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Election Watch
Jul 21st
Firstly, congratulations today to Lee Burgess who has just been co opted to Tunstall Parish Council in Kent.
Last week’s results can not honestly be said to be anything but disappointing. In Worplesdon Ward, Surrey CC, our percentage dropped from 12.2% last year to just 2.3%. The high figure last year can be explained to an extend though of course due to the elections then being on euro election day, but it is always disappointing to see such a big drop. In Walsall, a ward I know some members had high hope for, less than a hundered votes. Certainly not one of our best weeks, but it is always better that we stand candidates and at least show people that we are still around between the major elections.
Con 1844 53.6% (+5.1%)
LD 1286 37.4% (+2.3%)
Lab 193 5.6% (+1.5%)
UKIP 78 2.3% (-9.9%)
Peace Party 39 1.1% (+1.1%)
Majority 558
Turnout 31.3%
Con Hold
Walsall MBC, Bloxwich West Ward
Lab 1142 53.6% (+18.5%)
Con 800 37.5% (-3.2%)
UKIP 91 4.3% (+4.3%)
LD 71 3.3% (-6.5%)
Green 28 1.3% (-0.4%)
Majority 342
Turnout 22%
Lab take from Con
East Dorset DC, Corfe Mullen South Ward
LD 478 55.5% (-1.0%)
Con 350 40.6% (-2.9%)
UKIP 34 3.9% (+3.9%)
Majority 128
Turnout 40.5%
Lib Dem Hold
Tomorrow, we are contesting seats on Basildon District Council, Babergh District Council, Cherwell District Council and Torbay Borough Council.
Out of Touch Tory Councillors
Jul 14th
Conservative run Barnet Council has taken the decision to increase the allowances of its Cabinet members by 38%. This rise places its leader on over £47,000 a year.
The rises have been condemned by a government minister, but have been supported as a “sensible” move by Conservative Councillor Brian Coleman.
Councillor Coleman also sits on the Greater London Assembly. Between April 2007 and March 2008, Mr. Coleman claimed for £8,231 worth of taxi rides, almost as much as the 24 other members of the GLA put together. The previous year, he had claimed £10,000.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real face of Tory fiscal responsibility.
Election Watch
Jul 10th
A high profile by election Thursday, as former council opposition leader Richard Barnbrook attempted, and failed, to regain a seat for the BNP on Barking and Dagenham Council in the Goresbrook Ward. The by election had been held following a finding that the previous Labour councillor elected in May had been disqualified from standing by virtue of being a council employee.
The result of this was a polarised election, with the substantial majority of voters supporting either the defenders, Labour, or the BNP, who undoubtably have more support than we do in that area of the country.
Lab 881 46.6% (+3%)
BNP 642 34.0% (+6.7%)
LD 136 7.2% (-2.1%)
Con 108 5.7% (-7.4%)
Ind 63 3.3%
UKIP 50 2.6% (+2.6%)
Ind 11 0.6%
Turnout 25.29%
Labour Hold
Our other result from this week a similar level of support in Redbridge in the Chadwell Ward.
Lab 800 31.5% (+1.2%)
Con 580 22.9% (No Change)
LD 576 22.7% (-2.7%)
Green 413 16.3% (+2.3%)
BNP 115 4.5% (+4.5%)
UKIP 54 2.1% (-5.4%)
Turnout 25.5%
Labour Hold
Next week, we are standing candidates for East Dorset District Council (Corfe Mullen South Ward), Surrey County Council (Worplesdon Ward) and Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (Bloxwich West Ward).
Of the three, Worplesdon in Surrey is the only one we contested last time it was up for election, scoring a promising 573 votes in last years elections.
Tories out of Touch on Budget Decisions
Jun 22nd
Opinion polling on the eve of today’s “Emergency Budget” has revealed some of the major decisions taken by George Osborne are significantly out of touch with the views of the British people.
By far the largest tax rise announced today is the foolhardy increase of VAT to 20%, a move that only 20% of Britain’s support. When asked what taxes they believed should increase, 61% favored Capital Gains, which will increase only on the higher rate of the tax, followed by 52% favoring rises in so called “Sin Taxes” on alcohol and tobacco, which are in fact not being increased. With 38% favoring rises in inheritance tax, VAT came only fourth out of the five options available, with income tax coming in just behind it at 17%.
At the same time, Osborne also seems out of touch on spending priorities. Only 2 departments have been ring-fenced from cuts – International Development and Health. Yet International Development, jointly with Culture Media and Sport, is one of the two departments people would be most happy to see reductions in spending at, with 48% favoring cuts. This compares to 38% favoring cuts at the Treasury, 42% the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 27% the Home Office, and only 11% the Department for Work and Pensions, where significant cuts above those being endured by other departments are being made. 50% would favor reductions in devolved spending in Scotland, 49% in Wales and 47% in Northern Ireland.
Just 37% think the Budget will help the economy, with 35% believing it will do more harm than good and 11% thinking it will make no difference. 17% are not sure either way. 60% believe that the Budget will harm their own financial situation.
Source: Angus Reid Public Opinion Poll conducted between June 17th and June 21st 2010.
http://www.visioncritical.com/2010/06/most-britons-think-new-budget-will-hurt-their-financial-situation/
Election Watch
Jun 16th
While plenty of by elections are taking place, its a slow month it seems for contests with a UKIP candidate in the race.
Having said that, last week saw John Youles stand again for Hellesdon Parish Council in Norfolk in the North West Ward. John scored 277 votes (32.2%) in a straight two way fight with a Liberal Democrat (582 votes).
Well done to John for standing, and I have no doubt his time will come! But right now there are dozens of council vacancies up and down the country and most of them are going uncontested by the party. A list can be found on the member’s forum under the “Election Campaigns” heading. Please have a look and if there are any in your area do take action. Every vacant council seat is a chance to fly the UKIP flag.
Election Watch
May 29th
The final chapter of the general election played out this week with the remanded poll taking place on Thursday in the North Yorkshire constituency of Thirsk and Malton. This followed the sad death of UKIP candidate John Boakes.
Our new candidate Toby Horton has managed to more than double the 2005 vote share from 3.1% to 6.6%, up 3.5%, scoring 2,502 votes. The seat was easily retained by the CONs, it seeming at least in this constituency that voters are not (yet?) thinking badly of the coalition.
Though perhaps the most interesting remark that could be made on this result was made by Liberal Party candidate John Clark who said that is was a pity the election had not been held a few months later “when we could see what the coalition produces”.
Today, suffering from their first scandal, it seems we can be sure that one thing it produces is as much sleaze as any government. But it is an interesting point: the coalition are, today’s scandal aside, still very much in their honeymoon period. Once its over, once the conflicts on policies start and the really hard cuts are made in the Autumn, once failure to save money where it can easily be saved (I can think of two things that cost our country £6.4bn a year and give us no benefit in return) forces either increased taxes or substantially diminished frontline services, the real opportunities will come for us in by elections. This time, the Lib Dems won’t benefit from being “something different”, as they are equally responsible for anything the government does. So people will have to look somewhere else.
The full result, as declared at 3:44AM yesterday morning:
Anne McIntosh Conservative 20,167 52.9% (+1.0%)
Howard Keal Liberal Democrat 8,886 23.3% (+4.5%)
Jonathan Roberts Labour Party 5,169 13.6% (-9.8%)
Toby Horton UK Independence Party 2,502 6.6% (+3.5%)
John Clark The Liberal Party 1,418 3.7%
Also held this Thursday were two parish council polls with UKIP contenders, delayed from May 6th due to parish council elections not being allowed to take place on the same day as a general election.
The first, in the new parish council of Allbrook in the Eastleigh area, saw Caroline Bradbeer less than 20 votes short of being elected in a very close contest that saw 11 candidates vie for 8 seats.
| BRADBEER, Caroline Janice | UK Independence Party | 139 | |
| CALDER, Tracy | Liberal Democrat | 199 | E |
| COSSEY, Lindsay Jane | Liberal Democrat | 168 | E |
| EVANS, Eleanor | Independent | 167 | E |
| EVANS, Paul | Independent | 152 | |
| HAWES, James Arthur | Liberal Democrat | 156 | E |
| SMITH, Paul | Independent | 165 | E |
| SOLLITT, Maureen Ann | Liberal Democrat | 171 | E |
| SYMONDS, Kathleen Grace | Independent Local Candidate | 175 | E |
| TRENCHARD, Keith Stanley | Liberal Democrat | 153 | |
| WALL, Peter George | Liberal Democrat | 175 | E |
The other was in the Harroway Ward of the (also newly created) Andover Parish Council.
351 Alan Cotter, Campaign for an Andover Town Council
353 Sarah Evans, Campaign for an Andover Town Council
280 Linda Gates, Liberal Democrat
370 Karen Hamilton, Conservative
305 Jan Lovell, Conservative
325 Brian Mellor, Campaign for an Andover Town Council
249 Kate Nightingale, Liberal Democrat
404 Brian Page, Conservative
317 Veronika Pond, Conservative
161 Janis Sadler, UK Independence
206 Alan Sweetman, Liberal Democrat
238 Peter Wilson, Liberal Democrat
Election Watch: The General Election
May 8th
After results that in many ways can be seen as disappointing, the one major thing we have to hang on to is a substantial increase in our overall vote share – a rise of 50% from 605,973 votes in 2005 to 917,832 votes and from 2.2% to 3.1%. This also represents a larger rise than last time, an overall rise of 0.9%, compared to 0.7% in 2005.
So, while narrowly missing Paul Nuttal’s target of 1 million votes, which incidentally no party outside of the Lib/Lab/Con achieved, over 300,000 extra people voted UKIP this time around. While issues like the expenses scandal and the Lisbon Treaty may have had a part to play, and while the cost of our EU membership may be seen as a larger issue to many in light of the financial crisis, the party has nonetheless most definitely achieved more across the board success.
While we have failed to gain Buckingham, with Nigel Farage scoring only 17.4% (8,410 votes) and third place, behind former Tory MEP John Stevens, most seats have seen vote shares increase by notable amounts and strong results have been recorded in seats not contested last time around, including in Mansfield where David Hamilton scored 8.2%
More notable results include Newcastle-under-Lyme, where local councillor David Nixon scored 8.1%, a rise of 4.5% on 2005., Christchurch, where we scored 8.5% (+3.4%) and Devon North, where South West RO Steven Crowther took 3rd place, beating Labour and scoring 7.2% (+2.0%). Boston and Skegness have achieved a score of 9.5% with over 4,000 votes, though this was no increase on 2005. Steve Povey in Staffordshire Moorlands, also a local councillor, scored 8.2% (+1.4%), while former party elections coordinator Stephen Allison (who unfortunately narrowly lost his seat on the council in these elections) has doubled his vote share in Hartlepool at 7% of the vote (+3.5%).
Many other seats have seen increases including Bootle, being contested by party chairman Paul Nuttal with a score of 6.1% (+2.8%), Ludlow where former MP Christopher Gill was the candidate, up 2.7% to 4.4% and Suffolk South, where David Campbell Bannerman, head of policy, achieved a 7.1% vote share (+2.%).
The really good news is the vast majority of seats tell a similar story: a modest, but notable, increase in vote share. Seats we got 2% in last time we are scoring 3-4%, seats where we got 3% we are getting 5% and seats we got 5% we are getting 7-8%.
Larger breakthroughs could have been hoped for, but progress is being seen in virtually every seat, and that is what it will take for the party to have a real impact. We are one step closer to the day we will take seats. We have got ourselves to the point where, with our much increased vote share, it will be much harder to dismiss us as a fringe party of cranks and gadflies. In that spirit then, in the words of Winston Churchill, this is not the end of the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but maybe, just maybe, it is the end of the beginning.
Onwards and upwards my friends!
Election Watch
Apr 11th
One result to report from the first of April from the John O’Gaunt Ward of Lancaster City Council
Lab 603 35.2% (-4.9%)
Lib Dem 389 22.7% (+22.7%)
Green 339 19.8% (-17.5%)
Con 301 17.6% (-5.1%)
UKIP 83 4.8% (+4.8%)
On April 8th, there were no by elections with UKIP candidates.
This coming week, vacancies in the same place on three councils are being contested by UKIP, with Paul Clapp standing for the Kirkgate Ward of Fenland District Council and the Wisbech North Ward of Cambridgeshire County Council and Edward Lay standing for the Kirkgate Ward of Wisbech Town Council.
The County Council seat in particular could yield an interesting result, with us having taken second place here in last year’s elections and coming within 200 votes of taking the seat.
2009 result
Con 729
UKIP 537
Lab 271
Lib Dem 212
So good luck to everyone up there and let’s hope for some good news this week!
Election Watch
Mar 26th
A shocking result last night that will leave people of all parties astounded as the Green extremists take a seat on Mid Sussex District Council. While disappointing to see another of these radical environmentalists in public office, this result does nonetheless show the potential of a smaller party to go from a modest result to taking a seat, and we can all take from that hope for the upcoming contests on May the 6th. Our actual result this time though suffered from a squeeze that sort the ward become a polarised two way contest between the victorious Greens and the CONservatives who had previously held the seat. This by election also brought the surprise of a turnout of over 40%, very unusual for local elections where turnout is typically in the 30s or even 20s.
Mid Suffolk District Council, Haughley and Wetherden Ward
Green 444 61.0% (+45.4%)
Con 176 24.2% (-20.9%)
LD 51 7.0% (-32.4%)
Lab 32 4.4% (+4.4%)
UKIP 25 3.4% +3.4)
Turnout 41.57%
Green take from Conservative
Congratulations due to John Youles from Norfolk for his strong result in a parish council contest last night. The election was a straight two way fight with the Cons and an impressive score that gives strong hope for us taking the seat in the future.
Hellesdon Parish Council, North West ward
Conservative 581 (61.7%)
UKIP (John Youles) 381 (38.3%)
Conservative Hold
And a very impressive result last week in Gravesham as our candidate goes from no where to second place, beating Labour and the Lib Dems.
Gravesham Borough Council, Meopham South and Vigo Ward
Con 515 59.5% (-4.4%)
UKIP 122 14.1% (+14.1%)
LD Ann O’Brien 114 13.2% (+13.2%)
Lab 114 13.2% (-2.5%)
Election Watch
Mar 8th
Apologies for the lack of an edition for a couple of weeks, both election matters and other matters had been catching up on me. So here is a run down of our results since last time.
February 18th
Evesham Town Council, Evesham South Ward
Con 432 66.6%
UKIP John White 217 33.4%
Turnout 16.16%
Wychavon District Council, Evesham South Ward
Con 358 52.3% (+1.2%)
Lib Dem 176 25.7% (+2.1%)
UKIP John White 150 21.9% (-3.3%)
Turnout 16.26%
February 25th
Sandhurst Town Council, Owlsmoor Ward
Con 453 48.2%
LD 201 21.4%
Lab 124 13.2%
UKIP 112 11.9%
Green 50 5.3%
Turnout 24%
Mansfield District Council, Sherwood Ward
Lab 406 46.4% (+8.3%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 171 19.5 (-42.4%)
Con 156 17.8 (+17.8%)
UKIP 93 10.6 (+10.6%)
LD 49 5.6 (+5.6%)
Turnout 24.84%
Mansfield District Council, Portland Ward
Lab 407 45.8% (+2.2%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 263 29.6% (-26.9%)
Con 116 13.0% (+13.0%)
LD 66 7.4% (+7.4%)
UKIP 37 4.2% (+4.2%)
Turnout 24.15%
Nottinghamshire County Council, Mansfield Ward
Lab 1342 33.5% (+13.4%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 1108 27.6% (-12.7%)
Con 774 19.3% (-9.2%)
UKIP 489 12.2% (+12.2%)
LD 295 7.4% (-3.8%)
Turnout 20.94%
Surprisingly high scores for Labour in Mansfield with them taking all three seats from the Mansfield Independent Forum, and a good solid result for us in the county council seat.
March 4th
Chatteris Town Council, The Mills Ward (2 seats)
Con 340 (28.8%)
LD Diane Baldry 324 (27.5%)
Con 255 (21.6%)
UKIP 151 (12.8%)
Lab 109 (9.2%)
Turnout 31.7%
Fenland District Council, The Mills Ward
Con 301 45.9% (-11.2%)
LD 264 40.2% (-2.7%)
UKIP 58 8.8% (+8.8%)
Lab 33 5.0% (+5.0%)
Turnout 31.8%
This week there are two contests, but we are not contesting either of them.
Europe to become more taxing than ever?
Feb 28th
So proposals are flying around this week that the EU should introduce a “family of taxes at a European level”.
This at a time when we already have a system of taxation that is far too punishing on the British people. We have income tax, corporation tax, national insurance (employers and employees sides), VAT, various excise duties (most particularly fuel duty), inheritance (death) tax, stamp duty, council tax, road tax, and a whole host of other methods of taking people’s money away to fund endless bureaucracy and politician’s gravy trains.
As at November 2007, the average family pays a total of £32,779 in tax. And on top of that we are now faced with the prospect of European “Federal” Taxes on top of all that! A “whole family of them”! European Income Tax? European Road Tax? Its sheer lunacy! This is just another development that makes the whole European project ever scarier than it already was for the British people, but we shouldn’t be surprised really: the Lisbon Treaty was designed to turn the EU into a fully fledged country, and a country needs the power to raise its own revenue.
Election Watch
Feb 18th
Apologies for the lack of an edition of Election Watch last week: this edition will therefore be covering two weeks worth of contests.
But before we get started on that, I just want to say a big warm welcome to the party to Terry Gandy, an independent member of Billericay Town Council who became UKIP’s second member on the Council after signing up yesterday. He joins Councillor Susan McCaffery, who was elected in a by election last September.
Starting then firstly with by elections that took place on February 4th, we had a strong result in Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Newchapel Ward, with our vote share increasing 10% on 2008 and our position improving from fourth to second. I did think we might have taken this seat, but its still a big improvement on last time round and with scheduled elections taking place this year for this Council, where we currently hold 5 seats, our chances are excellent for substantially increasing our representation there in May.
Con 208 33.5% (-10.6%)
UKIP Carol Lovatt 148 23.8% (+10.4%)
Lab 138 22.2% (-1.1%)
LD Adrian Rhodes 127 20.5% (+1.4%)
Majority 60
Also on the 4th, Jill Seymore stood against two independents in the Rural Ward of Shifnal Town Council. While the number of votes was low, it is worth bearing in mind that this is a small ward with an electorate of only 757, of which only 118 voted (a turnout of 15.58%). The result is therefore, proportionately speaking, a fair percentage of votes cast.
Jane Theresa Blackstock Independent 63 (53.39%)
John Michael Horne Independent 37 (31.35%)
Gillian Elizabeth Seymour UK Independence Party 18 (15.25%)
Earlier that week, on Tuesday the 2nd, we contested the Whyteleafe Ward on Tandridge District Council, with a solid result, especially for a ward we had not contested last time it was up for election in 2008. The Lib Dems held the seat, and the Conservatives appear to have lost around a quarter of their votes, to our benefit.
LD 444 57.0% (+3.2%)
Con 236 30.3% (-11.3%)
UKIP 99 12.7% (+12.7%)
Majority 208
Turnout 28.9%
Moving on then to last week, there was a lot of hype about the two by elections being held in the Buckingham area, where Nigel Farage is going for election as an MP. While in that regard the results may not be what we’d hoped for, one of them in particular perhaps lower than expectations, it does need to be remembered that what will get Nigel elected is the fact that Speaker of the House John Bercow, a figure increasingly disliked by Conservatives, will be standing as Speaker this year, not as a Con, while these council by elections did not have that unique attribute. That is not of course to say that we can not win other seats, in other places there are unique factors that could encourage the masses to support us, and who knows after all what could happen between now and the general election.
But anyway, enough on the general for now and back to last week’s by elections. Both were for Aylesbury Vale District Council. The first, and the one that has caused some level of disappointment, was in the Aylesbury Central Ward. In this ward, we scored a little over 9% of the vote, and suffered a small decrease in vote share compared to 2007. In contrast, our result in Luffield Abbey was far stronger, especially considering that we did not contest ward last time around. We came second, with a vote share of over 20%. While this is another seat where there was a real possibility of a UKIP victory, we should hold on to the fact that the score we got was still a strong one and does still indicate that people in the area are listening to what we have to say and that our ideas are striking home with a significant number of them! It is also notable that turnout was significantly higher in the Luffield Abbey Ward with over one in three people voting, a very high figure for a local by election, so it seems the messages or methods used in that ward were more successful in getting people to go out and vote for us.
Aylesbury Central Ward
LD 354 50.6% (-1.9%)
Con 213 30.5% (-5.9%)
Lab 67 9.6% (+9.6%)
UKIP 65 9.3% (-1.9%)
Majority 141
Turnout 26.9%
Luffield Abbey Ward
Con 343 49.7% (-30.7%)
UKIP 151 21.9% (+21.9%)
LD 133 19.3% (+19.3%)
Ind 63 9.1% (+9.1%)
Majority 192
Turnout 33.4%
One bad piece of news I have to report is the loss of a seat on Calne Town Council in Wiltshire. Dr. Julia Reid did her best to hold the seat for UKIP, but unfortunately it was taken by the Cons. Still, at least we have a new town council seat this week to make up the loss!
Con 224 (47.3%)
LD 192 (40.5%)
UKIP Julia Reid 58 (12.2%)
Majority 32
Turnout 26.6%
Going up from Wiltshire now to Telford and the Wrekin, who were holding three by elections on the same day, two for the borough council and one for a town council. We contested two, the town council and one borough council contest.
In Telford and the Wrekin BC’s The Nedge Ward, a seat which out of interest the Cons took from Labour, our vote share held up well in spite on the addition this time of a candidate from the BNP, which may well have taken the votes of some people concerned about the EU and uncontrolled immigration which might have otherwise gone to increasing our own score. Wellington Town Council’s College Ward saw Gillian Seymour make her second run for council in two weeks! The results in full:
The Nedge Ward, Telford and the Wrekin BC
Con 760 42.5% (+18.6%)
Lab 688 38.5% (+15.4%)
UKIP Raymond Knight 237 13.3% (-0.6%)
BNP 103 5.8% (+5.8%)
Majority 72
Turnout 27.2%
College Ward, Wellington TC
Patrick McCarthy Independent 301 (34.01%)
Frank Burns Labour 238 (26.89%)
Sylvia Hall Conservative 234 (26.44%)
Gillian Elizabeth Seymour UKIP 67 (7.57%)
One last result for last week was in the Hucknall Central Ward of Ashfield District Council. In a seat that Labour took from the Conservatives, UKIP, standing for the first time, achieved a score of 9%, coming in fourth out of five candidates.
Lab 675 38.4% (+17.9%)
Con 437 24.9% (-5.1%)
LD 357 20.3% (+6.8%)
UKIP Ronald Nixon 158 9.0% (+9.0%)
BNP 131 7.5% (+7.5%)
Majority 238
Turnout 32.29%
Coming up later today (as I write this its just gone Midnight), many by elections but we are contesting only two. John White is standing both Wychavon Parish Council’s Evesham Town South Ward and Wychavon District Council’s Evesham South Ward. In the district council contest, he faces the Cons and the Lib Dems, while in the parish contest only David Cameron’s limp band of promise breakers stand against him.
The results of those contests and the start of articles on the general election coming soon.
But before I say goo night after a very long edition of Election Watch, one piece of news that I’m sure will put a smile on many people’s faces, and that is that in Charnwood this week, the Lib Dems will not be appearing on the ballot after screwing up their nomination forms. It seems that one of the people who signed their forms is not actually a resident of the ward! Ouch.
That’s it for now, but I’ll be back soon with more election news. For now, good night and good luck to John White in tomorrow’s contests.
Election Watch
Feb 1st
One election contested by UKIP last week, the Lyngford Ward of Taunton Deane Borough Council. Our candidate Charlene Sherriff, contesting a new ward for the party, scored 59 votes, or 6.6% of votes cast.
Full result
LD 390 43.7% (-0.7%)
Con 253 28.4% ( +0.4%)
Lab 190 21.3% (-6.3)
UKIP 59 6.6% (+6.6)
Lib Dem Hold
One interesting thing to note about this by election is, as you can see from the numbers above, there is little movement in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat vote, but the Labour vote sharply declines, by 6.3% to be exact, almost identical to the 6.6% that we scored. In this case, the figures would seem to indicate that it is Labour voters that are being converted to UKIP!
Coming up this week, something of a rarity in the form of a Tuesday contest, in the Whyteleafe Ward of Tandridge District Council. Our candidate, Jefferey Bolter, is standing against the Conservatives and Lib Dems only, with no Labour candidate standing. We did not contest the ward the last time it was fought.
On Thursday, the long awaited contest in Newcastle under Lyme’s Newchapel Ward. This was necessitated by the death of a long serving Conservative councillor late last year and represents our chance to bring our total number of seats on this Staffordshire borough council to 6. With the number of councillors we already have here, us also holding the local county council seat, and the fact that our campaign swung into gear very promptly, I am going to be bold and call this as a UKIP gain! At any rate, is is most certainly our best chance at a gain in many months. Carol Lovatt is up against all three wings of the One Party with Three Names.
2008 Result
Con 416 (44.11%)
Lab 220 (23.33%)
LD 180 (19.09%)
UKIP 127 (13.47%)
Lastly, a contest in Shifnal in Shropshire, in the Rural Ward. Jill Seymore is facing two independents for a seat on the town council. A double by election in Shifnal TC’s Manor Ward has gone uncontested by UKIP.
I’ll be back at the end of the week, hopefully with some good news to report. Good luck to all our candidates!
Election/Defection Watch
Jan 23rd
Good morning everyone! After our recent successes in attracting councillors of other affiliations to join our party, I am delighted to welcome Councillor Eddie Poole to UKIP. Councillor Poole was elected as a Conservative and represents the Manor Park Ward of Rushmoor Borough Council in Hampshire and is the third councillor to defect to UKIP this year already (and its still January)!
Also in the news this week, Alastair Muir scored almost 20% for us in a by election in Wiltshire. Standing in Calne Town Council’s Lickhill Ward, Muir took 19.3% of the vote in a straight two way fight against the Liberal Democrats.
Full Score
Lib Dem 331 80.7%
UKIP 79 19.3%
Lib Dem take from Conservative
Kaiser’s lesson for the EU
Jan 21st
During World War I, the Kaiser of Germany asked “Why are we losing the war?” His generals told him “Because sire, we are shackled to a corpse”. The Kaiser couldn’t understand it: his armies were the best, his economy one of the largest, yet as history shows us, he lost that war, and with it, his empire and his crown. All because he was shackled to a corpse.
What does that statement mean? It meant that Germany had chosen to go into the challenges of the 20th century linked to Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Both were decaying and corrupt allies, and whilst Germany was a vigorous nation, it was ultimately ruined by its foolish association with slowly decaying allies. The consequences for the Kaiser and Germany were very significant – he lost his crown, Germany lost its empire and the stage had been set for hyper-inflation, Nazism and a second war which divided Germany in two and its capital city into four. Thus, being associated with weak, dying allies has a very significant impact on you long term.
The same thing faces Britain. We are a dynamic country, with a very impressive power portfolio. We have a permanent Security Council seat at the UN. We speak the language of global trade, English. We are one of the few countries in Europe with a growing population. We have one of the top six economies in the world. Yet through our membership of the EU, we are bolted to an introverted, slow growth, demographically dying group of nations. In other words, we are shackled to a corpse.
The EU economy is strong on paper. It is the world’s largest internal market. But if you subtract Britain from that, it immediately falls dramatically from that perch. Also, it claims that “Europe” is the favoured destination for investment from America. Yet it is Britain that most American investment takes place in. American investment elsewhere in Europe is much more modest. The EU claims Britain needs it to help it “stand up” to China and India. But China and India have fire hot economies, and will very soon draw level with, and eventually overtake the EU economically. By 2050, India alone will have an economy bigger than every EU country combined. By contrast, the EU will be desperately trying to pay for pensions for its old, dying populations.
The EU’s demographics are the clearest sign the EU is not pointing in the direction of the future. In 2008, Italy reported that there were now more people in their 60s than in their 20s for the first time in its history. In Germany, there have been more deaths than births since 2007, and the population by 2050 will be 10 million smaller than today. In not a single EU member state is the birth rate high enough to sustain the current population. Put simply, the EU is getting older and greyer, and the people are physically dying out. Maybe the statement about being shackled to a corpse is even one that can be applied literally.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Whilst Europe ages and decays, we have the Commonwealth, which has an average age of just 25. If you are planning for the future, it makes sense to talk to 25 year olds. We also have our relationship with America. Whilst the EU has a population about 150 million larger than America in 2010, by 2050, America will have a much larger, younger population. Whilst we can still trade with the EU, and I hope we do have an amicable relationship post-withdrawal, we do not have to share its demographic and economic fate to do so.
In short, we could spend this century linked to the young and vibrant Commonwealth and the young and vibrant USA. Or we could just spend it shackled to a corpse…
Election/Defection Watch
Jan 13th
No elections this week, but several new councillors for UKIP nonetheless.
Firstly, David Rogerson up in Corby in Northamptonshire has been co-opted on to Stanion Parish council, representing our first new council seat of 2010! Congratulations to him and best of luck to him in his work on the council.
Second, as has widely been reported, Huntingdonshire District Councillor Peter Reeve, previously the sole UKIP member of that council, will be getting some company as ward colleague Conservative Councillor Andy Monk crosses the floor. Monk had only been elected in a by election last April, ironically narrowly beating Peter Reeve, who went on to win another seat in the same ward for us with his legendary double by election victory in July.
Upon his defection, Councillor Monk remarked “I really do feel that the current leadership of the Conservative Party no longer represents real conservative values and that local Conservative leaders do not allow their councillors the freedom to properly represent the local community. In contrast UKIP strongly champions the local community and is the real voice of local people.”
Establishing a presence for our party in the council chambers of Britain is so important, as it gives us the opportunity to start to take real action for the people of Britain, to hold the Lib/Lab/Con administrations to account, and to show a different way of doing things, concerned with helping the local people, and not with partisan politics. In that spirit, Mr. Monk’s realisations and his change of heart are of course very welcome.
Thirdly, only today I have learned that independent Sutton Councillor David Theobald has joined UKIP. With our incumbent there David Pickles, that is another council we now have 2 members of. Councillor Theobald remarked “I have enjoyed many debates and conversations with Cllr Pickles over the past few years and have found that, despite opposing views on some issues we can always find common ground and a viable road forward”.
So that’s three new councillors in our fair party this week already and its only Wednesday! For those of us keeping count, we are now up 22 council seats compared to immediately before last year’s European elections. This level of UKIP success in the local government arena is unprecedented. Let’s hope that it continues.
By elections will be held in the coming weeks in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Gravesham, Telford and the Wrekin and Aylesbury. If you live near one of these places and can help, please contact the local branch.
