Saturday 30 August 2014

Survation poll for Mail on Sunday predicts "UKIP by-election bloodbath" in Clacton


Tomorrow's Mail on Sunday has the results of some astonishing Survation polling in Clacton following the defection of Tory MP, Douglas Carswell.

With the headline "Cameron faces UKIP by-election bloodbath" the Mail reports that 64% of voters in Clacton intend to vote UKIP and 91% of those because they like UKIP or Carswell. The Tory spin that voting UKIP will let Miliband become Prime Minister has failed to resonate with Clacton voters with 69% saying it makes no difference to their voting intentions.

Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill all have UKIP and Douglas Carswell odds on favourite to win the Clacton by-election:

Ladbrokes: UKIP 1/10

Paddy Power: UKIP 1/7

William Hill: UKIP 1/4
The full results in tomorrow's Mail are as follows:


Lib Dem Mayor and Lib Dem and Labour councillors resign over sex offender taxi drivers


The Lib Dem Mayor of Milton Keynes, Cllr Subhan Shafiq, has resigned after personally vouching for a convicted sex offender to allow him to become a taxi driver.

Two other councillors - Lib Dem councillor Stuart Burke and Labour councillor Gladstone McKenzie - have also resigned from their posts for their part in allowing sex offenders drive taxis in the city but will remain councillors.

A number of sex offenders and people who "caused the council concern" were found to have "inexplicably" been given taxi drivers' licences during a review of taxi drivers by the council. It was subsequently found that the three had been involved in the decision to grant the licences.


Broxtowe Labour councillor urged to resign over racist remark


A Labour town and borough councillor in Nottinghamshire has been urged to resign after calling a German resident "Eva Brown".

Cllr Andy Cooper, who sits on Kimberley Town Council and Broxtowe Borough Council, made the comment in an email to fellow councillors. One of them was so disgusted with what he said that she resigned. The German resident that Cllr Cooper was referring to was a Labour town councillor until last month and says that she is offended by him calling her by the name of Hitler's mistress which she feels are made against her because of her race and heritage - a criminal offence that carries a maximum sentence of 7 years in prison.


Friday 29 August 2014

UKIP Crawley councillor resigns

Crawley's only UKIP councillor has resigned today as he no longer has the time to commit to the job.

The surprise announcement comes just 24 hours after Cllr Karl Williamson, who defected from the Conservatives, informed the leader of the UKIP Crawley branch of his decision.
It is with regret to announce that I will be resigning from my position as councillor for Southgate with immediate effect.

I have tendered my resignation to the Head of Legal & Democratic Services at the town hall.

Lately, my full time work schedule has become increasingly busy, which has resulted in me spending a lot of time out of the country.

Southgate deserves a councillor who can commit a large percentage of their time to the town, and I am no longer in a position to do that.
We often hear of LibLabCon councillors refusing to resign their seats even if they move hundreds of miles away so it's great to see this great example from a UKIP councillor.


Guildford Conservative councillor charged with fraud, deception and pretending to be a barrister

A Conservative councillor in Guildford has been charged with forgery, fraud by false representation, obtaining monetary advantage by deception and wilfully pretending to be a barrister.

Cllr Monika Juneja claimed that the investigation into her falsely claiming to be a barrister was a racist campaign against her to undermine the council's local plan. She had used forge letters and qualifications to obtain legal roles at several councils over a 14 year period.

Juneja will appear before Guildford Magistrates Court next Tuesday to answer all seven charges.


Labour activist threatened with expulsion over homophobia named as one of their top activists


The Labour Party activist threatened with expulsion from his party for making homophobic comments about one of his Lib Dem rivals and eventually reported to the police over his offensive remarks has made number 9 on Labour North West's leaderboard for making political capital.

This slightly juvenile leaderboard gives points to Labour activists and politicians whenever they make political capital out of something. Ed Miliband is of course at the top of the list which says a lot about the political prowess of Labour politicians but it was surprising to find Stephen Poulson on the list at all with his behaviour over the last couple of years, let alone having his prehistoric attitudes glorified by putting him on a top 10 list of political activists.


Leicester Labour councillor in trouble again


The Leicester Labour councillor and former Lord Mayor convicted of firearms offences earlier this year has been found guilty of breaching the councillors' code of conduct by having five parking fines from 2010 cancelled by officers.

Cllr Robert Wann was investigated by the council's standards committee after a whistleblower reported him. The standards committee found him guilty of bringing the council into disrepute by getting the parking fines cancelled and securing a parking exemption for himself that he wasn't entitled to.


FIRST TORY COUNCILLOR TO DEFECT TO UKIP DUE TO CARSWELL


Sevenoaks politics just became more interesting with the announcement that Conservative Councillor Chris Neal, who represents Cowden and Hever on Sevenoaks District Council has joined UKIP.
Mr Neal said, “On a whole range of issues, both at a local and national level I feel that the Conservatives no longer have the interests of ordinary people at heart. UKIP is, today the party of hope and aspiration.”
In his letter of resignation to his former party he highlighted the way in which the Conservative Council had raised local taxes which have hit local small businesses. The way in which it has allowed development on the Green Belt and the way it interferes in people’s private life.
On the bigger national picture Mr Neal said that the Tories position on an EU referendum, by kicking the can down the road to 2017 is “an outrage and an insult to democracy”. He was also disappointed in the party’s failure to stick to its manifesto commitment to reform blamed on coalition with the Lib Dems.
“Was the capitulation on so many good policies worth it just to occupy No.10?”
He went on “I had thought of staying quiet until next May but after witnessing Douglas Carswell (in my opinion a man of great integrity, one of the most erudite, loyal, intelligent, clear thinking and effective Conservative back benchers) resign and join UKIP today I believe I should make my views known.
I am happy to continue serving the citizens of Cowden, Four Elms, Hever and Mark Beech until next election at which point I will step down.”
Nigel Farage the UKIP leader and Kent MEP said, “I am delighted to welcome Chris to the party. I am sure he will, with Cllr Stephen Lindsay work hard to represent his constituents and UKIP in Sevenoaks”.

Wigan Lib Dem porn councillor censured by standards committee

A Wigan Lib Dem councillor who resigned from the party in the new year after being caught with porn on his council laptop has been found guilty of breaching council rules over an incident in April where he altered the contents of an email to try and jeopardise the jobs of two council employees.

Cllr Robert Bleakley was censured by the Wigan Council's standards committee, ordered to attend one-to-one training sessions and will have his council emails monitored for 12 months, reduced to 6 months if he co-operates.

Bleakley has previously been investigated by the police and the now-defunct Standards Board for England and was disqualified from being a councillor for a period of time.

Hounslow Labour councillor applies to have indecent assault charge dismissed

Hounslow Labour councillor, Gurpal Virdi, has applied to have an indecent assault charge against him dismissed.

Virdi was suspended by the Labour Party just before the local elections in May after he was charged by the Metropolitan Police with the indecent assault of boy under the age of 16 in 1986 and misconduct in public office. The offences date back to when he was a Police officer in the Met.

His case will be heard on September 29th.

Thursday 28 August 2014

Douglas Carswell MP defects to UKIP

Conservative MP Douglas Carswell has defected to UKIP this morning and is resigning his seat to trigger a by-election.

The Clacton seat that Carswell represents until he appointed a Crown officer (the legal loophole used to resign as an MP as it's not actually possible to resign) was created by splitting the Harwich constituency in 2010. He won the seat in the 2010 general election by a whopping majority with 53% of the vote.

The by-election that Carswell will be contesting as the UKIP candidate will be a three way battle between Labour, UKIP and the Conservatives. This is probably the best chance UKIP has of winning a Westminster election before the general election next year. Carswell is well liked as an MP and his eurosceptic and libertarian credentials are off the scale following his defection.

There's no doubt about it, this is a massive boost for the people's army and a devastating blow for David Cameron.


Rotherham: How Much Did Jack Straw and other Senior Labour Figures Really Know about "Kuffar Rape Culture"?

Firstly, let's for once call a spade a spade. The terrible crimes committed in Rotherham are almost ubiquitously described as being committed by 'Asian' men against white women. However, the men involved appear to have come from only a subset of 'Asians' - those of the Islamic faith. Since other Asians such as Hindus, Chinese, Thais etc seem completely absent from this role call of shame in Rotherham using the generic term "Asian" to describe the perpetrators is not only deeply insulting but also appallingly racist.

Instead, it would appear at least highly likely that the motives for the attacks were sectarian. The poor girls involved were not used and exploited because  they were white, but because they were kuffar (unbelievers). Of course most muslims would categorically reject that such hideous offences were justifiable, but it is undeniably the case that the Koran contains many verses advocating violence and suppression towards unbelievers who are considered inferior in Islam. Other verses are clearly misogynistic, with women repeatedly described as being unequal to men in matters of law and inheritance, for example. To cap it all, some verses in the Koran can be interpreted as allowing the rape of women taken as slaves (though this is disputed). It is therefore not hard to see how some interpretations of the Koran could lead to a culture where the hideous crimes that occurred could be morally justified in the minds of the perpetrators. This is not an "Asian" problem, it is an Islamic one.

The Labour Party has, of course, been largely and despicably silent on the issue. Condemnation has up to now been rightly concentrated on Rotherham City Council and South Yorkshire Police, but we should, perhaps, be casting the net more widely.

One of the first things New Labour did when it came into office in 1997 was to abolish the Primary Purpose Rule, which barred a marriage between a UK citizen and a foreign national whose  "primary purpose" was to gain entry into the UK. Labour's justification for the change at the time was the rule was cruel and unfair, but it was widely interpreted then and now as being done to deliver the muslim vote for Labour.

The primary purpose rule certainly did make life difficult for legitimate couples and no doubt resulted in some injustices. However, it also had the very welcome effect of keeping the lid on the evil practice of forced marriage, which was certainly known to be an existing and growing problem in muslim and Indian communities as far back as the 1970s and 80s. Since it's abolition under New Labour, there has been a very significant increase in the number of foreign-born spouses and relatives gaining entry into the UK, particularly from the Indian sub-continent. Unsurprisingly, the problem of forced marriage in those British communities derived from that part of the world has also grown. Jack Straw, the Labour Home Secretary at the time, must have known that this was likely, but went ahead with the change anyway.

The question is, then, is how much did senior New Labour figures know of the terrible sub-cultures developing towards young women in British muslim communities at the time? Some of the 1,400 offences in Rotherham date back to 1997, the year Labour assumed power, and most took place during New Labour's tenure in office. Moreover, a great many Labour MP's, including Straw himself, sat - and sit - in Parliament for constituencies with large muslim minorities. The problems unearthed in Rotherham are highly unlikely to be specific to that one community, so it beggars belief that cases of the kind weren't brought to the attention of at least some of them. In which case, were there suspicions that the rape of young women, whether because they were white or non-muslims, was becoming a widespread problem even before Labour assumed power? If so, why on earth was it thought sensible to instigate changes to the law which were likely to demographically increase the prevalence of those sub-cultures in Britain at the same time as promoting the now utterly discredited doctrine of multiculturalism, which crippled the ability of society to deal with such issues?

Jack Straw and Labour generally certainly have questions to answer. Until they put their heads above the parapet and end their despicable silence, the suspicion will linger that they were perfectly happy to trade the rape of working class girls for muslim votes.

Shaun Wright refuses to resign over Rotherham child abuse report

The disgraced Police & Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, Shaun Wright, has resigned from the Labour Party but is refusing to resign as PCC.

The former Labour councillor was responsible for the social services department of Rotherham Borough Council for five years while it facilitated the rape and abuse of 1,400 vulnerable children. Nobody at Rotherham Borough Council has been punished for their criminal neglect, nor have the police launched an investigation into the staff and councillors who knew about the abuse but failed to act on it.

Shaun Wright's position is simply untenable and if he had a shred of decency in him he would have resigned as soon as the report came out instead of clinging on, maintaining the pretence that he still has credibility in the role.


Wednesday 27 August 2014

Labour Mayor of Salford facing malfeasance investigation

The Labour Mayor of Salford, Ian Stewart, is facing an investigation into a secret bail out deal for the Salford Red Devils rugby league team.

The Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and the council's Monitoring Officer came to an agreement in 2013 to bail out the rugby club without informing the Chief Executive of the council and without minuting the meeting so it wouldn't go to the Scrutiny Panel. Three days later the Monitoring Officer took voluntary severance, he was paid £129k severance pay and his next month's salary a month early and a few weeks later he was working as a consultant for Salford Red Devils rugby club.

The Labour councillors who control the council's Scrutiny Committee blocked an independent investigation and voted to accept a wishy washy internal report instead.


Labour leader of Wrexham council sacks councillor for raising concerns about social services

The Leader of Wrexham County Borough Council, Cllr Neil Rogers, has sacked fellow Labour councillor Malcolm King from his job as Lead Member for Policy, Finance, Performance and Governance after he raised concerns about the running of the council's social services department raised by social workers.

The timing of this sacking, just 24 hours after the release of the report into Rotherham Borough Council's facilitation of rape and abuse of 1,400 vulnerable children, is frankly astonishing. Cllr King has previously uncovered details of historic child abuse in Wrexham and his concerns - especially if raised by social workers - should certainly be listened to.

Do these people never learn?

Labour councillor charged with dangerous driving and attempted wounding

A Labour councillor in Brent has been suspended by his local party after being charged with dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident and attempted wounding with intent.

Cllr Zaffar Van Kalwala pleaded innocent at Hendon Magistrates Court and was granted unconditional bail.


Nigel Farage selected for South Thanet

Nigel Farage has been selected to contest South Thanet at next year's general election.

It was largely a foregone conclusion that Farage would be selected at last night's hustings in Ramsgate but there have been upsets of this sort in the past with candidate selection which, unlike other parties, is a matter for local branches to decide. ITV News was certainly spinning that it was a done deal last night because of the amount of press at the hustings not realising that even if Farage hadn't been selected it would be a positive media story for UKIP - there would have been ten times as much coverage and it would have proven that UKIP is a party so committed to democracy that its leader can be rejected for a target seat by ordinary members. Farage's selection in South Thanet was a foregone conclusion because he is the candidate most likely to secure a victory by a country mile and because the members want him, not because it was engineered by head office.

South Thanet experienced a purple revolution at the local elections this year and that electoral success was followed with a by-election victory for the district council. People in Thanet are on the frontier of the battle against unfettered immigration and are fed up of the waste and incompetence of their Labour and Tory councillors. Only UKIP can beat Labour in Thanet.


Tuesday 26 August 2014

Rotherham Council child snatchers allowed 1,400 children to be raped and abused

An independent report commissioned by Rotherham Borough Council into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham from 1997 to 2013 has found that the council covered up and facilitated the rape and abuse of as many as 1,400 children as young as 11 years old by Pakistani and Kashmiri paedophiles.

This is the same council that took two foster children off a couple because they were UKIP members and the social workers didn't agree with their politics. The very same people and their predecessors allowed 1,400 children be subjected to rape and assault over a 16 year period by Pakistani and Kashmiri paedophiles because they didn't want to be accused of racism. Nobody at Rotherham Council has been punished for this and there are no plans to punish anyone.

This level of neglect has surely got to be criminal, why aren't the police prosecuting? Could it possibly be because the Police & Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire Police was Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Rotherham Borough Council for five years while this was going on? Still, he's said sorry. That makes up for 1,400 destroyed lives.

Former Cabinet Member for Childrens' Services at Rotherham Borough Council, now Police & Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire Police, Shaun Wright.

SNP councillor who lives in Austria missed 40 out of 47 meetings last year

An SNP councillor in Gordon Brown's constituency of Kirkcaldy has admitted to living in Austria and only visiting Scotland once every 5 weeks.

Cllr Arthur Morrison lives and works in Austria and travels to Fife once every 5 weeks when he attends a council meeting if one is being held. Last year he attended just 7 of 47 council meetings but nothing can be done to replace him with someone who actually lives in the country because he meets the legal criteria of properly qualifying to stand at the time of the election and attending at least one meeting every 6 months.

Cllr Morrison is paid £16,234 in allowances and sits on five committees. He admits that the SNP have some concerns about his lack of attendance but says Labour's criticism of him is "hysterical".


Friday 22 August 2014

Have UKIP Betrayed Their Principles? - In Reply To @Wallaceme

Mark Wallace of ConservativeHome fame posted an article on his site yesterday, claiming that recent UKIP's policy announcements showed that the party had started to betray it's principles in return for  a chance in power.  Several hours later he was chortling on Twitter that he still hadn't received a decent response to his article from UKIP.

I am not sure if Mark meant an official response or not. Certainly I don't speak for the party officially, but here is a reply to some of his points.

 "It seems the libertarian tag they’ve worn for so long has been unceremoniously ditched. I’d argue they haven’t been meaningfully libertarian for quite some time - supporting the ban on same sex couples getting married, calling to ban the burqa and so on – but this is still a change in how they view and present themselves."

Here Mark has half a point but only half: it is plainly the case that the party has been drifting in a more socially conservative direction for a considerable time. However, this is hardly new news, and it is slightly disingenuous of him to present it as such. In any case, the party has never been purely Libertarian - from what I recall it's official line has always been anti-drug legalisation, for example.

He then goes on to wreck his own argument by bizarrely offering gay marriage as some sort of Libertarian litmus test, showing once again the weird preoccupations of the London elite and how estranged they are from the rest of us. Whatever the rights or wrongs of that particular issue, one thing it could not be said to do was add substantially to the sum of human liberty: it affects perhaps only 3-5% of the population and most of the rights that marriage offers were already available through civil partnerships. You can think of literally scores of issues where a Libertarian position would have vastly more impact on people's lives: localism, devolution, taxation, school vouchers, planning permission and so on. The grand daddy of Libertarian issues is, of course, the right to self government and the necessity of leaving the EU to achieve that. THAT is the true Libertarian litmus test, and one where UKIP has had a vastly better track record than any other party, including his own.

"Ukip has looked into public sector pensions: “I have, and then got very scared and ran away.” After a few moments, Aker adds that: “We haven’t looked into it.” He is clear, however, that Ukip will not suggest an increase in the retirement age."

This is Mark's strongest point. Tim Aker's remarks about public sector pensions certainly seem foolish. UKIP clearly should look at this issue because of the demographic realities he rightly points out. However, he then goes one to weaken his own position but making the glib assertion that:

"Similarly, the facts of an ageing demographic are undeniable and well known. As the population ages, retirement ages must also rise – it’s simple mathematics."

No - it isn't that simple at all. The major problem is that although we are living longer, it is not necessarily the case that we retain the abilities we need to work longer. Here Mark perhaps betrays a middle class Tory bias in his thinking whereas UKIP, as a more working class party, can not afford to be so simplistic. Because physical strength declines before cognitive abilities, raising the retirement age impacts far more on those doing manual work than it does in professional occupations. With luck, a lawyer or a doctor may be perfectly able to function in their professions into their 70s. That is simply not the case if you are mending the roads with a jackhammer. No wonder working class Toryism is dying when the Tories seem to have completely lost touch with their concerns. Thanks for all those ex-supporters, though, Mark - much appreciated.

Mark then opines that we are following LidDem tactics of telling different audiences what they want to here and it will cause us future trouble:


"In short, UKIP have just done exactly what they accuse the “LibLabCon” of doing – putting their chances of advancement at the ballot box ahead of the principles and national interest which they claim to hold dear. It’s an understandable decision, in some ways, but it’s also a massive cheek."

Here pots and kettles come to mind. After all, Mark belongs to a party that not only thinks it cool to junk virtually all of it's previously held principles but to deliberately humiliate it's own activists and supporters in the process. 

Of course he is right that if we did follow the LibDem route of total lack of principle we would store up considerable trouble in the future, and rightly so. However, it is rather too early on the basis of one or two policies to say that is what the party is doing.  No political party serious about government campaigns on a platform of absolute ideological purity and UKIP are no exception: it's a matter of degree.

Finally, in response to his rather condescending tweat asking why UKIP hasn't responded formally to him, perhaps he would like to reflect that as his dying and decaying party fades from the scene, what it's spokesmen have to say is of less and less interest to anyone.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Dan Hannan's dishonest spinning for the Tories

Dan Hannan: UKIP in his
heart, Tory in his pocket
It never ceases to amaze me how many UKIP supporters idolise Tory MEP, Dan Hannan. Yes, he writes good articles on the evils of the EU but they're nothing more than wordy recruitment posters. He makes the occasional speech having a pop at the EU but they're a pale imitation of the speeches made by Nigel Farage, Paul Nuttall, Roger Hemler and other UKIP MEPs.

What attracts eurosceptics to Dan Hannan isn't so much what he says or does, it's the false hope he represents that the eurosceptic core of the Conservative Party has any meaningful influence over the leadership. But then that's his job. That's why an outspoken critic of the EU and the party leadership's stance on the EU is even allowed on the shortlist to become an MEP, let alone given a platform. If he was an MP in a safe seat rather than an MEP he'd have been deselected and probably had the whip taken off him by now. He is a recruitment tool for the Tories, someone to hoover up eurosceptic votes that the openly pro-EU Conservative Party wouldn't normally get.

Dan Hannan wrote an article yesterday on his Telegraph blog on why he hasn't joined UKIP and why everyone should vote for the Conservatives next year. It is such a comprehensively dishonest piece of propaganda that it needs to be taken to pieces point by dishonest point.
For me, the main issue in politics is shuffling off the dead coil of EU membership.
For the voting public it isn't. If it was, UKIP would be in government now. From memory, the EU ranked seventh last year in the list of gripes in the annual British Social Attitudes survey and YouGov concluded that it was sixth in the list of priorities. "Banging on about the EU" doesn't win elections.
But now the party has adopted a spread of domestic policies aimed at picking up disillusioned voters. It has every right to campaign on whatever issues it wants, obviously. But it is no longer focused on getting out of the EU and, in consequence, is prepared to subordinate that goal to its wider electoral interests.
The SNP was formed as a political party in 1934 as a single issue campaign for Scottish independence. They campaigned for many years before that as a campaign group. It took them 11 years to get their first MP in a by-election which they lost 3 months later in the general election. It took until 1970 to break into Westminster proper and it was 73 years from the formation of the party until they managed to form a government in Scotland. It was the evolution of the SNP from a single issue campaign to a party with a full manifesto ready to run the country that won them the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. We need UKIP in government to get us out of the EU and UKIP will only get into government with a wide-ranging manifesto. This is exactly the same process that UKIP is going through but at an accelerated pace. Hannan can see echoes of the SNP in UKIP (albeit ideologically poles apart in most respects) and that's what frightens him.
This represents a shift. The Ukip of ten years ago, or five years ago, would gladly have thrown its weight behind whichever of the main parties offered an In/Out referendum.
The UKIP of five or ten years ago was little more than a single issue campaign group. Hell, when I joined the party I even said I wouldn't want a UKIP government but I did want them to have some success to force the other parties to do the right thing. That was how things were back then and that same political naivety persists today with a lot of people newly arriving in the party but they all come to realise that the old parties aren't going to change and that a UKIP government is the answer.
Now, though, they would rather maximise their vote than ensure a pro-referendum majority in the Commons.
Maximising the UKIP vote is the only way to ensure a pro-referendum majority in the Commons. Is there a pro-referendum majority amongst Tory MPs? Are they pro-referendum enough to defy the party whips when they're told to vote against it? They weren't pro-referendum enough to defy them last time and they won't defy them next time either.
To adopt one of their own favourite phrases, they are “putting party before country”.
Erm, no. That's what you're doing Dan by helping a pro-EU party stay in power and trying to stop a eurosceptic party from getting into power.
In fairness, the failure of the two Right-of-Centre parties to reach an accommodation is at least as much David Cameron’s responsibility as Nigel Farage’s.
What accommodation would this be? The one where UKIP agrees not to stand against some Tory candidates who profess to be eurosceptic but are helping the pro-EU Conservative Party to win the election and in return the Tories don't stand against some UKIP candidates, the idea being that the UKIP supporters vote Tory and vice versa where these deals are done? UKIP attracts Labour and Lib Dem votes as well as those who don't normally vote or vote for a minority party - those people made up 42% of the UKIP vote in 2010 and it's much higher now. Former Tory voters might make up the biggest minority of UKIP voters but it's certainly not worth alienating the majority of UKIP voters who don't and won't vote Tory for the unknown percentage of Tory voters who are likely to vote UKIP if there was no Conservative candidate.
I’m simply making the point that opposing the EU and supporting Ukip are not longer – if ever they were – the same thing.
Always has been, always will be. To suggest otherwise is just nonsense.
Now ask yourself the critical question. Is it possible to carry a referendum in favour of Brexit if all (or almost all) the “no” campaigners are in Ukip? The answer is surely obvious. The only way to win is with the support of some people who vote Conservative, some who vote Labour, some who vote Green and even a few who vote Liberal Democrat.
Yes, of course it's possible. In fact, it's the only way to get a referendum because UKIP is the only eurosceptic party. The Tories aren't going to get Labour, Greens and Lib Dems on side just because they're the Tories.
Ah, insist my regular critics, but “the Tories are a pro-EU party”. Actually, that’s not true. In a ConservativeHome survey, 78 per cent of party members supported a free-trade only relationship with the EU. More important, every poll shows that a majority of Conservative voters would leave tomorrow – which is now the default position for candidates at selection meetings. It’s true, of course, that the party leadership takes a different view. But why should the majority leave to accommodate the minority?
The fact that the vast majority of Conservative Party members are opposed to our membership of the EU but the leadership of the party ignore them speaks volumes. They ignore the majority of voters who also oppose our membership of the EU too. The party membership might be eurosceptic but the party itself is pro-EU because the extreme views of the minority who lead the party overrule the mainstream views of the majority. That's why the majority should leave.
If David Cameron had not offered an In/Out referendum, I would not have been able to fight the recent European election as a Conservative. But he did; and Ukip is in denial about it.
UKIP doesn't deny that David Cameron has promised an EU referendum, we just don't believe he will deliver it.
“You can’t believe a word Cameron says!” snarl my commenters, many of whom have convinced themselves, in a kind of false recovered memory syndrome, that he fought the last general election promising a referendum.
Well no, you can't believe a word he says because he's dishonest. He did fight the last election promising a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - a Cast Iron Guarantee™ - but when push came to shove he backed down on the promise and the Tories put out the lie that he qualified his promise, saying that they would only hold a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty hadn't already been ratified. He didn't say this until after the election and the promise had already been broken. If anyone has false recovered memory syndrome it's Dan Hannan and the Tories who have repeated this lie so many times they believe it to be true.
As a matter of fact, I don’t think the PM has ever pretended to be anti-EU; I’d have less respect for him if he had.
Correct, he has always been openly pro-EU and yet the membership voted for him and people like Dan Hannan continue to pretend that the Conservative Party is eurosceptic despite having elected a committed europhile as their leader.
He made only two commitments when he ran for the leadership: that he’d pull his MEPs out of the European People’s Party; and that individual parliamentarians would be free to campaign against EU membership. He delivered on both.
The commitments he made when he ran for the leadership mean nothing to the electorate because we didn't vote for him as leader of the Conservative Party. It's interesting that he promised that individual MPs would be free to campaign against EU membership because that conflicts pretty fundamentally with Conservative MPs being whipped to vote against an EU referendum last year and the threat that any minister or their assistants who voted in favour of a referendum would be sacked (a threat he subsequently carried out with one MP who defied the whips).
Now he is delivering on the In/Out referendum, making clear that he will subject the legislation to the Parliament Act if necessary.
He's delivering nothing except an empty promise that nobody in their right mind believes he will follow through with. The idea of a Prime Minister having to pass a law to force himself to keep a promise is quite probably unique but it's an empty gesture because laws can be repealed.
If my Ukip friends are honest – if they “put country before party” – they will admit that there must be anti-EU Conservatives speaking to and for the 35 per cent of the country that habitually supports my party.
It doesn't matter if a handful of Tory MPs are opposing the EU from within their party, the party itself is pro-EU and they're just pissing in the wind. They would be infinitely more effective opposing the EU from within a party that supports and encourages them to do so openly.
Of course, the referendum is not yet in the bag. Parliament Act or no Parliament Act, if Ed Miliband becomes prime minister, he can repeal it. Which is why everyone who believes that Britain can prosper in the wider world should want to ensure that pro-referendum MPs form a majority in 2015.
David Cameron can repeal it as well and that's if it ever becomes law because it's been voted down by the House of Lords already. Cameron is as much a committed europhile as Miliband and Clegg and with no overall control being the most likely outcome of next year's general election, it will almost certainly be offered up as the first thing to go in any coalition agreement where Cameron can blame someone else to maintain the Tories' wafer thin eurosceptic veneer. The only way to ensure that pro-referendum MPs form a majority in 2015 is to vote UKIP.
I’ve almost given up arguing for a Tory-Ukip pact. Though the electoral logic is irresistible, there are evidently too many objections on both sides. It’ll happen eventually – the first-past-the-post system more or less demands it – but it may, as in Canada, take a decade. A decade of Ed Balls and Ed Miliband. A decade of Labour’s wastrel incontinence. A decade of deeper European integration. And, when it eventually happens, we’ll ask ruefully, as Canadian Conservatives do today, why we let it take so long.
Good, it's not going to happen. The Tories have continued the previous several decades of "wastrel incontinence" and deeper EU integration perpetrated by both the Tories and Labour and there's no reason to believe they won't continue to be incompetent, wasteful europhiles if they won the next election.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

Treasury expose Lib Dem lies about 3m EU jobs

The Treasury have exposed the Lib Dems for lying about 3m jobs being lost if we leave the EU.

During the EU election campaign and the televised debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage the Lib Dems repeated the lie that the latest Treasury analysis said that 3m jobs would be put at risk if we left the EU. The Treasury has now belatedly said that the analysis says no such thing and uses a 10 year old methodology.

UKIP's Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall MEP, said:
There is no doubt that UK would continue to export to the EU after withdrawal from it and the alleged 3 million jobs loss bandied around by Europhiles such as the Lib Dems is nothing more than inaccurate scaremongering.

We live in a global market, and no one believes that if we left the EU companies like Renault would stop selling their cars here and sack the dealership staff, yet that is what Clegg's figures assume. Likewise, France's population aren't going to stop buying our goods and services.
Cleggy's told another porky!

Sunday 17 August 2014

Leicester UKIPper joins extremist Respect Party


The Secretary of UKIP's Leicester branch has resigned and joined the Respect Party, claiming it is because of a racist party member.


Ismail Patel, who joined UKIP a year ago, said that he received racist messages on Facebook from someone who he believed to be a UKIP member. He claims that the party didn't do anything about it so he joined Respect.

UKIP's national press officer, Gawain Towler, said that he had offered to go to Leicester so that Patel could show him the messages as he had blocked the sender and the party was unable to identify the sender. Patel left the party instead of co-operating.

Patel said that he bit his tongue about "a bit of petty racism" he encountered when he joined the party because he "agreed with a lot of the things UKIP stands for". One has to wonder what it was he agreed with having left a right of centre, eurosceptic, monocultural party for an extreme left wing, europhile, Islamic party. Anyone would think there was an alternative agenda at play here ...

Friday 8 August 2014

UKIP win in Worthing

UKIP candidate Charles James has won a by-election for Worthing Borough Council.

Lib Dem councillor David Potter was removed from office for non-attendance and a by-election was called.

CandidatePartyVotes
Charles JamesUKIP568
Alexander HarmanConservative485
Nicholas WiltshireLib Dem242
James DeenLabour197
Stefan SykesGreen49

Thursday 7 August 2014

RIP RON SMITH
UKIP New Forest East



With a heavy heart I pass on this sad news.

RIP Ron, you will be missed by a lot of people and be remembered for having a full life, being a stalwart and the guiding force of the New Forest East branch of UKIP.

Condolences to his family at such a sad time.



The following was sent to me from Peter Day:

Ronald James Smith was born in Aldershot on 30th March 1921.  His father was in the army stationed at Aldershot and was badly injured in WW1 losing the use of one of his arms.  After Ron’s early years in Gibraltar, the family returned to the UK, first to Belfast and then Farnborough.  During WW2, Ron was sent to the Duke of York Military School in Dover, and in 1945 he joined the Royal Engineers where he did an apprenticeship at the Army Technical School.  From there he became a regular soldier, but did a Chemical Engineering degree in his spare time.
After the Army, he was accepted as an Industrial Chemist for Research & Development at the National Gas Turbine Establishment in Farnborough.  From there he joined the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) as an Instruments trainee, but by the time he left he was the Refinery Instruments Supervisor.
He returned to the UK and joined Lummas as a Process Engineer, and later shared the design of all the control systems for Total’s Immingham Refinery.  Later he joined Comsys Automation in Paris, but was sent back to the Middle East as a consultant, becoming the Chief Instrument Engineer for Aramco, when  he retired.
Ron became involved with UKIP prior to the 2005 General Election, when he became the agent for Peter Day in Southampton Test and Kim Rose in Southampton Itchen.  He later set up a UKIP branch in New Forest East (NFE), where he became the Chairman, and was also the agent for Peter Day in the 2010 General Election.
He remained Chairman of NFE until his deteriorating health forced him to pass the Chairmanship over to Phillip Fawkes.
Ron was a real stalwart for UKIP over the last 15 years running the Southampton branch when Colin Cain retired and then the NFE branch, where he organised speakers for open meetings, including a packed hall for Nigel Farage in Lyndhurst prior to the 2010 General Election.  He was also a tireless writer to Prime Minister David Cameron and local MP Julian Lewis, as well as the ‘Times’ and ‘Telegraph’.
He will be sadly missed by all who knew him in UKIP.





Wednesday 6 August 2014

Powys councillor resigns over offensive comments in public meeting

Independent Powys County Councillor, Myfanwy Alexander, has resigned from her post as Deputy Leader of the council after using the word "nigger" in a public meeting.

Cllr Alexander was complaining to fellow councillors about apparently being told her name was a meaningless jumble of letters while she was partaking in some health tourism in England and said:
We are treated like niggers over the border. Our language and culture is trampled on and it’s a very sensitive issue. It’s not our fault that we don’t have a district general hospital to go to.
Cllr Alexander says that she wasn't being racist and isn't resigning as a councillor but has resigned from her cabinet post.


Ex-BNP, ex-English Democrat adult model joins Conservatives

Former BNP and English Democrats member and adult glamour model, Claudia Dalgleish, has joined the Conservatives and has even been pictured with Mark Reckless MP.

According to Trade Union anti-UKIP front, Hope not Hate, Dalgleish was romantically involved with BNP organiser and filth pedlar Steve Squire until she did the dirty on him with BNP officer turned English Democrat Eddy Butler. Squire released some mucky pictures of Dalgleish as revenge and Nick Griffin is supposed to have exposed himself to her in a curry house car park.

Looks like they'll let any old trash into the Conservatives.

Dalgleish with Nick Griffin and Clare Khaw, the extremist that even the BNP wouldn't tolerate

Monday 4 August 2014

Guardian in positive UKIP story shocker!

Not only have the Guardian put UKIP on their front page today, they've actually refrained from outright hostility towards the party as well. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

UKIP's youth wing, Young Independence, held its national conference in Birmingham on Saturday and the Guardian was there along with other more salubrious titles. The result is a reasonable article inside the paper and a picture on the front page.


Saturday 2 August 2014

Labour councillor suspended for swearing at whip

Brighton & Hove Labour Party have suspended Cllr Leigh Farrow and told him he isn't allowed to seek re-election.

Farrow successfully appealed against a decision not to allow him on the approved candidates list earlier this year but he is now in trouble for swearing at the Labour Party whip before a meeting while she was telling him how to vote.

UKIP is unique amongst mainstream parties in that it doesn't operate a whip and elected representatives are encouraged to do what they think is right, not what they're told to do.


Wirral Labour marking their own homework

The ruling Labour group on Wirral Borough Council has removed all non-Labour chairmen from its scrutiny committees.

The purpose of scrutiny committees is to review the actions of the ruling cabinet to ensure they are taken in the best interests of the local area and within the rules. The committees scrutinising the Labour cabinet will now be led by Labour councillors.

Lib Dem and Conservative councillors on Wirral Borough Council have criticised Labour for circumventing the system of checks of balances. The leader of the Labour group, Cllr Phil Davies, says that there is no legal requirement for opposition councillors to chair scrutiny committees so they're not chairing them.


Lib Dem councillor for Fareham lives in Saudi Arabia

The leader of the Lib Dems in Fareham, Cllr Paul Whittle, has been called on to resign after taking a job in Saudi Arabia a fortnight before the elections in May and failing to turn up for a Local Government Association conference after the council had spent nearly £600 on a ticket for him to attend.

Cllr Whittle has been defended by his fellow Lib Dem councillor, Katrina Trott, who says that it's just the Conservatives trying to cause trouble and Cllr Whittle can still do his £180k a year job whilst living and working in another country 4,000 miles and a 12 hour flight away. Whittle claims to have told the council before he took the job that he wouldn't be able to go to the conference but the council says that's not true.

Back in April last year the newly elected Lib Dem MP for Eastleigh, Mike Thornton, celebrated his narrow victory over UKIP by visiting Fareham to support Cllr Whittle and his Lib Dem colleague, Cllr David Norris, in their campaign to stop Hampshire County Council wasting money. At the time Cllr Whittle told local paper, the News:
In these tough times we know that every penny counts. We don’t need pet projects while our basic services are being lost. Hampshire County Council is out of touch and it is time they started listening to the people of Fareham.
Cllr Whittle doesn't need to count his pennies, the job he took in Saudi Arabia was advertised at £180k a year - considerably more than the £459 per week average wage in Hampshire. He accuses Hampshire County Council of being out of touch but at least they're in the same country, not 4,000 miles away.

UKIP Fareham Borough Councillor and Hampshire County Councillor, Chris Wood, said:
Someone working in Saudi Arabia will find it difficult to hold the Conservative administration to account.

Friday 1 August 2014

British government appealing judge's decision not to deport pregnant Australian

Whilst unlimited numbers of people from the EU are allowed to live in the UK, the Home Office is spending our taxes appealing a judge's ruling that a pregnant Australian woman shouldn't be deported to Australia.

Katherine Tate is an Australian citizen married to a British citizen with two children who are British citizens and is 6 months pregnant with their third child who will also be a British citizen. Her husband, Dale, owns an electrical contracting firm and employs two electricians and two apprentices. The Home Office says that they didn't fill out the paperwork correctly to allow Katherine to live in the UK and gave her 10 days to leave the country. They appealed the decision and a judge at an immigration tribunal ruled that she could stay but the Home Office is appealing that decision through the courts and have even told the NHS not to provide her with healthcare unless she pays.

This is just one of the effects of the stupid immigration system we have where we turn away skilled workers and people who contribute positively to the economy and society to try and mitigate the damaging effects of open door immigration from the EU. The British government would rather have a thousand Romanian fruit pickers than a doctor from India, an engineer from Canada or the wife of a British citizen who doesn't claim benefits and whose husband owns his own company and provides employment for four people.

Why is the British government putting so much money and effort being put into trying to deport this woman whose only crime is to have filled out some paperwork incorrectly when they allow criminals, terrorists and hate preachers to live here because of their human rights? What about the human rights of this family which faces being torn apart because Katherine Tate isn't from an EU country? It's perverse.