Leadership Latest

Jeffrey Titford was appointed as interim leader by the new NEC in Torquay yesterday.

Titford was UKIP leader between 2000 and 2002 and was a UKIP MEP for the East of England until last year when he decided not to stand for re-election.

Jeffrey is an excellent choice for interim leader, an established politician, former leader and well known.

In other good news, Nigel Farage has decided to stand again for leader of UKIP.  Nigel is by far the most successful leader we have had and easily the most recognisable and media savvy senior UKIPper.

Frank Maloney has ruled himself out, as has Paul Nuttall.  The "big names" who intend to stand for leader are Nigel Farage, David Campbell Bannerman, Gerard Batten and Prof. Tim Congdon.  Unless there's a mystery contender yet to declare their intentions, the contest is a two-horse race between Nigel Farage and David Campbell Bannerman and Farage has got to be the favourite.

UKIP Public Meeting on Saturday 31st of January 2009

The Peterborough & NW Cambs Branches will be hosting a Public Meeting with guest speaker Nigel Farage MEP party leader on SATURDAY 31ST OF JANUARY 2009 starting at 10am at the

"Manor Farm Centre", Eye, Peterborough, PE6 7UY which will finish at 5pm.

All newcommer's are welcome to come and hear ten speakers talk about the UK Independence Party and put their questions forward to be given an answer too.Speakers on the day inculde:
>David Campbell-Bannerman (Deputy Leader)
>Paul Nuttall (Party Chairman)
>Jeffrey Titford (MEP)
>Stuart Gulleford (Political Advisor)
>Stuart Agnew (European Parliamentary Candidate)
>Lisa Duffy (National Co-ordinator of Young Independents)
>Micheal Heaver(BBC Question Time Winner)

Refreshments will be served throughout the day.For further details contact us on: 01487 710898 or 01733 333138.or e~mail us on: nwcambsukip@hotmail.co.uk

Jeffrey Titford - Slams £44.3 million aid package for Belgian Fishermen which leaves British fleet high and dry

The European Commission's approval of a £44.3 million (€52.5 million) aid package for the Belgian fishing industry for the period 2007-2013 yesterday (19.11.08) has attracted a broadside from Eastern Counties MEP, Jeffrey Titford. "This is a huge amount of money for a small fleet. The Belgians only have about 880 fishermen in total and will use these funds to intensify their fishing in our waters, at the expense of British fishermen.

"The great tragedy is that our cash starved fishermen will be getting nothing. The Belgians are prepared to provide match funding for anything Brussels gives them. The EU is providing £22.2 million (€26.3 million) and the Belgian Government is coming up with the rest. Our Government will not and it means that there will be no similar aid package for the British fishing industry, which is in dire straits. It is insulting for our fishermen to see their competitors so well funded and plundering our waters, while their own industry continues to be drastically under-funded and drowned in red tape. It is high time this Government took its responsibility for the British fishing industry seriously.

"I need hardly add that if Britain were to leave the EU, there would be enough money saved to enable the Government to massively increase funding for fishing, not to mention the fact that we would regain control of our own fishing waters, which was so sadly lost when we joined the then Common Market."

Eastern Counties MEP Exposes EU Fruit Scheme as 'Sheer Naked Propaganda' and 'Market Fixing'

In a speech to the European Parliament today (18.11.08), Jeffrey Titford, the UK Independence Party MEP for the Eastern Counties has exposed what he believes is the true intent behind a new EU scheme to provide fruit and vegetables to schools. Mr Titford pointed out that the scheme is the first step in taking control of what we eat, that each piece of fruit would have an EU label and the whole project would be supported by a major publicity campaign, which he described as 'propaganda'.

He also highlighted the market fixing that will be possible under the conditions of the scheme e.g. mandatory rules stiupulating that all the produce must come from the EU, which in the case of bananas, would prevent British suppliers who obtain their produce from the Carribean Commonwealth countries from taking part and provide French suppliers with a lucrative new market, as their bananas come from Guadeloupe and Martinique.

The full text of Mr Titford's speech is as follows:
Strasbourg 18.11.08
Mr President
This project is being dressed up as all about concern for the welfare of children. However, the real agenda is a disturbing mix of 'Nanny Brussels' control freakism, sheer naked propaganda and market fixing.

Nanny Brussels likes to be in control of everything, including what we eat. Putting itself in charge of what children eat at school is the first major step in that process. The propaganda angle is that each piece of fruit will have an EU label on it and the whole project will be supported by a massive publicity campaign.

In regard to the fruit market, I understand it will create a great many opportunities for mischief such as mandatory rules that all the fruit must come from inside the EU. In the case of bananas, this could, at a stroke, rule out British suppliers who obtain their bananas from the British Commonwealth Caribbean countries and thus provide a lucrative new opportunity for the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique . No more Nanny Brussels, thank you.

Titford Secures 6th Formers' Approval for Leaving the EU

On Thursday night (13.11.08) 60 sixth formers at Brentwood School in Essex were treated to a lively debate on the motion: 'Britain should leave the European Union' between Jeffrey Titford, the Eastern Counties UKIP MEP and Linda Jack who is the number two candidate for the Liberal Democrats at next year's European Election.

Ms Jack centred her case against the motion on the familiar territory of the need for countries to work together through EU membership and that pulling out would leave Britain isolated. Mr Titford pointed out that "there was life before membership of the EU" and highlighted the huge cost of British membership both in financial and political terms, with the unelected European Commission becoming increasingly powerful at the expense of democratically elected governments in the member states. He also illustrated how our basic rights, such as the presumption of innocence are being eroded by the European Arrest Warrant and other attempts to make the British people subject to European style justicial processes.

After an equally lively question and answer session with the students, a vote was taken and the motion was carried by 35 votes to 23. Speaking after the debate Mr Titford said: "I was delighted to be asked to take part in the debate and found the question and answer session particularly stimulating and interesting. It was encouraging to see that many of the students had a good understanding of the very serious problems being created by British membership of the EU or were open-minded enough to take them on board."

EU budget: the missing €6 billion

Via UKIP.org

After 14 years of trying, the European Union has finally managed to have its budget passed – even though the auditors say they have no idea where €6 billion have gone

The European Court of Auditors said it had signed off the budget, to which the UK contributes £40 million a day, but it added that it could not trace the missing €6 billion.

UKIP MEP Jeffrey Titford, who sits on the Budgetary Committee of the European Parliament, said it was beyond belief that with so much public money missing the budget had still been passed.

Marta Andreassen, a former chief accountant for the EU and now a UKIP candidate for the 2009 Euro-elections, said the systems of financial control were so complex that the auditors had no way of telling where fraud began or ended.

Following the release of the ECA report, UKIP issued a statement in which it said:

"The report claims to have passed the accounts in an 'unqualified' way and yet it also states that 'the Court cannot provide a clean opinion.' The truth is that the ECA is a European institution and therefore has been politicised in order that it sanitise the devastating truth about the accounts."

Eastern Counties MEP Jeffrey Titford added: "Year after year the European Parliament goes through the motions of considering the Court of Auditor's report and its failure to approve the EU's accounts, and each time, over the strenuous objections of a tiny minority of people like myself, the Parliament tamely nods through the accounts.

"Fourteen years of failure, 14 years of grotesque mismanagement of public money and 14 years of mealy-mouthed acquiescence by most British MEPs is enough. If any British MEP either votes to approve the EU's 2007 accounts or abstains from the vote, then his or her party should not receive a single vote in next year's European parliamentary election. The politicians are failing us, therefore, it is time for the public to act by holding them responsible at the ballot box."

Marta Andreassen said the ECA had asserted without room for doubt that they had found at least €6 billion to have been wrongly paid out in 2007 from the European Union Budget. The court said it did not imply the transactions were illegal or irregular, or that there was fraud, Mrs Andreassen went on. They added that "only if funds have intentionally been improperly claimed can we talk about fraud." But the court had failed to produce an analysis on the intentionality of the improper claims.

"They confirm that the improvements said to have been made in the control of the use of EU funds do not change the overall negative opinion given in prior years.

"The court confirms that it is the Commission that retains overall responsibility for the execution of the budget and is accountable for this to the European Parliament and Council. So, can we please ask the European Parliament and the Council to call the Commission to account for their persistent failure in managing European taxpayers' money."

The Pestilential EU By Jeffrey Titford MEP UK Independence Party – Eastern Counties

The hot topic right now is the EU’s proposals for an update to directive 91/414/EEC, which is well on its way through the European Parliament and involves the introduction of a new hazard based system for approving pesticides to replace the tried and tested existing regime, which is based on risk. I have written about it at length several times in these columns in the past year, so I won’t repeat all the arguments.

This misguided legislation typifies the EU’s approach to law making – fix it, even if it isn’t broken. What it means for farmers is the loss of many of the chemical tools they have used for years to tackle some of the most pernicious weeds and blights. It is good to see that the farming industry is belatedly waking up to the extreme threat this legislation poses to the arable sector1.

Efforts to resist these proposals are being aimed at the European Parliament’s Environment Committee. Farmers are being encouraged to lobby the Committee by writing letters to the individual members and a petition is underway, which a number of correspondents have urged me to sign. Unfortunately, much of this effort misses the central point and is wrongly targeted. Decisions on what system to use for the assessment of pesticides we use in this country should be decided by our own Government at Westminster , not by unelected officials in the European Commission. The Environment Committee is only enacting the wishes of the Commission and its proposals will be rubber-stamped by the tame European Parliament.

People seem to be forgetting that what we joined in 1973 was sold to us as a ‘Common Market’ where we would do lots of business, which would be good for the economy. Who would have believed that 35 years later, officials at the European Commission, with no democratic legitimacy whatsoever, would be laying down the law on what chemicals we may spray on fields in Britain, while our own elected Government can do nothing but stand meekly by waiting to be told what it must enforce.

If you really do want to write letters, far better to send them to Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn, urgently requesting that Britain should veto these proposals and withdraw from the Common Agricultural Policy and, ultimately, from the EU itself. The one would inevitably lead to the other. You might copy your letters to Agriculture Commissoner Mariann Fischer Boel for good measure. Only by taking these dramatic but necessary steps will we ever again get sensible agricultural policy in Britain .¨

Credit Crunch Bites Farmers
Much has been made of food price inflation at the retail end, in recent months, but it is not being passed on down the chain. Price inflation is almost non-existent at farm level and farmers are now up against a triple whammy; including a dramatic fall in the price of feed wheat, down to about £90 a tonne, half of what it was last year, major increases in the cost of fuel and fertiliser and, just to put the tin hat on it, bank credit has dried up because of the current world financial crisis. Many farmers are facing disaster.

It has been instructive, if somewhat infuriating, to see how ineffectual the EU has been in the face of the credit crisis. While the Americans have swiftly recognised that regulations known as ‘Basel 2’ introduced in 2004, in the wake of the Enron disaster, have been a major factor in the current crisis and moved to change them immediately, all the EU has done is hold a series of ineffectual meetings after which a number of heads of state and government went home and did their own thing anyway. The Basel 2 rules were introduced in two EU directives and the process of drafting a new one to deal with the problem could take a year or more.

For those wishing to understand the Basel 2 rules, they involved the introduction of a complicated risk assessment model, which is used to assess the solvency of a bank after the end of a day’s trading. It produces an asset statement to determine whether or not the institution is solvent. All this is fine and dandy when the markets are rising but in times of recession, such as now, a bank’s assets appear minimal and no allowance is made for future recovery or the underlying value of the assets. This situation renders them unable to lend or borrow money, starving the banks of the only way they can stay solvent.

Without these inflexible rules, most of the banks that have collapsed might well have survived. While the bankers are taking most of the blame for the world crisis, the European Commission and some of our politicians should take their share. The really worrying thing is that the financial sector produces a third of Britain ’s income but it is now largely controlled by the rigid and paralysed EU, which makes us horribly vulnerable to the present financial crisis and certainly doesn’t make things any easier for farmers.

Eastern Counties Newsletter - December 2008

Dear All Please note that Jeffrey's next quarterly newsletter is scheduled for publication in December. If you would like any articles, notices of meetings, etc, included in the next edition, can you please ensure that they are sent to my email address, lisabuckle@ukip.org, or by post to the Chelmsford office, by Friday 7th November 2008. Many thanks Lisa Buckle

Luton Referendum Confirms That the British People are Sick of the EU

The ITV programme ‘Tonight’ aired 20.10.08 entitled ‘EU Decide’, which showed the campaign and voting results from a mock referendum on EU membership held in Luton has been highly praised by the UKIP MEP for the Eastern Counties Jeffrey Titford. The voters solidly rejected the Lisbon Treaty and strongly backed British withdrawal from the EU.

When the people of Luton were asked how they would vote on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty 27 per cent voted yes, 63 per cent voted no and 10 per cent were undecided. When asked about membership of the EU, only 35 per cent voted to stay in, with an impressive 54 per cent voting to come out. 11 per cent were undecided.

Mr Titford said: “The programme makers are to be congratulated for having the courage to make and air such a programme. The results speak for themselves. It is a great shame that it has to be left to ITV to give the British people a say in how their country is to be governed in the decades ahead.

However, it is abundantly clear that the voters are sick and tired of the EU and that there is massive support for UKIP’s position that Britain would be better off out of it altogether. It is high time the other Parliamentary parties put an end to their long love affair with the European Union, which is completely at odds with the views of ordinary people.”

MEP cleared of allowance misuse

For those of you who like to listen or belive the likes of John West , UKIP Truth or GLW please reading the following welcoming news:

ESSEX Police are to take no action over allegations that a Euro MP for the East of England and his political adviser improperly misused parliamentary allowances

The UK Independence Party MEP Jeffrey Titford, formerly from Frinton, and his advisor Stuart Gulleford, who lives in Brentwood, have been told that “no criminal conduct” has been found after the constabulary were called in by John West, the party's parliamentary candidate for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North.

In a letter, Essex Police say: “The investigation included obtaining a witness statement from a former colleague/employee of yours, which made it quite clear that while Mr West may have believed he had cause for concern, we the Police are satisfied that there is no criminal conduct which requires further investigation.

“As such, the case is closed as `no crime.'”

Mr Titford, an MEP since 1999 who will be 75 when the next Euro elections are held in June 2009, is not seeking re-election. Polling for Europe is conducted on the regional party list system of proportional representation, which means candidates in the higher positions on the list have more chance of being elected.

Top of UKIP's East regional list will be David Campbell Banner, great nephew of a former Liberal prime minister, and Mr Gulleford will be in fourth place. Seven MEPs will be elected for the East region, which covers the counties of Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Mr Titford and Mr Gulleford, in a statement issued from UKIP's Eastern Counties office in Chelmsford, said: “It is a relief to put the matter behind us. It is one thing knowing that you have done absolutely nothing wrong but quite another waiting for the police to come to the same conclusion.”

Mr Titford added: “The real casualty in all this is my colleague and friend Stuart Gulleford, who has worked extremely hard for me during the past eight years. He was on the final list of candidates put to the members for voting and this non-existent scandal damaged his prospects.”

Mr West told the EADT that he was not the originator of the complaint, but passed on the concerns of a third party about alleged financial irregularities.“I have no regrets because my duty as a citizen was to report the matter. I shall carry on in my capacity as a parliamentary candidate,” said Mr West.

Nice song, shame the eurofederalists have ruined it

When the British government and assorted eurofederalists lied about the Lisbon Treaty being different to the EU Constitution, research was done and it was discovered to be 96% identical.

In fact, other than a different title and payload, the differences between the two were largely limited to the removal of references to the EU ring of stars and Ode to Joy as the flag and anthem of the European Federation.

I'm sure it won't surprise you, though, to learn that the pretendy parliament has passed a pretendy law making the ring of stars and Ode to Joy the pretendy flag and pretendy anthem of their pretendy country. Which means that if the Lisbon Treaty does get passed into law then everything in the EU Constitution will be brought into force, plus the extra bits they've slotted in to make up for the "compromise" of taking their pretendy flag and pretendy anthem out of the Lisbon Treaty.

But it doesn't stop at adopting the ring of stars and Ode to Joy as symbols of their pretendy country. They also plan to make celebrating Europe Day, their pretendy national day, compulsary in all member states, forcing all public buildings to fly their pretendy flag.

UKIP MEP, Jeffrey Titford, said "The European Union has done so much damage to our country both democratically and economically that to ask us to celebrate its existence once a year, is really rubbing our noses in it. We don't even officially celebrate St George's day here in England!"

The Lib Dems supported the move of course, they're die-hard eurofederalist traitors. Strangely, for a party that is so worried about losing eurosceptic votes to UKIP, some Tory MEP's supported the move. We shouldn't complain really, every time the Tories show their true colours (blue with yellow stars) they drive more and more voters to UKIP.