UKIP Conference

As you may have guessed I returned back yesterday from my weekend jolly on the south coast. I had intended to post a few comments straight away, but got waylaid, so here's a short summary today. Speaking to relatives yesterday, it seems that coverage of the conference by the media was scant if any at all. Hardly surprising when the BBC's attitude amounts to this.

Onto the conference itself (many thanks to Witterings for the lift). This was the first full proper party conference I've ever attended. So a slightly new experience for me. (though most conferences, political or otherwise, can usually be summed up with one word - alcohol). First impressions; good location and well organised, although a slight black mark for the person who forgot to remove the EU flag from a pole on the roof above the entrance.

I listened to about 3/4 of the speeches. Highlights on day one, speech wise, was Petr Mach a politician from the Czech Republic and founder of the eurosceptic Free Citizens Party, Lord Stoddart a very early Labour critic of the common market before the UK joined, and Lord Monckton. Lord Monckton told me a wonderful and amusing story outside the hall, before he was due to go on stage, about how he conducted a citizen's arrest on a traffic warden for breach of the peace, when said warden tried to ticket his motorbike for a parking offence.

The most powerful speech for me in the whole conference was given by Gerard Batten on the Saturday regarding the failings of the European Arrest Warrant. His speech can be found here in full, it really is worth a read. As part of the speech, a short video was played regarding the case of Mark Turner and Jason McGoldrick who were victims of the warrant. Locked up for 117 days, without charge, on trumped up evidence; their accounts of conditions in the Hungarian former KGB jail were truly horrific. It took the hard work of UKIP MEP William Dartmouth to secure their release, unfortunately only on bail at the moment. Mark and Jason had turned up in person to thank UKIP and specifically William Dartmouth in person. Where were the other parties' MEPs and MPs in this case you may ask, why was it left to a UKIP MEP? Well I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Batten's speech in fact left me feeling so angry that I had to leave not long after he had finished to calm down. Here's an extract regarding Andrew Symeou which indicates why (my emphasis):

It was obvious to the Appeal Court Judges that there was no real evidence against him and what there was appeared to be fabricated by the Greek police. But they were powerless to consider it.

They did the only thing that they could which was refer the appeal to the House of Lords on the basis of asking if the apparent fabrication of evidence amounted to an abuse of process of the EAW. The House of Lords, in what must be one of the most despicable decisions in its long history, refused to even hear the case on the grounds it “did not have an arguable point of law of general public interest”. So it became official. The highest court in the land did not think it of general public interest if one of our citizens is consigned to a foreign prison system on trumped up charges.

The political establishment really hate us don't they?

The other major issue was, of course, the next leadership election. Nigel Farage used his speech to put his name forward, not entirely unsurprising in my view, as did others - David Campbell Bannerman launched a not very veiled attack on Farage. Let the leadership shenanigans begin.

I also went to an unofficial fringe meeting hosted by Nikki Sinclair. She was launching this referendum campaign which aims to gain a 100,000 signatures for a referendum on our membership with the EU, in accordance with these proposals from the coalition not yet debated:

Present proposals to the House of Commons to ensure that any petition that secures 100,000 signatures within a given year will be eligible for formal debate in Parliament, and that the petition with the most signatures be tabled as a Bill

Nikki's campaign is not to be confused with this one.

So all in all a successful conference, it's good to meet up again with familiar faces and meet new UKIP ones such as Mark Wadsworth, but slightly overshadowed by what will be another bout of UKIP's tendency for in-fighting.

After it was all over I had a quick beer in a recommended pub in Torquay while waiting to go home. It was a proper local's pub, very friendly. Obviously me being in a suit and tie led to some inquisitive questions from those sat at the bar. A discussion about politics quickly followed. The first complaint / concerns from the locals? Yep you've guessed it, immigration.

As an aside, if you should wish to visit and stay in Torquay then I thoroughly recommend this place. It was one of the best B&B's I've ever stayed in.

Confirmed,They Did Make It Up

Earlier in the year, there was a great egg scandal where the Mail and others reported that the EU was going to ban selling of eggs by the dozen. Not true, cried...well just about everyone who actually bothered to read the relevant document.

Not so Iain Dale, who took the story at face value and got stuck in with gusto only to be taken to task in his comments which among other things (accurately) described the claims as 'pure cack'. This prompted a legendary Dale temper tantrum:

I wrote about it HERE. Ever since I have been plagued by Europhile idiots calling on me to apologise for essentially making up the story. I haven't because I didn't.

And:

Read the whole article HERE. This is not written by a tabloid journalist or a partisan blogger. It's written by the editor of The Grocer. Think on that.

So perhaps I should now ask for an apology from those who wanted one from me. I might as well whistle in the wind.

And:

I dont think a single commenter so far has read the enire Grocer article.

It says it all that one of them would prefer to helieve Sunny effing Hundal rather than the editor of the sector's leading trade mag.

Well Mr Dale you did make it up:

Ray Merrell complained to the Press Complaints Commission that the [Sun] had published an article about the European Union's plans to sell all food by weight which was misleadingly headlined "Euro ban on eggs by dozen". The complainant pointed out that it was not the case that British shoppers would no longer be able to by a box of six eggs or a dozen rolls: merely that the items will be priced by weight. He was concerned that the article - which appeared on page ten of the newspaper and online - represented an attempt to stir up anti-EU feeling among readers.

And the resolution? The complaint was upheld and The Sun printed this retraction:

Eggs by a dozen are safe

Brussels has vowed it has no plans to ban Brits buying eggs by the dozen. Controversy erupted in July following reports that the EU wanted food to be only sold by weight. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman pledged to fight the plans. And the Food Standards Authority watchdog also voiced concern. But the European Parliament has insisted it never intended to stop people buying eggs or bread rolls by the dozen. A spokesman said: "Selling eggs by the dozen will not be illegal under the terms of the amendments adopted by the European Parliament to EU food labelling proposals. "Labels will still be able to indicate the number of food items in a pack, whether of eggs, bread rolls or fish fingers."

The above appeared on page four of the newspaper.

Date Published: 03/09/2010

Perhaps Mr Dale should now be graciousness enough to apologise to all those that he described as idiots (even worse, he effectively accused me of being a Europhile). But we might as well whistle in the wind.

hattip: Liberal Conspiracy

We Don't Need No Educashun

Ed Balls, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on the subject of free market schools twittered this little gem:

And the character limit is no excuse, the word 'fewer' would have fitted. Back to school Mr Balls.

All Quiet On The Blogging Front

I'm taking a short blogging sabbatical as I head towards Torquay for a jolly the serious business of a party conference.

Just a quick update on my complaint to Medway Council. No response yet. They gave me a 5 day target via their email auto response, but their guidelines give a 10 day one:

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days of us receiving it and will aim to provide you with a full reply within 10 working days. If this is not possible we will contact you to explain the reason for any delay and give you a new reply date.

I've had it confirmed that the 10 day target takes precedence and this is due this weekend. I don't expect a response, but if they think that means I'm going away quietly then they will be wrong.

That Crazy Ban

The Swindon Advertiser's cunning plan against Southampton's photographer ban has now gone national. This from the Sun:

A CUNNING newspaper has found an ingenious way of celebrating Swindon's thrashing of a South Coast Club — by using Subbuteo!

The Advertiser were left stumped after a crazy ban on photographers meant they would not be allowed to take pictures at the Robins' away match on Tuesday night.

I can confirm that my own Subbuteo set was not harmed in the making of the photos.

There is a serious point to this though. By restricting photography to one agency sets a dangerous precedent for attempts to control media rights. The agency's loyalty will be to the club not to press freedom. So questions inevitably arise about whether they will make photographs available of Southampton players who are; sent off, involved in altercations, gesturing to the crowd and so on. It would be unlikely. What if photographs are manipulated or cropped in favour of the club? We'll never know.

The ban is ridiculous and draconian. It is already proving to be counterproductive with many papers ridiculing the policy:

Mr Cortese clearly thinks his club will make a buck or two by syndicating pictures taken by their own man. I've got news for you, Nicola: You won't.

If newspapers hate one thing, it is the greed of people like you and we press people tend to stick together in defiance of arrogance.

Yes, the Echo has let its readers down today by not printing pictures of last night's match. But we will not be held to ransom by the likes of Nicola Cortese.

A policy conceived solely in the interests of finances, I'm not sure the chairman Nicola Cortese fully appreciates the implications of the ban to the club.

Bias By Omission

BBC Breakfast News this morning reported this story about a man was shot dead in Washington after taking 3 hostages:

A gunman who took three hostages at the Discovery Communications headquarters in the US has been shot dead by police and his captives have been set free.

The man had canisters strapped to his chest and a handgun when he entered the building near Washington DC, police said.

Officers opened fire because they thought the gunman was about to detonate his explosives, they added.

The police had held several hours of talks with the man.

Ok nutter gets shot, move along, not much to see here. But wait! Or is there more to this? There's a detail that was conspicuously absent from the BBC report this morning, and only very briefly mentioned online. Now what could it be (my emphasis):

The emerging portrait of the gunman - identified by authorities as 43-year-old James L. Lee - is one of an extreme environmentalist who was obsessed with the Discovery Channel and wanted to force the network to air programs that sought solutions for global warming, posited the view that humans should stop reproducing and generally saving nonhuman forms of life.

"Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture," Lee wrote in an 11-point manifesto outlining his demands for the network. "For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition ... THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!!"

And:

He also appears to have been inspired by books by the environmental novelist Daniel Quinn, notably Quinn's "Ishmael." He singled out pages of that novel in his manifesto, saying that Discovery should create programming based on its message. He said he also was inspired by Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

The BBC seem very reluctant to mention any of this. I wonder why?

Update: I've just seen that Biased BBC has spotted it too. I think it's worth noting that a mere blogger like myself found this information out in seconds, but the BBC with its vast budget appears not to have. Surely the first question of any incident like this is why? As omissions go this one is pretty blatant.

Update 2: And this on a day when the BBC Director General Mark Thompson admits that the BBC is biased.

We're All Going On A Summer Holiday

A spat has occurred between Political Scrapbook:

"Free bus passes at 60? Don’t count on it."

and Dizzy Thinks over whether the Tories would cut free bus passes. The facts are that Labour planned to raise it to 65 anyway as announced by the budget in March:

"From next month the entitlement age for concessionary travel will rise from 60, eventually reaching 65 by the end of the decade in line with the increasing state pension age for women."

The reason? Go on have a guess (my emphasis):

Under the new rules, both men and women will be given their bus pass when they reach the retirement age for a woman. But this is being pushed back from 60 in response to European Court equality rulings.

The change is being introduced on a sliding scale and by April 2020 all women will have the same retirement age as men, 65.

For bus passes, it means that anyone reaching 60 this month will have to wait only another month. But those whose 60th birthdays fall in 2015 must wait until April 2020.

I despair, I really do.

Quote Of The Day

From Douglas Carswell:

So. Three great election wins. More than a decade holding the levers of power. Now the memoirs published.

And what was it Tony Blair was all about?

New Labour seems to me shorthand for governing without principle. A feather for each wind that blows ....

Tilt this way, on one issue. Lean that way on another. Impressions crafted, rather than action taken, in response to events.

He could, of course, look closer to home for another recent example and I suspect that's precisely what he's doing via veiled criticism.

Global Warming?

Tucked away in the warmist Telegraph is this:

Last month was the coldest August for 17 years, recording the chilliest average temperatures since 1993 without a single "hot day", figures show.

Heavy rain across much of the country and thick cloud in the south east made for a disappointing end to the summer holiday.

The month also saw the coldest temperature recorded in August for 23 years, with mercury falling to 12.8C in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Disclaimer: Sorry I forgot it's climate change now, which of course leads to colder summer months.

Now For Something Different

Southampton Football Club have banned all press photographers from their ground this season. So how did the Swindon Advertiser get round the ban to cover Swindon's thumping 3-0 win last night in the tin-pot trophy? Well they had a cunning plan:

Town striker Vincent Pericard volleys home the opener at St Mary's

Keeper David Lucas pulls off a fine first half save to keep out Rickie Lambert's free-kick

Charlie Austin celebrates with the away fans after bagging Swindon's second goal of the night

And to continue the Subbuteo theme here's exclusive pictures of the Brown / Blair years: