Tag Archives: ukip

Mark Pack

Why Vote … – the other books reviewed

By Mark Pack | Mon 22nd March 2010 - 11:15 am

I’ve already reviewed two of the titles in the new seven book series from biteback: Why Vote Liberal Democrat and Why Vote. But what to make of the other fives titles – covers Labour, Conservative, Green, SNP and Plaid? (Although a UKIP book was also publicised, it never got published as UKIP failed to produce the necessary copy.)

Both the Labour and Conservative books are ‘unofficial’ in the sense that they are by prominent party members, but ones who have no official role in the party’s policy or campaigning decisions – Rachel Reeves, Labour …

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Helen Duffett

Teachers, Thatcher, tax and troops: Nick Clegg Q&A

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th March 2010 - 7:26 pm

Nick Clegg answers questions at Spring Conference, Birmingham

In this afternoon’s Q&A from the Conference hall, Nick Clegg tackled questions from the floor with a relaxed and confident manner that bodes well for the upcoming TV Leaders’ Debates.

He took questions from party members in the hall, before taking supplementaries.

First up was education and whether schools should use the Pupil Premium to reduce class sizes. Nick said that the Pupil Premium seeks to give back trust to teachers and headteachers. Smaller class sizes are important for instilling a sense of self-confidence and …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

UKIP expel MEP in dispute over ‘extremist’ links

By Mark Pack | Sun 7th March 2010 - 10:20 am

This week The Times reported of Nikki Sinclaire:

The UK Independence Party has expelled one of its MEPs after she refused to sit with its right-wing Italian allies in the European Parliament and fell out with former leader Nigel Farage…

Ms Sinclaire, 41, an MEP for the West Midlands, insisted that she wanted to stay with the party but would not join UKIP’s alliance in Strasbourg with the “extremist” Northern League of Italy. She has also said that she lost faith in Mr Farage because of his “personal animosity” towards her…

UKIP has a track record for losing MEPs, having entered the

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

How much of a battle does Bercow face in Buckingham?

By Helen Duffett | Fri 26th February 2010 - 9:10 am

Further developments in Buckingham, John Bercow MP’s constituency, where convention dictates that other parties don’t put up a candidate against the incumbent Speaker:

UKIP is looking forward to a large donation, whilst claiming that fundraising on Bercow’s behalf breaches Parliamentary rules. Meanwhile, Buckingham Liberal Democrats announce their plan for the General Election.

The Times reports that a UKIP member from Buckingham has complained to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after receiving a letter from fundraising team “The Friends of Speaker Bercow”:

has written to the commissioner expressing concern that The Friends of Speaker Bercow may be breaching parliamentary rules by

…

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Posted in General Election and News | Also tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP

Lord Pearson as a Tory party whip and Griffin v. Maloney

By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP | Wed 9th December 2009 - 4:13 pm

UKIP have got themselves into a right pickle recently, poor things! It emerged last week that their new leader Lord Pearson a number of months ago made a somewhat controversial offer to the Conservative party. Pearson allegedly (The Times, 30 November, UKIP’s planned deal with Tories causes outrage in anti-Europe party) approached Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Tories in the House of Lords, with an offer to disband the party and withdraw all UKIP candidates if the Tories agreed to hold a referendum on EU membership. Lord Strathclyde himself has confirmed that the meeting with Pearson, who is in fact a former Tory, took place.

Although Nigel Farage has since changed the story slightly saying that the offer only included withdrawing all candidates, this is still a pretty hefty political gamble.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 15 Comments
Iain Roberts

Former UKIP MEP goes down for two years

By Iain Roberts | Wed 11th November 2009 - 4:12 pm

Nigel Farage must be hoping the latest crop of UKIP MEPs prove more honest than the 2004 intake, after former MEP Tom Wise was sentenced to two years in prison.

Wise, who until earlier this year was an MEP for the East of England, channelled £39,000 of taxpayers’ money into a secret bank account and spent it on cars and wine.

His trick was to pay his assistant £500 a month, say he was paying her £3,000 a month and pocket the difference.

The scam was reported by the Daily Telegraph in October 2005. A couple of years later, Tom …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

UKIP faces £367,697 bill after court rules magistrate wrong to levy small ‘fine’

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th October 2009 - 8:57 pm

Good news all in all for both the Electoral Commission and for the laws regulating donations to political parties with the decision today by an Appeal Court to overturn a previous strange ruling by a magistrate in the case of a series of donations to UKIP that the Electoral Commission had investigated and decided broke the law.

The donations, from an Alan Bown, totalled £367,697 and were given by him personally, despite not being on the electoral register at the time. This made them impermissible. Until this case, everyone’s interpretation of the law had been that, for better or worse, it …

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Posted in Election law and News | Also tagged , and | 41 Comments
Iain Roberts

Would slavery have been abolished under Farage?

By Iain Roberts | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 6:33 pm

It would be nice to think that the 18th century British parliament saw the light and abolished slavery when the matter was first put to them. But we all know that isn’t what happened. William Wilberforce and his colleagues lost the vote on their first attempt. And their second. And their third.

So Nigel Farage’s suggestion, made on RTE, that the Irish referendum score on the Lisbon Treaty is now 1-1 and we should have a decider is very strange. Would we ever have abolished slavery if Farage had been in charge of the voting? …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 32 Comments
Stephen Tall

Standing against the Speaker: never mind the politics, what about the voters?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 5th September 2009 - 2:15 pm

There’s been plenty of interesting Lib Dem internet chatter asking whether – now Ukip’s soon-to-be-ex-leader Nigel Farage is breaching normal convention and standing against the incumbent Speaker, Tory MP John Bercow, in Buckingham – the Lib Dems should follow suit.

Opinion is divided. Some say we absolutely shouldn’t – here, for instance, is Stephen Glenn:

… while the ‘convention’ for not standing against a sitting speaker is not as set in stone as some people may have you believe, it is none the less a precedent symbolising the apolitical nature of the role. Indeed it seems to be one, that even if contested, the constituents seem to back up as not one speaker seeking election since 1969 has polled less than 50% of the vote.

And here’s the Wit and Wisdom blog:

Liberal Democrats wanting to be taken seriously should give the Speaker a clear run at the next election as is the convention.

Meanwhile Mark Littlewood at Liberal Vision is more open to the idea that the Lib Dems should stand a candidate to oppose Speaker Bercow and Mr Farage:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Chris Davies sticks up for Ukip’s EU whistleblower

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 3:30 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Marta Andreason, the former Brussels whistle blower sacked by Lord Kinnock, has been blocked from taking a senior position at the European Parliament by MEPs fearful of future ‘scandal’.

Mrs Andreasen was blocked by Christian Democrat and Socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s budgetary committee on Monday.

The centre-Right European People’s Party and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month.

Lib Dem MEP for the North-West Chris Davies is …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

UKIP and BNP having trouble with facts

By Alex Foster | Thu 28th May 2009 - 1:30 pm

We’ve brought you plenty of news about the BNP’s electoral efforts in the past few weeks – how there’s nothing British about the BNP; how they falsely implied a Guardsman was a supporter when he most definitely is not; indeed how all of their listed supporters are actually just stock photos; and how they can’t count.

Now it’s the turn of UKIP to struggle with actual numbers.  Their deep pockets have paid for dozens of billboards across Britain’s cities, many emblazoned with Winston Churchill and the catchy little factoid that the EU costs Britain £40million a day.

Just two little problems with that.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 28 May 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 28th May 2009 - 7:44 am

2 big stories

LDV’s daily glimpse into the world of media and views.  Our biggest story today has already made the news here at LDV, but it’s too good for us not to trail again: Nick Clegg has launched a campaign for 100 days of proper discussion about real reform.

It’s the front of the Guardian: the main story; the article by Clegg himself, and the version of the story where Clegg mocks Cameron’s pathetic attempts at real reform.

There’s been a wide variety of responses to the article here and in the comments over at the Guardian – …

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Alex Foster

Lib Dems tackle UKIP head on

By Alex Foster | Wed 27th May 2009 - 10:43 am

On Monday, the Lib Dem’s chair of Communications Edward Davey wrote to the leader of UKIP Nigel Farage MEP to challenge him on failing to publish his own expenses, on the disgraceful voting record of his European Parliamentary Party, and on the shameful track record of his fellow parliamentarians.

“UKIP MEPs have attacked others over their expenses while living the high life in Brussels, charging the taxpayer, and hiding the true cost from voters.

“One in six UKIP MEPs elected in 2004 has since faced criminal charges over their creative accounting. Meanwhile, UKIP turned up in the European Parliament to vote

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservatives expel branch chair for saying vote UKIP

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th May 2009 - 5:50 pm

Iain Dale has the story of Ralph Buckle, the chair of University of York Conservatives until he called for people to vote UKIP. He’s now an ex-chair and ex-member.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
George Turner

Opinion: the worst outcome of MPs’ expenses, a victory for the far right?

By George Turner | Wed 20th May 2009 - 2:15 pm

PoliticsHome recently carried some rather shocking numbers from a poll that it conducted between the 14-15 of May saying that over a quarter of British voters have changed their voting intentions as a result of the MPs’ expenses scandal. The main beneficiary it seems is UKIP, with 28% of those changing loyalty to the anti-European Union party. The second biggest beneficiary is the BNP with 16%.

Leaving aside for a moment the thoroughly disagreeable politics of these parties, any gain by UKIP or the BNP in the European elections on the basis of anger over expenses would be a …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Ex-Lib Dem Postmaster joins UKIP

By Richard Huzzey | Wed 1st April 2009 - 5:23 pm

Deva Kumarisiri, the postmaster who introduced a controversial policy against customers who spoke poor English, has joined UKIP and, the BBC reports, will stand for them in the European elections. He has apparently found a kindred soul in that party’s leader, Nigel Farage.

Regular readers will recall that Mr. Kumarisiri was once a Liberal Democrat councillor.

Posted in Europe / International and News | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

More Euro troubles for Conservatives as donor backs UKIP

By Mark Pack | Sat 28th March 2009 - 7:04 pm

Fresh on the heels of the news that Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson is thinking of quitting the Conservative Party comes this news via The News of the World:

The Tories’ top donor today told the News of the World how he has defected to the eurosceptic UK Independence Party.

Spread-betting millionaire Stuart Wheeler has written a cheque for £100,000 to UKIP and said he will be voting for them in the June Euro elections …

In 2000, Mr Wheeler gave the Tories £5m – their biggest single donation.

He has continued to back them since, but has become increasingly angry at leader

…

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Mark Pack

Donation news round-up: Hain, Straw and UKIP

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd January 2009 - 6:56 pm

Peter Hain has been found guilty of “serious and substantial” failures for failing to register donations to his Labour Deputy Leadership campaign. More here.

Jack Straw has been found guilty of a “clear, albeit inadvertent, breach” of the rules for failing to register a donation. More here.

And the Electoral Commission has won the right to appeal over a decision that UKIP only had to forfeit a small portion of the illegal donations it had received. More here.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Alex Foster

“UKIP rejects BNP electoral offer”

By Alex Foster | Mon 3rd November 2008 - 10:36 pm

So says a news headline on the BBC.

 

UKIP says it has “unanimously rejected” an offer from the British National Party for an electoral pact at next year’s European elections.

It says ex-tennis star Buster Mottram, a UKIP member who claimed to represent the BNP, made the “astonishing offer” at a meeting in London on Monday.

Under the deal the BNP would fight seats in the north while UKIP would focus on the south in the elections.

The BNP said a deal made sense. UKIP says it would not work with the BNP.

Read the full article here.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Official: Lib Dem voters more intelligent than Tory and Labour voters (Nationalist, BNP and UKIP voters least intelligent of all)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd November 2008 - 7:31 pm

At last official research has told us what most Lib Dems have known for years: our voters are more intelligent than those who vote for the Tories or Labour. Academic research published in the journal Intelligence – and given an airing in today’s Guardian – compares the way people voted in the 2001 election with their IQ at the age of 10 (using data from the 1970 British cohort study).

And here’s what it shows:

On a party-by-party basis, the average (childhood) IQ scores for 2001 voters were:

Green – 108.3
Liberal Democrat – 108.2
Conservative – 103.7
Labour – 103
Plaid Cymru – 102.5
Scottish National

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

Westminster Conservatives switch to UKIP

By Mark Pack | Thu 30th October 2008 - 9:16 am

Dave Hill has the story:

The defection to Ukip of a bunch of ward-level Westminster Tories might not be front page news but is it part of a bigger story? It has surely taken a little shine off the party’s retention of Simon Milton’s former Council seat with only a small adverse swing. More significantly, it might indicate something more than a pocket of grassroots discontent over the party’s attitude to Europe.

Read more here.

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The Voice

UKIP leader in desperate fishing expedition: ‘No difference between the parties, so you may as well join us’

By The Voice | Tue 28th November 2006 - 1:32 pm

Farage“Dear Councillor,

“There does not seem to be very much difference between our three main parties these days.  This is hardly surprising as 75% of our laws are now made by the EU with little or no input from Westminster.

“As you must realise local government is in a poor state too with a new unelected layer of Regional Assemblies and voter disenchantment.

“In UKIP we believe that it is essential for the UK to become self-governing again and for voters to want to participate.  We are developing as a broadly based real party of …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 7 Comments
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