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UKIP Conference

A rather nice piece on Nigel Farage

Here, by Martin Durkin.

Mr Farage, I realised, is a passionate man. He has a romantic attachment to history and Britain and Europe. Surprisingly perhaps, he really loves Europe (he’s worked for a French company; his wife is German) and clearly enjoys going there. More than anything, however, he is passionate about his political beliefs. When he speaks of liberty, he does it with a certain something in his voice and a glint in his eye.

That bit about Europe applies to many of us in UKIP. It’s not the place, people, nations, cuisines or any of that that we despise. It’s the system of governance that we want to leave, nowt else.

Volkerkerker

Volkerkerker, a new word for me (yes, there should be an umlaut in there, as there indeed should in the word umlaut, but I\’m afraid my technical skills don\’t extend that far).

Nigel Farage used it in a speech in the Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday to describe the euro.

Volkerkerker. "A prison of nations". Has historical resonance as a description of the Hapsburg Empire.

Nice word, eh?

Conference XX

Graham Booth….

I\’m retiring as an MEP at the end of this month for personal reasons.

But the final straw of EU interference has been the ban on our using acres. So I\’m going to find Gert Pottering in hte Parliament next week and I\’m going to kick him where it hurts. Leave him with two acres to remember me by.

Conference XIX

David Campbell Bannerman runs through the transport proposals. A quick run through of the paper in preparations.

Now Richard Heaslip on defence matters. One of the things which we need to spend more upon ….paid for of course by the money that we\’re not sending to the EU…..and the money that the regulations cost us, a much greater sum.

Conference XVI

John Whittaker…..everyone\’s been talking for years about reducing regulation….why hasn\’t anything been done to actually reduce it?

Because most of it comes from the EU….so we can\’t cut it without leaving the EU.

Now Mark Wadsworth is on talking about the problems with the welfare state. His fuller proposals can be seen at his blog of course. Much of the analysis could come from Chris Dillow.

 

Conference XV

Excellent speech from the Taxpayer\’s Alliance….readers here will know the contents…

Now it\’s Tim Congdon talking about Northern Rock.

Essentially the problem was that the usual head bashing and a banking takeover was not possible because of  the European Markets Abuse Directive.

Yes, there\’s still a lot of arguing about this…..but it\’s the uncertainty that did the damage. When you\’ve got two potentially conflicting legal systems this is inevitable. If we didn\’t belong to the EU, there would not have been a Northern Rock fiasco.

 

Conference XIV

Question and answer session…..first one, why don\’t we make more about the regional system of government? We know it\’s appalling and wasteful….

Nigel\’s response is that yes, we have indeed got our plans to abolish that level of government but we need to remember something….

We can\’t go around banging on about just the issues that interest us. We need to run our political campaigns around what interests others as well…

Second question…can we make sure that the Press Office includes the SNP and Plaid Cymru in the lists of the EU supporting parties?

Umm, yes, that\’s me isn\’t it….OK, so that\’s done.

Interesting point made…..opposition to the EU seems to be strongest in the 18-30 group.

 

Conference XII

Michael McManus with a lovely joke…

Who\’s the greatest living Briton? 16 year old says Churchill…

Um, I said living…..yes, Churchill.

No, sorry, he\’s dead……what, that cute little dog died?

Conference XI

David Campbell Bannerman\’s speech….the deputy leader of the party.

What has the EU ever done for us?

No, not a lot. Peace is down to NATO.

A great story from the past: Hugh Gaitskell pointing out that if we joined the EU (EC as was) then we would be unable to feed ourselves cheaply from our friends in the Commonwealth and would have to buy expensive French foods. To which de Gaulle responded that this was really rather the point.

The series of policy papers which the party is launching work along one basic line. All of them require leaving the EU for us to be allowed to implement them.

They\’re good policies all and that\’s another argument to use as to why we must leave.

Conference X

John Whittaker stands down as Chairman, Paul Nuttall steps up to take the post.

Paul got 38% in the Bootle local elections….pretty good.

It\’s also interesting that in Labour areas like that UKIP picks up a lot of support from such disaffected voters.

"Our leader is 44, out Chairman 31 and the new general secretary is 27. UKIP are appealing to a new generation."

"Yes, we beat the Liberal Democrats last time but I have three words of warning for the Labour and Conservative parties.

You are next."

 

Conference IX

Nigel Farage\’s speech.

"I\’m told that the European question has gone away…..but we\’re all talking about post office closures, about rubbish rules, about windmills littering the country, but no one seems to be willing to point out that these are all from European laws….as with over 75% of all the new laws imposed upon us."

The Lib Dems promise one thing in the UK and vote another way in Brussels….

And David Cameron? "If David Cameron stood up and said that the next Conservative Government would have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty then the treaty would be dead in the water. But he won\’t do it."

The continual expansion of the EU and NATO ever eastwards is perhaps the most dangerous foreign policy I\’ve seen in my lifetime. Russia fears us more than we fear it….we must retain an independent British foreign policy.

" We must turn the elections next year into the referendum that you were promised but that you\’ve never had."

"Outside the EU we would be free to make trade deals as we wish…."]

"We should not be simply negative about the EU, we should be positive about what we can create in a 21 st century State that is free from it."

John Whittaker is stnading down as Chariman of the party….he wants more time to go back to academia. We thank his for the hard work he\’s done over the years….

The new Chairman will be Paul Nuttall ….he\’s going to need your support and help.

There\’s a vacuum in politics, there\’s no one making the argument for a free and sovereign country once again. Our job is to fill that vacuum.

 

 

Conference VIII

David, (Lord) Willoughby de Brooke).

We have a problem in the Lords. If you have a financial interest then you\’re supposed to declare so in a debate. But the ex-Commissioners in the Lords never do declare their interests. For they can lose their EU pension if they act against the principles of the EU.

That\’s, umm, a financial interest, no? Which should be declared?

"It\’s frustrating to ask these questions, why is our foreign policy contracted out to Sarkozy, why can we not determine what we grow on our own land, fish from our seas, why is all this determined for us outside our own Parliament, it;s frustrating to ask these questions and to receive no answers."

Conference VII

Clive Page now introduces some of the candidates for the euro elections.

"The danger with political jokes is that they end up being elected".

" You can fool some of the people all of the time and those are the ones you concentrate on." GW Bush.

First up, Godfrey Bloom….."the worst two things about Godfrey is his face".

Godfrey…..nice to see James Whale here….he makes me look like an intellectual.

Dave, Dave (Cameron), stands foursquare for nothing in particular.

David Campbell Bannerman. Thank Jeffrey Titford for all the work that he\’s done to get us to this point.

Harry Aldridge….very pragamatic. " when he couldn\’t afford binoculars he decided to stand closer to things".

22 years old is our Harry and a great stand in for Harry Potter.

"I can\’t be accused of looking backwards as I\’ve not got a memory going back much…"

"It\’s my generation\’s future which is at stake…"

Harry has achieved something that no one else has managed in politics….looking younger than David Miliband.

Next up, Trevor Coleman, takes over Graham Booth\’s MEP seat in October.

Our next candidate is Marta Andreasen…..yes, the Chief Accountant for the EU, fired by Neil Kinnock. Number two in the South East list. Isn\’t it just going to be gorgeous to watch her walk in to the European Parliament and take a seat on the Budget Control Committee?

That\’s her aim if elected…..

" If you don\’t want to be in the European Union then your only choice is to vote UKIP because we are the only people arguing for that option".

Final candidate to be introduced….Paul Nuttall. Lead candidate for the NW….we\’re aiming for two perhaps three seats and we\’re ready to fight for them.

 

Conference V

James Whale comes on to speak.

"I don\’t respect many politicians but one of the few that I do is Nigel Farage."

James will be starting with LBC in November…..

Rather teasing the audience about the euro….

"I love it when the skinheads come up and say "I\’m of Anglo-Saxon stock"….well, piss off back to Germany then."

 

 

Conference IV

Bob Spink, the party\’s first MP.

"We\’ve an honourable history of fighting for freedom"….absolutely right, given that we pretty much invented the concepts of individual freedom and liberty.

"In joining UKIP I put my country before my career. The young men and women in our Armed Forces put their country before their very lives: my risk is minimal in comparison."

Tony Blair said "I\’m a pretty regular guy"….he lied.

David Cameron said he would withdraw from the EPP immediately. He lied.

Gordon Brown said we would have a referendum on the Constitution…he lied.

"Unlike David Miliband, I\’m not afraid to mention my party leader\’s name."

A very interesting little logical point. Why shouldn\’t we have a retrospective referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?

After all, 100% of referendums we\’ve had on European mars so far have been retrospective.

"As long as I have a voice in Parliament I will fight for its sovereignty".

Conference III

Just a delightful little story here.

Quite gobsmacking actually.

A former chief scientific advisor to the government has said that EU renewable-energy quotas will cause widespread fuel poverty. Sir David King believes that European heads of state, in agreeing the targets, may have mistaken electricity usage for total energy consumption – leading to overly ambitious and expensive goals being set.

So, umm,. how did this happen?

King believes that the EU heads of state may only have meant to sign up to 20 per cent of electricity being renewable, not 20 per cent of all energy used.

"I think there was some degree of confusion at the heads of states meeting dealing with this," he told the Beeb.

"If they had said 20 per cent renewables on the electricity grids across the European Union by 2020, we would have had a realistic target… saying 20 per cent of all energy, I actually wonder whether that wasn\’t a mistake. I was rather surprised when I heard what the decision was."

Umm, simply a cock up? Those fine politicians, those entrusted with running the economy for 500 million people, made a simple yet grossly expensive error?

And this shows the value of taking such decisions at EU level in what manner? If nations were taking these decisions separately then perhaps one or two might screw up in this manner but we wouldn\’t have 500 million blighted by it would we?

Conference II

John Whittaker\’s Chairman\’s introduction.

We\’ve made talking about leaving the European Union a respectable view to hold. 5 years ago only cranks, and on this point I happy to be called a crank, could say this. Now it\’s part of the mainstream debate.

We are the only political party putting forward this view and in the lead up to the next euro-election our time comes again.

As we\’re the only party offering an alternative to the EU question we\’ll garner further support from the views of the general public….as the interference of the EU\’s activities, the post office closures, the rubbish rules, make themselves clear.

 

Conference Part 1

Just going through the outlines of what is to happen. Where\’s the coffee, how to get your voting papers, who is what at the fringe events, no news yet as to whether Polly Toynbee is to be manning the British Humanist Association stall.

Pity really, we\’d like to expose her to some sensible political ideas.