Why you should vote for me to be your MEP candidate in Southeast England

mrabody · 14-07-2008, 12:45 PM

I have been asked by another forum member to explain to everyone what I hope to accomplish by becoming an MEP. I will as briefly as possible try and describe to you my goals should I be so successful as to reach one of the top positions in the MEP list.

First of all I believe that we won't achieve our goal of regaining our independence from the European Union until we elect a contingent of UKIP Members of Parliament to Westminster. Every last British MEP could be from UKIP and we would not be any nearer to our goal than we are now. Therefore when I decided to apply to become an MEP candidate it was because I felt that as an MEP I can help us achieve electoral success at the local and national parliamentary levels of government.

Here in short is my proposed program should I be elected as a UKIP Member of the European Parliament.

1. Behave with honesty and integrity.

I have no intention in getting caught up in the expenses racket. I will not sign in to parliament to collect the daily allowance unless I actually intend to be there. I will arrange a third party with no ties to myself or UKIP to act as the paying agent for my office and staff expenses (most likely an accounting firm). I will not hire family - an easy promise as my wife, Ileana, is not particularly interested in politics and has a productive career as a pharmacist.

I will only sit as an MEP for a maximum of one term (five years) to protect myself against going "native". I don't believe I would, but I think it is best to put a limit on my time as an MEP in this manner simply because it makes it impossible to make a "career" out of it. Making this promise now also means I cannot change my mind on the matter.

I feel confident in being able to promise all this due to the fact that my wife and I tend to live quite modestly. As an MEP's base salary (about £52,000 after next year's elections) is the equivalent of our current family income, and Ileana will continue to work, I cannot forsee why we would need so much money that it would be necessary to milk the system for extra income.

2. Using the resources available to me as an MEP to build the party's membership and ability to campaign successfully in Southeast England.

I foresee four resources that as an MEP I would be able to utilize to transform UKIP into a competitive rival to the Lib Dems and Tories in Southeast England.

The first resource is money. As I indicated above, my base salary as an MEP is equivalent to Ileana's and my current household salary. As my wife Ileana will continue to work, this means that in real terms we will have a fairly substantial surplus each month.

It is my intention to donate a substantial amount of money every month to worthy projects by UKIP branches and UKIP PPCs in the Southeast of England. I consider worthy projects to be things such as the membership recruitment scheme that Christchurch Branch instituted and which we are currently emulating in Lewes, the purchase of proper printing equipment such as a Risograph for use by Southeast branches, and campaign training for PPCs, local/county candidates and interested others.

I will resist to the best of my ability demands for donations to projects instituted by the center of the party as I believe that we will see more benefit per pound spent on projects at the local level. I will also monitor the outcome of projects financed by me - I think UKIP often spends money carelessly and without regard to results.

The second resource is paid staff. At current exchange rates, MEPs have a staffing allowance worth approximately £145,000 per annum. I'm fully aware of that MEPs staff cannot be used explicitly for party political purposes. However, if staff are hired in a part time capacity then they should be expected to volunteer some of their own time to party matters. An interesting idea put to me by Steve Allison is to actually employ our most capable PPCs as staff of an MEP. This would hopefully allow them to become known by having them represent me, the MEP in the constituencies they intend to stand in. I think this particular idea is very worthy of further investigation. Ideally I would like to keep well-paid full time staff to a minimum and hire three or four PPCs part time as long as I can ensure that we do not fall afoul of any rules. (Please note, these are my proposals and clearly, depending on the rules MEPs are expected to follow they may not be feasible in the exact manner I am suggesting - I do believe in working within the rules.)

The third resource is office space. While MEPs offices cannot be used for party political purposes, they do serve a valuable purpose in that they advertise UKIP not just as a political party, but as a "successful" political party with elected politicians. MEPs have an office allowance of approximately £36,000 per year at current exchange rates. I am hoping that I can squeeze two offices out of this in different parts of the Southeast, probably one in Lewes Constituency (to improve my profile as PPC there - yes there is an element of ) and one in Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire in order to improve our profile there.

The last resource available to MEPs their ability to open doors for others. What I mean by this is that people elected to office are treated differently than people who are aspiring to be elected to office. MEPs, get invited to attend various events or debates to which UKIP activists or UKIP PPCs might not. Of course MEPs cannot attend everything they get invited to (nor should they want to necessarily). Rather than attending events myself I would try to send a representative on my behalf such as the PPC or chairman for the constituency where the event is taking place. This allows our PPCs and branch chairmen to gain exposure that might otherwise be denied them.

3. I will campaign hard for UKIP in next year's Euro and County Council elections.

If selected to be in one of the top three spots on the Southeast list of MEP candidates it is my intention to resign from my current employment later this year in order to be able to devote myself full time to campaigning. If you feel that I should be further down the MEP list I will still campaign to the best of my ability by focusing my efforts on helping organize the election campaigns in Lewes, and Runnymede.

I believe that strongly contesting next year's County Council elections is a key step to doing well in the Euros, and to that end I will be working hard to persuade our Southeast branches to put candidates in place as early as possible in order to help them build up name recognition. In Lewes we have already recognized this fact and we hope to select our first two county council candidates later this summer with the rest to follow in the early and mid autumn.

4. Conclusion

In short, what I hope to accomplish if I become an MEP is to devote more time, energy and resources to organizing UKIP in Southeast England. At the end of my term in 2014 I will would consider myself to have been successful if there are a few dozen UKIP councillors on our Southeast local and county councils, our average branch membership is at least 300, every constituency has had a bright, hardworking, PPC in place for at least two years, and UKIP is polling in at least third place in Southeast England. At present this may sound far-fetched, but I believe that if we pay attention to building a strong foundation first by recruiting new members and activists, and honing our campaigning techniques this is an entirely achievable goal.

You may have questions which I am happy to answer. If you wish to call me please PM me for a phone number. Alternatively you can email me at dbelobaba-at-yahoo.ca. Of course you are always welcome to come to the Southeast hustings meetings and pose your questions to me in person.

Drew Belobaba
AKA mrabody

harryaldridge · 14-07-2008, 01:26 PM

Good summary. It seems like we have very similar ideas. I hope the other candidates adopt a similar approach.

Anthony Butcher · 14-07-2008, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrabody

I will only sit as an MEP for a maximum of one term (five years) to protect myself against going "native".

I have no problem with MEPs doing more than one term. The experience gained shouldn't be wasted. The only reason people complain about some of UKIP's current MEPs doing another term is because they have been less than inspiring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrabody

An interesting idea put to me by Steve Allison is to actually employ our most capable PPCs as staff of an MEP. This would hopefully allow them to become known by having them represent me, the MEP in the constituencies they intend to stand in.

As a voter and non-member, I am extremely uncomfortable with that emphasis. If you are going to be spending my tax money on employees then I want you to employ the best people to do absolutely necessary jobs for your role as an MEP, not employing people to do non-jobs, or jobs they aren't qualified to do, to help them promote themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrabody

In short, what I hope to accomplish if I become an MEP is to devote more time, energy and resources to organizing UKIP in Southeast England.

As a voter, I couldn't care less about UKIP, and would want you to spend your time actually doing the job of being an MEP.

Obviously this is a campaign slot to interest UKIP members, but I am sure that many UKIP members want MEPs who will want to do the job as well, not just promote the party.

Perhaps instead of employing PPCs to promote UKIP, you could employ researchers to improve your ability to do the job, compile reports to use against the EU and promote Britain's interests?

Since Britain is going to be stuck in the EU for the foreseeable future, what are you offering to voters? The current crop of UKIP MEPs, with two exceptions (Farage and Batten), have been largely ineffectual and very poor value for money. What are you going to offer that is substantially better than the existing MEPs?

I want my MEPs making better law, minimising the EU's interference, improving the EU, getting EU issues into the MSM and ultimately getting Britain out of the EU.

I also see no mention of improving transparency about expenses, which, although unimportant in the big scheme of things, UKIP has been completely outflanked on by the Tories. Will you lead by example and publish all of your expenses (something that both Farage and Batten refuse to do)?

mrabody · 14-07-2008, 01:44 PM

I should emphasize that unlike perhaps some members of this forum, I believe that our MEPS tend to maintain a pretty high standard of conduct vis-a-vis their expenses etc. Obviously there may be an issue surrounding the conduct of Tom Wise (but I note that he has not been convicted in a court of law and I'm not even sure what, if any, charges have been laid against him) but for the most part I believe our MEPs have been pretty good with respect to expense claims.

Unfortunately many people hold a different perception and that is why I have made the promises regarding my conduct and decision to only sit for one term as an MEP. I want to be above reproach in this regard - hence the explicit promises.

Peterc · 14-07-2008, 02:12 PM

[ Obviously there may be an issue surrounding the conduct of Tom Wise (but I note that he has not been convicted in a court of law and I'm not even sure what, if any, charges have been laid against him) but for the most part I believe our MEPs have been pretty good with respect to expense claims.

I can assure you that at today's date Tom Wise has NOT been charged with any offence. I would also point out that there are rumours that both Mr Nigel Farage MEP and Mr Titford MEP are both under OLAF investigation!

Legin · 14-07-2008, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrabody

I have been asked by another forum member to explain to everyone what I hope to accomplish by becoming an MEP. I will as briefly as possible try and describe to you my goals should I be so successful as to reach one of the top positions in the MEP list.

First of all I believe that we won't achieve our goal of regaining our independence from the European Union until we elect a contingent of UKIP Members of Parliament to Westminster. Every last British MEP could be from UKIP and we would not be any nearer to our goal than we are now. Therefore when I decided to apply to become an MEP candidate it was because I felt that as an MEP I can help us achieve electoral success at the local and national parliamentary levels of government.

Here in short is my proposed program should I be elected as a UKIP Member of the European Parliament.

1. Behave with honesty and integrity.

I have no intention in getting caught up in the expenses racket. I will not sign in to parliament to collect the daily allowance unless I actually intend to be there. I will arrange a third party with no ties to myself or UKIP to act as the paying agent for my office and staff expenses (most likely an accounting firm). I will not hire family - an easy promise as my wife, Ileana, is not particularly interested in politics and has a productive career as a pharmacist.

I will only sit as an MEP for a maximum of one term (five years) to protect myself against going "native". I don't believe I would, but I think it is best to put a limit on my time as an MEP in this manner simply because it makes it impossible to make a "career" out of it. Making this promise now also means I cannot change my mind on the matter.

I feel confident in being able to promise all this due to the fact that my wife and I tend to live quite modestly. As an MEP's base salary (about £52,000 after next year's elections) is the equivalent of our current family income, and Ileana will continue to work, I cannot forsee why we would need so much money that it would be necessary to milk the system for extra income.

2. Using the resources available to me as an MEP to build the party's membership and ability to campaign successfully in Southeast England.

I foresee four resources that as an MEP I would be able to utilize to transform UKIP into a competitive rival to the Lib Dems and Tories in Southeast England.

The first resource is money. As I indicated above, my base salary as an MEP is equivalent to Ileana's and my current household salary. As my wife Ileana will continue to work, this means that in real terms we will have a fairly substantial surplus each month.

It is my intention to donate a substantial amount of money every month to worthy projects by UKIP branches and UKIP PPCs in the Southeast of England. I consider worthy projects to be things such as the membership recruitment scheme that Christchurch Branch instituted and which we are currently emulating in Lewes, the purchase of proper printing equipment such as a Risograph for use by Southeast branches, and campaign training for PPCs, local/county candidates and interested others.

I will resist to the best of my ability demands for donations to projects instituted by the center of the party as I believe that we will see more benefit per pound spent on projects at the local level. I will also monitor the outcome of projects financed by me - I think UKIP often spends money carelessly and without regard to results.

The second resource is paid staff. At current exchange rates, MEPs have a staffing allowance worth approximately £145,000 per annum. I'm fully aware of that MEPs staff cannot be used explicitly for party political purposes. However, if staff are hired in a part time capacity then they should be expected to volunteer some of their own time to party matters. An interesting idea put to me by Steve Allison is to actually employ our most capable PPCs as staff of an MEP. This would hopefully allow them to become known by having them represent me, the MEP in the constituencies they intend to stand in. I think this particular idea is very worthy of further investigation. Ideally I would like to keep well-paid full time staff to a minimum and hire three or four PPCs part time as long as I can ensure that we do not fall afoul of any rules. (Please note, these are my proposals and clearly, depending on the rules MEPs are expected to follow they may not be feasible in the exact manner I am suggesting - I do believe in working within the rules.)

The third resource is office space. While MEPs offices cannot be used for party political purposes, they do serve a valuable purpose in that they advertise UKIP not just as a political party, but as a "successful" political party with elected politicians. MEPs have an office allowance of approximately £36,000 per year at current exchange rates. I am hoping that I can squeeze two offices out of this in different parts of the Southeast, probably one in Lewes Constituency (to improve my profile as PPC there - yes there is an element of ) and one in Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire in order to improve our profile there.

The last resource available to MEPs their ability to open doors for others. What I mean by this is that people elected to office are treated differently than people who are aspiring to be elected to office. MEPs, get invited to attend various events or debates to which UKIP activists or UKIP PPCs might not. Of course MEPs cannot attend everything they get invited to (nor should they want to necessarily). Rather than attending events myself I would try to send a representative on my behalf such as the PPC or chairman for the constituency where the event is taking place. This allows our PPCs and branch chairmen to gain exposure that might otherwise be denied them.

3. I will campaign hard for UKIP in next year's Euro and County Council elections.

If selected to be in one of the top three spots on the Southeast list of MEP candidates it is my intention to resign from my current employment later this year in order to be able to devote myself full time to campaigning. If you feel that I should be further down the MEP list I will still campaign to the best of my ability by focusing my efforts on helping organize the election campaigns in Lewes, and Runnymede.

I believe that strongly contesting next year's County Council elections is a key step to doing well in the Euros, and to that end I will be working hard to persuade our Southeast branches to put candidates in place as early as possible in order to help them build up name recognition. In Lewes we have already recognized this fact and we hope to select our first two county council candidates later this summer with the rest to follow in the early and mid autumn.

4. Conclusion

In short, what I hope to accomplish if I become an MEP is to devote more time, energy and resources to organizing UKIP in Southeast England. At the end of my term in 2014 I will would consider myself to have been successful if there are a few dozen UKIP councillors on our Southeast local and county councils, our average branch membership is at least 300, every constituency has had a bright, hardworking, PPC in place for at least two years, and UKIP is polling in at least third place in Southeast England. At present this may sound far-fetched, but I believe that if we pay attention to building a strong foundation first by recruiting new members and activists, and honing our campaigning techniques this is an entirely achievable goal.

You may have questions which I am happy to answer. If you wish to call me please PM me for a phone number. Alternatively you can email me at dbelobaba-at-yahoo.ca. Of course you are always welcome to come to the Southeast hustings meetings and pose your questions to me in person.

Drew Belobaba
AKA mrabody

I think your ideas are good - but - do you think Mr Farage, as leader of the party, that's IF he gets elected again, will let you use you money how you feel fit? I doubt it somehow!!

mrabody · 14-07-2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony Butcher

I have no problem with MEPs doing more than one term. The experience gained shouldn't be wasted. The only reason people complain about some of UKIP's current MEPs doing another term is because they have been less than inspiring.

Who said the experience gained in serving one term in the Euro Parliament would be wasted? Presumably that experience can be put to good use in other areas of life.

Quote:

As a voter and non-member, I am extremely uncomfortable with that emphasis. If you are going to be spending my tax money on employees then I want you to employ the best people to do absolutely necessary jobs for your role as an MEP, not employing people to do non-jobs, or jobs they aren't qualified to do, to help them promote themselves.

As a non-member (resident in the SW I believe) you won't be voting in the selection process presumably which will be restricted to UKIP members. UKIP members may have other concerns which at this stage of the process are the only ones that really matter.

Also, can you please explain to me what are "absolutely necessary" jobs. I expect that MEPs get deluged with post from constituents who are seeking help with their various problems. I see it as an "absolutely necessary" job to respond to those people's requests promptly and politely. I happen to think that one way this can be accomplished is to have someone from my office stop by and see the constituent in person.

We have over 30 PPCs selected already in the Southeast England. I know many of them and amongst those I know there are several first class people who would make excellent employees whether they are PPCs or not. The fact that they are PPCs and presumably want to be known is a plus in my book because it may provide a motivation for them to do an excellent job.

Quote:

As a voter, I couldn't care less about UKIP, and would want you to spend your time actually doing the job of being an MEP.

What is the job of an MEP? Do explain. I recall that Tom Wise had trouble doing so. Do you meaningfully debate Euro legislation? From what I have heard you do not. Are you able to carefully scrutinize and consider Euro legislation before you vote it? Not according to Daniel Hannan who related a wonderful anecdote on his blog about how on a point of order he asked if any MEPs in the chamber knew what the particular budget item was they were voting for? None did and enquiries had to be made to find out.

Do you honestly believe that the European Parliament is a real democratic institution. I don't - all the evidence suggests that it is a sham just as the various parliaments in the Warsaw Pact countries were. I suspect that the public is fully aware of this - witness the incredibly low turnouts for Euro elections.

And in any event, the people who are inclined to vote for UKIP are not people who are interested in making the European Parliament work. They could probably care less whether our MEPs even show up. What they do want is for us to leave the EU so they are unlikely to be offended by anything I have typed.

Quote:

Obviously this is a campaign slot to interest UKIP members, but I am sure that many UKIP members want MEPs who will want to do the job as well, not just promote the party.

In my experience most UKIP members want to see us do better in local and Westminster elections. Some UKIP members would prefer that our MEPs don't even take up our seats a position I have considerable sympathy for.

Quote:

Perhaps instead of employing PPCs to promote UKIP, you could employ researchers to improve your ability to do the job, compile reports to use against the EU and promote Britain's interests?

Reports are wonderful things but completely useless if we cannot disseminate them to the public. We have already got many excellent researchers, and as a matter of course I would expect to employ at least one researcher.

Quote:

Since Britain is going to be stuck in the EU for the foreseeable future, what are you offering to voters? The current crop of UKIP MEPs, with two exceptions (Farage and Batten), have been largely ineffectual and very poor value for money. What are you going to offer that is substantially better than the existing MEPs?

I reject the premise on which your question is based. We will certainly be stuck in the EU for the forseeable future if we all go to Brussels and play the game of going to a mock parliament for mock votes, researching innumerable topics but never creating an apparatus to get all we learn out into the public domain. Also you have not explained your criteria that allow you to determine which MEPs have been "effective" and which "ineffective". Needless to say I believe that others of our MEPs have been effective.

Quote:

I want my MEPs making better law, minimising the EU's interference, improving the EU, getting EU issues into the MSM and ultimately getting Britain out of the EU.

At this point I am realizing that you are either really naive or you are playing devils advocate. As far as I can tell MEPs do not make law. They do vote on laws proposed by others. And even if every one of the UK's MEPs were UKIP they wouldn't be able to affect anything as they would still be outnumbered by the Pro EU consensus in the European Parliament. Of course, it may be that in the coming years other countries will beginto elect anti EU MEPs in which case we might eventually get an anti-EU majority in the European Parliament.

Quote:

I also see no mention of improving transparency about expenses, which, although unimportant in the big scheme of things, UKIP has been completely outflanked on by the Tories. Will you lead by example and publish all of your expenses (something that both Farage and Batten refuse to do)?

Ooops. I appear to have accidentally deleted a sentence. I will publish my expenses.

mrabody · 14-07-2008, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peterc

[ Obviously there may be an issue surrounding the conduct of Tom Wise (but I note that he has not been convicted in a court of law and I'm not even sure what, if any, charges have been laid against him) but for the most part I believe our MEPs have been pretty good with respect to expense claims.

I can assure you that at today's date Tom Wise has NOT been charged with any offence. I would also point out that there are rumours that both Mr Nigel Farage MEP and Mr Titford MEP are both under OLAF investigation!

As I have previously pointed out - I expect that being investigated by OLAF is par for the course if you are a UKIP or indeed any other Euro-sceptic MEP.

Anthony Butcher · 14-07-2008, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrabody

I believe that our MEPS tend to maintain a pretty high standard of conduct vis-a-vis their expenses etc.

It's the fact that you have to use the word 'believe' that is the problem. The issue with not publishing expenses is that it leaves everyone guessing. You actually have no idea, other than what you have been told, about the level of expenses claimed.

If you are there to expose the corruption, surely the first step must be actively demonstrating that you aren't involved. Every MEP, other than Tom Wise, is going to claim that they aren't playing the system... so why should we believe you more than the other MEPs?

I know I am giving you a hard time, and it is nothing personal, but the last thing that Britain needs is five more years of UKIP MEPs doing what they have been doing for the last four. If I am going to vote for someone, I want something fresh that is a very long way from the current MEPs.

So far, to me, it looks like you have promised:

1. Jobs for the boys.
2. Manipulating the system to promote UKIP.
3. Not revealing how your expenses are spent.
4. Bribes for party members to vote for you by promising cash donations locally (yes, it can be read that way!

)
5. Spending most of your time promoting UKIP, rather than doing your job.

Now I am sure that none of this is actually what you are saying (at least I hope that it isn't). However, if this is what UKIP MEPs, and Harry seemed to agree with you, are offering, I will not be voting for UKIP.

mrabody · 14-07-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Legin

I think your ideas are good - but - do you think Mr Farage, as leader of the party, that's IF he gets elected again, will let you use you money how you feel fit? I doubt it somehow!!

I believe that UKIP MEPs must agree to a code of conduct, which among other things, states that they must contribute to the Party. It doesn't state how the money is to be used. Now, at the moment we only have a single MEP in the Southeast, Nigel Farage. This means that out of his salary and expenses Nigel carries the load for the largest region in the country. I suspect that most of the money he gives to the party goes to central operations. Having a second or possibly third MEP would of course allow that load to be spread out either allowing Nigel to continue to fund central operations or to allow him to fund more local initiatives whilst the other MEP helped to contribute to central initiatives as well.

14-07-2008, 12:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
mrabody Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 597	Why you should vote for me to be your MEP candidate in Southeast England I have been asked by another forum member to explain to everyone what I hope to accomplish by becoming an MEP. I will as briefly as possible try and describe to you my goals should I be so successful as to reach one of the top positions in the MEP list. First of all I believe that we won't achieve our goal of regaining our independence from the European Union until we elect a contingent of UKIP Members of Parliament to Westminster. Every last British MEP could be from UKIP and we would not be any nearer to our goal than we are now. Therefore when I decided to apply to become an MEP candidate it was because I felt that as an MEP I can help us achieve electoral success at the local and national parliamentary levels of government. Here in short is my proposed program should I be elected as a UKIP Member of the European Parliament. 1. Behave with honesty and integrity. I have no intention in getting caught up in the expenses racket. I will not sign in to parliament to collect the daily allowance unless I actually intend to be there. I will arrange a third party with no ties to myself or UKIP to act as the paying agent for my office and staff expenses (most likely an accounting firm). I will not hire family - an easy promise as my wife, Ileana, is not particularly interested in politics and has a productive career as a pharmacist. I will only sit as an MEP for a maximum of one term (five years) to protect myself against going "native". I don't believe I would, but I think it is best to put a limit on my time as an MEP in this manner simply because it makes it impossible to make a "career" out of it. Making this promise now also means I cannot change my mind on the matter. I feel confident in being able to promise all this due to the fact that my wife and I tend to live quite modestly. As an MEP's base salary (about £52,000 after next year's elections) is the equivalent of our current family income, and Ileana will continue to work, I cannot forsee why we would need so much money that it would be necessary to milk the system for extra income. 2. Using the resources available to me as an MEP to build the party's membership and ability to campaign successfully in Southeast England. I foresee four resources that as an MEP I would be able to utilize to transform UKIP into a competitive rival to the Lib Dems and Tories in Southeast England. The first resource is money. As I indicated above, my base salary as an MEP is equivalent to Ileana's and my current household salary. As my wife Ileana will continue to work, this means that in real terms we will have a fairly substantial surplus each month. It is my intention to donate a substantial amount of money every month to worthy projects by UKIP branches and UKIP PPCs in the Southeast of England. I consider worthy projects to be things such as the membership recruitment scheme that Christchurch Branch instituted and which we are currently emulating in Lewes, the purchase of proper printing equipment such as a Risograph for use by Southeast branches, and campaign training for PPCs, local/county candidates and interested others. I will resist to the best of my ability demands for donations to projects instituted by the center of the party as I believe that we will see more benefit per pound spent on projects at the local level. I will also monitor the outcome of projects financed by me - I think UKIP often spends money carelessly and without regard to results. The second resource is paid staff. At current exchange rates, MEPs have a staffing allowance worth approximately £145,000 per annum. I'm fully aware of that MEPs staff cannot be used explicitly for party political purposes. However, if staff are hired in a part time capacity then they should be expected to volunteer some of their own time to party matters. An interesting idea put to me by Steve Allison is to actually employ our most capable PPCs as staff of an MEP. This would hopefully allow them to become known by having them represent me, the MEP in the constituencies they intend to stand in. I think this particular idea is very worthy of further investigation. Ideally I would like to keep well-paid full time staff to a minimum and hire three or four PPCs part time as long as I can ensure that we do not fall afoul of any rules. (Please note, these are my proposals and clearly, depending on the rules MEPs are expected to follow they may not be feasible in the exact manner I am suggesting - I do believe in working within the rules.) The third resource is office space. While MEPs offices cannot be used for party political purposes, they do serve a valuable purpose in that they advertise UKIP not just as a political party, but as a "successful" political party with elected politicians. MEPs have an office allowance of approximately £36,000 per year at current exchange rates. I am hoping that I can squeeze two offices out of this in different parts of the Southeast, probably one in Lewes Constituency (to improve my profile as PPC there - yes there is an element of ) and one in Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire in order to improve our profile there. The last resource available to MEPs their ability to open doors for others. What I mean by this is that people elected to office are treated differently than people who are aspiring to be elected to office. MEPs, get invited to attend various events or debates to which UKIP activists or UKIP PPCs might not. Of course MEPs cannot attend everything they get invited to (nor should they want to necessarily). Rather than attending events myself I would try to send a representative on my behalf such as the PPC or chairman for the constituency where the event is taking place. This allows our PPCs and branch chairmen to gain exposure that might otherwise be denied them. 3. I will campaign hard for UKIP in next year's Euro and County Council elections. If selected to be in one of the top three spots on the Southeast list of MEP candidates it is my intention to resign from my current employment later this year in order to be able to devote myself full time to campaigning. If you feel that I should be further down the MEP list I will still campaign to the best of my ability by focusing my efforts on helping organize the election campaigns in Lewes, and Runnymede. I believe that strongly contesting next year's County Council elections is a key step to doing well in the Euros, and to that end I will be working hard to persuade our Southeast branches to put candidates in place as early as possible in order to help them build up name recognition. In Lewes we have already recognized this fact and we hope to select our first two county council candidates later this summer with the rest to follow in the early and mid autumn. 4. Conclusion In short, what I hope to accomplish if I become an MEP is to devote more time, energy and resources to organizing UKIP in Southeast England. At the end of my term in 2014 I will would consider myself to have been successful if there are a few dozen UKIP councillors on our Southeast local and county councils, our average branch membership is at least 300, every constituency has had a bright, hardworking, PPC in place for at least two years, and UKIP is polling in at least third place in Southeast England. At present this may sound far-fetched, but I believe that if we pay attention to building a strong foundation first by recruiting new members and activists, and honing our campaigning techniques this is an entirely achievable goal. You may have questions which I am happy to answer. If you wish to call me please PM me for a phone number. Alternatively you can email me at dbelobaba-at-yahoo.ca. Of course you are always welcome to come to the Southeast hustings meetings and pose your questions to me in person. Drew Belobaba AKA mrabody

14-07-2008, 01:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
harryaldridge Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: West Sussex Posts: 1,912	Good summary. It seems like we have very similar ideas. I hope the other candidates adopt a similar approach. __________________ http://vindicovindico.blogspot.com

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

14-07-2008, 01:44 PM	#4 (permalink)
mrabody Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 597	I should emphasize that unlike perhaps some members of this forum, I believe that our MEPS tend to maintain a pretty high standard of conduct vis-a-vis their expenses etc. Obviously there may be an issue surrounding the conduct of Tom Wise (but I note that he has not been convicted in a court of law and I'm not even sure what, if any, charges have been laid against him) but for the most part I believe our MEPs have been pretty good with respect to expense claims. Unfortunately many people hold a different perception and that is why I have made the promises regarding my conduct and decision to only sit for one term as an MEP. I want to be above reproach in this regard - hence the explicit promises.

14-07-2008, 02:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
Peterc Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: BEDFORDSHIRE Posts: 65 Party: UKIP	[ Obviously there may be an issue surrounding the conduct of Tom Wise (but I note that he has not been convicted in a court of law and I'm not even sure what, if any, charges have been laid against him) but for the most part I believe our MEPs have been pretty good with respect to expense claims. I can assure you that at today's date Tom Wise has NOT been charged with any offence. I would also point out that there are rumours that both Mr Nigel Farage MEP and Mr Titford MEP are both under OLAF investigation!