Leading Articles

Latest

• Government scared of rise in Euroscepticism
• The Stony Stand-off
• Coalition's Europe failure: One year on
• Nigel on UN speaking rights for EU
• English Democrats urged to jump ship
• Nigel back as UKIP Leader
• The UKIP leadership contest
• Jeffrey Titford named interim leader
• UKIP questions in the House of Lords

Westminster Corner

Sunday, 14th February 2010

UKIP Leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch highlights a number of key Party issues in his second newsletter.

I am glad to say that the team is moving into the campaigns office (Greycoat Place) next week and the office will become fully operational. This is of great importance as we shall be launching our campaign properly at the Jurys Inn, Milton Keynes on March 19 when, we hope, all our members will be able to come together and discuss various ideas, plans and experiences. The Conference Committee is working on the agenda, which will be available in good time.

About the same time, mid-March, we shall have our first “run” of billboards, whose design, exact messages and artwork are being discussed now and will be tested in the next two weeks. The Campaign Director, James Pryor, will be writing to all the PPCs with more information and details in the next week (from the new campaigns office!). One plan is to approach local donors and ask them “to buy” additional billboards at a cost of c. £450 per two week period. This will have to be done by Regional Organisers and PPCs.

It is very important that we know exactly what we are doing and what we are facing. Recent polling figures indicate that there is a strong chance of a hung Parliament emerging from the election. The Conservatives have noticed this, too, and they know that UKIP candidates can make a great deal of difference to the results, particularly in marginal seats. They will work against us strenuously and it is important that we do not get diverted by their various tactics.

Let me urge all PPCs and agents to prepare well for the campaign. Please make sure that you are following the Electoral Commission guidelines for the ‘long campaign period’ which, as you know, started on January 1st.

UKIP can be very proud of the fact that there are already more candidates in place, both for the General and the Local Elections, than ever before. However, we need to muster more (and, as I wrote last time, agents and volunteers). We know there are many UKIP supporters across the country – the numbers are growing steadily – and they all need a candidate against whose name they can put a cross. The Candidates’ Address project is well under way and many of our PPCs have completed their web pages. Let me urge all those who have not yet done so to get on with it as a matter of top priority.

Meanwhile, we must all keep our attention on what is going on in the EU, particularly with the probable bail-out of Greece and, possibly, several other countries. It is, of course, satisfactory that Britain not being in the euro, we managed to avoid many of the problems that membership of a single currency would have brought us. (Just imagine how bad the situation would have been then.) However, it remains unlikely that Greece will be bailed out by the eurozone countries on their own, and any help the IMF might have given has been spurned. There are various ways in which fiscal assistance can be provided by all EU members and at least one Article in the Lisbon Treaty (122.2) that allows for it. There are also Articles that forbid this kind of bailing out but it would not be the first time the EU has broken its own rules to protect the “project”.

We are continuing our fight in the House of Lords. Last Friday we had the Second Reading of Lord Willoughby de Broke’s Constitutional Reform Bill. (You can read the debate here.) The Bill has now gone to the Committee of the Whole House.

During his reply the Minister once again listed the phony benefits we allegedly get from our membership of the European Union.

The Government believe that our membership of the European Union has brought real benefits to the United Kingdom through jobs, peace and security. Through our membership, we belong to the world's biggest trading bloc. Over half of the United Kingdom's trade is within the EU, with an estimated 3.5 million British jobs linked to it. Our membership allows us to live, work and travel across Europe.

I challenged the Minister, Lord Tunnicliffe, to explain how leaving the political construct of the European Union and continuing in free trade with our friends in Europe would have any effect on jobs whatsoever. He refused to answer the question. This is very important. During the campaign for which we are preparing the argument about jobs will be used over and over again by supporters of our membership of the EU. We need to challenge them in precisely those words every time. The electorate will see that they cannot answer the question and the argument will fail.

Back to Leading Articles