UKIP Uncovered

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

Thursday, April 22, 2004

One Last Hope for UKIP

Tomorrow George Stride, (NEC Elections CV 2002 and 2003 may be read from this link) will chair the Disciplinary Panel Appeal Hearing on the matter of the disqualification from the party of its former Vice Chairman, Damian Hockney.

This will truly be the last chance UKIP will have to play any useful role in the battle for Britain's sovereignty.

Damian Hockney started the fight on the NEC over one year ago to retain the core belief of the party, namely - EU Withdrawal . It has been an uphill and so far losing battle. Please read again the opening statement made by Damian after the 20th September 2003 Branch Chairmen's meeting linked here, from which the following passages I consider go to the heart of the matter in dispute:-

Quote

MEPs CENSOR PARTY DOCUMENTS AND REMOVE 'LEAVE THE EU' FROM LEAFLETS

Another major problem has been that the leadership has attempted to censor - sometimes successfully - party documents, and to ban us from including the words "Leave the EU". This we have furiously resisted. Eventually the Party Chairman wrote to me and said he could not support a party whose policy was "Leave the EU". This was an extraordinary situation. He was saying that our policy was the replacement of the EU with a free trade agreement. It is not. Our policy as clearly enshrined in the protected section of the Constitution is that we want Britain to leave the EU. I will not for one minute accept a diminution of that policy of leaving the EU simply in order to satisfy the demands of the European Parliament. When I restored party policy to a piece of literature, I was threatened with discipline proceedings. If we remove our core aim, it makes it easier for Nigel and the elected MEPs to defect to the Tories and keep their salaries and perks next June. This is not acceptable: UKIP and its policy of "Leave the EU" is, in spite of all our difficulties and the uphill struggle ahead, the hope for all of us who understand all too clearly that the only way we will succeed is through taking on the tired old parties through the ballot box and beating them.

This is the core of the whole problem - those who have realised the importance of controlling our future MEPs and who expressed concerns late last year are being targetted by the leadership as a "small group causing trouble". Fellow members, nothing could be further from the truth and the most important thing now is to ensure that we get controls in place as a matter of urgency...then work as hard as we can to get more than 10 elected.
Unquote

Other sections of this statement that we recommend as worth further consideration are the paragraphs headed:

PLAN TO SLIM DOWN NEC MEANS END OF DISCUSSION AND PARTY DEMOCRACY a highly relevant factor at present, where the abandonment of the NEC elections have effectively achieved the slimmed-down NEC proposed by Nigel Farage at the meeting.

Next I would suggest rereading is LEADERSHIP PLAN WILL HAND CONTROL OF PARTY TO THE EU, a consideration now clearly in train which will have immediate and disastrous consequenses for the party's influence and credibility in the forthcoming referendum campaign. Who will believe any UKIP connected canvasser for a NO referendum vote if the party has continued with its EU flirtation during the June campaign.

One final quote from Damian's statement:-

Some of those who earn EU money from the party are trying to get rid of all who question, all who are not under their thumb, all who have the ability to say "No". I do not intend to allow our party to become totally under the control of servants of the European Parliament and I am sure you too would be concerned about this.

Damian's most recent attempt to keep the party true to its founding principles, originally posted on 10th April is also linked from here.

This battle has been fought for long and hard for months, but tomorrow will be crucial. We expect to return to this topic, hopefully with a statement from Damian or other members of his Reform UKIP Group during the course of the day.

If you are a UKIP member, today might be your last chance to demand that those running the party wake up to the destruction they are about to inflict upon the eurorealist cause at this most crucial of times! Make your opinion known

Tomorrow's hearing is not a party disciplinary matter - It is one more attempt by the malign forces behind the EU to subvert the sovereignty and independence of our country

posted by Martin |7:44 AM