C_steam

why, thank you. coming from you, that's quite a compliment. I've watched the pub landlord, y'know, and really, I see it as a comedic programme, wheras for you it seems to be an aspirational target.

have you an identical twin, by the way?

__________________
--------------------------------------------------

Users on ignore list: None. I've got to have people to laugh at.
Cowardly Posters* list: BobFM, Bellatrix.*People who post personal insults then refuse to reply

.

Tony Bennett

In reply to Nikki Sinclaire, post 94 on this thread, I post my resignation letter of 9 February 2005.

She wrote: "You were [Robert Kilroy-Silk's] political advisor in those destructive months". Well, I was his rersearcher, which is something rather different.

I agree that to put faith in Robert Kilroy-Silk turned out to be misplaced, though hundreds of thousands made the same mistake in June 2004, to UKIP's great advantage, though they wasted that opportunity.

But to put faith in UKIP seems equally misplaced:

================================================== =======

From: Tony Bennett
66 Chippingfield
HARLOW
Essex
CM17 0DJ

ajsbennett@btinternet.com
Tel: 01279 635789

Wednesday 9 February 2005

Mr Martin Harvey
119 Old Nazeing Road
BROXBOURNE
Hertfordshire
EN10 6RJ

Copy to:

Mr Tony Stone
Party Secretary
U K Independence Party
P.O. Box 9876
123 New John Street
BIRMINGHAM
B6 4DN

Dear Martin,

I give notice that I hereby resign my membership of the U.K Independence Party, which I have held since 2 December 1997.

Back in 2001, almost immediately after the General Election, you will recall that I proposed that the Broxbourne and Harlow Branch forward for debate at the Annual Business Meeting the following motion:

“Having regard to Paragraph 2.4 of the Party Constitution, which states that ‘the Party will promote a full range of long-term domestic policies at Parliamentary and local elections’, and noting the statement in the August 2001 edition of U.K. Independence News that ‘the Party Manifesto remains in force until superseded at a future election’, this A.G.M. calls on the N.E.C. without delay to:

(a) appoint Party spokesmen on all major topics, including both home and foreign affairs

(b) appoint an ongoing Policy Committee, which will meet at least every 2 months, to keep under constant review the U.K. Independence Party’s policy on all major topics, regularly seeking members’ views”.

As you will recall, it was chosen for debate at the Annual Meeting. All the speeches made on the motion were in favour of it. The motion was passed unanimously by the several hundred members present.

Yet today, over three years later, the leadership and the N.E.C. have implemented neither part of that motion. Despite being the fourth largest Party in Britain, UKIP has no Party spokespersons and no Policy Committee.

Had that unanimous resolution been implemented, UKIP might well now be a force to be reckoned with.

To come to more recent events, the dominant issue in the Party from September onwards was whether or not Robert Kilroy-Silk should lead the Party. You will recall that at our Branch AGM on 22 November, a motion was put that our Branch do call on the leadership to hold a leadership election without delay. That motion was carried by15 votes to 1. Like many other similar UKIP Branch votes around the country, the UKIP leadership ignored it.

There was a subsequent vote on who Branch members would like to see lead the Party. The vote was 13 for Robert Kilroy-Silk and 1 for Roger Knapman. Immediately following that meeting, I wrote to you by e-mail and hard copy letter asking you to call a Branch EGM on three weeks’ notice, to support the dozens of other UKIP Branches who were also calling for an Emergency Conference. You advised that you would discuss it with the committee and I assume that the committee decided not to proceed, despite the clear wishes of Branch members at the AGM - who very clearly wanted to see Robert Kilroy-Silk lead the Party.

Had a leadership election been held promptly, either Robert Kiiroy-Silk would have won, significantly improving our chances at the General Election, or Roger Knapman would have won, with his leadership enhanced by winning a proper leadership election. Neither of these happened, with the almost inevitable result that Robert Kilroy-Silk would form a new Party.

I have now joined VERITAS and accordingly resign from UKIP.

You have frequently and with good reason railed against the UKIP leadership. You’ll recall that both of us decided to publish, at our own cost, our own election leaflets at the last General Election because of our anxieties about the lack of organisation at the top.

My last act as a UKIP member was to vote for five people for the National Executive Committee. You were one of them. I hope you will be elected.

I shall of course continue to support the cause of British independence as actively as possible.

Yours sincerely

Tony Bennett

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

devilskitchen

Tell me, has anyone ever posted a resignation letter in which they said that they had total faith in the leadership but absolutely none in the membership?

Apart from me, that is... :-D

__________________
Unio Europaea delenda est

B.A.Ware

Perhaps you are living in cloud cu co land why the hell would anyone resign that has total faith in the leadership?

We don't all get on by cap doffing.

__________________
We’re not just about Europe.

Independent UKIP

Just a few brief comments from me because I made several comments on Saturday evening.

Looks like Matt didn't puke.

Was there no leak? Did Foggo lie in the considered opinion of the EU? If so why have they not said so. If not why does there not appear to be a full investigation into the leak. I say again the name Tillack.

I said before that Farage has to demonstrate that his son is not being paid taxpayers money. In retrospect I cannot see how Farage can prove that so accept his word that he is not being paid taxpayers money and if that is proven wrong say again that Farage has to resign.

SponPlague

Ah, so you've now sent the resignation letter?

Tony Bennett

Independent UKIP wrote: "I said before that Farage has to demonstrate that his son is not being paid taxpayers' money".

REPLY: It is now Wednesday. Has Nigel Farage made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission yet?

This is free, easy, and is there to remedy unfairness, distortion and to correct untrue statements. If a paper cannot prove it told the truth, it will be required to publish a public apology.

He doesn't have to sue for libel.

If he neither sues for libel nor complains to the Press Complaints Commission, then, yes, he has paid his son, at some stage, from E.U. allowances.

It's as simple as that

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Millennium3

I don't think NF's Great Aunt 'GruntF' agrees - I think she is planning to post here soon saying Nige would never do such a thing!

under my rock

How do you NOT prove something? That is the difficulty here. Lets say that Farage released fully itemised bank statements showing no payments to his son. People would then just claim he has another account he is keeping hidden! At the moment the law of our land requires proof of guilt NOT proof of innocence. Of course when the EU are supreme in all things then this might no longer be true. This is a classic "When did you stop beating your wife?" Even asking the question this way presumes guilt and this is one of the reasons people are turning off politics because many of today's politricians are not the sort of person you would want as a friend nor would you want them as a visitor to your home. Unfortunately the nasty, seedier and grubbier the average politician becomes then the less ordinary decent people want to participate in politics so the scum bags who want control and power get an easier and easier ride. In my opinion Farage is one of the few genuine people in politics today and this is a key reason for these attacks, the real politicians don't want him playing intheir game.

Millennium3

I think most people here wished what you say is true - but he does seem to have 'previous'. Apart from the Phoenix wish for a special audit of the books, just recently we find there was an agreement that MEPs would not employ their spouses so that UKIP would be 'different' to the other parties by demonstrating far greater probity.