A professional, driven individual with thirteen years experience working pro-actively in high pressure,multi discipline journalism and corporate communications sectors specialising in EU politics. CIPR award winner and published writer in national broadsheet and tabloid papers. Experienced in planning, develo…
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When I made the leap to consulting three years ago, I left a very comfortable, very well paid corporate job behind. I made every single excuse on this list to persuade myself not to do it. I’m glad I talked myself into it. You can too. https://bit.ly/2FRCijb
Communications consultant for Matriks, achieving media coverage in tier one outlets and trade press. Working on B2B marketing projects and website content management. Event organisation for HNW charity events.
Communications Manager
Company NameEuropean Parliament
Dates EmployedJul 2015 – Feb 2017
Employment Duration1 yr 8 mos
LocationBrussels Area, Belgium
Instigating, developing and implementing creative media and stakeholder strategies in order to highlight the parliamentary and constituency work of two MEPs and line managing junior staff members.
Working on Security and Defence and Employment and Social Affairs committee: following legislation, managing voting lists and working with whips on voting decisions, parliamentary amendments, writing speeches, advising on policy lines and implications and negotiating with different parliamentary delegations and parties to achieve desired outcomes and retain important working relationships.
Leading a multimedia team on projects including the migrant crisis in Calais; exposing people trafficking gangs and collaborations with flagship programmes including Newsnight.
Providing the ‘lines to take’ for volunteers during the EU Referendum campaign and providing official guidelines on policy issues for senior politicians and activists as well as working with non party political groups such as ‘fishing for leave’ and ‘Veterans for Britain’.
Developing and executing a regional external and internal corporate communications strategy;
Producing and writing short films for inward and external facing projects including fundraising, campaign and awareness videos to increase awareness of issues across a broad range of portfolios. Managing relationships with production companies.
Achieving coverage in tier one publications, broadcast opportunities and new media. Pitching and achieving Op Ed articles for national daily and major regional publications. Writing feature articles on topical political issues.
Producing and overseeing a wide range of marketing materials including leaflets, campaigning tools and online information sources such as website content.
Producing written materials including: backgrounders, elevator pitches, messaging guidelines, lines to take, media alerts, releases, presentations and speeches.
Media (1)
This position has 1 media
Bill Etheridge MEP at leadership results
Bill Etheridge MEP at leadership results
This media is an image
Journalist
Company NameBreitbart London
Dates EmployedOct 2014 – Jun 2015
Employment Duration9 mos
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
European and general reporter
Communications Manager
Company NameOffice of Nigel Farage MEP
Dates EmployedAug 2010 – Apr 2014
Employment Duration3 yrs 9 mos
LocationLondon / Brussels
Writing weekly articles for two tier one publications on behalf of Mr Farage. Regularly pitching and writing articles on a broad range of news relevant subjects working closely with editors to meet deadlines and editorial requirements.
Leading on all aspects of communications to highlight Mr Farage’s leadership of the UK Independence Party and as a Member of the European Parliament for the South East Region including the Eastleigh by election and the 2013 County Council campaign.
Maintaining excellent and continuing relationships with a broad range of media and stakeholders for the party including county council teams and staff, local business organisations and local schools and charities.
Developing and executing regional internal communications; advising on all aspects of media relations and likely fundraising and electoral impact across multi layers of government.
Producing written materials including: backgrounders, elevator pitches, messaging guidelines, lines to take, media alerts, releases, presentations and speeches
Managing events; providing media and crisis training for Mr Farage and other party figures in the South East.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
a number of us who had been active campaigners for BreXit, indeed some of us had actively campaigned against the First Referendum in the early 1970s and even against any efforts to join the EU, or as it was then aesopianly named ‘The Common Market’, long before that – I for one had been opposed to Britain becoming a member of the so called ‘Common Market’ since the early 1960s.
My opposition to membership pre dated but was much resolved by living in Germany in C1962, though it does not pre date the British Government’s advocacy of 16-Apr-1948 (as I was living in India at the time in Karachi, pre partitition & Switzerland then Bahrain after partition! That I was only 2 when it was published is a minor detail!)) in Cmd.7388 being an official White Paper of The Foreign Office regarding/titled: “Convention for European Economic Co-operation”.
Some may remember the front page of The Times on the day of the Coronation of 1953 and the detailed article regarding the Common Market & Britain’s incolvement and naiscent membership (The day of the Coronation being a #Good day on which to bury bad news’ – similarly the most prescient speech by Enoch Powell on 25-Feb-1970 in the House of Commons during the Union of Europe debate CLICK HERE for the text It was largly after this speech that much effort was made to try to discredit Enoch Powell by dishonestly and selectively misrepresenting his Birmingham Speech of 20-Apr-1968 in an effort to try to portray him as some kind of reactionary racist, which he clearly was not if you read or listen to him delivering the speech CLICK HERE for full text & his contemporary delivery of the speech.
As I said many of us cautioned that the involvement of the overtly racist Ukip as a party and the untrustworthy used car salesman approach of the philandering, corrupt and libertine Nigel Farage, with his morally bankrupt and totally unethical efforts to prevent a Referendum to Leave the EU brought about by the efforts and organisation of The Petition of 225,000 signatures, by Nikki Sinclaire, that forced the debate of an IN/OUT Referendum in the House of Commons. Together with the clearly ‘dodgey’ and financially and morally dubious liar Arron Banks and the untrustworthy clique of low lifes they gatherted around them was unwise in the extreme and would eventually be very damaging to BreXit.
So it has proven with the clear involvement of Cambridge Analytica and Russian money + the dishonest methods of campaigning borrowed (bought) from the Trump campaign strategists such as Steve Bannon and Breitbart!
Leave.EU, Arron Banks and new questions about referendum funding
Revealed: Leave donor faces data investigation as first documentary evidence of Cambridge Analytica Brexit ‘work’ uncovered
Arron Banks,second from right, with Brittany Kaiser of Cambridge Analytica, far right, at the launch of Leave.EU. Photograph: Reuters
The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating Leave.EU and its donor Arron Banks over possible breaches of the Data Protection Act.
The ICO has issued “information notices” against both Leave.EU – the referendum campaign headed by Nigel Farage – and its director, Banks. The notices – requiring organisations to provide the ICO with specified information within a certain time period – were issued in the same week as the ICO conducted raids last month on Cambridge Analytica’s offices. The notices are both part of Operation Cederburg – the commissioner’s year-long investigation into the use of data in the EU referendum. Failure to comply is a criminal offence.
Banks – who was by far the biggest funder of Brexit, providing £8.4m in donations and loans – confirmed on Friday that both he personally and Leave.EU had received “information notices”. In an email on Friday, Banks said they were “responding to it’” He said the ICO’s action was not an “investigation” but “an information request”.
In a separate development, the Observer has obtained an invoice that Cambridge Analytica issued on 14 December 2015 for £41,500 for work it undertook on behalf of Ukip. The invoice says the payment is for “analysis of Ukip membership and survey data and creative product development”, and it is issued on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC, the American entity, from its office in Alexandria, Virginia. This is the first documentary evidence that Cambridge Analytica did conduct analytics work on behalf of one of the Leave campaigns in the period before the referendum.
Banks confirmed to the Observer that he was also sent the invoice at that time too. He said he subsequently made a donation for the amount to cover the invoice to Ukip. A spokesman for Ukip, speaking to the Guardian last month, denied any payment for the work was made but he confirmed Banks had in fact made the donation after “new information had come to light”. He said that the party decided not to pass on the money to Cambridge Analytica.
Banks has long denied that Cambridge Analytica did any work for Leave.EU, as has Cambridge Analytica. The question is still the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Electoral Commission. In a written submission to the select committee for the department for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) last month, Banks said he had met Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica but that he had declined to take him up on his proposal. Cambridge Analytica said on Saturday that it “did some preliminary analysis as part of a proposal to work with Ukip, but no contract was agreed, payment was not made to CA, and the preliminary work was not delivered to Ukip.”
Brittany Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica director, who appeared on a panel at Leave.EU’s launch event, came forward to the Guardian last month and raised further questions about these claims. She said the company had completed around £40,000 worth of work for Ukip, using Ukip data, but agreed that the company had not been paid. She is expected to talk about this on Tuesday when she will testify to parliament as part of the DCMS committee into fake news.
Ukip has confirmed it handed its database over to Cambridge Analytica. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
A Ukip spokesman told the Observer on Friday: “We got the money from Arron [Banks]. But we never paid it to Cambridge Analytica. We didn’t think it was worth it. It was preparatory work, a pitch.”
He also confirmed that the party had handed over its database of roughly 40,000 supporters to Cambridge Analytica despite denying this to the Guardian last month.
Ukip had told the Guardian previously that Cambridge Analytica “saw” the data but a spokesman admitted the information – including telephone numbers, email addresses, ages, and other personal information among other things – was given to the company on a computer as part of what he described as “preparatory work”.
The spokesman said: “I asked everyone about this work and I was told CA pitched for it, Banks didn’t like it and he’d refused to pay for it. It’s now come out that he did actually make a donation to cover the cost of the work. But we never actually handed it over.”
The revelations raise a whole new set of questions about how the referendum was funded and whether strict rules on spending may have been broken. The Observer has seen evidence which suggests that a form of the Ukip data that Cambridge Analytica analysed and processed was passed to individuals in the Leave.EU campaign. And a donation of £42,000 from Better for the Country, Leave.EU’s registered company name, was recorded as a political donation to the party on the Electoral Commission’s site one week before the referendum on 16 June 2016. It was not registered as part of the campaign by either entity as a referendum donation or expense.
The unfolding of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has coincided with the final stages of the information commissioner’s investigation into the use of data in the referendum. Leave.EU’s operation has become one focus of the year-long investigation. Another resulted in the ICO’s raid on Cambridge Analytica. Damian Collins, the Tory MP for Folkestone, who is the chair of the DCMS committee, has told the Observer that both Britain’s electoral and data laws needed a radical and urgent overhaul. He said it was “ridiculous” that the ICO had to wait five days before being able to get a warrant to seize Cambridge Analytica’s computer servers and equipment.
Separately, the ICO investigation is believed to be trying to understand the relationship between Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance Services, the Bristol-based insurance company that Banks owns and that was the HQ for Leave.EU referendum campaign work. A spokesman said: “Leave.EU and Eldon have never shared any data. And Leave.EU has never shared any data with Cambridge Analytica whether in relation to the EU referendum or otherwise.”
The ICO may be asking questions because of previous comments Banks has made, including in an interview a year ago with the Observer. When asked about the use of Leave.EU’s database to send advertisements about his insurance products to campaign supporters, Banks said: “Why shouldn’t I? It’s my data.” When asked again last week, he said: “Leave.EU after the referendum campaign carried the occasional ad for insurance, so what?”
In an email on Friday he said: “Eldon has never given or used any data to Leave.EU. They are separate entities with strong data control rules. And vice versa.” He added: “Make any mistakes relating to the business and we will be most assuredly coming after the Guardian & you.”
To view the original article CLICK HERE
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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Does Public Support for UKIP Drive Their Media Coverage or Does Media Coverage Drive Support for UKIP?
Justin Murphy
Daniel Devine
Abstract
Previous research suggests media attention may cause support for populist rightwing parties, but extant evidence remains arguable and mostly limited to proportional representation systems in which such an effect would be most likely. At the same time, in the United Kingdom’s first-past-the-post system, an ongoing political and regulatory debate revolves around whether the media give disproportionate coverage to the populist right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP). Thus, we use a mixed-methods approach to investigate the causal dynamics of UKIP support and media coverage as an especially valuable case. Vector autoregression (VAR) using monthly, aggregate time-series data from January 2004 to September 2015 provides new evidence consistent with a model in which media coverage drives party support, but party support does not drive media coverage. Additionally, qualitative investigation of the dynamics suggests that in at least two key periods of stagnating or declining support for UKIP, media coverage increased and was followed by increases in public support. Overall the findings show that media coverage can and does appear to drive public support in a substantively important fashion irreducible to previous levels of public support, even in a national institutional environment least supportive of such an effect. The findings have direct and troubling implications for contemporary political and regulatory debates in the United Kingdom and potentially liberal democracies more generally.
Introduction
If the visibility of a political party in the media shapes the public support it receives, then the degree to which the media gives attention to different political parties can have significant implications for democracy. In the United Kingdom, critics allege that the media pays disproportionate attention to the populist, right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) but media elites claim that media coverage of UKIP is driven by increasing public support for the party. Descriptively, media attention to UKIP is greater than that given to other, similarly sized parties on the right as well as the left (Goodwin and Ford, 2013; Stevenson, 2014; Soussi, 2014), but UK media regulator Ofcom as well as the BBC have publicly defended the attention paid to UKIP on grounds of public support for the party (Sweeney, 2015; Wintour, 2015). Implied in this elite reasoning is a causal model, namely that public support drives media coverage rather than vice-versa.
Yet previous research from proportional representation systems suggests that public
support does not drive media coverage for populist right-wing parties, but rather media coverage drives their public support (Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart, 2007, 2009; Vliegenthart et al., 2012). By leveraging this insight to investigate the causal dynamics of UKIP support and media coverage, we fill an important gap in current research on the visibility-support nexus and contribute pragmatically relevant insights to a contentious public policy debate of broad social significance (Gerring, 2015). First, we contribute to current research on the visibility-support nexus by testing a key insight from this research in a new institutional context where the hypothesized relationship should be less likely. Because proportional representation systems are associated with a greater number of small parties (Duverger, 1972) and they tend to produce more diverse news (Benson, 2009; Sheafer and Wolfsfeld, 2009; Kumlin, 2001; Strömbäck and Dimitrova, 2006; Baum, 2012), research confined to such systems is arguably most likely to reflect a model in which media coverage generates support for populist right-wing parties. In a first-past-the-post system, where we typically expect only two parties and media to be less diverse, these institutional pressures make it more difficult for the media to generate support for smaller populist, right-wing parties. Thus, testing this theory with time-series data from a first-past-the-post system contributes to either refining the scope conditions of previous research (in the case of unexpected findings) or else extending and strengthening our confidence in the media-support relationship. Secondly, we contribute to a pressing regulatory question in UK national politics, as the democratic quality of UK media regulation with respect to political party favouritism, especially regarding populist right-wing parties, remains on public trial. This article lends insight into the causal dynamics implied but rarely if ever tested within such popular policy debates.
The article begins by outlining the theory before moving to a discussion of our data,
method and research strategy. We then present quantitative and qualitative analyses of the relationship between UKIP support and UKIP media coverage. A final section concludes
To view all 26 pages of the report with relevant disgrams and footnotes CLICK HERE
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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a simple tip for Ukip if it survives the probable Bankruptcy on Easter Monday, to save the party and clean it up to survive the future for a change actually check CVs of applicants wanting to be leader and you can avoid the mistakes made with every single leader since 1993!
Not one of the leaders sunsequent to the founder Alan Sked has provided an honest CV in full.
Just consider the pack of lies provided by:
Nigel Farage
David Bannerman
Paul Nuttall
Henry Bolton
And just consider just what shoddy & racist individuals such as the Zionist Peer Malcolm Pearson & Gerard Batten have proved to be and the damage done by their sordid behaviour.
Which leaves us Diane James whose CV was seemingly riddled with oddities and there is little surprise she fled the position days after election.
Then consider Roger Knapman who having been rejected by the Tories having been an MP and lost one of their safest seats joined Ukip as a front for Farage’s ambitions. Details that never featured in his CV.
Here is the simplest of guides that could help Ukip break the habits of the last 24 years and carry out due dilligence in choosing their next leader and its senior staff and those seeking election – it would help them avoid making the same mistakes over and over again – mistakes that have created Ukip on an illusionary foundation founded in lies and corruption that has put them in the parlouse position they are, with a track record of deceit as a vehicle for personal ambitions inflicted regardless of the cost to the party and the electorate!
They might even pause for a moment to rebuild rather than another 24 years fighting like ferrets in a sack, as they have to date! Largely due to utterly incompetent leadership which has been completely understandable, having never properly checked a CV in their existernce!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
~~~~~~~~~~#########~~~~~~~~~~
Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 44 (0)1594 – 528 337
Calls from ‘Number Withheld’ phones Are Blocked
All unanswered messages are recorded.
Leave your name & a UK land line number & I will return your call.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
REVEALED: UKIP could be closer to bankruptcy than previously thought
Rumours are swirling that UKIP may be facing bankruptcy over outstanding legal fees, owing £175,000 in a libel case brought against the party by three Labour MPs.
But Scrapbook can reveal – after having gained access to the party’s credit rating report – that the party may be have even greater trouble settling the bill than previously thought…
UKIP have a credit rating of just 26 out of 100, deeming them ‘high risk’, and entitling them to borrow the princely sum of… £0.
Yes that’s right, UKIP’s finances are deemed so precarious by credit assessors that they can’t borrow a single penny.
And their low credit rating has limited their credit worthiness to zero since August 2016 – previously having a credit limit of over £50,000.
UKIP saw their credit rating slide from an impressive 99/100 in March 2014 to the depths of 4/100 in June last year – and it’s only improved very slightly since then.
What’s is it about the state of UKIP’s finances that gives them such a lousy credit rating?
On the most recent assessment by due diligence website DueDil, the party’s net assets stand at -£174,000; their liabilities outweighing their assets.
The biggest hit to the party’s coffers appears to have come from fighting the 2015 election, which saw UKIP’s net assets slide from over £350,000 to a low of -£540,000.
How UKIP will be able to pay the £175,000 legal bill whilst having negative net assets and without being able to borrow any money is yet to be seen…
UKIP also have a County Court Judgement (CCJ) from January 2017 worth £2,991, which according to the financial records they’ve not paid.
We contacted UKIP about who the creditor was in this CCJ but our call was forwarded to Gawain Towler – UKIP’s former head of press who supposedly quit UKIP in February – who told us:
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
Although he did say he’d “look into it”.
It’s all hardly a ringing endorsement for a party that uses a pound symbol for their logo…
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
UKIP could be wound up as a political party within a fortnight after a judge ordered it to pay a crippling £175,000 bill in legal costs for libelling three Labour MPs.
The pro-Brexit party is now facing bankruptcy in the wake of the ruling by Mr Justice Warby on Monday that it had to pay the bill within two weeks.
UKIP MEP Jane Collins falsely accused Labour’s three Rotherham MPs of covering up the town’s sex abuse scandal before the last election.
Sir Kevin Barron, John Healey and Sarah Champion sued for libel over Collins’ speech to a UKIP conference, which came a month after a report found about 1,400 children in the area had been abused between 1997 and 2013.
Collins has already been ordered to personally pay damages of £54,000 to each of the MPs.
The party is already reeling from a succession of failed leaders since Nigel Farage, saw its vote collapse in the 2017 election and is struggling to attract any donors to keep afloat.
It is currently run by interim leader Gerard Batten after former leader Henry Bolton was ousted by members following his links to a girlfriend who sent racist texts about Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle.
PA Archive/PA Images UKIP MEP Jane Collins
Although UKIP was not deemed responsible for Collins’ remarks, the High Court ruled last month that the party taken an “deliberate” decision not to settle the case before the 2017 general election.
And on Monday, Mr Justice Warby awarded costs – separately from the damages bill – of £175,000 to the three Labour MPs.
At an event in the party’s former heartland of Essex on Monday, current interim leader Batten conceded that UKIP may be “finished” unless it can find the cash.
“If we cannot raise it then the future of the party itself is in question,” he said.
Mary Newton, chairman of the Clacton branch of the party, told her local paper: “Mr Batten said we need to raise £100,000 in two weeks or that could be it. Mr Batten was just being honest and open with us about the situation.”
In a joint statement, Barron, Healey and Champion said: “UKIP’s actions behind the scenes forced the costs of this case to soar and compounded the damage from Jane Collins’ unfounded and hurtful allegations.
“This deliberate strategy hugely increased the legal costs and it is right that UKIP are today held liable for a large share of these costs.
“UKIP used the unfounded allegations by Jane Collins for political advantage.
“At the highest level UKIP knew Jane Collins’ case was ‘hopeless’ but blocked any settlement in our favour before the 2015 General Election because they believed it would win them votes.”
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
Following his appointment to acting leadership of the motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP, new Oberscheissenführer Adolf von Batten has inspected the party’s coffers, and found that, after all the Dark Money and diverted EU expenses had been cut off, the cupboard was bare. And with a six-figure legal bill following the involvement in MEP Jane Collins’ libel loss, desperate measures were in order.
I em not a racialist but, und zis is a big but …
So von Batten, an unrepentant Islamophobe who regards Islam as a “death cult” – a remark that got him suspended from Twitter – has decided to reach out to like minded people and effectively turn the Kippers into a sort of BNP Mark 2.
We can figure that out from Kipper Central’s announcement: “Thousands of veterans are set to join the tide of those who have already signed up to the party under Gerard Batten’s leadership following a unanimous vote at Monday’s meeting to officially support the Veterans Against Terrorism Group … The motion, which was proposed by Gerard Batten at a UKIP NEC meeting where the Veterans Against Terrorism leaders were present was passed unanimously”. Veterans Against Terrorism is another far-right group.
That was clear from the accompanying photo which shows the logo of the Football Lads’ Alliance, “lads” being code for current and former hooligans. That the FLA was also on board was let slip by a VAT spokesman telling “Brexit is being betrayed, UKIP must once again rise to the challenge and fight for the real people, the forgotten people of this great nation. We the working class people, veterans, football lads and all other patriots must mobilize en mass and join UKIP, together we are stronger!” Tomorrow belongs to them.
Arron Banks’ propaganda site Westmonster has also told “Interim UKIP Leader Gerard Batten has announced a recruitment drive aimed at securing new members, including from street protest group the Football Lads Alliance – who are hosting Anne Marie-Waters at their next event. The leadership of the FLA have endorsed UKIP, according to Batten”.
She might be welcomed back …
And while enthusing “The Football Lads Alliance have held some huge counter-extremism demos”, even the UKIP faithful concede “Though with anti-Islam Anne Marie Waters speaking at the FLA’s next event, there is likely to be some controversy over the move”.
… and two of this group might be joining her …
But with the FLA, UKIP should know the score. As Hope not Hate has pointed out, “Another splinter from the FLA is the Anti-Terror Alliance (ATA) … HOPE not hate exposed one of the leaders of ATA to be the convicted terrorist Frank Portinari, the British Commander of the banned terrorist organisation Ulster Defence Association (UDA)”.
… after all, look who’s already there
The direction of UKIP under the less than benign leadership of Adolf von Batten is clear: to fill the coffers, the Kippers will get into bed with any and every far-right group out there. It can only be a matter of time before Britain First and the White Pendragons are welcomed. After all, Bill “Viagra Golliwog” Etheridge, one of Batten’s pals, has already endorsed the latter group, which tried to stage a lynching of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
UKIP is so desperate, it is now prepared to ditch the veneer of mainstream respectability and become an explicitly racist party. Like it effectively has been for years.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
this rather reminds me of the elderly tramp who used to parade up and down at Chepstow Races begging with a sign reading ‘The End Of The World Is At Hand’!
BANKRUPT KIPPERS
Ukip chiefs admit they are just days from bankruptcy as they beg branches to raise £100,000 by end of the month
The Sun can reveal interim leader Gerard Batten has written to all local groups across the country to ask them divert any funds they have to the central party ‘purely for operational needs’
By Harry Cole, Westminster Correspondent
6th March 2018, 10:30 pm
Updated: 7th March 2018, 2:55 am
UKIP chiefs have admitted they are just days from bankruptcy as they beg branches to raise £100,000 by the end of the month or got bust, The Sun can reveal.
Interim leader Gerard Batten has written to all local groups across the country to ask them divert any funds they have in their coffers to the central party “purely for operational needs”.
Ukip chiefs admit they are just days from bankruptcy as they beg branches to raise £100,000 by the end of the month
He warns: “If we cannot raise it then the future of the Party itself is in question.”
It comes as the party is also facing a six-figure costs claim in a legal battle with three Labour MPs.
The begging note says they “realise that this money belongs to the branches but the future of our party really is in the hands of the members at this time”.
The plea takes place as ousted leader Henry Bolton announced he has formed his own new political party called OneNation.
The disgraced ex-boss was booted out last month at a meeting of Ukip members after The Sun revealed he had left his wife for a topless model Jo Marney, who was later shown to have sent racist messages.
The plea takes place as ousted leader Henry Bolton announced he has formed his own new political party called OneNation
Perhaps Gerard Batten Ukip’s leader this week might care to contribute the £100,000 himself out of the obscene amount this useless article has made out of his self interest at the cost of the tax payers – or even obtain the funding from his Islamaphobic so called christian group in return for his efforts and endless purveying of hate on their behalf.
Alternately how about the ex Ukip MEPs paying back some of the money they screwed the tax payer for in return for their consistent irrelevance and damage to the domestic body politic.
The existing Ukip MEPs have no more job now than that which Ukip MEPs have done in the past so how about they fund the party rather than continue sponging off of the tax payers!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
tel: 44 (0)1594 – 528 337
Calls from ‘Number Withheld’ phones Are Blocked
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Leave your name & a UK land line number & I will return your call.
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As some of you may know, I have announced that I will not be seeking re-election as chair of the West of Scotland branch at our AGM on March 10. I won’t resign and leave the post vacant but, after that meeting, my connection with the party will be over.
After many years of effort, working hard behind the scenes and carrying the flag as a candidate in one no-hope election after another, I am utterly disillusioned.
So many people have worked so hard for the party but I have grown increasingly dIsappointed over the past 6 months.
I’ve met some great people. I’ve met some truly awful people. I’ve seen committed people who have worked in the party for years, facing up to ridicule and antagonism for what they believe, badly let down by our leaders. We are standing on the brink of bankruptcy because of the libellous comments of an MEP who should have known better and because of the misguided decision of the leadership to fund her court case.
We have become a national laughing stock because of the ridiculous antics of our leader Henry Bolton who went on TV with his mistress to humiliate himself again only this morning.
In Scotland the party leader we struggled so hard to get elected has vanished from the scene. He’s gone AWOL for a year, choosing to make speeches to strange groups of far-right Frenchmen in French rather than speak English to Ukippers in Troon.
The top team who won that election victory has shattered. There’s just one man left standing and the others have all gone. Some were sacked, some just left, others defected to the Tories and one just avoided jail.
The office in Edinburgh has shut down. We have no visible presence and we are missing the bus as we fail to draw the thousands of Scots who voted for Brexit to our cause.
The Tories are well ahead, taking over from Labour as the voice of Opposition to the SNP.
Whilst we are fighting amongst ourselves they are organising, selecting candidates and preparing for government. If you are like me, you must know of many friends and colleagues who have gone over to the Conservatives. The Tories are enjoying a boom as we bleed to death.
Only a few weeks ago, Arron Banks read the last rites over UKIP, warning that the party has done its duty and served its purpose. He says now is the time for thousands of UKIP members to infiltrate the Conservatives en masse and seize control of the party to secure the Brexit we voted for, he’s almost right. Working alongside those eurosceptic Tories that want to see what we the British people voted for delivered on Brexit will be my focus for the foreseeable future.
Go Well
Published by Caroline
One thought on “The Final Curtain”
I’m sorry to hear that Caroline and I fully understand the sentiment. UKIP has done its members and candidates no favours in Wales either, the final insult for many being the appointment of the ludicrous spectre of Neil Hamilton as Wales leader. The top down control of the party has led to a situation where it is almost completely divorced from its members. The actions of the party and some of those in it has caused many a disturbing time for this household, but then we’re very close to two Assembly members who have been atrociously mistreated by the party and some of those in it. For all that though, I and some in my branches (we’re maintaining the only regional branch in the entirety of the UK partly because it works for us and partly as an act of defiance against the top down hierarchy) have re-rallied and have convened a grassroots conference in Newport. One reason for that is that we won’t be bullied into submission. We fight on, hopefully not just amongst ourselves. All best wishes to you.
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it is rare that I read much that Hope Not Hate has to say that gives me little Hope as it so clearly supports the unpleasant Socialist drivel promoted by the odious Corbyn wing of Labour & Hates all else! This however is one of those rare occassions.
Who Is Gerard Batten? MEP Who Called Islam A ‘Death Cult’ Appointed As Ukip’s Interim Leader
Ukip’s interim leader, who once called Islam a “death cult” and proposed that Muslims sign a special code of conduct rejecting violence, has been described as a “disaster” for the party’s political future.
Batten will be interim leader while a new leadership election is organised in the next 90 days.
PA Archive/PA Images Gerard Batten is Ukip’s interim leader after Henry Bolton was ousted.
But there are already concerns surrounding his appointment, with anti-racism campaign group Hope not Hate accusing Ukip members of “sounding the death knell for their party”.
So who is Ukip’s interim leader and why is he so contentious?
Who is Gerard Batten?
The 63-year-old party veteran is a founder of Ukip and is a serving Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
He was first elected as an MEP in 2004 and was selected to stand as the party’s candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election.
He was unsuccessful, receiving just 1.2% of the vote.
What are his views on Islam?
In the wake of the Westminster terror attack, Batten posted a blog in which he called Islam a “death cult”.
“The terrorist attack in Westminster was just the latest in a long line of atrocities committed internationally in the name of Islam,” he wrote.
He then listed the following suggestions:
First of all, let’s stop calling it Islam (submission to the will of Allah) and accepting it on its own terms.
We should return to calling what the West used to call it: Mohammedanism – the cult of Mohammed – because that is what it is.
It is a death cult, born and steeped in fourteen hundred years of violence and bloodshed, that propagates itself by intimidation, violence and conquest.
Batten added in his blog: “A normal non Mohammedan should have a perfectly rational fear of ‘Islam’.”
A document he commissioned in 2006 called ‘A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding’, says that parts of the Qur’an promote “violent physical Jihad”.
The MEP argued that some Muslim texts also required updating, particularly those bits he claimed say “kill Jews wherever you find them”. He said: “If they say they cannot revise their thinking on those issues, then who’s got the problem – us or them?”
Speaking in 2010, Batten pledged to end the building of new mosques in the UK, until and unless a non-Muslim place of worship was built in Mecca.
FREDERICK FLORIN via Getty Images Gerard Batten at the European Parliament.
Batten denies that he has ever made comments about Muslims, but anti-racism group Hope not Hate said that his appointment today “sounded the death knell for their party”.
Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope not Hate, said: “Gerard Batten is… known for his extreme anti-Muslim views and closeness to various figures in anti-Muslim networks across Europe.
“This is a man who calls Islam ‘Mohammedanism’ and ‘a death cult’, for heaven’s sake. His vote is a disaster for any hope UKIP might have of resurrecting its political fortunes.
“The party is now a bad joke, haemorrhaging support and money. However, the bigger threat lies in Nigel Farage and his Leave.EU backer Arron Banks who are eagerly waiting in the wings.
“Farage and Banks are far more capable figures than anything Ukip is likely to offer and likely to hit home hard on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages when they re-enter the political fray, most likely at the helm of a new radical-right political movement.”
Quick Verdict on Ukip: Appointment of Batten as interim leader a risky move. One of the founders of the party so knows it inside out, but previous anti-Islam comments will be a turn off for many.
Ukip ran on a pretty strong anti-Islamic fundamentalism ticket in the last election – in the wake of terrible terrorist attacks – and got nowhere. I don’t see the appetite for that kind of politics in this country. Don’t think there’s a huge base for it.
Would be amazed if Paul Oakden doesn’t run. He’s good with media, got a sense of humour and delivers a good speech. His preamble before announcing the result was a clear leadership pitch.
Seeing as Farage’s influence is clearly on the wane – he backed Bolton after all – Suzanne Evans may feel she should have another run at it. But her previous
I’ve said it before, but if Ukip can get themselves together they could the May 19 local elections into a referendum on the Brexit deal, which might help them. A big ‘if’, as hard to see how the party can claw back credibility.
But when asked on Saturday whether he intends to take Ukip in the direction of being more anti-Islam, Batten said: “I’ve never made comments about Muslims, I’ve always talked about ideology and the literalist interpretation of that ideology.
“That is a big problem that is facing not just the UK but Europe and the Western world. I will be looking at policies of how we can address that.
“It’s all very well to talk about integration but one of the practical things we should do – our Government should do – straight away, is to stop the foreign funding of mosques and imans by places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who have exported extremist ideology to our country and other countries.”
The Ukipper, who also believes the European Union was conceived by NaziGermany and suggests the Bilderberg Group is a “shadow world government”, insisted on Twitter that the country “relies on the UK for its existence”.At the time Ukip distanced itself from the comments, with the party’s head of delegation, MEP Ray Finch, telling HuffPost UK in a statement: “Mr Batten’s late night tweets do not reflect UKIP policy or sentiment.
UK threatened by Ireland. A tiny country that relies on UK for its existence. We should advise, we are free to revoke common travel area.
4:31 PM – 26 Nov 2017
“We wish to maintain free trade and free movement between the North and South of Ireland, full stop.
“The best way to avoid the European Commission imposing a hard border is to create an equal partnership of independent states outside EU.”
Will Batten stand in the Ukip leadership contest?
Ukip faces its fourth leadership election since the EU referendum in June 2016.
Batten said he has not decided whether or not to stand for the leadership, telling a press conference on Saturday: “I honestly don’t know the answer to that.
“I’ll wait and see how it goes or otherwise over the next few weeks.”
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I’m sorry to hear that Caroline and I fully understand the sentiment. UKIP has done its members and candidates no favours in Wales either, the final insult for many being the appointment of the ludicrous spectre of Neil Hamilton as Wales leader.
The top down control of the party has led to a situation where it is almost completely divorced from its members. The actions of the party and some of those in it has caused many a disturbing time for this household, but then we’re very close to two Assembly members who have been atrociously mistreated by the party and some of those in it.
For all that though, I and some in my branches (we’re maintaining the only regional branch in the entirety of the UK partly because it works for us and partly as an act of defiance against the top down hierarchy) have re-rallied and have convened a grassroots conference in Newport. One reason for that is that we won’t be bullied into submission. We fight on, hopefully not just amongst ourselves.
All best wishes to you.