Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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Petty Minded Local JOBS WORTH Demeans Democracy!
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Hi,
lets face it they WERE aspiring to Snivil Cervice and there is no more visible sign of ‘Jobs Worth’ in our society.
That said one has to feel sorry for Trish Edwards & Peter Cope they were trying to get elected as largely irrelevant minor politicians and in all fairnes statistically stood no chance – FIRSTLY this was NOT a spelling test, nor even an intelligence test SECONDLY just how is democracy served by this Council Numptie discouraging people from participation by holding them up to ridicule?
YES it was foolish of UKIP not to check the forms but neither do they proof read much of their documentation and their fun idea of ‘Policies’ no doubt in the realisation no one votes for UKIP or has an interest in their policies they vote for the ONE core value of Leave-The-EU and as a protest vote more acceptable to decent folk unaware of UKIP’s racist, anti Jewish, anti homosexual, reformist pro EU partners than would be a vote for The BNP who have now largely collapsed without the promotion given to them by Nigel Farage and Mark Croucher.
At the level up for election in this instance why would we expect such people to read and write? Further since one can obtain many voting documents in as many as 26 languages one wonders what the person marking the spelling test is like in Arabic, Hebrew and Gujerati!
It was good to see Mike Nattrass MEP Independent Group now being taken seriously AND QUOTED having regained his credibility by rejecting membership of Nigel Farage’s repugnant EFD Group, a sordid extremist group he has prostituted UKIP to for luttle more than his personal gain!
‘Y’ two UKIP candidates got the boot from today’s election
Peter Cope and Trish Edwards, who had planned to stand in the Chadsmead and Boney Hay wards, submitted their official nomination papers to Lichfield District Council two hours before the deadline.
But Mr Cope, who is chairman of the party’s Lichfield branch, wrote “UK Independence Part (UKIP)” under the “Description (if any)” section of the document.
Mrs Edwards’s nomination form read “UK Indepence Party (UKIP)”.
The disqualified candidates claim the papers had been checked by the council and were “verbally confirmed” as acceptable.
“The obvious intention of these candidates was to stand for UKIP,” said the party’s West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass.
“What happened to common sense? How can a missing “Y” disqualify a candidate who had his papers checked and accepted?
“This is petty and two hard-working UKIP candidates have been blocked from the elections. Where is the democracy in that?
“Any correction should have been made when the form was checked and accepted.”
UKIP officials blamed “a catalogue of errors” by Lichfield District Council for causing a “chain of delays” which led to a rush in submitting nomination papers.
The council denies this, saying all candidates were advised to submit papers well before deadline, to leave time to rectify mistakes.
Mr Cope, of Lime Grove, Lichfield, said: “Some candidates with no previous experience needed time to complete their forms and there was no time.
“This episode has lost us two seats before the ballot even takes place.”
However, he added: “I do feel there was nothing malicious about it. I wouldn’t particularly criticise the Lichfield District Council staff – we were all doing our best at the time in very busy circumstances.”
Mrs Edwards, of Coppice Close, Chase Terrace, said the stringent rules on spelling seemed unnecessarily “over the top”.
“They said it was a spelling mistake but there was a UKIP logo put in with the application as well – it was obvious which party I was representing,” she added.
“By the time they had let me know, they said it was too late to do anything about it.
“I was flabbergasted and I felt very angry. It’s not very good for democracy.”
This week, Lichfield district’s electoral registration officer Nina Dawes said: “Peter Cope and Trish Edwards had ample opportunity to submit their papers well before the deadline, and had they done so we could have helped them to correct their mistakes.”
Ms Dawes said Mr Cope was at a “training session” on March 15 where he received six nomination packs, plus some spare copies.
“Many councils don’t hand packs out Continued on page 2
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before the notice of election is published, which was on March 25 this year, but we gave packs out at the training session to give potential candidates even more time to fill in the forms,” she said.
“We also told Mr Cope and everyone at the session that further copies of the packs could be downloaded from our website and from the electoral commission website.
“At the session we stressed how important it is for potential candidates to submit their nomination papers well before deadline, so we can spot mistakes and they have time to correct and resubmit their forms.
“Mr Cope and Trish Edwards both made a mistake on their form.
“Parliament has laid down very clear rules for nomination papers, and we must abide by them.
“We double-checked this with the Electoral Commission but they told us because the political party was spelled wrong on both forms we could not legally accept them.”
She added: “Mr Cope and Trish Edwards’s nomination papers were handed in within hours of the deadline.
“While we give nomination packs a brief check on reception, we always stress it is only an informal check and it is up to the candidate to provide the correct information.”
To view the original article CLICK HERE
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Ukip-vs-EUkip 