Gerard Batten MEP's home attacked

UKIP's London MEP, Gerard Batten, has had bricks thrown through the windows of his house.

Gerard and his wife were woken twice in the early hours by the sound of bricks being thrown at their windows. The police are reviewing CCTV footage in the hope of catching the perpetrators.

Left wing extremists linked to trade union backed hate groups Hope not Hate and Unite Against Fascism have been escalating their attacks on UKIP members, moving on from verbal abuse to physical assaults and criminal damage and now a cowardly attack on an MEP's home in the early hours of the morning. Far left extremists have been sharing the home addresses of UKIP MEPs on social media and encouraging people to "pay them a visit".

Nigel Farage said:

I've just heard the disgraceful news that my colleague Gerard Batten MEP's house was attacked with bricks. The attack on his home is a direct consequence of the media campaign against UKIP.

H/T Roger Viggers

EuropeNews: 'Islamist' emails from Tower Hamlets council address sent to UKIP

'Islamist' emails from Tower Hamlets council address sent to UKIP

TOWER Hamlets council has launched a disciplinary enquiry over pro-Islamist emails sent to a London Euro-MP. Two e-mails, with a town hall address, attacked proposals by the UK Independence Party to ban Muslim face coverings, including burkas and hijabs, in public places and accused the party of trying to "stoke a religious war on the streets of Britain."

London MEP Gerard Batten has lodged a formal complaint with Tower Hamlets council and is demanding to know what disciplinary action will be taken against any individual found responsible for sending the emails.

The emails, which have been linked to a Town Hall employee's email account, were sent last month.

One message said: "Teenage pregnancies, binge drinking, that is what is associated with British culture. Islam is the dominant religion in the United Kingdom. If you don't like it, go live somewhere else (...)

Leadership Candidates & Hustings confirmed

The leadership race is officially open with five confirmed candidates:

• Gerard Batten MEP
• Lord Pearson of Rannoch
• Mike Nattrass MEP
• Nikki Sinclaire MEP
• Alan Wood

Hustings meetings have been arranged for party members as follows:

• Saturday 31st October, 2pm, Lyne Village Hall, Lyne, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 0AN.
• Monday 2nd November, 7.30pm, Counting House, 50 Cornhill, Bank, London, EC3V 3PD.
• Wednesday 4th November, 7.30pm, The Best Mate Room, Exeter Racecourse, Haldon Hill, Kennford, Exeter, EX6 7XS.
• Tuesday 10th November, 7pm, Tower College, Mill Lane, Prescot, Merseyside, L35 6NE.
• Friday 13th November, 7.30pm, The Great Barr Hotel, Pear Tree Drive, (off the) Newton Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, B43 6HS.

Any member is entitled to attend one or more of the hustings provided you present a valid, up-to-date UKIP membership card.

So who will Bloggers4UKIP be backing? The short answer: nobody. The long answer: members of the Bloggers4UKIP team are close to and/or personally backing different candidates so, in the interests of maintaining harmony, I have made an editorial decision that there will be no promotion of any of the candidates.

All of the candidates are, of course, welcome to keep us updated with their leadership campaign.

Mystery, intrigue and rumour - a day in the life of UKIP!

Earlier today a report was leaked on the UKIP members' forum that MEPs had been discussing a proposal to create a pan-EU eurosceptic party.

This naturally met with some pretty robust opposition. UKIP contests EU elections to get funding, oppose stupid directives, take the piss out of the eurofederalists in their own parliament and to get information that we wouldn't normally get. The general consensus is that creating a pan-EU party like Libertas would be a step too far, too much like joining the establishment.

The story goes that at the MEPs meeting this was suggested, they were told that up to £900k in funding was available from the European Empire and that all MEPs present bar 2 were in favour.

Once I'd got off my soap box I decided to get some first hand information. First things first, I confirmed that the meeting had taken place and that this had been discussed by talking to a couple of MEPs. Satisfied that it had, indeed, happened I emailed all the MEPs asking for the meeting to be put in context:

Dear MEP,

As it has been confirmed that the possibility of UKIP joining or forming a pan-EU party was discussed at the the MEPs meeting, can you now please put this into context?

The reaction so far to the news that it was even discussed has been overwhelmingly negative and to leave the rumour mill running without a clear and unequivocal statement from the party is unhelpful.

Was this proposed to the party, either internally or by the EU, or was it simply exercising due dilligence? If it was proposed, from whom did this proposal come? Which MEPs supported the idea and which MEPs opposed it? Is it safe to assume that the promises to resign if it ever happens from many members on the UKIP members' forum is enough to ensure that this isn't going to be considered now or in the future? £900k (if that figure is correct) is a lot of money to a party our size but there won't be much to spend it on if we don't have any members.

Regards,

Stuart Parr

Bloggers4UKIP

I have so far had an email from Nigel Farage's office and one from Gerard Batten and phone calls from Nikki Sinclair, Mike Nattrass and Nigel Farage.

Nikki and Mike both said they were opposed to the idea of a pan-EU party although they differed on how serious a suggestion it was. Nigel, meanwhile, was quite enthusiastic about the idea and didn't understand what the opposition to it was about. So I explained what I understood the opinion of members to be based on my own feelings about it and what had been said on the UKIP members' forum.

Nigel is quite adamant this isn't a party but a grouping, an alliance. He said that UKIP would not change one bit, it would carry on as it does now but it would have another grouping in addition to the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that UKIP leads. The difference between the EFD group and this new group would be that it would contain other eurosceptic parties that might not have any MEPs, enabling UKIP to lead a much larger group that can take a share of the £10m budget the European Empire has set aside for these groups. This would help to grow eurosceptic parties in other member states and hopefully produce a whole batch of eurosceptic MEPs that UKIP can align with if we still haven't got ourselves out of the EU by the time the next EU election comes along.

If this version of the story is correct then I think it's something to be welcomed. But that's assuming there isn't more to it and there is still some doubt amongst the membership as to whether there might be. The idea that 9 or 10 UKIP MEPs have gone native is pretty unbelievable to be honest and I find it very hard to believe that they would join the EU establishment.

But if the other version of the story is correct - that UKIP will be subsumed into an EU party - then that is totally unacceptable. Unlike the Tories, UKIP members won't accept their party embracing the European Empire and will reject it overwhelmingly when it's put to a ballot of the membership.

My gut feeling is that there has been a pretty fundamental misunderstanding over the nature of this suggested new grouping but I guess we will have to wait until after the NEC meeting on Monday, following which Farage has promised to release a statement setting out the party's position. Unless, that is, any of the other MEPs comes out with a startling revelation in the meantime.