Friday, 1 January 2010

UKIP Swindon AGM

UKIP Swindon will be holding it's AGM on January 18th at 7pm. The venue is the South Marston Hotel and Leisure Club (formally the Nightingale Hotel), whose owner continues to support UKIP by allowing the use of conference facilities for free.

The meeting will be to elect a new committee to take the group into the next local and general elections. It will also be used to make the final selection of the two PPC's.

Chairman Greg Heathcliffe hopes all Swindon members will attend this meeting as the formation of this committee is perhaps the most important in the history of the Swindon Branch. Please note whilst non members are welcome, they will not be able to take any part in the election process, or speak to the event.

15 comments:

Steve Halden said...

Bob

This is a strange post as in October 2007 you were selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Swindon South, and I was selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Swindon North.

This was over two years ago, there is no need to be selected again,and again, and again, as you well know.

You only select a parliamentary canididate once, at a selection meeting.

This was done in October 2007 and the results of the selection meeting was announced in the Swindon Advertiser at that time.

It is not supposed to ber an annual event.

Bob Feal-martinez said...

I am merely acting on the directions of the branch Chairman. I believe it is felt that given we have so many new members that the initial process is perhaps past it's sell by date.

As I understand the rules but I stand to be corrected, selection and adoption are two different things. The candidate doesn't become the candidate until adopted.

Therefore were there to be a change of candidate, as in my case there needs to be, no rules will be broken that is why it is PPC.

Steve Halden said...

A person is a prospective parliamentary candidate until the election is called, and the nomination papers are handed in and accepted.

The person then becomes the candidate.

You must not call youself the candidate until then.

If you call yourself the canididate before then, you could be asked to run you expenses return from the date you started calling yourself the candidate.

To avoid this problem, the term prospective parliamentary canidiate is used.

Steve Halden said...

Bob Feal-Martinez

Why did you resign as prospective parliamentary candidate for Swindon South?

Bob Feal-martinez said...

Steve may I respectfully suggest you do not start a dialogue you cannot win. If you have a problem with me carrying out the Chairman's wishes may I respectfully suggest you take up the issue with him, or you could of course always lodge another childish complaint.

As for expenses you are clearly out of touch. I suggest you actually read the briefing documents you have been sent. Candidate expenses are now more tightly defined. If you do not know that then I suggest you start to seek advice, before you damage the local group through lack of knowledge.

Steve Halden said...

Bob Feal-Martinez

I know all about the new rules for recording candidates expenses and if you had been at the last Swindon EGM you would have known about them as well, as the Regional Organiser went over it all in great detail.

Steve Halden said...

I was selected as the prospective parliamentarty candidate for Swindon North in October 2007.

I decided to start keeping copies of my letters published in the Swindon Advertiser from that time onwards.

I have had 102 letters published in the Swindon Advertiser since October 2007.

That is nearly one a week.

I have had over 200 letters published on the BBC Have Your Say internet website.

Plus a number of my letters have been published in national newspapers and on TV Teletext, as I write to eleven newspapers every week, plus the BBC and the ITV.

Steve Halden said...

I decided not to stand as a candidate in the 2008 council elections in Swindon, so that I could be the election agent and organiser for eleven UKIP council candidates in Swindon.

I helped eleven candidates to stand in Swindon. That is eleven nomination papers, eleven acceptance of nomination, and eleven UKIP logo and UKIP name usage forms.

Eleven leaflets to write, eleven photographs to get, and eleven leafelts to get printed.

The Swindon Advertiser wanted 100 word write ups for each candidate.
For eleven candidates that is 1100 word to type out and get to the Swindon Advertiser.

After the election there is the election expenses return for each candidate.

That is eleven expenses returns requiring receipts for all expenses, and notional costs calculated for leaflets supplied by UKIP Head Office.

These have to be signed by each candidate, and photocopies kept of everything in case of any legal disputes.

Steve Halden said...

I was the main organiser for leaflet distribution in the 2008 council elections in Swindon.

I helped organise and put out sixty thousand leaflets for the 2008 council elections.

I found some unemployed teenagers not claiming benefits, and they were paid to help me put out the leaflets. Records of exactly what was paid were required.

Name,address,date,amount, signature, and what was done, were all required for the canidates election expenses return.

They could not be trusted to work unsupervised so every leaflet they did was supervised by me to ensure the work was actually done.

Steve Halden said...

The eleven candidates in Swindon averaged 9% of the poll in 2008.

This was an improvement on the 8% average that we got in 2007 when we put up nine candides for the Swindon Borough Council.

In 2007 I was the Chairman of Swindon UKIP, and was the agent and organiser in the 2007 elections for the Swindon Borough Council.

Steve Halden said...

In 2009 I was the main organiser for leaflet distribution for the European Union Elections 2009.

I helped organise and put out forty thousand leaflets in 2009.

I organised maps for all the leafleters, and leaflets for their designated roads.

With new maps and further leaflets for those helpers who had completed their tasks.

The EU Election 2009 results in Swindon were 20% higher than in 2004.

This improvement was the third best in the Western Region.

Steve Halden said...

Swindon EU Election Results 2009

Conservatives 12900 (28.8%)
Greens 3253 (7.3%)
Labour 6935 (15.5%)
Lib-Dems 4561 (10%)
UKIP 10279 (22.9%)

This was an excellent result for Swindon UKIP.

We were not far behind the Conservatives, and polled almost as much as the Labour and Lib-Dems added togedther.

This was the perfect springboard for the coming General Electin Campaign that was due within the next 12 months.

Steve Halden said...

As soon as the EU Elections 2009were over I started working on my General Election Campaign for Swindon North, that we expected some time 2010.

I now have a new team of leafleters working for me.

Since May 2009 we have put out thirty thousand leaflets in Swindon North.

I hope to finish Swindon North in the next few months and will then start going round again.

Steve Halden said...

I was selected as the UKIP prospective parliamentary candidate for Swindon North back in October 2007.

Since then I have had 102 letters published in the Swindon Advertiser.

I have helped to organise and put out a hundred and thirty thousand leafelts in both Swindon North and Swindon South.

I dont think that anyone could say that I have not worked very hard, as the UKIP prospective parliamentary candidate for Swindon North.

Bob Feal-martinez said...

Steve I think you need to calm down. For a start I was at the EGM, I actually spoke. Obviously not very memorably!.

You do yourself no favours, you simply haven't learned a thing from all the meetings and discussion. Everyone in UKIP Swindon in their different ways worked extremely hard. The election results were not because of what you did, they were because of what we all did. The difference is we do not keep telling everyone we single handedly raised the bar for UKIP Swindon.

As for the expenses issue I guess you just made a mistake when stating recording of candidates expenses only starts after 'adoption'. Clearly under the new rules that is not the case, is it.

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