Saturday 26 February 2011

UKIP is sinking fast

I have written little in 2011. I see little hope that Farage's UKIP  can progress the leave the EU movement. Indeed it is quite the opposite with Farage trying to merge UKIP into an  EU approved pan  European party that would emasculate UKIP as a leave the EU party. Its all very depressing. I doubt it is what the UKIP membership voted for when they voted Farage in again as leader. They have been well and truly conned.

I have now heard from three different independent sources that UKIP is financially bust. Anyone on the NEC who asked questions about UKIP finances was removed by the Cabal. UKIP MEPs, especially Farage, have shown a marked reluctance to put their hand in their own pocket. That says it all really. I hear Julia Reid has left the NEC although as I write she still appears on the UKIP web site as an NEC member. Keeping your website up to date is a pre-requisite for a political party with electoral aspirations.

On the Eurozone front the EU continue to behave like King Canute. It becomes clearer each day that it is now the Fourth Reich run by Frau Dr Merkel. Sooner or later we will see EU governments fall after the sort of street protests that have been seen in Johnny Arab land and let us hope the greatest dictatorship of them all, the EU, will go with them

Friday 18 February 2011

Farage on Question Time 17 Feb

As always I watched this the morning after so as not to have nightmares. Farage like the curate's egg was good in bits and bad in bits. Overall it was a 6/10 performance IMO.

On the opening paedophile/prisoner/ECHR issue he gave his usual long and ultimately self defeating demagogue rant, something Heseltine picked up on and rightly called it Nigel's usual rant. It was interesting to compare his performance with Hanaan's today on the same topic on the Daily Politics where he was opposed by Charlie Faulkner. Hanaan was much more measured, accurate and effective. The Beeb put Farage on QT so often as they know he will turn up in his spiv suit, reinforce UKIP's fruit cake and loony image, and try to turn every answer into an anti-EU rant. Hence at the end of his opening salvo the applause was muted indicating he had lost the audience.

Thereafter he calmed down and did quite well on UK youth unemployment, selling off UK forests and aid to India. On the latter he clearly had the support of most of the audience enhanced by the opposition of the other four panel members all of whom exhibited an unwise and quite alarming predilection for poor foreigners over poor Brits. But again Farage's liking for an anti EU rant enabled Dimbledore to make a fool of him by pointing out the question was about India. Its what you call an own goal.

He let Heseltine away with one huge and important EU lie that a good debater would have nailed viz, it is thanks to the EU we have had peace in Europe these last 50 years. Rubbish! That is down to NATO with its overwhelming US component. It was NA/to not the EU that sorted out the Balkans conflict of 10 years ago! Farage is really a one trick pony. He has his rant but then he switches off. On Indian Aid it was the lady in audience who was feeding him the lines to pick up on!

Finally, NF had to be told off by Dumbledore for hectoring interruptions of Mrs Y Balls. Like me you may detest Mr & Mrs Balls but Farage had the line on 'professional' politicians with no experience of real jobs that he should have nailed Mrs Balls with. Maybe NF's tools have been blunted by over indulgence in Brussels.

Monday 14 February 2011

Euroland problems mount

The media fixation with Egypt meant that the news of an extra €15 bn of bailout funds given to Greece last week did not receive the attention it deserved. Markets hammered Portuguese bonds last week due to concerns that Lisbon may need a bailout like Greece. Portuguese bonds now trade 4.1% over bunds so Portugal's funding costs are more than twice that of Germany. So far the Euro has held up on the Forex markets but there is another worry.

Trichet is soon due to step down as ECB governor and both the 'sound money' German candidates have said they will not apply for the job as the PIGS dominated governing ECB council will not support sound money policies. The Germans know what hyperinflation means which is why they have been totally opposed to the ECB buying PIGS sovereign bonds. This just inflates the money supply and inevitably leads to price inflation. It reduces the PIGS debt in real terms and shifts the pain onto the PIGS debtors.

It is a short term politically easy solution that in the longer term simply leads to higher interest rates and yet more inflation. The UK and US are doing the same thing calling it quantitative easing hence the increasing number of articles in the UK press warning that higher interest rates are coming very soon.

The crunch will come I expect if the current new favourite for the ECB job, an Italian, is appointed with support of the other PIGS. Euro interest rates have stayed low on the back of the German view on sound money dominating ECB policy. Italy has an appalling inflation record and its monetary history is littered with bond defaults. Pre - Euro Italian rates were 10% plus. With an Italian running the ECB I expect Euro rates to rise substantially and the currency to devalue.

The principal political effect will be in Germany and there is now a significant probability that Germany will de facto leave the Euro. No German politician could survive being identified with Italian style monetary policy! 

Thursday 10 February 2011

Why Farage's UKIP is not fit for purpose

UKIP needs more members, more talent and more UK effort to  even start on the road to getting our country back by repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. Since Farage and his Cabal have taken control of UKIP membership has fallen steadily, activists, the life blood of any political party who disagree with Farage  have been kicked out, and sycophantic placemen put into all the important party positions. No serious political party carries on like this. You only see this behaviour in cults where a gullible and uncritical membership are conned by, and blindly supports, a corrupt leadership whose only interest is in lining their own pockets.

Look at those at the top of UKIP enjoying a luxurious cosseted lifestyle set up by the EU but paid for ultimately by UK taxpayers. They are tame, pampered, toothless EU poodles kept in Brussels who give Barroso and the other Eurocrats democratic credibility by enabling them to claim they tolerate anti-EU parties. Its tokenism plain and simple. Ask the brothers or the sisterhood.

The lack of talent in the current UKIP leadership is staggering. Look at the elderly, self satisfied Derek Clark, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands but seldom seen there. Under him UKIP in the East Midlands has gone from the strongest region in the country in the heyday of RKS to one of closed and zombie branches with a few deeply unhappy remaining members. Its a microcosm of what is happening to UKIP over the whole UK. Godfrey Bloom UKIP MEP for Yorkshire is an embarrassment with his crass public behaviour. Bannerman, Dartmouth and Farage are ex-Tories whose political ambitions were judged by the Tory party to be far in excess of their limited talents and deemed not to be worthy of a safe Tory parliamentary seat. Given the low standard of the average Tory MP that is a pretty damning verdict.

Honest and integrity can make up for lack of ability but even in that UKIP is lacking. When was Andreasen last seen in South East region she was elected to represent? Why does Trevor Colman sit in Brussels with Farage's nasty neo-Nazi, mid-European associates. How many relatives of UKIP members died at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War? Do the ordinary UKIP members know their cult leader associates with neo-Nazi parties in Brussels? I think not. Nicky Sinclair has shown how effective honesty, integrity and consistency can be in opposing the EU. Not surprising then she was kicked out of UKIP.

Why is Malcolm Pearson, Farage's puppet leader of UKIP, a man who at the last General Election campaigned for the Tories, still in the UKIP ruling group? Could this happen in any other party? I don't think so.

Then we have ex-chairman Nuttall MEP who counts success as defeating the BNP for 4th place in elections. UKIP is supposed to be about getting us out of the EU and the best way to handle the BNP is to ignore them! Comrade Nuttall would do better to address the needs of the jobless of Merseyside and try and recruit them for UKIP.   

There is also UKIP's top management , Crowther and Duffy. No significant management track record and no organisational ability seems to sum them up. The current NEC is full of wannabe MEPs or more correctly wannabe on the gravy train who are therefore beholden to Farage for preferment.

There are many able and talented people who want us out of the EU but how many will want to join a cult party which measures its success by the leaders appearances and applause on Question Time. Its only MPs in Westminster that can get us out of the EU. This needs organisation and hard work in local elections addressing the issues of jobs, schools and health that impinge on peoples lives and earns their trust to vote for UKIP when it matters. It needs a leader who attracts people in, not one who kicks people out. Until Farage and his clique go this will not change. UKIP numbers will continue to decline, the sycophants will squabble about getting onto the EU gravy train, the BBC will continue to massage Farage's vanity with QT invites etc and UKIP will continue to slide into the garbage can of history.

I pray I will someday see our country free from the EU but clearly Farage's UKIP will play no part in our freedom struggle.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Back briefly from my travels once more

Discovering a cheap local flight to Tenerife a week ago and pissed off with freezing in Somerset I flew to out last Tuesday morning to a week of glorious, warm, balmy weather. I try to avoid the Brits on holiday so I stayed in the capital Santa Cruz which is about 50 miles North of the resorts favoured by the Brits and is entirely Spanish other than the Germans who have occupied the North West  corner of the island to the extent they alone of the non-Spanish airlines are allowed to fly in to Tenerife North airport close to Santa Cruz whilst the rest of us have to go to Tenerife South, some 40 miles from Santa Cruz but only 10 or so miles from the Brits beach resorts.

Its always interesting to see how well Johnny Foreigner runs things compared with the UK. The bus service was brilliant, cheap, frequent and linked in to both airports and ferries. The police were numerous and visible on the streets especially in the evening. No yobs, no litter and very clean. Ex pats I spoke with all said how good the medical care was.

Clearly they have had a lot of money from the EU to extend their port. I counted 7 container gantry cranes but only saw one general cargo ship being loaded with a few on deck containers so the gantries were a complete waste of money except for the manufacturers presumably, the Germans.

Ditto for their new tramway system using state of the art Alsthom French rolling stock. The French and Germans certainly know how to milk the EU unlike the Brits! That's why today UK  announced a rise in imports and a fall in exports and the Germans a 18.5% increase in their exports in the last year. Being in the EU is, was and will be the death of UK manufacturing. I remember writing a paper to this effect on this in the Civil Service in 1972 but it never saw the light of day thanks to E Heath and the rest of the Europhile gang.