Quote:
Originally Posted by xhenry
Anthony Butcher - Your comments are absolutely pathetic - I have posted here before that if MEP's are not bending every rule they can to help fund UKIP in the UK then they are not doing there job. As to employing his wife - The IT contracting industry has a tacit agreement with the tax office that you can offset 25k's worth by employing a spouse as a secretary - 1000's and 1000's of people do this - Whilst it is sensible in politics to try and be as careful as possible - your ultra pious attitude is transparently driven by the fact you have missed out on a bit of power - just like Damien but without the flair
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I don't generaly agree with much that Anthony says, but I'm wiht him on this one. I think Anthony has been pretty fair on this thread. Personally if Nigel employes his wife as a secretary I could care less - as long as she is doing the work and it isn't a fiction. If he also employs his son whilst his son is at university then I'll be very upset, as this is clearly blatant nepotism.
Funding UKIP through MEPs expense accounts, if it is going on, is morally wrong. This is not EU money that we are talking about it is money that came from British (and European) taxpayers. And trust me the taxpayers will not be happy, they will see it as UKIP milking the system for UKIPs benefit.
If it is indeed the case that the party is being funded through MEPs expenses, this is damaging to the party in other ways. If we are hooked on the MEP expenses welfare system, this will cause our attention to be focused on getting more welfare payments from the EU by electing more MEPs, not by increasing the party membership and professionalizing the party so that we can raise money from our own members or members of the public. Electing 25or 40 or 78 MEPs won't get us out of Europe! It just threatens to suck many of our brightest and best activists (and many who aren't all that bright or great) down a blind alley to deadend jobs where they do nothing to advance the cause of getting our country back. Only by getting a substantial contingent of MPs elected to Westminster will we actually move closer to our real goal. You can't seriously think that Nigel Farage does more to advance our goals as an MEP than he would as a full time party leader here in the UK busy working hard to get himself and 10 other UKIP MPs into Westminster at the next general election!
Lastly, an interesting thought. What happens if we are found to be improperly funding the Party through MEPs expense allowances. Will our funding be cut off? Will we be forced to repay the misappropriated funds. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the EU has been slow to act so far on MEP corruption, they will suddently move very quickly if they think they can destroy UKIP.