Backing the call over travellers
UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer has backed a Downing
Street Petition calling for unauthorised traveller sites to be
outlawed.
Mr Helmer has backed the petition launched by fellow UKIP MEP Tim
Aker.
Mr Aker, an MEP for the East of England, called for action after a
spate of traveller incursions in Thurrock.
Mr Helmer said: “I fully endorse this action – the existing civil
rules mean residents have to wait several days and weeks before action
is taken to clear illegal traveller sites.
“The clear-up afterwards has to be paid for by the taxpayer. Enough
is enough. There needs to be a stronger deterrent and making illegal
incursions a criminal offence would be just that.
“With strict liability, there would also be swifter removal so
residents can be aware that after reporting the illegal incursion, the
authorities are able to act immediately to make arrests and clear the
site.
“Communities up and down the UK face the problem of illegal
traveller sites encroaching on public land. Councils have few powers
to immediately deal with these sites. When they are moved on, it’s
local communities who are left with the bill to pay for clean up and
removal of waste.
Mr Aker said: “While each local authority has a duty to offer sites,
it is wrong that a small minority persists to trespass and form
unauthorised sites. Hopefully a change in the law will protect
community lands and see that all obey the law.”
The mind boggles
I was astonished when I read in your paper that Leicestershire Police had instructed its forensic officers not to gather evidence at ‘odd-numbered’ houses which burglars had tried but failed to break into.
Only even-numbered houses would be tackled! Crazy idea – and one the county’s police and crime commissioner Sir Clive Loader knew nothing about before its implementation and one he said he would have advised against! That says it all really we think.
Yes, they are exceptions and the police have tried clarifying and defending the policy, but this money saving exercising sends out all the wrong messages.
We want to trust our officers – we know they do a difficult job under difficult conditions – but these edicts from above do those officers no favours at all.
Now they have it in for our cheese!
Now cheese makers face a fight with the EU – this time to stop them making halloumi.
If bureaucrats back this bid by Cyprus it would mean the cheese would not be allowed to be made in the UK again.
Apart from the fact that Cyprus and the EU must have bigger and better things to be concerned at, this whole episode has left me baffled.
Isn’t halloumi cheese from the Middle East generally and not particular to Cyprus? Should it really therefore have a PDO, (Protected Designation of Origin)?
And what of our dairy farmers – another hammer blow to them too by the sounds of it.
The absurdity of the whole situation is summed up by UK cheese producers who said that if the PDO was granted, they would continue to make halloumi and just call it something else.
Lincolnshire Echo column
“I was watching BBC World recently to be greeted by the cheerful news the world is facing its sixth mass extinction event (the fifth, 60 million years ago, saw the extinction of the dinosaurs), and that this was “caused by climate change and loss of habitat”.
“Yet again, a glib observation offered without justification, and straight out of the BBC’s standard alarmist phrase-book. Your readers in Lincolnshire and indeed beyond, will know this is a subject I have written about many times before.
“I went to Google and pulled off a graph of temperature over the last 10,000 years – that period is significant because it covers most of the current Inter-glacial period – and in effect the whole span of human civilisation from the earliest agriculture.
“And here’s the fact that most scientists accept, and yet which climate alarmists hate to talk about. Not only have there been successive cyclical warmings during that period, on a roughly 1,000-year cycle, but the current warming – the one causing such global anxiety, and resulting in hugely expensive mitigation policies – is minor compared to previous cycles.
“The current warming is less than the Mediæval Warm Period, which was lower than the Roman Warming, which was lower than the Minoan Optimum.
“I have said it again and again, but I make no apology for repeating it – the current warming is modest, and is part of a well-established, long term, natural climate cycle. There is no reason to believe that it’s caused by human activity, and no reason to regard it as dangerous.
“There may indeed be a major extinction event under way (though the climate alarmists love to be – well – alarmist, and tend to exaggerate). If so, I would say it was caused by the pressure of human populations, by habitat loss, and by changed agricultural practices. The one thing it certainly wasn’t cause by is global warming, since demonstrably no such extinction event took place during previous, and warmer, climate optima.
“Of course if you read the climate record (which climate alarmists are so reluctant to do – they dismiss the past as “the pre-industrial period”, as though climate started 150 years ago, rather like Pol Pot and Year Zero), you will know that Interglacials typically last ten to twelve thousand years, and that the current Interglacial has been with us for — well – ten to twelve thousand years.
“The financial services ads remind us that the past is not necessarily a guide to the future, but it’s the best indicator we have, and may be reliable for long-term cyclical events.
If so, then we should indeed be deeply worried at the prospect of climate change. Not +2oC, but -10oC. And a mile of ice over Chicago. And Glasgow. And Helsinki.”
UKIP CALLS FOR UNAUTHORISED TRAVELLER PITCHES TO BE MADE ILLEGAL
UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer has backed a Downing
Street Petition calling for unauthorised traveller sites to be
outlawed.
Mr Helmer has backed the petition launched by fellow UKIP MEP Tim
Aker.
Mr Aker, an MEP for the East of England, called for action after a
spate of traveller incursions in Thurrock.
Mr Helmer said: “I fully endorse this action – the existing civil
rules mean residents have to wait several days and weeks before action
is taken to clear illegal traveller sites.
“The clear-up afterwards has to be paid for by the taxpayer. Enough
is enough. There needs to be a stronger deterrent and making illegal
incursions a criminal offence would be just that.
“With strict liability, there would also be swifter removal so
residents can be aware that after reporting the illegal incursion, the
authorities are able to act immediately to make arrests and clear the
site.
“Communities up and down the UK face the problem of illegal
traveller sites encroaching on public land. Councils have few powers
to immediately deal with these sites. When they are moved on, it’s
local communities who are left with the bill to pay for clean up and
removal of waste.
Mr Aker said: “While each local authority has a duty to offer sites,
it is wrong that a small minority persists to trespass and form
unauthorised sites. Hopefully a change in the law will protect
community lands and see that all obey the law.”
East Midlands press
After the events in Greece this week, it is clear we cannot afford the EU anymore. In a way, the EU has ‘maxed’ out our credit card.
In 2013, according to office of National Statistics, the UK contribution to the EU was 17bn. What could we afford in the UK in terms of hospitals and schools for this type of money?
Our Prime Minister broke his promise on giving us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and crowed about slightly decreasing the EU budget in 2014 yet this was immediately followed by an increase in the UK contribution. And then the EU demanded an additional 1.7bn just to rub the salt in.
He said we would NOT have to fork out another penny to bail out the countries impoverished by Euro membership, yet now we have to pay another 1 billion Euro to bail out Greece AGAIN.
This madness has to stop.
Kind regards, Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands.
EU money and the referendum purdah
To The Editor,
Dear Sir/Madam,
David Cameron’s version of purdah needs some examination. Reports show the Prime Minister will promise he will “not embark on a taxpayer-funded spending spree over the EU referendum.” This leaves open the question of the millions in propaganda money the European Commission is planning to spend. Mr Cameron can have no control over that, especially since much of the propaganda money is hidden.
One example: there are hundreds of “experts” from universities and multi-national corporations who will be invited by the BBC and other news organisations to make arguments in favour of a vote to stay in the EU. However, both British universities and many multi-nationals benefit each year from millions in taxpayers’ money paid to them by EU institutions. For example, during 2013, the latest year for which figures are available in the European Commission’s Financial Transparency System, the European Commission paid €8,392,495 (£6.02m) in taxpayers’ money to the London School of Economics. In 2012, the amount paid was €5,657,935 (£4.06m), with earlier years showing similar taxpayer-funded, EU directed largesse. Yet the BBC and other news organisations will be able to use “experts” from the LSE and other universities which benefit from millions in such payments right up to the end of the referendum campaign without disclosing their financial interest in continued EU membership.
The BBC is itself one of the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded EU money. Between 2007-2013, the European Commission paid the BBC a total of €30,180, 057 (£21.68m). Yet the BBC will remain free to use the full force of these taxpayer-funded millions to continue with its relentless pro-EU coverage, right up to polling day. Some purdah.
Yours sincerely,
Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands
Ask the right questions
As I write, it appears the EU referendum question will be – “Do you wish to remain in the European Union.”
That has all the advantage of ‘positivity bias’ accruing to the ‘IN’ campaign. That’s wrong, but I suspect there’s little we can do about it. Meantime, I’d like to suggest some alternative questions for your readers in Lincolnshire:
For example:
Do you believe the UK has the right, and the ability, to govern itself as an independent, democratic nation?
Do you believe that our laws should be made by politicians that we have elected (and can dismiss), rather than by unaccountable foreign institutions?
Do you believe Britain should control its borders, so that we can decide on how many immigrants we should admit, and what qualifications they should have? Do you agree that immigration policy should not discriminate on grounds of nationality (as it does at the moment)?
Do you think we should be free to remove from the UK foreign nationals who are here illegally, or who have committed serious offences, or are implicated in terrorism?
Do you think we pay too much for energy? Are you concerned swathes of manufacturing industry are closing plants and moving investment and jobs off-shore because of high UK/EU energy prices? Are you worried about the risks to security of supply as a result of current energy policies and plant closures?
Do you agree that the City of London with its vital financial services sector should be regulated within the UK, and not subject (for example) to the utterly destructive EU proposals for a Financial Transactions Tax?
Are you concerned that the EU’s Working Time Directive is creating mayhem in the NHS, driving up costs and preventing comprehensive training of junior doctors? And that the Directive is doing similar damage across a range of industries including haulage and hospitality?
Do you agree that British farmers would be better off with a farm support mechanism designed for them in Britain, rather than a farm support mechanism designed in Brussels for French farmers?
Do you agree that we in Britain should be able to control our fisheries in internationally recognised UK waters, rather than regarding these fisheries as a “common EU resource” open to Spanish and other boats?
Are you aware that widely accepted estimates for the total costs of Britain’s EU membership amount to an eye-watering 10 to 11 per cent of GDP?
Did you know that it’s possible to trade with the EU without being a member, and that the three largest exporters to the EU (Russia, China, the USA) have no preferential trade deals with the EU at all? Are you aware that on leaving the EU, Britain will certainly have a free trade arrangement with the EU and that UK/EU trade (and the jobs dependent on it) will continue?
Are you proud of the fact that Britain is one of the most globally networked and connected countries in the world (UN Security Council; NATO; World Bank; OECD; OSCE; G7; G20; Commonwealth – and after Brexit, resuming our full place on the WTO), and cannot become “isolated and marginalised”?
If you’re answering “Yes” to these questions, you’ll want to answer “NO” in the referendum.
Protest against TTIP
This evening in the European Parliament, Jonathan Arnott, UKIP MEP for the North East and EU budget spokesman, led a protest against the suppression of debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Arnott proposed a procedural motion to suspend the sitting “to allow Parliament the opportunity to reflect on the undemocratic actions by President Martin Schulz and other officials to suppress the vote and debate on this issue which is of concern to millions of people across the EU.”
Arnott said: “I proposed suspending Parliamentary debate for the day to highlight this point. The officials on the podium responded with what looked like panic, ringing the division bell and breaking their own rules. The rules demand an immediate vote, but they delayed for over forty minutes to allow their supporters to flood the chamber.”
Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for East Midlands and energy spokesman, was in the chamber to support the protest. When it became clear the vice-president (Ildikó Gall-Pelcz) was acting in breach of the rules, Helmer broke procedure and went onto the podium to ask her if she realised she was in breach of the rules. “She replied yes. I then asked her if she was happy she was breaking the rules, and she said she was not. And yet she broke the rules anyway.”
EU court ruling on energy-saving about accumulating more money for EU and showing power over VAT system.
UKIP MEP Roger Helmer hammered a ruling by the European Court of Justice today banning Britain from cutting VAT on energy-saving materials.
The infringement judgment from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg said Britain was breaching the EU’s VAT Directive by applying a reduction across board in the rate of VAT applied to energy-saving materials for housing. The ECJ judges who have final decision on the application of EU law said such a reduction should only apply to social housing.
UKIP Energy spokesman, Roger Helmer MEP responded:
“This is simply ridiculous beyond belief.
“While the EU claims it wants to reduce energy consumption, this judgement shows what the EU ‘really really wants’ is to increase its take from the VAT system from which it takes a portion of every transaction. In addition, this decision demonstrates that it’s the EU rather than the British Government which has final say over the rate and scope of the VAT system.
“Not content with banning tungsten light bulbs previously, the EU wants to make it more expensive for ordinary people to save energy and money in their own homes. The upcoming EU referendum will allow the UK to put its own house in order and the EU in its place.”
Letter to The Leicester Mercury
Dear Sir,
I was most interested to read about your latest Big Question — this time on the topic of whether Britain should leave the EU.
The short answer (and one you would expect from your UKIP MEP) is ‘yes’. But let me focus on one aspect, as I could give 100 reasons why we should divorce ourselves from this failing organisation.
I would like to allay some of the fears, whipped up by EU apologists, about our trading position when we leave the EU. Scare stories about trade collapsing, industries dying out, jobs lost. What nonsense! Countries like China, Russia and the USA, none of which has preferential trade terms with the EU, sell more into the EU than we do. When we leave, we shall have a free trade deal and trade and jobs will be unaffected.
But we will be free to set up trading arrangements on our own behalf with other countries. For example, little Iceland has its own trade deal with China – but we, in the EU, can’t do that. We’ll also be free of the stranglehold of EU red-tape, and free from Brussels energy policies which are undermining our competitiveness.
Does anyone seriously believe BMW will stop selling us motor cars if we were out of the EU? Of course not. Don’t believe the hype — when Mr Cameron’s long-awaited referendum is launched — vote OUT!
Yours,
Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for Leicestershire
The Lincolnshire Echo
A Conservative government, albeit with a tiny majority. And for UKIP, only one Westminster seat. Let’s be honest — that was fewer than we expected or hoped for, and was a disappointment. I especially extend my sympathy to Mark Reckless, who crossed the floor to UKIP, won a by-election in Rochester in November, and then lost the seat in May – and also to candidates in Lincolnshire itself, who achieved second places across the county.
But on every other metric, we in UKIP can afford to be encouraged. From less than a million votes in 2010, we achieved about 3.8m in 2015. We came a solid second in 120 constituencies, positioning ourselves as the key challenger to Labour in the North, and to the Tories in the South. We have maintained consistent growth over five years, and can look forward to strengthening our position before the next election in 2020.
But the sharp contrast between votes and seats is a damning reflection on our first-past-the-post electoral system.
In Scotland, the SNP won 56 seats on 1,500,000 votes – or 27,000 votes per MP. Yet UKIP’s near-on four million votes achieved only one MP. It took us nearly 150 times as many votes to elect an MP as it took the SNP. That cannot be right. It cannot be fair. Those four million UKIP voters — and our members and activists and candidates — can feel rightly aggrieved at the way the system is stacked against them.
At one time I supported first-past-the-post — it offers a degree of stability in a two-party system. But we no longer have a two-party system, and the results of our current electoral system are perverse and unjust. It must be changed.
The result gave the lie to the narrative of the Tory Party and most of the media that “a UKIP vote is a vote for Miliband”. On the contrary, it seems many former Tories who had planned to vote for UKIP reverted to the Tories because of the SNP/Labour coalition scare, while many wavering Labour voters, equally concerned about the SNP, seem to have switched to UKIP. Far from helping Miliband, the UKIP campaign may have had the opposite effect.
Either way, the Party is in good heart, stronger than it has ever been, and will be stronger still in 2020. Meantime, we will be pressing strongly for a free and fair EU Referendum.
East Midlands press
East Midlands press
Having seen the Green Party manifesto – what preposterous absurdity – taking a bad energy situation and making it worse.
Their policies will increase global emissions by driving even more energy-intensive businesses to jurisdictions with lower environmental standards, and will undermine British industry, costing jobs and investment.
Only UKIP has an energy policy which can deliver secure and affordable energy – I’ve tried asking voters on the doorstep “Do you think we should keep spending billions on renewables subsidies?”, and not a single voter has replied “Yes”.
Roger Helmer MEP launches the campaign of Jonathan Bullock for Kettering
Roger Helmer MEP has visited Geddington to launch the campaign of UKIP Parliamentary candidate for Kettering Jonathan Bullock.
Roger said ‘ I am delighted to be in the beautiful village of Geddington to help our Parliamentary candidate for Kettering Jonathan Bullock who is also re-standing for his Council seat. He is certainly highly thought of locally- probably because his 100% turnout rate at full Council meetings has shown his commitment and enthusiasm to the role. I wish him luck in the elections.’
Jonathan Bullock said:
‘I am very grateful to Roger Helmer for taking time to come and support my campaign. We have been out knocking on doors and not only have we’ve found favourable support for UKIP but alot of people are fed up with the Conservative Party and Labour Party who have ignored the ordinary persons worries about uncontrolled immigration and the effect this is having on our schools, hospitals and local services. Our policy of an Australian style points-based migration system to slash the volume of immigration and end the undercutting of the wages of British working people is highly popular.’
Jonathan is being backed also by two former mayors of Kettering- Alan Pote and Eddie Brace- and UKIP are running Council candidates in every ward in the Borough.
UKIP condemns EU decision to allow multi-millions in German state subsidies to investors in off-shore wind turbines
UKIP energy spokesman Roger Helmer MEP said: “The Green ideologues at the European Commission are pushing for taxpayer subsidies across the EU for wind energy projects that are unreliable, uneconomic and deadly to migratory and sea birds.”
“The vast taxpayer-funded subsidies the EU are encouraging for so-called renewable energy projects will never deliver reliable energy to customers. The subsidies will only make the rich investors building these projects even richer. They will undermine investors who are putting their own money into power stations run on gas and other reliable and inexpensive fuels,” said Helmer.
“Today the European Commission has announced that German government plans to subsidise 20 offshore wind turbine projects being built for €29.3bn (£22bn) will not breach EU rules against state aid which might distort competition. This is clearly untrue.”
“One only needs to look at the UK government plans to allow an international consortium to build 400 wind turbines off theYorkshire coast. The project which will be subsidised by British taxpayers by as much as £900m a year, and after ten years it will deliver over £1bn a year in profits to the investors.”
“Yet none of these hugely expensive wind turbine projects will replace fossil fuel power stations, which must remain ready to continue to provide a ready source of fuel for British customers,” said Helmer.
Lincolnshire Echo
I read with interest the letter from Judith Coops on climate change, but I’m afraid it’s herself who is missing the point.
She says that the debate whether climate change is man-made or not is “irrelevant”. On the contrary, it’s right at the heart of the issue. If man-made CO2 is the only (or primary) cause of climate change, then in theory we could do something about it (though in practice, on a global scale, that’s proving impossible). But if, as many believe, human activity is not the cause, then our “green” policies are useless and pointless — they will have no effect except to bankrupt the country.
She suggests that we are “poisoning the air we breathe”. Certainly we need to control pollutants like SOx, NOx and particulates. But (name) implies that CO2 is poisoning the air. So a little chemistry lesson: CO2 is an invisible, natural, odourless, non-toxic trace gas which is essential for plant growth and therefore for life on earth. Without atmospheric CO2 we should all die. And it amounts to no more that 0.04% of the atmosphere.
Ms Coops refers to the Little Ice Age that put paid to the Greenland Viking settlements. But that makes my point: that change was clearly not driven by human activity, and nothing that we did (or didn’t do) would have made a scrap of difference. It is clear from the history of climate that the main drivers of global temperature are solar and astronomical cycles. To suggest that our complex and chaotic climate system is driven solely or primarily by a harmless trace gas is, frankly, absurd.
Honda’s £200m investment “Massive vote of confidence in Britain” says UKIP’s Industry spokesman Roger Helmer
Following the announcement that Honda is investing a further £200m in their plant in Swindon, Roger Helmer, the UKIP Industry spokesmansaid, ”I’m delighted that Honda has shown this strong gesture of confidence in the UK motor industry, which goes from strength to strength. The UK will continue to be a major hub for auto manufacture and exports, whether or not we remain in the European Union”.
It is clear that a company such as Honda will have ‘war-gamed’ future economic and political situations, including the strong likelihood of Brexit. This investment follows a £267 investment in September 20102.
The Independent right to reply
Dear Sir,
I recently ventured a light-hearted Tweet criticising “Earth Hour”, and you saw fit to report this in a piece describing me as “an idiot”. http://www.independent.co.uk/
Surely the real idiots are those, like Ed Davey, who support a totally counter-productive and perverse UK/EU energy policy, which is doing untold economic damage, while arguably increasing global emissions.
We have turned our back on low-cost generation like coal, and invested heavily in expensive and intermittent renewables. Energy costs are now driving energy-intensive industries out of the EU altogether, taking their jobs and their investment with them, and damaging our trade balance. Former EU Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani has said “We are creating an industrial massacre in Europe”.
Often these firms go to jurisdictions with lower environmental standards, thus increasing emissions per unit of production. A recent report by Vivid Economics for DECC showed that imported refined petroleum products involve 35% higher emissions than equivalent products refined in the UK
Yours faithfully,
ROGER HELMER MEP
Sunday Times Letter
In your editorial of March 15th you repeat the canard that “UKIP does not offer a programme for government beyond maximising the UK’s sovereignty”. As UKIP Energy Spokesman, I beg to differ.
One of the major policy challenges facing Britain today is that of energy. Energy prices for industry are hopelessly uncompetitive. This is not the result of an accident of fate, or an Act of God, but of deliberate policy. We have chosen to close swathes of economical and reliable generating capacity, and replace it with expensive and unreliable renewables. This is a vast misallocation of resources.
Our energy prices are broadly speaking double those of international competitors outside the EU. Industries are moving out of the UK (and out of the EU), taking their jobs and their investment with them. Often they go to jurisdictions with lower emissions standards, resulting in increased global emissions. We are creating, as former Commissioner Antonio Tajani put it, “an industrial massacre in Europe”. Yet this crisis receives little media attention — and is ignored in your editorial.
UKIP offers an energy policy based on coal, gas and nuclear — with a place for renewables if and when they are competitive. We are the only party offering a rational energy strategy — the old parties simply accept Brussels’ energy policy, and have even signed a joint paper on “fighting climate change”. UKIP is the only party offering a viable alternative — secure and affordable energy.
Yet in one sense your editorial is correct — we can’t implement a rational energy policy as long as we are in the EU, so energy, like so much else, also becomes a sovereignty issue.
Letter to the East Midlands press
UKIP has held its latest day of action protesting against the highway robbery known as’ toll roads’.
Earlier this week the party unfurled banners at a series of demonstrations. Our message is clear – this is highway robbery and charging drivers to use our busiest trunk roads and motorways is another hammer blow to the motorist.
Our aim is to block the introduction of any new new toll roads and to start work to strip back existing tolls on publically-owned roads.
We pay enough in taxes in this country as it is – we should be able to afford a top class road network, not be hammered in further charges so the Government can help fund schemes such as the white elephant HS2 project.
Enough is enough.
Letter to Lincolnshire press
To The Editor,
Dear Sir,
I read your piece, (Staffing shortage with 58 job vacancies for registered nurses at the hospital), with interest.
We in UKIP have long said if we can recruit talented British nurses that can only be a good thing for the NHS and for patients.
For Pilgrim Hospital to say part of its strategy is ‘to recruit more people from the EU,’ and then say that many nurses from Italy and Greece left the hospital because they wanted to be near an aiport so they could return home at weekends, is a little odd I think.
Surely better to learn from experience and recruit talented nurses with a good command of English and maybe adopt a strategy which doesn’t give preference to nurses from the EU.
Just a thought.
Letter to The Leicester Mercury
For nearly twenty years at my Leicestershire home there’s been an overhead electric cable across the paddock, with a support pole in the paddock. Recently, the electric company has “undergrounded” the cabling, and taken away the overhead cable and pole. As a consequence, the paddock now looks a whole lot nicer.
The south side of the village is blighted by four enormous wind turbines. I’m thinking of asking the electric company if they’d like to come and “underground” those, too.
Calls for cut in beer tax
UKIP MEPS Roger Helmer and Margot Parker have joined calls for third cut in beer tax.
The East Midlands MEPs have called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to back Britain’s beer and pub sector by cutting beer duty for the third time in the Budget on March 18.
The move comes as a new analysis by leading economists Oxford Economics for the BBPA, shows the huge impact of beer and pubs in the region.
- The beer and pub sector sustains 66,181 in the region
- This includes 21,296 for 16 to 24 year olds, who have been hit hard by the economic slowdown
- The sector adds £1.374m to the regional economy
- The sector also contributes £1.171m in taxes to the exchequer in the region.
UKIP is also pointing out that despite recent tax cuts, British beer drinkers still pay 40 per cent of the entire EU beer tax bill, but only consume 13 per cent of the beer sold in the EU.
Beer taxes in the UK are now an astonishing 12 times higher than in the largest beer market, Germany – and three times the EU average.
Mr Helmer and Mrs Parker are backing the campaign supported by the British Beer & Pub Association, the Society of Independent Brewers and the Campaign for Real Ale, for the Chancellor to cut beer tax for a third time in the Budget.
Commenting on the campaign, Mr Helmer said: “These figures show how important the brewing and pub sector is in the region. I hope the Chancellor will take action to protect these jobs by continuing to bring beer duty more into line with other EU countries.”
Mrs Parker said: “This will also help our much-loved pubs, the communities they serve and the important local facilities they provide.”
Wry smile at letter on allowances
We in UKIP had a wry smile at the letter from Ken Moreton, reciting the salary and allowances of UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
The short answer is this – first of all, Nigel Farage gets exactly the same benefits and allowances as 750 other MEPs – including Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem. The only difference is that as a group leader, he has access to a car (as have other group leaders in Brussels, and senior UK politicians).
And the old canard about UKIP MEPs “not working”. Former Lib-Dem MEP Bill Newton Dunn raised this one during the 2014 Euro elections – and was taken a back when I pointed out that my voting rate was better than the average of his own Lib-Dem MEPs. Last time I checked, David Cameron’s voting participation rate in Westminster was below 20 per cent In this EU parliament, UKIP’s voting record is ahead of that of the old parties.
In any case, voting participation is a poor measure of an MEP’s work. Some of us attach more importance to working for our constituents in our regions.
Yours, Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for Derbyshire
EU power grab will force Britain to abandon independent energy deals, warns UKIP
Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands and spokesman on energy, said the plan is another anti-competition move by the EU: “What this means is that if the UK can strike a good deal with a gas-producing state outside the European Union, the Commission can veto it on the grounds that it might give British industry an advantage over one of our European competitors.”
“The plan for a so-called Energy Union is in fact just an attempt by Brussels to grab control over all international energy deals. We learned today that the Commission is demanding ‘active participation’ in any deal the UK or any other member state may want to make in an attempt to get the cheapest possible gas prices.”
“So far the Cameron government has offered no resistance to this EU scheme. Yet Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has already admitted the Energy Union will force countries to pool their resources, combine their infrastructures and surrender their negotiating power in any energy deals with countries outside the EU.”
“Ultimately, Brussels wants the power to control the taps on our energy supplies,” said Helmer.
Deindustrialisation of Europe
Last week at the European Parliament the Industry and Energy Committee was called to vote on the Market Stability Reserve. The Committee nearly voted in favour of the deindustrialisation of Europe.
Let me briefly explain what the MSR is. The EU Emissions Trading system was introduced in 2005 as a ‘Cap and Trade’ scheme to reduce emissions. The theory was that the right to emit CO2 would be traded, and therefore permits would go where they were most economically useful. The price of the units would send a ‘signal’ to the market, which would promote energy conservation and new low-carbon technologies.
It was anticipated the price would start out around €25 a ton (a level at which very ‘dirty’ fossil fuels like lignite would start to be squeezed out), and progress over the years to €75, which would virtually exclude all fossil fuels.
he ETS was hailed as ‘a market system’ which would allocate a scarce resource – the right to emit CO2 — in an efficient way. In fact, for almost all of that time the price has languished below €10. It has failed to give the market signals intended. But it has created a huge administrative burden on industry, and spawned a new (and totally non-productive) business in “carbon trading”.
Recognising the effective failure of the grand scheme, the EU introduced a sticking-plaster response – back-loading. This removed some 900 million allowances from the current auction round for permits, but the effect on pricing was negligible. Some member-states became so frustrated with this failure that they introduced country-specific measures (undercutting the pretence of a Single Market). One such measure was George Osborne’s Carbon Flood Price, introduced in April 2013, a measure which directly impacted the competitive position of UK industry against continental competitors.
Recognising the on-going failure of the ETS programme, the EU institutions are now debating yet another sticking-plaster solution, the Market Stability Reserve.
Under the Commission’s proposal, starting from 2021, with the fourth ETS trading period, 12 per cent of the allowances in circulation would be placed in a reserve if the number of allowances in circulation two years earlier exceeds 833 million.
No one seems to recognise the irony of a ‘market mechanism’ which requires constant regulatory intervention to achieve the price levels originally envisaged. Markets set their own prices autonomously – that’s what a market is. We now have the worst of all possible worlds – the cost of operating a market, but a price being set by repeated regulatory intervention. It’s not a real market at all. It’s simply the most expensive and cumbersome method yet invented to impose a tax.
The MSR has been the subject of heated debate in the parliament, and the battle lines are drawn. The left and the greens are keen to impose the MSR as soon as possible, and want to bring it forward to 2017. And those who understand Europe’s competitive position in the world (and that includes UKIP), don’t want it at all.
On the industry side, a similar split is emerging. Energy suppliers want the MSR, as the only mechanism available to enable them to achieve the emissions targets the EU has set out. And they are confident that they can pass on the higher costs – forgetting that many of their most energy-intensive customers will move – indeed are already moving – out of the EU altogether to escape the suicidal energy policies which Brussels is imposing.
Intensive energy users, on the other hand, are in despair. Already clinging on by their finger-tips in the face of global competition, they fear that this is the coup-de-grace. In the past week I have met with the aluminium, steel and petroleum refining industries. They all tell the same story: EU production in decline, plants closing, jobs lost, imports rising. We are exporting production and jobs and investment, outside the EU altogether. And emissions. Often this activity goes to jurisdictions with lower environmental standards, leading to higher emissions. In steel, imports can represent twice the emissions per ton compared to EU production. In petroleum refining, it’s plus 35 per cent.
Aluminium has lost 42,000 jobs since 2007 (while imports rise). Steel 80,000. Petroleum refining 10,000 direct jobs, and an estimated 40,000 indirect. Chemicals, glass and cement can tell similar stories. This affects us all – here in Lincolnshire and across our country. Indeed, think of the trades which rely on those industries?
We are seeing more plant closures. More industry and investment moving out of the EU. The de-industrialisation of Europe. And quite possibly, higher emissions. That’s a very strange kind of ‘success’.
The word ‘mad’ is hardly strong enough. This is economic and industrial suicide. But the EU institutions are determined to press ahead with it. And believe it or not, the British Government is urging MEPs to support both the MSR and the earlier start date. Madness has a name – Ed Davey.
More Government meddling
Fighting for the NHS
To The Editor,
Dear Sir,
Yet again, we in UKIP find ourselves responding to misrepresentations on our policies regarding the NHS.
The UKIP position on healthcare funding is simple – the NHS is and will remain funded through general taxation and free at the point of delivery. This is a position supported by by our leader Nigel Farage and our spokesman on health Louise Bours. The position has also been endorsed by the NEC.
A UKIP Government will ensure will ensure the NHS is free at the point of delivery and time of need for all UK residents. For those interested in our policies on the NHS we would also:
- Stop further use of PFI in the NHS and encourage local authorities to buy out their PFI contracts early where this is affordable.
- Ensure that GPs’ surgeries are open at least one evening per week, where there is demand for it.
- Oppose plans to charge patients for visiting their GP.
- Ensure that visitors to the UK, and migrants until they have paid NI for five years, have NHS-approved private health insurance as a condition of entry to the UK, saving the NHS £2b pa. UKIP will commit to spending £200m of the £2b saving to end hospital car parking charges in England.
- We would replace Monitor and the Care Quality Commission with elected county health boards to be more responsive scrutineers of local health services. These will be able to inspect health services and take evidence from whistle-blowers.
- We would oppose the sale of NHS data to third parties.
- We would ensure foreign health service professionals coming to work in the NHS are properly qualified and can speak English to a standard acceptable to the profession.
- We will amend working time rules to give trainee doctors, surgeons and medics the proper environment to train and practice.
As your local UKIP MEPs we hope that sets the record straight.
Roger Helmer and Margot Parker, UKIP MEPs for the East Midlands.
Letter on climate change
Professor Joanna Haigh of Imperial College is quite right to say that I am not a scientist (though I do have a Cambridge maths degree and a fairly good layman’s grasp of scientific principles). She might like to note first of all that I am a politician, and as such I am frequently obliged to form a view, and to vote, on issues that have a significant scientific component. If Prof Haigh wants to exclude all non-scientists from decision-making on such issues, she has just sounded the death-knell of democracy.
Secondly she might like to note that we are dealing here with climate science, and despite the nonsense claim of a “97% consensus”, the fact is that there are wide divergences of view amongst scientists. I have personally worked with expert reviewers from the IPCC panel itself who profoundly disagree with the IPCC conclusions. Prof Fred Singer of the University of Virginia says “The IPCC accepted my corrections to its punctuation — but not to its science”. One such reviewer, Paul Reiter of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, had to threaten to sue the IPCC to have his name removed from a section of the report with which he disagreed.
In these circumstances I as a politician have to take an informed view and decide and vote accordingly, and in forming that view I take account of the fact that IPCC predictions of global temperature have been repeatedly falsified by the data, and that there has been no additional warming for nearly two decades.
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
So now we have to drink tepid coffee in dimly-lit rooms – assuming we have time after taking an extra half an hour doing the vacuuming thanks to our low-powered cleaners.
Yes, the EU has struck again. Not content with meddling over light bulbs and vacuum cleaner power, now coffee machines have come under the spotlight.
New regulations will mean coffee machines will have to switch off after brewing the drink – leaving what is left completely unpalatable.
It is yet another example of how we are losing control over the tiniest details of our own affairs. We wish the EU would find something better to do – these type of laws should be a matter for the industry, the market and perhaps national legislation – not a matter for yet more interference from Brussels.
More must be done to train nurses in this country – and urgently
Our plea comes in the wake of a shock report from the Health Service Journal showing almost three-quarters of hospital trusts have been driven to recruiting overseas.
While we have always had some foreign nurses working in the NHS it is now getting out of control and we cannot go on ignoring the situation – this shortage of homegrown registered nurses should never have been allowed to develop and cutting 10,000 training posts since the last General Election has plainly been a massive mistake. We believe one of the ways to address this is to scrap the insistence on university degrees.
We need to go back to learning on the job backed up with classroom training which would help tackle this staffing crisis Nursing is about caring and practical experience on the wards, dealing with real patients is worth its weight in gold.
A survey earlier this year revealed more than half of nurses are so unhappy they want to quit to work overseas for countries such as Australia where they can often earn at least £10,000 a year more.
Morale among nursing staff is very low as they feel their essential work is undervalued so it is no wonder that we have staff shortages in this country. It is a crisis and swift action is needed.
Latest figures show in the 12 months ending in September last year 5,778 nurses from abroad were recruited compared with 1,360 the previous year.
Recruiting staff from abroad carries the inherent risk that poor English skills could lead to misunderstandings and mistakes. It also adds to the costs of recruitment, money which should be spent on training and paying British nurses.
Because our hands are tied by EU rules on freedom of labour about 75 per cent of nurses from overseas are allowed to register to work here without any checks on their language or competence. That is plainly wrong and dangerous.
Another blow to controlling our own borders
The decision by the European Court of Justice that Britain must recognise residence permits from any EU member state strikes another blow against the UK’s power to control its borders.
The court ruled that where non-EU nationals hold a residence permit as a family member of a citizen of an EU member state, the UK cannot require them to apply for a visa to enter Britain.
This means Britain will be forced to recognise residence permits issued by any EU member state, even though the system of permits is wide open to abuse and fraud. This ruling extends the so-called ‘right to free movement’ to millions of people from anywhere in the world who don’t have citizenship of any country of the EU and will have an effect on the people of the East Midlands and beyond.
Britain will now be forced to recognise residence permits issued by any EU member state, even though the system of permits is wide open to abuse and fraud. This ruling extends the so-called ‘right to free movement’ to millions of people from anywhere in the world who don’t have citizenship of any country of the EU.
This is yet another blow to our right to govern ourselves and another example why were would be better off out.
Letter to The Daily Telegraph
Hari Bakhshi (letters, Dec 7th) says he is withdrawing his support for UKIP, and supporting the EU, because a kind Polish lady helped him in a car park.
I myself have enjoyed great kindness and consideration from Americans — and indeed from Malaysians, and others. But that doesn’t mean I choose to be governed from Washington, or from Kuala Lumpur. UKIP seeks to be globally engaged, and on good terms with other nations, but we also believe that the British people should govern themselves.
Residents worried over Viking threat
Worried residents have called on their MEP to help halt controversial plans for a ‘Viking link’ to a sub-station at Bicker Fen.
Concerned householder John Bowler, who is acting on behalf of the residents, said that the proposed new infrastructure known as the Viking Link will come from Denmark undersea to the Lincolnshire coast then across Lincolnshire to Bicker Fen.
He said: “The sub-station on the fen will cover about 150 acres of prime agricultural land. There will be extensive environmental damage across Lincolnshire and at Bicker Fen, to say nothing of the damage to residents.
“The Viking Link has had no discussion or consultation anywhere. The project is in addition to the National Grid existing sub-station, in addition to the existing 13 wind turbines, in addition to the infrastructure for the Heckington Wind Turbines, and in addition to the RWE sub-station and wiring across Lincolnshire from the Triton Knoll wind turbines to Bicker Fen.
“All the new projects will be constructed at the same time, causing total devastation to this area and changing the character of the area from agricultural to industrial. In all cases alternative brownfield sites are available.”
He has called on UKIP MEP Roger Helmer, who is also the party’s energy spokesman, for help in fighting the proposals.
Mr Helmer has written to the Chief Executives of Ofcom and National Grid. He said: “These residents have already had a large wind farm imposed in the teeth of their protests, and have consequently suffered all the problems of an industrialised landscape, visual intrusion, excessive lorry movements during the construction phase, and of course the well-documented health impacts of wind turbines located close to homes.
“They are now horrified to find they face a new threat, from the proposed Viking Link from Denmark, which apparently is scheduled to come right through the same area – as if local residents had not suffered enough.”
He said residents would suffer from:
- Visual intrusion
- Loss of valuable agricultural land (reportedly 150 acres)
- Unacceptable levels of traffic, and industrialisation of the Bicker area
- Total lack of information or consultation before the plans were finalised.
- Unacceptable damage to residents’ lives
- Unacceptable cumulative industrialisation
He urged the authorities to look again at the scheme.
UKIP announces candidate to fight Nottingham East
UKIP has chosen its candidate to take on Labour head-on in next year’s General Election.
Claude-Francois Loi, who is the county representative for Nottinghamshire, will fight the Nottingham East seat, saying: “The people of Nottingham want someone to represent them who cares for the city.
“I was born and bred locally and will do my very best to listen to the people and what they want. Voters are tired of the same old policies and dogma from the other parties.”
UKIP’s Nottingham branch chairman Francesco Lari said: “Fran is a young candidate and I’m sure he will do very well in the second most marginal of the Nottingham constituencies.
“The people of Nottingham want to be represented by someone who cares for the city and Labour has lost touch with the voters. I and the electors of Nottingham East are looking forward to have Fran in Westminster this coming May.”
The city’s UKIP MEP Roger Helmer said: “I, like everyone else in UKIP, wish Fran well. He is an enthusiastic and hard-working candidate and has the interests of Nottingham and its people close to his heart.”
Mr Loi lives in Gedling and is a consultant for lesiure venues and a project manager. He has lived in Nottingham for most of his life and currently lives with his nine-year-old son.
He said: “As a single parent, I know what it is like to struggle and to manage household budgets to make ends meet.”
He also works as a volunteer assistant instructor at Mixed Martial Arts, training children in self defence, campaigns for the people of Nottinghamshire on local issues and is the UKIP county representative for Nottinghamshire and vice-chairman of UKIP Gedling Association.
Immigration figures are ‘eye-watering’
UKIP East Midlands MEPs Roger Helmer and Margot Parker have described the latest immigration increases as ‘eye-watering.’
Their comments come after it was revealed in the year to June 2014, 583,000 people entered the UK - more than whole the population of the City of Manchester - while net term migration was up in the year by 42 per cent to 250,000.
Mr Helmer said: “The astronomical migration figures show an abject failure by this Government to control immigration, despite countless promises to the public. The eye-watering increase places immense strain on employment prospects, schools, hospitals and housing. This is either a total scandal or a long standing con trick by a party which was elected on the promise of reducing immigration to the tens of thousands.
“It is typical of David Cameron and his party – can they not keep any promises and pledges?”
Mrs Parker said: “These migration figures once again demonstrate the Tories’ abject failure to deliver on a promise, we can expect more Tory excuses.
“The solution to stopping mass, uncontrolled, wage-lowering, legal and illegal immigration into the UK is straightforward. First control our borders by making sure we properly resource the UK Border Agency by hiring at least 2,500 more frontline staff. Second, exit the EU and ensure we negotiate fair and ethical immigration criteria for all peoples of the world based on implementation of an Australian-like points based system on our way out.”
Mr Helmer added: “The Government needs to stop sticking its head in the sand and get real on how the UK can take back control of immigration so that public services can be planned for and properly financed.”
EU protects Juncker
So, the European Parliament has voted to protect the scandal-soaked Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker rather than to protect voters whose national tax revenues have been bled by his big business tax avoidance schemes.
During the debate on Thursday, (November 28), those of us who backed this motion of censure warned the that credibility of the new president of the commission has been ruined by the disclosures that he had permitted 240 of the biggest multi-nationals in the world to enter into aggressive corporate tax avoidance schemes in the Grand Duchy while he was Prime Minister.
It is disgraceful Labour MEPs supported Juncker’s sweetheart deals for multinational corporations. But the Tories — impaled on the EU fence — abstained. Will this office-hungry party stand up for anything?
What no one will forget is that while Juncker was letting multi-nationals off with dodgy deals and one per cent corporation tax, he was one of the Eurozone bosses who were imposing spending cuts and tax rises on the suffering ordinary people caught in the trap of the EU’s single currency.
HS2 – politicians’ train set
What an awful situation residents living on the planned route of HS2 in Derbyshire find themselves in.
Having to wait another year before knowing if their homes will be demolished to make way for this ridiculous vanity project must be putting great strain on family life, especially at a time when the underlying economics of HS2 are increasingly being questioned.
It appears HS2 officials are telling the residents – who were first told their homes may be compulsorily purchased two years ago – that final decisions will not be made until after the General Election.
Meanwhile these residents must wait and wait. Not only is HS2 a waste of money – a politician’s train set in fact – it is also having a detrimental impact on peoples’ lives.
Labour Lies on NHS
We feel compelled to write after reading the outrageous letter from Cheryl Pidgeon, the ‘proud’ Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Derbyshire.
Proud indeed? Proud of spreading blatant lies about UKIP to the electorate maybe?
So UKIP believes working mothers are not worth as much as men? That we believe life was’ easier’ when there was no equality for gay and lesbian people? That the NHS would be better off privatised?
Very odd observations – and downright lies. Our plans for the NHS for instance? Where does Ms Pidgeon get this from?
Time and time again our party leader, our health spokesman and our politicians and members have said that our much-loved and much-needed NHS will be cherished in UKIP hands and will continue to be free at the point of use. We musat put an end to these lies.
Labour accuses UKIP of having no policies — yet spends its time lying about what our policies are.
Praise for school
We read with interest your piece on Middle Rasen Primary School, (November 20, 2014), in which the head teacher said that Ofsted branding her school ‘too English’ had been blown out of all proportion.
It seems a pity the focus on one small section of the Ofsted report had deflated morale at the school on near Market Rasen.
What a shame. Ofsted gave the school a ‘good’ rating and the positives of the report should be pressed home not one small part - indeed, the head, Melonie Brunton, said that particular section simply highlighted the fact there was a lack of children from other cultures at the school, not that it was ‘too English’.
It’s refreshing to see The Lincolnshire Echo – part of our much-valued local press – set the record straight and cut through the throwaway headlines.
And as for the school? It appears it has a dedicated and committed staff which we are sure will work on the aspects highlighted in the Ofsted report and reach its targets.
Yours,
Roger Helmer and Margot Parker MEPs for Lincolnshire
In response to Leicester Mercury piece
I enjoyed reading your interview with my former staffer, now MEP, Emma McClarkin.
But I note that she is trotting out the increasingly tired and outdated Tory slogan “Vote UKIP, get Miliband”. I have a three-word answer for that: “Rochester and Strood”.
The experience in Rochester, and indeed in Clacton, was “Vote UKIP, get UKIP”‘. And in the earlier by-election in Heywood and Middleton, if a few Tory voters had switched tactically to UKIP to stop Labour, they’d have stopped Labour.
The lesson from the Heywood result was “Vote Conservative, get Miliband”.
UKIP reaches the parts other parties can’t reach
A few years ago, taxi drivers were forbidden to display the flag of Saint George because the authorities thought it was “racist”.http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4886127.display/ Indeed, it was a brave politician who dared to mention the vexed question of immigration, because to do so invited howls of outrage, and (again) accusations of racism.
And UKIP has played a great part in opening up the immigration debate – indeed is the only party with a non-discriminatory immigration policy, based solely on numbers and skills. This contrasts with Coalition policy, which discriminates in favour of unskilled Eastern Europeans, and against highly skilled immigrants from the Commonwealth.
It’s now becoming much more acceptable to display our English national flag (especially during international football competitions). And so we should. Other countries, from the USA to Thailand, display their national flags proudly and without apology, and so should we.
But then sadly, we run up against Labour’s attitude, with their Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry photographing a house with English flags and a white van parked outside, and Tweeting it with obvious derision. How very — well, non-Labour — to show a hint of patriotism! Of course she was forced to resign from the front bench, but by then the damage was done. Labour instinctively despises working-class people who drive white vans and display the national flag.
This is a sorry come-down for a party, which as its very name suggests, was created for the working man. Labour has entirely lost touch with its roots. Take its leader, Ed Miliband, who struggles to eat a bacon sandwich. Sadly for him, he just looks a bit weird, and his adenoidal speaking voice doesn’t help. He studied at Corpus Christi, Oxford, and then at LSE, and apart from a short period as a journalist, he’s never had a proper job.
Not that he’s unique. Neither Nick Clegg nor David Cameron has much real-world experience, having spent most of their careers in politics, and both had a privileged education. (OK, I may have a Cambridge degree myself, but I was a grammar school boy and I spent 33 years working in industry before getting into politics).
All three old parties, in fact, have become metrocentric, and are more comfortable in St. John’s Wood than Swadlincote. I love the story of Peter Mandelson going to Middlesbrough and being given mushy peas, and then complaining there was something seriously wrong with the guacamole! And the voters recognise that. But they rightly see UKIP as authentic. Nigel Farage doesn’t drink with the average guy in the pub for a photo-op – he does it because he genuinely enjoys it, and wants to hear what the customers are saying.
That’s why UKIP is taking votes from Labour almost to the same extent as it’s taking votes from Tories. And that Rochester result blows away the Tory slogan “Vote UKIP, get Miliband”.
Oh no. It’s “Vote UKIP, get UKIP
Roger Helmer on BBC Radio Nottingham
Hear Roger on BBC Radio Nottingham on the Rochester and Strood by-election - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b7qx1 – one hour, 56 minutes in.
Roger Helmer hails Rochester win as another huge step forward
A huge endorsement of UKIP policies – that’s the message from East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer after the historic victory in Rochester and Strood.
Mark Reckless’ stunning by-election victory – which gave UKIP its second MP after Douglas Carswell’s ground-breaking win last month – was hailed as another huge step forward for the party and for Britain.
Mr Helmer has been helping out with the campaign in Rochester and Strood and were overwhelmed at the public’s support.
Mr Helmer, the leader of the UKIP delegation in Brussels and the party’s energy spokesman, said: “Fantastic. Another great night which shows the growing public support for UKIP and our policies.
“With the general election coming up in May this is yet another surefire sign that the country is fully behind us – the old parties are being left behind.”
Government policy a clear ‘copy and paste’ of UKIP energy plans
A clear copy and paste job – that’s the view of UKIP energy spokesman Roger Helmer on the Government’s latest policy announcement.
Plans to create a ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ from the profits of shale gas extraction were released by the UK’s Energy Ministry over the weekend.
But East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer said: ”It’s astonishing that not only are they lifting our policy concepts straight out of our manifesto, but they are not even worried about using our wording. It’s basically a copy and paste!”
He said: “It’s been on the record for well over a year that UKIP wanted to look into exploiting our vast shale gas deposits and would use the profits to shore up a wealth fund for the general public.
“We formally announced this before our Annual Party Conference in London in September 2013
“The Tories can try to dress up as us and sell our policies to the voter but they should also remind themselves that they cannot focus on shale gas as a fuel for the future while also signing up to the EU carbon targets for 2020.”
Mr Helmer said UKIP had pushed the agenda on so many topics, from having an EU referendum, to controlling immigration, to blocking intervention in Syria and accepting their refugees, it shouldn’t come as a surprise the Government is now taking a leaf out of the UKIP book on energy too.
He said: “They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.The poor old Conservative Party does not have an original thought in its head.”
MEP calls for end to climate change delusion
The region’s MEP will speak at a top level meeting on climate and energy policy.
UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer is one of the speakers at a public meeting on Wednesday (November 5) at the Parliament Palace of Westminster in London.
Mr Helmer, the party’s energy spokesman, said: “The UK desperately needs a practical energy policy – not one directed by the EU which is driving many people in this country into fuel poverty.”
Other speakers at the meeting, scheduled for 1pm to 3pm, include Piers Corbyn from Weather Action, who will explain the essential incredibility of the CO2 theory of climate change.
For more information and tickets visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/repealclimateact-tickets-14058494335 or http://www.weatheraction.com.
MEP discovers yet more mind boggling wind turbine costs
An arch critic of wind power has discovered yet more mind boggling turbine costs.
UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer has revealed a whole new category of costs after finding out the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) is spending substantial sums to enable its radars to cope with the adverse impact of wind turbines. These radars are essential in order to keep commercial planes on course.
Mr Helmer, the party’s energy spokesman, is a long-standing opponent of wind energy and said his latest findings were “mind-boggling”.
He said: “As turbines have this effect on radar systems it means all wind turbine planning applications have to go to the National Air Transport Service (NATS) for approval.
“But what I didn’t realise, until recently, was NATS has been funding a major programme of up-grades to equipment, designed to enable it to operate more effectively in the face of interference from wind turbines (http://nats.aero/blog/2013/10/winds-of-change-aviation-and-wind-energy/).
“The first phase of this programme is costing £14m. I shall be writing to NATS to ask for its best estimate of the total cost of the programme.
“In its own words, it says, ‘we have poured a huge amount of our own resources into working with the industry on mitigation. We don’t have to do this, it is over and above our core role as an Air Navigation Service Provider but we do so in the spirit of supporting the UK’s renewables targets’.”
Mr Helmer said NATS was funded by levies on the airline industry so the man in the street is paying for these upgrades, either as a passenger or customer of goods transported by air.
He added: “And it’s being done explicitly to enable more wind turbine applications to be approved!
“The costs and the waste involved in the wind industry are mind-boggling. All in pursuit of climate policies which themselves are hugely open to question.
“In primitive and historic communities they conducted human sacrifices to appease the weather gods and to ensure good harvests. Our modern climate policies are equally absurd and ineffectual. But I suppose we should be grateful that in these modern times all we are sacrificing is wealth and prosperity.”
£1.7 bn for the Brussels Begging Bowl
It is an outrage that Brussels has ambushed the British Prime Minister with an unexpected demand for an extra £1.7 billion — based on their re-assessment of Britain’s economic growth. And David Cameron is not a man to trust on the issue. He should just say NO.
(You can’t trust the Tories in Brussels either. Last week on the vote to approve the new European Commission, they split three ways — for, against and abstain. Needless to say, UKIP MEPs all voted against).
In this country we don’t allow HMRC to come back retrospectively and change the rules, and demand money from previous years. We can’t accept Brussels doing that either.
What this amounts to is a deliberate policy of punishing success (the UK), and rewarding failure. Apparently France will receive nearly £800,000. But even in its own terms, this EU initiative isn’t working. It’s taking money from Greece, which is nearly bust, and giving it to Germany, which was doing relatively well until recently.
Of course we in UKIP don’t want to be in the EU’s inward-looking, protectionist club in the first place. We don’t want to be giving Brussels £10 billion net a year to start with, never mind the extra £1.7 billion. We don’t want British industry burdened by the dead hand of Brussels regulation, estimated by some to be ten times the direct budget contributions. We want Britain to be free to make its own trade deals with the world. We want to focus on growing markets in the Americas and Asia, not on a declining Europe.
So we are adamantly opposed to this extra impost, at a time when real wages in the UK are stagnant and public services are desperate for funds.
The timing of the demand, just weeks ahead of the Rochester by-election where UKIP is leading the Tories in opinion polls, has suggested to some that there might be dirty work at the crossroads. One suggestion: maybe Brussels thinks (wrongly in our view) that a success for UKIP will lead to a Labour Prime Minister, who would not agree to an EU referendum. So was the timing deliberately designed to help UKIP in Rochester?
Or maybe they want to help Cameron and block UKIP. Will they climb down a couple of days before polling day, so that Cameron can come back from Brussels waving a piece of paper and declaring “Peace in our Time”? We’ll see. Cameron insists he won’t pay on December 1st. But December 2nd? One thing’s for sure: he won’t pay before the Rochester by-election on November 20th!
Daily Telegraph:
We in UKIP want a managed immigration policy based on numbers and skills, regardless of nationality. In that context and following the debate in your columns about foreign dancers at the English National Ballet, I’d like to nominate ballerina Alina Cojocaru as my favourite Romanian immigrant. No one who has seen her dance will have any doubt about her ability to get past a skills test – perhaps with a grand jeté.
Come and join us
So, the Conservative Leicestershire County Council leader Nick Rushton has said his party needs to adopt some UKIP policies, (Leicester Mercury, October 15).
He was, of course, speaking after our spectacular parliamentary by-election victories, which came hot on the heels of our European Election win in May.
Cllr Rushton is quite right that our policies are backed and supported by the public – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is refreshing to see our rivals now publically urging their leaders to follow the UKIP fox!
The fox is up and running and no amount of pledges to shoot it will work – as Cllr David Sprason says, Conservative voters are coming to UKIP in big numbers – people don’t trust the Tory leadership any more.
Maybe Cllr Rushton should come and join us?
Roll on next May
Last week, in two by-elections, 32,129 people voted for UKIP — more than the combined Tory and Labour vote,
So we think it’s safe to say that the fox is well and truly in the Westminster hen house! Congratulations to Douglas Carswell and John Bickley and a big pat on the back to all those who helped in the campaigns. We are very proud of them — and not least of the 24 UKIP MEPs who worked in both campaigns.
The Prime Minister still says that a vote for UKIP is a vote for Miliband. But in Clacton it was a vote for UKIP delivering a UKIP MP. And in Heywood & Middleton, it was votes for the Tories that allowed the Labour candidate to scrape through.
These results leave Tory and Labour politicians, who have spent recent years repeatedly claiming UKIP could not be taken seriously, busily reassessing the political landscape.
Roll on May, 2015!
Happy to share findings
Dear Sir, Mr Black’s letter contains so much nonsense that I won’t refute it point-by-point. But I have to take up one issue. He says he can’t find a reference to the EU limiting the power of electric kettles in the document he mentions, and he slaps that proposition onto the table as if it proves his point.
But I never said that the EU had done so. I said they were considering doing so, as has been widely reported in the press. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11061538/EU-to-ban-high-energy-hair-dryers-smartphones-and-kettles.html). I have now tabled a Written Question to the European Commission asking them to clarify their position on the point, and I await their reply, which I shall be happy to share with readers of the Northamptonshire Telegraph when it arrives.
Protest prompts hard hitting letter
The leader of the 24-strong UKIP delegation has written a hard-hitting letter to the president of the European Parliament after up to 100 Kurds stormed the EU headquarters in Brussels.
Horrified MEP Roger Helmer witnessed the incident yesterday (Tuesday) and has now written a strongly worded letter to Martin Schulz, raising concerns over security over the placard waving protest.
In the letter, Mr Helmer, who represents the East Midlands, said: “You will be aware there was a violent disturbance around and inside the parliament today.
“A demonstration by Kurdish nationals and their supporters got out of hand, a number of demonstrators managed to access the building, and for a whole parliament members and staff had difficulty gaining admittance.
“I have to let you know some staff members were seriously alarmed for their own safety, and frightened by this turn of events. Fortunately these demonstrators were unarmed (so far as I know). But they could just as well have been ISIL terrorists with explosive vests.
“This was a very serious breach of security indeed. On behalf of my delegation, I should like to know what action you propose to take as a result of this event, and I must insist that measures are put in place to prevent any recurrence.”
Mr Helmer, who also Tweeted about the incident as it happened, said he was awaiting a reply and assurances strong measures will be put in place.
The Kurds were protesting to draw attention to the plight of the Kurdish people of Northern Syria under attack by IS.
Notes for Editors:
There have been four major security incidents in the Parliament in the last three years:
- In February 2009, a man brandishing a pistol stole about €60,000 from a bank inside the building. The perpetrator got away.
- In May 2010, a canteen was robbed. Again, no suspect was apprehended.
- On 4 February 2011, two men held up the Post Office in the Parliament and stole €8,000. Both men got away.
- On 18 February 2011, a TV journalist passed through security with a toy metal gun tucked under his jacket. He revealed the pistol, on camera, while standing only a few metres away from the presidents of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
Online Petition Launched Demanding A Voice For England
Please sign the petition - http://www.voiceforengland.com/
WE DEMAND:
- English only votes in Westminster. We’re asking Scottish MPs for their commitment to not vote on English matters that would otherwise fall within devolved powers if they related to Scotland.
- Revision of the Barnett Formula. We want a full debate and vote in the House of Commons to rebalance this arbitrary and out-of-date concept.
- No taxation without equal representation. The Electoral Commission must determine new boundaries for the constituencies of Scottish MPs so that the average number of constituents more closely resembles that in England.
- A Constitutional Convention. Such a Convention needs to be rapidly established to put in place a plan for a Federal UK.
We’re confident that fulfilling these reasonable requests is vital to retaining the confidence of the electorate in a United Kingdom in which so many powers have been devolved.
Roger Helmer responds to ‘kettle’ letters in local press
Tony Banks (letters page, Sep 18) misses the point entirely on the EU’s proposed rules on kettles. As I said in my original letter, it takes at least as much energy to boil a low-power kettle as a high-power one (and arguably more, for the reasons which I clearly set out). So the EU proposal fails to make sense even in its own terms. Making kettles lower-power does not make them more efficient – it makes them less efficient.
Mr Banks says, “our environment is Europe, not this little island”. Sorry to disagree again, but our environment is the whole world, and despite Mr Banks obsessive belief in “climate change”, there has been no global warming now for 18 years. No schoolchild today has ever experienced global warming in their life-time. And many scientists, especially astronomers, are suggesting that the world may now start to cool, as a result of changes in solar activity.
Philip Evans, in the same edition, presents an astonishingly prejudiced and bigoted view of UKIP, while demonstrating a vast ignorance of history. The peace in my lifetime has been kept not by Brussels or the European Commission, but by NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance, by nuclear deterrence, by mutually assured destruction, by 100,000 American GIs in Germany. The Berlin Wall was not brought down by the EU, but by the courage, determination and commitment of leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and indeed Pope John Paul.
In fact the EU is undermining our security, by seeking to create military structures that bypass NATO. It was the EU’s deliberate and hubristic meddling in Ukraine that brought about the current crisis with Russia, which may yet get worse before it gets better.
Mr. Evans’ characterisation of UKIP as “paranoid and xenophobic” is so divorced from reality as to be almost funny. Far from the Scottish Independence Campaign reflecting UKIP attitudes, in fact UKIP, and our Scottish MEP David Coburn, campaigned passionately for the Union. The clue is in the name, Mr Evans. We’re the United Kingdom Independence Party.
Roger Helmer MEP on the ‘NO’ vote – BBC Radio Nottingham – one hour, eight minutes in http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02652mm
Roger Helmer MEP’s reaction to Scotland vote result:
Roger Helmer MEP said: “I am delighted to hear that Scotland has voted “NO”. Three hundred years of history, and common sense, and economic reality have prevailed. We will now see new powers devolved to Scotland.
“But this must mean changes in the rest of the UK, and more powers for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Nigel Farage is calling for Scottish MPs to refrain from voting on non-Scottish matters until the issue is resolved, and for a Constitutional convention which will give equal powers to England (and Wales and Northern Ireland), and review the highly preferential Barnett Formula which delivers disproportionate financial benefits to Scotland.”
Delght at re-election of Nigel Farage
Roger Helmer MEP, leader of the UKIP delegation in Parliament, said: “I am delighted, although not surprised that Nigel has been re-elected, unopposed, to lead our party for another term.
“His vision and commitment to the betterment of our country is an inspiration to everybody within UKIP, and beyond.
“Nigel was instrumental in demonstrating to me why UKIP was a party I should support back in 2012, and he is the perfect person to deliver that same message to the people of Britain, as we enter one of the most important political periods in our history.”
Full story here - http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/16/Farage-Re-Elected-Unopposed-as-UKIP-Leader
Barmy ban on kettles
One of the benefits of being a member of the European Parliament is that I get the chance to asked the EU Commission a question on behalf of my East Midland constituents, which I often like to do. This week I wrote to them about the latest, ludicrous and nonsensical proposal to come out of Brussels.
Believe it or not, we’ve all been told the European Commission proposes to introduce measures to limit the power of electric kettles on environmental grounds. Like many of you, It left me wondering whether any of these bureaucrats had any grasp of the basic physics of boiling a kettle?
Are they aware that in boiling it slowly, over a longer time, more waste heat will be lost to the environment through conduction, convection and radiation?
Surely they should recognise this proposal will increase electricity consumption, generate more waste heat, and tend to increase emissions, both of CO2 and water vapour?
The EU is in desperate need of some good old, British common sense. Of course they don’t see it that way, which is why I, and my colleagues in UKIP believe we should be better off out.
Political debate on Radio 4′s Any Questions – you can listen here - and read my Blog too!
Britain Faces ‘Winter of Blackouts’ As Firms Are Asked to Ration Electricity
“The chickens are coming home to roost”. So said the Ukip energy spokesman, commenting on the news that businesses are being asked to join a 1970s style energy rationing program this winter to stop Britain being plunged into darkness. Offices and factories will be offered compensation to shut down for four hours a day so that energy can instead be diverted to households.
The scheme, reported in the Daily Mail, is part of a series of measures set to be taken by National Grid which also includes asking owners of decommissioned gas, coal and oil power stations to turn them back on. Ofgem, the industry regulator, has welcomed the proposals but pointed out that “it would cost quite a bit”. It comes as the gap between energy consumption and production has narrowed to dangerous levels, leaving the system increasingly vulnerable to unexpected events.
“The Government has been crossing its fingers and hoping that it’s all fine. It’s blindingly obvious that if you have a tight market then you will be more vulnerable to shocks,” analyst Peter Atherton of Liberum Capital told the Daily Mail.
Fires at two coal stations, one in West Yorkshire, the other in Shropshire, have put those sites out of action, and a gas station in Essex has been unexpectedly closed since the summer. However, National Grid indicated that these setbacks have merely brought the deployment of this plan forward one year.
Under the plan, businesses that sign up to the scheme will be paid a compensatory amount and may be asked to shut down between 4pm and 8pm on any given day between November and February. They will be paid the compensation even if they are not called upon to shut down. In addition, they will also receive an above-market rate payment for any electricity not used.
The scheme echoes the three day working weeks suffered by Britain during the winter of 1973/74, in which power was tightly rationed. Under Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, businesses were only allowed three consecutive days’ worth of electricity a week whilst households were subject to a ‘three hours on, three hours off’ supply. Heath lost the general election in February 1974.
Yesterday National Grid also contacted the owners of recently closed power plants to enquire as to whether they could be brought back online within the next few weeks. This is an option that has never before been used in Britain, and has been predicted to cost tens of millions as the owners would be paid all costs involved in getting the stations up and running, plus an above market rate price for electricity generated. They would be required to produce energy between 6am and 8pm between November and February.
The measures were “unprecedented”, energy analyst Angelos Anastasiou of Whitman Howard Bank told the Daily Mail, adding “You would need to get a lot of staff back on site, and would need to carry out trials before you can get it up and running. It could run into tens of millions, depending how many stations you needed to bring back.”
Speaking to Breitbart London, Ukip’s energy spokesman Roger Helmer MEP commented “UKIP has been warning for years that the UK’s energy policies, driven by Brussels, would lead to blackouts and supply shortages. That’s why our UKIP energy policy document is sub-titled Keeping The Lights On. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
“It is a bitter irony that DECC [the Department of Energy and Climate Change] is planning contracts with commercial companies to use diesel generators to fill the gaps when the wind doesn’t blow. It is bizarre that we are paying over the odds for diesel generators when the plan was to cut emissions.
“The near-certainty of black-outs is not the only problem. We’ve also forced energy prices sky high, driving businesses and jobs and investment out of the UK, and leaving households and pensioners in fuel poverty”.
Six different bins – more EU madness
The latest set of EU rules which could mean we have to separate our rubbish into SIX different bins is ludicrous but sadly does not really surprise us.
It’s indicative of the meddling bureaucracy we have come to expect from the EU and its officials.
We know recycling is important and opinion polls tell us the British public realise its importance in many cases but it is farcical that we could end up with six bins.
Where do people house all these bins? Will it mean collections are farther apart from each other as bin collectors will struggle to collect six bins weekly, or even fortnightly?
The whole proposal shows how disconnected these bureaucrats are from everyday working families in this country.
EU ENERGY POLICY HELPS PUT 1.5 MILLION UK JOBS AT RISK AND HAS COST THE ECONOMY UP TO £93.2BN:
New research from Business for Britain reveals that EU energy regulations have cost the UK economy between £86.6 billion and £93.2 billion (net) so far, putting 1.5 million jobs are at risk thanks to high energy prices.
Responding to the research UKIP spokesman on energy and industry Roger Helmer said: “The current UK/EU policy damages our economy, drives investors abroad and undermines our competitiveness – it also fails to have any significant beneficial effect on our environment.
“UKIP’s policies on energy are clear and certainly more realistic than what passes for policy in Brussels and Westminster. We would deliver secure and affordable energy which we need both for domestic consumers and our economy in general. The current policies are broken and are not good for Britain.”
Mr Helmer said UKIP would cancel all renewable subsidies and feed-in tariffs, stop wind farm developments, tell Brussels we are keeping our coal-fired power stations and urgently assess shale gas potential.
More EU nonsense:
Gardeners who use sit-on lawnmowers could soon be hit with £100 insurance costs.
Under new regulations being looked at by the EU, they may be forced to pay motor insurance costs even if the mower never leaves their garden.
The rules are being considered after a Slovenian man was hurt after a ladder he was standing on was hit by a tractor.
UKIP’s East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer sighed: “Why am I not surprised?
“It is is ‘silly season’ but to be frank it’s silly season all year round as far as the EU goes. This is another unnecessary, meddling law which is being considered.
“Not only that it would put a further squeeze on the pocket – why can’t we be left to lead our lives in peace?”
The European Court of Justice is set to rule on the Slovenian case within the next month.
Battling against windfarms:
An MEP for the region has thrown his weight behind the battle to stop a huge windfarm development in Lincolnshire.
Roger Helmer, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands and the party’s Energy Spokesman, said the protesters fighting plans for 23 wind turbines – 150-metres high – at Nocton Fen have his full backing.
A public meeting has already been held as residents mobilise forces to fight the plans.
Mr Helmer said: “Every so often, people write to me asking how they can best campaign against these proposals – sadly, the rules of planning applications allow objections only on local issues.
“This can include housing blight and the impact on property values, as well health issue; impact – often quite literally – on birds and bats, rare birds and raptors, and migratory birds.
“There is also visual intrusion and the consequent knock-on effects on tourism.”
Mr Helmer said he was happy to help local residents fight against wind turbine plans, calling them intrusive and a waste of money. He said:“Costs are much higher than the industry admits, while the expected reductions in emissions are not delivered. “
Parents back UKIP:
I read with interest the letter by Anne Johns of Littleover, (July 3 edition), regarding grammar schools and UKIP’s ‘retrogressive’ stance.
This is simply not true. Yes, we support grammar schools – that’s because we believe those from the poorest backgrounds can get on and reach their full potential and we will continue to campaign on this very important issue. Parents who want a real change in our education system to give a fairer deal to all, support us on this.
Social mobility has been eroded with the destruction of the grammar school system, while at the same time our country has become dominated by the privileged few who can afford to send their children to public schools.
How sad that successive ministers in successive governments have decried the grammar school – destroying that which gave them their start in life and denying that chance to others.
MEP backs VC honour idea:
Rushden UKIP MEP Roger Helmer said he was firmly behind the idea of naming a new school to be named after a VC hero from the First World War.
Calls have been made for the school being built in Rushden, to be named after Lt Col Bernard Vann VC.
Mr Helmer said: “This is a superb idea and especially appropriate as we remember the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. It has my full support”.
Cuts, cuts and more cuts:
We were most concerned to read in your paper, (The Derby Telegraph), last week of funding cuts to a homeless support group.
The cuts themselves are of great cause for concern but to hear how the county council has broken promises rubs salt into the wounds.
The Labour-led authority has blamed the Government for cuts to its funding – typical. The tired old parties pointing the finger while people in the real world suffer.
This group – SAFE – is set to lose 85 per cent of its funding.
Could the council explain who would support the vulnerable young people this group currently helps?
Cuts, cuts and more cuts – we have no doubt fat can be trimmed from the local authority expenditure to make it more lean but isn’t this an example of the heartless nature of a Labour-run council, hitting the very vulnerable parts of society they profess to protect?
Not right, not left, just commonsense:
I refer to the article of July 3, (http://www.sciencebusiness.net/news/76621/incoming-european-parliament-appoints-its-new-research-committee.)
I see you refer to UKIP as “far-right parliamentarians”. This is not only pejorative and misleading, but also just plain wrong. UKIP attracts former Labour voters very nearly as much as former Conservative voters. There is no UKIP policy area that could remotely be described as “far right”. We see ourselves as not right, not left, just common sense.
You go on to say that I am likely to clash with the new Committee Chairman, Jerzey Buzek, former Prime Minister of Poland. In fact I regard Mr Buzek as a friend and colleague. We have co-operated for years both on the ITRE parliamentary committee and in The European Energy Forum. He is a man with very rational views on energy issues.
UKIP fox up and running:
I was most interested to read the thoughts of Alistair Jones, principal lecturer in politics at De Montfort University, (The Leicester Mercury, July 18).
What really made me sit up and take notice was Mr Jones’ bold statement about UKIP’s support and its “collapse.” Quite where Mr Jones was coming from is beyond me? What does he base this assertion on?
Indeed, in the latest Ashcroft National Poll UKIP is up three per centage to 17 per cent – hardly a collapse Mr Jones?
This would suggest to me the UKIP fox will be well and truly in the Westminster hen house next May.
Devastation of the smoking ban:
So, this week we ‘celebrate’ the seven year anniversary of the smoking ban in England.
A ban, which has been a big contributory factor to the demise of the pub trade and of course, a ban which strengthened the nanny state and placed further limitations on personal freedoms.
The British pub is famous worldwide and the destruction caused by the smoking ban has been devastating with figures showing more than 20 pubs a week closing – resulting in lost trade, lost jobs and as importantly, breakdowns in communities.
Our pubs are focal points of the community, where for decades people have stopped off and chatted. Much like the village post office, they now seem to be vanishing into the pages of history.
The ‘Great British Pub’ needs protecting like never before. We need to amend the smoking ban in pubs to allow landlords and managers to provide contained and ventilated smoking rooms.
We also need to look at pricing structures to allow pubs to compete with supermarkets and we, in UKIP, are calling for a fairer balance all round.
Of course, at the moment e-cigarettes are growing in popularity – how long before the Government bans them in our pubs and clubs too?
UKIP MEPs help out at fun day:
Volunteers pulled out all the stops to prepare the grounds for this year’s annual Alvaston Park Fun Day.
UKIP organised the litter pick and tidy-up to make sure this year’s venue is well-prepared for sun seekers looking for a family day out.
Derby City councillor Alan Graves, who represents Alvaston, will hold a surgery at the event on Sunday, from 12.30pm. Visitors will also get the chance to meet UKIP MEPs Roger Helmer and Margot Parker.
One of the volunteers, Arron Marsden, said: “This year, the fun day will be the biggest ever and we wanted to make sure the park was as tidy as we can make it for the enjoyment of everyone who visits.
Key roles for UKIP MEPs:
Newly-elected East Midlands UKIP MEPs Roger Helmer and Margot Parker have been given key roles in the European Parliament.
Mr Helmer, an MEP since 1999, is the UKIP spokesman on industry and energy and has recently been elected leader of the party’s MEP delegation.
He said: “I have argued that current EU/UK energy policy is driving up costs, undermining competitiveness, and forcing industry, investment and jobs out of the UK altogether. It’s also driving householders and pensioners into fuel poverty.”
Meanwhile, Margot Parker, who was elected alongside Mr Helmer in May, sits on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, (IMCO), and also the committee for Gender Equality and Womens’ Rights, (FEMM).
She has also been appointed spokesman for small businesses. She said: “Coming from a small business trade association background I understand only too well the need to lessen red tape, cutting non essential regulations.
“Too much form filling diverts efforts to run the businesses for the good of the owners and staff. For more than 30 years governments have said they would reduce the burdens of red tape but of course we must understand how much worse this has been generated by Brussels.”
Both will speak at the UKIP conference in Doncaster on Friday, September 26.
Shackled by the ‘EU supersate’
So Kenneth Clarke is to become a ‘veteran’ backbencher and continue to campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.
According to Mr Clarke the case for staying in the EU is ‘stronger’ than ever – trying telling that to the people of Greece maybe? Or indeed, many other European countries, which have been shackled and constrained in this ‘EU superstate’, our unelected overlord seems keen to build.
Of course, according to Mr Clarke, I belong to a party which is a “collection of clowns”, (a troup I think, is the correct term), so he will no doubt dismiss my concerns over the EU and my fight to divorce ourselves from it, as irrelevant.
A shame really Mr Clarke – bearing in mind the earthquake UKIP caused at the last Euro election, our rapidly growing membership, the increasing number of UKIP councillors, and of course, the numbers of people in his own party who agree with my views on the EU and not his.
So much for democracy:
I was astonished to read in your newspaper, (The Lincolnshire Echo), the abrupt and over the top response an elected councillor received when appealing for a freeze on council tax.
Victoria Ayling, who represents East Lindsey, surely deserved a better response when she – quite legitimately – asked the council if it would freeze the council tax for 2015/16.
This is, after all, a council, which underspent in 2013/14! But rather then receive a considered response she was told the committee would not ‘put up with any shenanigans’ and was eventually invited to leave the meeting.
So much for democracy. One must wonder what the good people of East Lindsey think of all this. The whole episode reminds me of the fudging and evasiveness of the wretched EU.
MEP hits out at police funding cuts:
UKIP MEP for Leicestershire Roger Helmer said he was concerned at the news of another round of cuts to the county constabulary.
He said: “The Police Federation fears up to 300 jobs could go – this has to have an impact on frontline policing and is most concerning.
“The Government can’t keep cutting back funding to our vital services – there is a difference between lean and being starved to the bone and I hope the public has its say during the consultation process over the next week or so.
“As a UKIP MEP, I find such cuts particularly galling, knowing we send £55m to the EU every single day, to be part of its wretched organisation.”
Proud UKIP councillors asking pressing questions:
So, UKIP councillor David Sprason doesn’t ‘beggar answering’ because he dared to question Leicester City Council for spending £250,000 on art for the Cathedral Gardens, (July 4).
Well, I think he does deserve an answer – as, I’m sure, do Leicester council tax payers. In this age of ‘austerity’ it is only right and proper councillors ask questions about the use of what is, after all, our money.
I am sure the Towards Stillness sculpture will bring joy to visitors to the gardens but Councillor Sprason’s question was not about aesthetics, nor about being proud or otherwise of the heritage of Leicester. It was purely asking about money and priorities.
Councillors are elected to ask questions – no matter how awkward – and I’m proud that UKIP councillors are doing just that.
