Britannist

Did you attend the UKIP party conference on 9.10.2005 in London? If you did, do you regard the Conference as a success or failure? Please vote in the poll at the top of this page. Thank you.

Was the Conference as successful as last year's at Bristol? Was holding it in London a good idea? What were the views of other delegates that you spoke to on the progress (or lack of it) of UKIP? Do you think the party will have a new leader when the next conference is held? The party membership is thought to be down to 20, 000 from a peak of 28, 000 at the time of last year's EU Election. How many members do you think UKIP will have in 12 months time? It would be interesting to read your views and opinions.

REPORT ON UKIP 2005 ANNUAL PARTY CONFERENCE (from the UKIP website): -

The Party Conference was opened by Jeffrey Titford MEP, who Introduced Party Leader Roger Knapman MEP. Roger rallied a packed hall to take UKIP forward as the only real opposition.

Jeffrey then introduced Geoffrey Kingscott - UKIP General Secretary, who in turn introduced Dick Horsnell - Fund Raising; Steve Allison - By Election Co-Ordinator; Jonathan Arnott - local government Co-ordinator; Steven Sobey - Press Officer; and Tony Butcher - Research Co-ordinator;

Alan Bown then came to the stage, to a huge standing ovation. He gave details of a public speaking competition to be announced in November's newsletter to find the future stars of UKIP.

Local Authority Election Strategy.

David Samuel-Camps explained that UKIP Local is being created to standardise all literature, give UKIP a National identity, and show the public that we are concerned with local issues

Mark Croucher gave details of how the UKIP press office will offer help and advice to local branches to assist branches in getting press coverage in the media.

Jonathan Arnott gave details of the new Local campaign leaflets that would be created for branches to assist in winning council seats.

Clive Page - press officer, gave a personal and at times humorous account of the work of the London press office. Clive explained that the BBC have retrained their staff in Brussels and that there is no conspiracy and that we do get a lot of support from the BBC in areas of the country that we have proven support, he asked that members make every effort to get elected to any local committee or council seat to raise the profile of UKIP.

Peter Baker gave an update on Party reform and said that we need to move up a gear - we need to improve the internal structure of the party, and show that we are much more than a party wanting out of the EU.

Motion 1 (see conference 2005 page for details)
Vote Result : For - 180; Against 260


The Younger Approach

Matthew Faithful spoke of building a bridge between the experience of age and the energy of youth. He went on to explain that today's children are being mislead in their education because they are not taught anything about their heritage. As a result, they do not now know who they are or where they come from. The young are our future - we need to ensure that they are supported.

Katie Davies - UKIP Youth is about getting younger people involved in the future of their country.
Delroy Young gave great support for a youth movement within UKIP and spoke out against multi-culturalism.


John West gave a very well received speech on getting young people to fight for this counry's independence.

The Constitution by the Back Door

Nigel Farage thanked Jeffrey Titford for taking over the Party Chairmanship at short notice this week. He also thanked Roger Knapman for leading the party so strongly.

We need to keep the pressure up. Although much of the media thinks that the issue of Europe is over - we must keep the message in the media and bu ld on local issues.

Nigel - Ken Clarke would be the best person to lead the Conservative Party, as this would show the country the Conservative Party's true colours - the pretence would be over.

Afternoon Programme

Roger Wilson spoke on his personal view of defence. He highlighted that the UK would not currently be able to defend its borders. Roger spoke of the destruction of our Army and Navy and the use of MOD land for housing and business development - and gave facts and figures on the amount of private enterprise that is involved in this breakup. He claimed that the destruction of our armed forces is part of the process of trapping Britain in a single European state.

Gerard Batten spoke about the urgent need for the UK to regain control of its own borders. He called for people refused entry to be deported, for foreign speaking immigrants to be given help in teaching English to help integrate them in to a free and independent Britain which has hope for the future.

Motion (see conference 2005 page for details)


Vote Result : Overwhelming vote AGAINST

Will the euro bring down the EU?

John Whittaker spoke on the state of the economies in EU member countries with the euro as their currency. He graphically demonstrated how damaging it has been to the eurozone economies. Only Luxembourg is doing well. The rest are doing poorly or are in dire straits.

Motion 3 (see conference 2005 page for details)

Vote Result : Overwhelming vote FOR

Dick Morris - congratulated UKIP on changing the course of history by gaining 17% of the vote in the EU elections in 2004 and by doing this pressuring Tony Blair to offer a referendum on the EU Constitution. He credited UKIP with stopping the Constitution in its tracks but claimed that the EU will now try to introduce it by stealth.

He claimed that Turkey is UKIP's next challenge - do we want Iran and Iraq as neighbours ?

Dick said it does not matter how many seats that we have in Westminster or Brussels - it matters that we exist and are fighting for Britain'sfuture. We must never lose sight of our goal.

Jeffrey Titford then introduced Roger Knapman, who was unable to speak because of the tumultuous standing ovation which went on for several minutes. He eventually had to ask for quiet so that he could speak.

He had some wry comment about the Conservative Party leadership challengers, who will give their views on the EU. Cameron didn't mention British independence once in his conference speech, Davis is concealing his past role as a whip who helped force through the Maastricht Treaty.

"We are British we are proud to be British and we are going to remain British"

"'We will face setbacks but we will continue to put pressure on the other parties"

Roger received an extended standing ovation - and thanked everybody for attending.

Conference Closed