UKIP Uncovered

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

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Martin Cole's Connections with Hartlepool

While UKIP's leadership flails about desperately seeking a celebrity candidate for the Hartlepool by election, they deliberately ignore the offer put forward by myself; presumably justifying their actions on the grounds that I have no local connections - to disguise the truth that I am in fact more dedicated to and knowledgeable of the anti-EU cause then they themselves!

The candidate decision will be taken I assume by the new five man political committee. One of that number, former Chairman David Lott, writing to me after he and I were the only non-North East Region visitors to the opening of the Hartlepool UKIP Office in January 2003 to forward the press coverage of that event - said in his accompanying e-mail:

"I need your help very much Martin. You will make an excellent candidate."

What has changed since then? - one thing alone - I discovered and publicised the problems at the heart of UKIP, which I believed then and now will eventually damage the entire euro-realist cause. My standing and winning in Hartlepool will shift the party's emphasis from Brussels to Westminster and allow those problems to be corrected in time for the next General Election

So what of my own connections and qualifications for Hartlepool? First and foremost I am a knowledgeable and dedicated fighter against the EU's encroachment of our democracy. My anti-EU novel, still on sale from the 'North East Against Regional Assemblies' campaign, written in 1996/97 is proof of that fact, and my continued interest in the eurosceptic cause in the North East of England, where my family connections stretch back to my Great Great Grandfather, Mark Fooks, described in his obituary in that paper as 'the doyen of working journalists in the North'. He was one of the first editors of the Northern Echo in Darlington and attended the Middlesborough Iron Market from its formation. The obituary concludes : "Mr Fooks whose name was so long familiar in Darlington, was of a quiet gentle disposition, and throughout his career maintained the esteem and respect of all who knew him. Few men perhaps had a better acquaintance with the district ....For more than half a century he retained the respect and confidence of all the public bodies and his fellow journalists and few men had a better acquaintance with the events and family histories of the locality." He was buried at Felixkirk near Thirsk in 1917. One year after my great uncle, on my mother's side of the family, was killed while serving as a Captain in the West York Regiment (Prince of Wales own) in the Battle of the Somme.

I joined my first ship, a BP oil tanker in Wallsend and was a frequent visitor to the ports of that region throughout my seagoing career from the age of 16 to 22. Most of the ships were crewed from the North East and I built up a strong affection for the region and the unique character of those who live within the region.

My own association with the Tees and Hartlepool area began in the early 1970's when as Manager of the Marine Division for Phillips Petroleum Company (Europe Africa) I participated in the study that brought the first North Sea crude oil and LPG pipeline ashore at Seal Sands. This decision was hard fought as two other partners in the exploration consortium had refining interests on the Humber. As marine manager ships under my control delivered millions of tons of crude oil a year to the Phillips Imperial Petroleum Refinery on North Tees, exported the products and of course eventually involved massive shipping movements from Seal Sands bringing huge revenues to the then Tees and Harlepool Port authority. I was naturally a frequent visitor to the region and regularly invited to the annual dinners of the local Shipbrokers Association.

It was through my personal strong beliefs and own hard selling that three small LPG export jetties were built at Seal Sands allowing the mass movement of smaller ships loading non-refrigerated LPG. The crude-oil pipeline constructed between Seal Sands and the PIP refinery was another project, bringing investment and jobs to the region, entirely inspired and justified by myself.

In subsequent years, the LPG arm of the oil trading company Vitol, in which I was a partner in the nineteen eighties, made regular and frequent exports from the Tees in our large fleet of LPG tankers, as may be readily verified by our then agents Ord, Brough and Collins of Middlesborough.

Other family links exist but become tedious to list. My main qualificatios as a candidate for UKIP are my complete dedication to the anti-EU cause as may be daily read from my four blogspot websites.

If Britain is to be removed from the authoritarian clutches of the EU, it is going to need many strong-minded dedicated fighters, some of whom must gain election to Westminster. Weak or ill informed candidates who might appear attractive to the leader in Brussels will never be able to deliver withdrawal. Hartlepool represents a turning point for UKIP, if Kilroy refuses and they turn down my offer to stand , then in my opinion they will be deliberately refusing a unique chance to advance the cause of their members.

If the UKIP Leadership have not enjoyed my attacks and constant demands for party reform over the last year or so - imagine how little will the three main parties enjoy my arrival in Westminster - albeit probably only for a few short months!

posted by Martin |7:55 AM