UKIP will defend your NHS

UKIP councillor Gordon Helm has passed away

We have just learnt that UKIP Essex county councillor, Gordon Helm, passed away on Christmas eve from a stroke.

Cllr Helm was elected to the county council in last year's local elections which saw UKIP take the second highest number of votes and received an award at conference this year in recognition of the hard work he did representing his residents.

EU-funded propaganda says UKIP claim immigrants want to eat babies

Tells lies for money

A teaching fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies has used fake UKIP posters saying the party claims EU immigrants want to eat British babies in an EU-funded series of propaganda lectures.

Ryan Brading, who has an obsession with the revolutionary socialist administration in Venezuela, told students that UKIP's campaigning is "very, very aggressive" and that a fake UKIP poster claiming that UKIP says immigrants want to eat babies was real. He also told them that UKIP claimed every man, woman and child in Romania and Bulgaria would come to the UK when border controls were relaxed at the start of this year.

Labour select 18 year old student as PPC for Wealden

The Labour Party have selected an 18 year old politics student as its prospective parliamentary candidate for Wealden in East Sussex.

Wealden is a Conservative safe seat - Charles Hendry MP has a 17k majority - so 18 year old politics student Solomon Curtis stands no realistic chance of winning but it shows how desperate the Labour Party are for the publicity.

Lithuania adopts the €uro tomorrow

Lithuania will become the 19th country to take the crazy step of joining the €uro tomorrow.

The eurozone is stagnant and experts are warning of deflation which is disastrous for countries with high levels of debt and especially those still in recession. Lithuania has a relatively low debt to GDP ratio at the moment but when the cost of living rises (and it will) that'll soon change.

You can read more about Lithuania joining "the stupid club" on the Commentator website.

Green leader says that living on benefits in the UK is worse than living in poverty in India

The leader of the loony Greens, Natalie Bennett, has told the Economist that living on benefits in the UK is worse than living below the poverty line in India.

Bennett, who has only lived in the UK for 8 years, said that it's better to be one of the 179m Indians living in poverty "because at least everyone else there is poor too".

The Greens are happy to be seen as a single issue party because it distracts from their other extreme policies such as abolishing prison sentences for women, redistribution of wealth and crippling taxes to punish success. There is a perception that because they're "green" they are a benign force for good but this simply isn't the case - they are a far left authoritarian party which demands complete surrender to the Green state to enable them to deliver their extreme agenda.

Greek eurosceptics could take power in early elections next month

Greek MPs have voted to reject the presidential candidate put forward by prime minister Antonis Samaras, causing fresh elections in January.

Stavros Dimas needed the support of 180 Greek MPs but only managed 168. Samaras was hoping to get the support of the Independent Greeks and Democratic Left for Dimas but failed.

The eurosceptic Syriza party is currently leading in the opinion polls and with other eurosceptic parties make up over 50% of the indicated vote. Greece is the second most eurosceptic country in the EU after the UK and the punishing austerity imposed on the country means that there is a very good chance that Greece could end up beating the UK to be the first country since Greenland in 1985 to leave the EU.

Former Labour Mayor of Gloucester defects to UKIP

A former Labour Gloucester City Councillor and Mayor of Gloucester has defected to UKIP.

Harjit Gill said he has joined UKIP because the party has the answers on immigration, the economy and the EU. He said that it was a big step after 20 years in the Labour Party "but more and more I think my views are in line with what UKIP want".

Gill's wife, Jasminder, is still a Labour Gloucestershire County Councillor.

Janice Atkinson MEP demands assurances Ashya King's parents can safely return to UK

UKIP MEP for the south east of England, Janet Atkinson, has reacted to the news that Ashya King's parents are scared to return to the UK by demanding assurances from the Home Secretary that they won't be treated like criminals and that their son won't be abducted by social services.

Ashya King suffers from a brain tumour and his parents wanted him to receive proton therapy treatment which is not available on the NHS. They took him out of hospital to their holiday home in Spain so they could sell their Spanish property to pay for the proton therapy treatment themselves. The hospital told the police they had kidnapped their son and his father was arrested and later released without charge. His parents are now scared to come back to the UK for fear of being arrested again and having their son taken off them.

[UPDATED] Round-up of LibLabCon, SNP and Green racists, fraudsters, sex offenders, perverts, drink drivers and general crooks in 2014

The "News Reporter" responsible for a series of anti-UKIP articles on the BuzzFeed website published an article yesterday entitled "24 Times UKIP Went Too Far In 2014".

In the interests of balance, here is a round-up of the various racists, fraudsters, sex offenders, perverts, drink drivers and general crooks in the LibLabCon, SNP and Green parties that the national media mostly ignored this year:

January

• Swale borough councillors refuse to resign despite moving 150 miles away from their ward
• Conservative Councillor suspended for alleged racist comments
• Left wing extremists assault Nigel Farage in Kent

February

• Give your postal vote to the Post Office not the Labour Party
• Tory troll Joshua Bonehill-Paine charged with making malicious communications
• Conservative Party member was part of a child kidnap gang

March

• Racist MP Diane Abbott accuses UKIP of fostering racism
• Tories select former BNP activist for by-election

April

• Lib Dem councillor in Exmouth found guilty of breach code of conduct
• Shamed Lib Dem porn councillors told to resign
• Disgraced ex-Lib Dem Hancock standing for re-election in Portsmouth
• Warrant issued for Conservative ex-councillor
• Tory wannabe councillors in Hillingdon admit discrimination against non-Tory areas
• Tory councillor calls himself "Sir" for 19 years
• Labour candidate in Harrow a convicted benefits cheat
• Lib Dem Councillor resigns over £1,200 charity theft
• Labour official admits electoral fraud in leaked email
• Tory councillor: When rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it

May

• Labour Deputy Council Leader suspended over electoral fraud allegation
• Newham Conservatives in hot water over leaflets again
• Sheriff of Gloucester apologises for lying on election leaflet
• Labour MP demands withdrawal of Labour leaflet
• Labour councillor prosecuted for firearms offence
• Labour activist makes homophobic remarks against councillor
• Conservative councillor convicted of firearms offence
• Newham Conservatives deliver "sectarian" leaflet
• Conservative councillor arrested over allegations of impersonating a barrister
• Labour councillor's benefit fraud trial postponed
• Lib Dem benefit cheat councillor blocked from council committees
• Conservative councillor banned for drink driving
• Police called in over Labour postal vote fraud complaint in Slough
• Conservative fraudster arrested for electoral offences
• Tower Hamlets Conservative candidate being investigated by police
• Foot fetishist Lib Dem apologises for sleazy Twitter account
• Independent panel resigns in protest at Conservative councillors' allowances
• Conservative ex-mayor charged with possession of indecent images of children

June

• Labour councillor in London under investigation for electoral fraud
• Chuka Umunna says UKIP supporters are too thick to use email or internet
• Disgraced Lib Dem MP Hancock admits "inappropriate and unprofessional" relationship
• Tory candidate for Newark tries to cover up his privileged upbringing and wealth

July

• Leicestershire Labour councillor paid £2,750 per meeting
• Leicester Tory Councillor charged with assault
• Surrey Conservative Councillor convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend
• Labour MEP says people from white, rural backgrounds are racists
• Green councillor calls soldiers "hired killers"

August

• Lib Dem Mayor and Lib Dem and Labour councillors resign over sex offender taxi drivers
• Broxtowe Labour councillor urged to resign over racist remark
• Guildford Conservative councillor charged with fraud, deception and pretending to be a barrister
• Labour activist threatened with expulsion over homophobia named as one of their top activists
• Leicester Labour councillor in trouble again
• Wigan Lib Dem porn councillor censured by standards committee
• Hounslow Labour councillor applies to have indecent assault charge dismissed
• Shaun Wright refuses to resign over Rotherham child abuse report
• Labour Mayor of Salford facing malfeasance investigation
• Labour leader of Wrexham council sacks councillor for raising concerns about social services
• Labour councillor charged with dangerous driving and attempted wounding
• Rotherham Council child snatchers allowed 1,400 children to be raped and abused
• SNP councillor who lives in Austria missed 40 out of 47 meetings last year
• Ex-BNP, ex-English Democrat adult model joins Conservatives
• Labour councillor suspended for swearing at whip
• Wirral Labour marking their own homework
• Lib Dem councillor for Fareham lives in Saudi Arabia

September

• Tories threaten potential defectors with character assassination
• Ken Clarke and Boris Johnson: UKIP voters are elderly men with disappointing lives who have sex with vacuum cleaners
• Labour Mayor of Hartlepool in trouble again
• Rochester Conservatives organise fake protest against Mark Reckless
• Conservative Minister resigns over sex scandal

October

• Lib Dem Mayor of Watford accused of abusing her position
• Conservative councillor who suggested executing travellers resigns
• Lib Dem campaigning in Botswana at taxpayer's expense
• Highland Lib Dem councillor forced to resign for sharing anti-Muslim propaganda
• St Helens Labour PPC to stand trial for assault
• SNP Councillor charged with homophobic assault
• Former Lib Dem Mayor of Milton Keynes implicated in fake visa scam
• Chukka Umunna accepts donation from tax dodge advisors
• Maidenhead Conservative councillor apologises for saying travellers should be executed
• Green Party Peer arrested over illegal protest in London
• St Albans Conservative councillor assault trial date set
• Lord Freud to keep his job despite saying disabled are worth less than able-bodied people
• Conservative's Rochester "postal primary" gimmick is an election expense
• Labour Mayor of Rochdale apologises for saying she would have rigged by-election result
• Another Labour peer calls for charges to use the NHS
• York Labour councillor calls Conservative councillors "seriously obese"
• SNP councillor left council meeting to play games
• Malvern Green Party councillor banned from council offices
• Complaint about Conservative councillor's game playing in meetings
• UKIP councillor calls for investigation into Sandwell Council asset sale

November

• Former Labour councillor charged with defrauding council she sat on
• County Durham Labour Councillor admits child sex abuse
• North Cornwall Council warns schools not to allow Lib Dem councillor near children
• Rochester & Strood Green Party's disrespectful Remembrance Sunday anti-war campaign

December

• North London Labour: UKIP has "evil money grabbing jews" in the party
• Lib Dem councillor gives "Nazi salute" as Labour councillors award themselves 24% pay rises
• Fake barrister Conservative councillor pleads not guilty to fraud charges
• Lib Dem ex-councillor sacked as magistrate
• Iain Duncan Smith talks down food banks with some dodgy maths
• Three Conservative MPs address London Swinton Circle
• Former Lib Dem Mayor of Horncastle convicted of animal welfare offences
• Conservative Councillor says being "brown and a woman" is a handicap
• Conservative councillor criticised for laughing during speech about 7 year old flood victim

Conservative councillor criticised for laughing during speech about 7 year old flood victim

The Conservative Leader of Spelthorne Borough Council, Cllr Robert Watts, has been given a public dressing down by the father of a 7 year old boy who died in a flood last year for laughing whilst he was addressing a council meeting about his son's death.

Kye Gbangbola was asking the council to support his calls for a public inquiry into his son's death. Seven year old Zane died of Hydrogen Cyanide poisoning when floods brought contaminated water from a former landfill site into their home. Kye was also poisoned and has been left in a wheelchair as a result. Cllr Watts was seen to be laughing whilst Gbangbola was speaking.

Cllr Watts has apologised for any "unintended offence" and said that he was smiling at the "customary flamboyance" of the leader of the Lib Dem group.

This is the second public embarrassment for Spelthorne Conservatives this year after Conservative councillor Asif Ayub was convicted of 5 counts of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

Yes, we all know a UKIP councillor in Kent used to be in the National Front

The Guardian must be having a few slow news days judging by their shock revelation that a UKIP councillor in Kent used to be a National Front member.

The party has made no secret of Cllr Martyn Heale having been a member of the National Front in the 70s and has explained every time a newspaper has decided to try and make something of it that he was a member of UKIP before the rules were brought in banning past and present members of the National Front and other racist or fascist organisations from joining the party. Cllr Heale was eligible to stand as a UKIP candidate despite his past membership of a proscribed organisation under rule U.5 of the party rulebook.

Cllr Heale's past was brought up during last year's election campaign and failed to damage the UKIP vote. In fact, a quick Google search turns up discussions about his past as far back as 2006 and every year since. Strangely, there is no mention of the former militant Nazi and convicted animal rights terrorist, Margaret Burke, who was elected as a Labour councillor in 2013.

Cameron misses out on chance of Swedish allies for renegotiation con

David Cameron's attempts to hoodwink voters by promising meaningful renegotiation of our relationship with the EU have suffered a setback after Sweden's very europhile coalition government managed to do a deal with the slightly less europhile opposition to avoid an election.

Cameron was hoping that the Social Democrat/Green coalition would collapse, paving the way for a Moderate/Democrat replacement which is much more aligned with the Conservative Party's approach to the EU of making the right noises to appease their membership and voters without actually changing anything and feigning outrage whenever the papers get wind of the EU taking the piss. A Swedish government supporting Cameron's deception would have done wonders for the Conservative Party's flagging prospects in the elections in May.

Nigel Farage named Times Briton of the Year

Nigel Farage has been named as the Times' Briton of the Year for 2014.

The Times described him as a game changing politician and said he set the political agenda for 2014 and will set it again in 2015.

When Nigel Farage took the helm at UKIP in 2006 he inherited a single issue pressure group and by 2014 had turned it into an election winning peoples' army with representation at all levels of government and in all four of the nations of the UK. The party now has over 40k members, two MPs, three peers, 24 MEPs, a Stormont MLA, hundreds of primary tier councillors and hundreds more town and parish councillors. UKIP is now the number three party in the UK, having relegated the Lib Dems to fourth, possibly fifth place and expected to make significant gains in May.

Happy whatever you're celebrating

Merry Christmas, have a Cool Yule, Happy Hogswatch, Smutty Saturnalia, Happy Hanukkah and may you be touched by his noodly appendage.

Whatever you're celebrating, make it a good one and we'll be back when the turkey's finished (the bird, not the country).

Tory press attack UKIP donor for supporting satirical website targeting LibLabCon

The Daily Mail and Times are attacking UKIP donor, Aaron Banks, over his support for what they describe as an "offensive" satirical website attacking the LibLabCon parties.

Both newspapers are Tory supporting and have been responsible for a stream of attacks on UKIP since the party started risking their political investments. In the run-up to the local elections this year, briefings that the Conservative Party were sending to these same newspapers attacking UKIP candidates were leaked. The supposedly anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate - almost entirely funded by the trades unions - has a blog on their website dedicated to attacking UKIP even though they say that UKIP isn't actually fascist. Fake Facebook and Twitter profiles are still being created masquerading as official UKIP social media accounts and posting inappropriate material which these same newspapers splash all over their front pages. There are anti-UKIP protest groups backed by the Labour Party and the trades unions such as Stand up to UKIP and Still Laughing at UKIP which these newspapers trawl for material for their anti-UKIP campaign.

The Daily Mail and the Times are part of the anti-UKIP campaign. They are too closely involved to be just followers, they are active players in the campaign to protect the status quo. They have invested a lot of time and money buying influence with the Tories and they don't want to see that investment wasted by a party that they have no control over.

The party stresses that it has no links to the LibLabCon website but it is  registered to one of Aaron Banks' companies. Good on him. It's about time UKIPpers took the fight to the LibLabCon and gave them a taste of their own medicine. The national media ignore the stories about LibLabCon perverts, fraudsters, drink drivers, etc. whilst devoting front pages to rumours and gossip about even the most lowly UKIP member. The LibLabCon parties, their taxpayer-funded sockpuppets and poodle media companies have had it their own way for far too long, it's time for UKIP to fight back.

Roger Bird cleared of wrongdoing over sexual harassment claims

UKIP General Secretary, Roger Bird, has been cleared of any wrongdoing over the vexatious sexual harassment claims made against him by former Labour activist, Natasha Bolter.

Serious doubts had already been cast on Bolter's claims by the release of a series of text messages she sent to Bird telling him she loved him and other romantic messages when Oxford university publicly announced that they could find no record of Bolter ever having attended as she claimed.

Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, Bird is leaving his post early by mutual consent because of the "unfortunate publicity" which is disappointing.

EU court rules that Turkish workers must get the same UK benefits as EU citizens

The British government has lost another court case aimed at preventing EU rights being extended to people who aren't EU citizens.

Last week the EU Court of Injustice ruled that it was against EU law to impose immigration controls on the partners of EU citizens even if they aren't EU citizens themselves. It transpires that they also ruled that every Turkish worker in the UK is entitled to the same benefits as EU citizens, including the right to transfer their state pension benefits back to Turkey.

Earlier this month, David Cameron pledged to fight for Turkey to join the EU and give 75m Turks the right to live and work in the UK.

Theresa May considers repatriating non-EU students

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is considering changing immigration laws to force non-EU students to go back to their home country and apply for a visa if they want to work here after they graduate.

Whilst it is obviously important to make sure that students wanting to remain in the UK should have to apply for a visa, it makes no sense to force them to fly back home and then fly back again when their visa application is approved. It could cost them thousands of pounds with no benefit to either side.

When you hear someone talking about repatriation of foreigners, it's usually the BNP or the English Democrats not the Tories but such is their desperation to appear to be tough on immigration that they'll resort to BNP rhetoric.

Conservative Councillor says being "brown and a woman" is a handicap

A Tory councillor for Bexhill & Battle has described being brown and female as a "handicap".

Cllr John Barnes, who is President of Bexhill & Battle Conservative Association, responded to Suella Fernandes' disappointment at not being selected to contest the Conservative safe seat in May by saying "The double whammy of being brown and a woman probably handicaps her still".

The Conservative Party are a bit miffed and are considering taking action against him for suggesting that race or sex plays a part in the decision making process.

Former Lib Dem Mayor of Horncastle convicted of animal welfare offences

A former Lib Dem Mayor of Horncastle, Pamela Ann Crisp-Beard and her daughter, Maria, have been found guilty of animal welfare offences by Skegness Magistrate's Court.

An RSPCA inspector found that the carpets in Crisp-Beard's house were so soaked with urine that her feet squelched when she walked. Rabbits were kept in such filthy conditions that they had dug tunnels in compacted faeces. Countless other animals were kept at the house and in the garden in filth and cages that were too small.

Crisp-Beard and her daughter kept 22 chickens, 15 rabbits, 5 mice, 4 ducks, 2 guinea pigs, 2 rats, 2 dogs, a golden pheasant, a cat, a goose, a parrot and 2 ferrets at their home in squalid conditions.

Hollande says "non" to David Cameron's repatriation of powers

The French president, François Hollande, has told David Cameron that he is obsessed with his own problems and that he will veto any attempts to change EU treaties that Cameron asks for for his mythical renegotiation of our relationship with the EU.

David Cameron promised a whole raft of repatriations of power from Brussels if he wins the next election, including immigration, employment law and criminal justice. Repeated public statements by French, German and Polish politicians that they will veto any of these attempts has downgraded his renegotiation demands to an opt out from the legally binding requirement to support ever closer union and even that has been shot down in flames.

From day one the promise to renegotiate and repatriate powers from the EU has been a deception. Changing anything in an EU treaty requires the unanimous agreement of all member states of the EU. David Cameron knows this, every MP knows this, every civil servant knows this and all the media know this. It doesn't matter how many times someone says that the Tories will repatriate powers from the EU, it just isn't possible - power flows one way to the EU, it can't come back.

ECJ rules that UK can't control free movement of non-EU citizens either

The EU Court of Injustice has ruled that the British government isn't allowed to restrict the free movement of partners of EU citizens even if they don't have citizenship of an EU country themselves.

A test case was brought by a British citizen who also holds Irish citizenship living in Spain whose Columbian wife had to apply for a family visa every 6 months to be allowed to enter the UK. The ECJ ruled that because she has a Spanish residency permit she should also be allowed free movement across the EU and that the British government's visa system is illegal under EU law.

A spokesman for the British government says that they are disappointed with the outcome but they won't comment further because the High Court has yet to rule on it. This is clearly a cop-out though because the EU courts have primacy over UK courts, making the High Court's decision an irrelevance.

We can't control immigration from EU citizens and now we can't even stop non-EU citizens from coming here and yet David Cameron and Ed Miliband still try and con the public into thinking that they are capable of controlling immigration whilst remaining members of the EU. It's just not possible and anyone - politician or otherwise - who tells you that it's possible is either stupid or dishonest. Or, as far as politicians are concerned, probably both.

Three Conservative MPs address London Swinton Circle

Conservative MPs Owen Paterson, Christopher Chope and Liam Fox have been found to have addressed the Tory fringe group, London Swinton Circle.

Members of the London Swinton Circle have some pretty extreme views such as the deportation of immigrants to Africa, blaming floods in New Zealand on gay marriage and unmarried women being a sexual object to be shared around. These views have been published as articles in their magazine.

Rochester Tories suing Mark Reckless for cost of leaflets they had to throw away

The Tories in Rochester still haven't got over the fact that Mark Reckless defected to UKIP and then mauled them at the ballot box and have issued a claim against him for costs relating to campaign leaflets they've had to throw away.

Reckless' agent, Chris Irvine, has also been named on the claim for £3,000 to cover the cost of election material that they say was authorised by both Reckless and Irvine as recently as two days before he announced his defection.

It's unlikely that they'll be successful because the principal is quite absurd but it'll make an interesting (and expensive) test case for an ambitious lawyer. You'd think they'd be saving up for the £5,000 fine for exceeding the election spending limit with their postal primary publicity stunt that's surely coming their way once the Electoral Commission have received their election expenses return.

UKIP forms Pan-European Political Party

UKIP have formed a Pan-European Political Party three years after the membership voted against it.

When the idea was first mooted it was met with opposition in some quarters and started former MEP Nikki Sinclaire's war against Nigel Farage and later, against the party. UKIP's economic advisor and world renowned economist, Professor Tim Congdon, was also opposed to the idea and it formed one of the central pillars of his failed bid to become leader of the party when Lord Pearson stood down.

The current Pan-European Political Parties, all of which promote EU integration

At the time myself and others wrote on this blog about the arguments being put forward both for and against the idea of UKIP forming a Pan-European Political Party without any real consensus. The membership as a whole were less ambiguous and voted against it in an internal referendum by 2:1. That was three years ago though and membership of the party has doubled in that time with running costs going through the roof as the party has professionalised. A lot has changed since the poll conducted three years ago and the £1.5m of funding available is badly needed to take the pressure off party finances which are paying for campaigning not just here in the UK but across the EU.

I made the point more than once that there is £10m of funding available to Pan-European Political Parties that is currently all going to federalist parties and unlike the EFDD ground (then just the EFD) it can contain delegates from political parties that don't have MEPs, thus supporting the eurosceptic movement across the EU and incubating future partners for UKIP in the EU Parliament. Leader of the EFDD group, Roger Helmer, makes the same point that the same amount of money is going to be spent - the budget isn't increased when a new group is formed - so it makes sense for UKIP to take a share of the cash which is currently going exclusively to promoting further EU integration.

A further internal poll of the party membership could have been held prior to the formation of the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe and the associated think tank, the Initiative for Direct Democracy in Europe, but with more than 40,000 members these things are starting to get pretty expensive for the party. Whilst there is a certain irony to not practising direct democracy within the party on the subject of forming the Alliance for Direct Democracy, it's a common sense move that will benefit both UKIP and the eurosceptic movement across the EU and allow the party's money to be spent on the upcoming elections.

Don't mention the war immigration

The Telegraph has been leaked a private strategy document circulated to Labour MPs and parliamentary candidates on how the party intends to deal with the threat from UKIP.

Their strategy is don't talk about immigration and if someone tries to talk to you about immigration, change the subject.

Tony Blair : Haunted And Hunted

So now we can guess why Tony Blair has been looking so out of sorts lately. Recently at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday he looked ashen and haunted, and that was followed by his truly weird Christmas card with that ghastly rictus grin.

Some optimistic souls may speculate that Blair's conscience is finally struggling with the weight of his terrible past deeds. However, isn't a more likely explanation that he was tipped the wink that the American report on government torture was going to come out, excoriating the American government and by extension heavily implicate the British, and therefore himself and Jack Straw in particular?

In a better world, Blair and Straw would already be called to account for their wicked acts during their times in office, and perhaps they may still be. However, we can comfort ourselves that whatever the truth of these latest developments, Blair's reputation in particular is now trashed in perpetuity and beyond all hope of redemption: the so-called christian will not only be seen by history for the lying, money-grubbing charlatan that he is, but as a man who prostituted both himself and his country in the pursuit of fame and fortune, descending to the absolute depths of moral squalor in the process.

This time there must be no prevarification, no establishment cover-up - a swift judicial enquiry into the extent of the British government's complicity with torture is essential.

Iain Duncan Smith talks down food banks with some dodgy maths

Iain Duncan Smith says that the number of people using food banks in the UK is "tiny" and isn't a result of changes to the welfare system because Germany has far more generous benefits and they have more people using food banks.

The Trussell Trust, which runs a nationwide network of food banks, says it has fed 913,138 in a year. Add in the independent and church-run food banks all over the country and over a million people have used food banks. Germany has a population of nearly 86.7m compared to the UK's 62m which works out at roughly the same percentage of the population.

There is a huge difference between the German and UK unemployment benefit system. In Germany you have to pay into the system to get out of it and you have to pay into it for two years for every year you can take out. There's none of the nonsense we have here with some people being entitled to as much as £50k in benefits either - a couple in Germany would need to have 12 children to be entitled to more than £50k in unemployment benefits. If you have savings in Germany then you will be expected to spend those before you get benefits - no protecting your nest egg and using taxpayers' money to pay your bills there. Yet despite the much stricter benefits system, Germany still has roughly the same percentage of the population using food banks as we do here in the UK with what is still, despite the punitive changes the Tories and Lib Dems have brought in, a very generous welfare system.

The more millionaire Tories trying to talk down the vital role that food banks play in feeding the people that they've let down the better, we need more UKIP MPs working for people in need instead of Tories like IDS working against them.

Image: Street Democracy

Breaking: Kerry Smith resigns

The BBC are reporting that Kerry Smith has resigned as PPC for Basildon South so that UKIP can win the seat in May.

Conservative councillor in Tendring becomes sixth defector to UKIP this week

A sixth councillor has defected to UKIP this week following the defection of five Kings Lynn councillors earlier in the week.

Cllr Anthony Calbourne has defected from the Conservatives to UKIP. He has been a councillor on Tendring District Council for 12 years.

It may have been the medication talking but Kerry Smith still needs to resign

Covert recordings of UKIP PPC for Basildon South, Kerry Smith, from more than a year and a half ago have been leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

In the recordings Smith describes members of an LGBTQ group as "fucking disgusting old pooftahs" and jokingly refers to them as BLTs. He also makes a joke about shooting peasants and refers to a lady with a Chinese name as "chinky".

Kerry Smith has issued a full apology and explained that he was on sedatives at the time due to an injury. UKIP Director of Communications, Patrick O'Flynn, says that there are "big mitigating circumstances" and that the party is judging him on his performance going forward.

If Smith was on strong sedatives at the time and not thinking or speaking rationally as has been claimed then yes, it's probably excusable. It was also a covert recording of a private conversation, not a public meeting or a post on a website. However, these accusations of racism and homophobia are going to be levelled at him from now until May and it's going to seriously harm his prospects in the general election. The right thing for him to do is to stand down and let someone without baggage take his place.

David Soutter, the man in charge of vetting candidates, told the Sunday Times that he spends more time "weeding out the lunatics" than he does finding candidates. It's great to know that he's doing a thorough job making sure that the majority of candidates don't have extreme views or skeletons in the closet.

Lib Dem ex-councillor sacked as magistrate

A Lib Dem former councillor in Derby has been sacked as a magistrate for bringing the magistracy into disrepute.

Ajit Atwal was a Lib Dem Councillor on Derby City Council until he lost his seat in May. He hit the headlines earlier in the year after the Sun newspaper discovered his Twitter profile with a picture of Atwal posing with an assault rifle in India. He has been sacked as a magistrate over the incident.

UKIP win in Boston

UKIP candidate, Robert Foulkes, won a by-election in Boston on Thursday taking UKIP's representation on Lincolnshire County Council up to 12.

The UKIP group was the official opposition on Lincolnshire County Council until the then leader of the group, Cllr Chris Pain, was caught circulating an email trying to get members to rebel against the party over the PPC selection process that he was unsuccessful in and formed a new group with some other UKIP councillors. They were all expelled and the UKIP group as it stands now has 12 members, the same as the Labour group.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Robert Foulkes	UKIP	400	31.5%
Mark Ashberry	Labour	268	21.1%
Matthew Lee	Conservative	261	20.5%
Max Sawyer	Lincs Independents	199	15.7%
Harrish Bisnauthsing	Lib Dem	142	11.2%

Left wing extremist planted in Question Time audience

The Mirror are trying to suggest that UKIP MEP, Jim Carver's brother was planted in the Question Time audience last night to make it biased against Russell Brand.

Background checks are done on all the people who apply to be in the Question Time audience so the producers will have been well aware that Rob Carver is Jim Carver's brother. Likewise, they'll have been very aware that the woman who spent most of the night screaming abuse at Nigel Farage, telling him he is a racist and she's coming to get him, is Bunny La Roche of Kent International Socialists who organised the violent attack on Nigel Farage that resulted in him being hit over the head with a placard earlier this year.

Bunny La Roche - or Comrade Bunny as she's known to her friends in Unite Against Fascism, the Socialist Workers Party, Hope not Hate, Stand up to UKIP, Rock Against Racism and whatever other far left band of thugs and propagandists she's associated herself with - heckled and abused Nigel Farage and other audience members throughout the show.

The Question Time producers knew what they were doing when they invited Comrade Bunny onto the show, Russell Brand is fine preaching his authoritarian, extremist agenda at people when he's got a camera to himself or an interviewer he can dominate but when he's in front of a live audience of mainly switched on people and a panel of politicians capable of demolishing every bit of nonsense he utters he's clearly out of his depth and it shows. The flamboyant gobshite was nowhere to be seen.

Five Kings Lynn councillors join UKIP

Five councillors have joined UKIP in Kings Lynn, making the UKIP & Independents group the third largest on the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

The five include two former mayors a former chairman of the local Conservative Association and a former treasurer of the local Conservative Association.

Welcome to UKIP Cllrs June Leamon, Paul Foster, Michael Pitcher, Michael Langwade and Stephanie Smeaton.

Che Brand will be on tonight's Question Time with Nigel Farage

Multi-millionaire class warrior, Russell Brand, will be will be joining Nigel Farage on the Question Time panel tonight.

Brand has recently turned from acting to evangelising extremist far left politics, calling for a "massive redistribution of wealth" (but presumably not his own) and global revolution. He models himself on mass-murdering communist and socialist poster boy, Che Guevara. Professor Chandran Kukathas of the London School of Economics takes apart Brand's anarcho-communist "manifesto" to pieces on BuzzFeed.

It's going to be ... interesting.

Not a scam, just clumsy! Scam survey email being sent to UKIP members

Unbelievably, the email is genuine. Everything about it - the ambiguous wording, being sent from various email addresses and the clumsy questions it asks - screams "scam" but it's genuine. It seems that some members wanted to "help" by copy and pasting the email and sending it out to their contact lists as well, hence the multiple email addresses.

An email is doing the rounds asking UKIP members (but not, it would seem, councillors) to complete an online survey.

The email has been sent from several email addresses including UKIP Chairman Steve Crowther, University of Texas Professor Harold Clarke and [email protected]. The survey asks a range of questions about race, skin colour and religion and is almost certainly going to be part of a pre-election attack on the party.

Here is your UKIP Members Survey. Please help UKIP by completing the Members Survey.
Your Answers Help the Party and You Can Win Great Prizes!
Three academics are helping us. They are Professor Matthew Goodwin (University of Nottingham and author of Revolt on the Right),
Professor Harold Clarke at the University of Texas and Professor Paul Whiteley at the University of Essex, who are former
Directors of the prestigious British Election Study. Professor Clarke is distributing the survey.
All of your answers are kept strictly anonymous and secure.
TAKE THE SURVEY BY CLICKING ON THE NEXT LINE. IF YOUR EMAIL BROWSER BLOCKS THE CONTENT, PLEASE UNBLOCK TO ACCESS THE SURVEY.
Please take the survey
Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a lottery prize draw, with great prizes:
One prize of £100
Two prizes of £50
Three prizes of a UKIP golf umbrella
Four prizes of £25
Five prizes of a UKIP Notebook
Six prizes of a UKIP 2015 Pocket Diary
Seven prizes of a signed copy of the book on UKIP support, Revolt on the Right
If anything is unclear, feel free to send us an e-mail: [email protected]

Cameron pledges to fight for EU membership for Turkey

David Cameron says that he very much supports Turkey joining the EU and has pledged to fight for their membership.

Turkey shares a border with Syria which Islamic State terrorists are currently rampaging through. It is a country of 75m people with a GDP of just £7k per person, compared to the UK's £25k. The European part of Turkey is relatively wealthy but the Asian part of the country suffers from high levels of unemployment and poverty.

If Turkey joins the EU and our borders are opened to 75m Turkish citizens, it is the impoverished and increasingly radicalised Anatolians who will be migrating across the continent. Of the 3.77m strong Turkish global diaspora, over 3.1m are living in Europe.

Every time he opens his mouth Cameron shows how incredibly out of touch he is with public opinion both at home and abroad. Turkey in the EU would be a square peg in a round hole and nobody in their right mind believes that extending the EU's borders into Asia would provide prosperity or security for the nations Europe.

Oxford University says Natasha Bolter has never attended

Natasha Bolter, the former candidate who has made what appear to be false accusations of sexual harassment against UKIP general secretary Roger Bird, seems to have lied about attending Oxford University.

A spokesperson for Oxford University has confirmed that nobody by the name of Natasha Ahmed (the name she was using previously) with her date of birth attended Oxford University. It casts even more doubt on her credibility after Roger Bird released romantic text messages she sent him yesterday which show that the two were in a relationship rather than him sexually harassing her as she claimed.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

UKIP General Secretary, Roger Bird, has released some of the text messages he received from Natasha Bolter, the candidate who accused him of impropriety over the candidate selection process.

Natasha Bolter was a Labour Party member in Tower Hamlets until September when she defected to UKIP. In a speech to conference in September she praised UKIP's policies on the NHS and education whilst slating Labour for betraying its roots and tokenism with female candidates, describing the Labour Party as misogynistic. She has now resigned from UKIP, accusing Roger Bird of sexually harassing her and approving her for the Westminster candidate list because he fancied her and not because she passed the assessment. She's decided that UKIP is also misogynistic and apparently racist as well. In response, Roger has made public some of the text messages his "victim" sent him:

Nov 9, 17.26:
I am really missing u bird...

Nov 6, 19.05
I have sang you praises to Nigel for 12 minutes

Nov 6, 00.24:
U r not coming back and accordingly my life will go back to a meaningless void and it was chance that I met u. But I didn't invent u - u were real...

Nov 2, 23.45:
I love u bird and wish u let me look after u. Hope u feel better xx

Nov 1, 09.27:
But I love u and miss u and think u r sort of perfect...

Oct 30, 18.12:
I am really looking forward to c bird x

Oct 28, 19.20:
...it's so lovely to hear from u x

Oct 19, 21.09:
Anyway bird I always f--- up and u don't let me in! And let go and u can trust me x. Ps thanks u for 2 nd chance but will probably screw it up!

Oct 14, 09.31:
U r a really great mentor bird

Sep 27 09.48:
R u still cool with me leaving suitcase here and coming home with u? Xx

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.