The unofficial online home of the UK Independence Party
Archive for April, 2009
The Gaunty Interview
Apr 30th
Here is the full Gaunty interview with Nigel Farage, Leader of UKIP from Wednesday 29th…
Brown’s Hollow Victory
Apr 30th
Gordon Brown has won a series of votes on MPs expenses this evening, though has again shown himself to be completely inept and out of his depth. As the BBC reports…
There was disbelief on all sides of the chamber as Commons leader Harriet Harman explained the government’s strategy.
It was clear at the start of the day that Gordon Brown’s original plan to push through a package of reforms to clean up expenses – including scrapping the controversial second homes allowance – had shrivelled up.
What MPs were facing instead was a series of votes on reforming allowances for outer London MPs, making outside earnings more transparent and changing the way parliamentary staff are employed.
But the big question mark over was what would happen to the amendment tabled by George Young, a conservative MP who chairs the important Standards and Privileges Committee.
He wanted all the government motions to be defeated so that the Commons wouldn’t pre-empt the independent review into expenses that’s being conducted by Sir Christopher Kelly and his Committee on Standards in Public Life.
The Tories showed their hand at the start of the day and said they would back the Young plan, surprising the political pundits.
The prospect of derailing the government’s plan was too tempting. That was the Lib Dem position too.
But then Ms Harman stood up and the farce began.
The government, she said, would also support the Young amendment but plough on with votes on the other reforms.
In other words, it would agree that the Commons should leave reform to Kelly while also doing some tinkering.
MPs of all stripes were incredulous. It seemed an illogical position.
What a complete shambles! The buffoonery of it. This is our government…of the United Kingdom. The shame!!
Not content with trying to outmanoeuvre those far smarter than he, Brown rushed out an ill-conceived YouTube announcement on a flat daily rate for MPs. That was quickly dropped due to the deluge of opposing arguments of the bleeding obvious. Then we have this this burlesque skit, which makes the comedic antics of ‘Yes, Minister’ seem competent and efficient.
Quite why Brown feels the need to pre-empt the Commission report is beyond me. There is no PR gain, it is too late, the damage in the minds of the public has already been done. Out there, in the real world, the public have long since lost faith. That makes it all the worse – Brown is showing himself to be marvellously out of touch with reality, incompetent, and out of his depth, struggling to find a grip on matters beyond the capacity of his ability and intellect.
He has been snubbed by successive world leaders, is wholly discredited and lacks any moral authority, let alone any kind of democratic legitimacy after his coronation as Labour leader and his subsequent hesitant, weak, and cowardly failure to seek an electoral mandate.
As you ponder the value of democratic elections – the bloodless execution of the wretched – you may care to wonder how similarly incompetent and worthless politicians are prevented from entering the European Commission, the appointed government of Europe. The answer, of course, is that they are not prevented from entering it, they are promoted to it! A last refuge of the failed heavyweight. Unfortunately for Brown he has long since burned his bridges with his European colleagues.
Oh how the mighty fall. All those years of smug arrogance; his claims to have ended boom and bust, his self delusion that the Chancellorship and Premiership were his divine right, and that his divine wisdom gave him a monopoly on righteousness and virtue.
A tragic end to a tragic individual. When you look back on this Gordon, take hollow solace in the knowledge that you deserved every bit of it.
Debate: Expenses
Apr 30th
There may be big fallout in the near future as MPs expenses claims are released to the public. According to The Daily Mail, what may unfold would be nothing short of a scandal:
Three Labour MPs are said to be terrified that the release of their expenses claims will expose them as adulterers and financial cheats.
Four ministers are also understood to have warned party whips they might have to resign for abusing the system, when MPs’ receipts are published before the summer recess in July.
The three unnamed backbenchers are said to have been placed on ’suicide watch’ by Labour whips, who fear they might break down when the details of their excesses come out.
Two are understood to have had extra-marital affairs with other members of Parliament.
So, despite politicians insisting at every opportunity that they get a bad cop from the public, it would seem that public distrust of our politicians is actually bang on in some cases. There are clearly politicians who are milking the system dry for every penny they can get their hands on. And they know it.
However, while it is easy for people to complaim and rightly feel angry, it is an entirely different thing to propose an alternative system that stops the stem of cash-hungry politicians stone-dead.
So, readers of IndHome, as MPs vote on expense measures in Parliament right now, what would be your number one reform or proposal to stop the craziness of parliamentary expenses being exploited?
Public Meeting With Gerard Batten MEP
Apr 30th
Gerard Batten, UKIP MEP for London, will be holding a public meeting this Friday 1st of May to discuss Britain’s membership of the EU. Gerrard will also be answering questions from the public, so if you have any burning issues you’d like to pose to your London MEP be sure to come along.
Where: Cricketers Arms Pub, Richmond Green
When: 8.00pm – 9.30pm, Friday May 1st 2009
The official Facebook event can be found here.
New Recruit
Apr 30th
Bloggers4UKIP, ever the beady eye, has got the scoop on this one, copied here in full below.
Respected Conservative Councillor Defects to UKIP
In the run-up to the Council and European Elections on 4th June, Councillor Nigel Haughton, a much respected member of Brickhill Parish Council and life-long Conservative supporter has defected to the UK Independence Party. He has also announced his candidacy for the Bedford Unitary Authority elections, for his new Party.
Councillor Haughton said: “I have become increasingly disillusioned with the local Tories on the Borough Council. The best efforts of the Brickhill Conservative Action team have been thwarted by the leadership of the Borough Conservative Group.”
“The lack of support for the campaign to save our green fields in Brickhill is a prime example of the leadership’s indifference to the concerns of local residents. Whilst the coffers of the Borough have been swelled as a result of the local housing development, we have seen no benefits whatsoever; the funds have been spent elsewhere.
“At a national level, the daily siphoning away of £40million of taxpayers’ money to unelected Brussels bureaucrats is even more disgraceful.
“Reflecting on the complacency of the Borough Tories whilst nationally the Party ‘sits on the fence’ over our national independence, I have decided to take a principled stand by joining and supporting the UK Independence Party.”
Peter Reeve, UKIP’s Regional Organiser in the Eastern Counties said: “We are delighted to have Cllr Haughton on board. He will be a major asset to our campaign in this and future elections. We look forward to working with him in the great cause of claiming our country back.”
Great Repeal?
Apr 30th
Conservative Home is carrying an article by Jonathan Munday, who is calling for a “Gret Repeal Act” to roll back the state. A Conservative administration will have to make big and deep cuts to restore the public finances to some kind of sound footing, and reducing the amount of stuff the state does is a good start, and importantly will deliver far more savings than any attempt to streamline existing functions.
I believe we have one chance to use the moral authority of victory to change the political agenda by rejecting the political consensus of the Blair years. I propose a Great Repeal Act: all the authoritarianism of the Blair years, all the big government, the Quangos and Agencies, the regulation and red tape, the Health and Safety legislation, the Equalities legislation, the targets – all gone in a one-clause bill listing the repealed statutes and sections of statutes.
Do not worry about what will replace the repealed Acts, the State will have stopped controlling people’s lives. Freedom and personal responsibility will replace the Acts. Politically, we become the government that likes to say, “Yes”. Ideologically, we dramatically reduce the size and reach of the State and free our economy to respond to this second Depression. Economically, we save billions that we cannot afford to spend anyway. These savings are both in public expenditure in not having regional government or a White Fish Authority, and in indirect expenditure in removing the burden on business to train people to use a ladder.
European Parliament
Great stuff indeed. The only slight problem, however, is the elephant in the room – the gigantic blue elephant wearing a high-vis jacket, holding up a big sign saying “look at me”, and trumpeting very loudly. That’s right, the European Union.
You see, how can there be a “great repeal” when so much legislation that controls the executive eminates from Brussels, and is thus beyond the power of any individual British government to repeal? That is certainly a problem.
Admittedly, many of our problems are home grown. We have two incompetent governments – one in Brussels and one at home – and replacing one of these with a government determined to reduce the role of the state is certainly to be welcomed. But as ever, either through dilusion or blissful ignorance, the elephant is ignored. Poor Elly!
- IndHome
The Farage era so far.
Apr 30th
With the European Elections now just weeks away it would seem to be as good a time as any for an assessment of the current leadership of UKIP. Nigel Farage has been in charge since September 2006 after a big 45% of the vote in a four-way leadership contest. Farage’s platform was based around bringing on board donors, making UKIP more visible in policy areas outside of the EU-issue, improving the party’s performance domestically at local and national level and professionalising the party. So has he delivered?
The Good Points:
- Recruitment: The party enjoyed a renessiance in early 2007 fresh off of Farage’s leadership win that saw Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Lord Willoughby de Broke join the party and give it, for the first time, representation in the Westminster Village. William, The Earl of Dartmouth, now number 2 on the South West list for the European Elections, also joined the party. Around another half a dozen peers and even a few MEPs and MPs were thought to be close to crossing the floor until the Tom Wise scandal, a scandal that Farage went out on a limb on against the views of some colleagues and acted ruthlessly. The party also recruited former Tory MP Bob Spink to give it representation in the Commons, though Spink has since reverted to being an Independent who is supportive of UKIP. Recently the party received a donation from record Tory donor Stuart Wheeler who has since spoken at UKIP’s Spring Rally, while Farage also personally recruited post office rebel Deva Kumarasiri who was sacked after refusing to serve non-English speaking customers, as an MEP candidate. This leads into the next good point of the Farage era…
- Image: There is no doubt that the image of UKIP has improved dramatically under Farage’s leadership. Though this is more evident when speaking to journalists and political producers, there is more obvious evidence. The party is younger with an expanding youth wing, Young Independence, created under Farage’s leadership. Paul Nuttall, who is securing considerable local and regional coverage in the North West for the party’s Euro Election campaign, was appointed UKIP Chairman and at 31 is the youngest ever person to hold such a position. Change is a hard and lengthy process, but it is happening. The UKIP of today is different and better than 5 years ago, with many more young eurosceptics coming through the UKIP ranks than before Farage’s leadership.
- Domestic policies: Farage is the first leader to understand the need for the party to broaden its angle of attack. He recognised the underlying libertarian-leaning attitude which UKIP members, and most eurosceptics, seem to share, and established 18 policy working groups to flesh out a domestic policy platform. Recognising that not just attacking the EU, but setting out a vision for an Independent Britain, a vision for a model of cooperation in place of the EU political structure, has been a core and vital development that has helped precipitate the change in image and growth in younger membership outlined in point 2. As mentioned below, UKIP is in a strange position of having MEPs but not a great deal of domestic representation. This can make it hard to breakthrough in the UK media as an opposition voice on issues with no apparent direct link to the EU, but this is beginning to change. Of particular note was Farage’s presence on the Andrew Marr show pushing UKIP’s agenda regarding grammar schools.
The Bad Points:
- Election performances: Try, try, try as he might, UKIP simply is not delivering in local elections and by-elections, though in the former there have been instances of small pockets of success like in Bootle, Hartlepool and Newcastle-under-Lyme. The problem for UKIP is that it is supposed to be far bigger and more mainstream than the BNP and Green party, yet in places like Henley this image has been dented by trailing both of those parties. Other performances, such as in Glenrothes, have simply been a waste of a £500 deposit. Though Farage himself can do little about moving inactive or unenergetic branches in the right direction, under his leadership UKIP could have had a clearer campaign outlook, with more restraint and targetting for the sake of image and finance. The London Mayoral and Assembly elections were shambolic, not helped by a failure to make an impact in the public consciousness since 2004. Losing the two elected Assembly Members within months certainly didn’t help. It is hard to fight First Past The Post elections when the party is known primarly, and generally only, for its position on the EUropean Union. Failing to translate European success into domestic elections casts a shadow of UKIPs progress.
- Divisive: It would be fair to say that those within UKIP treat the man who has largely been the driving force behind it since its founding in 1993 as marmite. You either love him or hate him. Unfortunately, when the leader of a party has such an effect it does not simply knock the energy of those inside the party who feel negatively about them, it causes them to leave the party altogether and even work against the party based on their dislike of that individual. There is little doubt that face to camera, Farage is one of the best that there is anywhere. This confidence does spill over to dealing with him on a one-to-one basis, and his manner is simply one that has turned and will continue to turn some people off. Though, it must remembered, those who are actively anti-Farage in UKIP are in a distinct and definete minority, though incredibly vocal, and this was illustrated in the recent members vote on constitutional changes that saw a 90% vote for the proposals Farage was pushing for. It is often said that UKIP members are the only people who leave a party and spend 3 years explaining why they left.
- Organisation: UKIP’s structure is one that is quite unique. With 9 MEPs, the party’s figureheads and many of their staff work abroad for lengthy periods. More importantly, the vast majority of UKIP staff are answerable to their respective MEPs and not the campaign team or even leader himself. This has caused some tension, with some MEPs dragging their heels on staff getting on with work set by the leader.
On the whole the Farage era is looking good for UKIP. It is certainly divisive and it has not been a smooth journey for any concerned. Nigel’s leadership has been marked by the task of re-building the party, reforming it, and giving it the capability to stand firm and fight. This may or may not show through electorally, yet, but necessary reforms are being made. Farage certainly recognises that a further mandate for reform can only be granted if UKIP performances well in June. Having openly stated that he will resign as leader if UKIP secures less than 10 MEPs, Farage realises, as he should, that his leadership of the party is going to be remembered by the party’s performance in the European Elections.
-IndHome
ANZAC Service Account
Apr 30th
A bit late, but nevertheless an account of a local ANZAC day memorial service by our Australian South Eastern Counties Chairman…
Last Friday, I attended an Anzac Day memorial service in the village church at Sutton Veny, near Warminster in Wiltshire. It is an annual event that has taken place there since 1919. A nearby military camp housed an Australian hospital to which casualties from the Western Front were evacuated. The churchyard contains the graves of 168 servicemen and women from the First World War. Of these, 143 are Australian.
It was a most charming and touching service because the principal contributions came from pupils of the adjoining primary school. One class of little poppets sang Waltzing Matilda, another recited an Anzac poem, and a third sang a Maori song. All took an active part in remembering the young men and women from the Commonwealth who had laid down their lives for Britain so many years ago.
Speaking to the headmistress after the service, I learned that the classes were all named after Australian and New Zealand cities. She said that she herself had been a pupil at the school and that she and everyone connected with the school and the church had grown up with a close feeling of kinship with Australia and New Zealand.
I have always said that if you ask people in Britain whether they have relatives in France or Germany or any of the other EU member states, you will nearly always get a ‘NO’ but that if you ask them whether they have relatives in Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, the West Indies, or any of the other Commonwealth countries you will almost certainly get a resounding ‘YES’.
I began to wonder whether in Sutton Veny may lie the answer as to how we might start the long march back to self-government and independence for our country. I believe there were more than 80 young children taking part in the service last Friday. All will leave school, like the present headmistress, imbued with the ideal of Commonwealth; knowing of their common heritage with the wider English-speaking world. Are they likely to be taken in by a political class peddling a Britain as a province of a federal EU state?
There are more than 170,000 Commonwealth war graves in the UK alone. They lie in more than 12,000 cemeteries and churchyards. Imagine what would be possible if there were 12,000 primary schools like Sutton Veny throughout the land! How long then could our political class contain Britain within the strait-jacket of the EU?
Today is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth, an organisation of which our own Queen is the head. Could the Commonwealth become a rallying point for a resurgent Britain?
- David Samuel
Little Englanders? Or Little Europeans?
Apr 30th
Ardent Europhile and former leader of the Liberal Democrats Jeremy ’Paddy’ Ashdown was in the Scottish version of the Metro on Wednesday giving a 60 Second Interview. Asked “Will the British public ever be enthusiastic about Europe?” his Lordship replied thus:
“We now have a US with changed priorities, a very aggressive Russia, a rising China, a shift of economic power to the East. We do not realise, we Europeans, that the right response to this much more dangerous world is to deepen our institutions, especially in defence and foreign affairs. We are bloody fools. And that applies to Britain as well.”
As if we didn’t know who he was referring to. And, just in case he thought you hadn’t quite grasped he was playing into the politics of fear (and defeatism), he elaborates:
“Up until now, fear was always one of the strongest political arguments played by the opponents: fear of Brussels. Fear now shifts to our side of the argument and we suddenly realise Europe as a refuge is a very important concept.”
Who are the doomsaying isolationists now? Why, none other than the inhabitants of Vichy Britain.
- Jack B Montgomery, University of Stirling
News Crunch: Thursday 30th April 2009
Apr 30th
9.30am update
The BBC reports on the UK’s withdrawal from Iraq and Gordon Brown’s Commons expenses battle.
The Times on the government advisers who want to cut number of skilled jobs open to non-EU migrants.
The online petition demanding Gordon Brown to resign hits 31,000 signatures, reports the Daily Mail.
Gurkha Demand
Apr 30th
Gawain Towler, UK Independence party MEP candidate in the South West, and who has previously served in the 3rd (vol) Btl Royal Highland Fusiliers, added his voice to the calls for the Government to allow Gurkha veterans to live in the UK.
As he joined hundreds of Gurkha vets outside Westminster today to press there case, in words supported wholeheartedly by IndHome, Gawain had this to say…
These men have risked there all for us, we have a debt of honour to support them now.
It is ridiculous that Britain has to let in criminals from Europe, and grant full benefits to them, while these brave men are treated like enemies. Only 1,350 of these heros have asked to stay in the UK, hardly a massive number given the millions that Britain has allowed in recently.
The Government’s treatment of them is little short of a national dishonour and is another example of their contempt for and ignorance of Britain’s military
50p Tax Joke
Apr 29th
The BBC is reporting that the chancellor has defended raising the top rate of income tax to 50%, saying it was only fair that those with the “broadest shoulders” paid more.
Even before the budget the Institute for Fiscal Studies was warning the proposed 45p higher tax rate would end up costing the Treasury money…
Researchers from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate the new 45p rate of income tax for those earning £150,000 or more may lose the Exchequer as much as £800m a year, on the most pessimistic assumptions about the numbers of taxpayers earning those sums, and their ability to reduce their taxable income.
Not great for Darling’s black hole! (In the public finances, obviously)
Then he goes and spoils it all by saying something simple like ‘I’ll tax you more, and whacks the rate up to 50p. Now it emerges that the treasury assumptions about behavioural changes and tax avoidance means just 40% of the anticipated revenue will be raised (well, that’s their assumption)…
Those behavioural changes, which are entirely legal, mean that the Treasury will raise less than 40 per cent of the total revenue it would have received if the people affected did not react to the new tax.
The new tax will be introduced next April, and the Treasury expects it to raise £1.13 billion.
Just £1.13bn will be raised from the tax move, yet untold damage will be wrought as entrepreneurs and the talented move away or adjust their lives. And that is not to mention the harm it will cause to aspiration. I, being an entrepreneur, would consider moving abroad if my income reached that level and the rate was to be maintained for any noticeable period of time.
But in the context of Darling’s £175bn borrowing forecast for this year, the revenue raised from the 50p tax rate will have the effect of holding off the mounting debt for less than 2 and a half days! That is the terrifying truth. The horrendous cost of the 50p rate in the long term is being paid simply to stave off the baying wolves for 2 days! Is it worth it?
The solution has to be to cut public spending – not only to trim the expenditure side of the balance sheet in an attempt to restore some kind of balance to the finances, but also to release money from the unproductive sector of the economy into the hands of the productive sector which is so desperately in need.
The Government’s failure to take the decision to grapple with the public finances and set out a path to budget surplus and debt paydown is perhaps the single largest scandal of the the Budget.
It will be for the next government to sell such an idea, but will the next government want to take the tough decision to preside over a decade or more of austerity?
Oxfordshire UKIP Campaign Launch
Apr 29th
Philip Vander Elst is a freelance writer and is number 4 of the UK Independence Party list in the South East region in the forthcoming European Elections.
He is a former officer of the Oxford Union, has worked on the staff of the Centre for Policy Studies and the Institute of Economic Affairs, been a Director of the Freedom Association, and a visiting lecturer at many American universities and military academies. A contributor to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, his many publications include, most recently, The Principles of British Foreign Policy, published by the Bruges Group.
In this video Philip explains why he is standing for UKIP in the South East on June 4th!
Ray Finch: What the furore about the working time opt-out tells us.
Apr 29th
The present fallout from the “conciliation” meeting between the Council, Commission and the MEPs has highlighted the essential problem with the European Union. The issue is not the loss of sovereignty or the rampant corruption endemic in the EU. It is not even the way the Franco-German alliance basically decides policy. No, the main underlying issue is that it is not just undemocratic, it is anti-democratic.
The working time directive was originally adopted by the Commission in 1993 but the Tory Government refused to adopt it. It was finally accepted in the UK in 1998 after the loss of a court case in the European Court of Justice. However there is an opt-out that was agreed. Britain being the most prominent of the opt-outers (if that is a word). However, the EU “Parliament” has recently moved to remove the opt-out against the wishes of the Governments concerned. This has led to the afore-mentioned Conciliation meeting. At this meeting the British and other Governments have refused to back down and the meeting has resulted in stalemate.
Much as we may dislike the EU Parliament the fact remains that this is the ONLY part of the so-called Three Pillars of the EU that is actually elected by the peoples of Europe. Therefore the realisation that it is without any power, not merely to initiate legislation on behalf of its voters, which it cannot, but even to enforce legislation already agreed by the real power bases shows it for what it really is. It is merely a cipher, a piece of window dressing designed to hide the fact that ALL the decisions are taken behind closed doors by the kleptocratic bureaucracy under the direction of the unelected nominees of the national subsidiary governments.
Ray Finch is the UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Eastleigh and Number 10 on the South East list for European Elections.
News Crunch: Wednesday 29th April 2009
Apr 29th
The potential for a Labour backbench rebellion is putting Ministers under pressure to relax Gurkha immigration rules, reports The Telegraph, who have also launched a Justice for Gurkhas campaign/petition.
The Daily Express covers the new law that may allow thousands more refugees to live, work and claim benefits in the UK, with comment from Nigel Farage.
The Guardian reports that Peter Hain is fearful of the BNP securing up to 6 MEPs, but faces scrutiny from a Labour colleague.
The girl who was supposedly promised at safe Labour seat at the age of 14 is covered in The Daily Mail.
11am Listen To Gaunty
Apr 29th
Nigel Farage is appearing on the John Gaunt Show on Wednesday at 11am.You can find it on your internet by going to thesun.co.uk/suntalk .Nigel will be talking about why we have to vote UKIP on June 4th.
