On the streets of Essex with the PCC Elections

So to Essex on a cold and damp Saturday to assist UKIP's candidate for Police Commissioner, Andrew Smith, on the doorsteps of Harlow.

Setting out from Hillingdon at 9.30am for an 11am meet, I tuned in to LBC radio for my trip around the northbound M25. From 10am, the Ken Livingstone and David Mellor show concentrated for an hour on the impending rise to the EU budget and even 'Red' Ken was stating that this can't be justified with austerity cuts at home!

A number of callers rang in to complain about the situation, and some said they would be voting UKIP because of the issue, which in one case brought an exasperated comment from Mellor that the party are 'Nutters' despite pretty much agreeing with our stance all the way through the show!

Buoyed up by the debate, I arrived slightly late after a number of unplanned diversions around the mass of roundabouts that make up the road system in this part of the county to be greeted by organiser Kerry Smith and the candidate. A number of activists were already in attendance whilst others, including London MEP Gerard Batten, were still making their way to the meet and were having similar difficulty with the road layout to myself.

We were quickly briefed on the situation in Essex - With a supplementary vote system* in place for the Police Commissioner elections, Labour and Conservatives have been pretty confident that their candidates will battle it out in the 'second round' and have not been as active on the ground as expected. Our task was to leaflet specific areas that UKIP had not yet touched during this campaign in order to spread the word and give Andrew a fighting chance of dislodging Labour from second place on the initial vote.Success in this objective would mean a 'head to head' with the Tories in round two.

(* - The supplementary vote system gives you a first choice and second choice vote.If no candidate gets 50% of the first choice vote, then the top two candidates from the first choice vote go forward and the second preference votes for the eliminated candidates are then allocated to the remaining two to give a winner)

There is also a council by-election going on in Toddbrook Ward at the same time, and double sided leaflets promoting both Andrew Smith and our local candidate Bill Pryor were given out to the teams hitting that part of the area.

With a biting wind cutting across the car park where we met up, Kerry sent me on my way with maps of three particular estates he wanted covered and targetted leaflets for each in their own bundles.

Target one was a predominently working class estate with small terraced houses and blocks containing four or five flats with garages set to one side and a field where kids on bikes were much in evidence despite the cold. With the letterboxes being close together, it was fairly easy to get around and I moved on to area two within an hour.

The second estate was more affluent, with a mix of semi-detached and larger properties and driveways instead of the communal garages. The wind had dropped and the sun was peeking through making for a pleasant Autumnal early afternoon
I was greeted on the doorstep by one lady who asked what the leaflets were about - When I explained that they were for the council and Police Commissioner elections and she saw the UKIP logo she commented that 'I hope you get in, you are so much better than those Tories'. She then asked what we were going to do about mass immigration - My answer regarding the five year freeze on permanent immigration whilst the system is sorted out followed by an Australian style points system gained her approval and the promise of her vote on 15th November!

With two targets completed in less than two hours, I moved on to the final map. This was a rambling estate of what appeared to be late seventies/early eighties construction and ranged from small flats all the way up to large and opulent detached properties at the far end. With the haphazard layout of the streets and closes, it was difficult to keep your bearings and the time started to drag as I was confronted with a veritable maze to navigate! One white van man called out to me not to put a leaflet through his door - I promised him it was not a pizza delivery flyer, but he was even less enthusiastic when told they were for a local election! "I don't want all that, you are all the same" came his reply. "Are you not voting then sir? If you don't vote, you are helping to cause the problem when you could be a part of the solution, don't you think?".
"Nah mate, not for me!" - I smiled as I walked off imagining him complaining down the pub about the cost of fuel and the state of the roads when he didn't even want to read a quick leaflet addressing the issues. Oh well, you win some.....

Around four thirty and with all the leaflets exhausted, I returned to the car and the trip back to Uxbridge.

Essex is often used by Political Commentators as a barometer when it comes to public opinion, and the blue collar workers of the county were credited with putting Margaret Thatcher in to power and keeping her there in the eighties. Mass defections of voters in the mid-nineties led to the Blair government, whilst gains here during the last general election were taken as an indicator that David Cameron was making ground on his way to No 10.
If UKIP poll well and can beat Labour in this bastion of the aspirational working and middle classes, it will send out a powerful message to the old establishment parties and establish us as the true voice of the people in opposition.

If you would like to get involved in the PPC election in Essex, please visit Andrew Smith's campaign site at www.smith4essex.org

UKIP Query Tory Motives over the EU

At the Bruges Group meeting on Wednesday evening, UKIP MEP candidate Andrew Smith suggested to speakers Stuart Wheeler and Fraser Nelson why it was the Conservative Party is so afraid of the issue of the European Union. Mr Wheeler had described how evasive the Conservative Party was over the Lisbon Constitutional Treaty while Mr Nelson had described their fear of renewed internal conflict if the EU became an active campaign issue. Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine simply will not put up with any Euroscepticism from their party which continues to reel from their splits over Maastricht and other treaties.

Mr Smith suggested we should instead take at face value the assurances of every Conservative Leader since Heath that they remained committed to Ever Closer Union and would never lead Britain out of the EU. He reminded the large audience of David Cameron's "profound" support for the EU. Others pointed out that Kenneth Clarke had called calls for a refendum on the Lisbon Treaty "absurd" while recent research showed that over 80% of British people wanted precisely such a referendum and half the British people wanted to leave the EU altogether.

John Flack, a Norfolk property developer and the Conservative's "swing" MEP candidate in the Eastern Counties announced himself at the meeting and sought support at the European Parliamentary elections. However, it was Andrew Smith who also stood to ask for similar support so that he could become the additional UKIP MEP for the Eastern Couties, who received extensive spontaneous applause from the audience.

John Flack had said at hustings on Tuesday that he believed Britain should remain a member of the EU and try to adapt it from within to make it "the kind of EU we want". Andrew Smith told the meeting how Francis Pym, who had been his MP when he joined the Conservative Party 45 years ago, had made that same claim then. Mr Smith concluded that must have been either a deception or the most catastrophic failure of policy by the Conservative Party as nothing in the EU had since then been changed to suit our preferences and needs - indeed quite the opposite.

Enthusiastic Reception to Burwell Campaign

Following a very successful campaign meeting for privately invited guests on Tuesday evening, UKIP's number 3 MEP candidate on the East of England list Andrew Smith lead a team of campaigners who completed a leaflet drop to almost the entire village of Burwell near Newmarket this week. He was born in the village and was anxious to encourage all his old friends there to join us to regain our national independence.

Andrew was especially pleased to have received the support of Angela Lawrence and her husband Mick (pictured). It was Angela and Andrew who had started a Young Conservative branch in the village over 40 years ago. Since then and most Conservatives they have both recognised the failure of their old party to stand up for Britain and will be voting UKIP in June.

Questions at the meeting showed concern about the costs of membership, loss of control over our national affairs and the inequitable status of Scotland and Wales compared to England.

At the meeting, Andrew discussed the repeated failure of the Conservatives to hold up EU integration. Andrew recalled that Brigadier Geoffrey Van Orden (Conservative MEP for the Eastern Counties) had recommended Romania and Bulgaria should join the EU. Romania recently issued 1 million passports to Moldovans, enabling them to come to Britain without restriction; the average income is Moldova is well below the level of UK social benefits payments.

UKIP candidate slams immigration laws

UKIP candidate in the Eastern Region, Andrew Smith, criticized UK immigration laws stating they are a minefield for innocent employers.

UKIP strongly supports the use of a points based work permits system for foreign workers from anywhere coming to the UK so that we can let in those with key skills needed while protecting our community services from unbearable population increases of low-skilled and unskilled workers at a time of rising unemployment.

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling (Osborne Clarke Services v Purohit) held that employers may not reject non-EU foreign job applicants who have not got permission to work in the UK when they make an application. Selection in this way in an over-supplied labour market was ruled unlawful racial discrimination.

Meanwhile, the Home Office warns employers of tougher tests for tier 1 and tier 2 immigrants from non-EU countries. Employers can face unlimited fines if they employ illegal workers, so they need to make sure that no one they employ is working in the UK illegally.

Confusing immigration and employment laws are creating additional overheads on employers and delays for employees at a time they both need as much leeway as possible to secure the future employment of British workers at all levels.

Mr Smith noted “If we were a Self-Governing Country, outside the EU, we could have sensible immigration and employment laws which protect workers while providing the skills needed in the economy.”

He drew attention to the 40% growth in Employment Tribunal claims for 2007/08, many of which resulted from the EU Working Time Directive and other legislation which creates tension between employers and employees who generally want to conduct themselves helpfully and responsibly.

'RELYING ON WINDPOWER WILL SEE THE LIGHTS GO OFF' SAYS UKIP

Attending the champagne launch of the Orbis building, the new headquarters for the offshore wind industry in Lowestoft on Friday 7th November, UKIP representatives Professor Stephen Bush and prospective MEP Andrew Smith were seemingly the only delegates who were opposed to the mad rush for wind turbines. These turbines produce electricity for only around 25% of the time at a cost for onshore windmills about 50% greater than for our conventional power stations and more than double this for offshore wind turbines, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering Report on alternative electricity production processes.

The difference is paid for by direct subsidy to the windmill operators and by the Renewables Obligation imposed on the electricity supply companies, both of which are passed onto the consumer. Professor Bush, Emeritus Professor of Process Engineering and Manufacture at the University of Manchester said:

"Pursuing the Government's recently adopted target of an 80% reduction in our CO2 emissions by 2050 and the intermediate target of having one third of our electricity generated by wind in 2020, will put the lives and the livelihoods of the British people in terrible hazard. It will expose us all to power cuts and the dangers of relying almost entirely on the most costly and variable of energy sources, namely wind, and gas imported from politically unstable countries.

In contrast, UKIP advocates an immediate start on a long-term programme to build around 50GW of nuclear power capacity over the next 25 years, devoting the bulk of the nuclear decommissioning budget of £60 billion to this purpose through a new British nuclear company. This programme would run alongside the 6GW new nuclear capacity likely to be built by the French company EDF, over the next 10 years.

This programme would give Britain a major, reliable, nationally owned energy resource to replace much of North Sea oil production. And this programme would also achieve a solid, bankable cut of over one third in UK emissions.

Prospective UKIP MEP candidate Andrew Smith added: "The Government's fantasy target of an 80% cut in emissions was seen apparently by all the speakers at this Lowestoft event as justification for the gigantic and ultimately futile diversion of our nation's resources to the pursuit of the delusion that climate change can be stopped by actions taken in this country. This is madness!"

MEP CANDIDATES QUESTION CLAIMS BY EU’S CHIEF ACCOUNTANT

Two of the UKIP MEP candidates for the European elections in June 2009 were among a handful of accountants from business who attended a presentation of the EU accounts on Tuesday evening (11.11.08) at the Chartered Accountants Hall in the City of London. Andrew Smith and Michael McGough are both chartered accountants and they are number 3 and 6 on the Eastern Counties UKIP candidate list.

Despite continuing high error rates amounting to £5.02 billion of mis-spent funds in 2007, the EU’s Chief Accountant claims he received a clean report for last year. The presentation was made by Brian Gray, the British chartered accountant who replaced Marta Andreasen as Chief Accountant of the EU. Ms Andreasen was sacked by the EU after she refused to sign defective accounts, and she is standing as a UKIP MEP candidate in the South East. Mr McGough pointed out that Mr Gray’s claim was inconsistent with the auditor’s report and an investigation is under way.

Andrew Smith was particularly shocked when David Bostock of the European Court of Auditors stated that "Nobody seems to care if [there is] a high rate of error [in the EU accounts] for Structural Funds, except a few extreme Eurosceptics. Nobody suggests stopping these programmes due to a high rate of error". After the meeting Mr Smith said: “UKIP cares and would certainly stop such programmes as the auditor's casual approach to errors is totally unacceptable. In 2007 the EU had to recover wrongful payments of EUR 1.5 billion but the amount which was irrecoverable was not disclosed."

Michael McGough expressed amazement that Brian Gray's preferred solution when recipients of EU funds could not or would not comply with spending conditions was to make the conditions easier to meet. “It appears that an error rate of 2 per cent is accepted quite happily by the EU and up to 20 per cent in some overseas aid programmes. If such an error rate were made by Essex County Council, for example, there would be uproar.”