Colin McNamee

There are some misinformed posts and woolly thinking on here.

The Maastricht Treaty established the principle of, and UK agreement to, Regional Government in the United Kingdom.

Being on, elected or not, regional assemblies will neither cause nor enable them to be disbanded. That may only be achieved through the political process in Westminster ie withdrawal from the European Union by repealing the Single European Act, the other treaties, including Maastricht, may then be withdrawn from.

C_steam

Hmm. Since RA's don't seem to want to go away of their own accord, and since the public don't seem to give a toss, only by beng part of the RA's and then, from the inside, expopsing their uselessness, can UKIP hope to win - in other words i agree with steve Allison.

I see this in no way different from UKIP's stance on the EU - become elected into the body, then use the funding and knowledge gained to fight the beast.

If the argument is that UKIP is opposed to RA's and therefore should not try for election on to them, then the same logic must apply to the european parliament.

mkpdavies

UKIP make it clear they want the UK out of the EU and so will be turkeys voing for Xmas by running for EU parliament.

That's different to actually campaiging to give an EU creation the legitamacy of having elected officials.

That in itself will give RA's a whole new level of credibility.

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Soddball

You can make the assemblies worthless. Cut their budget, end their controls, cut their allowances and staff. Have them sitting there costing 5% of what they do now and unable to do anything. Fulfils the EU mandate until we can escape from the madness and stops the assemblies doing anything except frothing.

SGK

I am always baffled by this argument, used here by you and prober, that they are here to stay so embrace them. (Also used in regard to the Scottish Parliament and several other things).
If the EU, for example, chopped off the bit of England that is currently joined with an area of France into a region (Kent?) would you then say, 'hey, it's done now, don't fight it - we'd be better looking for a couple of French speaking UKIP candidates to have a voice on the council'?
The principle is the same. I just don't get it.

Precisely. The internet (individual MEP's blogs, websites, news articles, UKIP official website) is brimming with articles of how UKIP's MEPs have exposed the EU Parliament, what they do on a daily basis, their breakdowns of the waste, their reports on legislation that is going through and processes that are messy and undemocratic. The press and TV can't ignore the reports coming daily from each of the UKIP MEPs and LibLabCon MPs in Westminster are being regularly forced to defend the now exposed EU institution. Oh, hang on...

Spot on for me. And election to the Scottish parliament/Welsh assembly.

Martin Harvey

If UKIP recognises Regional Assemblies as legitimate, then we might as well pack up. We must be different. Let the Conservatives make fools of themselves on these toothless talking shops. This is part of what I wrote to the local Mercury this week;
'Conservative Councillors, despite not having a mandate from their electorate, form by far the largest group in the East of England Regional Assembly, which is merely an expensive superfluous layer of Government lacking in democratic accountability, and yet like the other UK Regional Assemblies, ideally positioned to take orders from the EU without the intervention of Westminster.'
If the Conservatives were serious about the interests of Britain, they would use their majority in the R/A to emasculate it, but of course because it was the Conservatives who were largely responsible for laying the foundations of R/As it would be seen as a massive U-Turn.
Council tax is rising partly due to R/As. UKIP should campaign for the abolition of R/As from outside, and offer the retention of County and District etc Councils as the positive, democratic best option.
If you have time, put on your smart clothes and your UKIP badge and attend a Regional Assembly meeting, you will be surprised at the embarrassment you inflict on some of them.
Martin Harvey.

Pragmatist

I have tried to attend "open meetings" of the NWRA, unfortunately they require a long list of peronal details before issuing tickets and although this is no problem i see no reason why i should supply my details to attend and open meeting. In terms of UKIP providing legitimacy to the existence of RA's don't you chaps already have members on the London RA? I understand they shifted political alliegence but were they not originally UKIP candidates? If the party line is against the existence of RA's then surely this is an inconsistent act, this is an area of policy i would like some clarification on....can anyone help me?

spaman

While RA's are against UKIP policy, that does not mean that we have to ignore them as they come into creation and start functioning and running sercices and so on in our local areas.

Indeed, it would be an insult to those that support UKIP if no UKIP members were on board - We don't have to like them but we have to use them, negotiate with them if they are there and there is no alternative..

In the same way that UKIP utilises the EU parliament to route out what is nasty about the EU, so we should do the same with RA's - sometimes you have to work with the devil to kill him...

The policy of using the EU parliament has worked well for UKIP, both as a power base and knowledege gathering - We have to use RA's in the same way....... and NO, it's not being hypocritical...You have to work with what is available

Colin McNamee

The current tUK legislation through The Standards Board would prevent an elected member to an RA from speaking out in public against RA's.

Already successfully applies to DC and CC's, amongst other matters there is now a signed agreement upon election by elected councillor to be subject to the Standards Board and not bring the Council (Assembly) into disrepute. Any declared platform / subject interest previously taken position and publicly declared will prevent an elected Councillor from participating in the vote and possibly even the discussioin.

No doubt the EU will move to curb/silence similarly minded MEP's or such Groups in a similar manner. Most likely through available funding.

Hartlepool

I think Steve Allison was actually pointing out that it may have been better had UKIP got a few seats on the RAs INSTEAD OF the path they chose.

Last time I did the numbers for the NEERA,(2005) Labour held about 67%(or maybe it was 72%) of seats on it.

Of course,a few more are on there but hiding out as Clergy and such,I would say a quite realistic figure would be over the 75% mark.