The unofficial online home of the UK Independence Party
David Phipps
Election Posters
Dec 27th
Conservative Home have a thread running which asks: “Can you produce a better anti-Labour poster?” This is a competition in which all three main political parties should combine their efforts and produce a poster that all three could use and thus save costs.
How about:
Vote Labour – Get more EU and more Labour
Vote Conservative – Get more EU and more Labour
Vote Liberal Democrat – Get more EU and ………..Err, what exactly?
There is a fourth way – the only way to rescue the sovereignty of Britain:
Vote UK Independence Party – Get your country back!
Words Of Wisdom?
Oct 16th
David Cameron has this morning been addressing the Sustainable Consumption Institute conference, outlining five approaches to create a Green Consumer Revolution.
What is remarkable about this latest speech is the lack of admission that the five approaches are, in effect, driven by the need of any UK government ‘Regional UK Administration Centre’ to comply with the orders which have been issued by our government in Brussels. Coupled with the contradictions contained within this speech means that, like so many others from the same source, we can promptly ignore it.
“There is now widespread agreement about the nature and scale of the threat posed by climate change.” Really? There may be ‘widespread agreement’ amongst ‘politicos’ and those that have managed to build up ‘a nice little earner’ by spouting the climate change mantra; but it is not ‘agreed’ by those of us who fund not only their lifestyles but also the misinformation put out by them.
“If the Himalayan glaciers melt, three-quarters of a billion people will be without sufficient water.” Here we go again – ‘If’. Who said the Himalyan glaciers would melt and with what ’scientific’ evidence?
“That’s why the Conservatives proposed and then backed a Climate Change Bill with binding targets for reductions in carbon emissions.” Once again it will be noted that there is no acknowledgement of the fact this had to be done to comply with orders from Brussels. And politicians talk about ‘restoring faith in Parliament and politics’, about ‘being honest with the voters’. Pah!
“That’s why I can announce today the Conservative Party will launch a working group, led by our Shadow Minister for Climate Change Greg Barker, to work with industry to ensure all new appliances and electronic devices sold in the UK have their ‘economy’ modes as the default setting. We’re not doing this to boss business around – we’re doing this because we don’t want to resort to regulation.” So what is the difference between ‘bossing business around or facing regulation’ and ‘working with industry to ensure’ – amounts to the same thing, surely?
“People recognise that the mindless consumption and materialism of the past decade has neither left them more fulfilled nor served our planet.” Until I reached the word ‘planet’, for one moment I though Cameron had digressed to the expenses scandal!
“I don’t think we should resort to the failed methods of the past – simply pulling bureaucratic levers from above and imposing a centralised view of the world through rules, laws and punitive stealth taxation, that just puts people off.” How come then Mr. Cameron, you still intend, for example, to have central government grants to allocate money to local authorities?
“We will require every gas and electricity company to make sure a customer’s bill tells them what they would have paid under the lowest tariff available to them – and what they need to do to move on to that tariff.” That is all very well, but how about also highlighting the amount the consumer is paying energy companies to subsidise the wind farms and other such renewable energy scams?
“In Sacramento, America, a company called Positive Energy started publishing information on energy bills that allowed households to compare their energy consumption with the consumption of other people in their area. And they found something remarkable happened. When people found out their neighbours, or households similar to theirs, were using less energy than they were, they began to bring their consumption down into line.” Forgive me, but what business is it of a neighbour how someone decides to spend their money?
“And to make sure the system works, we will also give every house a smart meter so the amount of energy they are selling back to the grid can be calculated and they know how much electricity they are generating themselves.” Oh yes, remember smart meters – we all heard about their possible uses, did we not?
“My message to you today is one of optimism tinged with urgency. Yes, our resources are low. Yes, our planet is in peril. And yes, the alternative to action doesn’t bear thinking about.” Our resources are low due to incompetent government planning; our planet is only ‘in peril’ to those who believe the unfounded, totally unscientific crap put out by the proponents of the idea and most definitely yes, the alternative to all this crap is worth thinking about!
To paraphrase Richard North on EU Referendum, when discussing government by the EU, we complain a great deal about the present goverrnment but have the electorate actually looked at what is waiting in the wings?
Practice what you preach, Mr. Cameron
Sep 27th
So David Cameron has stated that Gordon Brown needs to “get off the fence“ and either accept, or refuse, a televised debate amongst the three main party leaders.
This is surely a tad ‘rich’ coming from the man who has sat on his ‘European’ fence for so long, on the question of when and if we will get our promised referendum, who won’t even debate the issue in his own constituency and who hardly shows leadership by hoping that the people of another country – the Irish or Czechs – might make the decision for him.
In the Daily Telegraph William Hague is quoted as saying, on the subject of the Lisbon Treaty “We think it is bad for Britain in the long term and we want to give the British people their say.” So, if it is ‘bad for Britain in the long term and the British people should have their say’, what difference does it make whether the treaty is ratified or not? Simple question Mr. Hague – and the answer is?????
In the same article William Hague also states that his old mantra of ‘In Europe, but not ruled by Europe’ is what he really believes in. In that statement Hague has committed himself to an irrevocable course of action. The phrase can only have one outcome – that the United Kingdom should be able to trade with Europe, but should not be subject to the political ‘rules’ of Europe and that in other words we should have the same ‘trading arrangement’ that Norway and Switzerland have. If the Conservative Party in any way deviate from that and compromise by saying, for example, that they would accept the Lisbon Treaty but that any other political integration would need the agreement of the British people, then the only course of action would be for Hague to promptly resign his shadow front bench position and that of his parliamentary seat.
The comment that, if the Treaty is ratified, Cameron would not wait any longer: “We would set out what we would do in that contingency and it would be in our manifesto to seek a mandate for it.” is,again, prevarication by the Conservative Party. What exactly does that statement mean? I can well see the situation arising whereby the Conservative Party response will be one of ‘wait for our manifesto’.
All that this latest ‘interview’ with William Hague does is confirm that he, David Cameron and the Conservative Party are still ’sitting on the fence’!
The Truth About The European Union
Sep 20th
Do go watch this – 43 minutes well spent!
Note: A few years old, but still worth watching!
Has Cameron Got His Wish?
Sep 20th
David Cameron wrote an article for the Observer today, calling on all LibDems to come and join the Conservative Party and it would seem that he has, partly, got his wish if this picture is anything to go by.
What with blue going green and yellow going blue, is it any wonder the British electorate are totally confused?
As to the stage – words fail one! Perhaps the Libdems urgently need the services of a good PR & Presentation expert, on the basis that the ’setting’ should convey a subliminal message. The only message this seems to convey is an example of the number of workable ideas to govern the country that the Libdems possess!
And the message ‘Ready to Win’ – win what? First prize in the ‘Whose going to be the first LibDem MP to get decapitated in the General election coconut shy’?
Richad Dawkins, prominent atheist, speaking on civil liberties says that whilst he is not a member of the party, he has always voted for them. It helped, he said, that Evan Harris is his MP – purleese! So Evan Harris is the Devil incarnate?
To combat the counter-accusations that ‘fly-around’ during conference season (here and here) we now have Vince accusing the Conservatives of intending to raise VAT to 22.5 or 25 per cent. Knowing that ‘cable’ is a stitch used in knitting, one has to wonder whether our Vince is the prime example, in the political world, of a ’stitch-up’ – but one digresses.
And the ‘logic’ of this motion which proposes that ‘a regional points based system for immigration‘ be introduced. This would ‘see immigrants encouraged to move to areas most in need of new workers to relieve pressure in other areas.’ Besides adhering to the EU idea of ‘regions’, how pray would the LibDems ‘encourage’ immigrants to move to those areas?And if those ‘regions’ did not want them? Oops, forgot LibDems also ‘believe’ in devolution of power.
As was posed in an earlier offering – the purpose of the Libdems is…………………….??
Ed Speaks!
Sep 20th
So Ed Spheroids, erstwhile Secretary of State for Schools, Families and Children (don’t forget the Chiiildren) has been working for months on plans to cut the eduation bill by £2billion. Wow!
Perhaps he would care to produce the paperwork (dated) and screen-shots of any computer work (time and dated) to prove he has ‘been working on this for months’ and, if such ’savings’ can be made, explain his logic of introducing policies and ideas that wasted the taxpayer’s money in the first place – and then allowed the ‘waste’ to continue?
And he is going to make all this happen, commencing 2011, from the opposition benches? Now that I must see!
Afterthought: Yvette Cooper may well still be interested – but someone needs to remind her that we, the public, have had more than enough of the little scrotum!
Liberal Democrats & Vince Cable
Sep 20th
One of the main criticisms of the Liberal Democrat Party is that of their existence – what do they really believe in, what do they really stand for?
Vince Cable, writing in the Mail, demonstrates exactly why their existence is called into question with this article, which proposes ‘a ten point plan to save our democracy’.
1. Discussing reforming party funding Cable writes: “It is dangerous and corrupting for parties to depend on large donations from rich donors with a dodgy past, who evade taxes and try to buy influence” So the Liberal Democrats will return the £2.4million pounds donated by Michael Brown?
2. Calling for a reduction in the number of MPs and Peers, Cable writes: “I believe that most MPs do an important job representing their constituents, holding government to account and legislating.” Since when did present day MPs ‘hold the government to account’ and ‘legislate’? Firstly, on important matters affecting this country, invariably the House of Commons is virually empty and secondly, as most of our laws emanate from Brussels, what actually do MPs legislate on?
3. Cable wants to ‘make MPs financially responsible’. ‘Expensegate’ surely showed that, on a personal level, that is only too true! He continues about the need for government spending to be ‘approved line for line’ in ‘open hearings’. Hardly a new idea, when it is one that has been proposed for ages by Hannan and Carswell in ‘The Plan’!
4. Cable wants ‘traditional British liberties’ defended. Well, Cable could make a start by campaigning against the UK’s EU membership, so that we can use imperial measurements and whatever lightbulbs we want – to mention just two ‘traditional British liberties’ that have been in the news lately!
5. On the subject of MPs expenses Cable does not think the ‘public will forget’ – too damn right, Vince, we will not! As to accepting the Kelly report, Cable is also advocating the right of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucrat to dictate to the electorate – who are after all the ones who ‘provide’ all this money – MP’s remuneration. ‘And our ‘views’ in all this are where?
6. Making the point that ‘Local councils have been stripped of most of their functions by central government’ Cable fails to draw the similarity between this and the UK Parliament being stripped of most of its functions by our membership of the EU and, more importantly, the Lisbon Treaty, the two latter subjects being something on which the Liberal Democrats are in favour!
7. Calling for the voting age to be lowered to 16, Cable forgets that to give those who have not yet reached adulthood the opportunity to decide on such weighty matters as who governs us, it would help if those to whom he proposes to give the vote were able to read and write to begin with!
8. The one point in his ‘plan’ Cable does seem to have got correct, it could be argued, is that of fixed-term parliaments.
9. Discussing the need for the punishment of MPs who abuse their position, Cable is again jumping on the Hannan & Carswell ‘bandwagon’ by, in effect, wanting a ‘re-call system’!
10. Arguing for proportional representation – yet again – Cable should, instead, be arguing for open primaries – another Hannan & Carswell idea. He also misses the point that if the Liberal Democrats could only decide what they stood for, what they believed in, more people would wish to vote for them – thus they would gain power regardless of the voting system!
In view of the above – the point of the Liberal Democrat Party is……………………..?
Quote Of The Year
Sep 20th
Courtesy of Watts Up With That.
“There is not, now, much value in arguing about the science of climate change. Even if it’s wrong, enough people now believe it that it may as well be right”
Oops!
Time To Get Off The Fence, Mr. Cameron?
Sep 6th
A report in today’s Sunday Telegraph, by Melissa Kite, suggests that the Conservative Party have a small headache developing.
“Party chiefs are struggling to prepare alternative policy blueprints to unveil to grassroots activists, as the mood in Ireland suggests the vote on October 2 could go either way.”
What a surprise – not, that we then have Mark Francois repeating that well-worn line:
“But if the Lisbon Treaty is in force at the time of the next election then in our view political integration would have gone too far, the Treaty would lack democratic legitimacy in this country and we would not let matters rest there. Naturally, we will set out how we plan to take things forward in the manifesto we will put to the British people. We have also consistently made it clear that the restoration of our national control over social and employment legislation would be a major goal for a Conservative government.”
One has to say that if Mark Francois had any sense of responsibility and principle he would want ‘restoration of national control’ over all matters and that that would be the policy of a Conservative government’!
But hey, lets be fair – he is a ‘Conservative’ MP!
Perhaps it is about time someone took the Conservative Party to court for ‘misrepresentation’ under the Trades Description Act!
Teaching The Teachers?
Sep 6th
Just about everyone in the land, be they parent or not, is firmly convinced that the standard of our education system has probably reached a new nadir.
Proof of this must be the fact that the Department of Children, Schools and Families have just issued a new manual to teachers explaining the difference between nouns, verbs and adjectives – according to this report in the Sunday Telegraph.
An explanatory note to the manual states that ‘These training materials are not for use with children‘, which is hardly surprising as we would not want the teachers to lose face, would we?
This must surely be proof – even to the ‘Ed’ of the Department – that ‘Education, Education, Education’ – in its present form – really is ‘ Balls!
Bucking(ham) The Convention
Sep 6th
The Telegraph mentions that Nigel Farage was interviewed by Andrew Marr today and other than stating Nigel Farage made the claim that ‘most Conservatives Party members really think like Ukip’ and want withdrawal from the EU, whilst also making the valid point that the Conservative leadership would really rather not discuss Europe; the article just rehashes details of the events of the last few days – but then this is the Telegraph, so we should not expect too much in the way of ‘journalism’!
Nigel Farage’s interview with Andrew Marr can be viewed here and commences 6 minutes 2 seconds in.
Another interesting point is that Mike Smith, Political Betting, is reporting that Farage’s ‘odds’ have moved from an initial 4/1 to 10/3 and quotes a Ladbrokes spokesman saying: “If money talks the speaker is in trouble. We’ve taken more bets on Buckingham in the last 72 hours than most of the other constituencies combined – and it’s all for Farage.”
The Conservative Party have had ‘fun’ of late, castigating Gordon Brown for his ’silence’ on the ‘Megrahi/Oil Affair’ and that the ‘details’ are having to be ‘dragged’ from him.
Now, what with the Conservative statement that they would not let matters rest there – were the Lisbon Treaty to be ratified on their assuming office – that as there will be no official Conservative candidate standing in Buckingham at the General election Conservative Party members will be free to vote for whom they like,that the minute an EU topic comes up on ConservativeHome the majority of comments are anti-EU (something I am sure the press will pick-up on), that as Farage reiterates, the Conservative leadership would really rather not discuss ‘Europe’ , this begs a question:
Is David Cameron and the Conservative Party not going to have to ‘come off the fence’ and open their Pandora’s Box – aka EU membership? Failure to do so could well lead them to ‘doing a Brown’ – aka ‘digging a pit for themselves’.
Just a thought, on a quiet Sunday evening………
Would Someone Run That Past Me Again?
Aug 25th
I am intrigued by this item on the BBC website, that has also been on the various radio stations, in relation to the fact that those selling violent video games and ‘18 rated’ videos to underage children cannot be prosecuted due to an error by the last Conservative Government.
“Dozens of prosecutions under a 1984 Act have been dropped because the government of the day failed to notify the European Commission about the law.”
Am I being a tad ‘thick’ here or does this mean that Parliament can pass a law – one that is not in any manner in contravention of any EU law – but it is not legally enforceable until we have ‘lodged the papers’ with the EU? In other words, we have to ask permission to pass a law in our own country? Does this have to happen to all our laws?
Someone tell me I am wrong – please?
Thought For Today
Aug 11th
Now and again societies have produced people of stature, people whose words contain so much common sense we wonder why what they said meant that the following societies never seemed to pay heed.
Whilst reading ‘Watts Up With That’ one of the commenters on a post made reference to the Farewell Address of Dwight Eisenhower. On reading this, one passage stood out which should be quoted on the gravestones of the passing of the present government and Britain’s membership of the European Union, in particular to the ‘climate change/global warming fraternity’ and ‘Brown Economics’.
“Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite……Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
Armed Forces – Equipment & Personnel Shortages
Aug 8th
Much has been written on the subject of equipment and personnel shortages that our Armed Forces suffer due to the inability of our ‘government’ to make decisions.
Well here is the proof*:
Hey Cap’n, I know we’re short of equipment – but……….!
No, the Ass is not called Gordon!
I spy with my little eye……..
No, this is not Mandelson – he is the rear gunner!
And now for something completely different (to coin a phrase):
Does a woman go anywhere without a handbag?
The response of the Armed Forces to Gordon Brown and his ‘government’
(and that is not an invitation to some members of our queer government!)
Afterthought:
Some I missed:
The new Gnat trainer!
You too can play Minesweeper!
(and you don’t need the internet)
Now, how do I turn left?
While we wait for the A400M…………………..
* OK, so they are Americans – but you get the drift.
Spoil The Illusion, Won’t You?
Aug 5th
Daniel Finkelstein, in the Times, has a post with a topical quiz, allowing you to match the politician with the holiday they are taking.
And there was I thinking they had all gone to hell!
Damn!
Pause For Thought?
Aug 5th
On his blog today, Douglas Carswell, Conservative MP and one of the authors of The Plan, poses the question of whether we would have more faith in politics if it became less of a profession for the few, and started to be an activity open to everyone? Interesting question that it is, it is worth adding to that whether such a situation might also then rejuvenate our interest in politics.
At present politics comprises an elite obligarchy controlling our lives, ‘hand-picking’ those they feel worthy to join their ranks and generally conducting their ‘business’ without deigning to ask those of us who pay their salaries etc, what we think or want.
I have, for some time, been accused of ‘banging on’ about Europe and the right to govern ourselves – a point that also applies to local government too. All three main political parties pay lip-service to the idea of devolution of power, yet the end result is just that – lip-service, no actual devolution, as such, occurs.
National politicians of all hues have made such a mess of ‘government’ per se, they may as well cede authority for local matters to the local people – lets face it, we could hardly do a worse job than our MPs!
