UKIP - The Party that has become a wake as EU referendum reality bites.

Of all the ironies in life at the moment, for me at least, the oddest is the demise of UKIP. If you look on Twitter, it is awash with people who are using the UKIP logo as their profile picture and calling themselves things like @UKIP_ULYSEES (well actually there isn't a UKIP Ulysees - a little bit too Greek I suspect). After years of working tirelessly for a referendum on EU membership, they have their wish. How could life possibly be better? Well the sad thing for UKIP as a party is that it isn't a party anymore. It is a Wake. How can this be, you may ask? Well think about it. Now we've got a referendum, what is the point of UKIP? For the Brexit campaign to have a chance, they will have to work with all manner of people in different parties. Strange times make strange bedfellows and people such as Labours Kate Hoey and Respects George Galloway are suddenly allies. What shas struck me about the Brexit campaign is just how many different OUT campaigns there are. None of this will help the Out Campaign. By not coordinating in a single campaign, you could have the situation where some homes get leaflets from four or five campaigns (all giving different and sometimes contradictory) messages explaining why Out is a good idea.

Rather than concentrating on the job in hand, it seems that there is a lot of squabbling between these groups. Here's just a few

Grassroots Out

@Grassroots_Out

We are cross-party, focussed on grassroots campaigning, and have only one objective: getting the United Kingdom out of the EU!

LEAVE.EU

@LeaveEUOfficial

A cross-party campaign advocating a vote to leave in the forthcoming referendum. http://www.facebook.com/leaveEUofficial  @Grassroots_Out #LeaveEU #GO

Leave.eu

Vote Leave EU

@EUVoteLeave23rd

Supporting Vote Leave the EU on Thursday 23rd June 2016 - Freedom for the UK #Brexit #VoteLeave #EUreferendum #DavidCameron #EUdeal #NoEU

GetBritainOut

@GetBritainOut

Campaign to Get Britain Out of the EU. http://facebook.com/GetBritainOut  Sign up here: http://getbritainout.org/sign-up/  Press: info@getbritainout.org

Europe, not EU

getbritainout.org

Labour Leave

@labourleave

Official Labour Leave Twitter page. Making the Labour case for voting 'leave' in the EU referendum.

London, England

labourleave.org

Better Off Out

@BetterOffOut

Cross-party campaign dedicated to explaining why the UK would be better off outside the EU. A campaign run by @tfa4freedom.

London

betteroffout.net

That's just a few that a two minute trawl of the internet threw up. All of the parties have their own groups. For campaigns to really work, there needs to be planning at a national, regional and local level. The Out campaign strikes me as highly fragmented. It seems to me that whilst the remain campaign seems to be quite able to put party loyalty to one side, this is far harder for the Leave campaign. Oddly it seems a bit harder for Tories and UKIP to work together than it does for Labour, Lib Dems and Tories to work for Remain. From what I've seen, there is a lot of mutual distrust between the Tories and UKIP. In fact it seems easier for Nigel Farage to get into bed with George Galloway than with Boris, who is the leading Tory Eurosceptic. If you do a google image search for Boris with Nigel Farage, there are none that pop up, apart from a few photoshopped jobbies.

But as I mentioned earlier, UKIP is now a dead duck. The whole purpose of UKIP is to argue for a referendum and to campaign for an out vote. We have the referendum, but UKIP seem to be anything but useful in the campaign. If the Out campaign win, then it will be the big beasts such as Boris that swing it and the credibility of the likes of Kate Hoey that cemented the campaign. Kate Hoey is an experienced cross party campaigner. She has worked on a number of campaigns which put her at odds with her party, such as foxhunting. If they win, it will be Boris who is the hero and his Euorsceptic wing of the Tories will be in ascendency. With the UK pulling out, UKIp will have lost its purpose. Beyond Brexit, all it can possibly be is something which dilutes the right of centre vote. By siphoning off members, it is a major hindrance to the Tories and actually has guaranteed that the Tories are far more europhile than would have been possible if they hadn't defected en masse.

UKIP always question the Conservative credentials of the Tories, but by leaving they have actually transformed the party into one which is mainstream Stay. It is inconceivable that this would be the case if the UKIP fringe had stayed. Cameron would have had to move far more cautiously. Boris will be straining every sinew to bring the prodigal sheep back into the fold. Without a reason to exist and with a natural allie in number 10 (which is surely what will happen if Brexit win), UKIP will be a pointless sideshow.

The more interesting question though is what  happens if Cameron wins. What if we stay. In this case, the situation is even more difficult for UKIP. They will have had their chance and blown it. There will not be another referendum for a generation. UKIP will have had their chance and blown it. In a democracy, once the die is cast you have to accept it and move on. UKIP supporters won't like it, but they wll definately have to lump it. Sure some will want to claim that the vote was rigged/unfair/dishonest, but they will be a washed up force. Of course there is no reason why UKIP should disband if they lose, but what will be their point? Sit around for 44 years waiting for the next referendum?

I can see no reasonable scanrio where there would be any point remaining a member of UKIP. far better to rejoin the Tories (or Labour) and work to rescue what can be rescued from the car crash. Whatever happens, on June 23rd, Nigel Farage is out of a job on June 24th.

What does this mean for British politics? It can only strengthen the Conservatives if UKIP members rejoin. If we go down the Brexit route, it is hard to see any way Boris won't March into Number 10 sweeping all before him. If we don't, then there will be the mother of all leadership battles. It seems unlikely that having lost the Brexit campaign, Boris will have quite the stock he was hoping for. The Tories are a ruthless bunch and are none too keen on losers. That doesn't mean he won't try. George Osborne will be hoping that his ride on the coat tails of Dave will sweep him in. Theresa May will hope that the Tories record of never picking the likeliest successor will continue. She may also benefit from a stance as a unifying candidate, relatively untainted by the Eton mess which the Dave/Boris/George axis has created.

I'd be interested to see a  few comments from local UKIP'ers to hear their view of what the party does next. I daresay that none of them want to publicly comment on a remain vote, but if any do they will be very welcome. I'd be equally interested to hear what they think will happen to UKIP in the event of a Brexit. Is there a role and a future. I suspect that UKIP will hang around for a while just to make sure Boris doesn't go into a huge U Turn once he's the PM. But if the UK votes to go and the poiticians honour their word, can anyone see a future. If I was a right leaning UKIP member, I'd be joining the Tories as we speak, so that I could have a role in shaping the post Cameron settlement.

As I was researching and writing this blog, it occurred to me that I didn't know who the UKIP candidate for Mayor of London was. Do you know? I like to think I'm fairly well informed politically. It is Peter Whittle.  The UK polling report shows that the public see UKIP as an irrelevence in the Mayoral race. It says

It’s been almost two months since we’ve had any polling on the London mayoral race, but Opinium have released a new poll today showing Sadiq Khan still ahead. First round preferences are Khan 31%, Goldsmith 26%, Whittle 2%, Berry 2%, Pidgeon 2%, Galloway <1 1="" 3="" 42="" 48="" all="" and="" are="" at="" berry="" don="" figures="" galloway="" goldsmith="" hence="" including="" it="" khan="" knows="" low="" on="" out="" p="" pidgeon="" scores.="" t="" the="" these="" whittle="" without="" work="" would=""> Given the low level of support for all the candidates outside the main two Khan is close to winning on the first round anyway, but after asking a forced choice and reallocating preferences between the final two it works out at Khan 55%, Goldsmith 45%. Full tabs are here.

It seems that UKIP is a total irrelevance in London. It is amazing to think that two years ago there was serious talk of mass defections from the Tories and even a UKIP win in the 2014 general election.

It seems that the EU poll is too tight to call.UKPOLLING says the following

YouGov have released some fresh EU polling, a batch of five new polls conducted in the last two weeks. The most recent poll, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, has topline figures of Remain 40%, Leave 37% and the three polls before that also showed Remain with a small lead. While YouGov have been typically showing a very tight race, their 2016 polls up to now have shown small leads for LEAVE, so four YouGov polls in a row showing REMAIN ahead suggests some movement. It will be interesting to see if that is reflected in other polling, and whether movement continues in that direction. 

What amuses me is watching twitter and looking at people preaching to the converted and shouting at the opposition. My take is that Remain will win unless between now and polling day there is some cataclysmic event which the public blame on the EU. I believe that ultimately people vote for stability and are fearful of change, however much they seemingly yearn for it. Many people have entrenched views, but it seems that neither side have made any decent game chaning arguments. The leave campaign has to convince us of three things. These are 1. The UK is broken,  2. This is all the fault of the EU and 3. Leaving the EU will fix the problem. As the UK has the highest growth in G7, low unemployment, growth in wages and a stable economy, I suspect this could be a harder job than the Brexit campaign realise. Their main argument is that migration is all the fault of the EU and Brexit will fix it. Given that the refugee crisis is nothing to do with the EU (beyond the fact that the EU is politically safe and stable and therefore a good bolt hole), it amazes me that the remain campaign aren't making this case. 

The message I am heqring more and more is one of frustration that neither side is presenting any facts. Is this because neither side has properly costed arguments? I find it quite amazing that UKIP seem so unprepared for the referendum, given that it's the only reason they exist. I 100% get the emotional arguments for Brexit. What I don't get is the fact that they seem to have not bothered to have prepared and distributed fact sheets with simple and verified numbers on to win the intellectual argument. There is plenty wrong with the EU. We hear very little of this. It seems that UKIP's fascination with immigration has so fixated it that they have been unable to prepare a leaflet saying "quit the EU and you'll have £2,000 a year more in your pocket" (that was a number I made up to illustrate the point. I have no idea whether you'll be any better or worse off).

I actually have a feeling that both sides know damn well exactly how much better off you'll be. The trouble is that this isn't £X,000 per household. It depends on where you live, what your job is and what your age is. I also suspect that both campaigns know that there will be many losers in their core campaign supporter demographics if they win. Therefore both campaigns are scared to death to tell the truth. I've also been told that it would be perfectly possible for either campaign to put together a web page where you put in your details and it tells you the likely economic effect on your household finances. Just to explain. If you are a manager at a bank in the City and live in Mill Hill, the effects are likely to be completely different to a someone working as a manager for an international shipping company living in a port town. With such things there are always unexpected and unforeseen consequences. Some are good, some are bad. I did some research and the only parallel I could find was when the confederate states seceded from the USA. If I was a  UKIP member, this is clearly one example I wouldn't want to quote. I wonder whether 150 years we'll consider UKIP rather like we now consider the confederacy? Many (white) people in the South of the USA are still fiercely proud of the Confederacy. I suspect that even if the UKIP project goes equally horribly wrong, their supporters will feel the same.

Guest Blog - Wow! What an election! by Richard King

Some major ups and downs, but overall a massive success. Nationally UKIP ARE NOW THE THIRD PARTY IN BRITAIN by popular vote. 
In Finchley & Golders Green UKIP CAME THIRD, with DOUBLE votes of 2010.
I would like to thank you for all your help and support during the Finchley and Golders Green UKIP campaign.  It was pleasure to work with you, and with so many other committed "Ukipers".
LOCALLY – Although we came third, I am deeply disappointed not to have got more votes in Finchley and Golders Green (FGG), particularly after all our hard work ... and after so much time, effort and resources were spent by the whole team ... We certainly gave it our best shot :)   Perhaps my enthusiasm "occasionally" got in the way of reality on the ground ... but I firmly believe that the best way to achieve our goals is with solid planning, organisation, resourcing and fundraising, but also with maximum enthusiasm and motivation to inspire the hope of victory amongst the team.  When we ourselves believe we can win then we have a chance to persuade the voters, and if the voters believe in us then we will get their votes and so continue to move on to become an even more powerful force in British politics.  After the general election results we are on the right path :)   In the cold light of day (and after a few moments of reflection) we should all be very proud of our role. 
The final result in Finchley and Golders Green was:

Con       25,835    50.9 %   Mike Freer Re-elected
Lab        20,173    39.7 %
UKIP      1,732      3.4 %   UKIP COME THIRD, with DOUBLE the votes of 2010
LibDem  1,662      3.3 %
Green    1,357      2.7 %       
Total    50,757  Turnout 70.7%

Watch the video of FGG election results announcement & candidate speeches
Our vote share was lower than we had hoped but as many kind supporters have pointed out, this was UKIP’s best ever showing in Finchley and Golders Green and UKIP CAME THIRD beating the Lib-Dems and The Green Party.  We also DOUBLED our votes from the 2010 general election.
The turnout in Finchley and Golders Green was 70.7% which was very high. It was just a shame that most of these extra votes went to the Tories instead of UKIP :( I guess the Miliband / Mansion Tax / SNP fear factor worked ... and the Conservatives did the best job of getting all their supporters out. “If only” all those voters who we met out canvassing who told us “we like all your UKIP policies but...we don’t want to let the other lot in” ... “If only” they had voted for us then who knows? Maybe next time they will?
For the full national election results click here
The NATIONAL GE RESULTS - We must recognise that our local campaign efforts are part of the wider national UKIP campaign.  There is huge disappointment that our “first past the post” system (FPTP) means that we won just 1 MP, however, with 3.9 million votes (12.6% of UK total) UKIP ARE NOW THE THIRD PARTY IN BRITAIN.  We also won over 120 second places and over 360 third places so have clear target areas to work on for the future.
Con   11.3 million votes (36.9%) => 331 MPs   Conservative Majority
Lab    9.3 million votes (30.4%) => 232 MPs
UKIP   3.9 million votes (12.6%) =>   1 MP
LibDem 2.4 million votes (7.9%)  =>   8 MPs
SNP    1.5 million votes (4.6%)  =>  56 MPs
Does anyone else see a problem here ?
UKIP’s 3.9 million votes (for just 1 MP) was more than the sum of the votes for the SNP (56 MPs) and the LibDems (8 MPs) added together. Maybe you would like to sign the petitions demanding a more representative system of government?  There are quite a few of these so please try and sign them all.

1. http://action.makeseatsmatchvotes.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1754&ea.campaign.id=38262

2. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_electoral_reform_locb/

3. https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-mp-the-reform-of-the-current-fptp-political-system?recruiter=292345909

The national result is clearly a total rejection of Labour’s policies (and of the Lib-Dems) which was reflected in the resignations of their leaders.  There will be lots of soul searching for those parties in the coming months ... and I’m sure UKIP will do our fair share too.  We should take heart from the rise of the SNP in Scotland which shows just how a smaller party can quickly rise to become the major force and send those who take the electorate for granted into oblivion (e.g. bye bye Labour in Scotland, bye bye Lib-Dems).
UKIP's total vote share of 12.9% in a FPTP general election is a tremendous achievement particularly after all the tactical voting pressure from the Conservatives, Labour and the media onslaught against us.  We should all be proud of our overall success.  At least we are not suffering like the Lib-Dems with their total wipe-out, or Labour with their abject failure to beat an unpopular Tory government.  UKIP will continue to go from strength to strength because we believe in Britain :) 
NEXT STEPS

1. A NEW LEADER?  It was such a disappointment to see Nigel Farage fail to win his seat, and he kept his word and has resigned, but watch this space ... The clamour for him to stand for re-election has already begun.  We hope he enjoys a well deserved break, but I hope that Nigel stays at the helm and I know you will all support this call to him to carry on the fight.  Please email lccapplications@ukip.org with your messages of support today.
2. ANALYSIS of what UKIP/we did well, and what we can do better for next time?  This is essential.  We achieved some great successes but there are many things which we can improve on, and we need to become much more professional in many areas and make greater use of social media, marketing, IT and other technology to support our strategy, campaigning, canvassing and membership.  Our efforts for the next election must start as soon as possible.
3. BIAS & CORRUPTION – We must fight for electoral reform, and expose the bias in the press, and the influence of the polls which all totally failed to predict the result, and address the various issues of electoral register fraud and postal voting, and boundary changes ... to prevent further abuses and restore confidence in our democratic system that it is fair, representative and just.
4. EXPAND THE LOCAL BRANCH & INCREASE OUR MEMBERSHIP – During the campaign we had many enquiries and identified many new supporters.  Over the coming weeks we must all follow up on this to turn our friends and supporters into members, and members into activists.  The local branch also needs your continued support and generous and invaluable donations to build up a war chest for the next campaign. This election campaign was the one where UKIP supporters can move out of the shadows and finally shout their allegiance in public.  With a few exceptions it is now acceptable to say “I SUPPORT UKIP!”.  We have been seen in the local community and the 13 hustings I did during the campaign has also helped reduce hostility and increase the trust between all sides.  The ignorant, naked and open hostility often expressed towards UKIP has now mainly given way to an acceptance that we are another mainstream political party with massive support and perfectly reasonable, sensible and common sense views as per our fantastic UKIP manifesto. This sea change will only get better as we continue to show our faces in public and tell everyone proudly  “YES, I voted for UKIP”.
5. THE NEXT ELECTION is the London Assembly elections NEXT YEAR ... and these are proportional representation so UKIP will do much better here in terms of getting people elected.  There will be no “wasted votes” or tactical voting here so let’s get out there and get every one of those votes.

UKIP are here to stay.  UKIP are the new force in British politics and there are exciting times ahead.  The Conservatives may have won an unexpected majority (despite all the predictions) but now they have to deliver on all their promises including the EU Referendum.  The LibDems have died and faded away, and Labour now have to find a new purpose, leader, policies and direction in the face of the failure of their old left wing ideology to appeal to voters. UKIP are now the only opposition who can hold our heads up high and say “we too won” this general election battle, but there will be many more battles to come before we win the war to get our country back.
I hope you will all continue to support the branch and UKIP.
Over the last two years UKIP have grown from strength to strength gaining evermore support in every election.  We will continue to do so with your help and support.
Many thanks once again for all your help, support and kind words.  It has been an amazing experience and honour standing as a parliamentary candidate for UKIP.  I have met some great people and made some wonderful friends during this campaign and expect to see you all in the battles ahead.  As I said “we ‘ain’t going nowhere” ...
So ONWARD AND UPWARD!
I would welcome all your comments, thoughts, ideas, and observations on our campaign and your views on the way forward. 
Many thanks and best wishes,
Richard King,
UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Finchley and Golders Green.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editors Note:
The Barnet Eye has invited representatives of all the main parties to submit guest blogs detailing their experiences and views of the General Election. Please note this is purely for the interest of the readership and fairness. Publication of such blogs does not imply endorsement of the views contained.

Many thanks to Richard Kings for the submission. Guest blogs relevant to the London Borough of Barnet are always welcome.

UKIP Hendon in turmoil as candidate quits

It seems that UKIP in Hendon constituency are in a state of complete chaos. They are now on their third PPC as Jeremy Zeid has resigned following the "Abduct Obama" scandal.

The new candidate is Raymond Samash - full details are available on the UKIP website. Mr Samash has served as a medic in the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur war. He says

Hendon has benefited from immigration, which is evidenced by the many Irish pubs, Bagel bakeries and Indian restaurants providing food and drink from many parts of the world; but we believe that the sheer scale and pace of immigration is tearing at our social fabric and swamping our unique British way of life.. Whilst immigration provides benefits the time has come to introduce sensible controls to reduce the impact on so many of our basic services.




It will be interesting to see how this affects UKIP in Hendon. It is clearly not good for a campaign to lose its candidate ins uch embarrassing circumstances, but I guess better now than the week before the poll. Tory incumbent Matthew Offord is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of this spectacular own goal. It will be interesting to see how Mr Samash shapes up. Given Mr Zeids rather "interesting" views, we can only assume that he'll be an improvement. 

One interesting thing I have noticed is that UKIP Hendon does not have its own website piggybacking on the Barnet website. This to me makes the whole operation look rather amateur. If you click the people page, it seems they cannot even afford a decent picture of their branch executives.

FSB Business hustings at Allianz Park

Tonight we had the Federation of Small Business Election  hustings at Allainz Park.

The event started with  a 3 minute video/advert for the  FSB.

Chair Michael Lassman introduced the event by stating that under the coalition small buisness have lead the country out of recession by working 20% harder for 20% less money. There were murmurs of approval. With that he allowed the panel to intoduce themseves.

Alasdair Hill, the Hendon Lib Dem candidate said small biz  was the life blood of country. He said the Lib Dems had helped by jumping into bed with the Tories, thus putting (ministerial limo's) the country before party. He emphasised that only the Lib Dems committed to a strong UK in the EU.

Next up was Richard Hill Finchley and Golders Green UKIP. He runs local jujitsu club and is married to British Indian. He's worked in the UK and abroad. He loves foreign food, but hates an EU superstate (or words to that effect). He thinks over regulation from EU stifling business, because the  EU creates regulation. HE believes that you do not have to be in EU to trade with them, and that if we left the EU everyting would be just fine.

Next up we had Luke Parker,  Tory candidate Brent North. HE's the son of a pub landlord. He works for IBM. Rather bizarrely, he said his Dad spent his life in front of computer figuring out regulations, when he was small. I am guessing his age, but I'd say that when he was small, the only computers available were mainframes from IBM and not too many pubs had them in. Maybe he's just had a hard life and he's really only 14? He's paassionate about small businesses (although not enough to leave his job working for a multinational). He was pleased that 385,000 small firms paying less rates and that Govt procurement from 6 to 10% with small businesses.

Next up was Poppy, the Barnet Green. She told us that the greatest threat is sustainability. We need a Democratic voice and the other parties in hock of big business. She was here to reassert the right of small small business to vote green to stop other parties selling out. She believes in hyper localism.

Finally we had Sarah Sackman from Labour. She comes from small business background. Her Grandfather still lives above the family biz,  which has recently  gone on line. Sarah believes there is no contradiction between wealth creation and social justice. She feels there is no justice if for millions work doesn't pay and  millions work every hour and can't pay bills.

The 1st question was about min wage & London living wage.

Luke supports London Living wage and believes it can help rebalance economy

Poppy said the Greens been pushing longer than everyone and we need a less polarised society. She observed very few jobs lost to living wage.

Sarah said that raising people out of poverty is a key priority and can be done by strengthening living wage. She advocates Tax rebates for employers who opt in to living wage. 

Richard said  there are two aspects. It affects small biz and  that regulating market creates black market. It's all down to EU that we have a bigger black market than ever.

Alasdair Hopes for an increase in minimum wage.

Q. Which of their parties policy is best and worst for Small business

Sarah said the best is to cut and freeze biz rates and the worst to increase nat min wage.

Alasdair said best is  small biz bill forcing large companies to pay SME's on time. The worst was the commitment to capital investment is too slow

Luke said the best is getting finance to SME's . Worst and the worst were policies that don't help thehigh street.

Richard said the Best was to leave the EU and cut regulation. Worst. I don't know as he waffled about nothing in particular.

Paul Shea, former owner of Tally Ho discount asked  "do candidates recognise the damage done to high street by council parking policies"

Poppy said Paul is a prized campaigner. New pay by phone policies had terrible caused decline and Barnet was the worst council in the world. Starbucks don't pay their taxes. She said it is Not ok to let high street die. She will raise rates relief, reduce vat on cooked food.

Helen Michael, Finchley traders campaigner then stood up. She explained that she'd represented traders of North Finchley. In 5 years they'd collected 20000 sigs, attended meetings but all actions had been ignored. Arrogance & ignorance of councillors was unbelievable. Traders need a helping hand. She said time for politicians to stop talking and take action.

Luke said the problem comes from lack of disclipline in Council (maybe he's a fan of 50 Shades of Grey).

Richrd said Councils don't care about small biz. He said the public don't eaither as we all shop at Tesco and Sainsbury. UKIP have policy of local referendum, where 6% of local voters can trigger a referendum to address such issues.

Xohan, a local trader asked,  do you support local council planning control

Alasair said betting shops are a scourge. Greater restrictions on betting machinesare needed. He said we need imaginative localised planning regimes.

Sarah said  it is ironic that Barnet council Tories claim to champion local business yet has facilitated the demise of local High St. She will lobby the council to bring in fair parking and that local authorities need to be able to spend tax locally

Q. Lots of SME's have problems accessing finance.

Luke. Obviously an issue. Tories have prioritised over last 5 years

Poppy. Big banks haven't lent. Greens will control banks and  Break big banks up.

Richard rather uncharitably replied "Beware green communist" (he clearly doesn't know his political hisory). He added the current govt only interested in big corporations

Alasadir said the Greens &. UKIP miss the point because the coalition has released £3 bil of financing for SME's.

Sarah said one thing we need to address is competition in lending.

Q. Which party will bring criminal prosecutions against bankers. 

Sarah said we need to send out a message that bankers that it is unacceptable to break the law.

Luke said that  vilifying banks all the time is a bad things.

Local Tory agitator Dan Hope tried to trip up Sarah Sackman with a barbed question about Sweets Way "Under what if any circumstances is it ok to squat in commercial property"

Luckily for Sarag, Richard rode to her rescue. He said it is Ok when no democratic accountability

Poppy added  that the  Unregulated. Property market cused the problem as Government has made it illegal to occupy private property.

A Question from UKIP Activist Victor Kaye followed. "The London plan for housing says 40% min for affordable housing. Lucky to see 25%"

Sarah said there was no contradiction between wealth creation and social justice and that affordable housing is too expensive. She added we need political will to build social housing.

Alasdair said the housing squeeze was hurting business as workers need  local places to live and  Direct action is OK in cases where democracy has failed, but protestors need to think of end game

Richard said the housing crisis is all the fault of immigrants.

Q. COuld the £50 billion for HS2 how could that be better spent?

Luke.  The money could be spent elsewhere, but didn't really elaborate.

Sarah. Supports HS2. And said that it is no accident that leader of Manchester council wants HS2. All this is critical infrastructure to keep the nation ticking over.

Alasadir Supports HS2 for redistribution of wealth. He commented that it is funny that the greens are against HS2 as they like public transport and hate air travel. He said he'd move the start of HS2  north ????

Richard said HS2 is complete madness aimed purely at centralising power in London and a new report by lords undermines biz case. Odd really that a candidate wants to take wealth away from his own rejoin/

Micael then finished witha 2 mins slot for each, asking

Where would you vote against your own party?
 

Luke said "If not in Brent North interests. He added that it is right FSB are apolitical but said we are nt facing New Labour but old Labour and his campaign needs dosh!"

Alasdair said "In the last 5 years Lib Dems stabilised the economy, will balance deficit and won't borrow as much as Labour"

Richard said . All parties support EU apart from UKIP. He added thatBritain isn't a democracy.

Poppy. All other parties  big biz parties and all support TTIP (Richard objected and said UKIP don't. The Barnet Eye helpfully suggested that UKIP & the Greens form a coalition).

Sarah said she was  Rebutting Luke. She said the tories were supposed to be a Tories a party of effort. Too many people working too hard for too little. Fundamental betrayal of citizens if top 1% are only beneficiaries.

And that folks was that!

A UKIP election victory would add £30 a week to your household bills

The UKIP proposition is simple. Pull out of the EU and stop immigration. Their argument goes along the lines of this. If we didn't have to give the EU billions of pounds a year we'd be financially better off and if we didn't have lots of immigrants coming into the country we wouldn't have any unemployment, because British workers would do the work.

What is beyond my comprehension is why no one seems capable of putting into simple terms why this wouldn't work for the UK economy. Now it may well be that there are people who are willing to completely sacrifice our prosperity because they hate foreigners. I don't really believe that they are anything other than a tiny minority. I happen to believe that the problem the Pro EU side have in making their case is that it is dominated by people who are unable to speak in anything other than jargon. Nigel Farage, despite being a toff who spends his life hobbing with the knobs, puts across the image of being a man of the people. We know he likes a pint and a cigarette. He was recently in Mill Hill at the Rising Sun pub having a tasty slap up meal, with his well off friends. Oddly enough, this man of the people chose the nicest and most exclusive joint in Mill Hill for his trip. Don't get me wrong, I love the Rising Sun and often eat there when I want to show the good side of Mill Hill to people. But if Farage really was a man of the people as he makes out, surely he'd have had a pint in the Bridge and egg and chips at Jennys? But that is the nature of the UKIP proposition, it is all smoke and mirrors.

What anyone who is considering voting UKIP needs to consider is what the effects of their policies would be. To understand this, you need to understand what drives the wealth of the UK. Ask yourself what the UK is good at? What UK products and companies are world beaters. A 'man of the people' such as Nigel Farage would surey recognise the Premier League as an extraordinary product and a global success. Clubs such as Manchester City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea have huge global viewing figures for their games. This brings huge amounts of revenue into the UK.  The Premier League is a unique cash cow for the UK economy. What is interesting is that the likes of Farage were predicting the demise of football as a commercial business a couple of decades ago when the European Court upheld the Bosman ruling. Strangely enough, rather than seeing an end of transfers, they are now at ridiculous levels. However you look at it though, no one claims that the free movement of labour in the EU has been bad for business for the likes of City, United and Chelsea. What would you rather watch? The likes of David Silva, Ronaldo and Mata or the kick and rush hoofing game we so loved in the 1970's?  Would Nigel Farage's rules on immigrants apply to footballers? It's not like there aren't millions of footballers who'd love to play for these clubs, they just can't do the job as well.

So you may ask, what have millionaire superstar footballers got to do with my household bills going up by £30 a week? The free movement of footballers does not affect the cost of a kilo of turmips in my shopping basket? Well everything and nothing. You see, rather like the foriegn footballers, who are employed by Premiership clubs because they are the most suitable people to do the job, that kilo of turnips were most likely harvested, washed and packed by foreign labourers. Like it or not, they are employed because this is quite arduous work and it is low paid. The current UK unemployment rate is 6%. This is remarkably low.  If it wasn't for immigrant labour, then those turnips would either not get picked at all or the producers would have to pay a significant amount more to UK workers, to tempt them to do the job. The laws of economics state that when there is high unemployment wages go down and when it is low, wages go up. The UK farming industry can only produce crops at the current costs due to migrant labour. Stop this and the costs would rocket or production would stop and we'd have to become even more reliant on imports.

Every food item produced in the UK in your weekly shopping basket relies to some degree on migrant labour. A ban on this would reduce production, forcing up the costs of everything else. It is not only the food prodcuers that would see higher costs. Next time you go shopping, have a look and see how many people working in your local shops are immigrants. See how many people working in the petrol stations, driving your bus or train or collecting your ticket. Take all of these people out of the workforce and what would happen?

This takes us back to what we do well. London is an international hub for finance and commerce. Can anyone realisitically argue that making it harder to do business with Europe will help the City to retain its position as an international hub? We got a mini preview of what would happen in the Scottish Independence referendum, when several large banks announced contingency plans to move their head offices to London. Many international companies, with European operations based in London are very likely to review  this arrangement if the UK pulls out of the EU. Business hates uncertainty and no one really knows what would happen.

I was speaking to a friend who works as an economist and he said that in his opinion, in the short term we'd see a rise of up to £30 in our weekly household costs as the effects of a labour shortage hit us. In the long term he could see a situation where London lost its place as a major international hub, as multinationals chose to locate within the EU zone.

Of course, once the UK population started to feel the effects of UKIP policies in their pockets, things would change. Rules would be relaxed to allow migrant workers back in. Deals would be done to have access to EU markets. The trouble is that none of this would be on our terms, it would all be dictated to us, because we wouldn't have  a seat at the table making policy.

When you look at the UK economy, which is growing at an unprecendentaed rate and George Osborne is counting on to deliver an election victory, you have to ask the question "If the system isn't broke, why are UKIP so keen to get the spanners out?". It seems to me that with the rest of Europe in recession and stagnating, it is actually the other EU countries that have the problem. Is it really good for Poland and Romania that their brightest, best educated and most capable young people are jumping on Easyjet to the UK? Whilst the Daily Mail tries to portray the infux of Eastern Europeans as beggers, robbers and scroungers, most are extremely hard working people. Of course some are problematical, but they are a tiny minority. The UK is a success story and the constant infusions of talented people are one of the major reasons. If we were to vote UKIP we'd be risking killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Sadly UKIP live in a logic free zone, where facts, figures and economics don't matter.

The Friday Joke 28/11/2014 - UKIP can't tell a Cathedral from a Mosque

Earlier this year I visited Westminster Cathedral and posted this tweet

Rog T ‏@Barneteye

Visiting Westminster Cathedral. Saw this. A timely reminder as to why I wont be voting #UKIP

 

Little could I imagine that the cathedral would form the centre of a Twitter storm, as Nigel Farage's UKIP branch mistook the Cathedral for a Mosque! The Guardian tells the full story here

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/27/-sp-ukip-mistakes-westminster-cathedral-for-mosque?CMP=fb_gu

It seems that the BBC were doing a straw poll outside the Cathedral on whether Nigel Farage has what it takes to be Prime Minister outside the Cathedral, and UKIP took exception to this.

Of course we all make mistakes. I suppose that it is quite easy to mistake the largest Roman Catholic Cathedral in the UK for a mosque if you are a bit dim. Luckily it seems that the people of Great Britain are only too happy to help to educate UKIP as to exactly what isn't a Mosque, to avoid further embarrassments. If you do a twitter search under #Thingsthatarenotmosques - Check it out (especially if you are a UKIPper and want to avoid embarrassment).

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23ThingsThatAreNotMosques&src=tyah

Here are a few of my favourites.

Nigel Ohno ‏@nigelohno 4m4 minutes ago

Nigel! Oh No! moley345: RT sturdyAlex: #ThingsThatAreNotMosques Nigel_Farage

Helen Anderson ‏@Persipan 19m19 minutes ago

#ThingsThatAreNotMosques - It does contain palm trees, so could be confusing... 

Yrotitna ‏@yrotitna 20m20 minutes ago

@ukip_sththanet Moscow is a city not a design & build company specialising in mosques #ThingsThatAreNotMosques

Finally, we thought we'd add our own picture from Mill Hill, just in case!!!

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 9s10 seconds ago

#UKIP_STTHANET #ThingsThatAreNotMosques Just in case there are any confused #UKIP members in Mill Hill, this isn't