UKIP line up for Freedom2Choose Meeting

Members of Northern England Freedom2Choose will be meeting this Saturday 11 April at The Painters Arms Public House, 35 Bradford Road, Drighlington, Bradford, West Yorkshire. This regular event attracts visitors from throughout Northern England who are concerned with the erosion of civil liberties and choice, particularly in relation to the smoking ban.

MEP Godfrey Bloom (UKIP Yorkshire MEP) will be amongst the speakers attending the meeting, which commences at 2pm, along with Jason Smith (UKIP Bradford) and Nick Hogan (UKIP Chorley) to offer support for the Freedom2Choose national campaign to amend the smoking ban. Godfrey Bloom MEP is expected to speak at 4pm.

Pro-choice group Freedom2Choose hold regular meetings throughout the country and now boast over 4.5 million supporters. Freedom2Choose are a non-political, unfunded, voluntary organisation seeking to demonstrate that suitable alternatives exist to accommodate smokers and non-smokers alike.

John Baker, Freedom2Choose Secretary and organiser of the event states, “The landlords are delighted that Godfrey Bloom continues to take an interest in the draconian smoking ban, as the ban has devastated the licensed trade. They are interested in hearing the UKIP policy on the smoking ban and are expecting more visitors than usual at this gathering. All new-comers and guests are more than welcome to attend.”

The current smoking ban legislation in force within the UK is one of the most stringent within Europe and Freedom2Choose is campaigning for a reform to place the UK more in line with the majority of the other EU countries.

UKIP Save the pub party broadcast Channel 4 Thursday

Check your TV guides. This Thursday 9th of April Channel 4 will show a UKIP Save the pub party broadcast!. The broadcast will feature UKIP leader Nigel Farage explaining the importance of pubs and our campaign. The programme will start at at 18:55. I hope you are able to catch it.

For more information and to sign the Save the Pub petition, go to www.savethepub.co.uk. To read UKIP's "Pubs and Smoking" policy paper, please click HERE

Save the Pub Campaign Update

UKIP Hartlepool counillors have joined the partys nationwide campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of British pubs.Steve Allison and Martyn Aiken handed over 1,000 beer mats to the landlady at the Owton Lodge pub, in Stockton Road in Hartlepool.

The beer mats are part of UKIPs nationwide campaign to highlight the effect the smoking ban has had on pubs.UKIP wants to see landlords given the power to decide whether to allow separate smoking rooms on their premises. They are also calling for the tax on real ales to be cut to support traditional beers.

Coun Allison, of the St Hilda ward, said: "UKIP believes pubs know their own customer base better than 'the man from Whitehall.' It should be the landlords who decide if their pub is non smoking or not and if they want a designated smoking room they should be allowed to have one as long as it is correctly signposted and the staff don't mind.

"Depending on what figures you read there are four or five pubs going out of business every day because of overtaxing and over zealous health and safety laws. That is a great shame because pubs are great social venues and surely it is better to have people drinking in a controlled environment like a pub.

"The punitive level of taxation on beer and spirits in pubs also reduces sales volume and hence revenue, forcing many pubs out of business."

Landlady June Hollifield, who has been at the Owton Lodge for five years, said:
"I think it is a fantastic idea and anything that supports British pubs should be celebrated. "I was given 1,000 beer mats and they will be placed around the pub."

Gordon Parkin, UKIP's lead candidate for the European Parliament elections in June, was also present at the North East launch. Mean while the Vale of Glamorgan UKIP branch have got thousands of beermats out in over 20 pubs the landlords there actually gathered all their existing mats in straight away to replace them with UKIP ones.

''Three of the pub landlords have already got 'Vote UKIP' posters up inside their premises after requesting them off us'' We literally can't get enough of the mats to satisfy demand. Local branch chairman Kevin Mahoney told us.

Else where UKIP Bradford have also been busy and even managed to cause quite a stir in one of the pubs. If you havnt already signed the petition you can do here