A Welshman in Milano: The Chamber of Secrets and the UKIP.

lunedì, luglio 26, 2004

The Chamber of Secrets and the UKIP.

I have been very remiss in not talking about the EU parliament shenanigans involving the UKIP recently. You may recall that at the recent European Elections, the UKIP actually won 12 seats - due mainly to the lack of interest shown by the British voters for the election.

I have already talked about the avowed objective of the UKIP before they took up their seats - which was duly modified immediately AFTER they arrived in Brussels. However, the story of the UKIP, whilst being of no interest to anyone outside of the UK, has continued unabated.

The first whifff of trouble came on the day after the election results were announced. Mr Ashley Mote, newly elected as a UKIP MEP, appeared at Chichester Crown Court on charges of fraud - NINE charges of fraud, in fact. The charges all originate from allegations of Housing Benefit fraud, which were allegedly commited several years ago. The court date has been set for November of this year, which many people will be awaiting with interest.

Not the UKIP though, as they have already "withdrawn the party whip" from the erstwhile MEP - now without a party. It must be a grave disappointment for Mr Roger Knapman, leader of the UKIP, who has seen the number of "Europe Busters" reduced to the impressive number of 11 now. It is even more of an embarrasment for the UKIP as a whole, as Ashley Mote was the party member whose treatise on EU corruption is still headlined on the UKIP website.

That isn't the whole saga though - wait - there's more!

Of course, we already are aware that the star performer of the UKIP, Kilroy-Silk, has said that he will not now go to Brussels anymore. He is intending to remain in England to continue his "fight" against Europe. But, is that his sole intention? He has a reputation for being an insufferable self publicist and it seems very much on the cards now that he will shortly become the leader of the UKIP in place of Roger Knapman, the official party leader. Opinion about the UKIP contingent is that thay may prove to be an obstacle to the party’s further advance. Exclusively white, male and over 50, many are eccentrics, passionate in their Euroscepticism to a degree that doesn’t make them media friendly. One well-placed UKIP source yesterday described some of the new intake as "not the sharpest knives in the drawer".

Still there's more though!

Godfrey Bloom, member for Yorkshire and the Humber, was proposed for membership of the EU Committee for Women's Rights. He took this golden opportunity to proclaim that he would use his seat to "promote men's rights". He went on to say, "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age" . He didn't stop there though - not at all - he then stated that "I quite simply feel that they don't clean behind the fridge. I represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home". None of this has done Bloom, nor the UKIP, many favours whilst they are trying to present themselves as the "Party of the People" in the UK, women included. Nigel Farage MEP, the smooth-talking front man who comes over as the brains behind the UKIP said later in defence of the UKIP: "We believe that 60 per cent of our voters are women". I bet the figure has dropped since he said that!