Toby on Tuesday 

“Fish ‘n’ Ships twice please”

 

Filey is the jewel in the crown of Britain’s East Coast.   Last October the Guardian wrote, “What’s going for it?   What a bay!   What a beach!   The Costas don’t have anything like Filey.   Koh Samui pales.   Malibu?   Pah!”   Yet the days are long gone since Princess Mary, the old Princess Royal, came with her family from Harewood to spend their Summer holidays in a resort that was as fashionable as San Tropez and nowhere near as tacky!   Now something really radical is needed to restore Filey’s glory days.

Last week, I wrote about UKIP’s policy of recovering the 200-mile limit on our old North Sea fishing grounds, so wantonly abandoned by Ted Heath’s government in 1972.   Nearly 70% of Europe’s fishing grounds were given away in return for 13% of the EU fishing quota.   Now almost £3 billion a year of seafood – some 2/3rds of our annual consumption – has to be imported, much of it cod and haddock from Norway and Russia.   Vast international factory fishing fleets have colonised our waters and decimated our remaining stocks, yet we are powerless to do anything about it.   Extricating ourselves from this scandal would be the catalyst for the regeneration of Filey.

On Thursday I had the privilege of meeting two exceptionally determined and committed Filey campaigners, Tony Green and Peter Bradney of Fight4Filey, who have given many years and much thought to rebuilding the fortunes of their lovely town.   We talked about the distinct character of Filey and the need not to be overshadowed by neighbouring Scarborough, their plans for an all-weather visitor centre which could well be themed on the many links to the old Baltic trade with Sweden, Finland and Russia, the wish to create the kind of modern gastro culture which has served Padstow in Cornwall and Whitby up the coast so well, and the hope of returning boat building to Filey with all the other trades that would service it.   We agreed that one precondition for all these things and much else besides would be for Britain finally to bid farewell to the disaster that is the Common Fisheries Policy.   But even as work starts on achieving this goal, there is no reason why the preliminary steps cannot be put in place for Filey immediately after May’s General Election, not least by restoring the town’s many Baltic links.

You can find out more about Tony Green’s and Peter Bradney’s superb campaign for the place they love if you google Fight4Filey or www.fileybay.com.   They recognise fully the need for a vibrant new future for Filey once Britain has withdrawn from the clutches of the EU, but they know too that the work of regeneration must start now.   When we joined the EU all those years ago Ted Heath, in his graceless and curmudgeonly way, declared that the only people who could possibly oppose his terms of entry were “just a few fishermen.”   Well I can say to the ghost of Ted Heath, wherever that may be, that he underestimated the courage and determination of people like Tony Green, Peter Bradney and all the other good men and women of Filey.   My hope is that after 7th May next I can join with them and help to achieve their dreams!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

“Fish ‘n’ Ships”

 

Everyone loves ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and everyone loves Len Goodman, Britain’s nimblest 70-year old.   Mind you, Brucie is Britain’s nimblest 87-year old (on 22nd February!), but that’s another story.   In George Orwell’s ‘1984’, Room 101 was the torture chamber in the Ministry of Love.   So it’s appropriate that it’s also the name of the BBC One comedy show in which celebrities share their pet hates.   This programme definitely has it in for UKIP and, to give you a flavour, a charming lady called Ronni Ancona recently declared, “Where do you stand on Nigel Farage – on his windpipe preferably,” while our Len Goodman was accused of “sounding like a UKIP candidate” for his views on food.

To me “sounding like a UKIP candidate” is the ultimate compliment, so I thought that I’d investigate a bit more.   What our Len said was, “Sushi?   No.   Cockles and mussels and maybe a winkle.   Lovely jubbly.   We would all be healthier, fitter and happier if we could go back to the days of fish and chips.”   But thanks to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, the days of plentiful fish and chips are long gone.   Even though the UK has almost 70% of Europe’s fishing grounds, we now have only 13% of the allowable quota and need to import nearly £3 billion a year of seafood, while our own resources are literally being given away.   The Conservative Party once acknowledged this scandal and, under Michael Howard’s leadership, had a policy of repatriating fishing policy.   Almost the first thing that “Dave” Cameron did on becoming leader was to ditch this commitment.    The first UKIP Government would make the recovery of our fisheries an absolute priority.

We would start by introducing a 200-mile North Sea Exclusive Economic Zone under UK control and a 12-mile limit for UK fishermen only.   We would then introduce development funding for fleets, harbours and shipbuilding for Fishery Protection.   We would legislate for seasonal closure areas to aid spawning and replenish stocks, and for voluntary closure areas and no-trawl zones to protect shellfish grounds.   We would create fishery protected areas with no energy/aggregate exploitation and introduce ‘land what you catch’ self-management with regional control and selective fishing gear for accurate species targeting.   Above all, we would ensure that, with the scandal of discarded fish now illegal, the new scandal of fish over quota going to landfill would be prohibited.

In this way, Britain could restore herself as a maritime nation once more, instead of being a mere adjunct of a dying Continent.   And our Len Goodman could enjoy all the lovely fish and chips he wanted, even when he has seen as many glorious Summers by the seaside – hopefully in Filey – as our Brucie!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

'Revolutionary Acts'

 

To live on the North York Moors is to be blessed with some of the loveliest landscapes on the whole planet.   And when the winter snow comes, the days that follow with bright sunshine over the white ghylls are worthy of the finest of artists.   We have had some of these days here in the past fortnight, to the delight of the grandchildren as they hurtled down the slopes on their toboggans.   One day, I went with some old friends to a nearby dale called Scugdale, deep in snow and the paths sheets of ice.   Two of our group slipped badly, one bruising a shoulder and the other spraining an ankle, but with no lasting damage.   As I helped them to their feet, I chuckled to think of all those articles in the Guardian and the Independent during the climate change hysteria of ten years ago, warning us that we would never, ever see snow again!

In his ‘1984’, George Orwell wrote, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”   Along with the EU, our climate change alarmists have been among the very greatest perpetrators of universal deceit.   It was the 2008 Climate Change Act, which an incoming UKIP Government will repeal, that committed Britain to reducing carbon emissions by 80% before 2050, the only country in the World to do so.   Ed Miliband was Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change then, but he was strongly supported by the dismal duo of Cameron and Clegg, both desperate to jump onto the bandwagon.

In fact, the only way to reduce carbon emissions by 80% before 2050 is somehow to eliminate humanity itself.   Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium and oxygen, and in the human body it is the second most abundant element (18.5%) after oxygen.   Just when the oil price is collapsing, it is worth remembering this while you pay your energy bills as they are rising by around a half to pay for all those “green” measures under the 2008 Climate Change Act.

Last week a 328 foot tall wind turbine buckled and collapsed on a hillside in Northern Ireland, despite only medium wind speeds.   It was one of eight opened in 2011 at a cost of £26 million and the remaining seven were shut down pending an investigation.   Through their bills, consumers have been paying for these monstrous structures, all based on the universal deceit of the 2008 Act.   As one by one they all need to be dismantled and removed, it is vital that those who profited from this folly should fund their disposal, but the sad truth is that the poor old customer will almost certainly be called on to pay for this too.   To paraphrase George Orwell, UKIP will never cease telling the truth about these and other disasters, however much a revolutionary act it may be!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Monkeys… Mondays… erm… Tuesday.

 

 

A very happy New Year to you all!   These holidays are a time for laughter and during the past week I’ve read two of the funniest pieces of fiction enjoyed for a long time.

The first was a political satire called ‘Melincourt’ by the early-19th century humourist Thomas Love Peacock.   Anticipating Charles Darwin by half a century, he tells the story of a naturalist’s experiment with putting up an orangutan as a candidate in one of the old pre-Reform Bill rotten boroughs.   All goes well and the monkey is duly elected until, in the excitement of the moment, he goes berserk and rampages through the constituency until “in a few minutes the ancient and honourable borough of Onevote was reduced to ashes.”

An even funnier piece of fiction was “A contract between the Conservative Party and you” sent out by our Dave Cameron shortly before the 2010 General Election.   In this our Dave wrote, “We go into the general election on 6 May with trust in politics and politicians at an all-time low.   And I can understand why:  the years of broken promises, the expenses scandal, the feeling that politicians have become too remote from the people – they’ve all taken their toll…So this is our contract with you.   I want you to read it and – if we win the election – use it to hold us to account.   If we don’t deliver our side of the bargain, vote us out in five years’ time.”

Now, here are some of our Dave’s broken promises:

• “Control immigration, reducing it to…tens of thousands a year.”

• “Act now on the national debt.”

• “Give you the right to sack your MP…to get rid of politicians who are guilty of misconduct.”

• “Cut the number of MP’s by ten per cent, and cut the subsidies and perks for politicians.”

• “Cut ministers’ pay by five per cent and freeze it for five years.”

• “Give local communities the power to take charge of the local planning system and vote on excessive council tax rises.”

• “Take immediate action to start cutting government waste – things like…the millions given in aid.”

And here are some of the things Dave did not tell us he would do:

• Try to bomb Damascus in an unholy alliance with ISIS and risk a Third World War against Syria, Iran and Russia, a blunder which only a vote in the House of Commons prevented.

• Create an existential threat to our country by trying to bring Turkey, with its porous borders onto Iran, Iraq and Syria, into the EU and its policy of free movement.

• Introduce same-sex marriage without making civil partnerships available to heterosexual couples.

• Squander some £12 billion a year on overseas aid while our deficit with the rest of the world, at 6% of GDP, is the very worst since records began.

• Squander around a further £20 billion a year gross on EU membership while our National Debt is rising by some £100 billion a year.

• Fiddle our official statistics to include revenue from illegal drugs and prostitution in our GDP figures, something that even the French do not stoop to do, and pay huge additional EU contributions as a result.

• Force millions into fuel poverty through a deeply-flawed energy policy.

Now Dave, I’m a great believer in the sanctity of contracts and yes, let’s stick to the terms of your offer.   You’ve treated the British people as fools, you’ve failed on your side of the bargain and on 7 May next we’ll vote out your tawdry, dangerous and decadent government and replace it with something more honest and vigorous in the form of UKIP, the great new force in British politics!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

 

Toby on Triffids … sorry… ‘Tuesday’

 

Britain’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, is a Yorkshire treasure who has become a national treasure. Born in Ilkley in 1949, he left school at 15 to become an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council. Later he went on to study at Shipley Art and Technology Institute and then on to the wonderful career that has given pleasure to so many millions. So it is fitting that the Christmas season has been marked by his two-part tribute to the garden belonging to the most deeply loved of our national treasures – “The Queen’s Garden.”

Before Christmas, Alan gave a remarkable interview in which he talked about UKIP. What he said was, “I have some sympathy for the clarion wake-up call they’re trying to give the country.” Of Nigel Farage he said, “He’s saying what a lot of people, what the electorate, seems to think a lot of politicians are frightened of saying. He’s a good orator. He’s a populist. He’s a man people warm to.” And on immigration he said, “We have a problem in this country in that we’re just not big enough to take everybody who wants to come here…I do think we have a problem in that if people come over here they are instantly allowed benefits with rather too much ease…I think if I moved to a foreign country what would I do? I’d keep my own identity but I would feel some kind of obligation to fit in, to learn the language.”

Now, if a UKIP candidate said any of these things, our politically correct media and political class would immediately hurl accusations of ‘racist’ and ‘bigot’ at him or her. Because these words come from the hugely popular Alan Titchmarsh, they simply don’t dare. Recently, the Conservative MP Mark Garnier said that there was no need to pay any attention to the views of the electorate in places like Ilkley, or indeed like Thirsk and Malton, because we were only “dog-end voters in outlying regions.” Well Mr. Garnier, I for one am proud to be a “dog-end voter in an outlying region” and next May you and the rest of your divided and decaying party will find that we’ve a very nasty bite indeed!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

“God Rest EU Merry Gentlemen…”

 

One of the many pleasures of living in Thirsk and Malton is the presence of the ancient Benedictine foundation of Ampleforth. With its Abbey and school, Ampleforth is a force for good at the heart of the constituency. Although a fairly traditional Anglican, I always value my Roman Catholic friends’ belief in the sanctity of human life and the integrity of the family.

Like our beloved Queen, Pope Francis of Rome is concerned not with the short term fashions of the moment, but rather with the enduring truths that govern all our lives. And Christmas is the season to reflect on these truths. So when Pope Francis visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg last month, his words should have been taken to heart by all who heard him.

What he said was, “In recent years, as the EU has expanded, there has been growing mistrust on the part of citizens towards institutions considered to be aloof, engaged in laying down rules perceived as insensitive to individual peoples, if not downright harmful…In many quarters we encounter a general impression of weariness and ageing, of a Europe that is now a ‘grandmother’, no longer fertile and vibrant. As a result, the great ideas that once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions…somewhat elderly and haggard…with a rather selfish lifestyle marked by an opulence that is no longer sustainable and which is frequently indifferent to the world around us…a conception of unity seen as uniformity that strikes at…the democratic system.”

What the good Pope was saying was that the idealism on which the European project had once been based was being replaced by something more sinister, more aggressive and more ideological. UKIP would support every single word of his address. My own hope is that Britain’s looming departure from the whole malign EU project will act as a catalyst, a wake-up call that will bring the nations of Europe to their senses and usher in a better Europe based on open trade and mutual respect between the different cultures in which the true strength of the whole Continent lies.

A very happy Christmas to you all!

Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday

…'What the frack??'

 

History was made last Wednesday when UKIP triggered our very first debate in the House of Commons. Led by the visionary Douglas Carswell, it was on the deeply troubling issue of fuel poverty. Like our looming food shortages, imminent fuel shortages are the direct consequence of insane Government policies. As Douglas declared, “current policies are not fit for purpose and a new common sense approach to meeting our energy needs is required.” Here in Thirsk and Malton, energy supplies have risen to the top of the political agenda with the discovery of abundant reserves of shale gas. UKIP’s policy is to support “the development of shale gas with proper safeguards for the local environment. Community Improvement Levy money from the development of shale gas fields will be earmarked for lower council taxes or community projects within the local authority being developed.”

Over the past fortnight, UKIP has had the benefit of an informed and inspiring presentation from Colin Heath, an independent energy consultant (also an expert on thorium nuclear fuel, but that’s another story) who is our PPC for Selby and Ainsty, with its strong coal mining tradition. I have also has a useful conversation with a valued old friend, Philip Tate of Frack Free Ryedale. My conclusions on “fracking” for shale gas here are as follows:

1. Shale gas extraction in the UK cannot be compared to the experience in the US for the simple reason that, under the Petroleum Act 1988, shale gas belongs to the Crown and not the landowner, and a Government licence is needed to extract it. The licence holder can then obtain ancillary rights under the Mines (Working Facilities and Support) Act 1966 to occupy land, obtain a water supply, dispose of effluent, erect buildings and lay pipes. This means that shale gas extraction is controlled by a range of Government agencies including the Health and Safety Executive, the Environmental Regulatory Authority and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. In the US, the early days of shale were like the Wild West, with wildcatters causing real environmental damage. But without these pioneers, the US would not now be self-sufficient in energy once more and the oil price would not be in freefall.

2. Every well is different. Third Energy UK Gas’s proposed operation at Kirby Misperton (KM8) will be fairly uncontroversial, inasmuch as the site has been active for 20 years. The concrete “pad” on which operations will take place is in a discreet location and surrounded by trees. Also, traffic movements will be modest thanks to existing underground pipelines to and from the Knapton Generating Station. The compensation on offer to the community of £100,000 up front plus 1% of gross revenues (2/3rds to the local community and 1/3rd to the Council, which will also keep the business rates) seems fair and reasonable. Elsewhere, the geology of our part of North Yorkshire is complex, with substantial deposits of sandstone making extraction fairly challenging. This will mean an active campaign of exploration if the potential here is to be realised and every project will vary. As in the North Sea, the falling oil price will impact on the viability of certain operations.

3. Assuming that the various regulatory agencies can ensure the safety of the underground operations, we are then left with the consequences of above ground activity, in particular overground pipelines, interference in farming operations, traffic movement, the fear of falling property values and an industrialised countryside. Here it is significant that Ineos, which aims to become “the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry” is offering as much as 6% of gross revenues to those affected by its plans for Scotland’s Midland Valley, divided between 4% for property owners and 2% for community projects. The reason for this unprecedented generosity is almost certainly to ensure security of gas supply to its Grangemouth power station and the offer may well make the project uneconomic. However, the commitment will certainly ensure support for its planned overground operations as well as its work underground.

To summarise, therefore, fuel poverty and energy shortages are a looming threat. Shale gas reserves should be seen as a blessing if only because, as in the US, they will have the effect of bringing down energy costs. But their extraction needs to be done in a way that meets the stringent requirements of our regulatory bodies, is sensitive to the specific circumstances of each project and is of positive benefit to Thirsk and Malton, rather than the opposite. With common sense on all sides, it should be perfectly possible to achieve this, case by case and in consultation with those directly affected.

Until next Tuesday!
Toby