Green Party condemned as 'extremists' for claiming that flying abroad is like "knifing someone in the street"

The lead candidate in the European Election for the UK Independence Party in the Eastern Counties, David Campbell Bannerman, has exposed the Green Party’s extremist views live on an ITV programme to be shown in the East of England. The Green Party is targeting the Eastern region for an MEP seat.

Challenging Ms Lucas about her views on climate change on the TV programme ‘Leaders of Europe’, Mr Campbell Bannerman asked her whether she thought flying to Spain, for example, was as bad as stabbing someone in the street, and Ms Lucas confirmed “Yes!… because climate change kills”.

Campbell Bannerman comments: - “I was shocked at her response. This is the Leader of a supposedly respectable political party, now showing fascist tendencies. There can be no excuse for adopting such extremist language to describe ordinary people flying abroad for a well earned holiday. The Green Party has shown its true anti-libertarian, heavily interventionist colours. It is translating its misplaced fervour over unproven man-made global warming into direct attacks on personal freedom."

"She also used expressions like 'binge flying' which are absurd. Air travel is generally a necessary part of a journey not a wicked extravagance, as the Greens think. Half the British population fly at least once a year. Yes, they should pay the true costs of that travel, including the environmental costs, but they should not be barred or vilified for doing so.“

“The Green Party is becoming reminiscent of a mad cult which maligns anyone who doesn't follow their faith. They are like 21st century Luddites trying to hold back progress, and they regard holidaymakers as environmental criminals. UKIP shows common sense on the environment, the Greens are just plane crazy!"

Euro Elections 2009 Our Time Has Come

BY THE TIME you read this, the countdown to the European Election 2009 will really beunderway. This is the time when we have to show that we are at the top of our game and to make even more progress than we did in 2004.

It is imperative that we don’t fall back, that we continue to gain ground. Fundraising is going teally well. Thanks largely to you, the members, the Eastern Counties are in a much better position than we were at this time in 2004.This is down to the excellent preparatory work done by the Eastern Counties Committee,led by George Curtis. However, don’t stop now, every pound is vital because we have to do even better than last time and, of course, everything is much more expensive than in 2004.

Our 2009 campaign will be based on three essential elements; the cost of the EU,immigration and its effect on jobs and the breakdown of democracy being created by Brussels. In these recessionary times, the immense cost of British membership of the EU is beginning to resonate with the public. Immigration and the amount of migrant workers coming to Britain is also a hot issue here following the recent strikes and the calls for ‘British jobs for British workers’, the famous line from Gordon Brown, which he knew he could not deliver while Britain remains in the EU.

One by one,the major political parties made excuses for not supporting the call and even began criticising it as ‘protectionist’. Only UKIP had the courage to strongly support it. Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary in one of the most shameful responses, told the British people to seek work abroad if they can’t find any here. Roughly translated, he is telling people struggling to find work in their own country to: ‘get lost’. This statement alone shows what a disaster it was when Gordon Brown inexplicably decided to return him to front line politics.

Any government’s first duty must be to defend the interests of its own people. Not anymore it seems.They are now more interested in being good little ‘Europeans’and protecting single market rules. One of the major themes of the euro election campaign will again be ‘lend us your vote’ as a means of teaching the political classes,who have become detached from and increasingly contemptuous of ordinary people, a big lesson. 4th June 2009 is also referendum day for all those voters who were promised but then denied their opportunity to express their view about the appalling Lisbon Treaty.

The silly-season which traditionally begins in the months prior to the election, where everything is done to try to undermine us, is already well underway. We’ve had the usual round of non-stories about high profile defections and some not so high, new parties setting up, etc. One common feature of the latest mischief has been that the few people leaving us have been those who have done nothing but try to disrupt the Party for long periods or who have done nothing at all to help the Party electorally (or a combination of both). We are better off without such people. Most importantly of all, members should not be disheartened. These attempts at sabotage are proof positive that we are getting somewhere.

If we were no threat to the political establishment, there would be no need to try to undermine our efforts. In the coming months we must be resolute and, when the going gets tough, ‘bloodied but unbowed’ for our time has come and we must march on to victory at the European Election and from thence to getting our first MPs elected to Westminster.

Jeffrey Titford MEP in Farmers Guide (April 2009)

The CAP - Who Really Benefits? By Jeffrey Titford UKIP MEP

The traditional view of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is that it was created to make Europe self-sufficient in food production and to ensure that smaller farmers were able to make a living. By the early 1970s, the CAP had more than achieved the self-sufficiency target. Farmers, encouraged by massive amounts of taxpayers’ money, were producing far more than EU citizens could eat or drink. Naturally, they chose to grow whatever attracted the largest subsidies, regardless of whether there was a genuine market for what they produced.

A new book, ‘The Great European Rip-Off’, by David Craig and Matthew Elliot and sub-headed ‘How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of our Lives’, published by Random House has an excellent section where it exposes the history of the CAP and also shows how it is now disastrously failing all but the richest farmers and lining the pockets of many who have little to do with farming.

The book makes it clear that Brussels , in coming up with the CAP, had in fact created a monster, which rapidly grew out of control. In the 1970s, there were beef and butter mountains and a huge 17.8 billion litre lake of extremely poor quality wine. The taxpayer, having shelled out for this over production also ended up paying for most of it to be stored, reprocessed and frequently destroyed. All of this was happening against a backdrop of a billion people in the Third World starving, with about 9 million dying of hunger and malnutrition each year. Not a pretty picture.

The book goes as far as to suggest that had Britain and Denmark not joined in 1973, the hugely expensive over-production generated by the CAP would have bankrupted the then European Economic Community. We now call it the EU. The generous new contributions from taxpayers in these two countries kept the whole thing going and have helped to create the strange situation that we find ourselves in today, where the CAP has become terribly distorted and diverted from its original purpose.

The EU frequently claims that the CAP is a key ingredient in maintaining the EU economy and sustaining a sector that is responsible for 19 million jobs. Among the key benefits the EU claims for CAP is that it ‘spends the money where it is most needed,’ but does it? Traditionally, French farmers are supposed to be the biggest beneficiaries of CAP largesse, although only 10% of EU farmers are located in France . The CAP ensures that they receive 25% of all CAP money. 130,000 French farmers each receive £18,400 per annum. This compares with around 120,000 farmers in the UK , Germany and Spain combined, receiving this level of subsidy. There are also 3,000 French farmers receiving annual subsidies of £91,940.

Indeed, looking at where most of the CAP money is spent, the suggestion that it is being spent ‘where it is most needed’, becomes highly questionable. 85% of the budget (£55.3 billion) goes to just 18% of farms and the most wealthy 2% of farmers and agricultural companies receive no less than a quarter of the total budget. The identity of the recipients tends to be shrouded in secrecy and one Scottish newspaper battled for more than two years to identity CAP subsidy recipients in Scotland . They eventually discovered that the country’s largest farmers were receiving an average of £230,000 a year, while the average subsidy for all farmers in Scotland was a mere £9,000.

Two large food companies in Sweden and Denmark , hardly the most needy of recipients, have been given a combined total of £1.37 billion since 2000. Another major company, Campina operating in Germany , Holland and Belgium has had almost £920 million. Nestle, which operates in Britain , Austria , Denmark , Spain and Holland has received hundreds of millions. Even closer to home, Tate & Lyle is one of Britain ’s largest CAP recipients at £100 million a year.

Landowners who don’t actually do any farming have a hand in the pot and even airlines and cruise ship companies are getting hand-outs as they are allowed to claim because they are exporting food! Think of that next time you tuck into an airline bread roll! However, altogether the most disturbing of the decidedly odd list of CAP beneficiaries is the four French banks, based in the poshest areas of Paris . The BNP, Credit Mutual, Credit Agricole and Banque Populaire have each received over £91.9 million for supporting French agriculture largely through loans to farmers. There are vast sums also given to members of the Royal families of a number of European countries including our own.

When you consider that the average subsidy given to farmers in the EU is probably as low as £8,000 a year, you have to question the whole purpose of the CAP. The problem is that whenever suggestions are made about reducing subsidies, enraged farmers take to the streets to protest, little realising that they are protecting the interests of a lot of very wealthy people. The EU has promised to publish details of CAP recipients this month (April). It will be interesting to see if they keep this promise and if there is any reaction from our normally supine media when they see how the CAP is making the rich richer.

Media Appearances this Weekend

London MEP Gerard Batten will be on BBC1's The Big Questions at 10am. Gerard Batten, who regularly features on the front of Dutch and other European newspapers for his work on pinning down the cost we all have to pay for the European Union is among the speakers on BBC1's topical debate program this week, coming from Enfield. He appears alongside presenter Nicky Campbell, broadcaster Gloria Hunniford and Sun columnist Kelvin McKenzie. So set your alarms early for Sunday morning to hear Gerard talking sound common sense!

Also Nigel Farage will be on Radio 4, 10 pm Sunday 22nd.

SWANSONG FOR AN EU-REALIST

By Jeffrey Titford MEP UK Independence Party - Eastern Counties

This is my last column for the East Anglian Daily Times as the European Election beckons and I am not seeking re-election. After ten years in the European Parliament, my second career, having already retired once, I have decided that it is time to stand aside and let younger candidates come through.

Writing these columns has been one of the great pleasures of my time as an MEP. The EADT is to be congratulated for being one of the very few newspapers prepared to carry regular material from the region’s MEPs. Instrumental in that has been the paper’s Political Editor, Graham Dines, who has always been very fair and even-handed in his treatment of UKIP, for which I am very grateful. My thanks also to the readers of the EADT, who I hope will have appreciated the independent views I have expressed.

What I have tried to do in my columns is to bring some realism to the debate about Britain ’s membership of the European Union. I have tried to blow holes in some of the empty, rose tinted rhetoric of those who see EU membership as some sort of sunlit upland that provides peace, security and secures our economic future. It provides none of these things but is quite happy to claim the credit for them, credit which belongs elsewhere to organisations like NATO.

In regard to economics, events are now rapidly catching up with a eurozone that has been built upon quicksand. No one cared very much about adhering to EMU entry requirements. Rules about national debts tended to be overlooked or excuses made in the rush to get countries signed up. Well the pigeons are coming home to roost right now. Consumer and business confidence in the zone have fallen to an all time low and many EU countries are on the brink of disaster, including, alas, Ireland , which is in a real mess.

These are tough times for us all but at least Britain , independent of the euro and in control of its own interest rate, is in a better position to ride out the storm. We have been able to cut our rate to try to stimulate our economy, whilst the eurozone countries have to sit and wait for the European Central Bank to decide what to do and hope that it will help their economy rather than that of their neighbour. They are trapped in the euro straitjacket and cannot act in their own best interests. Surely it is the first duty of any government, to act in the best interests of the people it represents? Is it not the case that in signing up to the euro, they have abdicated their most important duty?

A recent report produced by the Bruges Group puts the annual cost of EU membership at £4.64 billion per month, £1.07 billion per week, £152.8 million a day, £6.36 million per hour and an astonishing £106,117 per minute (net figures). EU membership was always grossly expensive but in the boom times, the cost could be overlooked or avoided, by its supporters. It cannot be overlooked any longer. With people losing their jobs and their homes, the expense and the huge regulatory burden it generates are no longer sustainable. We have to leave and soon.

Readers interested in more information about Jeffrey Titford MEP or UKIP can find it on www.jeffreytitfordmep.co.uk

EU to pile more taxes on Trucks

Mike Nattrass UKIP MEP and UKIP's Transport Spokesman today attacked plans by the European Union to put more pressure on the beleaguered road transport sector.

"The new version of the Euro - vignette would be a catastrophe for the HGV sector and the British economy. To be putting extra costs onto transport at this time will just ramp up costs when the wheels are already coming off the economy", he said.

The plan, spearheaded by Belgian socialist MEP Saïd El Khadraoui is to specifically tax air and noise pollution from trucks.

"But", says Mr. Nattrass, "a CO2 tax is completely unnecessary as it is already factored into fuel duty. It is blatant double taxation.

Worse still they leave no option for the operators, they are completely boxed in by this. Why does the EU see it as its role to punish the few remaining businesses without giving any alternate solution. Don't even try and suggest canals, you try and dig them through the Alps"

John Cooke, proprietor of Tameside Transport, an HGV operator said,

"Another crazy idea from Europe. How can you apply a congestion charge to Trucks? If you succeed in forcing trucks off the road, you have empty shops or the haulier has to pass on the costs to their customers. So really it is a tax on industry in the middle of a recession!"

The report can be found here , It was voted on in the Transport Committee of the Parliament today.

EU’s ‘Nemesis’ Comes to Norwich - - Former Chief Accountant to talk to local businesses -

Marta Andreasen, the European Union’s former Chief Accountant who was famously sacked by Neil Kinnock for refusing to approve the EU’s accounts because they were not properly prepared and wide open to fraud, will be in Norwich on Wednesday (11.2.09) for talks with local businesses and to give a speech at a fundraising dinner for the UK Independence Party, in Reepham. Ms Andreasen is also standing for UKIP in the South East, at the European Election later this year and may well return to haunt the EU.

David Campbell Bannerman, UKIP’s Deputy Leader and lead prospective candidate for the European Election in the East of England said: “I am delighted that Marta is going to be with us on Wednesday. She is a very courageous lady, who refused to compromise her principles in the face of major intimidation by the EU’s bureaucracy, which took a very dim view of her honesty and her attempt to expose the serious flaws in the accounting systems. I sincerely hope Marta will be elected in June and, using that platform, can continue to be the EU’s nemesis. With the EU’s accounts not being properly signed off by the auditors for 14 consecutive years, her knowledge and experience are badly needed to help UKIP to expose the fraud and corruption endemic in the EU’s finances.”

On Wednesday evening, Ms Andreasen will be joining local businessmen and key players from UKIP, including the sitting MEP for the East of England, Jeffrey Titford for a fundraising dinner hosted by Sir John White at his home in Reepham. Also present will be UKIP Peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch and prospective MEP candidate Stuart Agnew.

Say hello to the Elephant by Trevor Colman UKIP MEP South West

For the past ten years or so I have been travelling around the country speaking to clubs, groups and associations about European Union (EU) membership. On one occasion, about nine years ago, I spoke at a Round Table dinner in Somerset. After a splendid meal I began my 40 minute address. Within five minutes every person present had turned their chair around so that they had their backs to me. For the next 35 minutes I was studiously ignored and, at the end, politely helped to the exit.

At about the same time I recall speaking to a Probus group in Devon where I predicted, amongst other things, that eventually the EU would require us all to have a licence for virtually every activity. I was laughed off the stage.

In neither incident do I now think that the members of the audience were being intentionally rude. The fact was that they simply could not accept what I was telling them. Britain was about to disappear I pointed out. Regional government directed from Brussels, would replace Westminster. EU laws would govern us at home whilst foreign policy, including the deployment of EU armed forces, would be under the control of Brussels. Thousands of EU laws would change the British way of life.

I realise now that at the hundreds of meetings I addressed very few people, if any, believed me. The reason for their disbelief is simple. Then, as now, and for the past thirty six years, the truth about EU membership has been deliberately hidden from the British people. It has been described as the elephant in the room that no-one mentions.In addition to downright lies one common form of deceit has been to present EU laws as being Westminster initiatives. There are countless examples of this, the following are just two.

A couple of years ago John Major admitted that separating the management of the railway rolling stock from the management of the track had been a mistake. What he omitted to say was that this arrangement came from an EU Directive. Similarly, a while back the BBC Spotlight programme transmitted a piece about the diminishing herds of moorland ponies but failed to mention that one of the main reasons was the EU requirement for pony ‘passports’, making it financially unviable for farmers to maintain the herds.

Gradually, however, the British people are becoming aware that the closure of Post Offices, the changes in waste collection, the proposed introduction of I/D cards, imprisonment without charge and a whole host of other measures are happening because Brussels says so. The elephant is stirring. Now, something truly significant is happening. Something that can’t be ignored by turning our backs on it or laughing at it. There is growing civil unrest by groups of British workers worried about losing their jobs.

Although mass immigration never appeared in any party manifesto, the Brussels rules allow for free movement of people within the EU and this means 450 million foreigners have the right to come and reside in Britain. UK politicians have readily enforced this rule as a result of which Britain has been forced to accept millions of immigrants over the past few years.

At the 2007 Labour Party conference Gordon Brown accidentally prodded the elephant when he promised ‘British jobs for British workers’. The simple fact is that Brown cannot deliver on this promise. The EU won’t let him. Brussels has decreed that those millions of immigrants our politicians have allowed in have the same rights, including the right to work, as British workers and many of them will work for a lot less.

The British people are suddenly waking up to the fact that they are ‘Europeans’ first and British second. For millions of British workers this will result in the dole queue whilst foreign workers snap up those promised ‘British’ jobs. Whilst we are members of the EU there is nothing you or I (or Brown) can do about it, except obey. This is what it means to be a citizen of the European Union.

It’s time to say hello to the elephant.

Words of Warning on RSA Quotas

I had been enjoying a superb autumn on Dungeness beach, catching large quantities of codling up to 8lbs. On my last trip before Christmas I packed up around 2am and couldn’t help but think how incredible it was, that from April I might have to report my catch to the authorities or risk breaking the law. This is because on December 18th 2008, with no prior warning, the European Commission announced that they intended to regulate sea angling.

Be under no illusion, this represents the biggest threat to our sport ever and we must stand up and fight!

The plan is to put sea angling on the same, discredited, quota system as used by commercial fishermen. It will mean that every private boat, yacht or kayak that wants to drop a line over the side will need a license. All fish landed will need to be reported whether caught from boat or shore.Once the quota for angling is used up, any fish taken could result in a fine of £50,000! Without an army of officials, the likelihood is that many sea anglers will just become criminals, as bad laws are always treated with contempt. The odd person will be unlucky though and face massive fines.

What is at stake here isn’t just the sport we love, but one of the last freedoms that we enjoy – It must be stopped! . Over the Christmas holidays I worried about the plan and I had plenty of time to do so as the easterly winds killed the cod fishing stone dead. On my return to Brussels I was even more alarmed to see the plans to put these measures through at breakneck speed.

We have to act now, as the final vote by the European Parliament is likely to be in April. I would strongly urge everyone in the angling community to oppose this proposal. There’s no point in writing to your local MP as all power over fisheries has been given to the European Union.

Visit the UKIP website, www.ukip,org and sign the petition to have Article 47 dropped.

Contact the MEPs for your area, they can be found at www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm

Tell them that you want Article 47 of the 'Council Regulation establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy to be deleted. Clearly tell them you will not vote for them in the June 4th European Elections if they let you down.

Contact UK Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies at www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/huw_irranca-davies/ogmore and urge him to get Article 47 dropped.

If tens of thousands take the trouble to lobby, you will be listened to. MEP’s need your votes to secure their next five year term. You can put pressure on them.

I am appealing to angling groups in France and Holland and urging them to do the same.

Don't let Brussels bureaucrats ruin our sport and our industry.

Stand up and fight!

Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP leader

Conservative MEP under fire as he admits to voting YES to everything in the European Parliament

"CHRISTOPHER BEAZLEY LETS DOWN THE EAST OF ENGLAND" SAYS UKIP LEAD CANDIDATE

David Campbell Bannerman, UKIP's lead candidate for the East of England in June's European election has attacked local Conservative MEP Christopher Beazley for saying he will always vote 'Yes' to new EU rules and regulations, regardless of how much damage it does to the people he represents.

When Mr Beazley complained his voting machine had broken down in the Strasbourg Parliament today (13.1.09), he informed the Parliament's President that he didn't really need to have his machine fixed "as I plan to vote 'Yes' to everything".

Commenting on his behaviour, Mr Campbell Bannerman said: "Mr Beazley is like the Man from Del Monte... he just likes to say YES! YES to everything the EU wants regardless of the cost for hard pressed families living in the East of England, YES, regardless of the impact on local businesses, YES, despite the damage to our country from yet more loss of control of our affairs. What is the point of Mr Beazley being in the European Parliament? - you might as well send his voting machine instead".

"This Tory MEP is letting down his country and his constituency. No wonder polls show that more than 1 in 10 Tories will back UKIP at the Euro elections, 45% of people think none of the three old parties represents their views on the EU, 71% of people want a referendum on continued membership of the EU, and an amazing 83% do not want EU laws overriding UK laws.* Only UKIP represents the true national and local interest. "

Abit of New Years Fun