Toby on Tuesday 

“Emotional crutches….”

 

Last week saw the broadcast of Channel 4’s “UKIP: The First Hundred Days”, with its apocalyptic vision of the start of Nigel Farage’s Premiership. In truth, UKIP’s hallmark good sense and good humour would prevail, and Britain would start to emerge from the politically-correct nightmare into which we have sunk. Priyanga Burford was brilliant as the Sikh MP Deepa Kaur, who would indeed be a fine asset to our Party, but otherwise it was all predictable stuff. Yet these hatchet jobs from Channel 4, The Guardian and their friends do us no harm and in fact vindicate our cause, so I am happy to say to our enemies at Channel 4, just keep those brickbats coming!

But the news of the past days that really affects the General Election here is the leaked document from Conservative Headquarters which states that for their party Thirsk and Malton is not a “target constituency” and the new Conservative candidate is not a “target candidate”. I have been puzzling why this should have happened. At first I thought that it might be linked to last year’s bizarre decapitation of the sitting MP by the local Conservative Association. Despite having been William Hague’s Constituency Chairman in Richmond when he was leader of the Conservative Party, this remains a mystery to me. Instead I believe that it has been caused by the presence in Yorkshire last July of the malign and sinister figure of Matthew Parris.

Now, most of you will not have heard of this little known but deeply influential man. He is a former MP who is at the core and heart of the Cameron experiment and, if you want to discover what 10 Downing Street really thinks about our country and its people, you have to follow the comments and articles of Matthew Parris. Where this is significant is that Matthew Parris was in Yorkshire last July to oversee and manage the selection of the replacement official Conservative candidate. He was the “Moderator” at a closed meeting where that new candidate was chosen, but his attitude to constituencies like Thirsk and Malton only became clear three months later in the run-up to the Clacton by-election.

What he said then, in an article in the Times about the Clacton voters and by association about the Thirsk and Malton voters, was, “I am not arguing that we should be careless of the needs of struggling people and places such as Clacton. But I am arguing – if I am honest – that we should be careless of their opinions.” This in a nutshell summarises the contempt that David Cameron, Matthew Parris and those around them have for non-metropolitan Britain. And he went on, “if you associate tattoos with youth, Clacton will surprise you. Father time is busy with his scythe here….only in Asmara after Eritrea’s bloody wars have I encountered a greater proportion of citizens on crutches or in wheelchairs.” For a moment, the curtain was lifted and we saw through Matthew Parris’ article how constituencies like Clacton and Thirsk and Malton are truly seen by the occupants of 10 Downing Street.

Now, the good men and women of Clacton duly responded and Douglas Carswell won a resounding victory at the by-election, where the result was:

UKIP – 21,113 votes (59.7%)
Conservative – 8,709 votes (24.5%)
Labour – 3,957 votes (11.0%)
Green – 688 votes (1.7%)
LibDem – 487 votes (1.3%)

So if you really want to see why 10 Downing Street has given up on Thirsk and Malton, remember that Matthew Parris was its appointed “Moderator” presiding over the choice of its new candidate last July and its true voice in the run-up to the Clacton by-election in October. For my part, I pledge that, if successful in May’s General Election, I will commit myself to the well-being and security of those on crutches and in wheelchairs and, yes, those who sport tattoos, whatever their age. And UKIP will never turn its back on those who live in constituencies like Clacton and Thirsk and Malton, remote from the febrile world of London, with its desires and demands. The closed, narcissistic world of Matthew Parris, David Cameron and their chums is one in which none of us would ever want to live. In May, there will be a chance to replace it with a UKIP future, not the one caricatured last week on Channel 4, but a sensible moderate world in which truth and good sense finally prevail.

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

'Fleeced by the EU'

 

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, the final day of celebration in the old Christian calendar before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.   In France, they call it Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, when the last rich meals are consumed before fasting begins.   So this is a good day to pay tribute to our heroic farmers, without whom there would be no Pancake Day, no Mardi Gras and no Carnival, which comes from Carne Vale, Latin for good-bye to meat.

The challenge for UKIP during the next three months will be to persuade our farming community that there is nothing to fear and much to gain from leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.    In this, we are greatly helped by our farming spokesman, Stuart Agnew, MEP for the East of England.   Stuart is a Norfolk farmer who has represented Norfolk on the NFU Council.   In the European Parliament, he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.   He is writing the farming section of our manifesto at the moment and the long-term needs of our farmers will be at the heart of our proposals.
At their core will be a new British Basic Payment Scheme to replace the existing CAP Basic Payment Scheme.   Land will need to be farmed to Entry Level Stewardship standards to qualify, with grassland automatically qualifying.   The Scheme would match the existing overall level of farm support.

However, the rate of support would initially be capped at £80 per acre on low ground, with a pro-rata decrease on marginal and hill land.   There would also be an overall cap of £120,000 per unit, which would therefore be reached on 1,500 lowland acres and pro-rata on higher acreages in the uplands.   The purpose of this cap is to make new tenancies available to young entrants into the industry.   At the moment, there is an appalling shortage of farms to rent and this is one sensible way of dealing with the problem.   Farmers who currently receive in excess of this £120,000 figure would therefore need to create new tenancies, which could be for members of their own families, to increase the number of holdings for new entrants.   There would be additional headage payments in the hills, subject to environmental restraints.

The nonsense of the new “three crop rule” under the CAP would end immediately, as would modulation and cross-compliance, interference in cropping and set-aside.    In this greatly simplified world and with looming food shortages in mind, all these decisions would be taken by the working farmer on the ground, where they properly belong.    Likewise, to meet the practical needs of working farmers, there would be no compulsory individual Electronic ID for sheep, no requirement for re-registration of pesticides, including Asulam, and no blanket ban on burial of fallen stock, although sites would need approval.   Much more red tape would also be removed to enable farmers to concentrate on the job in hand rather than fill in forms.   For example, the rules on white asbestos and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones would be relaxed.

On our dairy herds, it was the EU which insisted that the old Milk Marketing Board should be wound up and, if dairying is now to survive in Britain, something like it will need to return, however much Brussels may object.   The collapse of our dairy sector is a crime for which the EU must be held directly to account.   On Bovine TB, UKIP supports the trial culling of badgers, along with all other possible measures, if our herds are to be protected from this terrible disease.   And on the subject of disease, it is the rigidity of the EU’s Single Market rules that has caused so much damage to our horticultural and forestry sectors.   The import of infected timber has caused a catastrophic spread of disease to our ash and elm plantations, in many ways an analogy for the whole crazy EU project.   Given that we import so much more from the EU than we send there, a London-Brussels trade agreement is certainly achievable, even without the intervention of the WTO and other supranational bodies.   Further, UKIP will abolish the hated Inheritance Tax and ensure that family units can survive intact for future generations.

And above all, a UKIP Government will legislate for the highest welfare standards in abattoirs, to ensure that the disgrace of the Bowood Yorkshire lamb slaughterhouse outside Thirsk is never repeated.   There is nothing in the Koran that precludes stunning before slaughter, and indeed the majority of halal meat is pre-stunned, while a sensible accommodation will need to be found with the Kosher authorities that complies with good practice.   In addition, exports of live animals, including horses, for slaughter abroad will be banned and imports of bush meat will be controlled.   If Britain is to remain the most civilised country in the World, then there can be no abuse of our livestock at death when they have served us so well during their lives.   So our all-important farming sector should indeed have nothing to fear and much to gain from a UKIP Government – roll on the day!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday

‘All aboard the Crazy Train’

 

We all remember the Hans Christian Andersen children’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”   It begins, “Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress.”   It goes on to tell how two swindling tailors promised him a new suit in a fabric that would be invisible to anyone who was too stupid or incompetent to see it.   Of course, there isn’t any suit but everyone pretends that they can see it and flatters him on it until it takes a small boy to cry out, “But the Emperor has nothing on at all!”

Last month, a nine-year old Cub Scout called Alex Rukin appeared in Parliament before the new High Speed 2 rail bosses and accused them of being “really, really bad” at maths and of making things up on the spiraling budget of their imperial vanity project.   He went on to identify a £7 billion hole in a scheme that is already likely to cost well over £50 billion.   Like the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen story, he said of the HS2 bosses,   “It really is worse than I thought.   I am still willing to help them with their maths if they want!”

The reality behind HS2 can be found on the EUs own website on ec.europa.eu/transport/themes.   HS2 has nothing at all to do with the transport needs of London or Birmingham.   Rather it is a vanity project designed as part of an imperial high speed rail network for those who benefit from the new European empire.   The StopHS2 website on stophs2.org/ spells out the case against this monstrosity all too clearly, but last month it took a nine-year old Cub Scout to appear before a Parliamentary committee and state the obvious truth.

In the name of “rationalisation”, great damage was done to our rail network by the Beeching Axe of the mid-1960’s.   Among the many notable casualties were routes operated by the old LMS (London, Midland and Scottish) which ran from London through Birmingham to the North.   Much of the LMS infrastructure is still in place and could now be revived at a fraction of the cost of HS2.   But there would be no vanity in doing this and it would not meet the exacting requirements of Brussels and Berlin.   It would be a low-key investment with ordinary passengers, now struggling under rising fares, in mind.  In the two decades since John Major’s rail privatisation, many inter-city fares have trebled and the fares planned for HS2 would effectively exclude most normal passengers.  

It is worth remembering exactly who HS2 is being built for.   The only people able to travel on it will be our new masters, the Eurocrats, the civil servants and the big corporate players.   Yet we shall all end up paying for it, either directly or by greatly reduced public services across the country.   And it will inevitably lose money year on year, a bottomless pit which we shall all be funding.

Now UKIP is the only major political party committed to the immediate scrapping of HS2.   Like Hans Christian Andersen’s small boy, and like Alex Rukin, we are saying to the emperors who now govern us from Brussels and Berlin, you may have been made fools of, but we in Britain are not fools and can see clearly what is happening!  Truth will out and, like your shiny new Euro-currency, HS2 can now be filed away along with all your other crazy schemes!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby