Mrs Sharp said: “I would never vote BNP because I think they’re a bunch of thugs. I wouldn’t even consider them. I am concerned about immigration and our relationship with Europe and I’m quite interested in UKIP, so, yes, I think that’s quite helpful.”
Mr Sharp said: “I would never ever vote BNP, ever, because I don’t think they are a party. I am more right wing than left, so I’m pleased that UKIP is up there. But I am also debating the Lib Dems, I think they have a lot to offer.”
Hair salon boss Debbie Thompson, 27, of Rizzo, in Wellington, was matched to UKIP, with Conservatives and Lib Dems next. She said: “I’m not surprised because that’s how I was thinking. I would consider UKIP, even though they won’t form a Government. The survey is pretty accurate.”If only half the voters in Telford and Wrekin vote UKIP then we'll be happy. If only two out of six people vote UKIP will be happy. Pretty ecstatic actually because that is more than enough to see off the two incumbent MPs that have failed our town and our country for the last few years and give us two UKIP MPs that will fight for our withdrawal from the EU, for the economy, for jobs and prosperity, to fight the downgrading of our hospital and get our third world roads fixed.
Use your EU vote to keep the BNP out
The BNP showed their true stripes when their deputy leader and candidate for the West Midlands constituency in the June 4 European elections, Simon Darby, appeared on stage in Milan at a neo-fascist rally.
The BNP claims they're not racist anymore. But you can tell a lot about people from the company they keep. Darby stood alongside Roberto Fiore, convicted in 1985 for his involvement in a bombing which killed 85 people including two Brits.
He became an MEP after Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the World War Two dictator, resigned her seat to take up a post in the Italian government.
Fiore's party is a member of the European National Front. Also on the platform was French MEP Bruno Gollnisch, who was given a three-month prison sentence in 2007 for holocaust denial.
Winston Churchill features prominently on the BNP website, but he'd be turning in his grave to see friends of Mussolini admirers and Hitler lovers using his image.
Churchill knew that being British is not about race or religion. It's about respecting tolerance and fairness and believing that this countrol should be involved in the world, not shunned by it.
Don't let the BNP ruin our country. The BNP thrives on low turnout in elections: make sure you use your vote.
Neena Gill
Labour MEP for the West Midlands
Treachery of Brown on treaty
We are not a country any more? These are bits taken from the Treaty of Lisbon that our PM signed.
The word "countries" shall be replaced by "states" - only the union may legislate and adopt legally binding acts, the member states being able to do so themselves only if empowered by the union.
The member states shall co-ordinate their economic and employment policies within arrangements as determined by this treaty;
Chapter 1: General provisions; Chapter 2: Policies on border checks, asylumn and immigration; Chapter 3: Judicial co-operation in civil matters; Chapter 4: Judicial co-operation in criminal matters; Chapter 5: Police co-operation; Ensuring the absence of any controls on persons, whatever their nationality, when crossing internal borders.
This kind of degrading of our country would once have been considered treason.
Val Duncan
Wellington
Selling off our service
One should not be surprised that Deutsche Post, Europe's largest mail company is trying to acquire a stake in Royal Mail.
Following EU pressure, DHL (owned by Deutsche) and TNT cherry picked most of the best commercial bits of PO delivery leaving the old PO with the letters.
The Government is looking to sell 30 per cent in the Royal Mail to raise £3bn. We know who loses out when politicians interfere in business - the customer.
Bruce Lawson
Powys
Views on Europe a matter for comment
Phillip Bushill-Matthews MEP never misses an opportunity to correct any misconception some of us have regarding the EU and its aims and ambitions.
I must take him to task about the EU regional assemblies, which he tells us have nothing to do with the EU and were the brainchild of John Prescott MP.
In my possession is a map entitled "The European Community, Member States, Regions and Administrative Units", I would gladly provide a copy but it four feet by three feet and reducing it is beyond my PC capabilities.
The map is highly detailed and made in France in 1980, it records the then 10 member states and their area, population, GDP, primary energy production, etc - too technical for Mr Prescott.
He was an MEP from 1974 to 1979 and was offered a commissioner's job in 1980, he declined.
When in charge of local and regional government in 2001 he did promote the concept of regional assemblies but it was supposed to habe died a death after being turned down at the first referednfum in the North East of England - this fact alone points to the EU who do not accept negative referednum results.
Mr Bushill-Matthews will be telling us next that we don't really pay nine times more than France into the EU coffers - and for less than they get out of it.
Bob Wydell
Oswestry
Feathering their nests
Blow the piffling expenses that are open for our MPs to abuse, the opportunities for MEPs to feather their nests are much more attractive.
Take the Additional Voluntary Pension Scheme. If they pay 1,194 euros a month, it will be matched by publicly-funded payments of 2,388 euros, which in combination with their standard pensionw ill then realise them an annual payment of over 30,000 euros.
Of course, the collapse of invesments doesn't affect them. The funding gap of 120 million euros is something we lucky EU citizens will have the privilege of footing the bill for.
Robert Jenkins
Stirchley
Governing power is there in all but name
Mr Bushill-Matthews, (Star, April 3) says there is no EU government - who does he think he is kidding?
We have here a would-be world power which taxes us, gives us 80 per cent of our laws, and is busily stealing our military and our legal system.
It is giving itself a national flag and a national anthem.
It has a parliament and two buildings in which to meet - of course it is a government and it diverts some of our money to pay Mr Bushill-Matthew's salary and pension, which will require him always to act in the EU's interest.
He says that regional assemblies were Prescott's idea; well, regions were always intended right from the Treaty of Rome.
The central core of regionalisation is the EU's Committee of Regions, which was established by the Maastricht Treaty.
Whether you call them assemblies or not, their purpose will be to administer us as part of the EU's grandiose dream. We really must be mad to sit back and do this to our once-proud country.
A J Astley
Ellesmere
Change in democracy as union gets to 50
The EU is at least 50 years old, before our very eyes and without our consent it had evolved from the European Coal and Steel Community, through the Common Market, the EEC, the EC to toay's EU.
Any 50-year-old business would logically expect to be extremely efficient, highly organised, cost effective, fically sound and professionally managed - unfortunately none of this applies to the European Union.
It employs legions of unwarranted staff and wastes copious amouns of money. It still performs its business in two venues using a dozen different languages and is still desperately searching for 20 honest people to serve as commissioners.
After 50 years it still persists with its archaic agricultural policy which increases the food bill of its 500 million members by £400 each year.
There has been no change to its system of law making, no change to the impotent parliament which rubber stamps legislation made in secret by the council of ministers.
There has been a change to the EU's brand of democracy - it has got worse.
One country out of 27 was allowed to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - voted no and was told to try again.
None of the above would matter if membership of the EU was benefitting Britain but it is not.
Its policies are ludicrous, like tagging every one of Britain's 30 million sheep electronically. It will cost us £65 million pounds - what about sheep dogs?
Bob Wydell
Oswestry
EU has far reaching influence on our life
Mr Bushill-Matthews in a letter to the Star, March 31, denies that the European Commission has anything to do with making any of the 80 per cent of our laws which originate with the EU.
Speaking at a conference at the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales recently, Jochen Bittner, Brussels Corrspondent for German newspaper Die Zeit, said: "The European Court of Justice jurisdiction is regularly in line with the European Commission.
"One may have doubts whether this court can be seen as a watchdog of accountability."
And from the East Anglian Daily Times, Jeffrey Titford MEP writes: "Did you know that the government has to go to the European Commission, cap in hand, for permission to subsidise the Post Office?
"Since 2003, the commission has frozen the subsidy the government can pay to cover the loss-making parts of the service, like small local post offices in urban and rural areas, at £150 million per annum."
In August 2008 a study by Open Europe revealed a total of 170,000 people now work directly for the EU institutions.
As well as those who work for the EU directly, the study finds that there are many more officials working for the EU indirectly.
These people are not elected, and cannot be held accountable by ordinary citizens.
They have a huge effect on our lives, affecting everything from the price of electricity and food to the way we run the NHS.
I could go on, there's plenty to go at.
A J Astley
Ellesmere
Ex-MP but I'm going to support UKIP now
Jillian Seymour, Letters, March 30, is correct. As a former Conservative MP I can vouch for the fact that the Tory Party is pro-European Union - although, as she says, at election time members pretend not to be.
I have long been an implacable opponent of this country's political union with 26 other countries whose culture, democratic institutions and, crucially, their legal systems, are totally different to our own.
Notwithstanding my well-known opposition to party policy on this issue, at European Parliament election time I was always asked to endorse the local Tory candidates, presumably because the party recognised that my views were more popular than theirs.
More illustrative of the Tory Party's real stance on the EU is the fact that they have recently brought back into the Shadow Cabinet the arch-Europhile, Ken Clarke.
In future I shall most assuredly be voting for the UK Independence Party because it is the only moderate, non-sectarian party that is committed to getting us out of Europe while at the same time encouraging free trade and friendship with our continental neighbours.
Christopher Gill
Ludlow MP 1987 to 2001
Bridgnorth
Letters are a great way of getting UKIP mentioned in the press. Local newspapers might not have the circulation of the nationals but they're easier to get into and you may even find a sympathetic letters editor who will publish lots of UKIP or EU-related letters.Appalled by Voters
I am truly appalled that voters are deemed likely to vote in two MEPs under the BNP banner if the headlines in Saturday's Independent are to be trusted.
Just what is the matter with the voting public?
Why do they vote year after year for parties they cannot trust, with policies which they clearly do not want?
To me this is utterly unfathomable when they have a mainstream party whose policies reflect the public views better than any other - UKIP!
Les Arnott
Sheffield
Basic rule of finance ignored by Mr Brown
The basic rule of finance is don't spend more than you earn. Second is don't borrow more than you can repay. In other words: live within your means.
Not so for the Labour government. It would appear that Gordon Brown has invented his own rules. For 11 years he has conned the population and parliament into living beyond their means. The inevitible result which most people saw coming was the crash.
And, would you believe it, he reckons that the only way to save the British economy is to keep on spending and borrowing.
He has all the answers. After all for 11 years he had been in control of it all. Incompetent stockbrokers or banks will be bailed out by the Brown government - with your money.
If you are a hardworking individual with financial difficulties, however, tough luck - you can go bankrupt.
And if you think you can handle your affairs sensibly, then don't worry he will keep on spending your money for you, building up further debt. It is called fancy names to confuse us: "government borrowing" or the "national debt". But have no doubt, you will pay for it. When will we get a sensible government?
Malcolm Hurst
UKIP Telford
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