I was asked by my local branch to deliver some leaflets for the upcoming PCC election in South Yorkshire. Being a moderately overweight man in his 30s, who finds it somewhat difficult to find time or motivation for exercise these days, I jumped at the chance to have a big long walk. I figured it would make up for my lack of Golfing this year, if nothing else.
As I began walking my first street, I was, I'm not afraid to say, a little worried. I was concerned that I may get told to F*** off by someone, or get a full on lecture, on how I'm a homophobic, bigoted, racist. Now obviously I have this fear when blogging, or tweeting as well, but in person, that kind of abuse, is a whole different ball game.
What actually happened, was pretty surreal and couldn't have been further from my expectations. As I walked down the return side of the street, there were people smiling at me from the side I had just walked down, people waving and saying hello, then one man, really blew me away. An old gentleman, with liver spots and looking a little frail, made his way slowly to his gate, to summon me over. At first, I thought "Here we go, here's some abuse coming", but that couldn't have been more of an incorrect judgement.
"Are you a UKIP supporter?" The man shouted to me. "Yes, yes sir I am", I replied confidently. "I wonder if you would mind posting this for me", he said with a smile on his face. "It's my postal vote for UKIP and I find it a little hard to get out and about these days." Well, suddenly my day changed completely, it turns out the gentleman was an ex-union shop steward of 20 years, a man who had always voted Labour for as long as he could remember and a man who considers himself very much Left Wing in his principles.
His opinion of the leaders of the current parties, was far from complimentary. His opinion, is that whilst he's not all that sure about Farage and he's a little concerned that the media make UKIP out to be very Right wing (They're not, but the media and other parties want you to believe they are), he genuinely believes that UKIP are the only people who will take us out of Europe, he believes Farage is the man who will change politics and what kind of party leaders we get going forward and he believes that things just cannot continue the way they are and that UKIP and Farage, are what is going to change the countries direction for the better.
As we parted ways, he said one last thing, with a big smile on his face. "The tories are a busted flush up here in Yorkshire and the Labour party have lost the plot, fingers crossed we can make a difference". Needless to say I'm off back out again in a minute to deliver some more leaflets.
Tuesday 28 October 2014
Friday 24 October 2014
I have a deal for you, I think you'll find it very difficult to turn down
I have a deal to propose, one I think you'll find incredibly hard to turn down.
The deal works like this, you pay me £17 for 12 months membership of my club, you can pay by direct debit if you like, that's not a problem. For your £17, I will give you £8 back across the year, for you to use on projects, purchasing things, paying for services, etc. but ONLY, if you can also stump up 50% of each project, item or service you intend to buy, out of your own pocket. Now, the deal doesn't quite end there, I'm also going to make strong recommendations as to how you'll spend this money, where you'll spend it, with what retailers and service providers. In addition to this, I'm also going to make you abide by a strict set of rules, which I'm not going to lie to you, you won't like very much, but you HAVE to stick to them, or I won't give you the money you want. If you break the rules I set out, I'll take you to court and sue you for about 60p, plus the cost of the court proceedings.
So, how does this all sound? Sounds like a great deal right? At this point I imagine you're screaming at your screen, NO! Well now I'm going to let you into a little secret, it's not really a secret, because it's all written down, in the public domain, even reported on in the media, sort of, but it's been so obfuscated and so fragmented in it's documentation and reporting, that the majority of people haven't a clue that it's true.
If you take my little money making scheme above and add the letters (bn) to the end of each amount of money, or in the case of the 60p, change the p to an m and realise that bn means billion and m means million, what I've described, is our relationship with the EU. This is how we pay our membership, what we get back monetarily speaking, what the terms are for getting that money back and what happens if we break the rules of the Union (Ignore the smoking ban for example, or allow a bank to pay it's top staff whatever bonuses they want to, or refuse to give prisoners the vote). Believe it or not, we pay in £17 billion pounds per year and on average, we get around £8 billion back, that's a little less than half.
The way we get that £8 billion back is not straight forward, they don't just give it to us. We have to request it via 'grants' and 'subsidies' for specific projects and we also have to raise half (It's not always half, but it's easier here to say it is than explain the even more complicated bits) the cost of that project ourselves again, in order to qualify for the 'grant' or 'subsidy'. Now as if that deal doesn't suck enough, we also have to take recommendations on what 'grants' and 'subsidies' to apply for, we then have to take direction on how we will spend the 'grant' or 'subsidy' within the project and we have to abide by a very strict set of rules (regulations and directives) whilst carrying out the project.
By far the most astonishing thing about all of this, is that some people, do seem to support it! There are people who tell us this is a GOOD THING! To me, paying someone else £17 billion per year, to give me some of that money I gave them in the first place back, but only if I can raise half of it myself and meet the requirements they've laid out, whilst also having to stick to their rules whilst I do what they've suggested I do and if I slip up at all they'll sue me for even more money, sounds like a protection racket!!!!
The deal works like this, you pay me £17 for 12 months membership of my club, you can pay by direct debit if you like, that's not a problem. For your £17, I will give you £8 back across the year, for you to use on projects, purchasing things, paying for services, etc. but ONLY, if you can also stump up 50% of each project, item or service you intend to buy, out of your own pocket. Now, the deal doesn't quite end there, I'm also going to make strong recommendations as to how you'll spend this money, where you'll spend it, with what retailers and service providers. In addition to this, I'm also going to make you abide by a strict set of rules, which I'm not going to lie to you, you won't like very much, but you HAVE to stick to them, or I won't give you the money you want. If you break the rules I set out, I'll take you to court and sue you for about 60p, plus the cost of the court proceedings.
So, how does this all sound? Sounds like a great deal right? At this point I imagine you're screaming at your screen, NO! Well now I'm going to let you into a little secret, it's not really a secret, because it's all written down, in the public domain, even reported on in the media, sort of, but it's been so obfuscated and so fragmented in it's documentation and reporting, that the majority of people haven't a clue that it's true.
If you take my little money making scheme above and add the letters (bn) to the end of each amount of money, or in the case of the 60p, change the p to an m and realise that bn means billion and m means million, what I've described, is our relationship with the EU. This is how we pay our membership, what we get back monetarily speaking, what the terms are for getting that money back and what happens if we break the rules of the Union (Ignore the smoking ban for example, or allow a bank to pay it's top staff whatever bonuses they want to, or refuse to give prisoners the vote). Believe it or not, we pay in £17 billion pounds per year and on average, we get around £8 billion back, that's a little less than half.
The way we get that £8 billion back is not straight forward, they don't just give it to us. We have to request it via 'grants' and 'subsidies' for specific projects and we also have to raise half (It's not always half, but it's easier here to say it is than explain the even more complicated bits) the cost of that project ourselves again, in order to qualify for the 'grant' or 'subsidy'. Now as if that deal doesn't suck enough, we also have to take recommendations on what 'grants' and 'subsidies' to apply for, we then have to take direction on how we will spend the 'grant' or 'subsidy' within the project and we have to abide by a very strict set of rules (regulations and directives) whilst carrying out the project.
By far the most astonishing thing about all of this, is that some people, do seem to support it! There are people who tell us this is a GOOD THING! To me, paying someone else £17 billion per year, to give me some of that money I gave them in the first place back, but only if I can raise half of it myself and meet the requirements they've laid out, whilst also having to stick to their rules whilst I do what they've suggested I do and if I slip up at all they'll sue me for even more money, sounds like a protection racket!!!!
Thursday 23 October 2014
The headlines claiming EU support is at it's highest ever, are utter tosh!
You will have seen over the last few days, several newspapers and lots of Europhiles jumping around claiming that whilst UKIP support is surging, support for remaining in the EU is at an all time high. This of course, as you might expect, is utter tosh.
As we can see from the attached image, support for a federalist EU with closer political ties has actually increased by 1% since May, from 13% to 14%, but support for staying as we are, has dropped considerably back to 2012 levels of 29% from 32% back in May.
Now the next item on the graph, is where the journos and Europhiles are trying to claim victory. Support for "Britain returning to be a part of the European Economic Community, WITHOUT political links" has increased from 30% to 34% since May. So, the journos and Europhiles would have you believe this shows an increase in support for the EU, but does it? Considering first and foremost, no one and I do mean no one is offering that as an option, it seems a bit of a silly question to ask, but secondly, when you look at the question a little deeper, what it's saying is that 34% of people want to trade with the EU, they believe in co-operation with the EU, but they do not want political ties with the EU.
Now let's have a look at one of UKIPs and Nigel Farages most commonly said phrases shall we. "We want to trade with Europe, co-operate with Europe and be friends with Europe, but we don't want to be ruled by Europe. Sounds an awful lot like that third question doesn't it? The one with 34% support.
In short, this is just an attempt by the Mainstream media and most likely with involvement from the Tories and Labour, to make it LOOK as though support for the EU has increased, when in fact it hasn't, what has actually happened, is more and more people have switched on to the idea that UKIP has been suggesting for quite some time. Let's get out of political union, but trade, co-operate and be friends with our neighbours.
As we can see from the attached image, support for a federalist EU with closer political ties has actually increased by 1% since May, from 13% to 14%, but support for staying as we are, has dropped considerably back to 2012 levels of 29% from 32% back in May.
Now the next item on the graph, is where the journos and Europhiles are trying to claim victory. Support for "Britain returning to be a part of the European Economic Community, WITHOUT political links" has increased from 30% to 34% since May. So, the journos and Europhiles would have you believe this shows an increase in support for the EU, but does it? Considering first and foremost, no one and I do mean no one is offering that as an option, it seems a bit of a silly question to ask, but secondly, when you look at the question a little deeper, what it's saying is that 34% of people want to trade with the EU, they believe in co-operation with the EU, but they do not want political ties with the EU.
Now let's have a look at one of UKIPs and Nigel Farages most commonly said phrases shall we. "We want to trade with Europe, co-operate with Europe and be friends with Europe, but we don't want to be ruled by Europe. Sounds an awful lot like that third question doesn't it? The one with 34% support.
In short, this is just an attempt by the Mainstream media and most likely with involvement from the Tories and Labour, to make it LOOK as though support for the EU has increased, when in fact it hasn't, what has actually happened, is more and more people have switched on to the idea that UKIP has been suggesting for quite some time. Let's get out of political union, but trade, co-operate and be friends with our neighbours.
The upshot of the results of this poll are simple, 51% of people do not want even the current level of political ties that we have with the EU and a staggering 80% of people do not want any further political union, i.e. a United States of Europe. When you look at the figures that way, they paint a very different picture to what's being bandied around in the press, don't you think?
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Conservative and Labour Eurosceptics obviously have no sense of urgency when it comes to Brexit
We're now living in the most Eurosceptic time I can remember, with Eurosceptics genuinely in Labour, Tories and of course, UKIP. The problem, is that they are not united and those who are seeking unity among us, are going about it entirely the wrong way, with absolutely no sense of urgency at all.
UKIP are now a political force, there is simply no denying it. A 60% electoral victory for Douglas Carswell and a mere 617 vote shortfall by John Bickley in Heywood and Middleton a few weeks ago have proved that, if nothing else, but the party are also now commanding 25% of the vote according to any pollster that bothers to prompt the party in it's questions. Yet still the Eurosceptic Tories and Labour members, cling to their party like it's the last life raft available on the Titanic.
The Conservative party itself, does not wish to leave the EU, the leader doesn't want to leave, the Chairman doesn't want to leave, most of the cabinet do not want to leave and a vast proportion of the overall party, does not want to leave the EU and the exact same applies to the Labour party. Simply put, any hope of turning the Conservative party into THE Europsceptic party, is folly and nothing more and as for the Labour party, you'd have to be on LSD to believe they were going to change to a generally Eurosceptic party. Dan Hannan and various other Eurosceptic Tories have now admitted, that they do not believe David Cameron will actually lead an 'Out' vote in an EU referendum and that Douglas Carswell was completely correct when he said upon leaving the Tories that, "they intend to secure just enough change, that they will convince people to stay in" or something to that effect. Yet they remain within the Tory party and are not in any way, challenging the leadership. The Labour leadership and most of it's party members have categorically ruled out any negotiation on leaving the EU, or any referendum resulting from it.
If we truly want to leave the EU, then the Eurosceptics need to drop this ridiculous idea, that they're somehow going to turn around their own behemoth parties to their own ideas and instead, join the party that is already shouting that it wants to get out of the EU, is already gathering strength to get out of the EU and is doing everything it can, to get out of the EU. Perhaps some perspective can be offered to these people from us, the voters. I for example, can categorically declare, that until we are out of the EU, there is absolutely ZERO chance of me voting for ANY party, other than UKIP. I want out of the EU first, before ANYTHING ELSE and therefore, I cannot bring myself to vote Tory, as I simply do not believe the leadership and therefore, cannot legitimately believe the MPs and MEPs when they say they're genuine about wishing to leave, but cling to their old parties so desperately. This I believe is why Carswell jumped ship, he too has absolutely zero faith in turning the Tory party around and he wants OUT of the EU, first and foremost, the rest, can be dealt with later.
It's time for political reform, it's time for political change and it's time this country made itself great again, by picking itself up off the floor, dusting itself off and going into battle (I don't literally mean a war, I'm not that keen on those) against whatever challenges are thrown at us. There is simply no way to do that, when the party you support has such divided opinion within it. So, Eurosceptics of the Tory and Labour parties, realise this, you will not win back my vote, you will not win back many votes at all from those who've switched over to UKIP, as contrary to what the commentariat, your leaders and your europhile colleagues believe, it is not a protest vote, we're not swing voters, it is a means to an end and we intend to follow it through!
UKIP are now a political force, there is simply no denying it. A 60% electoral victory for Douglas Carswell and a mere 617 vote shortfall by John Bickley in Heywood and Middleton a few weeks ago have proved that, if nothing else, but the party are also now commanding 25% of the vote according to any pollster that bothers to prompt the party in it's questions. Yet still the Eurosceptic Tories and Labour members, cling to their party like it's the last life raft available on the Titanic.
The Conservative party itself, does not wish to leave the EU, the leader doesn't want to leave, the Chairman doesn't want to leave, most of the cabinet do not want to leave and a vast proportion of the overall party, does not want to leave the EU and the exact same applies to the Labour party. Simply put, any hope of turning the Conservative party into THE Europsceptic party, is folly and nothing more and as for the Labour party, you'd have to be on LSD to believe they were going to change to a generally Eurosceptic party. Dan Hannan and various other Eurosceptic Tories have now admitted, that they do not believe David Cameron will actually lead an 'Out' vote in an EU referendum and that Douglas Carswell was completely correct when he said upon leaving the Tories that, "they intend to secure just enough change, that they will convince people to stay in" or something to that effect. Yet they remain within the Tory party and are not in any way, challenging the leadership. The Labour leadership and most of it's party members have categorically ruled out any negotiation on leaving the EU, or any referendum resulting from it.
If we truly want to leave the EU, then the Eurosceptics need to drop this ridiculous idea, that they're somehow going to turn around their own behemoth parties to their own ideas and instead, join the party that is already shouting that it wants to get out of the EU, is already gathering strength to get out of the EU and is doing everything it can, to get out of the EU. Perhaps some perspective can be offered to these people from us, the voters. I for example, can categorically declare, that until we are out of the EU, there is absolutely ZERO chance of me voting for ANY party, other than UKIP. I want out of the EU first, before ANYTHING ELSE and therefore, I cannot bring myself to vote Tory, as I simply do not believe the leadership and therefore, cannot legitimately believe the MPs and MEPs when they say they're genuine about wishing to leave, but cling to their old parties so desperately. This I believe is why Carswell jumped ship, he too has absolutely zero faith in turning the Tory party around and he wants OUT of the EU, first and foremost, the rest, can be dealt with later.
It's time for political reform, it's time for political change and it's time this country made itself great again, by picking itself up off the floor, dusting itself off and going into battle (I don't literally mean a war, I'm not that keen on those) against whatever challenges are thrown at us. There is simply no way to do that, when the party you support has such divided opinion within it. So, Eurosceptics of the Tory and Labour parties, realise this, you will not win back my vote, you will not win back many votes at all from those who've switched over to UKIP, as contrary to what the commentariat, your leaders and your europhile colleagues believe, it is not a protest vote, we're not swing voters, it is a means to an end and we intend to follow it through!
The problem with the EU isn't just immigration, which is why I'm voting UKIP
Unfortunately, the issue of immigration is one that is forefront in the minds of many and because of this, UKIP has been somewhat forced into taking up that issue as its 'lead argument' by the press, who never ask anything but questions about immigration. Whilst the issue of open door immigration is a valid one and is certainly one of many reasons, that I'll be voting UKIP, to me, it isn't actually the biggest reason to vote for them.
Our national sovereignty is being given away, piece by piece to the EU. You hear this all the time, but it doesn't seem to have any impact with voters for some reason and I can't quite figure out why. My assumption, is that the word sovereignty perhaps rings bells with people, as meaning the Queen, or royalty and thus people either think that they (The Royals) will always be there, or perhaps are anti-royal and so don't care. The fact is though, sovereignty in this day and age has really bugger all to do with the Queen in real terms, it's to do with who makes our laws, who directs our country, who establishes things like our foreign policy, defence policy, energy policy. Put simply, sovereignty is our right to self determination, it's our countries ability, to distinguish itself from other countries and make its way in the world, to make our laws, to decide what steps we're going to take, if any, to avoid 'global warming', it's our right to decide who we allow to run businesses, how they run them and who pays what taxes here. Without sovereignty, we are but slaves to whoever dictates that we must do things.
No doubt you've heard that the EU is full of 'unelected bureaucrats' and some of you may look at the MEPs and think, no it isn't, we elect MEPs. But, the fact is those MEPs have no power. Let's compare the EU Parliament to our own for a minute, to get some perspective. In the House of Commons, we have two sets of benches, those of government and those of opposition. With 650 MP seats available in the House of Commons and a party needing a clear majority of those seats in order to form a govt, it's an almost certainty that new laws the govt wants to introduce, will pass the vote. This is how parliamentary democracy is supposed to work, the party who won the Electoral vote has the larger number of votes in the House of Commons and therefore, shy of anything MPs may seriously disagree with, they can create and pass new laws, with relative ease. The fact is though, if MPs do seriously disagree with something, or their constituents have organised a petition, or written to them in large numbers, they can 'rebel' and stand against the govt if they so choose. Something Mark Reckless and Douglas Carswell did rather a lot before defecting to UKIP.
The EU parliament however, doesn't work this way, it can't work this way, because of the disproportionate number of MEPs who sit there, from all of the member states. There is no govt side of the house with an opposition side of the house to argue with, there is just a big mess of MEPs sat together, voting with nearly no solidarity whatsoever (other than party solidarity, or group solidarity in some cases), on the laws that the commission put forward. Now this is where the differences begin, but it's not where they end. The MEPs cannot propose new laws, nor amend them, nor debate them, nor can they reject new laws, even with a majority vote. WHAT? I hear you cry, but if the MEPs can't propose, amend, debate, or reject new laws, all they can do is pass them surely? Correct, MEPs can pass laws, or they can 'temporarily' take them off the table if the vote doesn't go the 'right' way, but that requires a majority of MEPs from ALL countries in the union, to vote against it, a very rare occurrence. The simple fact is, MEPs pass into law a truck load of new laws on a weekly basis, to watch them voting on video, is akin to watching a bunch of brainwashed cult members raising and lowering their hands on command. When a vote does say no, the commission takes away that bill, re-drafts it and re-introduces it later as something else.
So who does propose, amend and debate new laws then if it's not the European Parliament? Well I'm glad you asked, that would be the European Commission, a group of unelected bureaucrats, who you have no control over, who have no link with the people and who have no 'face' essentially. These people are usually politicians who've done their time in their local govts and either can no longer be elected at home for whatever reason, or have decided to seek more power, with less of the need to justify themselves to the public. Tony Blair is one politician who sought the office of EU President and thankfully failed to gain the position. Had he done so, he would have been the one in charge of the entire European project, he'd be making up the laws, passing them through the rest of the commission and then down to the MEPs to vote on, without ever having to make a speech to the public, without ever having to ask the publics' opinion, without ever having to be held accountable to the public for his decisions.
Now ask yourself, does that sound like democracy? It sounds like a very skewed form of democracy to me. Yes we still elect MEPs and yes the president is 'technically' elected by the MEPs, but as we've seen recently with the appointment of Mr Juncker to the position of EU President, not a single member of the ordinary public voted for him to be a candidate and more importantly, when the MEPs were given a vote, he was the ONLY candidate for the job, hardly something you can really vote against.
I could go on forever here with reasons that the EU is not in our interests, is undemocratic and is fundamentally flawed in its methods, but doing so would render the post unreadable, so I'll wind up here, by pointing out that we as a country, only have 8% of the MEPs in the European Parliament, one third of those 8% of MEPs for Britain are UKIP MEPs, the rest are made up of Lib Dems, Greens, Labour and Conservatives. The only party whos MEPs vote in Britains' interests, are UKIP with the Lib Dems, Greens, Labour and Conservative MEPs regularly voting in completely the opposite direction to UKIP. If UKIP MEPs make up 3% of the EU parliament as a whole, how on earth do we EVER expect to have any voice in Europe? Remember, even if ALL the MEPs were UKIP and voting the same way, that is still only 8% of the entire European Parliament and we still have absolutely ZERO voice, when it comes to decision making. I don't like the fact that our country has absolutely zero say in how our laws are made, I don't like the fact, that the EUs core, is built on the phrase 'ever closer union' and I don't like the thought, that in another ten years time, if we have not left the EU, Britain will be nothing more than a county, in the EU Superstate they are creating. THAT is why I'm voting UKIP, not just because of the preposterous open door immigration policy that's forced on us by the EU, but because I'm British, proud to be British and I want to remain, British!
Our national sovereignty is being given away, piece by piece to the EU. You hear this all the time, but it doesn't seem to have any impact with voters for some reason and I can't quite figure out why. My assumption, is that the word sovereignty perhaps rings bells with people, as meaning the Queen, or royalty and thus people either think that they (The Royals) will always be there, or perhaps are anti-royal and so don't care. The fact is though, sovereignty in this day and age has really bugger all to do with the Queen in real terms, it's to do with who makes our laws, who directs our country, who establishes things like our foreign policy, defence policy, energy policy. Put simply, sovereignty is our right to self determination, it's our countries ability, to distinguish itself from other countries and make its way in the world, to make our laws, to decide what steps we're going to take, if any, to avoid 'global warming', it's our right to decide who we allow to run businesses, how they run them and who pays what taxes here. Without sovereignty, we are but slaves to whoever dictates that we must do things.
No doubt you've heard that the EU is full of 'unelected bureaucrats' and some of you may look at the MEPs and think, no it isn't, we elect MEPs. But, the fact is those MEPs have no power. Let's compare the EU Parliament to our own for a minute, to get some perspective. In the House of Commons, we have two sets of benches, those of government and those of opposition. With 650 MP seats available in the House of Commons and a party needing a clear majority of those seats in order to form a govt, it's an almost certainty that new laws the govt wants to introduce, will pass the vote. This is how parliamentary democracy is supposed to work, the party who won the Electoral vote has the larger number of votes in the House of Commons and therefore, shy of anything MPs may seriously disagree with, they can create and pass new laws, with relative ease. The fact is though, if MPs do seriously disagree with something, or their constituents have organised a petition, or written to them in large numbers, they can 'rebel' and stand against the govt if they so choose. Something Mark Reckless and Douglas Carswell did rather a lot before defecting to UKIP.
The EU parliament however, doesn't work this way, it can't work this way, because of the disproportionate number of MEPs who sit there, from all of the member states. There is no govt side of the house with an opposition side of the house to argue with, there is just a big mess of MEPs sat together, voting with nearly no solidarity whatsoever (other than party solidarity, or group solidarity in some cases), on the laws that the commission put forward. Now this is where the differences begin, but it's not where they end. The MEPs cannot propose new laws, nor amend them, nor debate them, nor can they reject new laws, even with a majority vote. WHAT? I hear you cry, but if the MEPs can't propose, amend, debate, or reject new laws, all they can do is pass them surely? Correct, MEPs can pass laws, or they can 'temporarily' take them off the table if the vote doesn't go the 'right' way, but that requires a majority of MEPs from ALL countries in the union, to vote against it, a very rare occurrence. The simple fact is, MEPs pass into law a truck load of new laws on a weekly basis, to watch them voting on video, is akin to watching a bunch of brainwashed cult members raising and lowering their hands on command. When a vote does say no, the commission takes away that bill, re-drafts it and re-introduces it later as something else.
So who does propose, amend and debate new laws then if it's not the European Parliament? Well I'm glad you asked, that would be the European Commission, a group of unelected bureaucrats, who you have no control over, who have no link with the people and who have no 'face' essentially. These people are usually politicians who've done their time in their local govts and either can no longer be elected at home for whatever reason, or have decided to seek more power, with less of the need to justify themselves to the public. Tony Blair is one politician who sought the office of EU President and thankfully failed to gain the position. Had he done so, he would have been the one in charge of the entire European project, he'd be making up the laws, passing them through the rest of the commission and then down to the MEPs to vote on, without ever having to make a speech to the public, without ever having to ask the publics' opinion, without ever having to be held accountable to the public for his decisions.
Now ask yourself, does that sound like democracy? It sounds like a very skewed form of democracy to me. Yes we still elect MEPs and yes the president is 'technically' elected by the MEPs, but as we've seen recently with the appointment of Mr Juncker to the position of EU President, not a single member of the ordinary public voted for him to be a candidate and more importantly, when the MEPs were given a vote, he was the ONLY candidate for the job, hardly something you can really vote against.
I could go on forever here with reasons that the EU is not in our interests, is undemocratic and is fundamentally flawed in its methods, but doing so would render the post unreadable, so I'll wind up here, by pointing out that we as a country, only have 8% of the MEPs in the European Parliament, one third of those 8% of MEPs for Britain are UKIP MEPs, the rest are made up of Lib Dems, Greens, Labour and Conservatives. The only party whos MEPs vote in Britains' interests, are UKIP with the Lib Dems, Greens, Labour and Conservative MEPs regularly voting in completely the opposite direction to UKIP. If UKIP MEPs make up 3% of the EU parliament as a whole, how on earth do we EVER expect to have any voice in Europe? Remember, even if ALL the MEPs were UKIP and voting the same way, that is still only 8% of the entire European Parliament and we still have absolutely ZERO voice, when it comes to decision making. I don't like the fact that our country has absolutely zero say in how our laws are made, I don't like the fact, that the EUs core, is built on the phrase 'ever closer union' and I don't like the thought, that in another ten years time, if we have not left the EU, Britain will be nothing more than a county, in the EU Superstate they are creating. THAT is why I'm voting UKIP, not just because of the preposterous open door immigration policy that's forced on us by the EU, but because I'm British, proud to be British and I want to remain, British!
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