

Here is Steve's statement in full:

I gave notice to the Party Leader some weeks ago that I would resign from the Chairmanship in July, following the Referendum, regardless of the result. Yesterday the NEC received my resignation and approved Nigel’s appointment of Paul Oakden to fill the role from the first of August until the new Leader is elected in September.

I agreed with Nigel a year ago, when it became clear that the Referendum would be coming sooner rather than later, that I would stay on until after the Referendum, to do whatever I could to help him achieve the great task of getting our country back.

It has been an enormous privilege to serve one of the towering political figures of our age, and play a small part in the Brexit win. I will now return to the party’s grassroots and do what I can to help rebuild the public’s confidence in our country’s future, which has been seriously damaged by the destructive narratives of the Remain campaign.

The UK is a great country, a world leader in many fields and a beacon of independence, tolerance and civil and human rights. We have an even brighter future ahead of us, now that we are once again able to chart it for ourselves. I hope that everyone – especially the young – will soon start to see the possibilities ahead, and embrace the future with the hope and enthusiasm it deserves.

Life after Nigel: Nuttall or Woolfe?

When the dust settles on Nigel Farage's resignation the big question will be who will take his place as leader of the UK's third largest party.

With Suzanne Evans currently serving a suspension she is unable to stand which leaves it as a two horse race between Paul Nuttall and Steven Woolfe.

Paul Nuttall is the current deputy leader and leader of the UKIP delegation in the EU Parliament. The working class boy from Bootle has done well for himself, working his way up through the ranks to be Party Chairman, Deputy Leader and getting elected as MEP for the north west of England. Paul is from an old Labour background, supports an English Parliament and campaigns for stronger ties with the Commonwealth.

Steven Woolfe is UKIP's economics spokesman and a criminal law barrister. Steven was born in the notorious Moss Side estate in Manchester and brought up not far away in Burnage. He was introduced to the party by Lord Pearson in 2010 and was quickly appointed economics spokesman by Nigel Farage. Steven is UKIP's highest ranking ethnic minority official and a campaigner for an ethical immigration policy based on merit.

Whoever takes over will have big shoes to fill. Nigel Farage took a single issue protest party and turned it into the UK's third largest party with elected representatives at all levels of government, the largest group of UK MEPs and made an EU referendum a reality.

Breaking: Nigel Farage steps down as leader

I have never been and never wanted to be a career politician.

I now feel I have done my bit.

Balearics bite the hand that feeds them

The regional government of the Balearics has introduced a tourist tax this weekend that will cost a family of four more than €100 on top of their holiday for a fortnight's stay.

The new tax costs €2 per person per night to stay in a 5* hotel and must be paid by anyone over 16 years of age. The tax is discounted if you stay more than 20 days or your accommodation is lower than 5*. The tax isn't included in the cost of package holidays and will come as a shock to the 13m visitors a year the islands get, most of whom will have booked their holidays before the tax was rushed through the regional parliament.

A Daily Express poll suggests that 7 out of 10 people would not travel to the Balearics as a result of this tourist tax which will decimate the already fragile Spanish economy.

The main holiday destinations in the Balearics are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

Graffiti in Palma. Tourism accounts for almost half the economy of Majorca.

Anti-democracy campaigners protest for an EU superstate #marchforeurope

Thousands of anti-democracy campaigners have descended on London to protest at losing the EU referendum.

Remain campaigners have made banners professing their love for the EU and the Lib Dems and their hatred of the Tories and democracy. They want a proper EU referendum where we have to keep on voting until they get the answer they want.

Several opinion polls since the referendum have found that there is no appetite for a second referendum.

UKIP hold Newington ward on Thanet District Council

UKIP candidate, Roy Potts, has won a by-election for the Newington ward on Thanet District Council.

The by-election was called after the resignation of UKIP councilor, Mo Leys, earlier in the year.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Roy Potts	UKIP	295	40.19
David Green	Labour	281	38.28
Adam Dark	Conservatives	125	17.03
Matthew Brown	Lib Dems	33	4.50

The UK is open for business and the world is knocking at our door

Two Republican senators have introduced a UK Trade Continuity Act to the US Senate to confirm existing Anglo-American trade agreements and establish a bilateral trade deal within 12 months.

Iceland has invited the UK to join a "triangle of nations" in the north Atlantic that aren't part of the EU. The President of Iceland seems to be envisaging a trade alliance with the UK, Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

New Zealand has offered to send its top trade negotiator to draw up a trade agreement between the UK and New Zealand whilst Australia and South Korea have called for "immediate talks" on free trade with the UK. India and Canada have also contacted the British government to start trade talks whilst Mexico has already drafted a free trade agreement in anticipation of a Brexit vote.

So much for being "back of the queue" and alone in the world.

Remain supporting rapper threatened to gang rape Nigel Farage's daughter

A rapper from Bradford has apologised after tweeting that he was going to gang rape one of Nigel Farage's daughters.

Shortly after news of Labour MP, Jo Cox's death "Lunar C" posted the picture of Syrian illegal immigrants that Nigel Farage used in his controversial immigration poster with a comment saying "Here's a pic of me n my pals on our way to run a train on @Nigel_Farage's daughter".

"Running a train" is slang for gang rape and it isn't clear from the tweet whether he was threatening to rape Nigel Farage's 15 year old daughter or his 9 year old daughter. "Lunar C" later deleted the tweet and apologised but when Twitter users criticised him for saying he was going to gang rape a child he complained that his words were being twisted.

Labour MP says the only people who have coloured skin are people who run takeaways

Can you imagine if anyone associated with UKIP had said this rather than Labour's Wayne David MP?


Hat-tip: Guido

FTSE 100 closes at highest point in a year

The FTSE 100 closed at 6,578 points today which is its highest point in almost a year.

So much for the global economic apocalypse the Remainiacs were predicting.

French Minister confirms (again) that Calais border controls will remain in UK hands

The French Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, has confirmed once again that the French government has no intention of reversing the Le Touquet agreement that allows the French to control their border in England and the UK to control our border in Calais.

Before the referendum the Minister said that scrapping juxtaposed border controls was "a foolhardy path, and one the government will not pursue". Monsieur Cazeneuve has reiterated that commitment this week, saying:

There is no reason to call it (the agreement) into question after the vote last Thursday. Doing this would send a very bad signal. The reality is that the Touquet agreement, which allows the intervention of British forces in Calais, just as it allows French forces in Dover, is not being called into question following the exit of the UK from the European Union.