The BNP have offered UKIP an electoral pact for the next EU elections – an offer which has been refused in no uncertain terms.

UKIP member, Buster Mottram, took himself along to tonights National Executive Council (NEC) meeting and told Nigel Farage and the other NEC members that he had been talking to Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP. He said that UKIP should take up an offer of an electoral pact from the BNP which would see the BNP agree not to field candidates in the south of England where UKIP has most support in return for UKIP not fielding candidates in the midlands and north of England where the BNP has support.

The offer was refused and Mottram was asked to leave the NEC meeting. He refused and became abusive. In the end, the police were called to remove him from the building.

Eric Edmunds, David Abbot and deputy treasurer and ex-officio NEC member, Martin Haslam, have been removed from the NEC for publically opposing the stated aims of the party.

Nigel Farage said:

There are no circumstances, no possible situations, in which we would even consider doing any type of deal with the BNP whatsoever.

I’m simply amazed that the BNP thought we would even consider such a thing, given that we are a non-racist, non-sectarian party.

The BNP regularly targets UKIP members with propaganda, often claiming to be from UKIP supporters. A BNP plot has been suspected for some time and this is unlikely to be the end of it. A group of around 40 UKIP members are well known troublemakers who have been actively working against the party leadership for some time. They are likely to try and get members to support the BNP pact to undermine Nigel Farage’s leadership.

Needless to say, a BNP pact would be suicidal for UKIP but these troublemakers are so single-minded in their vendetta against Farage that they would happily destroy the party they claim to support.

UKIP bashers have seized on Nigel Farage’s words at the UKIP conference this week and have decided that he’s no longer a eurosceptic.

What he actually said makes perfect sense:

I think we have got to change some of the things that we have been saying and some of the things that we have been doing.

Because I think too often it’s been easy to characterise UKIP as people who just knock and knock and knock and knock – we say this is wrong, we say that’s wrong.

We have not been offering good positive alternatives and what I want us to do is to paint a vision of a 21st Century relationship between Britain and our European neighbours.

To attract more mainstream voters, UKIP needs to offer an alternative to the eurofederalist Liebour, Lib Dum and Conswervative Parties.  Not just an alternative party to vote for but an alternative to eurofederalism.

The vast majority of voters are opposed to our continued membership of Federal Europe but they continue to vote for the big three, all of which support a federal union in Europe.  Why?  A lot of it can be put down to the way people vote for a particular party without even knowing what their policies are simply because they’ve always voted for the same party, their parents voted for the same party and/or because they don’t like Liebour/Conswervatives (whichever is the opposition).  But some of it has to be put down to the kind of people who say “yes, I agree we need to be out of the EU but …”

We can’t ignore Europe, it’s the continent we’re part of and we do a lot of trade with the rest of Europe.  This does not mean we have to be ruled by an unelected foreign quango but it does mean that we have to be realistic about how far we can distance ourselves from Federal Europe.  UKIP can’t just say “we want out of Europe”, they need to be able to tell people what kind of relationship we’re going to have with Federal Europe when we get out.  Will we aim to cut as many ties as we can with Federal Europe and concentrate on trading with the Commonwealth and the US?  Will we aim to do more trade with Federal Europe?  Will we have a customs union?

Instead of saying no to ever closer union, no to the euro, no to the European arrest warrant, no to an EU Olympic team, no to an EU armed militia; UKIP needs to offer an alternative.  We don’t need ever closer union because our society, constitution and values are incompatible with those of our neighbours.  We don’t need the euro because our economy is different to the rest of Federal Europe and we have already seen how damaging it is to the eurozone economies.  We don’t need a European arrest warrant because the continental legal system is inferior to and incompatible with our own legal system and we can sign extradition treaties with those neighbours who we trust to treat our citizens fairly.  We don’t need an EU Olympic team because only countries compete in the Olympics and Federal Europe isn’t a country.  We don’t need an EU armed militia because we can police ourselves with our own civillian police force.

Farage is on the right track.  UKIP does have that air of negativity about it because, let’s face it, the central theme of UKIP policy is negative – opposition to the idea of being part of a Federal Europe.  If voters perceive UKIP as negative then their opinion of UKIP will be negative as well and that will be reflected in the ballot box.

Update:
DK said much the same thing …

Technorati Tags: UKIP

A motion of no confidence in Nigel Farage and the National Executive Council of UKIP proposed by former PPC, Bruce Lawson, was soundly defeated last night.

Lawson, who was responsible for the leak that instigated the Electoral Commission’s investigation into UKIP last year, failed to secure even a third of the votes despite claiming to have grassroots support.  He wants Farage to lead the MEPs group but stand down as leader of the party and has publicly criticised Nigel Farage and David Campbell-Bannerman on a number of times which makes me wonder – as with members of the “Phoenix Forum” – just why do they continue their UKIP membership if they’re so intent on damaging the party?  Are they, in fact, fifth columnists planted or manipulated by the eurofederalists?  It’s hardly beneath Federal Europe or their supporters to do that sort of thing if it means protecting their beloved quango from criticism.

Technorati Tags: Bruce Lawson, UKIP, Nigel Farage

That Tory Toff, Iain Dale, he’s a card.

Under the title “UKIP: Going nowhere in Crewe” is this picture:

The Land Rover there belongs to Councillor Jill Seymour who took time out from running her business with her husband to take the Land Rover from Telford to Crewe to support the UKIP candidate, Mike Nattrass.  I wonder how many “normal” Conswervative Party members have made a 120 mile daily round trip to Crewe to support their candidate.  Sure, people like Iain and various cabinet members have toddled off the Crewe but politics is their day job – they’re not taking time out from their jobs and businesses to support their man.

Fair play, the picture is just begging for a caption but at least give credit where credit is due.  They’ve even put a poster up while they’re waiting!

Technorati Tags: UKIP

Thanks to Arden Forester for the YouTube video of Gerard Batten MEP’s London Mayoral election broadcast.  I missed it earlier as I was attending a UKIP meeting, of all things!

Embedded Video

Tags: UKIP, London, Election

An industrial tribunal has cleared UKIP MEP, Mike Nattrass, of all charges after a former employee served him with an unfair dismissal claim.

The employee had voluntarily changed his employment status to a self-employed contractor.  A breakdown in their professional relationship ensued which apparently resulted in the employee refusing to meet with him.  Mike decided not to renew his contract when it expired.

Technorati Tags: UKIP, Mike Nattrass

I went to a UKIP fundraising dinner last night at Patshull Park near Wolverhampton.  The food was fantastic and the comedian was very funny.

The event was hosted by Peter Roberts, the guy who started the petition against road pricing that got 1.8m signatures.  Mike Nattrass, the UKIP MEP for the West Midlands and Nigel Farage, the Leader of UKIP, also came.  Nigel Farage’s speech was excellent – energetic and unscripted.  Can you imagine No Mandate Brown or David Camoron giving a thumping, unscripted speech to a room full of people – only 30% of which were party members – and receiving cheers and applause from the whole room?

Nigel Farage was very approachable – not at all pretentious or full of self importance.

All in all, a good night out.

Technorati Tags: UKIP, Farage

Now that it’s been announced at the Conference, I can tell you all the good news – Peter Roberts, the man responsible for the biggest petition against any British government, is standing for UKIP in the next election in … the Telford constituency!  Peter’s petition against the road pricing tax has made him something of a local celebrity and hopefully Telford residents will take the opportunity to vote for the first decent candidate we’ve had for many years.

Peter is a hard working, down-to-earth local man who found himself thrust into the limelight for standing up for what he believed in and hopefully standing up for what he believes in will see him elected as UKIP’s first MP in the next General Election.

The press release from UKIP is as follows:

One of the foremost internet campaigners of recent times has been selected to stand as a parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party. Peter Roberts, who secured 1.8 million signatures for his petition against road pricing, has been selected to contest the Labour-held seat of Telford.

Speaking at the party conference in London, Mr Roberts said he had thrown his hat into the ring because he realised that the politics he believed in were shared by the libertarian party.

“I noticed that large numbers of people who signed my petition against road pricing were members of the UK Independence Party,” he said. “Having gone to a UKIP meeting to speak about my opposition to this stealth tax known as road pricing, I have decided to fight the constituency of Telford so I can take the concerns of the people to Westminster to try to stop this sinister development.

“Already I have helped the campaign in the West Midlands against local and regional road pricing schemes which are being used by the government as a springboard to a national scheme.

“It’s nothing more than an additional tax which is being levied on people who aren’t driving for fun, but driving to get to work. They are doing so because they have to and the way I see it is that they are being penalised for being taxpayers.

“Thankfully, there is one party in this country that doesn’t want sky high taxes and doesn’t want the state to monitor where people are driving to and how fast, which is why I am delighted to be standing for the UK Independence Party.”

West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass said he was “thrilled” that Mr Roberts was standing for the party:

“He will be a wonderful contribution to our team as we gear up for a general election fight. We want to ensure that people in the West Midlands have a genuine opposition party to vote for, rather than a carbon copy of this hopeless government.”

Technorati Tags: Peter Roberts, UKIP, Telford