UKIP Uncovered

This blog gave many warnings regarding Denis Brookes. Now they are proven justified.

UKIP in picking to fight a thoroughly corrupt, undemocratic and subversive conspiracy such as the EU always needed to adopt methods which were whiter than white to avoid being dragged down into the same mire; Hence the dangers of sending MEPs to the EU.

The following is from yesterday morning's Open Europe briefing e-mail. Sorry timing I am afraid but best out of the way before a new leadership era beginsfor the UKIP:

"The Sunday Times reported that UKIP MEP for the West Midlands Mike Nattrass is being investigated by the EU's anti-fraud watchdog regarding his expenses. The article noted that the inquiry is into whether Denis Brookes, one of his former aides, was paid through public funds while he was working as a regional organiser for UKIP, and forms part of a wider investigation into UKIP's finances. The EU does not allow taxpayers' money to be used to pay party officials.

"Additionally, it was also reported that Nattrass was using a company of which he was a shareholding partner as the "paying agent" for all his assistants' salaries provided by the EU. MEPs must not act as their own paying agents, the role can only be performed by "third parties".

Following our exchange of messages, earlier this year, I take the liberty of sending you some information about an important, political event.

This Thursday (4th June) brings the five-yearly elections to the EU's consultative assembly. This assembly refers to itself as "The European Parliament", although it is neither European, in any comprehensive sense, nor a parliament, as this term is generally understood.

The EU has spent billions of euros, of taxpayers' money, on conditioning electorates to regard the assembly as democratically elected and as the source of the vast amounts of EU-legislation, which are making national parliaments redundant; but this assembly is not the source of that legislation, nor is it democratically elected.

EU-legislation is generated solely by the bureaucrats and appointees of the EU-Commission and authoritatively adopted solely by the bureaucrats and appointees of the EU-Council. Such legislation is then adopted automatically by EU-governments.

The principal, valuable function of the assembly is derived from the fact that legislation, proposed to it by the Commission, thereby enters the public domain, and thus cannot be kept secret; but the pro-EU mass-media are very careful to report this disclosure only insofar as it does not seriously discredit the EU or the political parties, which support it.

The assembly can reject Commission-proposals, but, in the last session, it rejected only two such proposals, out of eight thousand, so this is not a significant power either.

In addition, the assembly can issue "written declarations", "resolutions" and "own-initiative-reports", the authors of which use them to advertise themselves, the assembly and the EU, as responsible and democratic; but these instruments have no legislative force and function purely as EU-propaganda.

In short, the assembly functions as a propaganda-agency, and as camouflage, for a highly dangerous, and entirely autocratic, system-of-government, which - through its constitutional Lisbon-Treaty - is on the verge of becoming a sovereign state.

Each national delegation, to the assembly, is democratically elected, but the assembly, as a whole, is not. This is because the EU's dozens of electorates - each isolated linguistically, within its own media-circus, from all of the others - cannot engage together in general debate, nor exert common scrutiny of the assembly's proceedings.

This means that the pro-EU parties, and mass-media, in each of these isolated electorates, can tell voters only what they want them to hear. Consequently, while preaching democracy, transparency and "togetherness", the EU rules by diktat, obfuscation and division; and the assembly is a mere pawn in this great game.

Nevertheless, as I said at first, Thursday's elections are important, because they allow the UK Independence Party - which is the only unequivocal critic and opponent of the EU - to state its view of the EU in a context, in which its view cannot be wholly ignored by the mass-media, as has always been the case in elections to (the real) Parliament.

Moreover, given a sufficient triumph, in these elections, UKIP's view will have to be considered, by the mass-media, for the first time, in the coming General Election. It will then not be possible, any longer, for Westminster's incumbent parties to pretend that their manifestos are either substantially different from one another, or capable of expressing the will of a sovereign electorate.

It will be clear to all, at last, that it is the incumbents, who represent "one-issue-parties" - dedicated to obeying the EU, whatever it does - and that only UKIP has a full range of policies, dedicated to serving the national interest.

It is at Westminster, in Parliament, alone, that the power exists to implement these policies, and then, only after the repeal of the European Communities Act of 1972 (ECA) from which the EU derives all its authority, in Britain.

The declarations of intent, so beloved by the Conservative Party, to "prevent further loss of sovereignty", "to repatriate powers to Parliament" or "to re-negotiate the terms of Britain's EU-accession treaty", are so much hypocrisy and deception - insubstantial prevarications to avoid the repeal of the ECA - and will be revealed as such at the General Election; but only if UKIP polls well enough on Thursday.

One of the Conservative Party's biggest financial backers in effect defected to the UK Independence Party last night, claiming he was fed up with David Cameron's policy on Europe.

Spread-betting millionaire Stuart Wheeler said he doubted the Tory leader would hold a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty – and revealed he is giving £100,000 to the Euro-sceptic Ukip. Mr Wheeler told the News of the World he would vote for Ukip in European polls in June.

The paper said that Mr Wheeler now intended to vote for Ukip - which campaigns for withdrawal from the EU - in the European parliamentary elections in June, although he would continue to support the Tories the local and general elections.

By Robin Page
Last Updated: 5:34PM GMT 01 Mar 2009

Comments 18 | Comment on this article

I have just helped the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip). I have jumped ship. It is a small party whose main wish at the moment seems to be a desire to become even smaller; so I did my bit and resigned.

Why now? Surely Ukip was on the verge of a great political breakthrough? After the 2004 European Elections, Ukip was on the crest of a wave with 12 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), 2.7 million votes, 16.8 per cent of the vote and membership of 26,000. But now, as the next round of Euro elections approaches, the great breakthrough has turned into break-up.

Ukip's 12 European parliamentarians have, by defection and expulsion, dropped to nine – and one has even left his constituency to live elsewhere, without telling his constituents. At the Henley by-election last year, the party finished sixth, behind both the Greens and the BNP with just 2.4 per cent of the vote, and membership is down to 14,000 (sorry, make that 13,999) and on the slide. To make matters worse there are accusations of rigged internal elections, tales of extravagance and high living in Brussels and an embarrassing stampede to try to board the European gravy train this June. In short, Ukip is in the process of imploding.

I have absolutely no personal political ambition whatsoever. For me the summer was going to involve seeing gorillas in the Congo for Telegraph Weekend and visiting St Kilda for the first time. I was encouraged to stand because of my concern about the state of my country and I reluctantly agreed. Because of a farcical series of accidents, health problems and other commitments, I had a special dispensation to submit my papers a few days late. Or at least I thought I had.

When I contacted the officials as arranged they told me I was out of time. So I phoned Nigel Farage, Ukip's Blair-like, ex-public school leader, who said he was very sorry and would do his best to sort things out, but "it'll be up to the Political Committee". He came back later with bad news. "The Political Committee won't accept your late documents. I'm really sorry." I have since found out that Mr Farage is Ukip's Political Committee. It runs at his whim with no obvious agenda or minutes. Piers Merchant, a former Tory MP who is now Ukip's Returning Officer, informed me that the process was "flawed" and that there should be a re-run. But there has been no re-run and Ukip refuses to send me a copy of the Returning Officer's report even after a Data Protection Act request.

It seems that Nigel Farage has managed to obtain almost complete centralised power of Ukip. Other late nominations were apparently accepted, some people heading MEP lists have been forced out to be replaced by others and three members of Ukip's National Executive Council were expelled for criticising the leader. Other high-profile Ukip members have also been removed over the years, so as not to threaten Farage's control or image. The party's own policies – such as opposition to GM crops – have been reversed without the membership knowing, including me. Stories from Brussels suggest that Ukip's MEPs have come to love the high life of gravy and status. The party created to fight centralised government, sleaze and corruption has become a mirror image of the body it professes to loathe. The grassroots of Ukip are good people, but their party has been stolen from them by their executive; and with David Cameron seemingly afraid to say the word "Europe", they have nowhere to go – unless lured by the false smile of the BNP.

Just under 2,000 years ago Tacitus wrote words to the effect: "Britons are very good at being Roman. They like the baths, the forum and they think they are becoming Roman whereas in fact these devices enslave them to Rome." Replace Britons with "Ukip MEPs", and Roman with "European", and the disintegration of Ukip is explained.