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


Thursday, September 11, 2003 

Dr North's Desertion to the Tories Confirmed

The following is a Press Release issued a short while ago:-

PRESS RELEASE

UKIP top aide joins Tories

Dr Richard North, director of research for the EDD/UK Independence Party in the European Parliament, and its most senior British staff member, has joined the Conservative Party.

Richard North, 55, has been UKIP's key advisor on European Parliament matters for four years. But he has become disillusioned with the Party.

"UKIP's simplistic approach to EU politics is neither realistic nor credible", says Richard North. "The UKIP mantra of 'EU out' does not reflect the political realities. Britain should aim to negotiate a realignment of its European interests. It is unthinkable that Britain should seek to isolate herself from Europe", he says.

Increasingly, it became evident to Richard North that UKIP could not make a serious contribution to the debate. For Dr North, the turning point was Iain Duncan Smith's Prague Speech, which showed that the Conservatives are on the right lines.

He has resigned from the UK Independence Party, and from his post in the European Parliament, and joined the Conservative Party.

Dr North is to join the European Foundation as a Senior Research Fellow, where he will be researching ideas on how to develop relations with Europe and in particular with the enlargement countries.

He is about to publish a major new book on the European Union, called "The Great Deception". It is co-authored with respected Sunday Telegraph journalist and European Union commentator, Christopher Booker.


Regular readers of this blog who were able to follow the exact circumstances of Dr North's resignation might wish to refresh their memories from this links Dr North's Resignation In a subsequent post the following day we were able to supply the following extra information quoted from Dr North's own contribution to an e-mail forum

"As to my resignation, it was a question of jumping before I was pushed. The ever-gallant Nigel Farage MEP went to Brussels on Thursday to demand of my boss, Jens-Peter Bonde, that I was sacked forthwith.

I learned the next day when JPB's secretary-general rung up to say that she had been instructed to "fire" me. I chose to resign rather than be sacked, although I had in any even been planning to resign on 1 September, so all it did was bring it forward a couple of weeks.

However, it is instructive that Farage did not even have the balls - or the courtesy - even to ring me up and tell me personally that he was having me fired. He left it for a functionary to tell me."

posted by Martin |3:43 PM
Google
www Ukip Uncovered
This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit Here.
Copyright © 2006 Martin Cole.
archives
contact us
my other blogs
nigel farage
landmark links
fired treasurer
glw incitement
booker/jamieson
glw & farage
a complaint
a neutered nec
graham booth
derek clark
mark croucher
michael harvey
roger knapman
mike nattrass
links
blogs
press
broadcasters
google
buy my book
technorati
Copyright © 2003/6 Martin Cole.