UKIP Uncovered

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

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

The Circular Letter that FINALLY got some Reaction

The following letter was circulated among UKIP members last weekend, and resulted in many telephone calls to the leadership, who then reversed the decision regarding Michael Harvey's suspension just before yesterday's NEC meeting, for a fuller report on which please see the post immediately following this.

Quote

Dear UKIP Member

I'm not sure if you are aware of it, but Nigel Farage, Roger Knapman, Mike Nattrass and David Lott have started more divisive attacks on members - this time it's the turn of Michael Harvey, the party's former General Secretary.

You may find this extraordinary, but they arranged a secret discipline hearing, with no panel members present, no details of the charges made available...and they arranged for him to be suspended, then telling him that it was "democratic" that he "must not be told of the reason why you are suspended from the party".

Those who have found out have started lobbying the leadership about this secret attack, and a meeting is going on right now where the leadership is under siege to stop its attacks and to reverse this divisive and absurd secret Kangaroo Court decision. I urge you to add to the pressure, ensuring that the attacks on members are stopped. At this stage it is vital that we do not lose heart, but that we restore commonsense to our leadership which is acting to seize complete control and to remove anyone who asks inconvenient questions.

Again, they have broken all the rules of the discipline procedure, and they trawled through everything possible and made up charges based on something that happened three years ago, which is not even a discipline matter.

The real reason they want to "get him", to use Nigel Farage's words, is that Michael Harvey is standing for the NEC elections in a ticket of party reform, alongside four others.

They are all standing on the ticket of a strong "loyalty pledge". They want all candidates elected to the European Parliament (and other bodies) to sign a pledge which will tie elected members to the party. Other parties do this. Nigel Farage, Graham Booth and Jeffrey Titford have done everything possible to frustrate this plan, a plan which was proposed by Damian Hockney and Gerard Batten at a recent NEC. The leadership claim that it is "not possible", but this is simply not true and is a diversionary tactic. And that is one of the reasons why the leadership want rid of these people - to stop them winning through and enforcing a strict policy which makes elected MEP's accountable.

You may remember that David Lott sabotaged the NEC elections last month by breaking party rules and attacking party members standing for the NEC, so desparate are they to ensure that the reformers do not win. No doubt you received the Returning Officer's report which made clear that David Lott had wrecked the elections and thrown the party into turmoil.

I urge you to stop these people from wrecking the party with their divisive attacks upon members like Michael Harvey, a general secretary who kept the party HQ in good order, efficient and smooth-running.

You can call Roger Knapman on ****, David Lott on ****,Nigel Farage on **** and Mike Nattrass on ****. Alternatively call UKIP HQ to stop this rot.

Unquote

The telephone numbers were included on the copy of the letter we received, and can be supplied to UKIP members wishing to call one or more of their leaders, if requested by e-mail to the blog!

posted by Martin |12:55 PM