Swale borough councillors refuse to resign despite moving 150 miles away from their ward

Husband and wife councillors, Jean and Alan Willicombe, have attracted criticism from residents and some of their fellow councillors for refusing the give up their seats on Swale Borough Council after moving 150 miles away from Sittingbourne where they were elected to Lincolnshire.

The Willicombe's claim that they can still represent the interests of the people in Woodstock ward despite having no daily exposure to the problems and needs of the people they were elected to represent and that it would be unfair to make the taxpayer pay for a by-election when the seat is disappearing in 2015 due to boundary changes.

This sort of thing is quite rare but sadly not an isolated occurrence or even the most extreme example. In 2003 a councillor refused to resign after she moved to Bermuda just 3 weeks after being elected to Maidstone Borough Council. In 2010 a Telford & Wrekin borough councillor refused to resign after moving to Spain. A UKIP councillor in London tells us that at least three councillors in Merton have moved out of London but still sit on Merton Council.

This sort of behaviour, whilst legal, is morally wrong and the legislation covering the eligibility of councillors needs to be changed so that the criteria must be met continuously to remain a councillor. All too often the LibLabCon political parties will field candidates that don't want to be councillors and don't intend to stick around for a full term just to keep up the numbers. It deprives residents of effective representation and is just inexcusable.

Have You Ever Polled A Human By Mistake, Mr. Cameron?

That line, is of course, a paraphrase of the famous "Have you ever retired a human by mistake?" question asked by Rachael to Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, in the iconic 1980s film Bladerunner, arguably the greatest science fiction film of all time.

The central twist of the film is that neither Rachel or Deckard are aware that they are both in fact machines, replicants, who thanks to implanted memories believe themselves to be human. Bladerunner asks important questions about the human condition: what is it to be human? Do we have souls? Is free will just an illusion?

Such questions have been asked by philosophers for centuries, of course, but we are going to hear a lot more of them in the years ahead thanks to the rise of Big Data and predictive analytics. Essentially, the increase in computing power and ability to store data now allows machines to crunch through vast amounts of data and apply complex statistical algorithms to it, well beyond the capacities of the human mind to manage. The machine then learns a model from the data which can be used to discern patterns within it and in some applications, predict human behaviour. This machine learning is itself a branch of artificial intelligence, the holy grail of which is to create a machine with equal or better intellectual capabilities than the human brain. Some data scientists even believe that in future we will be able to predict human thoughts.

Machine Learning is not some Sci Fi fantasy, it is here, and the fact that you are reading this article on the web means that it has almost certainly been used on you: machine learning algorithms will predict what books to recommend you on Amazon.com, or what ads to show you on Google, for example.

Now is is being applied to politics, with the news that the Conservatives have hired the data expert Jim Messina, the man credited with winning the 2012 election for Barack Obama.

The central idea is that by applying gigantic sets of polling and behavioural data to an election campaign, you can tailor your election message individually to voters in order to get them to respond to your message. I thoroughly recommend anyone to watch this rather sinister video of the overly smug Messina to see what is in store for us on this side of the pond.



Well, anyone watching that piece doesn't need machine learning in order to know the thoughts of the Political Class if they think this is the way to win elections: the underlying contempt they have for the rest of us could not be more stark. We are little more than dumb machines and units of consumption, to be sold a packaged message, spun, used, manipulated and discarded by the new uberclass as they see fit.

Although Messina's data driven campaigning is frighteningly sophisticated, it is in essence nothing new but a continuation of the same poll and focus group driven politics we have all come to despise over the last ten years. Dreary and reductive, such ultra-segmentation of a political message treats us all as atomised individuals with little regard for a greater whole beyond ourselves. In essence the tailor-made campaign is the absolute antithesis of the leadership, belief and vision that successful politics - in the sense of actually changing the country for the better rather than just winning office - requires. It is very noticeable for example, that previous leaders who were obsessed with data driven campaigning - Clinton and Blair for example - achieved very little in office. Obama looks like another failure in this regard. So does David Cameron.

But will it work in Britain in 2015? Against the kind of mediocre candidates the political class tend to produce, almost certainly so. However, against a true leader with courage, vision and integrity, a man or woman who treats the people with dignity and respect rather than contempt, the results are somewhat less predictable. Big data, machine learning and predictive analytics are tools, nothing more. Like all tools, they rely on a master craftsman to be used properly. Better and more sophisticated tools can help you refine your craft, but they can not in themselves supply the inspiration to create something of lasting value or beauty.

Like all political parties, UKIP will have to adapt and use the tools of the big data age, but we must never lose sight of the fact that politics is a human activity, and human beings need romance in the true meaning of that word. Far more than big data, what politics requires and always has done, is a romantic vision of a better tomorrow.

The Crumbling Pillars of the Political Class

Our good friend Dan Hannan is at it yet again, exhorting some kind of pact or merger between UKIP and the Tories.

The obvious unworldliness of it hardly bears examination:  exactly how, after slandering UKIP in the most offensive terms as 'fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists', would Cameron explain away a pact without it being depicted as a totally humiliating climbdown? And wouldn't such a pact risk - horror of horrors - 'contaminating' the Tory brand amongst Dave's  achingly fashionable friends? More to the point, why would UKIP want to risk being contaminated by the taint of Toryism?

Be that as it may, Hannan's thinking is based on a flawed analysis, namely that the emerging split in the Right of British politics (essentially the de-merging of the classical Liberal and Tory traditions) would give the Left a more or less permanent monopoly on power.

This analysis wholly ignores the likely effect the eclipse of Toryism would have on the Left of British politics, namely the collapse of the anti-Tory tribal Labour vote.

The Right like to rant and rail that the Tories have betrayed their core constituency - and so they have - but that is nothing to the betrayal that the Labour Party has enacted on the indigenous working class. It was once famously said of the  Labour Party that it  'owed more to Methodism than it did to Marx', representing as it did socially conservative working class voters who believed in a measure of economic redistribution. Dominated as it now is by decidedly non-Methodist middle-class Guardianistas,  the Labour Party has followed a social agenda in recent years which could hardly be more inimical to working class interests, fuelling mass immigration, family breakdown and the destruction of national identity. Consequently a large section of what were once Labour's natural supporters simply support the party out of tribal hatred of the Tories, or fail to vote at all.

The journalist Peter Hitchens, no friend of UKIP, nevertheless came up with an outstanding metaphor to describe the current party political situation: he likened the Labour and Tory parties to a pair of crumbling pillars, each holding each other up by virtue of the hatred each set of core supporters had for the other.  Of the two pillars, the Labour Party is perhaps in the stronger position, having as a backstop the powerful vested interests of the public sector unions. Nonetheless, collapse of one pillar would inevitably lead to collapse of the other.

It is now possible to see the circumstances for such a collapse coming into view: if UKIP continue to chip away at Tory support to the extent that the Conservative Party loses the next general election badly, the perception may gain ground amongst working class supporters that a Tory majority government is no longer to be feared, with the result that a vote for the Labour Party is no longer essential.

Waiting in the wings to capitalise is the newly formed alliance between the sectarian English Defence League and British Freedom Party, standing on an unashamedly politically-incorrect, anti-Islamic, patriotic, pro-Christian platform which includes withdrawal from the European Union. Whatever one thinks of the EDL and BFP, they are not as heavily tarred with the charge of racism as the BNP is, and are thus more likely to make significant inroads into Labour's bedrock support.

As the situation in Europe deteriorates by the hour and it becomes clear that our rotten Political Class lack the inclination, the courage or the foresight to deal with what could rapidly spiral down into a truly catastrophic situation, we could be on the verge of the greatest re-alignment of British politics since the 'Strange Death of Liberal England' in the early 20th Century.

So, Dan, thank you all the same, but please don't ask again, as refusal often offends. In the not too distant future, marriage with you Tories would likely prove, in the words of Marshall Petain, "fusion with a corpse".

Cameroon tokenism is busting his Party open.

When Tory MPs are blasting their own Party Chairman as the "worse ever", then you have a problem.

Of course the Cameroon virus is about promoting women and non-white faces not on merit, but in the name of 'diversity' for the sake of it.

That has led the the rapid promotion of Baroness Warsi, who recently got hammered by Tory MPs after her treatment of Roger Helmer, who of course defected to UKIP at the Party's Spring Conference.

This is what happens when a 'Notting Hill' cartel takes over your Party with a focus on political correctness and metropolitan feel-goodness, instead of focusing on the promotion of quality, principle and true conservatism.

With the A-list, all-women shortlists and other patronising measures now becoming common practise within the Tory Party, expect annoyance to grow on their backbenches. After decades as a Tory, Roger Helmer finally turned his back and became a UKIPer. It looks increasingly as if he will be followed by many, many more.

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Devious Dave's dishonest record

A heated discussion with two Tory activists on Twitter has prompted me to take a look at Cast Iron Dave's record on keeping promises.

He promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution - a "cast iron guarantee" - and broke the promise.  Instead he's promised to "renegotiate" the UK's relationship with the European Empire - an empty promise as it requires the unanimous agreement of every member state which, as anyone with even the most basic understanding of how the European Empire works knows, is never going to happen.

He promised to stop MPs elected in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from voting on English laws so they can't hide behind the fact that what they're doing doesn't affect their own constituents.  "For English-only legislation, we would have a sort of English grand committee" he said almost exactly a year ago to the day.  Now he says he will stop them from amending English laws but not from voting on them.  Another broken promise from Cast Iron Dave.

He told the Conservative Party Spring Conference this week that it was "Time for Change" but how can he promise change when the European Empire makes all the important decisions?  Tinkering round the edges doesn't constitute the kind of change he's promising.  Another broken promise from Devious Dave.

Cast Iron Dave is a dishonest man.  He has dumped the traditional Tory ideals of euroscepticism, libertarianism, personal responsibility and rolling back the state and instead adopted the Labour ideals of eurofederalism, authoritarianism and the nanny state.  All that's different is the colour of their ties.

Whether Gordon Brown or Devious Dave win the election makes no real difference to the vast majority of us.  The European Empire will continue to run the country while the Prime Minister exercises the role of a regional administrator, making local laws as long as they don't contradict the directives issued by their imperial masters.

Don't waste your vote on the LibLabCon in the general election, vote for the only party that can make a difference by withdrawing from the European Empire and restoring sovereignty to Westminster.

UKIP Launch New Fylde Branch

THERE'S a new party in Fylde.The Fylde Branch of UKIP will officially launch on Friday Night in St Annes.

It will be the first time that the party, which is committed to withdrawing Britain from the European Union, has been active in the Borough. UKIP are inviting Members and non-members alike to the inaugural meeting to get a flavour of what the party stands for. And they will unveil their first two election candidates - 63-year-old local campaigner Bill Whitehead and his son Richard, 24.

The father and son team, who live on St Andrew's Road South, will contest the St Annes North and South seats at the upcoming County Council elections in June.Bill, who was active in the Save St Annes Swimming Baths campaign, said: "We are sick of the way things are being run and decided it was time to do something.

"Our main belief is that we shouldn't be a part of the European union, which is so costly and tells us all what to do, when the money could be spent on British citizens." Also at the meeting will be UKIP MEP Dr John Whittaker and Regional Organiser Dr Fred McGlade, who will provide an update on the progress of the European and County Council campaigns.

Questions will be invited and welcomed at the meeting, something which Bill says will be at the heart of their manifesto. "We want to get back to the old way of doing things, where people were actually listened to. We believe a lot of people in the community are fed up with the Conservatives and will listen to what we have to say. The most important thing is just to get people involved."

The move makes UKIP the second party this year to mount to challenge Fylde Tory supremacy.The meeting will take place on March 27 at St Margaret's Church Hall, St Leonard's Road West, at 7.30pm.

Tories' European move condemned.

The European Parliament's president has condemned the Conservatives' decision to leave the centre-right EPP group.

Hans-Gert Poettering, a German member of the EPP, called Tory leader David Cameron's decision "a serious mistake".

"The big parties should belong to a European family of parties," he said, adding that the Tories' withdrawal was "not in the interests of the UK".

The European People's Party-European Democrats group (EPP) is the biggest bloc, with 278 MEPs.

The second largest is the Party of European Socialists (PES), with 216 MEPs.

The Conservatives informed the EPP earlier this month that they intend to leave it in May.

'Regret'

They plan to form an alternative bloc after the European elections on 4 June.

The Conservatives disagree with what they see as a federalist EPP agenda.

The bloc was opposed to the UK having a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - something the Conservatives campaigned for - and it wants closer economic integration in Europe, as well as common immigration, defence and foreign policies.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has expressed "regret" over the Tory move.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Poettering said he was, however, glad about Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to the European Parliament next Tuesday.

He said it was "an expression that the UK feels the EU is important".

The Conservatives will need to find allies from at least six other countries to qualify as a new grouping and get access to EU funding.

It is thought they will try to attract MEPs from the Czech Republic and Poland among others.

MEP Graham Watson, leader of the liberal ALDE group, called Mr Cameron's move "isolationism that should have no place in British politics".

He also described it as "damaging for the UK and British business".

Mr Watson told BBC News he thought the EPP would still be the biggest bloc after the June election, despite the Tory withdrawal.

Earlier this week Mr Cameron said the new grouping would "work closely with the EPP on all sorts of areas where we agree", adding: "We will be happy neighbours rather than unhappy tenants."

IS THAT ALL!

The Conservative Home's Tory Diary have completed a survey of 1614 Conservative members and asked the question: "Should Britain join the Euro?" Only 65% of them gave an outright 'No'. So much for the Conservative Party being, as we are so often told, a Euro sceptical party. What was even more revealing that 30% of them wanted to keep their options open.

If this had been a survey of UKIP members it would have been 100% no, keeping any options open would be a complete non-starter - how can a sovereign nation ever consider sacrificing its fiscal freedom and right to control its own currency and economy? Once again this proves that the Conservative Party, although having some good people who would never consider joining the euro and would like Britain to leave the EU, can never be trusted on these issues. Maybe it is time for those 65% of Conservative Party members who want to keep our pound should make the move to UKIP which more accurately represents their views.

Our Site stats at Bloggers4ukip show we are having vistors even from Conservative HQ , true eurosceptic's join UKIP now!

Lies, damned lies, and career politicians....

Don't you find it difficult to understand sometimes how the UK, which is overwhelmingly eurosceptic, has somehow over the years managed to elect so many europhile MEPs?

Obviously a large part of the problem is that the Conservative Party pretends to be eurosceptic; but at some stage on the flight or Eurostar journey to Brussels or Strasbourg Tory MEPs undergo a dramatic change in not only attitude but policy. Within the European Parliament they are on the whole keen Europeans, happy to support and promote harmonising legislation that takes the UK on another unwanted step towards political integration.

It is with interest that I read that a Eastern Region MEP, the Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff, has recently been made President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF). The UEF is a nongovernmental and supranational organisation “dedicated to the promotion of a…federal Europe”. In fairness to Mr Duff he is openly an avid europhile; although his party is starting to realise their pro-European stance is a big vote loser with the British public (as the Euro elections of 2004 so starkly showed) Mr Duff continues to try and swim against the tide of sense and reason and take our country in a federalist direction.

And so Mr Duff used his recent election as President to outline the key objectives of the UEF. Unsurprisingly the ambition of this organisation is to ensure that the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified in 2009. Why do I write this? Just in case you needed another reason to oppose this revamped European Constitution…

BARONESS THATCHERS LAST OUTING

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Prime Minister Thatcher now famous Bruges speech, the organisation set up in its name, the Bruges Group, held a dinner in the presence of Baroness Thatcher.

Fortunate enough to be present, and to have the chance to meet and speak to her, was the West Midlands UKIP activist who will be UKIP’s number two list candidate during the 2009 European elections, Nikki Sinclaire. Nikki told Barroness Thatcher that she had “inspired” her and she was the reason she had gone into politics.

Ms Sinclaire explained that she was standing for the UK Independence Party in the West Midlands.

"Good for you. Never give up, never give up," Lady Thatcher told her.

The BBC actually reported the event and they also QUOTED Nikki too. It was atthis dinner where Lord Tebbit, once known as the ‘Chingford skinhead’ made his speech declaring that Britain should leave the EU – he really should join UKIP as the Conservative Party today is nothing like the party of that name he was in during his time in Westminster.

Events such as this will not come about again as Baroness Thatcher is becoming ever more frail, this was most probably her last outing. May her remaining year be lived in peace and contentment and lets hope she lives long enough to see Britain escape the clutches of the European Union, is it must inevitably do one day.