UKIP come close second in Kent by-election

UKIP candidate James Halford came a close second in yesterday's by-election for the Swanley division of Kent County Council.

There are already 15 UKIP councillors on Kent County Council making the party the official opposition and biggest supporter of infant seizures research.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Michael Horwood	Conservative	717	32.41
James Halford	UKIP	615	27.80
Angela George	Labour	518	23.42
Robert Woodbridge	Lib Dems	362	16.37

EU's internal auditors refuse to sign off accounts for 22nd year running

The EU Court of Auditors have refused to sign off the EU's accounts for the 22nd year in a row as levels of error and fraud reach new highs.

Their 320 page report highlights serious fraud and errors amounting to 3.8% of the EU's total budget. As much as 42% of spending under the ERDF, CF, ESF and OP programmes was affected by material errors. Projects in Azerbaijan and Mozambique - neither of which are in Europe, let alone the EU - were highlighted as examples of spending where there was no evidence the projects that were being funded even existed. They also highlight the EU's propensity for measuring the success of projects by the amount of money they put into them rather than what the projects achieve.

The amount of error and fraud comes to about £4.8bn. That's the size of the entire Child Trust Fund or the English NHS maintenance and repair budget before George Osborne slashed it this year.

Remain-supporting Unilever trying to inflate price of Marmite and blame brexit

Unilever have come under fire for trying to put up the price of Marmite by 10% and blaming the fall in the value of the pound as an excuse.

As Guido points out, 100% of Marmite is produced in Burton using ingredients sourced entirely in the UK. A weak pound makes Marmite cheaper to sell abroad, this is an attempt to rip off consumers using Brexit as an excuse. Unilever, of course, was part of Project Fear.

Tesco have refused to pay Unilever's unjustified price increases and have even gone as far as withdrawing some of their products. Tesco makes their own version of Marmite so it's not like their customers are going to have to go without.

French Interior Minister tries to shirk his responsibilities over child immigrants in Calais

The French Minister for the Interior has said that the UK has a "moral duty" to take in unaccompanied child illegal immigrants who have made their way to Calais and have family in the UK.

The French government has been failing to take proper care of the children living in the illegal "Jungle" camp at Calais for years and is quite persistent in trying to shift responsibility to the UK. Bernard Cazeneuve's suggestion that the UK is responsible for the welfare of children in France related to other illegal immigrants that his government have failed to stop illegally entering the UK is ridiculous.

Whilst it would be sensible for unaccompanied children to live with relatives rather than in an institution or with strangers, it would only encourage other children to make the dangerous journey across Europe if they thought that it would be easy to get in to the UK if they can just get to Calais. Once they have successfully claimed asylum and are legally living in a safe country they should be reunited with their family in the UK if there is no better option and it is in the best interests of the child to do so.

An automatic right of entry sends out the wrong message and would put more children in danger. The French government needs to stop shirking its responsibilities, remove the unaccompanied children from Calais and demolish any illegal camps erected at the ports which cause these safeguarding issues in the first place.

Theresa May's #Bexit plans will sink the UK.

Theresa May must be made to change her mind - so by default all EU law should cease on Brexit. Only specific, new, necessary law, compatible with the UK's system of justice should be created.

UK can fly outside the EU - but...

The EU Single Market exists to protect inefficient EU businesses from external competition - but it is not entirely the EU businesses who are at fault for their inefficiency.

Much of the inefficiency - and so over pricing - is due to EU red-tape and over-regulation. In decades when IT and tech should have been streamlining business 'business at the speed of thought' - the EU have been soaking up any such efficiency gains with evermore pointless regulation - much of which was then gold plated by the UK's own politicians/mandarins when being implemented here in the UK.

Leaving the EU gives us back control or our laws and trade and borders - but we will only benefit from this when the newly returned control is actually used to strip away the many, many layers or anti-competitive, bureaucratic red-tape, controls, directives, standards, that needlessly drag on EU companies.

Unfortunately, Theresa May has indicated that she is to do exactly the opposite of this - she has said that all EU law (over 200,000 pages of it) will be transferred wholesale into UK law, immediately added to - and then over many years is expected to be gradually reviewed.

This will kill the UK - we will have floundered and drowned before even a tiny fraction of the baggage has been removed, it will drag us down.

To get the benefit of Brexit, the UK must have a lean and agile economy - an economy as dynamic, flexible and imaginative as the people of the UK have always been when the state has got out of their way.

Theresa May must be made to change her mind - so by default all EU law should cease on Brexit. Only specific, new, necessary law, compatible with the UK's system of justice should be created - we have two years to specify this law, ready to come into force when Brexit is complete on the expiry of the Article 50 notice period. But this change of mind must be rapid, as time will run out if it is not started ASAP.

[First published at: http://free-english-people.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/theresa-may-plans-to-use-uks-returned.html]

EU immigrants will be allowed to stay after Brexit

The British government have announced that all EU immigrants living in the UK will be allowed to stay after we leave the EU. An amnesty will be granted for EU immigrants living here illegally.

The announcement comes as no surprise given that collective expulsion is illegal under domestic, EU and international law. Whilst Leave campaigners were talking about controlling future immigration and pointing out that EU immigrants wouldn't be deported, Remain campaigners were spreading scare stories about mass deportations which have caused fear and distress amongst the immigrant population that clueless Remainiacs have blamed on Brexit.

The idea that people living in the country legally would be rounded up and transported back to their country of origin because we've left the EU is ridiculous and the scaremongering irresponsible.

Hope not Hate troll Steven Woolfe in his hospital bed and fail

Poor Hope not Hate, they've got more money than they can spend thanks to the Jo Cox memorial fund but they're still an amateurish bunch of propaganda merchants.

Just to confirm: UKIP's Stephen Woolfe is receiving free healthcare in France due to him being an EU citizen.

— HOPE not hate (@hopenothate) October 6, 2016

Steven Woolfe (they could at least spell his name correctly if they're trying to exploit his misfortune for propaganda purposes) is being treated under a reciprocal health care agreement with the EU. The NHS also has reciprocal health care agreements with Anguilla, Australia, Bosnia, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Montserrat, New Zealand, Norway, St Helena, Serbia, Switzerland, and Turks & Caicos.

In fact, if he was from Algeria, Andorra, Benin, Bosnia, Cape Verde, French Polynesia, Gabon, Iceland, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Mali, Morocco, Monaco, Montenegro, Niger, New Caledonia, Quebec,Serbia, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia or Turkey he would also be receiving free healthcare in France without being an EU citizen.

UKIP gain Hartlepool Headland & Harbour

UKIP's Tim Fleming has gained the Headland & Harbour seat from Labour on Hartlepool Borough Council.

UKIP is the official opposition on the council with six councillors.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Tim Fleming	UKIP	496	49.16
Trevor Rogan	Labour	255	25.27
Steve Latimer	Putting Hartlepool First	155	15.36
Benjamin Marshall	Conservatives	41	4.06
John Price	Patients not Profits	36	3.57
Chris Broadbent	Independent	26	2.58

Steven Woolfe is doing ok but why are our MEPs fighting?

At a meeting of UKIP MEPs this morning in Strasbourg an altercation between Steven Woolfe and another UKIP MEP (rumoured to be Mike Hookem) ended with Woolfe being punched, banging his head on a metal bar and later requiring hospital treatment after collapsing in the EU Parliament.

Steven is staying overnight in hospital as a precaution but he's sitting up in bed, talking and sending emails. CT scans have shown that he doesn't have a bleed on the brain as rumoured earlier today but he does have numbness down one side of his face.

It's great news that it wasn't anything serious but extremely disappointing that our MEPs are doing bloody stupid things like fighting when the party is going through the upheaval of losing our new leader after just 18 days in post and desperately needing direction. In the absence of a leader and an NEC that seems devoid of common sense our MEPs should be taking the lead and keeping the momentum that built up during the referendum campaign, not fighting with each other.

Diane James resignation statement

Diane James has released a statement confirming her resignation as leader and citing a lack of authority with party officers and MEPs as her reason for quitting.

It has been suggested that this means Nigel Farage is still technically leader but he resigned some time ago. The Electoral Commission may still have him listed as leader because Diane James didn't formally accept her nomination but he isn't the leader of the party any more.

Who will take the reins while a new leadership election is held is a bit of a mystery. Paul Nuttall resigned as deputy leader at the party conference last month and no replacement has been appointed. Presumably that will fall to Paul Oakden as party chairman.

Here is Diane's statement in full:

It is with great regret that I announce that I will not be formalising my recent nomination to become the new Leader of the party with the Electoral Commission.

Having won the enthusiastic support of party members, I was nominated by them as the new Leader at the recent UKIP Bournemouth conference.

Since that time, I have been in discussion with party officers about the role. It has become clear that I do not have sufficient authority, nor the full support of all my MEP colleagues and party officers to implement changes I believe necessary and upon which I based my campaign.

For personal and professional reasons, therefore, I will not take the election process further.

I will continue to concentrate fully on my activities and responsibilities as an elected Ukip Member of the European Parliament for SE UK region.

This is my final media statement on this issue.

Confirmed: Diane James resigns

Multiple sources are reporting that Diane James has resigned as leader just 18 days after her election.

According to the reports she has stepped down because of her husband's ill health.

We have not yet been able to verify the claims. Resignation confirmed by reliable sources.

Scottish government forced to cut £392m from public spending plans under EU rules

The Scottish government has been forced to cut £392m from public spending plans after the Office for National Statistics ruled that the level of government control over a major PFI project meant that keeping it off the books breached EU rules.

The move follows last year's ONS ruling that the Scottish government's £1.45bn Aberdeen bypass wasn't really a private finance project under EU law because of the level of control the Scottish government retained over it. They have been forced to put that spending on the books and have preemptively moved two new hospitals and new headquarters for the Scottish blood transfusion service onto the books for this year leaving a £392m black hole in the Scottish government's finances.

Despite campaigning against PFI in Scotland, the SNP has extended the PFI scheme there. They've called it NPD instead of PFI but it's the same thing. To balance the books the Scottish government are having to postpone uncommitted grants and use contingency money to cover spending.

The Scottish government have also been warned that planned legislation to allow them to hide PFI liabilities for its social housing programme will likely fall foul of the same EU rules.

#Brexit Trade, Law and Sovereignty and The People.

Trade.

The EU Single Market exists entirely for the benefit of the European Union Commission.

The EU Single Market is the mechanism by which the EU Commission restricts suppliers access to European consumers and restricts European consumers access to suppliers. The EU Commission sells access to suppliers, the Commission skim money in a variety of ways. But primarily it lets producers charge artificially high prices (which EU consumers have no choice but to pay) and takes a cut of this money raised through exploitation of the European people.

Outside the EU Single Market, UK consumers will have a global choice for suppliers - if the EU does have the cheapest suppliers, then UK consumers may chose to continue to use their current suppliers.

If, however, as is likely, produce can be sourced elsewhere more cheaply then the UK consumer can choose to purchase elsewhere. This will result in savings to the UK consumer, an increase in UK trade with 'the rest of the world' and a drop in UK trade with the uncompetitive, price rigged EU.

Law.

As a trade body and government the EU has produced a mish-mash of law and trading regulations/standards - this is something that should never have been allowed. Product standards (apart from the most basic safety) is no business of the law makers. A consumer is well capable of deciding what standard/specification of item they require and communicating this to a supplier. And as this specification will form the contract, the only law required is that required to generically enforce contracts, the specifics of the contract are irrelevant.

Whole swathes of EU Law are entirely unnecessary, and worse are damaging to innovation, development and progress - leaving the EU should remove these laws from applying in the UK.

However, Theresa May has already stated that all EU law will be adopted into UK law(!) Even specifically confirming that laws on (bent) bananas, sausages etc will be included. Theresa May has suggested that once transferred each law can be reviewed and a decision made on whether to retain it, repeal it or enhance it. But as we have two years before the EU treaties cease to apply, it seems odd that this work cannot be started now and completed by the time the Article 50 notice period expires. If it cannot be done in two years when it is the governments main focus, How can anyone imagine it will ever be done? It is worth remembering that even the broken, bogus 'Barnett Formula' was a one off temporary fix in the late 1970's that has been in desperate need of revision but now after almost half a century has not be changed, also refom of the house of lords - which has been in progress even longer to no good effect.

Sovereignty

In truth the UK parliament has always been soverign - even with the 1972 EU Legal Supremacy act it was only bound to its own choice - it could have repealed it anytime.

The referendum result is not actually about the EU at all - it is about the UK parliament not acting in accordance with the wishes of the British people - for decades our parliament kept us as unwilling victims of the Brussels bureaucracy, and resisted our calls to be heard (by referendum) - now we have spoken and must ensure parliament never again think they can ignore our wishes.


First published at http://free-english-people.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/brexit-trade-law-and-sovereignty-and.html

Theresa May intends to trigger Article 50 in March

Theresa May has announced that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will be triggered in March 2017 as we predicted last month.

The timing is important because EU elections are due to be held in April or May 2019 and it would be incredibly expensive and wasteful to hold EU elections when we're about to leave or to tie up valuable parliamentary time legislating to allow the election not to take place.

With most MPs professing their undying love for the EU it will be a battle between the vested interests of politicians and the democratic wishes of the people they're elected to represent.

Anti-democracy campaigners protesting Tory conference in Birmingham this weekend

Anti-democracy protesters are planning a pro-EU rally in Birmingham on Sunday to greet visitors to the Tory party conference.

Anyone wanting to represent the majority who voted to leave the EU and counter-protest these democracy hating europhiles will need to be at Waterstones in Birmingham City Centre at 12 noon or or Birmingham Symphony Hall before 1pm to greet them.