UKIP membership tops 21k & members' forum suspended

UKIP General Secretary, Jonathan Arnott, has the following two interesting pieces in his newsletter today:

A few weeks ago, the Party's membership broke through the 20,000 barrier.  I am pleased to be able to inform you that the Party has today gone past 21,000 members.  Given the rate of decline of the Liberal Democrat party membership, if UKIP can continue our meteoric rise then we could overtake them in terms of size as well as membership before the General Election!

At the request of the Party Chairman, the members' forum has been suspended due to an article in the Sunday Mirror which featured comments from the forum.  I should point out that:

1. The posts concerned date back to September and November 2012.
2. The posts were removed at the time for breaching the rules.  However, a member had clearly taken a screenshot before they were removed.
3. The forum has over 2,500 members; the article mentioned posts by 3 members.

Nevertheless, the Party cannot allow ourselves to become subject to attack in the media as a result of the forum.