UKIP Uncovered

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

Saturday, April 24, 2004

'DEMOCRACY IN DANGER' - Telegraph Takeover by German Group

We received no news on the Disciplinary Appeal hearing of Damian Hockney last night but will publish a report when news is received, hopefully later this morning. Meantime I am re-publishing below this morning's posting from the blog 'Ironies', both because it touches upon UKIP towards its close but more importantly as it relates to what I see as a huge threat to our democracy, please pass it along as far as you are able - and make the Telegraph and Axel Springer Group aware of your own views.

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The Daily Telegraph this morning returns to the topic of the 'Nazi' accusation by the owner of the Express Newspaper Group in connection with its own takeover by the German Axel Springer Group. The folLowing are selected quotes from the article that may be read in full from here:-

Mr Desmond claimed that "all Germans are Nazis" in what was seen as an attack on a possible bid by the Berlin-based Axel Springer group to buy The Daily Telegraph.

His outburst was condemned by commentators, historians and politicians alike, whose reactions ranged from angry puzzlement to fears that it could discourage German business links with Britain.
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Jorg Friedrich, the historian and author of Der Brand (The Fire: Germany Under Bombardment 1940-45), in which he called on Britain to re-examine its war history, said he was not surprised by Mr Desmond's tirade. "The British think the Germans have swastikas printed on their brains - it's an obsession.

"We are talking about the sale of a newspaper, and if it had been a company from any other nation that was rallying to buy it, people would say this is part of globalisation, but because it's a German firm everything has to be related back to the war."

The danger here should NOT be allowed to relate back to the past, NOR should it be considered in terms of a normal commercial company take-over as in the case of BMW and British Leyland as the article then goes on to do.

We are clearly NOT just talking about the sale of a newspaper, as I feel sure historian Jorg Friedrich well knows.

The threat goes to the potential undermining of the bedrock of our very political system and our existence as an independent nation.

The putsch that ousted Iain Duncan Smith from the leadership of the Conservative Party was accomplished in such a manner that it immediately aroused grave concerns regarding the remaining diplomatic credentials of the party and the independence of mind of its sitting MPS. These have been discussed at length on this blog starting with this post last October and linked here from its title Howard's EU Compromise with Clarke and many other such postings on the 'Teetering Tories' blog November Archive Files linked here.

The threat to the Telegraph Group of newspapers, which are undisputably recognised as the effective house journals of the Conservative Party must be considered against the backdrop of this recent party takeover, the undemocratic nature in which such was accomplished and the extraordinary series of policy decisions taken by the new Tory leadership in the intervening six months.

Considering the nature of our political system being absolutely dependent upon the two party system, to allow one such party to fall completely under the influence of foreigners who recent actions have proved carry no feelings of community of purpose or obligations of what they would term as 'solidarity' to the people of this country would be an act of treachery unprecedented in this nation's history.

Some might consider such a view unreasoned or xenophobic, but that is not the case. Whatever the rights or wrongs of our entering into the actions in Iraq, our troops are now in Basra engaged in bringing a better life to the people of southern Iraq. Are we supported in this task by the two powers that presume to lead the EU - France and Germany? We are not. In fact it is clear from their actions and media comment, that those two countries share with our nationalised broadcaster the BBC an almost obsessive desire to see the objectives of the coalition in Iraq fail, even, it sometimes appears, considering that casualties amongst our soldiers out there on the ground are a necessary side-product of the desired humiliation.

Howard's extraordinary and hushed-up extension of the Conservative Party's membership of the German dominated, ultra-federalist EPP-ED group in the European Parliament after the June elections is further sign of his apparent subservience to outside influences - there is no logic in this action. It has almost entirely been kept out of the media and it defies any explanation as it was always bound to have adverse electoral consequences on 10th June and no amount of examination or objective analysis of its likely consequences can uncover any presumed benefits for either the Conservative Party and even more certainly none whatever for Britain.

More astounding still is the incident of the proposed motion of censure of the European Commission over the Eurostat corruption scandal, which was first signed by the Conservative MEP delegation, who almost all subsequently removed their signatures, causing the motion to nearly fail, on the orders of German Christian Democrat and EPP leader Hans-Gert Poettering, in which matter the EP Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris resigned, the sole demonstration of resistance that I have discovered during the past six months during which we seem to have seen the loss of the independence of our main opposition party with all its long and sometimes honourable history.

The Telegraph Group cannot be allowed to fall to the Axel Springer Group. Readers should make their feelings known to Axel Springer and the paper. My novel Millennium Blitzkrieg which predicted a non-democratic German dominated French assisted EU, opening a Trade War with the USA in the early part of this century, was initially accepted for publication in Britain by the publishing house Macmillan's one time family firm of Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Subsequently I was informed that such decision had been reversed by higher management. The firm had some time before, I later learnt been taken over by the giant multinational German media group Bertelsman. Free sppech is one of our last remaining freedoms within the EU, it depends on a free press the Telegraph is a main supporting pillar of those freedoms. Canadian press barons of the past are founder members of that tradition and have proved sound defenders of our rights arguments that Axel Springer group founded in 1946 are similar is clearly false.

The myth that we are all one and the same in Europe is just that: a dangerous fabrication. Moves are afoot that all seem designed to prevent the people of this country calling a halt, let alone reversing the move, to our subjugation.

Would the French stand by and let Le Monde or Le Figaro go to Axel Springer, the very idea is absurd!

The chaos uncovered within the UK Independence Party now reaching a climax as is revealed in my blog UKIP Uncovered, where the extraordinarily anguished resignation statement of the party Returning Officer charged with overseeing NEC elections, posted last evening makes particularly harrowing reading, underlines theses concerns. Coming just ahead of the EU elections and as the culmination of a long chain of quite extraordinary goings on, these events are impossible to be viewed as uncontrived. When considered alongside the recent far from open goings-on within the Conservative Party, I find it impossible not to conclude that the very basis of our democracy is what is now at risk.

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posted by Martin |9:11 AM