Tory press attack UKIP donor for supporting satirical website targeting LibLabCon

The Daily Mail and Times are attacking UKIP donor, Aaron Banks, over his support for what they describe as an "offensive" satirical website attacking the LibLabCon parties.

Both newspapers are Tory supporting and have been responsible for a stream of attacks on UKIP since the party started risking their political investments. In the run-up to the local elections this year, briefings that the Conservative Party were sending to these same newspapers attacking UKIP candidates were leaked. The supposedly anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate - almost entirely funded by the trades unions - has a blog on their website dedicated to attacking UKIP even though they say that UKIP isn't actually fascist. Fake Facebook and Twitter profiles are still being created masquerading as official UKIP social media accounts and posting inappropriate material which these same newspapers splash all over their front pages. There are anti-UKIP protest groups backed by the Labour Party and the trades unions such as Stand up to UKIP and Still Laughing at UKIP which these newspapers trawl for material for their anti-UKIP campaign.

The Daily Mail and the Times are part of the anti-UKIP campaign. They are too closely involved to be just followers, they are active players in the campaign to protect the status quo. They have invested a lot of time and money buying influence with the Tories and they don't want to see that investment wasted by a party that they have no control over.

The party stresses that it has no links to the LibLabCon website but it is  registered to one of Aaron Banks' companies. Good on him. It's about time UKIPpers took the fight to the LibLabCon and gave them a taste of their own medicine. The national media ignore the stories about LibLabCon perverts, fraudsters, drink drivers, etc. whilst devoting front pages to rumours and gossip about even the most lowly UKIP member. The LibLabCon parties, their taxpayer-funded sockpuppets and poodle media companies have had it their own way for far too long, it's time for UKIP to fight back.

Smearfest part 2

The Times isn't being allowed to build itself a monopoly on making up stories to smear UKIP, the Mirror is determined to get in on the act as well.

Yesterday's Mirror ran a non-story about how Alan Bown wrote to UKIP MEPs in 2011 telling them that they should donate £10k a year out of their salaries to the party. He apparently told them that if they wanted reselection they needed to prove they were "good value for money" and pointed out that it costs the party upwards of £125k to get an MEP elected.

The Mirror is spinning this as a possible breach of rules around using expenses to finance party political operations but as the very first paragraph of the article says, they were asked to donate from their salaries not from their expenses.

UKIP MEPs have been told to pay £10,000 a year from their Brussels salaries towards to the party’s coffers - or risk being booted out.

Their "expenses" are for things like offices, stationary and staff and are all administered by EU-approved accountants so MEPs wouldn't be able to give any of it to the party. The Mirror will of course know this because they've run plenty of stories about MEP expenses in the past. What makes it even more of a non-story is that it was on the premise that MEPs would donate money to the party from their salaries that the membership voted to contest EU elections a decade ago.

Then there's this little gem from the Times (yes, another one) in which we're told that sex-obsessed UKIP staff walk around the party's London offices half naked, take pets to work and make lists of women they'd like to have sex with before knocking off early to go to the pub. This has come as news to UKIP staffers on Facebook who are presumably disappointed that this sort of hedonistic behaviour apparently only happens when they're at the coffee machine or on their lunch break.

The idea that UKIP staff would somehow gets their pets from home to the offices in central London on public transport is frankly ridiculous, the idea that they walk around the office half naked even more so. The "insider" is anonymous of course but presumably either a disgruntled ex-employee or just a troublemaker taking advantage of the desperation of the newspapers to protect their investments in the run unto the election.

The Times plans anti-UKIP smear campaign

A very well put together statement on the anti-UKIP smear campaign the Times plans to run from Monday. The only important bit of information that's missing is that the Times have been briefed by the Lib Dems for this campaign. Makes you wonder how much of an "investment" they've got in the current political class if they're going to actively campaign against UKIP during this election campaign.

UKIP has been aware in recent weeks of relentless activity by Times journalists aiming to derail its rapid rise in popularity. This has included questioning about the private lives of party staff that would disgrace the now defunct News of The World.

The Times is planning to run on Monday a series of claims that UKIP has breached the rules on using European parliamentary funds while campaigning to get Britain out of the EU.

In fact UKIP has always worked hard to ensure that demarcations between EFD employees and party employees are properly observed. UKIP MEPs who donate to party funds do so out of their own post-tax salaries. UKIP MEPs work for withdrawal from the EU just as they promised the voters that they would when elected in 2009.

It is clear that their success in advancing this agenda and increasing the popularity of the party has upset the political establishment and its media supporters.

For the avoidance of doubt, UKIP MEPs are careful to observe European parliamentary rules when spending resources on advancing the goal of British withdrawal.

UKIP has from the outset been the biggest constituent part of the EFD group and Nigel Farage is the group leader. It is wholly legitimate and within the rules for some EFD staff to work out of London and indeed staff from other groups that include other British political parties do the same.

After the rapid growth of the party, UKIP has now put in place a bi-annual review as an extra check to ensure that staff responsibilities remain appropriately demarcated and that the actual work patterns of staff remain consistent.

We anticipate being on the receiving end of a continued smear campaign from pro-EU journalists but will not allow it to deflect us from our mission to secure for the British people a vote on withdrawing from the EU and taking back powers of self-government and control of their borders.

Would cutting VAT solve the credit crunch?

The Times newspaper suggests a simple meaure to help the current economic crisis: reduce VAT from 17.5% to 12.5% for the next two years - instantly cutting almost all prices in shops by around 5%. The argument for doing this is quite simple:

1. The economy is shrinking. Only tax cuts will give people more money in their pockets to go out and spend more, which will in turn help the economy and create jobs.

2. Cutting VAT in particular would boost business because it would lower prices for consumers.

3. VAT hits poorer people hardest, and so does the credit crunch. Lowering VAT would give the most help to those on low incomes.

There's a lot to be said for this idea in principle.

Unfortunately, the idea is a complete non-starter for any party except UKIP. Under European Union law, our government doesn't have the power to cut our own VAT rate because we have to pay some of the money we collect in VAT directly to the EU. Remember, without leaving the EU we are powerless to control our economy. At a time like this, we need every option at our disposal.

Click here to read the Times article online.