sorry but this article is virtually irrelevant as one can not claim Uki9p’s manifesto launch is of any significance whatsoever – it is the launch of a fundamentally defuncy group with past hopes of future glory!
They couldn’t even get what achievements they might have had right, in that they poached 3 MPs from the Tories and lost the seats of all 3, though to be fair the one Tory MP who maintained his Tory seat under a Ukip banner by never clearly proclaiming Ukip views merely Tory views with a BreXit emphasis. Even he has quit Ukip.
When they have managed to get Councillors elected they have subsequently lost all of them.
As for the rabble that pass themselves off as Ukip MEPs a good proportion have befouled their office such that even Ukip won’t talk to them and almost 1/2 of their MEPs have quit, usually in acrimony after prolonged internal squabbling.
It is hard to single out an achievement by Ukip in its 24 years of posturing – it was even such a disaster on the issue of BreXit that it did almost all it could to prevent the Petition which gave rise to the Tory promise of a Referendum and the Party was utterly rejected as too toxic to be allowed to participate in the official pro BreXit campaign.
Ukip in a funny way are very like the EU itself – a hugely costly squabbling group of largely self appointed individuals of no particular merit seeking comfortable seats and cuedos on the Gravy Train to nowhere. Ukip, just like the EU has been much todo about nothing of consequence with far more discussion of its own rules and interests than consideration of the people it pretends to represent – ever willing to attack and abuse anyone who does not worship at their feet and applaud their evety flatulence.
Ukip after many years of following its self impressed demie god, with his quick quip and like the small boy in the classroom seeking attention by being rude to or about the teacher has shown just how debased the actual party is leaving it with no clear aim, no credible leadership, no structure, no consequential backer(s), no money and a raft of debts and clawback claims – Going Nowhere.
What hope had Ukip when even scrapinig the barrel the best they could come up with after all the fights and infighting, posturing and pontificating was the risible Paul Nuttall as a leader – a sad specimen who has destroyed his own credibility yet further at every outing, working on an absolutely no hope mission in the vain attempt to manage the demise of Ukip in a pretence of some sort of emulation of grown up dignity and failing even at that.
Read the Manifesto by all means but do appreciate it would have been of greater value had it not been on glossy paper and had it had a hole punched in it to hang it on a nail in the outhouse!
Helen Nianias
We Went To The UKIP Manifesto Launch And All We Got Was This Lousy Headache
The Debrief: UKIP unveiled their manifesto for the 2017 election and there was quite a lot of shouting in the process
If you want to hang out with loads of middle-aged white guys in suits, might I recommend any press event for UKIP? Say, a manifesto launch? Interesting fact: manifesto literally translates as ‘festival of man’ Don’t look it up. It’s definitely, definitely true. Definitely.
Between UKIP politicians and members of the press, there’s all the off-the-peg suits you could ever wish for (black, grey and navy colourways only) and hair that looks like it’s been created in greyscale. For all accusations of racism, UKIP brought up the diversity quotient significantly. If UKIP is a white manifesto, then the media is actually worse.
You probably want to know what the policies are. There’s a proposed increase in police and troops, an extra £11billion for the NHS, cutting foreign aid, things that will broadly appeal to some people who sit outside the normal UKIP bandwidth.
Finding extreme lunacy in a UKIP manifesto isn’t so much shooting fish in a barrel as dynamiting them, so a few words on these policies. For example: The UK’s climate change targets have ‘no basis in science’ so will be scrapped. EU flags would be banned. Burqas would also be done away with because of apparent concerns that women who wear them don’t get enough vitamin D. (A Times journalist pointed out that the manifesto also carries a photograph of a beekeeper in full uniform. I am concerned about his vitamin D intake. Ban The Beekeeper.) Trade practices are proudly proclaimed as efficient and ‘even Bono has admitted it.’ In short, parts of it read like they were written by Jim Davidson. Perhaps they were.
At the launch this morning, UKIP leader Paul Nuttall called for ‘radical ideas and a ‘muscular’ approach to integration. Standing in front of journalists and supporters in Westminster, he blasted the ‘Westminster chatterati’, gave Theresa May a severe slagging off, and said that not enough had been done to counter radical Islam. The new touchy-feely UKIP approach was going to make foreigners more like British people. The flaw seems to be that it also appears to include if you were born in Britain but happened to be born into the wrong religion (Muslim). If anyone knows what British people do or think or feel can you please tell me, because I keep asking people and they keep giving me wildly different answers, almost as if there’s no one idea of Britishness? Confusing!
After Nuttall and deputy chair Suzanne Evans had finished speaking there were questions from media, which were met with quite a lot of outraged yelling from UKIP supporters. ‘Don’t answer, Paul!’ was a common cry, which reminded me of Wimbledon in the late 90s when the audience would shout the grandmotherly phrase: ‘Come on, Tim!’ when Henman was flagging.
Just like when a party host insists on doing full hospital-style lighting to kill off any hint of a good vibe at a get-together, UKIPers were also keen to make sure everyone knew we were all supposed to be scrunched with anxiety by yelling ‘pathetic’ and ‘get back in your hole’ and ‘ask us a sensible question’ at pretty much every question. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for UKIP’s events team.
And just in case the bad temper hadn’t really hit home, we also got to watch an almighty row between Channel 4 News and two UKIP members who were saying they wanted to have a ‘positive debate’ and were sick of being ‘shouted down’. I mean, they were themselves slightly shouting at Channel 4 News but perhaps it was a piece of performance art and deliberately ironic.
Outside of the scrum, one policy, in particular, captured our attention – that check-ups will be carried out on young girls to make sure they haven’t been subjected to FGM. When this was first announced a few months ago, it provoked a strong reaction from FGM campaigners who said that this would prove more upsetting for girls and that it was grossly invasive.
‘Let it continue then, let it continue then. Is that what you’re saying?’ Gerard Batten, UKIP spokesperson says. ‘If people are taking people off to certain places, like the Indian Subcontinent or Africa where we know this kind of thing goes on, then it’s reasonable to check.’
Peter Harris, standing as an MP for from Dagenham and Rainham added that he was very concerned about the reports that 95 girls in Barking and Dagenham had been cut in one year.
‘The authorities do not take this crime – and it is a crime – seriously and something needs to be done. There was not one single successful prosecution last year, which is repulsive,’ he says. ‘If this prevents one girl from having this heinous surgery done… The simple answer is if we don’t do something, things will stay the same. What [our policy] has done is put this on the agenda, and hopefully, the other parties will actually start to talk about this and come to a sensible policy.’
Is the UKIP policy not a sensible policy? ‘I didn’t say that. I think it is a sensible policy and it will drive this procedure out of this society. Other countries in Europe are far more successful at dealing with this.’
This sums up UKIP quite perfectly. The party represents many people’s deepest concerns – that their children will be hurt, that they will be forced to change their way of life, they’re going to be accused of being racist when they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.
The UKIP manifesto and its white-guy launch may have been a hotbed of insanity, but when the media holding it to account for being racist and sexist is predominantly white and male, it makes it much harder to counter some of the madder ideas. Integration is vital, it just isn’t what UKIP thinks it is.
This article was amended on 26.05.17 after it mistakenly suggested that UKIP’s manifesto stipulated that ‘teachers would be discouraged from giving out yellow stars to pupils’. This is not a UKIP policy.
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
so many Ukippers had their dreams come true at the Ukip 2017 Manifesto Launch as it seems many of them like to make complete fools of themselves such as the Ukip MEPs Earl Dartmouth, Gerard Batten & Paul Nuttal!
UKIP chaos: MEPs and activists shout down journalists during calamitous manifesto launch
LONDON — The UK Independence Party’s manifesto launch descended into chaos today when party MEPs and activists shouted down journalists for asking leader Paul Nuttall whether he was exploiting the Manchester attack.
UKIP MEP Earl Dartmouth yelled “what a stupid question” and “don’t you understand English?” at BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg while one activist told her to “go back down your hole” in a heated question and answer session.
Emotions were running high in Westminster on Thursday morning where UKIP leader Nuttall and his deputy Suzanne Evans launched the party’s general election manifesto.
Nuttall and Evans announced a series of radical policies to combat Islamic extremism, including banning the burqa and Niqab in public, reinstating police stop and search powers and only accepting migrants who share “British values”.
The press conference quickly became heated when broadcast journalists Kuenssberg and Channel 4’s Michael Crick asked Nuttall whether he was exploiting the Manchester attack by holding a manifesto launch on Thursday morning.
“Ask a sensible question!” an activist shouted at Crick, while Kuenssberg was met with a chorus of furious remarks from a number of UKIP activists and elected representatives.
Watch: UKIP press conference descends into chaos.
Some UKIP figures including Nuttall and former political reporter turned UKIP MEP Patrick O’Flynn urged party members to stop heckling journalists, but to little effect. A question from the Guardian newspaper was met with “oh for fuck’s sake” by UKIP Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten.
The UKIP manifesto includes policies like reversing cuts to police, the army and border control; bringing net migration down to zero; abolishing the House of Lords; protecting the triple lock and winter fuel allowance, and holding Theresa May’s government to account of delivering a complete divorce from the European Union.
Evans said May’s decision to cut the number of police officers while she was Home Secretary meant she “must bear some responsibility” for the Manchester attack. She quickly rowed back on this, saying only the terrorists are to blame.
“I didn’t say she must bear some responsibility,” the UKIP deputy chairman said.
UKIP is without any MPS and a Business Insider/GfK opinion poll published last week put the party on 5% — a 7% drop since the last time GfK asked Brits who they intend to vote for in the next general election.
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 is just a quick piece to note that I am pleased to see the Guardian following up on what I wrote in March with some strong reporting on the connections between former U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Julian Assange and Guccifer 2.0.
They even used some of the connections that I discovered while researching that piece (like Roger Stone’s dinner with Farage), and they found something else. I had reported that Breitbart’s London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam was keen to defend UKIP against allegations that it was funded by Vladimir Putin. Here’s what I didn’t know:
This is getting discussed today because the FBI apparently agrees with me that Nigel Farage seem to be the hub for a remarkable number of spokes.
Sources who spoke to the Guardian said it was Farage’s proximity to people at the heart of the investigation that was being examined as an element in their broader inquiry into how Russia may have worked with Trump campaign officials to influence the US election.
“One of the things the intelligence investigators have been looking at is points of contact and persons involved,” one source said. “If you triangulate Russia, WikiLeaks, Assange and Trump associates the person who comes up with the most hits is Nigel Farage.
“He’s right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.”
The source mentioned Farage’s links with Roger Stone, Trump’s long-time political adviser who has admitted being in contact with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker whom US intelligence agencies believe to be a Kremlin agent.
Guccifer 2.0 isn’t believed to be a Kremlin agent. The belief is that Guccifer 2.0 isn’t a person at all, but a fake persona created by Russian intelligence.
In any case, I feel like a made a small contribution to this reporting, so I wanted to share it.
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
Nigel Farage loves giving interviews. But if you ask him about his connections to Russia and about the consequences of Brexit, he’ll put a stop to the conversation.
Nigel Farage is sitting in a black leather armchair in his European Parliament office in Brussels. In front of him is a glass table, and next to him is a coffin. The casket, with a large euro sign stuck to the front, has been standing there next to his desk for years. The symbolism is impossible to miss. For the last 20 years, Farage has been fighting against the EU and against the euro. He would like to bury both – which is why he ran for European Parliament as a member of UKIP, his party.
Farage’s mission is to destroy the EU from within. He was the face of the Leave campaign, which ultimately led to the successful Brexit referendum last year. As head of UKIP, he was an instrumental public figure in convincing the British public to vote in favor of the country’s historic exit from the EU.
Along with David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Farage is one of the key initiators of Brexit. To demonstrate as much, he put on his United Kingdom socks for the day of our interview. The Union Jack is clearly visible between his suit pants and his shoes. “Proud. Ohh, I don’t know about proud.” But he does say at the beginning of the interview that he is amused by the incipient Brexit negotiations. The interview was organized by his press spokesman, who is also present.
ZEIT ONLINE: Mr. Farage, parliamentary elections are to be held in your homeland in just a few weeks. Why are you sitting here in Brussels in your British socks instead of helping out with the Brexit negotiations back home?
Nigel Farage: If the British government had asked me to help them in any way with Brexit, I would have done that. But of course, they wouldn’t. They will always hate me. They will always see me as an outsider. They will never forgive me for being successful. I don’t mind.
ZEIT ONLINE: What is your role here in European Parliament?
Farage: In some ways, I am one of the pan-European political figures there are here. I am well known in every European country. And actually, Euro-skeptic groups in some way see me as the grandfather of Euro-skepticism.
ZEIT ONLINE: You see yourself as pan-European? How can you fight against something that you yourself embody?
Farage: That’s ironic. I know.
ZEIT ONLINE: Since 1999, European Parliament has paid your salary as a representative. Why do you accept money from an institution that you want to destroy? How can I explain that to my eight-year-old daughter?
Farage: You tell your daughter that a wave of insanity overcame the political classes of Europe. Europe is not the EU. It’s not about a flag. It’s not about an anthem. It’s a totally false creation. I am working for a real Europe, one that does not attempt to take away from individual member states the nationality, the identity.
ZEIT ONLINE: You don’t look like you have lost your British identity.
Farage: We British are not allowed to have our own foreign policy. We are not allowed to have our own trade policy. This is not Europe. We have to break this down. Britain is just the start. The EU is dying. The whole project is finished. It’s dying, it’s dying.
ZEIT ONLINE: Do you still remember June 23, 2016, the day that Brexit was passed?
Farage: It was one of the best days of my life. Oh yes, in my career, it was the best day ever. After all these years of trying and after all these years of being lonely, it was a big day.
Farage is now in his element, saying things that he repeated hundreds of times during the Brexit campaign last summer. Prior to the campaign, Farage faced accusations that he had misused EU funds. According to a story in the Times, the EU paid almost 60,000 pounds to his personal bank account although some of the money had been earmarked for the upkeep of his parliamentary office not far from Littlehampton. That office, however, was in a house that Farage, as head of the UKIP party, had been allowed to use free of charge. After the Times reported on the inconsistencies, Farage threatened the paper with legal proceedings and levelled accusations against the journalists. He denied that he had done anything improper. As a result of the affair, it came out that Farage and other MEPs from UKIP had only begun filling out EU transparency reports, including for the reimbursement of office expenditures, in 2009.
ZEIT ONLINE: Who financed your Leave campaign?
Farage: Who financed the whole Remain campaign for over 50 years? The government.
ZEIT ONLINE: You didn’t answer the question.
Farage: Individuals. Individuals from the UK.
ZEIT ONLINE: And with money from Russia?
“It Was a Private Meeting with Assange”
Farage: No Russian money at all. That’s ridiculous. What you are talking about is conspiracy. I never received a penny from Russia. I wouldn’t have taken it, even if it had been offered. This campaign wasn’t about money. It was about messages, good clear messages.
ZEIT ONLINE: Have you ever received external money for your political work?
Farage: No, of course not.
ZEIT ONLINE: You never received any money for your appearances on Russia Today?
Farage: Which I do twice a year. Or three times last year. I am doing global media. I am talking to you as well.
ZEIT ONLINE: Why did you meet with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London?
Farage stops for a moment to think. Following his visit to the Ecuadorian Embassy not long ago, he told reporters directly after his meeting with Assange that he could no longer remember what he had done in the embassy.
Farage: Oh, for journalistic reasons.
ZEIT ONLINE: What? Because you want to write a story about the WikiLeaks founder?
Farage: For journalistic reasons. I will not say anything more about that. But I did it for journalistic reasons, not for political reasons.
ZEIT ONLINE: What do you mean when you say, “journalistic reasons?”
Farage: I will not say anything more about that. If you look at what I do today, I used to do politics 100 hours a week. But now I do politics for 40 hours a week, so I have got a lot of time to do other things. I am a Fox News contributor. I am an LBC presenter. I write.
ZEIT ONLINE: You have transformed yourself from a politician to an entertainer?
Farage: Perhaps.
ZEIT ONLINE: Entertainers tend to be paid well for the job.
ZEIT ONLINE: So you were sent by someone to speak to Julian Assange? What did you talk about?
Farage: It has nothing to do with you. It was a private meeting.
ZEIT ONLINE: You just said it was a journalistic meeting, for the public.
Farage: Of course.
ZEIT ONLINE: Are you going to publish an article soon about your connections to WikiLeaks and your meeting with Assange?
Farage: You will have to wait and see. I meet lots of people all over the world. I always help them.
“As a Political Operator, Putin Was the Best in the World”
ZEIT ONLINE: You once said you admire Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Farage: In 2013, as a political operator, he was the best in the world. Yes, this is what I said. But I wouldn’t like to live in his country. I didn’t like a lot of things he did. But as a political operator, he is to be admired.
ZEIT ONLINE: One of Russia’s foreign policy goals is dividing and weakening the EU. Could it be that in the case of Brexit, you were directly or indirectly used for this Russian goal?
Farage: It is obvious that the EU wants to expand to the east and threatens Russia. That’s completely mad.
ZEIT ONLINE: What you say isn’t true. It wasn’t the EU that triggered the revolution in Ukraine, but the Ukrainians who wanted better relations with the EU.
Farage: I want the EU to be destroyed and it doesn’t matter if God or the Dalai Lama wants it was well. The EU is an anti-democratic, failing structure. You know, you are the first person who has asked me if Russia supported me. Maybe you have a special German mindset. No other journalist in the world has asked these questions.
ZEIT ONLINE: I just want to understand your role.
Farage: We have no links to Russia.
ZEIT ONLINE: You didn’t meet with the Russian Embassy’s deputy chief-of-mission in London?
Farage: Ah, hang on. He came to the EP office. Or I met with him in London. So what?
ZEIT ONLINE: Why did you meet with him?
Farage: I think you are a nutcase! You are really a nutcase! Brexit is the best thing to happen: for Russia, for America, for Germany and for democracy. And that’s the key point.
Farage’s press spokesman again interrupts the interview. He says that the interview should focus more on trade relations between Germany and the UK. Farage nods.
ZEIT ONLINE: The United Kingdom’s economy, along with the economies of the remaining EU countries, will be weakened by Brexit.
Farage: What you are saying is complete rubbish. The idea that the EU is good for the economy is absolutely rubbish. The EU is a failing model.
ZEIT ONLINE: Since when have you been convinced of this fallacy?
Farage: Since 1990. Back then, I decided that the whole thing is nonsense. It will never work. It took a while, but now we have left. And we are the first ones. Others will leave as well.
ZEIT ONLINE: Who?
Farage: We will have to see. Greece. But it could be Denmark or Sweden. We will see.
“You Should Be on a Comedy Show”
ZEIT ONLINE: Greece had that option during the financial crisis, but decided against it. Now that Brexit has come to pass, what are you actually? Are you a journalist or a politician? What is your role?
Farage: Changing public opinion. That’s what I have been doing for 20 years. Using television, media. Shifting public opinion. That’s what I am good at.
ZEIT ONLINE: And that’s why you had to meet with Julian Assange?
Farage looks to his press spokesman and pauses again.
Farage: That, that is a different angle in this.
ZEIT ONLINE: It’s an angle that I want to understand.
Farage: Well, you will not get it. I went to meet him very briefly. We talked about a lot of things.
ZEIT ONLINE: But you didn’t want to be seen going into or out of the embassy? Your visit was only publicized because somebody took a picture of you.
Farage’s press spokesman interrupts the interview for a third time. He says that Farage should talk about the economy of the United Kingdom. Farage picks up the phone to make a quick call before continuing to speak.
ZEIT ONLINE: You are a citizen of the United Kingdom?
Farage: Yes.
ZEIT ONLINE: In the event of a hard Brexit, you may not be able to work in Brussels or fly to Hamburg without a visa.
Farage: Before 1914, there were no passports at all. So what are you talking about? You obviously don’t know history, do you?
ZEIT ONLINE: Among the EU’s fundamental principles is the freedom of movement for goods, services, capital and people. Those who leave the EU risk losing these freedoms.
Farage: When I was elected in 1999, borders and immigrants weren’t even mentioned. Not once in my literature. Why? Because it wasn’t relevant.
ZEIT ONLINE: Yet Brexit could result in there being a new border in Europe.
Farage: You are away with the fairies. You must be mad. I have never heard anything so immature in all my life. Because of Brexit I will lose my option to travel to Hamburg? You should be on a comedy show, not be a journalist.
Farage’s press spokesman interrupts the parliamentarian for the fourth time. It’s too much, he says and indicates to Farage that he should put an end to the discussion. Farage stands up from his leather armchair and sits down at his desk. That’s it, he says, and looks at the papers lying in front of him. The interview is over and his press spokesman requests that the journalist leave the room.
Ukip’s finances have always lacked transparency and it has been believed by many that literally £Millions have been syphoned off into private accounts, for instance a sum of over 50% of the costs of Nigel Farage’s office expenses which ran to £100s of £1,000 was listed in one year as ‘sundry expenses’ yet although jhis office manager provided accounts to trial balance Nigel Farage paid an accountant to rejig the accounts – for that he paid £6,000!
Then there was the Ashford Call Center, described by Farage as Ukip’s most profitable fund raising exercise – yet less than 15% of the money raised ever reached Ukip’s bank account – at that time about £1/4 Million was paid into an Eastborne bank account and approximately the same amount was paid into one of Nigel Farage’s off shore bank accounts in the tax haven of The Isle of Man, into the account called ‘Farage Educational Trust’.
Nigel Farage, who you will recall, no doubt, worked at one time for a French Bank in London and also as a trader for Refco (where a large number of senior employees wound up in prison), he alsao ran his own business for a while as a Metals Trader – yet he lied to the media and said he didn’t realise that that account he had in the Isle of Mann was held in a tax haven! He also claimed never to have used it, I would call £1/4 Million fairly substantial use! That he considered it an insignificant amount in an insiognificant account gives pause for thought as to which of his accounts he considers significant and just how large a sum is significant!
It is also worth following the money trail behind his present sponsor and ascertainiong where his money comes from, a start to your research may well be found at:
Aaron BANKS, (sometimes Aron) Fraser Andrew – something of a roundup to 28-Feb-2017 CLICK HERE also see HERE
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
e may well find the US Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate Team Trump’s links with Russia will expose more of the sourcing of the funding of Aaron Banks and Ukip over the years!
Has Ukip been prostituted for money all along, hence the low caliber of its leadership team and senior elected members?
KGB-REXIT?
Wikileaks: Inside the Farage-Assange-Trump Connection
How Donald Trump’s best friend in Britain—another big fan of Vladimir Putin—put his party at the service at Wikileaks’ Julian Assange.
LONDON—When Julian Assange sought refuge in 2011 at an embassy in the heart of London, only one of Britain’s political parties was willing to offer support to the exile in their midst.
Nigel Farage’s U.K. Independence Party, which seemed a fringe movement at the time but became the driving force behind Brexit, swung into action and campaigned against the demand that Assange be returned to Sweden for a police interview on allegations of rape.
The episode raises further questions about links between Farage, Assange and the Russian government. Farage, who is also a favored friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, was spotted emerging from a meeting with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in March.
Internal UKIP memos reveal the relationship went back much further: Assange and his lawyer were given the opportunity to contribute directly to speeches given by UKIP on the floor of the European Parliament while branches of the party in and around London were told to send activists to protest against Assange’s proposed judicial surrender to the authorities.
“We need bodies,” read an email request sent to local UKIP associations asking them to send two or three people each as an “astroturf” protest against Assange’s plight when he appeared in court in London in January 2011.
Stephens was asked if he or Assange would like to meet a UKIP member of the European Parliament, Gerrard Batten, on January 31 that year “in order to discuss bringing out issues in the case.” He was asked again if he wished “to include a few points to get the message across” on February 5, 2011, before Batten was due to speak in the European Parliament. Batten asked Stephens again if he had “any points that you feel I should or should not mention in the few minutes I get to speak” on February 11.
Batten addressed the European Parliament, standing at Farage’s right hand, on February 14, 2011,. where he raised the prospect that Assange was being mistreated because he was “a political dissident.” He returned to the case in June 2011, telling the parliament in Brussels that the U.S. “need him locked up somewhere” while they work out how to prosecute him.
The UKIP MEP also made a submission on behalf of Assange in his case against extradition, which went all the way to Britain’s Supreme Court in 2012. Last year, Batten wrote on his blog that Assange’s stay in the embassy of Ecuador had been tantamount to “arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.”
When news broke on Friday that Sweden would no longer pursue the allegations against Assange after a seven-year standoff while he hid in an embassy out of the reach of British law enforcement, Batten told The Daily Beast he had never taken a position on the guilt or innocence of Assange.
“I don’t really have a view about Mr. Assange. My involvement with him was regarding my opposition to the European Arrest Warrant,” he said. “At the time, eminent British lawyers who looked at it said this would never make it to an English court—these kind of accusations. It didn’t sound very sound in the first place.”Assange hailed Sweden’s decision to stop pursuing the allegations and celebrated the release of Chelsea Manning—one of the first major WikiLeaks leakers—in a speech from the balcony of the embassy in London’s Mayfair.
“We have today won an important victory, but the road is far from over. The proper war is just commencing,” he said, promising to accelerate the distribution of material about the CIA. The standoff will continue because there is still an outstanding warrant for Assange’s arrest over skipping bail.
Batten told The Daily Beast he had attended Assange’s lavish 40th birthday party in 2010 but had not met with him since. He said he does not recall whether Stephens or Assange took up his offer to help with his speeches. He also said he had received no donations from anyone connected to WikiLeaks or the Russian government. “If only these people would offer me money, I’d have the luxury of refusing it,” he said.
UKIP has repeatedly denied co-operating with Russia, Russian front organizations, or taking funds from the Kremlin—which would be illegal under British law—but Farage, who was one of the first foreign politicians to meet with Trump after his election, has called for improved relations between Russia, Britain, and the U.S. He also described Vladimir Putin as the foreign leader he most admires.
Last week, Farage refused once again to answer questions about his recent visit to see Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. “That has nothing to do with you,” he snapped at a Die Zeit reporter. “It was a private meeting.”
He has claimed that he met Assange as a journalist—not as a political go-between—but no interview has appeared since the March 9 meeting.
In the same interview, Farage also failed to disclose whether he received payments for his regular appearances on RT, a news channel funded by the Russian government, which paid Assange to produce his own show in 2012.
Farage has denied that he was carrying a secret message to or from Assange, whose WikiLeaks organization has been accused of influencing the result of last year’s U.S. presidential election with the help of Russian hackers.
One of the UKIP candidates contesting Britain’s election next month told The Daily Beast that there is nothing suspicious about the attitude towards Russia taken by Farage and his party. Nigel Sussman, the parliamentary candidate for Edmonton in North London, says it’s a natural meeting of minds.
“Russia is very credible and commonsensical—and UKIP is very credible and commonsensical,” he said. “There’s a synergy of views there.”
Sussman has a more intimate view of Russia than most British politicians. He traveled to Crimea last month as a guest of the Russian parliament, who paid for internal flights, accommodation and food. Sussman says he paid for his own round-trip flights to Russia.
Sussman, the chair of UKIP’s Ilford association, who was on the trip with another former UKIP candidate, met with the local pro-Russian officials and toured the streets of former eastern Ukraine talking to local residents accompanied by cameras from Russia’s state-owned TV Channel 1. Although most of the international community regards Moscow’s covert occupation and annexation of Crimea following as stage-managed vote as illegal and illegitimate, based on his interviews, Sussman says: “Crimea had a perfectly legitimate referendum in my opinion.”
As a result, he has submitted a report to UKIP’s National Executive Committee, which calls for a policy change—demanding that sanctions should be lifted against Russia.
“As far as I can see there don’t seem to be a lot of people standing up for Russia right now,” he said. Is UKIP the most pro-Russian party? “Yes, I think it is.”
Sussman is, however, hopeful that Trump will ease relations between Moscow and the West. “I have high hopes for Trump because Trump is going to meet Putin. I think he has said it plain: he wants to be friends with Russia. That sounds like an eminently sensible position for God’s sake!”
The UKIP candidate insisted that there was no evidence that Putin’s regime had helped Trump into office, although the U.S. intelligence community is on the record and unanimous in its conviction that Russia tried to influence the outcome. He also explained away Moscow’s reported munificence towards Marine Le Pen. “What happened was Le Pen tried to get a loan from French banks and none of the French banks would lend her any money—and that’s outrageous… It’s a bit like UKIP, I mean God help us!”
The bottom line: Le Pen’s party received millions of dollars in loans in 2014 from a now defunct Russian bank, and, whether coincidentally or out of conviction, her minions, too, endorsed the Crimean annexation.
The two representatives from Britain on the Crimea tour this year were not joined by any members of Le Pen’s National Front, but the guests included an unlikely array of minor party politicians like Jaroslav Holik from a Czech party with links to Le Pen, or the son of Serbia’s Vojislav Seselj, who was acquitted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations tribunal in the Hague.
“It’s a collection of odds and sods; far left or far right will do, as long as they are open to some Russian support. Some of these are full Russian puppets like the Serbian Radical Party,” said Neil Barnett, the chief executive of Istok Associates, a corporate intelligence and investigations consultancy.
Arron Banks, the British businessman who was once UKIP’s biggest donor and set up the unofficial Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, says he has a good relationship with Russia—including long boozy lunches with the Russian ambassador—but says there has been no monetary donation either directly or through his array of offshore companies.
Banks, who was pictured in the entourage that met Trump with Farage in the days just after Trump won the election, gave an extraordinary interview to the Observer newspaper in London last month in which he admitted that his Russian wife had the profile of a Russian spy, then suddenly denied that Russia had bankrolled Brexit—unprompted—and repeatedly defended Putin.
“What you’re talking about is the degree to which the Russians actually—let’s say they influenced the Brexit vote. Say I’m pro-Putin. Nigel said he’s not anti-Putin, if that’s the right word. But all we’ve said is that there are elements of what Russians do that we don’t disagree with. We don’t agree with everything they’re doing, like murdering journalists in the street,” he said.
This “joke” is typical of Banks, who ensures it’s hard to know exactly how seriously his words should be taken at any given moment.
When his old pal Farage was spotted leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in March, original reports said it was unclear why he had been inside the building—not least since Farage claimed to have forgotten.
A newspaper later reported that he had indeed been holding secret talks with Assange, and Banks wrote on Twitter: “Well he didn’t go for drinks with the ambassador did he?”
Another multi-millionaire with loose-lips, like Trump, Banks seems to revel in offering glimmers of a sprawling axis that runs from Washington D.C. to Moscow via London—and a tiny sliver of Ecuadorian sovereignty.
Whether Assange makes it outside the embassy in the coming days or if he continues to hide from justice—the game of shadows will continue.
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
when you consider the High Court’s comments in the case below, perhaps we can understand why the case brought against Nikki Sinclaire was so utterly amateur and corrupt, it does seem as if there is endemic and institutionalised corruption in The West Midlands Policeforce and all too likely when you consider the murtder of Charles de Menenez and the rise of Cressida Dick who was in charge of that murder, and the clearly corrupt case against Jasna Badzak, and the dishonesty of Gerard Batten when he used the police to try to bqankrupt me with his lies – it seems it isn’t just The West Midlands Police!
Even earlier than these cases you would be astonished at not only howmuch evidence we had to supply to OLAF and The Bedfordshire Police before they finally condescended to charge the Ukip MEP Tom Wise and Lindsey Jenkins with embezzelling tax payers’ money from the EU purse.
Tom Wise had even paid his solicitor, from the stolen money in his account, to fund trying to use the law to silence me and if possible bankrupt me to prevent me continuing to expose the truth. Nigel Farage never was prosecuted for the stolen money he received from Tom Wise and also as Tom Wise finally admitted his part in the crime the charges against Lindsey Jenkins were not proceded with.
Despite having worked with Daniel Foggo and exposed the crime in the National Press the police took a very long time to act and it was only because I would not drop the matter that Bedford Police finally brought charges that led to Tom Wise being sentenced to 2 years in prison!
It does look all too much as if Ukip, the CPS and the police collude in corruption!
Let us not forget that in giving evidence against
Nikki Sinclaire, who organised, obtained and presented the peoples’ petition which obtained the IN/OUT EU Referendum to restore the fundamental human right of selfdetermination to the British peoples,
Ukip’s lakey John Ison admitted he not only fabricated evidence, but also stole from Sinclaire and was colluding with Nigel Farage in setting her up!
Perhaps even at this late date the West Midlands Police and the CPS, whose deputy director sat in on much of the case and seemed to have colluded in the efforts to stitch Sinclaire up, could show some integrity and explain why they failed to appologise to Sinclaire, when she won her case and they resoundingly lost on all counts, and also why they failed to prosecute John Ison and those with whom he colluded – minded that the Judge in the case cautioned John Ison as he was incriminating himself in open Court!
Consider not just how corrupt West Midlands Police have been shown to be in the case below but also what a foul mouthed bunch of low lifes they have shown themselves to be. Also this would seem to be endemic over many years for was it not the same force who fabricated evidence some years ago against ‘The Birmingham Six’ a case they never solved!
Consider also the lies and fabrications by the police, to try to dishonestly cover up corruption and incompetence, in the Hillsborough case. So we can go on: Consider the murder of the newspaper seller brutally attacked and killed on camera by a Metropolitan Police lout.
Consider these cases before you trust the police again, as it seems all too common!
You should also, when you have read this article below then read CLICK HERE
This is just the latest well documented case:
West Midlands police unit accused of perjury and falsifying evidence
Counter-terror unit members described as ‘criminals who fabricate evidence’ in Old Bailey trial of terror suspects
Three of the suspects on trial at the Old Bailey: Mohibur Rahman, Khobaib Hussain and Naweed Ali. Tahir Aziz (not pictured) is also on trial. Composite: Pa/Rex
Tuesday 16 May 2017 20.02 BST Last modified on Tuesday 16 May 2017 20.18 BST
A West Midlands police counter-terrorism unit has been accused in court of perjury, falsifying notebooks and hiding text messages related to the trial of a group of terror suspects who called themselves the “Three Musketeers”.
Simon Hussey, a senior officer in West Midlands police’s special projects team, began giving evidence at the Old Bailey trial of four men from the Midlands accused of plotting terror attacks in late April but his cross-examination was interrupted, and the personal and work phones of several officers involved in the case were seized by the police shortly afterwards.
Defence barrister Stephen Kamlish QC said the texts and call records exposed the unit as “criminals who fabricate evidence, who ensure that documents go to courts that aren’t true accounts” and that Hussey and his team had repeatedly discussed their evidence with one another during the trial, despite being under orders from the judge, Mr Justice Globe, not to discuss the case.
Giving evidence in April, Hussey told the judge he had no communication during the trial with “Vincent”, an undercover officer who posed as the boss of a fake courier company set up to gather intelligence on two of the defendants. Central to the defence case is the allegation that Vincent planted a bag containing a pipe-bomb, an air pistol and other items under the driver’s seat of the car of Naweed Ali, one of the defendants, where it was discovered by the security services and triggered a major security alert.
But the messages and phone logs revealed repeated contact between Vincent and Hussey, including a seven-minute phone call from Vincent immediately after he finished giving evidence on his first day. Hussey said he could not remember what they had discussed. They also travelled in a group from Birmingham to London during the trial and stayed in the same hotel until they were advised not to by the prosecution’s barristers.
“Yes we met, but the principle is we don’t discuss the case,” he said.
“That was a clear and blatant lie,” Kamlish responded.
In the runup to the trial, the officers met at Hilton Park service station on the M6 to revisit their witness statements. Kamlish said a service station was chosen to avoid being spotted. “This is your regular clandestine criminal meeting place, isn’t it, so that other people won’t see you there,” he said.
Hussey denied this. “The location was geographically suitable for them to meet,” he said. “I believe that the statements were sent for Andy and Hajji [a third undercover officer] so that they could refresh their memories prior to attending the court to give evidence so they could individually prepare for the case.”
Kamlish claimed Vincent had rewritten his notebook by hand after the four men were arrested to include references to seeing defendants with the bag in which the pipe-bomb and air pistol were found. This was a “very big lie at the heart of the case”, he said.
The week after the arrests, Hussey texted Vincent: “We have agreed with cookie [a senior officer] that you will write your pocket book for Pesage [the name of the operation], not type, hope that helps.” Kamlish said this revealed Vincent falsifying his notes.
Hussey denied this: “Prior to that text to Vincent there had been discussions with Vincent as to who should complete a typed copy of his written pocketbook. It is generally the case that operatives produce a typed copy of their written pocketbook … I said I would ask [another officer] who would produce the typed copy and he said his team would do that. So that text to Vincent tells him we’ve agreed that,” he said.
The text messages revealed a tight-knit group of officers: Vincent texted Hussey that he was preparing to give an “Oscar performance” on the witness stand, adding: “I won’t let you down … I would die first .”
Another undercover officer, referred to in court as Andy, retired shortly after the operation ended. Vincent texted him: “So you wanker … U leave me with a load of fucking wet wiped nob heads who don’t know how to put a job together wipe arses or cover tracks … Wanker …. Miss you.”
Hussey told the jury: “We’re close as colleagues, yes.”
The evidence is part of a 10-week trial of Naweed Ali, 29 and Khobaib Hussain, neighbours from Birmingham, and Mohibur Rahman, 32 and Tahir Aziz, 28 of Stoke-on-Trent, on charges of preparing terrorist acts between May and August 2016. All four men deny the charges.
The men were arrested in August 2016 during a major security alert after the bag containing the pipe bomb – which was later found to be non-viable – and the other weapons was found.
Just who will Police The Police in our society,
as they seem to be Out of Control, arrogant & self obsessed
You should also, now you have read this article above then read CLICK HERE
From the Hillsborough Inquest to Plebgate, from the revelations about undercover officers to the shooting of Mark Duggan, the last few years have been as controversial as any in the history of British policing. The government has introduced a range of new measures to try and make the police service more accountable.
These have included the strengthening of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, measures to crack down on officers retiring when under investigation, and a new openness surrounding police disciplinary hearings. But have these new ideas really worked or is there, as some claim, real resistance to accountability?
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
I didn’t notice Paul Nuttall’s claim that he had mastered walking on the spot when he was teaching Michael Jackson how to ‘Moon Walk’ during the time he took off from studying for his Doctorate (everyone else ‘reads’ for the qualification of Professor!), presumably that was before he was a professional footballer for Tranmere Rovers but after he had managed the crowd control of Hillsboro – or was this just another claim that when he was shown to have lied about it he blamed it on a junior employee, after it being on his web site for many years!
Then it was on to Stoke where he hadn’t a clue where he lived and slept at night, claiming to have a house in the constituency (that seemingly he had seen in an Estate Agent’s window) – but that Michael Crick viewed and filmed as empty and to let!
Then on to the present constituency he has been parachuted into as a carpet bagger, at the last minute, where it became abundantly clear in a TV interview he didn’t seem to know any of the main land marks in the constituency, couldn’t name them and didn’t even know they were in the constituency.
This fooish little chap made a fool of himself on his web site, showed he was a fool in Stoke and is proving to be a fool in this election too – not content with that he has led people to believe he is also a liar and a cheat.
Oh so very Ukip!
Having become a laughing stock in the Stoke by-election, the most winnable seat for Ukip in Britain as a result of the hard work Nikki Sinclaire put in promoting a pro BreXit vote in the Referendum she was directly responsible for instigating with the petition she organised after she left Ukip. The petition Nigel Farage’s Ukip party tried to sabotage to avoid the Referendum it gave rise to and the probability Ukip would be out of a job once the electorate knew the truth and voted for BreXit.
Well that was one thing Nigel Farage got right, before he jumped ship to avoid humiliation in domestic politics yet again.
It is noteworthy that despite Nigel Farage’s £800 a session job waffling for LBC, his highly paid job for Fox News in America, regular income from Russia via his work for RT, his free house in Chelsea, his young French ‘house Mate’, his funding by Arron Banks sourced from seemingly dubious sources and the near £1/4M he accrues as an MEP and he’s still leading Ukip in the EU. Plus of course the additional income and further monies he controls as leader of an EU Group and of course money he trousers, which runs to 10s of £1,000s, in Court cases related to his job!
Nigel Farage has left the party; that served him so well over 20 years, in a total mess; leaderless and with no structure, he never managed to create a viable structure and we all know why
he really was terrified of anyone of competence being in a position to challenge him and his control of the purse strings. Just look at the long list of MEPs elected under the Ukip banner that have quit the party due to fraud, corruption or having clashed with Nigel Farage and then add the many competent individuals who quit because Farage feared their competence see CLICK HERE.
Nigel Farage sowed the seeds of Ukip’s failure by his utter lack of leadership skills, but he did teach this clown who has replaced him one thing: Never accept responsibility for anything that goes wrong and surround yourself with nobodies you can blame!
Now we all know, that with BreXit moving forward under Theresa May’s management, Ukip is
GOING NOWHERE?
Paul Nuttall’s attempt at looking serious goes wrong as Ukip video appears to show him walking on the spot
Ukip leader appears to be bobbing up and down in cringe-worthy party political broadcast
By Tom Gillespie
12th May 2017,6:54 pm
Updated: 13th May 2017,7:49 am
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall might struggle to convince voters he can not only “talk the talk” but “walk the walk” – after starring in a hilarious party political broadcast that appears to show him walking on the spot.
Paul Nuttall is leading Ukip through a period when their very existence is seemingly hanging in the balance
Once Nuttall’s “walk of shame” is over he places his hands on top of a wall and stares out across the sea as a voiceover says: “Who’s looking after you, and who really does put our country first?”
A cutaway then appears to show the shambolic Ukipper in London as he says: “We want to cut immigration, we want a more secure Britain, we want to prioritise the NHS over foreign aid, we want to protect British culture, and we want a modern and fair democracy.”
It is not clear where Nuttall took his seafront stroll but he is running to be an MP in the coastal town of Boston and Skegness in the General Election on June 8.
Twitter user Ross Fairbairn wrote: “Is it me or is Paul Nuttall just walking on the spot in the UKIP party political broadcast? Hahaha.”
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
It relates to her being sued for libel and slander by Sir Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley, John Healey, MP for Wentworth and Dearne, and Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, over a speech she made in 2014 about the Rotherham child abuse scandal.
The High Court heard she alleged that each of the MPs knew details of the exploitation but chose not to intervene.
Today Ms Collins appeared at a private hearing at Hull County Court to discuss a demand for payment issued by the MPs’ lawyers. It is understood the MEP had requested the demand was set aside but this was not agreed at the hearing.
A spokeswoman for Ms Collins said the judge has now ordered an examination of her assets and that she will face bankruptcy proceedings if it is found that she cannot make the payments owed.
It came after Ms Collins alleged the three Labour MPs in the South Yorkshire town knew about the notorious child abuse scandal but did not intervene because of political correctness, cowardice, or selfishness.
Sir Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley, John Healey, MP for Wentworth and Dearne, and Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, sued Ms Collins for libel and slander over the speech, which she gave at Ukip’s conference in September 2014. At the time, it was a month after a report found about 1,400 children in the area had been abused between 1997 and 2013.
Ms Collins argued it was a political speech which did not contain any allegation of fact but expressed an opinion to the effect that the MPs were likely to have known sexual exploitation was a serious problem in the area.
But Mr Justice Warby ordered her to pay a total of £162,000 damages to the MPs and £196,000 in costs.
She appeared at at Hull County Court for a further private hearing on Monday after she did not meet a 21-day deadline to pay the damages and an interim payment of £120,000 costs.
It is understood the MEP had requested the demand for payment issued by the MPs’ lawyers was set aside but this was not agreed at the hearing.
A spokeswoman for Ms Collinssaid the judge has now ordered that an examination of her assets should take place before June 8. The spokeswoman said she will face bankruptcy proceedings if it is found that she cannot make the payments owed.
A further court hearing will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in London later this year to discuss how she intends to pay.
Ms Collins was advised by her lawyer not to comment after the hearing on Monday but said no orders for costs had been issued during the proceedings.
Following the London hearing in February, the MPs said the case had been “delayed and dragged out time and again by Jane Collins’ repeated attempts to evade justice”.
The joint statement read: “She has run out of places to hide and the judge said in no uncertain terms that her behaviour since proceedings began has been unreasonable and offensive.
“Ms Collins could have admitted her mistake, withdrawn her remarks and apologised to us.”
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
having studied Ukip’s 24 year history and commented on it, exposing its corruption, dishonesty, stupidity and serial failures for 20 years, firstly with news eMails, then with the rise of the blog and web sites also you tube, and laterly Twitter, I have commented regularly in this public domain.
This single site has an archive of almost 3,000 relevant postings, I can confirm that the comments below by Douglas Carswell are in many ways right, though I believe he over estimates the relevance of both Nigel Farage and Ukip wildly.
Ever since Nigel Farage joined Ukip shortly after its inception he has manipulated and angled his way to protect his leadership – even when he left the party and was in negotiations with the BNP he had his eye firmly fixed on leading a political party.
Nigel from time to time put in or permitted puppet leaders such as Roger Knapman and Malcolm Pearson although throughout he remaioned the defacto leader and even when the party had a leader in its own right as with Alan Sked and Michael Holmes, he was working behind the scenes to unseat them, as with the overthrow of Michael Holmes and the theft of the records – largely blamed on his tame sewer rat the odious and duplicitous liar Mark Croucher, who did his dirty work for him.
One major reason for Ukip’s collapse has been Nigel Farage’s perpetual hollowing out the uipper echelons of the party to ensure no one of any consequential ability was ever in a position to put an alternative point of view forward for disscussion – individuals who were trying to clean up the party and force it to act ethically, transparently and as a democratic entity such as Dr. David Abbott, Dr. Eric Edmonds, Richard Suchorzewski, Nikki Sinclaire and the like.
Some may well recall when Nigel Farage and his sycophantic cronies like Douglas Denny, David Bannerman, Mark Croucher, Mick Mcgough and tyheir odious ilk orchestrated his own equivalent of Crystal Nacht and the Reichstag Fire to purge the party of anyone of competence, qualification and integrity who might expose him or offer an alternative view point.
Nigel Farage achieved his aim and having hollowed out any pretence at skill or structure Ukip was left under his absolute control, but that had its own drawbacks not least of which was the limited skill base. Ukip was very clearly doomed in the long run
Even individuals of such stunning mediocracy as Patrick O’Flynn, Suzanne Evans, Diane James, Stephen Wolfe and the like were either fortced out or forced to the margins and idiots and incompetents were elevated around the glorious leader! Just look at the low grade of MEPs the party has presented over the years, there have been almost none of any merit or ability.
Nigel Farage has ensured the party has been utterly dependent on him and that he has been the unchallenge leader – little wonder that aws he has tried to broaden his wings and feed his ego on a different platform Ukip has withered and died.
It is clear to the informed, and Douglas Carswell touches on the fact that Nigel Farage had very little to do with achieving BreXit in that he points out that had Farage had a pivotal role with his new found, if very suspect, new best friend and banker Arron Banks and had they been in the BreXit lead team during the Referendum it is almost a certainty that the vote would have gone the other way and David Cameron would be leading the Tories in a lack luster campaign to subsume Britain in every aspect of the evils of the EU and the opportunity of liberty, democracy and self determination on a global stage for these United Kingdoms would have been lost for at least a generation, or until the EU collapsed under a frontal onslaught from China via open border policies and Britain may well have become just a footnote in history.
Now at least Britain has an opportunity to thrive with its own unique values of independence and liberty via taking a lead with BreXit which in the long run will not only benefit Britain but also force change and some common sense on what is left of the EU, helping to bring to a close this era of external influence via Chinese money and Russian manipulation of the ambitions of some of the dangerous elements of Nationalism such as we have seen with the denigartion of Britain and unlikely sources of finance via RT and Russian brides with hidden political doweries!
Ex-UKIP MP Douglas Carswell blames Nigel Farage for party’s collapse
‘If Ukip had been in charge of the Leave campaign, I believe David Cameron would still be PM and we would have voted to Remain’
Nigel Farage has only himself to blame for Ukip’s collapse as a political force, the party’s former MP Douglas Carswell has said.
Mr Carswell, who quit Ukip before announcing he would stand down as an MP at the 8 June election, said the party’s former leader put voters off with “angry outbursts” over immigrants.
His comments came after a disastrous set of local elections for the eurosceptic party, which lost more than 100 councillors and won only a single seat on Thursday.
Leader Paul Nuttall acknowledged the party had lost large numbers of supporters to Conservatives, but insisted it had a “great future” so long as it could “stay on the pitch and hold its ground”.
Voters would come back in droves once Theresa May starts to make compromises in Brexit negotiations, he said.
But the near-wipeout prompted millionaire former donor Arron Banks to declare Ukip “finished as an electoral force” under its current leadership.
Mr Carswell and Mr Farage have long been at daggers-drawn, with the former Ukip leader accusing the party’s first elected MP of working to undermine it.
Ukip is finally dead – and the Tories battered us all while killing it
Writing in The Mail On Sunday, Mr Carswell said his defection from the Tories and subsequent victory in the 2014 Clacton by-election marked a highpoint for Ukip which was later set back by Mr Farage’s outspoken comments.
“Ukip alone offered the chance of change. But we blew it,” he said.
“We won almost 60 per cent of the vote in Clacton by talking about GPs, not just immigration. In Rochester, we won by reaching out beyond our base.
“But rather than learn from that, Nigel Farage reverted to type.
“On the day we triumphed in Clacton, the then Ukip leader majored on migrants with HIV.
“Then he managed to end up in an argument about mothers breastfeeding in public, before making rude noises about Romanians.
“Why? Far from having a strategy, we seemed to be driven by whatever came out of Nigel’s mouth.”
Mr Carswell claimed David Cameron was keen to debate with Mr Farage on TV because he believed it would ensure the Leave side lost the EU referendum.
The former Clacton MP said: “If Ukip had been in charge of the Leave campaign, I believe David Cameron would still be PM and we would have voted to Remain
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 do themselves no favours do they – here is their General Election candidate for Wyre Forest constituency, clearly MP material ;-(
I guess it will actually make little difference as with 3% support across the country and the collapse they have experienced in the local elections as Ukip’s pro BreXit Tory voters return to their natural home, it is more a certainty than just unlikely they will get anyone elected.
UKIP reveal their challenger for Wyre Forest seat in snap General Election
George Connolly. Picture from Wyre Forest UKIP Facebook page
WYRE Forest UKIP has announced George Connolly will stand for the party in the district in this June’s snap General Election.
In statement on their Facebook page, the party said they were delighted to announce Mr Connolly would be their candidate in June.
George Connolly, who lives and works in the area, now wants to help shape Wyre Forest post-Brexit.
He said: “I am the only candidate in Wyre Forest who on June 23, campaigned for Brexit.
“Sixty-four per cent of the Wyre Forest constituency voted to leave, I will be their voice in the House of Commons if elected.”
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
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
~~~~~~~~~~#########~~~~~~~~~~
Ukip-vs-EUkip 
