Tag Archives: UKIP

June 17, 2013 · 8:39 am

Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up

Sadly the European Commission and Council have always been resistant to giving better and wider access to EU legislative documents for EU Citizens.  That is why in Strasbourg last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the other two EU institutions to lift their opposition and resume the negotiations with the Parliament on a revision of the Regulation on Public Access to Documents.

The report was about empowering citizens to hold “Brussels” to account; not only the European Parliament, but also the Commission and the Council of Ministers.  Meetings of the Council of Ministers currently take place behind closed doors. If we knew how our Ministers voted in their secret meetings, we would be able to hold them to account, in all national parliaments across the EU.  Hopefully this will make the Commission and the Council stop their backstage collusion on this dossier and will actively follow up on this resolution to kick-start negotiations again as soon as possible.

You would think that UKIP, given their constant criticism of the functioning of the EU, would have welcomed this move.  However, UKIP refused to support transparent EU decision making on Thursday, by abstaining on the resolution.

In the same week, UKIP MEPs refused to support encouragement for all member states to establish a lobbying register, in a report on corruption, money laundering and organised crime. UKIP abstained on the paragraph which “encourages governments and public administrations to make registration in a lobby register a precondition for a meeting with a business-, interest-, or lobby-organisation”. On 3rd June, Nigel Farage wrote in the Guardian that UKIP would ‘clean up politics’ by demanding that all lobbying and donations to politicians be clearly registered.  UKIP are proving once again that they are more about grandstanding than actually trying to make a difference.

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June 7, 2013 · 10:29 am

From the Archive: UKIP’s remarkable ability to shed MEPs

This is a blog from 7 June 2011 regarding  the defection of David Campbell-Bannerman from UKIP to the Conservatives.  UKIP have continued to have problems holding on to their MEPs. Since this blog was written Marta Andreasen’s public row with UKIP leader Nigel Farage has resulted in her defecting to the Tories.

UKIP’s remarkable ability to shed MEPs

David Campbell-Bannerman who defected last month from UKIP to the Conservatives has written an interesting justification on Conservative Home. He argues that the Conservatives are the best placed party to secure Britain leaving the European Union:

‘I believe it is only the Conservative Party that can realistically offer a way out of the EU, through a future manifesto or through support for an In/Out referendum.’

I do wonder when he applied for membership which David Cameron  category of UKIP member he was listed under – fruitcake/loony/closet racist?

This does seem a very sudden decision, as in the current edition of this newspaper David Campbell-Bannerman criticises the Conservative-lead government’s defence and foreign policy in very robust terms. UKIP reaction has alleged careerism, and this image from the Independence Home website encapsulates many of their views.

I think the British media generally still underestimate how Eurosceptic the Conservative Party is, and this defection makes the Conservative MEPs an even more right wing grouping. UKIP do have a singular ability to lose MEPs. In the 2004-9 Parliamentary term a quarter of its MEPs departed for the delights of Spain and Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Since 2009 Nikki Sinclaire MEP no longer follows the UKIP whip following her complaints about homophobia and now another MEP leaves. Nigel Farage and Marta Andreasen are conducting a very public row at present. It will be little surprise if we reach the 2014 European elections with a quarter or more of UKIP MEPs no longer representing the Party the public thought they were voting for.

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May 31, 2013 · 8:14 am

From the Archive: UKIP’s Godfrey Bloom MEP “I share a glass of wine a few times a year with Marine le Pen”

This blog was from December of last year, when it emerged that Godfrey Bloom was involved with the European Aliance for Freedom (EAF) that includes the far-right French MEP and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, among other nationalist politicians.

I think it’s important to remind ourselves of just how right wing UKIP are now. We shouldn’t forget that many UKIPers lean more towards the extreme end of the political spectrum. A case in point being Godfrey Bloom.

UKIP’s Godfrey Bloom MEP “I share a glass of wine a few times a year with Marine le Pen”

At the start of December, Yorkshire & Humber MEP Godfrey Bloom wrote an article defending his involvement with the European Alliance of Freedom (EAF), a pan-European political party which includes far-right parties from across Europe. Despite Bloom’s active involvement in the EAF, UKIP has a policy of not joining pan-European political parties. He argued that the party, whose executive include the French Front National, Belgian Vlaams Belang and Austrian Freedom Party, are solely united by their euro scepticism.

However, he then admitted to sharing “a glass of wine a few times a year with Marine le Pen” saying she was a ‘protectionist and socialist’.

Marine Le Pen is the leader of the Front National in France, and the daughter of its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has been convicted of racism of inciting racial hatred at least six times. In 2010, Marine Le Pen compared Muslims praying in France to Nazi occupiers, and when challenged said “My comments were absolutely not a blunder, but a completely thought-out analysis.”

Godfrey Bloom was chair of the EAF until last month, when a new board was announced at a press conference in the European Parliament. The new chair is Franz Obermayr from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Marine Le Pen and Belgian MEP Philip Claeys are co-Presidents. Fellow board member is Kent Ekeroth, an MP for the Swedish Democrats.

The leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, was roundly condemned in August this year for posting a cartoon on Facebook similar to anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda. A former FPÖ official is currently facing criminal charges for campaign literature with the slogan “Love your home country instead of Moroccan thieves”.

Kent Ekeroth is currently ‘taking a break’ from the Swedish Democrats, after footage of him and several key Swedish Democrat politicians on a drunken racist rampage was leaked to the press.  The Swedish Democrats also hit the headlines for recently sending a schoolboy a web link showing decapitated bodies in response to a request for their views on Islam.

Philip Claeys is a member of Vlaams Belang, a Flemish separatist party established after its previous incarnation, Vlaams Blok, was dissolved in 2004 for violating race hatred laws. Recent Vlaams Belang campaign literature included a picture of a white sheep kicking a Moroccan Muslim sheep out of Europe.

Bloom appears to have closer views to his fellow EAF members than he admits.  He referred to ‘dim-witted Johnny Asiatic’ in a recent article on trade tariffs on Chinese pottery, and was ejected from the parliamentary chamber for shouting Nazi slogans at a German MEP in 2010.

Bloom also stood for UKIP in Humberside for the Police & Crime Commissioner elections in November, coming fourth with 16.06% of the vote.

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May 24, 2013 · 5:45 am

From the Archive: The ever more appalling Godfrey Bloom brings shame on us all

Following Godfrey Bloom’s extraordinary outburst on London Loves Business where he states that hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs should be abolished as the public sector drains money out of the economy, I have posted another Bloom story. This one comes from my archive and shows just how unbelievebaly atrocious UKIP really are.

This blogpost went out on November 24th 2010, and is about Bloom in the European Parliament addressing German MEP Martin Schulz, at the time leader of the S&D,  using language associated with Hitler and the Third Reich.  After refusing to apologise, Bloom was ejected from the chamber.

The ever more appalling Godfrey Bloom brings shame on us all

Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorks and the Humber, was ejected from the European Parliament today for using language associated with Nazi Germany when addressing a fellow MEP. In a debate this morning Godfrey Bloom used the phrase “ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” towards German MEP Martin Schulz, the Leader of the Socialist and Democrat Group.

Shortly after midday the Vice-President of the European Parliament chairing the session in the European Parliament chamber, British Liberal-Democrat MEP Edward McMillan-Scott who holds his Vice-President post as an  independent, ordered Mr Bloom to apologise to Mr Schulz. Failure to do so would lead to Mr Bloom being ejected from the chamber.

Inevitably Godfrey Bloom refused to apologise, following which McMillan-Scott put the motion that Mr Bloom be ejected to the vote. It was carried overwhelmingly.

Again very predictably, Bloom refused to go, despite the European Parliament ushers’ peaceful attempts to persuade him, whereupon McMillan-Scott ordered a five minute suspension. At this point Bloom skulked off and didn’t return.

During these proceedings as the atmosphere became ever more febrile, BNP MEP Nick Griffin shouted loudly in Bloom’s defence. However, since his microphone wasn’t on, Griffin’s efforts had no discernible effect.  Telling also that newly re-elected UKIP Leader Nigel Farage was passionate in Bloom’s defence.

Bloom’s utterly appalling behaviour was totally unacceptable. If you feel, as Bloom clearly does, that the second world war is not yet over, then you should at least have the decency to distance yourself from an institution, the European Parliament, which seeks to foster European co-operation and understanding. I do not believe it is either right or effective to seek election to the European Parliament and then take every opportunity to attack it. If you feel you must exercise your right to freedom of speech Mr Bloom, go and do it somewhere else. It is wholly out-of-order to use the chamber of the European Parliament to grossly insult fellow parliamentarians and attempt to resurrect past wars and past anti-democratic, violent and racist political movements in a place set up to enable Europe to recover from its twentieth century past.

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May 17, 2013 · 9:02 am

From the Archives: UKIP member’s strange behaviour in chamber

Another UKIP blog that I thought was worth reminding my readers of was this from 6 February 2012.  During a debate in the plenary chamber in Strasbourg on the subject of sport, Godfrey Bloom made a somewhat odd interjection directed at Tory MEP Emma McClarkin.  It was a completely unintelligible question about something to do with the Cambridge women’s rugby team. 

UKIP member’s strange behaviour in the chamber

You may have already seen this on the Political Scrapbook blog.  It’s so good, I am repeating it for all my European readers who may not have caught it first time round.

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May 7, 2013 · 9:21 am

Lawson’s tragedy is to be the next in line to try and out-UKIP UKIP

Now that UKIP looks like the protest party of choice, the anti-EU bandwagon is predictably growing apace.

The Tory knee-jerk reaction to UKIP’s gains makes interesting viewing for those of us not directly in the firing line. With 60% of UKIP’s local election support coming from ex-Tory voters and only 7% ex-Labour, according to ex-MP and electoral reform campaigner Martin Linton, it’s the Conservatives who should be (and clearly are) truly worried.    

Hence the intervention in today’s Times by Nigel Lawson, Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor for six years and a Tory grandee of considerable standing. In common with most of the Conservatives who have spoken out in the UKIP debate, Lawson has decided he doesn’t like the EU. Maybe this is just the prevailing fashion in Tory circles, maybe these anti-EU Conservatives really believe the way to tackle Farage etc is to fight UKIP on their own territory by being more UKIP than UKIP.

The Tories are clearly running scared. Flawed logic, in this instance, the way to combat UKIP is to provide a Tory version of more of the same, is often a response to such fear. The Tories now have it in spades. They didn’t win the 2010 general election and they are now very firmly on course to fail again in 2015.  

 I think it’s rather sad that Lord Lawson has joined the anti-EU cheerleaders, not least because his main arguments are nonsense. Lawson “strongly” suspects there would be a “positive economic advantage to the UK in leaving the single market”, claiming you do not have to be in the single market to export to the European Union. Lawson strategically omits to say that the EU single market helps to bring down barriers, create more jobs and increase overall prosperity in the EU.  It’s also worth noting that he was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the UK signed up to the Single European Act in 1986.

Predictably Lawson also claimed that withdrawing from the EU would save the City of London from a “frenzy of regulatory activism”. It is really quite extraordinary how Tories defend bankers and by definition the huge bonuses which have done so much harm to the financial industry. The main reason they object to EU regulations is that it will hit the bankers where it really hurts – in their pockets.

The noble lord is, however, right on one matter, namely that any repatriation of powers secured by David Cameron will be inconsequential. He can at least see that clearly.

The answer is not to withdraw from the EU all together, as Tories scared of UKIP and, of course, UKIP themselves maintain. That would be madness, a huge national fit of pique cutting off a very large nose to spite a face not yet out of joint. The UK would lose the valuable and irreplaceable European single market and we would no longer be part of cross border initiatives to cut crime and improve the environment, to name but two major areas where EU action is very beneficial.

The answer is to get fully stuck in and reform the EU from within, not by attempting to repatriate powers in the teeth of opposition from nearly all the other member states, but by playing a constructive and active role at the top table. The huge waste that is the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament would be a good place to start followed by a concerted effort on the Common Agricultural Policy where the latest round of reform has failed to deliver anything very meaningful. There is much to do. It’s just a huge shame that Prime Minister Cameron is so involved in batting off his own backbenchers that he can’t see the wood for the trees, let alone act in a responsible and statesmanlike fashion.

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May 3, 2013 · 10:07 am

From the Archive: Gerard Batten is Best, Forget the Rest

To continue with more of my previous blogs on UKIP.  This one is from November 6th 2009, a time when the UKIP leadership elections were taking place and Gerard Batten was hoping to succeed Nigel Farage.

Gerard Batten is Best, Forget the Rest

 

Fellow London MEP Gerard Batten is apparently campaigning to succeed Nigel Farage as leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). The site set up to support him is interesting to say the least.Yesterday there was a post arguing that Gerard Batten’s attempts to cover up fraudulent spending of European Union monies did not matter, and there was no need for an investigation. An unusual position for a party which claims to be against the misuse of EU monies.However, like Ashley Mote and now Tom Wise, Gerard does not consider that laws apply to him. Gerard is a man who does not believe it is in the British character to play by the rules, and pay your taxes. He is refusing to pay his television licence.

Let’s return to his campaign website which reads a bit like the diary of Adrain Mole aged 55 and 3/4. Schoolboy politics might provide a slogan like  “Forget the rest and vote for the best.”   In the unlikely event of a Batten victory how will Gerard create a leadership team of all the talents other UKIP MEPs?

Gerard’s leadership blog certainly likes a bit of Viz style humour, commenting on the recent Exeter UKIP leadership hustings, the verdict is juvenile:  “Pants to the rest, Gerard is the best!“

Let’s hope this blog is written by an over enthusiastic supporter of Gerard’s.

Looking at his official website there is no mention of his campaign for Leader. Google “Gerard Batten” and Leader in news, and you find that the BNP have been writing to Gerard as the kind of person they think would like to donate to them. Why would this be?

Look at Gerard’s website, it is a place where a BNP supporter would feel at home.  Let’s start with his article “The Myth of Multiculturalism” which starts

“THE MYTH of multiculturalism depends on the belief that completely different cultures, and indeed contradictory world views, can peacefully co-exist within the same geographic and political space.”

Gerard represents London, he doesn’t seem to have noticed there are people with lots of differents beliefs in London. We all manage to rub along together. Londoners are pretty tolerant people, we even manage to put up with UKIP MEPs.

How about Gerard’s views on immigration? He’s written a 4 page pamphlet on the subject with the title “Enough is Enough“?

Then there’s his article in Freedom Today The Islamist threat to freedom where he talks about his regard for far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders (who Gerard is pictured with above).

You can begin to see why the BNP might consider Gerard Batten would want to support them. Let’s turn back to the intellectual masterpiece that is the “myth of multicultalism” article. This says in language strikingly like something Nick Griffin might say: “The British political and intellectual elite have not only thought that multiculturalism is highly desirable but they have spent the last fifty years actively bringing it about.”

Who could Gerard mean? How about current UKIP leader Nigel Farage? He’s married to a German. Yorkshire UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom? He’s married to a Pole. Even the Queen married a Greek. That’s right Gerard lots of British people are marrying foreign people, and I think love is wonderful, but you want to stop it?

Often when I write about UKIP members misbehaviour I receive notes from UKIP members complaining that they are decent people, and are unlucky to have so many people of bad character in UKIP. The other possibility is UKIP attracts people of bad character, discuss.

Looking at Gerard Batten’s record shouldn’t UKIP be investigating him rather than considering having him as a party leader?

Now that Tom Wise has admitted his guilt to expenses fraud, shouldn’t questions be asked as to why Gerard Batten defended him and tried to excuse Tom Wise’s fraudulent misdemeanours?

Surely any mainstream political party expects their representatives/leaders to pay taxes like the television licence fee?

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April 29, 2013 · 8:48 am

Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up

The week saw the alarming news that Hungary has been warned that it could be the first country in the EU to have its democracy placed under international scrutiny.

An influential committee of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog (not part of the EU), proposed that Hungary be subject to a “monitoring procedure” that would place the country’s democratic rights and liberties under international monitoring, something that has never happened in any of the EU’s 27 countries.

The final decision to push ahead with the scrutiny needs to be taken by the council’s parliamentary assembly which brings together lawmakers from the organisation’s 47 member states. Ten countries outside the EU but members of the council, including Russia and Turkey, are being monitored.

The “opinion” delivered by the council’s monitoring committee accused Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán of seeking to take control of independent institutions in Hungary, of using the constitutional rewriting to cement the power of his own political party, Fidesz, and of ignoring the country’s supreme court.

Budapest and Brussels have been at odds for months over curbs on freedom in Hungary, including restrictions on media expression, pressure on judges and control of the central bank. Orbán has consistently and robustly rejected the charges, with his government and diplomats mounting a loud and detailed campaign aimed at disproving the criticism,

A little closer to home, Nigel Farage was criticised this week for his reaction to the news that a UKIP candidate owns a strip club.

In an interview on Wednesday with BBC Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show, Farage, said it was nonsense that he had frequented and enjoyed lap-dancing clubs in the past but admitted going to one once unintentionally.

“I was taken once unwittingly and I did say that I wasn’t appalled by it,” he said. “I did quite like it. What you want me to say? I hated it?”

Asked whether his comment confirmed some assertions recently that he is anti women, he attempted to laugh it off. “That’s really rather silly,” he said. “I have to tell you, if I’d been anti-women, then the whole of my adult life would have been just that much simpler.”

These statements have been called in to question though, as Farage, in a 2009 interview with the Guardian said he had been to “lap-dancing clubs”, boasting that other leaders would not admit to it because “they’re living in this PC world and nobody must admit to being human”.

 

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March 4, 2013 · 7:40 am

Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up

This week, 8 March, marks International Women’s Day. It’s a day which has been observed since the early 1900s. And in 2013 we still have very many measures which we must continue to fight for, not just equality in the workplace but basic rights such as the right to an education for girls.

Equal pay for equal work is one of those things, last week we observed European Equal Pay Day, where research found that there is still a 16.2% gender pay gap between men and women’s earnings across Europe.

The day was marked on the 28 February, or the 59th day of the year – the number of extra days women have to work to match the amount earned by men.

As, Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner pointed out: “The principle of equal pay for equal work is written in the EU Treaties since 1957. It is high time that it is put in practice everywhere.

“Let us work together to deliver results not only on Equal Pay Days, but on all 365 days a year,” she said.

The day reminds us that for many women unequal pay and conditions exist for women and Reding suggests that while the pay gap has declined, this is due to a decline in mens earnings rather than an increase for women.

Of all the member states the UK had the eighth biggest gap at 19.5%. The biggest was Estonia at almost 28% and the lowest gap was found in Slovenia at 0.9%

You can find out more information by visiting the Homepage of Vice-President Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner:  
http://ec.europa.eu/reding
 and the European Commission – Gender pay gap:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-pay-gap/index_en.htm

And a report on the story is available here.

Also to coincide with international Women’s Day, is a project by Hollywood A lister’s, including Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto who have all come together to tell the stories of nine unknown girls who struggle to get an education- something which should be a universal right.

The four actresses have been joined by Selena Gomez, Priyanka Chopra, Chloë Moretz, Salma Hayek, Kerry Washington and Alicia Keys who have given time to make a documentary about the problem called Girl Rising, which has its premiere in New York on Thursday.

Vanessa Thorpe of the Observer says, the film, made by documentary director Richard E Robbins, “began as an investigation into a fact universally acknowledged by international aid workers: that educating girls in developing countries is the quickest and most enduring way to improve conditions not just for them but for whole communities.” You can read her report in full here.

While education is a universal right, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. I hope this film has the desired impact and improves educational opportunities for girls across the globe.

Closer to home there was a by election, in Eastleigh, few of  us could have missed this. It came as a surprise to many that UKIP polled so well receiving 27.8% of the vote. This is something all parties must be mindful of. You can read Toby Helm’s review of the by election here.

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February 22, 2013 · 7:02 am

Labour should prepare to fight UKIP on Europe

The time has come to revise what is becoming Labour’s conventional wisdom on UKIP, namely that UKIP is to be encouraged because they take Tory votes.

David Cameron’s long awaited speech where he pledged that, if the Tories win an outright majority at the next election, there will be a referendum on a yet to be negotiated re-jigging of our relationship with EU, with rejection of the new deal by the British public resulting in our exit, seems to have calmed some of the problems with his party - for now.  Ed Miliband did the right thing by saying that we would not support an in/out referendum, though a Labour government would retain the law meaning that any future EU treaty changes would be put to the British public for approval.

After this was made clear, Nigel Farage published an article in the Mail on Sunday stating that Ed’s position on Europe meant that UKIP would now be coming after our votes.  He said:

“Perhaps it will please the Conservatives to hear that we are also targeting the Labour vote. For what we represent is the voice of not just disgruntled, disenchanted Conservatives but everyone in Britain affected by the loss of sovereignty and power that comes with being a member of the EU… We will, in the county council elections in May this year and through a national advertising campaign in our major urban centres, target traditional Labour voters in a way UKIP has never done before.”

The aforementioned conventional wisdom, I have to say, backed by recent polling data, says that even with a concerted effort on the part of UKIP against Labour, the Tories will still have more to fear than we do.  On a constituency by constituency basis, the Tories lose seats to us, or fail to gain seats from us and the Lib-Dems, by margins that can be almost solely attribute to an ascendant UKIP.  Current trends suggest that UKIP won’t win any seats, but will do enough in the popular vote to cost the Conservatives.

But there is still no room for complacency, polls can change rapidly and there are still two years to go.  For all its vagueness, Cameron’s speech has meant that the Tories have gained some ground on the issue of Europe. Farage is, I think, recognising that UKIP may find they have less and less to use against the Tories.

We could, therefore, see a drift towards either an official, semi-acknowledged, or completely unofficial electoral pact between the Conservatives and UKIP come the next election.  This would mean UKIP leaving Tory areas and gunning for us.

The best way to combat this is to start tackling the Tories and UKIP on Europe now.  Ed Miliband was right to shun the idea of an in/out referendum, but now our party needs to start talking about why Ed is right, and how much damage Cameron’s proposal, even if it never comes to fruition, could do.  Let’s not wait for a referendum to start talking about why the UK needs to stay in the EU, let’s do it now and show UKIP and the Tories how wrong they are.

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