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Friday, 31 July 2015

Radio Free UK - radiofreeuk.org - 11th Weekly show out now.

We want to be 'News 24 for the EU Out campaign' - with the latest headlines and back stories - you can be part of it - as a consumer or creator!

The project is developing (the tech is stable!) and we have been promised more exclusive/first to air content!

You can listen to the whole show from the website or (better!) subscribe to the pod feed directly or via iTunes (links to both on the home page).

Theres a long way to go yet - and we can use all the help you can offer - researching content, creating original content or simply reading/recording other web content (we have permission, but not the resources!).



www.radiofreeuk.org - Week 11:

Including:

- Vanessa Coleman's new feature 'off the cuff' - introducing her guest Roger a recently retired police officer - who, in future will be here to answer your question, queries - use the comments section on the blog, or email [email protected]
[Direct Link]

- Two Libertarian Features on Mass Immigration, both for and against(!)
[Direct Link]

- How a child protection worker in the US turned whistle blower, and still has a future.
[Direct Link]

- Police body cameras, some results for the US
[Direct Link]

- And two interviews with 'Carly Fiorina' (feisty lady) one on the Planned Parenthood scandal and one on Climate Climate
[Direct Link]

The site has an archive of old shows (in progress) and an improved interface - for desktop and mobile.

Have a listen, use the blogs comment sections, email us - get involved, ready for the EU Referendum!

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Lords reject English Votes

The House of Lords have thrown out the Conservative Party's half-baked English Pauses for English Clauses fudge that would have allowed British MPs elected in England to tweak legislation that only affected England before British MPs elected in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were allowed to vote on it.

There was cross-party support for Lord Butler's motion to reject the ineffectual, unconstitutional proposal that the Conservative Party misleadingly call English Votes on English Laws and create a cross-party committee to examine it for a couple of years until everyone forgets that it was supposed to have been reviewed by a commission in the last parliament and the policy of breaking England up into city regions has been fully implemented.

Under the Conservative proposals for English Pauses for English Clauses, only British MPs elected in England would be allowed to vote on individual clauses in legislation that only relate to England whilst British MPs elected in Wales would join then for clauses that relate only to England and Wales. Once they've tinkered with a bill to their heart's content, British MPs from Scotland and Northern Ireland would vote alongside British MPs from England and Wales on the clauses that don't apply only to England or to England and Wales and would then vote on whatever fractured, disconnected mishmash of legislation spews out of the end of convoluted and farcical process. Unless the whole bill applies only to England or only England and Wales in which case all British MPs will get to vote on it but as well as requiring a majority of British MPs voting in favour of it, a majority of British MPs elected in England or England and Wales will also have to vote in favour.

All this to avoid making England equal by simply creating an English Parliament with the same powers as the Scottish Parliament and letting members of an English Parliament make English laws for England.


Tuesday, 21 July 2015

Exclusive: Guido's short money "exclusive" was far from exclusive

Guido has splashed an "exclusive" about a "UKIP u-turn on short money" but regular readers of Bloggers4UKIP might have a sense of déja-vu reading Guido's "exclusive".



Not for the first time, a Guido "exclusive" has been found to be rather more inclusive than they'd like you to think. Carswell broke the news that he would be taking £350k of short money to his local paper, the Clacton & Frinton Gazette, a week after the election which we reported at the time.

And while they're explaining to young WikiGuido the difference between an exclusive and something that has already been in papers months ago, his employers might want to consider investing in an office dictionary so he can learn the difference between the words "recommend" and "insist":


Recommend: to suggest that someone or something would be good or suitable for a particular job or purpose, or to suggest that a particular action should be done
Insist: to say firmly or demand forcefully, especially when others disagree with or oppose what you say
Another day, another non-story about UKIP by headline-grubbing tabloids.

Friday, 17 July 2015

Osborne claims victory by caving in to EU demands

George Osborne has declared victory over his and David Cameron's demands that the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) mustn't be used to bail out Greece by agreeing to the EFSM being used to bail out Greece.

Osborne says that it's ok to use the EFSM to bail out Greece because the EU have agreed that although we've got to guarantee the loans to Greece we won't have to pay out when they default because the loans are backed up by Greek bonds. Which Greece would default on if they defaulted on these loans.

You can't make this stuff up!


UKIP win in Clacton

UKIP successfully retained a seat it gained in this year's May local elections in Clacton last night.

In the Rush Green ward of Tendring District Council, UKIP candidate Richard Everett took 38.5% of the vote to win the seat.

CandidatePartyVotes%
Richard EverettUKIP33838.5%
Danny MayzesConservative29038.5%
Samantha AtkinsonLabour21338.5%
William HonesIndependent3638.5%
Turnout: 24.8%


EU has been fining the UK for poor accounting

With no sense of irony whatsoever, the EU have been fining the UK for poor accounting over farm subsidies.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) exists solely to administer EU agricultural subsidies and implement EU directives as the British government long ago outsourced all agriculture policy to the EU. In England, the return of a fraction of our membership fees in the form of farm payments is administered by DEFRA who have failed to follow the lead set by the Scottish and Welsh governments whose systems are far superior and this has resulted in £642m of our own money having to be paid back to the EU in the form of fines.

The EU Court of Auditors inspects the EU's accounts every year and then makes a statement based on the level of fraud, corruption and incompetence contained therein. For the last 19 years the EU Court of Auditors have flagged up serious levels of fraud, corruption and incompetence in the EU's accounts despite already having a pretty generous threshold of allowing 2% of transactions to be unacceptable. The EU fails to keep losses caused by fraud, corruption and incompetence below £2 for every £100 being spent. If the EU was a company, those in charge would be banned from being directors and would probably have gone to prison.


Thursday, 16 July 2015

Greek parliament votes for EU austerity, EU says UK will be on the hook for bailout loans

The Greek Parliament have passed Germany's punishing austerity measures in exchange for billions of €uro in loans that it can't afford to pay back.

In scenes reminiscent of the February 2012 EU austerity vote, Greeks turned out en masse in Athens to violently protest against their government. Riot police used tear gas against the protesters who were smashing shop windows and throwing rocks and fire bombs at police outside the parliament building.

Yesterday David Cameron insisted yesterday that the UK wouldn't be on the hook for Greece's loans, contradicting his Chancellor who earlier in the day said that he might agree to using the European Financial Stability Mechanism fund to bail Greece out which involves borrowing tens of billions of €uro on the open markets secured on the EU budget with member states guaranteeing the loan proportionate to the size of their budget contributions. The EU, of course, dismissed David Cameron's supposed opposition to using the EFSM and said it would be going ahead and doing it anyway.


Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Green Party press officer convicted of child sex offences

A Green Party press officer has appeared in court on child sex offence charges.

Former teacher Vincent Spencer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl last month. He has been released on bail and will be sentenced on September 1st.

Spencer was the press officer for the Green Party in the Wirrall during the election.


Former independent MEP Ashley Mote jailed for fraud

Former independent MEP, Ashley Mote, has been jailed for 5 years for fraud.

Ashley Mote was a UKIP candidate in the 2004 EU elections but was expelled from the party when he confessed to being investigated for benefit fraud and took his seat as an independent MEP.

Mote fraudulently claimed almost half a million in expenses from the EU, £100k of which was to fund his legal expenses for his benefit fraud conviction.

Despite what some of the papers are saying, Ashley Mote has never been a UKIP MEP. He was expelled from the party before he took his seat and sat as an independent from his first day as an MEP.


Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Tsipras caves in to German demands and the EU demands €1bn from the UK to bail out Greece

Alexis Tsipras caved in to German demands yesterday which will see the confiscation of €50bn of state-owned assets and the proceeds of their sale given back to Greece in the form of loans.

The humiliating agreement was designed to punish the Greek people for defying the EU in a referendum and to destabilise the government of Alexis Tsipras. It also includes cuts to pensions, raising taxes and cutting back on the generous perks of public sector workers which, whilst perfectly sensible for a country with such a disfunctional economy, were absolutely not what the Greek people voted for.

The agreement says that the €50bn raised from confiscating Greek assets will be managed by an "existing external and independent fund like the Institution for Growth in Luxembourg". The Institution for Growth was created to manage the Marshall Plan fund that rebuilt Germany after the second world war and is better capitalised than the World Bank. The report doesn't mention that the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who was instrumental in writing the agreement is a director of the Institution for Growth in Luxembourg.

This isn't just a coup, it's a huge fraud and to top it all off the British government have been told that UK taxpayer will be on the hook for €1bn worth of the bailout money despite David Cameron claiming to have protected us from having to bail out the €uro ever again!

Yeah, not so hopeful any more, eh?

Monday, 13 July 2015

Germany attempting another coup d'état in Greece #ThisIsACoup

Angela Merkel is attempting a coup d'état in Greece, demanding the surrender of €50bn of assets from the Greek government, the installation of bureaucrats from the troika who would have to be consulted on all relevant draft bills put before the Greek parliament and the repeal of all legislation since the election that hasn't been agreed by the troika.

Alexis Tsipras caved in last week, agreeing to all the demands of the German-led troika despite the Greek people rejecting them in a referendum, sparking protests in Athens. But this isn't enough any more, Alexis Tsipras has shown that the EU - and more importantly, Germany - can be defied and the punishment for that is to overthrow him and install a puppet government.

The Germans have already executed one coup détat in Greece in 2012 when former prime minister George Papandreou was ousted for offering a referendum on bailout austerity measures and the former governor of the EU Central Bank, Lucas Papademos, was appointed in his place. They also engineered a coup in Italy, installing former EU Commissioner Mario Monti as prime minister and an entire cabinet of unelected technocrats to oversee the implementation of EU austerity measures and of course the coup in Ukraine earlier this year where the EU sponsored the anti-government protesters who overthrew the government and precipitated a chain of events that has seen Russia annex Crimea and fascist militia working for the government in eastern Ukraine.

There will be no deal with Greece until Alexis Tsipras has been overthrown, Syriza removed from government and Greece is run by a German puppet.


Saturday, 11 July 2015

Cameron refuses to allow 3.9m UKIP voters representation in the House of Lords

David Cameron is defiantly refusing to create any new UKIP peers until as late as 2020 despite the party getting 3.9m votes in this year's general election.

The Lib Dems, who only got less than two thirds the UKIP vote are expected to get more peers to make up for losing most of their MPs even though they have 102 already and the Tories and Labour will also add to their tally. The bloated House of Lords has just 3 peers representing 3.9m UKIP voters.


Friday, 10 July 2015

Genius


Thursday, 9 July 2015

Labour councillor in Lancashire won't resign after moving to Ireland

A Labour councillor in Lancashire is refusing to resign after moving to the Republic of Ireland.

Cllr Harry Grayson, who represents Rishton 400 miles away from his new home, plans to carry on being a councillor while he lives in Ireland and has the support of his Labour colleagues and the Conservative opposition leader.

Conservative councillor still refusing to resign despite living in America

A Conservative councillor in Suffolk who refused to resign after moving to America has made his required half yearly visit to England to attend a council meeting so he can keep his seat and just one person turned up to his councillor surgery.

Cllr Brian Riley was ejected from the Conservative group for refusing to resign when he moved abroad but still clings on to his seat and the £10k a year allowance that goes with it. Despite just one person coming to the councillor surgery he held on his return, he still claims to be "good value" for what residents get from him.

This sort of thing happens far too often. The law needs to change to ensure councillors maintain that local link with the residents they were elected to represent for their entire term, not just on election day.

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Tsipras abused at the EU Parliament by MEPs

Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, was given a mixed reception in the EU Parliament today receiving both cheers and boos from MEPs.

The leader of the European Peoples' Party, Manfred Weber, told Tsipras that he was "destroying confidence in Europe" whilst Guy Verhofstadt, the former Prime Minister of Belgium and now a federalist Liberal MEP, told Tsipras he was "angry" and called him "an electoral accident".

It wasn't all abuse for Tsipras though, he got words of encouragement from MEPs including Nigel Farage whilst others took the opportunity to denounce the EU.

Greece has been given until Sunday to come up with an acceptable proposal to access more loans it can't afford to pay back or it will be ejected from the €uro. Unfortunately, it looks like Alexis Tsipras isn't as brave as everyone thought he was and Greece will commit to implementing more EU austerity measures tomorrow.


Monday, 6 July 2015

Tsipras holds all the cards, let's see how brave he is

The final result of yesterday's Greek bailout referendum was 61.31% No, 38.69% Yes with a turnout of 62.5%. This was an emphatic win for Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras who staked his career on the outcome and a blow to the opposition New Democracy whose leader, Antonis Samaras, has resigned.

European markets have yet to open but the impact on Asian markets has been muted. The €uro has predictably declined against the dollar but there has been no catastrophic devaluation overnight as the doom mongers were predicting.

Germany and France are having their own private meeting today before attending an emergency meeting of the €urogroup tomorrow where they will tell them what they've decided is going to happen. Merkel is under pressure to kick the Greeks out of the €uro but France is on the hook for a lot of Greek bailout money that they can't afford to lose.

Tsipras holds all the cards now. He has a mandate to reject the unsustainable and damaging EU bailout terms and if that means they get thrown out of the €uro and even the EU, the Greeks will be better off. Greece has nothing to lose.

Now we just need to see how brave Alexis Tsipras is.


Sunday, 5 July 2015

Greek referendum poll - NO leads #VoteOxi --- [Updated 22:15]

The results of the Greek bailout referendum are trickling in and with 13.58% of votes counted, every polling district has so far rejected the terms of the Troika's bailout deal.

Currently 60.22% have voted no with 39.78% voting yes.

20:16 With nearly 60% of the vote counted, the No vote has held up with 61.29% voting against the bailout deal and 38.71% voting in favour. The polls had the result much closer before the referendum. The closest result by polling district is Lakonias - home to the Spartans - where the No vote is just 1.59% ahead. The biggest gap is in the Cretan polling district of Chanion where the No vote is 46.55% ahead.

21:22 Over 80% of the vote has been counted and the No vote has an unassailable 61.55% of the vote. Greece has rejected austerity, rejected the bailout and possibly more than anything else (in their minds at least) they have German hegemony. What this means for Greece's place in the €uro and the EU remains to be seen but for Greece this can only be a good thing.

22:15 Just over 90% of the vote has been counted and the No vote is fractionally down at 61.4% but the result isn't going to change. The Oxis have declared victory, the leader of the opposition New Democracy party Antonis Samaras has resigned and thousands of Greeks have taken to the streets to celebrate.


Keep Calm and #VoteOxi

The Greeks are voting today on whether to accept an EU bailout with more punishing austerity measures attached.

Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tspiras, called a snap referendum last week after it became clear that no deal would be reached with Germany by the deadline for their IMF loan repayments and is urging the Greek people to vote no.

Greece's debt is unsustainable and its membership of the €uro is damaging to the Greek economy. Dropping out of the single currency and returning to the Drachma will boost Greek industry and attract foreign investment. Greece is too left wing for its economy to fully recover and the country will inevitably default so this is about damage limitation. Greece already has €230bn of bailout loans it can't afford to pay - do they want to add another €60bn to it just to delay the inevitable?


Thursday, 2 July 2015

Sandwell and Castle Point racing to open first UKIP social club

The Sandwell and Castle Point branches of UKIP are battling each other to open the first UKIP social club in the country.

UKIP Castle Point announced two days ago that they were in talks to open their social club whilst Sandwell Young Independence tweeted today that theirs was about to open any day now. The signs are already up in Sandwell so it looks like they might just pip Castle Point to the post!