Lord Pearson backs the Conservatives

Lord Pearson, leader of UKIP, has written to a newspaper group in Somerset urging voters to support the Conservatives rather than his party's candidates. As previously reported, one of his candidates, Jake Baynes, refused to stand down when asked by UKIP to do so.

Interestingly, Niall Warry, a former UKIP supporter, is standing in Somerset and Frome, as well as a Ukip candidate.

Ukipwatcher

The candidate who refuses to stand down

More ructions within UKIP, whose candidate in Wells, Jake Baynes, has refused to obey the the instructions of his party leader and stand down in the general election to help Conservative Euro-sceptic David Heathcoat-Amory

UKIP leader Lord Pearson, who had asked him to stand down, said: "There's a debate going on, there has been a disagreement, yes".

Indeed there has! According to Jake Baynes, "To stand down would be a betrayal."

Ukipwatcher

Others watch Ukip too....

Good to see that other blogs are picking up on UKIP sleaze: see a good account on leftfootforward
(see April 6th 2010 at 5:07 pm.)

Ukipwatcher

You really can't make it up!

Paul Wiffen, Ukip's parliamentary candidate and Redbridge council hopeful has quit after making racist comments about The Queen, just days after sparking controversy for previous remarks about Muslims and Romanian gypsies.

Paul Wiffen, who was standing for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Ilford South as well as Chadwell ward, has stepped down after it emerged he made derogatory remarks about Her Majesty on Facebook.

In a conversation on the social network website, Mr Wiffen responded to a comment made by an American about the Queen, saying: “If you want one so bad, you can have the German bitch who has just handed our sovereignty to Europe without a murmur!”, according to the Evening Standard.

Selected, de-selected, re-selected and now de-selected! You can't make it up!

Ukipwatcher

Peas in a pod?

Are UKIP and BNP identical when it comes to policies? Ukipwatch has come across a telling and detailed comparison of their policies, carried out by a religious think tank.





Ukipwatcher

So who will Ukip NOT stand against in the General Election?

So now we know who the Ukip collaborators are in other political parties. They have announced the list of sitting MPs against whom they will not put up candidates.

The list consists of Conservative candidates Philip Davies (Shipley) whose father is the English Democrat Mayor of Doncaster, Douglas Carswell (Clacton), Janice Small (Batley and Spen), Alex Story (Wakefield), and Philip Hollobone (Kettering).

They also manage to find (presumably to show some balance). One Labour candidate, namely David Drew in Stroud and independent Bob Spink in Castle Point. Lord Pearson revealed that he was trying to convince the local Ukip party in Wells to withdraw its candidate against ultra eurosceptic David Heathcoat-Amory.


Ukipwatcher

Manifesto launch

According to Ukip’s website, their “top straight-talking politicians today introduces the most statesmanlike strategy seen in recent British electioneering”.

Statesmanlike? This hardly tallies with reports of their launch which consisted of “party workers giggling admiringly at the official campaign T-shirts” emblazoned with slogans such as “I love it when you talk straight to me,” and “Withdrawal! Before it’s too late”.

One of the reporters asked “Ah, an ejaculation joke. Will this do much to dispel your image as 19th-hole bores?”




Ukipwatcher

The Chairman of Ukip in London........

The Chairman of UK in London has been caught out making offensive racist remarks, saying "You Left-wing scum are all the same, wanting to hand our birthright to Romanian gypsies who beat their wives and children into begging and stealing money they can gamble with, Muslim nutters who want to kill us and put us all under medieval Sharia law, the same Africans who sold their Afro-Caribbean brothers into a slavery that Britain was the first to abolish"



But most astonishing of all is his excuse for having made the remarks in the first place: "When I read the lies about Ukip being a racist party, I just saw red, and fired off an angry email."
You couldn't make it up!


Of course, Ukip loudly suspended him and then quietly reintegrated him after the media furore died down!


Ukipwatcher

Nigel fined for "offensive" comments

Nigel Farage has been fined by the President of the European Parliament and will forfeit 10 days of his daily subsistence allowance.

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, wrote to Nigel following a meeting in which Buzek invited NF to withdraw the remarks (made in a Parliamentary sitting on 24th February) to President Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. According to the letter, NF made it clear to Buzek that he had no intention of retraction.

Mr Buzek said "I attach the highest importance to freedom of speech. I fought for decades in my own country for such freedom. I have complete respect for your right to express the views you may hold on the policies and institutions of the European Union. However, as I explained to you today and on previous occasions, it is not possible to exercise the freedom which we all hold dear without respecting the dignity of others and of the institution in which we both sit. I do not believe that freedom of speech in the Parliament can extend to insulting other persons, especially guests speaking, at our invitation, in the chamber.

I consider that, unfortunately, some of the comments which you made on 24 February were offensive both to Mr Van Rompuy personally and to the member state from which he comes. Such behaviour is, in my view, inappropriate and disrespectful to the dignity of the Parliament. The very foundation of parliamentarism and democracy is that freedom of expression should respect others".

UKIPwatcher understands that Mr Van Rompuy was inundated with emails of support from UK citizens angered by NF's comments. While Nigel may have wanted to raise his profile in the run up to a General Election, sometimes these kind of stunts have a habit of backfiring.

UKIPwatcher

Very careless to lose an MEP so soon after the election

The year is not yet out since the European elections but it looks like this parliamentary cycle is following the same path as the last one. The Times reports that UKIP have withdrawn the whip from Nikki Sinclaire MEP. She has been removed from UKIP's website which has a statement on it which reads:

Thursday, 4th March 2010

Nikki Sinclaire says that her political views are incompatible with those of some members of the EFD Group in the European parliament, of which the UKIP MEPs form part. So she has been sitting as an unattached MEP since 18th January 2010.

She has also proved unable to collaborate adequately with the voluntary party in the United Kingdom, particularly with the regional committee in the West Midlands.

The national executive committee has therefore removed the whip; Nikki Sinclaire may no longer describe herself as a UKIP MEP, and she may not stand as a UKIP candidate in the forthcoming General Election.

No respect for the House!

Nigel Farage showed what a distasteful man he is by showing no respect to the House (European Parliament in session) by rudely rounding on Herman Van Rompuy yesterday after the President of the European Council had given his first speech to the Parliament since his appointment by all the Heads of State of the member states of the EU. He insulted the man personally and professionally.

Mr Van Rompuy is apparently known to be a quiet, thoughtful and polite man with huge intellectual ability -regardless of whether you support his position. The same cannot be said for Mr Farage who yesterday showed himself to be just plain rude. Joseph Daul, head of the centre-right EPP party suggested that the UK should leave the EU if it was so unhappy following Farage's outburst and Socialist leader Martin Schulz said it "would be better for Mr Farage to resign." He also accused Farage as having no respect for the House.

Farage seems unclear as to what he wants. Should he not be happy that the new President is not an internationally renowned figure (although he is with 27 Prime Ministers and Heads of Government and many other world leaders)? Does he want a dashing, charasmatic figure at the helm?

It seems to UKIPwatcher though this this was probably just an opportunity for the wily prospective candidate for Westminster to raise his profile in the British press just months away from a General Election, which he has succeeded in doing. Most likely is that Farage was so extreme in his attack that he hoped to incur disciplinary action from Buzek, who was chairing the session. That did not happen.