Toby on Tuesday 

‘Middle East Wealth Envoy’

 

We all know that the EU is the great scam of our time, a scam that is finally being seen in its true light.   But behind it are some interesting characters who are worth studying and today I want to write about Tony Blair.

Now in a sense I was Tony Blair’s first victim, for in 1983 I found myself as Conservative Parliamentary candidate in Sedgefield.   This was the time leading up to the miners’ strike and I was looking forward to a lively campaign in the old Durham coalfield, with vigorous debate and democracy at its most outspoken.   You can imagine my surprise therefore when I found that the Labour candidate was an over-friendly London lawyer called Tony Blair!   I challenged him to an open public debate on our policies, including his policy of withdrawal from the then EEC!   His response was, “No, that’s the Old Politics.   But I want you to meet Cherie’s step-mother Pat Phoenix – Pat, come and meet Toby, he’s fighting a great campaign!”

For once, I was lost for words and I have followed the trajectory of Blair’s “New Politics” ever since.   So it didn’t come as a surprise to me the other day to read about his complex network of commercial deals interlinked with his “political” and “charitable” work.   Of course his role in recent years as “Middle East Peace Envoy” has been the perfect cover for his lucrative life as adviser to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi’s £42 billion Mubadala Development Company, acting for Qatar’s vast sovereign wealth fund and much more deal-making besides.

It would take Sherlock Holmes himself to untangle the extraordinary web of global charities, companies and advisory activity at the centre of which rests our former Prime Minister, always protected by his police bodyguard at a cost to the UK taxpayer of up to £16,000 per week..   For my part, I would definitely be interested to learn more of his advisory work for Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan and especially his advice on “managing his image after the slaughter of unarmed protesters!”

Now where of course this is relevant is in Tony Blair’s continued involvement in the whole malign EU project and his plan to play a leading role in the “Yes” campaign.  But really Tony Blair and the EU are made for each other and his campaigning for an “In” vote will emphasise this all too clearly.   And where this is also relevant is in the context of our “heir to Blair”, our very own David Cameron.

Now, our Prime Minister has already announced that he will step down as leader of the Conservative Party in 2019.   We know him to be committed to a “Yes” vote irrespective of the outcome of what he laughingly calls his EU “reform negotiations.”   And of course he will then almost certainly use his bulging address book to try and emulate “the Master”, as he calls him, for a comparable future.   “Green” issues will probably replace Blair’s “Faith” issues, but the result will be the same and the poor old British voter will yet again have been used as little more than a springboard for an ex-Prime Minster’s life of global wheeling and dealing –  so welcome to the New World Order!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”

 

Last week I wrote about UKIP’s one MP in the House of Commons, Douglas Carswell. Today, I want to write about our one Scottish Member of the European Parliament, David Coburn. But first, let me tell you what he is up against – the SNP and its mercurial leader, Nicola Sturgeon. To illustrate this, last week she was in the United States where she was a guest of the Daily Show’s arch-interrogator, Jon Stewart. Their conversation went like this:

Jon Stewart: “The SNP won 56 out of 59 seats…it was unprecedented.”
Nicola Sturgeon: “ I’ve ordered an enquiry into how come we didn’t win those other three. It reports directly to me.”
Jon Stewart: “Those other three? You think you’re Saddam Hussein? You want 99%? 56 out of 59 is pretty good.”
Nicola Sturgeon: “Well you know, I always think you should aim for more.”

Last week too, the EU Referendum Bill passed its next stage in the House of Commons. The House was virtually united on this, with even the Labour Party now supporting the Bill, and the voting was 544 for the measure with only 53 against. And you can guess where those 53 votes came from – of course, from the SNP. They never stop demanding another Referendum on Scottish independence, but when the whole of the British people ask for a vote for the first time in 40 years on our EU relationship, democracy for them stops there. Together, these two episodes sum up the SNP’s unique combination of thuggish totalitarianism and brazen hypocrisy.

UKIP’s response also has two strands, both typically sensible. The first is financial, as set out in our General Election manifesto. This recommends the end of the Barnet Formula for Scotland, where public spending runs at some £1,400 head more annually than the UK average, and calls for “substantial reductions in funding for Scotland, but, as the Scottish government is to have significant further powers over taxation, borrowing and spending in due course, it can make its own decision as to whether to raise taxes or cut public spending to balance the books.” The second response, which our Scots MEP David Coburn deploys with great skill, is humour. He has already riled his opponents with his somewhat politically incorrect jibes, comparing Nicola Sturgeon to Lady Macbeth and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett to Dame Edna Everage. And he says that Nicola Sturgeon’s “national socialism” is “killing Scotland” – “The SNP are worthy of the Stasi in East Germany” he says, “I find it terrifying.”

But there is serious purpose behind the humour and when the other day the SNP argued for a “double lock” on the EU Referendum, with a “No” vote” required in Scotland as well as in the whole of the UK before a “Brexit”, he declared, “We came into the EU as one United Kingdom, we came into the EU together, so we will leave together. The Scottish people clearly decided that they wanted to remain as part of the United Kingdom so any talk of the double lock mechanism makes a mockery of the Scottish people’s decision. We respected the result, now they must too.”

Of course, the one good thing that the SNP have done is to have swept away Labour’s rotten boroughs across Scotland. This is exactly what UKIP must do across the North of England, but all that’s for another day!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

‘Glass half full…’

 

I am a glass half-full man. Every situation presents challenges and it’s easy to take too bleak a view of events. Of course it’s outrageous that, under First Past the Post, it took UKIP 3.8 million votes to gain one MP. By contrast, it took the SNP only 25,970 votes for each MP and, in England, the Conservative Party needed just 32,900 votes and the Labour Party just 39,300 for each MP. Under PR we would have won over 80 seats but the upside of events is that our one MP is the formidable Douglas Carswell, who is really worth over 80 MP’s on his own. So in many ways our glass is indeed half-full, as one really good MP is worth 80 of the mindless hacks who fill up so much of the other parties’ benches.

And to prove this, you only have to read Douglas’ 2012 masterpiece, “The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy”. Despite its bleak analysis this is an optimistic book declaring, “The West is in crisis. Governments have grown too big, living beyond their means – and ours. The true costs of extra officialdom have been concealed. Parasitical politicians have been hopeless at holding to account the elites who now preside over us. As a result, Western nations are mired in debt and chronically misgoverned. Should we despair? Actually, no.”

And the same positive spirit was behind Douglas’ response last week to the Queen’s Speech when he said, “I may be my party’s only voice in the House of Commons, but I shall speak on behalf of not only my constituents, but the millions who voted for my party. I may have only one vote in the Division Lobby, but I shall use it to support Ministers when they do sensible things, to oppose the Government when they are being daft, and, when I think it is possible to improve things, to try to amend things to make them better. I imagine that I will oppose much of what this Government do. I regret what is not in the Queen’s Speech as much as I support what is in it. There is a failure to introduce meaningful political reform. There is nothing in it that will make the Government more properly accountable to Parliament and Parliament more properly answerable to the people. There is little in it to disperse power outward and downward, or to personalise public services in the way I think they need to be. When I challenge the Government’s shortcomings, however, I will do so cheerfully and in the belief that, yes, things are not good enough, but that is because they could and should be better. I will be optimistic and cheerful in opposing the Government when I need to do so, and I will support them when I think they are doing the right thing.”

The months leading up to the EU referendum will be exciting, even turbulent. But the informed optimism of Douglas Carswell will be a vital element in the “Out” campaign. And I recommend regular visits to his own blog, TalkCarswell.com, for wise, intelligent insights into UKIP’s one voice in the House of Commons, but a golden voice nonetheless. In the words of the old song, it is the voice of “One Good Man”!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

'Modest Concessions'

 

So the great prize has been won! Before the end of 2017 we shall all be asked, “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?” The existential political question of our time, which leaders of the three old parties have resisted for 40 years, will finally be put. That this has been achieved is due above all else to the persistence of UKIP and in particular of one man, Nigel Farage, for whom it has been a lifelong obsession. Without UKIP, David Cameron would never have made the commitment and, whatever lies ahead, the fact that we now have this opportunity will always remain our party’s greatest achievement. Clearly, the question is designed to elicit a “Yes” vote, but the British people are far too shrewd to be deceived by this.

Of course, Britain has been here before. In 1975 Harold Wilson, like David Cameron driven by reasons of party management rather than any strongly-held belief, likewise gave our country a referendum. Like David Cameron now, he dressed up a series of modest concessions as major reform of the then EEC. The usual suspects, the Foreign Office, the CBI, the BBC, the CIA and Brussels itself weighed in with immense financial and other pressure, just as they will over the next two years. All the usual scare tactics were employed to maintain the status quo and Wilson was rewarded with a resounding “Yes” vote when the result was announced. So Harold Wilson’s 1975 renegotiation is plainly the template for David Cameron’s coming “renegotiation” and the identical allies are already being lined up to ensure the same outcome.

But somehow I think that this time the result will be different. Although the opinion pollsters are already proclaiming a “Yes” outcome, despite being left with so much egg on their collective faces after failing to predict the result of the General Election, I believe that Britain will vote “No”. What drives our pragmatic electorate is the impact of any policy on their collective pockets. Over the coming two years, public spending will face an unprecedented squeeze. The £13 billion plus net contribution to the EU’s budget, alongside a similar sum spent on so-called Overseas Aid, will prompt voters to ask why so much money is going abroad, often lost to crime and corruption, when we have such great needs at home? And the rise of Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, the Left Bloc in Portugal and, rather differently, the Front National in France, will drive home the truth that the effect of Euro membership on those countries has been an unqualified disaster. When Britain voted “Yes” in 1975, it was a response to the post-war economic miracles of Germany and France, with a wish to share in them. When Britain votes “No” in 2016/7, it will be a similar response to the abyss into which Southern Europe is staring as a result of Euro membership and the need to avoid its contagion.

Of course, when we do ultimately withdraw from the EU, it won’t be plain sailing at all. As a country, we shall have to learn to shift for ourselves again, to take responsibility for our country rather than leave everything to unaccountable civil servants. We may just have forgotten how to do this and need to relearn the lessons. Yes, there will be disruption, but the disruption of staying inside this unworkable project will be far greater. If we succeed, the reward will be immense – nothing less than the recovery of our long-term self-respect and renewed pride in our nation!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday

 ‘Less European?…’

 

There have been some wonderful lies cooked up by the Eurofanatics who have caused such havoc to our country during the past generation. The most lurid of course is the old threat that, if Britain left the EU, somehow 3 million jobs would instantly disappear. This presumes that all trade with the EU would cease overnight, even though we import infinitely more from the rest of the EU than they buy from us and they would be desperate for a trade agreement. Of course this was the mantra of the late Nick Clegg and his now departed, if not regretted, LibDem friends. But perhaps the most colourful is the claim that Britain would, after Brexit, somehow cease to be European and therefore could no longer take part in the high camp annual ritual of the Eurovision Song Contest.

I chuckled over this to myself last week when I read through the list of Eurovision contestants. 40 nations entered of which only 28 were actual EU members and just 19 were trapped in the downward spiral of the doomed Euro currency. So over half the nations entering Eurovision do not actually use the Euro and they are the ones likely to survive the existential crisis caused by this doomed project. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, which wisely stayed outside the EU in the 1970’s, do not see themselves as any less “European” for having escaped its clutches, while the entries also included Armenia, from where Kim Kardashian’s family come and whose genocide at the hands of the Turks in the 1920’s is only now being acknowledged, Israel, Russia and even Australia! In fact of the first five winning entries, only three (Sweden, Italy and Belgium) are even in the EU and only two (Italy and Belgium) actually use the Euro currency. So UKIP’s claim to love Europe and European culture while detesting the EU and all its works is well-founded when you see the Eurovision line-up.

And for those trapped inside the prison of the Euro currency, with all its dreadful consequences, their songs sounded like cries for help. The beautiful Maria Elena Kyriakou stunned us all with her voice and the words of her song,

“I’m begging you take me
out of this firing hell
Come back and save me -
What happened wasn’t fair.
Nothing left. All that I have
is one last breath.
Only one last breath!”

If that isn’t a cry for help from a suffering country martyred by Euro membership, I don’t know what is. In truth, Eurovision is a wonderful image of what the future of the Continent could look like. A shared civilisation, stretching (in David Cameron’s words) from the Atlantic to the Urals, without the failing grip of the so-called “European Union”, but including Russia, even Israel and with strong ties to Britain’s own Commonwealth – Australia and the rest – on which Ted Heath so foolishly turned his back in 1972. This is the great prize that UKIP is seeking as work starts on our In/Out referendum. On Saturday, the UK’s entry finished 24th. Who knows, if we ultimately left the EU we might even, like Russia and Australia, find ourselves in the top five!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

'And the dust settles…'

 

 

If, as they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity, then UKIP has had a truly wonderful ten days since the General Election. With nearly 4 million votes in the bag, the commitment to an in/out EU referendum from the Government, the most professional of all the parties’ manifestos, 120 second places and an outstanding elected MP in Douglas Carswell, there is much to celebrate. There is also much to build on if wise heads are allowed to prevail. As William Hague’s Constituency Chairman in Richmond during his leadership of the Conservative Party, I well remember turmoil and in-fighting in a disappointed party. Yet the Conservative Party in 1997 had suffered a devastating setback from which it has only just recovered 18 years later. UKIP in 2015 has enjoyed an astonishing advance and, when the dust settles, its full extent will become clear.

What is also clear is that the Government is now determined to rush through the EU referendum with no Treaty amendments and only cosmetic changes to certain welfare and other benefits. The existential questions of border controls, the security implications of Turkish accession, the Common Fisheries Policy (once a Conservative priority), financial contagion as the Eurozone plunges into recession, will simply not get a mention. No doubt the EU itself will help fund the “In” campaign and every trick in the book will be used to ensure its success. It is to these great issues that all UKIP’s energies must be focussed in the coming months.

And the reality is that in Nigel Farage we have most effective Eurorealist campaigner of our time and in Douglas Carswell the most original and creative Parliamentarian. As well as these two, we have outstanding MEP’s in our own Jane Collins and Mike Hookem, in Paul Nuttall our Deputy Leader, in Stephen Woolfe, in William Dartmouth and many more, and we have the truly excellent Suzanne Evans, who did such a superb job with our manifesto, and many others. The simple frustration of finding ourselves under first-past-the-post with so many votes for just one MP is understandable, but once the dust settles the sheer scale of our achievement on 7th May will become clear. We can then regroup and go forward to fight a staged referendum on EU membership, led by Nigel and our MEP’s across the country and, in Parliament itself, by Douglas Carswell, on whom great responsibility now rests. They will have the support of all our members in this, the country’s greatest challenge of our time!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

Toby on Tuesday

 Thank you, 7805 times.

 

First the numbers. In Britain as a whole, UKIP won nearly 4 million votes, around 13% of the total share. In England alone, the percentage was nearer 17%. Here in Thirsk and Malton, our vote soared from 2,502 in 2010 to 7,805 (15%), against 27,545 votes (53%) for the Conservatives and 8,089 (15.5%) for Labour. We also had fine results for our excellent local candidates, Janine Robinson, Kevin Anderson, Peter Ash, Chris Cooper, Trevor Golding, Philip Mooring and Barry Waite. In terms of votes, UKIP is now clearly the country’s third largest political party and even if that did not translate into seats won, we gained a great moral victory.

Next, the thanks. A huge thank you to the whole UKIP Thirsk and Malton team, who should be immensely proud to have achieved so much with such limited resources. Our team has true star quality and to Emma, Janine, Dave, Eric and all involved in the campaign I offer my heartfelt gratitude. UKIP should be immensely proud of your truly superb contribution to the great cause of regaining our nation and our democracy.

Finally, the future. Of course, UKIP’s greatest achievement has been to force our Prime Minister to concede a referendum in 2017 on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Legislation to provide for this should be enacted later this year. And over the coming months, the terms of Britain’s membership of the whole project will be reviewed with the European Commission. UKIP’s task will be to present a positive picture of a Britain released from the tentacles of this doomed venture. On the morning after polling day, I spoke to my old friend William Dartmouth MEP, UKIP’s Trade Spokesman, who told me that he was rewriting his “Out of Europe – Into the World”, a compelling account of how our economy would benefit from EU exit. And we need to use our new strength to increase pressure on the Conservative Party to up the terms of its renegotiation strategy, not forgetting that when Michael Howard was its leader, repatriation of the truly appalling Common Fisheries Policy was a Conservative objective, an undertaking that was quietly and characteristically dropped by David Cameron. If we were to recover our 200-mile fishing limit again, it would underscore the truth that we are a maritime, trading nation and not just one more colony of a failing Continental state.

So we have much to be proud of. In particular, we should be proud of the manifesto on which we fought the General Election. This was the best of all the manifestos and the only one independently audited and verified. In great measure, it was the work of Suzanne Evans, UKIP’s excellent Deputy Chairman, and for my part it will be my bible in the years ahead. So congratulations and thanks to all involved in our campaign. Now let’s brace ourselves for the challenges that we face and ensure that in 2017 under UKIP’s inspirational leadership, both past and future, Britain can become a sovereign and independent nation once more, looking confidently out to the wider World!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby