Newsletter October/November 2009

FROM THE SECRETARY:

Five people have put their names forward in the election for a new UKIP leader. They are Gerard Batten, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, Mike Nattrass, Nikki Sinclair and Alan Wood. The voting papers are due to be sent out to all members on 2nd November and must be received back by the 26th. In view of the postal chaos I suggest we vote as soon as the papers arrive and put them back in the post straight away.

This is real democracy at work!

Evelyn Rolph - Branch Secretary

Lisbon Treaty
The Irish voted Yes to the Lisbon Treaty on 2nd October and a week later the Polish ratified. The Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, is the only one who is still holding out although the EU Commissioners are putting much pressure on him to ratify so that they can get on with the job of voting for the first permanent EU President. Tony Blair is still expected to be offered the job. Nigel Farage is rather hoping he will be as it will prove to the British people that the reason Tony Blair would not let us have a referendum on the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty was for his own personal gain.

Big Brother
There is some worrying infomation in the current eurofacts. This newsletter is published by June Press - no connection with UKIP so it is not UKIP propaganda. The fact that the information comes direct from the EU makes it more troubling.

The British Government is to spend £200 million a year on keeping records of every internet click made by every citizen on top of the email and telephone records already available. This is spying on a grand scale. Some 653 bodies are currently allowed access to these records, including councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and prison governors. This is separate from the EU Data Retention Directive which requires the storage of phone and email records.

Alan Bown donation
You will remember that in 2007 UKIP was taken to court over an “impermissible” donation. Alan Bown, who lives in Thanet and has a factory in Ramsgate making bath robes, had given the Party £350,000 to help with the 2005 General Election. He had been on the electoral register prior to that but for some reason his name was omitted in 2005. As soon as he realised the mistake, he had his name reinstated but during that time, he had made his donation. Donors must be on the electoral register in order to prevent people living abroad from trying to influence the outcome of British elections. Judge Tim Workman who heard the case in 2007 agreed that Alan Bown is a genuine British resident and decided in favour of UKIP. The Electoral Commission appealed and the Court of Appeal has judged in favour of the Electoral Commission. As well as having to hand over £350,000, UKIP will have to pay court fees of approx. £400,000. Labour, Conservatives and Lib.Dems. have all received millions of pounds from people based overseas but the Electoral Commission has not taken any steps against them.

Brown sell-off
Gordon Brown is planning to sell more of the “family silver”. Assets on offer include local government properties; student loans; the Tote; High Speed One; the Royal Mint; Dartford Crossing; Ordnance Survey; Met Office; Covent Garden vegetable market and the state’s 33% stake in Urenco, a nuclear company that enriches uranium.

Children’s database
The £224 million ContactPoint database was designed in the aftermath of the Victoria Climbie murder in 2000 with the aim of ensuring that children in trouble can be identified by doctors, social workers or police officers. In January I reported that Town Hall staff had been given access to the database but children of politicians and celebrities will have their identities “shielded”. Most families will have names, addresses, contact details, social worker contacts and details of any sex, drug or mental health services they have been involved with. Shielded families will have only the names, sex, date of birth and an identification number for their children listed. Patricia Morgan, an author who writes about the family and abuse, said: “This is very Soviet - the elite get entirely different treatment from everybody else.”

Sham marriages
The number of sham marriages fell in 2006 after non-EU nationals were told they must apply for Home Office approval before marrying an EU citizen but Law Lords said these rules breached human rights and must be relaxed. Since then the number of sham marriages has risen again.

Migration cover-up
Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, claimed that the Government opened up Britain’s borders in 2001 to make Britain “really multicultural” and to portray opponents of mass migration as racists. At least 3 million (non EU) people have been admitted between 2001 and 2008. Labour were warned of a possible link between mass migration and organised crime but this warning has been covered up.

2011 national census
This is due to be carried out on 27th March 2011.

Day-to-day news from October

2nd - A former Conservative association chairman, Kay Hipsey (East Basildon & Thurrock), has joined UKIP after saying she felt “shunned” by fellow Tories wanting to “punish” her because her husband, Terry, had joined our Party six months ago. On the 14th October, Mansfield Councillor Nick Bennett and the Chairman of the Mansfield Conservative Association, Philip Smith, also joined UKIP.

3rd - EDF, the French energy giant which bought Britain’s eight nuclear power stations in 2008, has put its UK electricity distribution arm up for sale. It will not affect customers as the company is keeping its retail arm.

5th - New EU aviation rules allow a pilot to fly for 14 hours during the day and 11 hours 45 minutes at night. The British Airline Pilots’ Association says this is too long. Commercial airlines will put pressure on pilots to fly when they are fatigued and this could cause accidents. British pilots currently work shorter hours but from 2012 we must harmonise with the other EU member countries.

5th - The EU’s draft directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes has shocked British civil servants by the degree of suffering to animals permitted.

7th - Britain’s watercress farmers have asked the EU to protect the name of their product. British watercress is grown in free flowing streams which are channelled into waterbeds and this gives it its distinctive taste and crunch. The Spanish have started growing watercress in polytunnels on land which produces an inferior, bitter-tasting vegetable.

7th - The EU is planning to allow 60-ton mega lorries to roll onto UK roads. These lorries are 50% longer than existing ones and substantially heavier. The British government banned them last year but the EU wants to ignore our wishes and plough on with their plans regardless.

12th - Glenys Kinnock has been moved from her job of EU minister just 4 months after she was moved into the House of Lords to fill the position. She has been handed responsibility for Africa, a much less prestigious post but will keep the inflated £106,136 a year salary of a minister of state.

12th - Ofgem has warned that Britain faces a return to power blackouts and disruption of electricity supplies within four years because the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive will force the closure of a quarter of the UK’s ageing power stations by 2015. Wind turbines will never be able to produce sufficient electricity to replace the power stations.

13th - The Commission has proposed tighter EU-wide regulation on mortgage access, as part of its review of the Capital Requirements Directive. It suggests putting a 40% cap on the loan-to-value indicator, so anyone buying a £100,000 flat would only be able to borrow £40,000. Directives like this affect Britain more than the continental countries as there are more home owners in this country.

14th - Turkey, Iceland, Croatia and Macedonia are all hoping to join the EU.

16th - British hospitals have been granted a temporary reprieve from the EU Working Time Directive after the Royal College of Surgeons argued that the 48-hour week was interfering with patient care and putting patients’ lives at risk.

16th - MEPs want compulsory classes on the EU for 14-year-olds in schools in all member states.

16th - Lloyds/TSB may sell about 200 bank branches in Scotland as part of its agreement with the EU over the billions of pounds of state aid it has received.

22nd - Although there are more than 5.6 million genetic profiles on the police DNA database, the number of crimes solved by DNA matches has fallen.

23rd - British students have to start repaying their student loans once they earn more than £15,000 and the money is deducted automatically from their pay packet. Students from EU countries often disappear in their home countries once they have finished their course and so receive free university education. Non-EU students have to pay for their courses in advance.

26th - Sales of all herbal remedies, except for a small number of products for “mild” illness, will be banned under the new EU law to come into force in 2011. It will cover herbalists and Chinese medicine practitioners.

28th - France’s six-month presidency of the EU cost £160 million. French President Nicolas Sarkozy spent £250,000 on a custom-built shower which was never used.

28th - The EU is proposing future funding of the budget should be made through a direct EU tax, the money to come from levies on phone calls, flights, financial transactions or carbon emissions. Also they want the UK rebate to be phased out.

29th - The EU Commission has approved the splitting of Northern Rock into two separate banks. The “good” bank will be sold off but the taxpayers will retain the “bad” bank with its toxic debts.

30th - The Conservatives are preparing to promise a “referendum guarantee” on all future transfers of power to Brussels. With Lisbon being a self-amending treaty, it is unlikely we will have any more opportunities to vote on transfer of power. They’ve left it too late - and they know it!