UKIP Uncovered

UKIP Uncovered
What motivates the leaders of the United Kingdom Independence Party?

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Estimating the cost of Morris!

We do not mean by this headline, the inevitable electoral disaster that will befall all UKIP's MEP candidates in next summer's European Parliamentary elections; that point has been made repeatedly and loudly enough already!

Today we want to talk about the money!

Following much interchange on an e-mail group generally referred to as eurofaq the following admission has been squeezed from Mark Croucher, UKIP's Official Press Spokesman

In reply to these challenges:

Quote
Contributor 1

Who is providing the money to pay him? Is this a UKIP appointment, an MEP appointment, or an EDD appointment?B---

Contributor 2

you won't get this info from Mark. He wouldn't dare give it!!!! AE

The following reply was given:

Why not? Its a party appointment.

Best etc

Mark

Mark Croucher
National Press Officer
U.K. Independence Party
Unquote
There we have it then. A party, supposedly dedicated to fighting the incursion of the EU into all our nation's affairs, unable to afford to print a few pamphlets to alert the general public of the huge dangers from VGdE's democracy destroying constitutional proposals, can suddenly afford to hire this notorious character.
Dick Morris.

Hard facts as to what it might be costing UKIP, (or whoever is backing them in this apparent devious attempt to destroy the British euro-sceptic Euro-election drive) are of course difficult if not impossible to obtain. Some financial facts are known:-
Quote
Pollster Dick Morris Owes Connecticut $257,624

Wed May 14,12:00 PM ET

' NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dick Morris, the former pollster in Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s White House who resigned over a sex scandal, is one of the top tax delinquents in Connecticut, according to the state's revenue department.

Morris, who is a commentator for Fox News Channel and a columnist for the New York Post, owes $257,624 in income tax, making him No. 6 among the state's top 100 delinquent taxpayers, the department said.

Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services posted the list of those "deficient in excess of 90 days as of April 1" on its Web site.
Unquote

It seems to us that:-

An individual who runs up a tax bill of that size must have had some earlier huge income to incur such a liability.

An individual prepared to offer his services for reduced fees would seem to be unlikely to concurrently be in a severe tax arrears situation.

An individual prepared to offer his services at reduced fees, with a past reputation such as that of Dick Morris, would first have had to undergo a "Road to Damascus' style conversion, which I have not seen claimed or reported.

An individual prepared to offer his services for reduced fees would have to undergo some kind of lifestyle change. If Dick Morris is capable of making such a change one is left to wonder why he did not do so before spending all the money that incurred the tax liability. After all every normal person knows that taxes come as surely as the dawn. How could a pollster, particularly one whose main claim to fame is his prescience, (excluding the scandals of the Clinton years that will forever stain his name), not have foreseen and planned accordingly.

It is possible, of course, that the reason for Morris's sudden presence on Britain's shores is the tax bill itself and his inability to pay. I have no idea what they do to tax delinquents in Connecticut but I imagine it does not compare favourably with the high life of the White House years as described in Christopher Hitchins' book on Clinton 'No One Left To Lie To', in which Dick Morris gets such unflattering and frequent mention.

It is possible the tax liability was mainly incurred as a result of Morris's book; what Hitchens calls ".. his awful USD 2.5 million Random House turkey", thus making it difficlt to relate such taxes directly to normally earned fee income, but that does not counter any of the points we make above.

Has anybody at the higher levels of UKIP even bothered to read the Hitchens book, which I first highlighted on this Blog on 29th May?. Similarly has any such person bothered to check with any US sources regarding the character and reputation of this man? It seems not; which once again confirms the obvious and deepening suspicions that those at the top of UKIP appear intent on irretrievably damaging all anti-EU forces with the UK.

If they wish to prove this is not the case, urgent actions, one of which should be dumping Dick Morris, are essential.

posted by Martin |11:29 AM