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 30^th 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.

Young Independence and LGBTQ* link arms for the greater good

                 I and my friend Max were staring upon the rushed notes I made in utter confusion - as we stood before Embankment Station. After waddling up Villiers Street for a little while I recognised a path (Craven Passage) which was far less condensed; we were heading for the same bar I, and the YI lot, pranced over to after the YI Christmas Party on the HMS Belfast. I was delighted. However, this time my sleepiness would only kick in much later into the night, hence we were just about to embrace one lively debate - and with its fruitful compromises.

                 As we were heading up to YI-LBGT's booked part of the bar I noticed the organiser's name was displayed as 'Ron Conley'; I wondered who that could possibly be. Immediately, on the second floor Ukip London Chair, David Coburn, dashed for a shake of the hands; we've already worked together in many exhilarated post-2010 campaigns - and of course I introduced Max. The numbers were low as I entered on the clock, but numbers would eventually redouble. There was trouble for many, and YI Chair Rob Comley, in returning from an action day in Eastleigh without being engulfed by delay. Nonetheless, later after he arrived we had a jubilant time reflecting over my previous Blog - his interview as Caretaker Chair.

              After a lengthy catch up with one another , Coburn suddenly launched himself to the other side of the bar. He called for our sincere attention before addressing us. I was reassured when Coburn gave a clear and concise defense as to why Olly Neville was revoked of Chairmanship; it was, quite frankly, about consistency in our external representation by party spokespeople - which Neville’s words contradicted totally. He also rebooted the sense of Libertarianism with a hint of Britannia’s Common Sense; you're not going to get anywhere blabbering about necrophilia. After a debate was proclaimed, it escalated rapidly; though of course maintaining its friendly heart. This ranged from the candidate selection processes efficiency, to the grassroots' confidence in the leadership's PR tactics, to Gay Marriage.

              Each of the LGBT crew possessed different views on the concept of marriage in modern society, but nonetheless, they still embraced one another. We also discussed the progress of Ukip and YI London. The LGBT crew were great to have on board for all of this and I hope they become occasional figures in Ukip London; the event was an obvious morale boost in light of the Ollyshamles. I believe in the Membership. Not too much the leadership in its current state - they should merge more with the membership; reflecting on the parties' yellow, purple and striped roots.

           That can be Ukip's tangible destiny; a People's Party; a Common Sense Party. [[http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/National-News/Support-for-Ukip-hits-high-of-15-2-3664652.xnf]] This poll is interesting because the three parliamentary parties' ratings are actually unchanged during our increase; it's obvious we have united the Other vote. As Nigel once put it, there isn't a single street Ukip is socially barricaded from, (in my own words).

           Three things I've learnt from that night: take some photos for this blog, prevent 'lightweight' drowsiness and learn how to tie a bow tie - forget clip ons apparently... Additionally, the pianist/ singer was spectacular and the queue was tremendous on our way out; any relation?

An insight into the future of YI

It's now February. A month earlier the notorious Ollyshambles occurred and the Young Independence Council nominated, then Events Officer, Rob Comley to the position of YI Chairmen. Comley later asked me for an interview - it was believed to be the right thing to do leading to the YI Elections in March. So here it is; Bloggers4UKIP interviews YI Caretaker Chair Rob Comley:

Q1. How do you feel taking on such an overwhelming role in Ukip, especially after such chaos?

            It is an absolute honor to look after Young Independence, even if it is for the short time until the annual elections in March. As I have said many times over the past few weeks, it is incredibly important that we all work together until this time, for the best of YI, regardless of whether you see yourself as more libertarian or conservative. This is something I have tried to stress since day one of being asked to take over and it is the message I will be trying to convey until the elections in March.

 Q2. What are your views on Ollyshambles?

            I have spoken to Olly personally over the past few weeks about his plans for the YI council and the direction we were going in during his brief spell as chairman. Myself and him get on rather well and agree on many internal YI council issues and these are the policies I have tried to follow up and complete. It is important that we try to move on from the situation and move forward for the best of the party. I would, however, like to take this just to say on record that I disagree with Olly’s controversial views.

Q3. Do you support the voluntary resignations which have taken place within YI? Have they managed to discuss their concerns with you?

            It was sad to see Gareth Shanks and Allrick Birch resign as Elections Officer and Treasurer, respectively. Myself and Gareth are good friends and I can understand why he was upset. We spoke about his concerns on a number of occasions after I took over and although I tried my best to persuade him to continue, he thought it was best to step down. He has since decided to focus on running for YI Yorkshire chair and I wish him the best of luck. I met with Allrick personally to discuss his resignation, and again, I asked him to continue until March but did stress that he should do what he feels best.

Q4. Why have you appointed Harry Aldridge - the 2011-2012 Chair of the Youth Wing - to the position of Vice-Chair?

            After I was asked to take over as YI Caretaker Chair Harry rang me to offer a helping hand. I deemed it important to have stability within YI and Harry, having the experience as YI Chair himself, seemed like the perfect person to offer this. I asked if he would be willing to come back onto the council until March as my vice and he was very happy to do so. He has been a great help!

Q5. What does the future look like for Young Independence?

             We have just finished putting together a ‘reformation of YI’ document and presented this to Steve Crowther and Will Gilpin during a four hour long meeting – there wasn’t a topic that we didn’t cover regarding YI internally and externally!

Externally, you will see a lot of changes slowly happening to YI over the next 12 months, especially between now and March. In the next elections we are planning on removing the social media officer position, instead combining it with the communication’s officer’s duties, as well as adding a universities officer.

Regional YI branches have been approved and we now have 8 Interim regional chairs – Robin Hunter-Clarke (East Midlands), Daniel Thistlewaite (Easter Counties), Jack Duffin (London), Matt Mackinnon (North West), Oluf Marshall (Scotland), Chris Wood (South East), Reece Warren (South West) and Thomas Hoof (West Midlands), as well as Sam Launder taking care of the Yorkshire region. This means that new members can talk to someone and get involved at a local level, as well as nationally.

We have also listened to what was wanted from our members and we have decided that it is time for a new YI website – this is something we believe to be vital in keeping up with other political youth wings. Getting our message across to university students and young workers equally is also vital and we will be planning an event to get some of these people involved between now and March.

 Internally, we will be putting new rules into place to ensure YI runs smoothly and efficiently as the youth wing of UKIP. We will also be planning the March election to ensure that this goes ahead without any glitches.

Q6. What is your perspective of YIs interjection into universities?

            I believe that working with Universities is an important part of YI. Students currently feel let-down by the current government, especially the Lib-dems. We are now the only major political party with a ‘no-tuition fee’ policy and it is vital that we get this message out there to attract more student voters. We now have four official student societies set up around the country and over twenty more trying to set up. It is important that we continue to work with these groups and I shall be trying to push this up until March, hopefully arranging a University activist’s day with guest speakers. Since I was elected onto the council I have been in the process of writing a ‘how to set up a society’ booklet and I shall be completing this very shortly.

Q7. How about sixth forms, and even the bigger youth picture; e.g. Youth clubs and public events?

             Away from YI I have been setting up a schools and colleges project in my local area, with the intention of making it national. The aim of the ‘MyLife-MyChoice’ project is to get young people between the ages of 15-18 interested in politics and out voting by the time they are 18. I also get the students to make a choice on whether they approve of the European Union. This has been approved by the Bexley chairman, David Coburn NEC and will hopefully start in the next couple of weeks.

Q8. You were elected to the position of Events Officer back in the good old days of November. Do you wish to continue administering events for YI post-March?

            My main focus at this current time is steering YI into the right direction and I have been too busy trying to do this that I have yet to consider my future on the council from March. I don’t actually think I’ve gone to bed earlier than 2 o’clock in the morning since I have taken over! I’ve been told on many occasions by my partner that I need to know when to stop but I am so determined to make YI successful that it has outweighed most things in life recently!

 In the meantime, my first event is on Saturday 9th February where ourselves and UKIP’s LGBTQ* will be having a joint get together at the Charring Cross Players Bar, London from 7.30PM. Everyone is invited and we are lucky enough to have David Coburn addressing members!

Q9. What are your hobbies and why did you join Ukip, in brief?

              I have always had a great interest in politics and history and although I have qualifications in animal welfare, as this was the original political direction I was going towards in life, I decided that party politics was the place I wanted to be.  Away from politics I have an obsession with vintage and ‘Indie’ clothing and you will often find me walking the streets of Brick Lane, as well as a strong passion for music and going to the theatre – so much so that I think I have seen The Woman in Black at the West-end close to ten times now!

I have always voted UKIP at every opportunity and decided it was time to become an official member in the spring of 2012. I remember looking at the 2010 manifesto and agreeing with everything that I read – I automatically fell in love with the policies and haven’t seen anything to change my mind since. I lived in Chelmsford, Essex for a brief spell last year and tried to get involved there as much as I could as a supporter, but on moving back to my family home in Bexley I have been an enthusiast, becoming the Secretary of my branch as well as trying to set up a society at the University of Greenwich where I am now studying a BA in Politics.

Thanks for your time Rob.

Competition time!

Earlier today I sent the following message to members of the Bloggers4UKIP Facebook group:

Bloggers4UKIP has been ticking over nicely for just over 2 years and getting about 5,000 page views per month. We have 122 Google Connect followers and is visited regularly by academics and the EU Parliament.

What we need is more members and supporters to contribute to the blog - most of the content is still written by me and I never intended Bloggers4UKIP to be a full time blog for me!

Here's how it works at Bloggers4UKIP in a nutshell: I am an administrator, not an editor and as long as you don't say anything that is likely to get me sued then pretty much anything goes as long as it's relevant.

I am currently trying to arrange an independently judged competition for the best article written for Bloggers4UKIP during October to mark our 2nd anniversary (Bloggers4UKIP's birthday was a couple of weeks ago) so if you want in, get in touch through Facebook, via Twitter (@bloggers4UKIP) or the contact page on Bloggers4UKIP.

Now the second part of the message: following Bloggers4UKIP.

As I said, there are 122 Goggle Connect followers of Bloggers4UKIP which is a fantastic show of support but 150 would be nice! You can follow Bloggers4UKIP by clicking the Follow button under the picture of David Cameron on the right hand side of the blog.

You can also follow Bloggers4UKIP on Twitter - @bloggers4ukip.

One final following opportunity - Networked Blogs on Facebook. Why not show your support by following Bloggers4UKIP on Facebook. We only have 7 followers on Networked Blogs as it's only been promoted for a couple of weeks.

We now have 124 followers on Google Connect, 8 followers on Networked Blogs and we've had an extra couple of followers on Twitter and an offer to write for Bloggers4UKIP.  Thanks to those readers who have decided to follow us!

Now for the competition I mentioned above:

Several people are already signed up to write for Bloggers4UKIP and there has been an offer already today to write for the blog.  During the month of October I am inviting new contributors to come forward and write for Bloggers4UKIP.  The fine details need to be worked out but one post per contributor written between the 1st and 22nd of October (by anyone but me) will be sent to Nigel Farage and the author of the post he likes the most will receive a signed copy of his book, Fighting Bull.

Welcome to Planet Labour

The LabourList website is being relaunched with a new design. Don't worry though, it's still a waste of bandwidth populated by the same tired old sycophant party officials, failed politicians and corrupt communists.

Of course, with the website being hosted on Planet Labour, you can expect the usual bizarre version of reality that Labour supporters and politicians inhabit. There are some amusing comments on the home page, such as:

This is a challenging but exciting time for Labour. Twelve years in office have brought huge advances to Britain, and we continue to be the party of ideas and innovation.

... and ...

The distinction between the major parties has rarely been clearer

The blogroll in particular made me laugh. There's the "A-List" of blogs, a small selection of other sycophant Labour-supporting blogs and the "Z-List" of blogs, comprising the two most popular blogs in the UK - Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes - and ConservativeHome, the Tory grassroots website that the likes of LabourList can only look at with envy.

As well as the entertaining alternate reality stuff, there's a bit of naughtiness - a link to FixMyStreet in amongst other Labour buttons with the clear implication that the site, which was set up by the same charity behind the petitions.pm.gov.uk website, is a Labour initiative.

We're under no illusions as to how popular Bloggers4UKIP is likely to be - UKIP is a minor party and we wouldn't expect to compete directly with the likes of ConservativeHome but if the best "grass roots" website the Labour Party can come up is LabourList then we're pretty happy with what we've managed to achieve in our spare time with a budget of zero and without any help from UKIP.

Just a quick note to LabourList before I finish though: ministers and paid employees aren't "grass roots". Ordinary members giving up their spare time without being paid or otherwise rewarded - like us here at Bloggers4UKIP - are the grass roots of a party.

Bloggers4UKIP on Facebook

Bloggers 4 UKIP now has a Facebook group.

If you like what you're reading here and want to show your support then why not join the group? You can also show your support by following the blog by clicking the follow button on the first hand side.

And while you're at it, you can join the Official UKIP group too! or follow us on Twitter

The Importance of Blogging for UKIP

The political blog directory on Totalpolitics.com Here will demonstrate the numerical disadvantage of the UKIP has in terms of the number of our blogs. We have 15 registered blogs compared to 298 for the Conservatives, 209 for Labour, 207 for the Lib Dems, even the Greens outnumber us with 74 respectively.

There are at least 35 UKIP weblogs listed in the Google directory; including regional group, personal and nationwide sites, simply opening a free blogger account isn't enough, the effort must be made to get your blogs listed in mainstream directories such as Total Politics and others. A site that has provided hundreds of hits to the Bloggers4UKIP site since it was listed.

Every UKIP group or branch should have a blog or web site, our movement is based on a localised grass roots foundation, building from the base up and councillors get elected on the publics perception of their ability to deal with local problems, therefore a UKIP group blog/site should deal exclusively with the problems faced by their potential constituents.

Provide the articles, make the effort to get your blog listed and google will do the rest.Remember If we don't cover the story others will,It is vital that if a potential voter searches the term "Birmingham UKIP" etc they receive a list with pro-UKIP sites.

Some people sneer at cyber-activism, we all know that the foot soldiers of the party do a grand job and there are never enough of them but to look down on those of us who maintain blogs is wrong. For instance the Bloggers4UKIP blog has had thousands of visitors and no doubt twice as many page views, this in effect means that Bloggers4UKIP has digitally delivered hundreds of pages of pro UKIP literature.

The Internet is now part of the political battlefield and the ability to distribute our message is a vital necessity, the importance is highlighted when you consider that the state sanctioned parties receive a platform from the BBC the biggest broadcaster in the world and arguably the most powerful with a massive presence in search engine results.

If any groups need help with creating a local blog please contact us using the contact button on the right hand side.

What's all this about?

The blogosphere is full of UKIP members and supporters - name three.  Struggling?

New media - and blogs in particular - are becoming increasingly important to political parties and the next election will heavily influenced, if not won, by what is said about a party on the internet.

Conservative supporters dominate the political blogging world whilst Labour and the Lib Dems have largely failed to take advantage of the opportunities that the internet provides.  Every negative story about UKIP in the news is seized on by Tory blogs who enjoy nothing more that a spot of UKIP-bashing.  Conservatives obviously consider UKIP to be their biggest threat, it should be taken as a compliment!

It's time for UKIP bloggers to stand up and be counted.

If you are a UKIP blogger (either a member or supporter) then get in touch and we'll add your blog to the list.  Similarly, if you would like to write for Bloggers 4 UKIP, get in touch.