FranciscoD'ancona

I am so pleased by this. I have supported UKIP for some time but my support has always been such that if the Tories agreed to withdraw from the EU then I probably would have voted for them as UKIP has not in my opinion had a coherent right-wing agenda (at least to the extent that it should have).

Now with D Cameron coming up with all manner of odd non-conservative policies UKIP can carve out a large stake of the right wing agenda for itself. I know MANY people who would vote for a coherent UKIP in the wake of Cameron's nonsense. UKIP should develop as a party with a form right wing economic agenda pro business (unlike cameron), pro capitalism, pro choice (not half pro choice), anti-tax (flat tax?), insurance funded nhs etc. Maybe vouchers too! Also campaign for individual freedom but still listen to police advice on terrorism etc. Come on UKIP!

Also, let us not forget that there is not alot wrong with the old-tory right wing agenda as it won the most votes in england in the 2005 election and thus if there was an fairly weighted english parliament then the old-tories would be in. UKIP should pick up this agenda.

johnwest

With the Tories moving to the left UKIP now have a great chance to capture the hearts of those voters who feel betrayed by Cameron's Blairite stance. We need to show voters that the three so-called mainstream parties have the same views on most subjects and are a wasted vote. If the Lib Dems move even further to the left under a new leader we could see a situation where they become unelectable. However we need a full range of domestic policies which we must promote with as much effort as our EU policies. In the election I found many people felt UKIP were a one issue party. Of course, the Tories, Labourites and Libs Dems did their best to fuel this lie.

The fight for those millions who did not bother to vote must start now!

Petrina

I think we should be very careful not to give the media the chance to characterise UKIP as an offshoot of the Tory Party /extreme right wing.
If we give the impression that we are desperate to give a home to disgruntled Tories then it will be very hard to refute that impression.

What we must not do is to put voters from other viewpoints off.Our research revealed that younger UKIP voters are often refugees from the LibDems /Labour party.

I have just been visiting the Bruge Group web site ,I have to note that they are doing a marvellous job of explainig to the public why we should get out of the EU.Perhaps before we start going down the road of further
policy reviews to capture the wavering Tories could we please try to get some decent written work up on our website explaining the background details of our prime objective -to get out of the EU.

Millennium3

Can the MEP's use research assistants, paid for by the EU, to do this detailed work?

mkpdavies

UKIP could just use all the good work the Bruge gorup has done and add a bit of it's own. Why reinvent the wheel afterall.

The same can be said of all policies. There is much excellent work done by various think tanks out there. We should be harnessing the work done by these groups, that are closest to our core beliefs.

Even Cameron was quoting Civitas the other day.

__________________
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My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

Anthony Butcher

I agree that it is crazy that our arguments against the EU are so badly explained, ill-researched, exaggerated and spread out. It can't be too hard to put together a concrete, incontrovertible case against our membership from several different angles.

That doesn't mean that we should abandon everything else, but I do think that we need to start focusing on doing a few things well. At the moment we aren't really doing much of anything in terms of getting the message out.

I do wonder whether the vast amount of money spent on the petition would have been put to much better use hiring researchers to produce such a case against the EU. I presume that this would have been a legitimate use of the EU funds?

Petrina

"Getting the message out" is our most important job and we are failing to do that .This was the basis of my disagreement with the Deputy Leader.

Of course the MEPs staff can research the whole topic of our membership of the EU,cost benefit analysis etc etc . There is a good deal of slack in the system,and I am sure that some of them would welcome the challenge of doing something for the cause instead of just looking after their masters.

We have the pulling power to ask
experts in these matters to write papers for us ,we could and should become a centre for excellence in these matters .Then the press would come to our website and look at it with interest.

If UKIP does not take up the position of leadership in the Eurosceptic
movement others will fill its place.

John Page

Interesting. My impression from outside the centre is that it must be over-stretched because it is producing very little, rather badly.

The Chairman and the new NEC need to grip this. The way the centre works needs recasting.

Petrina

Just take a look at the amount of useful and powerful work Hannon and Helmer do for the Eurosceptic cause .Their regular email letters are extremely informative and thought provoking .They both have articles printed in the press and Hannon has recently written a well researched article for the Bruge Group on the benefits of membership of ETFA .

We could do something of this nature ,all it takes is the right research staff ,properly directed and an MEP or two who are capable and willing to
make the effort to oversee the material which they can then publish under their names .

There is no earthly reason why the ID Group do not put out a regular email newsletter after all as a group they have a large amount of money at their disposal .David Lott`s recent monthly letter is a good start but it might come better from the the two leaders of the group .After all David
relies on his staff to produce the bulk of the work for the letter so the letter could simply be personalised by the leaders of the group by adding
a few snippets of their own.

The only info that I have received concerning the debate ( ha ha ) in the EU Parliament yesterday about the Constitution which resulted in a vote to implement the blasted thing by 2009 came from Daniel Hannon`s email
service . His email arrived yesterday evening .Not a word from UKIP to its members .

It really isn`t good enough.

Hereward the Wake

UKIP should not move to the extreme right wing. At the moment we have fairly sensible free-market policies that will attract conservatives, liberals and many labour.

With the Lib Dems in disarray, we now have a good opportunity to get votes off them, especially if Huges wins, lets not throw throw that opportunity away.

I joined UKIP not only because I belive in freedom and distrust the state but also because, unlike the Tories, UKIP seems to care about people on average or below average incomes and the unemployed.


I agree.