shadbolt

Carl, of course they should show their contempt for the EU, but they have to be clever with it.

UKIP now has street cred (no thanks to RKS). The media is watching UKIP and so are millions more people in England. They will lap up UKIP MEPs taking the micky out of the EU, but our MEPs have to do it in such a way as to also win respect and voters.

If they act merely as the party clown, which is RKS's calling, then UKIP would be laughed out of the history books.

Biscuitman

The party was already on the up before the June elections. Silky-smooth coming on board was just the fairy on top of the christmas tree.

But I'm forgetting he did bring with him those other two political heavy weights... Joan Collins- doesn't live in the country, had'nt even read the manifesto and can't spell UKIP, AND Rusty Lee - lovely lady but REALLY.

He's happy to keep drawing the dosh from the EU but doesnt want to work for those who walked miles shoving leaflets through doors to get him there in the first place!! Tuh!

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

Carl Faulkner

Talking about money from the EU...has any UKIP MEP ever produced a breakdown of their claims for allowances?

Why is it not party policy to make public the details of what they claim?

Over and above out of pocket expenses should any of them keep their salaries if they have not given up a job to be a FULL time MEP?

Biscuitman

It has been normal practice for the MEPs to 'donate' their surplus to their regional offices....

I am told that only Kilroy is not following that practice... he regards the money as his wages!

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

Carl Faulkner

Surplus? How much is that surplus...and what is the money being spent on before the 'surplus' is declared...

Why no open and honest accounting of how much and where the money is going...isn't that what we criticise the EU for?

Physician heal thyself!

Tom Wilde

I think I can answer that question - but my answer comes from my own memory of newspaper reports from about 4 years ago and I can't guarantee its accuracy in every detail.

Apparently the system for reimbursing MEPs' travel allowances is a massive, institutionalised scam. MEPs supply details of the distance they travel to get to Brussels and are reimbursed at a standard rate per mile which would be hugely over-generous even for first-class air travel. The actual cost of transport used does not affect the rate paid, so if MEPs travel economy they make a massive profit. This is known and expected by the European Parliament, and I repeat, individual MEPs have no choice in the matter. They can either accept these massively-inflated travel allowances, or else not get reimbursed at all.

Knowing this, UKIP made it a campaign pledge in the 1999 Euro Elections that any UKIP members elected would publish accounts of their expenses and donate their surplus allowances to "victims of the EU". In fulfilment of this election pledge, about a year after they were elected Nigel Farage and Jeffrey Titford published a breakdown of their allowances and donated their surpluses (ie the amount paid to them less the amount they had actually spent) to the legal expenses fund of the Metric Martyrs campaign.

However, the officials of the European Parliament then hit the roof, claiming that the UKIP duo were defrauding the taxpayer by misusing their allowances. Apparently they were happy for MEPs to either pocket their surplus allowances or to quietly donate them to charity, but to publish accounts revealing the extent of the allowances scam was beyond the pale. Titford and Farage were summoned in front of the EP's disciplinary committee (the "College of Quaestors") and ordered to repay the allowances, some £11,500. There is a sympathetic mention of this case in the following article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/europarl/S...443000,00.html

I don't know what the outcome was, and whether they eventually had to repay the money. However, I can certainly imagine that UKIP MEPs these days are hazy about their expenses allowances, and if they donate their surpluses to good causes then no doubt they have to do it discreetly. In other words, the EP officials have forced them INTO phpbb_line on this issue.

Nonetheless, the case was presumably a contributory factor in attempts the following year to reform the EP's expenses system. Those attempts ultimately failed, but the fact remains that Farage and Titford kept their 1999 election pledge, exposed the institutional corruption of the European Parliament and nearly managed to embarrass it INTO phpbb_a major reform of the way it works. All in all, I think that it was one of UKIP's finest moments.

Carl Faulkner

Thanks for that. Full credit to those two .

It should be a introduction to any UKIP document.

ldatakiller

Shadbolt, Nice answer, but not very fitting for a grown man, or are you ??.

If you speak about the older generation as you have done, then I suspect that you are a follower & definately not a leader.

As to myself,no I'm not stupid, nor am I easily led (unlike yourself apparently). I believe in the UK getting out of Europe & I believe we should govern ourselves fully.

It has been suggested that UKIP was "on the up" before RKS came along, well fine it may have been but it was very much a LONG up & up.

UKIP will only keep the votes it got if it gets policies on other areas such as:-
1) Health.
2) Policing.
3) The environment.
4) Defence.
5) Science.
6) Social policies.
7) Housing.
etc,etc,etc.

Now it may very well be that they have these already, but if we the people do not know about them then they may as well not even exist & this is what RKS is saying. Stop being a single issue pressure group/party & grow up to take a lead across a whole swath of areas rather than just the EU. If you know anything about British politics you should know this, we have a first past the post system which is stacked against small parties. This means that UKIP needs to get a raft of policies that people can agree with & thus increase votes. RKS ,whilst he may be somewhat up front, he is certainly very good at getting publicity & has a history of being straight & to the point. Politics needs that & more specifically so does UKIP.

Anthony Butcher

Let's keep to the topic please, and not let it get personal. People are bound to disagree about this issue, but we are all on the same side here!

I would assume that is the case. He has failed to win by going public, so the sensible plan now would be to use the more traditional political route of quietly building up a network of support.

I am not sure where he will go from here. Any actions before Christmas will still be early enough not to damage the general election campaign (too much). He might well be finding the 47 branches required to call an emergency party conference to discuss and decide on the leadership issue. He would also of course have to fork out the £4,700 for the submissions.

The fact that he hasn't left the party would suggest that he doesn't plan to set up a new anti-EU party, but will instead seek to carry on challenging within UKIP, which I would say is the better of the two options.

mkpdavies

Sorry but this is incorrect. At the meeting in Wokingham RKS stated he would prefer that we were a one issue party. He said he understood why others felt we needed a full manifesto, but he was happy to only focus on the most important issue of leaving the EU.

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