Friday 15 August 2014

Nigel Farage at Stony Stratford

All of this was to prove to be a mere curtain-raiser to what became know as “The Battle Of Stony Stratford” in July 2011.
Stony Stratford is a small town in the Milton Keynes area. One of its local Councillors suggested a classic extension of the Nanny state. His proposal was that a smoking ban be extended to the streets of the town. The main justification for this being that smokers dropping their butts cause litter but there were obviously all sorts of other justifications floated. The somewhat eccentric Councillor who was behind the idea made it very clear he wanted this to be the start of a trend all across the country.
Not unsurprisingly, local people and businessmen were up in arms against the measure. They organised and began a concentrated campaign against the measure. The prime mover was a blogger going under the name of Dick Puddlecote!
The campaign culminated in a rally at a town centre pub. I was delighted to be invited along to speak on behalf of The Freedom Association. This was a classic case where the libertarian principles of the TFA were very relevant to the situation and I was pleased to get the opportunity to speak on their behalf. The other names on the bill included the maverick Conservative MEP Roger Helmer and UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
I was very much the warm up act for the more established names to follow later, indeed Mr Farage was very much later having been caught in traffic and I had left before his arrival. I had made the three hour journey by car with my wife and parents crammed in alongside me, I was glad to have the family support as a novice public speaker. It had teemed down with rain all day so I arrived rather bedraggled and soaking wet. There was a degree of confusion over when we were going to start the event as the organisers were obviously keen to await the arrival of Mr Farage, this led to a number of the natives getting restless and some at least well lubricated at the bar.
I was struck by the number of people at the event that I knew through political discussions and postings on the internet. This was a true gathering of new media activists as well as local people. Eventually the decision was taken to get the event under way and hope Mr Farage made it in time.
I was first on the bill. As I stood up to begin my speech I looked at the two hundred or so faces staring back at me in a scrum leading back to the bar, these were people who were up for some serious rebellion and wanted the Nanny State putting back in its box. I was determined not to let them down !
My speech started with a little information about The Freedom Association before launching into a full scale attack on the proposal. I ended by calling on the spirit of Churchill and asking the crowd to imagine what response the local council would have received from the great man had they told him he could not smoke his cigar in the street. With that there was a great cheer and we all raised our fingers in a V salute!
Roger Helmer followed up with a superb speech during which he promised to be back leading a campaign of civil disobedience should the measure be passed.
When Nigel Farage finally managed to arrive, he gave a typically stirring oration which made it into the media. I was sorry to have missed it.
The result of our efforts was that the measure was thrown out at the next council meeting. This may not be a massive moment in history or a front page making occurrence but it is significant. It shows that we can fight back and there are people who are prepared to make the effort to stand up for our freedoms.

from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge
Get your copy HERE




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe

Thursday 14 August 2014

Bretwalda Writer Richard Thomas Asks: Can Aliens Control Your Dreams?

Bretwalda Writer Richard Thomas Asks: Can Aliens Control Your Dreams?

Read more on his blog:
http://www.neonnettle.com/features/229-writer-richard-thomas-asks-can-aliens-control-your-dreams-


Director James Cameron has said in interviews that the idea for the first Terminator film came to him during a fever dream, when his subconscious came up with the image of a chrome torso emerging from an explosion, dragging itself across the floor with kitchen knives.

In The Making of The Terminator - A Retrospective documentary the film maker added: "Terminator was an idea I had when I was in Rome. I was sitting around my hotel room. I was sick at the time. I had a real high fever. I was just lying on the bed thinking, and came up with all this bizarre imagery. I think also the idea, because I was in a foreign city by myself.

"I felt very dissociated from humanity in general, it was easy to project myself into these two characters from the future, who were out of sync, out of time, out of place, that sort of thing. I’d always wanted to do some sort of really definitive robot story. Cause it had really never been done."

Was this "bizarre imagery" Cameron talked about really just brought on by a normal fever, or did someone or something want the director to make his "definitive robot story"?
ADVERTISEMENT

In another science fiction film that played with the idea of robots, Blade Runner, the protagonist Rick Deckard portrayed by Harrison Ford has a peculiar dream about a unicorn. While it is never fully explained in the script what Deckard's unicorn dream means; in the final scene of the Director's Cut Deckard finds an origami unicorn made by his mysterious superior Gaff.

According to Ridley Scott in the documentary On The Edge of Blade Runner, the reason why Gaff knows what Deckard has been dreaming about is because the dream is a memory implant created by the Tyrel Corporation. So is it possible that in the real world somebody could control our dreams, much in the same way the Tyrel Corporation implant Deckard's unicorn dream in Blade Runner?


The idea that dreams can be controlled or implanted by others goes right back to the Bible; where God uses dreams to communicate with mankind. In Genesis 41, after being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, Joseph (son of Jacob) rises to become the second most powerful man in Egypt after correctly interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh:

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

There are also other examples of God using dreams to communicate with humans in the Bible. In Matthew 1 another Joseph decides not to divorce his wife Mary after being visited by an angel in a dream.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 

Ancient astronaut theorists believe that aliens visiting Earth thousands of years ago were misinterpreted resulting in the God of the Bible; is it possible then that aliens been influencing human history for thousands of years by controlling the unconsciousness human mind?

Certainly dreams have had a massive impact on human history. Adolf Hitler reportedly had a dream that saved his life. During the First World War he was asleep in his trench when he dreamed of himself and his fellow soldiers being engulfed by earth and molten metal.

He awoke and left the trench. Whilst he was away the trench was hit by a shell and the other soldiers were all killed. If it wasn't for Hitler's mysterious nightmare then the Second World War would have probably not have taken place; but dreams have had a more positive impact on human development too.

Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was inspired by a dream in which he was going down a mountainside ever faster, watching the appearance of the stars change as he approached the speed of light.

And at the Ted 2005 conference Nobel laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, reported stumbling upon the double helix image for the DNA chain through his dream of a spiral staircase. Classic novels including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and more recently the Twilight series, were all inspired by dreams also.

The idea that aliens or anyone else can control dreams might sound like science fiction, but there is a state called lucid dreaming where people realise they are dreaming and are able to control their dream. In 2012 it was reported that scientists were developing a special sleep mask that helped the wearer control their dream:

“Quite possibly the hardest thing about lucid dreaming is recognizing your control over a dream state, which is akin to reconfiguring the way you’ve dreamed your entire life. With Remee, a series of flashing red lights on your sleep mask will appear within your dreams, reminding you that you’re in a dream state. Once those stimuli are acknowledged and understood, a user can begin lucid dreaming as they say see fit. From person to person, lucid dreaming can be a great many things -- a means to fly, teleport or meet famous people.” (huffingtonpost.com)

While the ability to implant or control someone else's dreams has not been developed yet, at least in public, in July 2013 scientist did announce that they had implanted memories in mice:

Tinkering with the brains of mice, scientists have given the rodents memories of events that never occurred.

“The researchers used a technique that involves activating neurons with light to train mice to "remember" a painful experience in a completely different context from that in which they experienced the pain. The false memories were encoded by brain cells in the same way as real memories are sealed in.” (livescience.com)

Abductees, people who believe they have been abducted by aliens, have reported communicating telepathically with the short grey skinned beings they have encountered. Perhaps aliens use their psychic powers to implant dreams just as they seem to be able to create "screen" or fake memories in abductees.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Enter Tim Aker


The good news from the polls were followed in June by the appointment of Tim Aker as “Head of Policy”. This was a role that, in my opinion,  UKIP had long needed. While the main thrust of our commonsense policies was always clear, the detail was sometimes muddled. Policy statements were sometimes made in reaction to some news item and while there was nothing wrong with them, they were occasionally inconsistent with other policies, or lacked a coherent overall drive. Someone was needed to see the big picture. Now we had Tim.
When he was appointed, Tim said “I am delighted to come on board as Head of the UKIP Policy Unit at a time when the party is growing at an incredible rate.  We are seeing talented people join the party and contribute to our policy platform. I’m looking forward to coordinating these and ensuring we have a full, common sense manifesto to show the Great British Public that they don’t have to settle for the old parties. UKIP is now the voice of opposition on Councils up and down the country and I will do my best to make sure we will win the arguments and break into Westminster.”
I did not hear him speak until our conference in September 2013 when I was perched high up in Methodist Central Hall, and Tim was striding the stage as if he belonged there. I was impressed. Since then there has been a definite improvement in our overall strategic policies and the way the minutiae tie up with each other.
Tim had previously been with the “Get Britain Out” campaign and with the Taxpayer’s Alliance as well as the Freedom Association, so he came to  UKIP with a sound track record as a right of centre campaigner and activist with a firm commitment to Brexit. 

from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge MEP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe
 

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Bretwalda Author Andrew May has a website

Bretwalda Author Andrew May has a website that details not only the books he writes for us, but also magazine articles, blogs and books for other publishers.



You can find it here:
http://www.andrew-may.com/index.htm

Friday 8 August 2014

UKIP & Gay Marriage


One of the issues that the media were keen to talk to  UKIP about throughout the build up to the 2013 county elections was that of gay marriage. The background to this issue was that in September 2012 the LibDems had announced at their conference that the government would be bringing forward legislation to legalise marriage between same sex partners. All eyes had then turned to the Conservatives, the larger partner in the Coalition government. David Cameron’s office let it be known that he had personally intervened to ensure that this legislation was to be put before Parliament. There was an immediate fuss.
Opinion polls showed the public was fairly evenly balanced on the issue, though as ever the liberal-left elite in London came out heavily in favour of the issue. It was soon clear that the law would be changed, no matter what the people of Britain actually wanted. When it came to a vote in Parliament, most Tory MPs voted against although most of the ministers voted in favour. The legislation was passed.
The media were interested in  UKIP’s view of the matter. I think  that most journalists were after some cheap headlines which would portray  UKIP as some sort of swivel-eyed homophobes. The truth, as so often, was different.
Our policy was simply stated, and restated, by Nigel Farage “Civil partnerships represent an entirely common sense way of allowing gay men and women in our country to register in a formal way their longterm commitment to one another and to take advantage of various laws relating to, for example, succession and financial planning in the same way as heterosexual couples. ... Gay marriage is an entirely different thing altogether. ... We are quite sure that, whatever the Government's worthy declaration that it proposes no change to the duties of the Church in relation to the estate of marriage, there will, very soon after the introduction of gay civil marriage, be a challenge in first the domestic courts of England and Wales and then in the European Court of Human Rights alleging that the exclusion of gay people from the right to have a religious ceremony of marriage is unlawful discrimination against them on the grounds of their sexual orientation. We believe that, given the current nature of the European Court of Human Rights' attitude to such matters, there is a very strong likelihood that the Court at Strasbourg will agree that it is an unlawful discrimination on those grounds and order the United Kingdom to introduce laws which will force Churches to marry gay people according to their rites, rituals and customs. This is not a burning issue. It is not a matter which animates the daily discourse of our Nation. There is, apart from a small but noisy minority within the gay community, no strong demand for this. This is therefore not vital to the life and well-being of our Nation and, given the risks attendant upon it, should not be proceeded with.”
Journalists had wanted to hear a bigotted rant, so after a while they went away. But the row rumbled on, mostly affecting the Conservative Party. The Tories were split not only in Parliament but in the country. David Cameron had already done much to alienate traditional Conservative supporters, and now he was at it again. The newspapers were soon filled with angry Conservatives denouncing Cameron.


from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge MEP
Get your copy HERE




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe

Thursday 7 August 2014

REPRINT - Scenic Walks on Seil

REPRINT - Scenic Walks on Seil
Our book "Scenic Walks on Seil" has been going like hot cakes - so much so that we have had to reprint it.





Get your copy HERE


A walking guide to the beautiful Isle of Seil, near Oban in the western Highlands of Scotland, written by a local resident and keen walker. Including historical and wildlife notes.
The Isle of Seil is a premier and popular holiday resort on Scotland’s west coast. Despite its name, Seil is linked to the mainland by the stone bridge of 1792, greatly increasing the tourist flow to the island. The island has historic links to St Columba and to Clan MacDonald as well as thriving wildlife including seals and golden eagles. The island covers 5 square miles and rises to 500 feet on the peak of Sloc an Eich Dhuinn.
This book has been put together by island resident Fiona Lackie who has walked all the routes herself (with her dog) and has cleared the routes with the landowners. There are over a dozen routes ranging from the short and easy to the lengthy and challenging.
A children’s quiz and notes on wildlife spotting round off this charming book that captures all that is best about the Isle of Seil.

About the Author

Fiona Lackie is a native Scot who now lives on the Isle of Seil, one of the premier tourist locations close to Oban, ferry port and railway terminal for the Hebrides. Fiona has lived on the island for years and has walked extensively over the island, working out the walks that feature in this book.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

UKIP gears up for the Corby by-Election


Looking at things from the inside of  UKIP in the final weeks of 2012, we knew that things were going our way. The internal drive to professionalise the party was slowly bearing fruit. We had a more coherent approach to campaigning, to building local branches and to fund raising. True this had not borne much in the way of productive fruit at the PCC elections of November 2012, but we did feel the campaigning had gone significantly better than in the General Election of 2010. I certainly thought that our efforts had been better organised and better targetted than before.
The only way, it seemed, was up. What none of us knew was that events were about to take a hand. In fact, they already had. While I was busy pounding pavements in the West Midlands others were fighting a very different sort of campaign down in Northamptonshire. It was a campaign that would confirm that the rise of  UKIP was well and truly underway.
On 6 August 2012, Conservative MP Louise Mensch announced her resignation as MP for Corby and East Northants. She had won the seat for the Conservatives from Labour in the 2010 General Election. Her resignation was not a surprise as she had talked increasingly about the difficulties of combining motherhood with a political career – during an interview with the New Statesman in October 2011 she said she felt “stretched multiple ways” – but the timing of a forced by-election was something the Coalition Government would probably rather not have faced.
At first, UKIP was rather disturbed by the prospect of the campaign. By-elections are expensive things to fight. The most recent parliamentary by-election in March 2012 in Bradford West had seen us get 3.3% of the vote, down from 5.5% at Feltham in December 2011. The central party was gathering strength for the County elections of 2013, hoping to use good results then as a springboard for the far more important European Elections of 2014. An expensive by-election with an uncertain result in a constituency where we did not have a very good record was not really what was needed.
Nevertheless, political parties exist to fight elections. This was an election.  UKIP would fight it.
Corby was an unusual seat. It is a marginal constituency split between the Labour stronghold of Corby and the more Conservative rural villages and towns of East Northamptonshire. It had a Conservative MP, William Powell, until 1997, when Phil Hope won the seat for Labour with a majority of 11,860. By the time of the 2005 General Election Labour’s majority had shrunk to 1,517. Louise Mensch won the seat back for the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election with a majority of 1,951.
The town is staunchly Labour. Of the 30 borough councillors, 23 are Labour, four Conservative and three are Liberal Democrats.  This contrasts sharply with much of the rest of the constituency. East Northamptonshire Council has 40 members, of whom 35 are Conservative and only two Labour. Oundle, for example, is a pretty market town about nine miles east of Corby and has a public school and an international arts festival. The 14 members of the town council are non-partisan but the county councillor for the town, Rupert Reichhold, is a Conservative.
UKIP had no councillors at all. However, UKIP did have a local branch which was in a position to offer local information and local expertise. I was not at the meeting that they had with the national leadership just after the by-election was called, but I gather that they were fairly optimistic of getting a reasonably good vote.

from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge MEP
Get your copy HERE




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe

Tuesday 5 August 2014

NEW ebook - Myths and Mysteries of the First World War [Kindle Edition]

NEW ebook -  Myths and Mysteries of the First World War [Kindle Edition]

From the Angel of Mons to the sealed cargo on the torpedoed liner Lusitania, from the secret evidence in the Nurse Edith Cavell trial to the haunted U-boat, the First World War was a hotbed of mysteries and myths. This book explores the best known in the light of latest evidence from declassified documents.
The First World War had a massive impact on the peoples of the time. The wide scope of the fighting and enormous human tragedy marked the popular mind as no other war had. Part of the impact was made by the huge number of legends, myths and mysteries that circulated among the front line soldiers and among civilians or were reported in the media.
In this book military historian Leonard James goes back to the original sources, unearths obscure government records kept secret for decades and seeks to get back to the truth of what went on. He disentangles the confusion between the very real Angel of Mons and the fictional “Bowmen” story in the press. He reveals the evidence suppressed for so long about Edith Cavell, the nurse shot by the Germans. He finally solves the conundrum of who actually shot down the Red Baron. He seeks the truth behind the mysterious “sealed cargo” on board the British liner Lusitania when she was torpedoed with the loss of over 1,000 lives. He tracks down the story of the Phantom Piper of the Black Watch, seeks out the German eyewitness to the RFC “death flight” and tries to track down the elusive, but deadly Gurkha with the silver kukri. Be it the Ghost Plane of Calais, the Madonna of Albert, the Russian soldiers in London, the Lost Battalion, the fate of Captain Ball, the antics of the Mad Major or the mysterious airman known as “Ballooning Bertie” you will find it all in this fascinating, mystifying and at times amusing but carefully researched foray into the Myths and Mysteries of the First World War.

About the Author
Leonard James is the grand son or great nephew of three soildiers who fought in the trenches of the Western Front in France. His father served in RAF Bomber Command in World War II and he has written a number of books about the Second World War. This is his first book about the First World War, but is far from being the last.

Buy your copy HERE




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myths-Mysteries-First-World-War-ebook/dp/B00L3IX9G0/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407234270&sr=1-1&keywords=bretwalda+myths

Monday 4 August 2014

The Founding of UKIP

The Founding of UKIP


The Rise of  UKIP can probably be dated to 2009, but to understand the way in which  UKIP has come to be the third force in British politics, it is necessary first to look back over the history of  UKIP. Without a proper understanding of where UKIP has come from, it is impossible to understand where  UKIP is going to. I must confess at this point that I did not join UKIP until early in 2011, so for this opening section I have relied on the memories of others and on the party records as well as newspaper cuttings and other sources.
What is known as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP, or  UKIP) began life in 1991 as the Anti-Federalist League. This was a cross-party campaigning group that was opposed to the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. That Maastricht Treaty transferred significant powers from the member states of the European Union (EU) to the EU itself, and significantly to the European Commission. The treaty was highly unpopular in the country as a whole, but the Conservative government of John Major was pledged to get it passed through Parliament. Given that both Labour and the LibDems supported the treaty, this seemed a foregone conclusion. There was a large minority of Conservative MPs who opposed the Treaty - Major would later famously refer to them as “bastards” - but while they could slow the Treaty down it was unlikely that they would be able to stop it. One of these “bastards”, incidentally, was Christopher Gill who later became a senior member of UKIP and was - many years after the Maastricht debacle - to become my mentor.
In this atmosphere Alan Sked, a lecturer at the London School of Economics and member of the Bruges Group, decided to take action. He declared that for all three big political parties to support a measure that the people did not want was undemocratic. The Anti Federalist League was initially started as a pressure group, but at the 1992 General Election it stood 20 candidates. All 20 got less than 5% of the vote and so lost their deposits.
In 1993 the Maastricht Treaty was passed by Parliament. Sked and other members of the Anti Federalist League met to decide their next move. They decided that they should found a political party dedicated to campaigning to take Britain out of the European Union. They decided to call it The United Kingdom Independence Party. Before long the party became known by its initials of UKIP (pronounced “you-kip”) and its members were dubbed “kippers”. 

from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge MEP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe
 

Friday 1 August 2014

FIRST ebook sale of August

Our first ebook sale of August was a copy of "Leopardkill" by Jonathan Hopkins.
A thrilling war novel set against the dramatic backdrop of the Peninsular War that saw a small British force pitched against Napoleon’s Grande Armee.

It is Autumn 1808. The French army is gone from Portugal...except for one man. And what he has stolen is deadly secret.

Sergeant Joshua Lock and Captain the Honourable John Killen pursue the spy deep into Spain ahead of Sir John Moore’s British army - a force now ordered to fight the French alongside native troops. But instead of helping their new allies, the Spaniards seem to have turned against them.

Their quarry still free, Killen’s discovery of Lock’s affair with a fellow officer’s wife drives the childhood friends apart as savage winter storms grip the Galician mountains. With discipline breaking down, and Spain’s armies in disarray, every man must decide for himself - who is friend and who is foe? Should the outnumbered, starving British stand and fight, or run for the sea, and home?

Whilst unbeknown to the bickering allies, Bonaparte himself is storming through Spain with but a single purpose...to destroy every ‘mangy English leopard.’

Meticulously researched to be historically and militarily accurate, this dashing novel of cavalrymen at war is written by an expert horseman.


About the Author
Jonathan Hopkins has worked in occupations as diverse as bulk tanker loader and kitchen designer, but since 2001 has fitted and repaired saddles professionally.
A lifelong horse-keeper and long term chair of an affiliated riding club close to his home in South Wales, his interest in the cavalrymen who served under the Duke of Wellington originally grew out of research into saddlery worn by troop horses, for which there are no surviving patterns.
Leopardkill is his second published novel.


Get your copy HERE

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leopardkill-Cavalry-Tale-Jonathan-Hopkins-ebook/dp/B00EAX49OG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406962155&sr=1-1&keywords=bretwalda+cavalry

UKIP Selects its 2014 Euro Candidates


As part of an overall effort to take a more professional approach UKIP took on a new system for selecting potential candidates for the Westminster and EU Parliaments from 2013 onwards.
In previous elections, UKIP parliamentary candidates had been selected almost entirely on votes of the membership with a minimal involvement from party officials. This changed when a new system was devised in order to try to improve the quality of candidates.
As I have touched on previously, potential future parliamentary candidates had to first go through an assessment centre where they were tested and examined on their ability to handle the media, deal with public speaking, retain policy and have a good level of general knowledge. Only after they had passed this assessment could a potential candidate apply for a hustings to take on a seat as a prospective parliamentary candidate. This is a comparatively modest change but many of the longer serving members of the party reacted to it almost as if it were the arrival of Big Brother in person.
The selection process for the prospective candidates to be members of the European Parliament was even more controversial. A long time coming after seemingly endless debate, redrafting the process was a fairly simple one consisting of basic background checks, personal interviews and a decisive element of democracy from the party membership. As with the process for Westminster selection, which potential candidates had to have passed before taking part, the system was a long way from the authoritarianism of the old parties and had a huge amount of internal democracy but it was still the subject of great drama and controversy.
The final results for the MEP selection process were dictated by a vote of the membership who were asked to settle the ranking of the prospective candidates for each area, a very important decision in an election settled by Proportional Representation. The internal processes of the party had whittled the candidates down to the correct number for each region before inviting the membership to vote and settle the order.
The West Midlands region of UKIP was no stranger to controversy even before this process began. Having got a very creditable result at the last election in 2009 and returning two MEPs, it was unfortunate that both of the representatives returned had a relationship with the party leadership which was bumpy to say the least. Nikki Sinclaire left UKIP and sat as an independent MEP before eventually forming her own party to compete at the 2014 Euro elections. Mike Nattrass had removed himself from the UKIP group in the European Parliament mid term but had appeared to effect a reconciliation with the party in the months leading up to the candidate selection process.
When the final seven people were selected by the party to contest the Euro elections for UKIP, Mr Nattrass was omitted from the list. This led to a predictably angry response. He attacked Nigel Farage and the party leadership across the media in a series of ill advised and angry outbursts before eventually resigning his membership. These outbursts were so negative and in my view childish that many people who had previously respected Mr Nattrass and had felt sympathy for him following his exclusion from the party list changed their minds and saw the sense of the decision to remove him as a potential UKIP candidate.
Other areas had their share of disappointed candidates but few took the decision in such a churlish manner as Mike Nattrass who turned his back on the activists who had helped him to achieve two terms at the European Parliament and make a very healthy living from it.
The final UKIP Euro election lists across the country showed a great cross section of the British people as our candidates including a very high proportion of women in leading roles giving the lie to the repeated accusations of mysogyny against the party.

from "The Rise of UKIP" by Bill Etheridge
Get your copy HERE




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-UKIP-Bill-Etheridge/dp/1909698334/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406731670&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=rise+of+ukip+bill+etheridfe