UKIP hold Chatteris division on Cambridgeshire County Council

UKIP have held the Chatteris division on Cambridgeshire County Council in a by-election yesterday.

The seat became vacant after the incumbent Cllr Sandra Rylance sadly passed away from a brain tumour in August. Cllr Rylance was described by her colleagues as a tremendous lady, loyal, honest and trustworthy who will be sorely missed.

Richard Mandley has managed to hold on to the seat for UKIP with a slim majority but a 6.2% increase in votes.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Richard Mandley	UKIP	600	40.98
Alan Melton	Conservatives	590	40.30
John Freeman	Lib Dems	274	18.72

Unelected president of EU Commission demands £1.65bn to pay for immigration policy

The unelected president of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is demanding €2.25bn (£1.65bn) of funding to pay for the EU's disastrous immigration policy.

In a thinly veiled swipe at member states for not stumping up the cash they promised three weeks ago fast enough, Juncker said:

These pledges, in terms of staffing, in Greece and elsewhere, and generally – there is a significant amount of money not forthcoming, the member states are delaying the provision of the 2.25 billion which is still not available. That was a decision adopted on the 23rd of September. And now it’s a question of credibility – the credibility of the European Council and the member states as well, that they live up to their promises.

I guess £1.65bn is small change to someone who heads up institutions that loses tens of billions of pounds a year to fraud and waste.

The double referendum penny just dropped at the Telegraph

The Torygraph have finally realised what we've been saying for the last couple of years - the EU referendum we've been promised by 2017 isn't necessarily the only one we're going to get.

Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, any state wishing to leave the EU has to give two years' notice during which time it has to negotiate a new relationship with the EU. On the face of it, it's a sensible clause because it allows for a two year transitionary period where the exiting member state can get its treaties lined up ready to take effect on the day it leaves to govern its new relationship with the EU outside of the shackles of political union.

In reality, however, it's a "last gasp" clause to justify a second referendum. After a vote to leave, the EU is going to offer concessions for the member state to remain in. After extracting concessions from the usually intractable EU - a victory for the statesmanlike prime minister showing them lot in Brussels who's the boss of course - it would be perfectly reasonable to hold another referendum because things would be so much more different than they were when the first referendum was held. Just like the EU Constitution and Lisbon Treaty which were completely different and not at all the same thing with a different title and a change of payload.

A second referendum was so inevitable, in fact, that we helpfully pointed it out in this handy graphic from a couple of years ago ...

It's nice to see the media finally catching up with the real world.

UKIP still in control of Thanet District Council despite resignation

A UKIP Thanet councillor has left the UKIP group and joined the independents, losing UKIP its overall majority on the council.

Thanet District Council was the first major local authority to come under UKIP control and it is disappointing to see Cllr Jeff Elenor leave the UKIP group over a perceived lack of action with regard to reopening Manston airport when there are concerns from the council, the Department for Transport and consultants that the proposed buyer of Manston airport can't actually afford to run it.

Although UKIP is now 1 councillor short of an absolute majority there are still 28 UKIP councillors on Thanet District Council out of 58 and UKIP continue to lead the council. With a party like the Conservatives or Labour a majority matters because they whip their members but there is no whip in UKIP and therefore no guarantee that all UKIP councillors would vote the same way as their colleagues do.

The four UKIP councillors that have joined the Democratic Independents group over the last few months were clearly not travelling in the same direction as the rest of the UKIP group and were unlikely to vote with the party anyway making their defection largely irrelevant to the way the council is run.

Labour and Lib Dem peers want to give children the vote

Labour and Lib Dem peers are planning to join forces to allow impressionable school children to vote in the EU referendum.

Attempts to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds were defeated in the House of Commons but the Conservatives don't have a majority in the House of Lords and are likely to be outvoted. Although the Lords can't force the Commons to give children a vote in the EU referendum, Cameron can't really afford to turn down the opportunity of 1.5m voters being fed pro-EU propaganda through the education system to try and swing the vote his way.

Giving all those failed Lib Dem MPs peerages rather than creating UKIP peers who would almost certainly have voted against giving school children the vote probably isn't looking like such a good idea any more eh Dave?

Jean-Claude Juncker admits the UK doesn't need the EU

The unelected president of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has admitted that the UK doesn't need the EU.

Juncker was heard saying:

I am 150 per cent in favour of having Britain as a constructive member state of the European Union. We need Britain. Personally I don’t think Britain needs European Union. But as a matter of conviction others might have a different feeling on that.

Nigel Farage has offered to buy Juncker a bottle of champagne for his comments.

Cecilia Malmström doesn't take her mandate from the people

When asked by a journalist how she could continue with TTIP negotiations when there is such mass opposition to it across the EU the MEP leading the secret negotiations that even national governments are being denied access to, Cecilia Malmström, said:

I do not take my mandate from the European people

Cameron's "key demands" for EU reform have finally been made public and they're nonsense

David Cameron has finally revealed his four "key demands" from the EU. Try not to be too underwhelmed.

Here's what he wants:

• An "explicit statement" that the UK will be exempt from ever closer union
• An "explicit statement" that the €uro isn't the official currency of the EU
• A "red card" system so that groups of national parliaments can veto laws and directives
• A new structure for the EU to prevent the €urozone countries dominating non-€urozone countries

You'll notice the absence of the phrase "treaty change" which means that even if the EU agrees to everything he's asking for word for word it's absolutely unenforceable. An "explicit statement" isn't legally enforceable and a promise from the EU is worthless. They promised our money wouldn't be spent on guaranteeing Greek bonds this year and then guaranteed Greek bonds with our money. They make promises all the time and then do whatever they want. If it's not written down in a treaty it means nothing and even then you have to rely on EU courts to uphold the law.

Ever-closer union is mentioned in EU treaties but it's a political statement, it doesn't actually make anything happen or not happen other than on an ideological level. A statement that the UK is "exempt" from ever closer union is a political statement and will change nothing here or elsewhere in the EU which would remain committed to ever closer union.

Whether the €uro is the official of the EU or not is irrelevant. The UK has an opt-out from adopting the €uro which can only be taken away with treaty change and the Germans have already said there will be no treaty changes in the next few years.

This proposed "red card" system is the existing veto system by another name and isn't going to apply to the areas now covered by Qualified Majority Voting. The requirement for "groups of national parliaments" to come together to stop a law or directive is particularly weak. It sounds like the plan is for a minimum number of countries to be able to veto laws which is weaker than the existing veto system and the UK is more often than not on its own when it comes to opposing EU directives.

A new structure for the EU is unnecessary other than excising the UK from it. The UK is only bound by those €urozone obligations it chooses to submit to. The UK isn't dominated in the EU by €urozone members because they're €urozone members, it just happens that the EU is run by and for the benefit of Germany and France and they are the lead countries in the €urozone. Whether the €urozone existed or not, we would still be dominated by the eurofederalists.

Interestingly there is no mention of restricting free movement of people which is eurospeak for unlimited immigration. David Cameron has made numerous promises to cut immigration and secure concessions from the EU to stem the tide of unskilled economic immigrants and benefits tourists from the poorer EU countries. He's failed to stop immigration rising and been knocked back by the EU on rule changes every time he's mentioned it. Angela Merkel has made it very clear that the principle of free movement of people is inviolable and no concessions will be made. The message has clearly sunk in at last if it's not on Cameron's list of "key demands".

As expected, Cameron's watered down list of demands for changes to our relationship with the EU skirt round the issues and will make no real change to how the EU works or the UK's place in it. The only compromises are those made by Cameron who is going to have an impossible job selling this renegotiation to his own MPs, let alone the voting public who know when they're being taken for fools.

Go Team Vanessa! Do your bit with a tweet or two! Support UKIP Bournemouth East!

The first two episodes of BBC4's new reality show 'Close to the Edge' went out last night - and more to come for the next four Tuesdays.

One of the stars is UKIP's Vanessa Coleman a top local fund raiser and activist!

This is some of the most positive coverage of UKIP I have seen on BBC - and Vanessa was very brave to do it.

UKIP detractors will be out on social media on the attack, so it would be good if UKIP supporters could give her their backing and support her putting UKIP in a good light on national TV.

It is a reality show, so don't expect car chases and explosions :) - but rivalry like that between Vanessa and Babs hasn't been seen since Dallas!

So do watch, do get onto social media (especially twitter) and give Vanessa your support on the hash tag #CTTE - every little helps!

And, of course, follow her weekly podcast on http://www.radiofreeuk.org

Charity to stop providing aid to illegal immigrants in Calais

The Human Relief Foundation charity is expected to stop providing aid to the illegal immigrant camp in Calais after its chief executive paid a visit and found that 95-97% of the illegal immigrants there were male economic migrants.

HRF has been providing food and clothes for families to the camp in Calais but chief executive Kassim Tokan found that the unneeded clothing for women and children was discarded or burnt and unwanted food was dumped. He said that the illegal immigrants are mainly interested in getting hold of cash and mobile phones and that HRF would now probably refocus on helping to build shower blocks and toilets rather than providing aid.

Bahar Mustafa charged with malicious communications

A student union "diversity officer" who tweeted #killallwhitemen and calls white people "white trash" has been summonsed to appear before Bromley Magistrates Court to answer charges of disseminating racially motivated malicious communications.

Bahar Mustafa was the student union diversity officer at Goldsmiths University when she achieved infamy for banning white men and straight people from university diversity workshops, used the phrase "white trash" to describe white people and the hashtag #killallwhitemen on social media. A petition was launched to have her sacked which was signed by more than 21,000 people but Goldsmiths let her keep her job.

Mustafa has been charged with sending a letter, communication or article conveying a threatening message and sending by public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing message or matter between November 10th, 2014, and May 31st this year. She claims that she can't be racist because she's an ethnic minority woman.

Mustafa graduated with an MA in gender and media studies which probably goes some way to explaining why Goldsmiths is a relatively lowly 50th in the UK universities league table if an out and out racist, sexist and heterophobe can get a masters in gender studies.

Labour MP accuses Nigel Farage of misusing EU funds

Labour MP, Wes Streeting, has reported Nigel Farage to the EU for using EU funding to partly pay for his Say no to the EU tour of the UK.

Streeting wrote to the unelected president of the EU Commission, Martin Schultz, asking him to investigate whether Farage has broken any rules by using money allocated to the EFDD for his tour. He said "Nigel Farage has a catalogue of questions to answer about whether he is spending taxpayers’ money on his campaign and breaching European Parliament rules".

MEP groups in the EU Parliament are given funding to pay for their administration, producing information about the EU, EU election campaigns and meetings and conferences where the expenditure is "directly linked to the objectives set out in the party's political programme".

The Say no the EU tour is part of the EFDD group's political programme to give UK citizens information on how the EU works and why we would be better off out. The tour is an EFDD event headed by EFDD co-president, Nigel Farage MEP. It is directly linked to the objectives set out in the EFDD's political program which is to promote freedom and co-operation between member states; more democracy and respect of peoples' will; respect for Europe's history, traditions and cultural values and; respect for national differences and interests.

Labour know that public opinion is against them in their irrational crusade to keep the UK shackled to an undemocratic, morally and financially bankrupt European Union and that is why they are resorting to such desperate measures to close down the flow of information from the EFDD group.

Not exactly Bollywood ...

This has got to be one of the most cringeworthy campaign videos in the history of politics!

Word is, someone paid a couple of people in Pakistan to record the video without the party leadership knowing about it.

"Therese Hirst" is former Veritas candidate, Therese Muchewicz. Presumably her name was a bit too foreign sounding for the English Democrats and the BNP rejects that they've recruited into the party. Hirst/Muchewicz got just 98 votes in this year's general election which is quite good for the English Democrats who regularly lose to the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Far left extremists help illegal immigrants break into Channel Tunnel

Far left extremist group "No Borders" are believed to have helped a group of 200 illegal immigrants break into the Channel Tunnel.

Up to 120 of the illegal immigrants made it 10 miles into the tunnel, attacking security and police officers. The majority of the illegal immigrants are Sudanese and Eritrean.

Fences were torn down and stones thrown at lorries and port staff with injuries to staff and two police officers. The self-styled anarchists helped pull down fences and guide the illegal immigrants to the tunnel.

Car smoking ban should be welcomed by libertarians

Smoking in a car with children present became illegal in England today. Whilst the general public are largely behind the ban there is a section of society that believes what you do with your own children and your own property is your own concern and that the ban is illiberal.

I like to think of myself as a libertarian (although those of an anarcho-libertarian bent would probably disagree) and I have no problem reconciling my libertarian principles with this ban.

The central tenet of libertarianism is that you should be free to do what you want as long as you aren't hurting anyone else without their consent. It's for this reason that I think prosecuting adults for not wearing a helmet whilst riding a motorbike or not wearing a seatbelt is wrong. Of course it's for their own safety and they'd be stupid not to do so but if they have an accident and kill themselves they're not putting someone else in danger by doing so. An adult of sound mind is able to make that decision.

Children can't choose whether to get into a car with an adult who is smoking. If they are in a car and the driver lights up they can't demand they stop and let them out. Whilst the driver is perfectly within their rights to smoke in their own car if they wish and in the company of other adults if they consent to being in the car at the same time, any children in the car are unable to consent to having their health put at risk from passive smoking any more than they can consent to sex, piercings, contractual obligations, etc. Children don't have the mental or legal capacity to consent to self harm in the way that adults do and it is proven beyond doubt that cigarette smoke (including second hand smoke) is harmful to a person's health.

Libertarianism isn't about having no rules and nobody telling you what to do, that's anarchism. Banning smoking in cars with children present is protecting someone who can't protect themselves and absolutely compatible with libertarian principles. I for one welcome the ban and hope that the police take enforcement of the ban seriously.