> A STATEMENT re: JUNIUS

This statement regarding Junius is approved by Team Junius

JUNIUS On UKIP

This article is an abstract from:

LINK

With Regard To JUNIUS

From my conversations with Team Junius:
I gather their aims were largely similar to mine, as was their aim to inform and provide an archive of facts in support of UKIP becoming fit for purpose, to lead to Leave-The-EU, which clearly it currently is not, as it tends to represent its own personal ambitions rather than British self determination, values and ethics.

At the moment Junius team have largely stopped addressing UKIP’s problems, in the belief that it is unlikely that UKIP will have any consequential influence on domestic politics after their failure in the local elections of 2013 when out of over 1,700 seats in which they stood candidates a mere 147 were elected and already they are falling by the wayside and or resigning due in part to lack of vetting, lack of professionalism and in some cases over racism, inappropriate behaviour and convictions for theft etc.

UKIP’s achievements are so clearly the product of a single individual that Junius has stood back from their role exposing UKIP’s ineptitude and dishonesty as unfit for purpose as to continue putting their own jobs at risk is no longer of sufficient consequence in the light of UKIP’s failure to obtain MPs, Police Crime Commissioners, Mayors or any other role of any gravitas or significance in domestic politics in 20 years.

Team Junius, I am told, will possibly re-enter the position of political commentary if the situation alters and UKIP becomes of greater relevance in UK domestic policy rather than self serving also rans!

Although I have heard from members of Team Junius they and others have passed on the UKIP lies that it is claimed that actions and threats of prosecution by UKIP forced Junius to cease posting.

I can assure readers that the UKIP spin is a pack of lies particularly as they have absolutely no idea who the members of Team Junius are nor are UKIP able to identify a single solitary member of the team. It is therefore abundantly clear that no member of the team has in any way been threatened with prosecution, nor contacted by anyone threatening to prosecute nor has any member EVER been cautioned by any lawyer or the police with regard to their publication of facts and views they publish about UKIP and its clique or claque or even members or policy.

May I also add that the ONLY three threats I have EVER received were founded first on the inept misunderstanding of the law by Michael Zucherman when I used the title ‘catterpillars & butterflies thereby bringing into derision the subsequent utilisation of the imagery used by UKIP subsequently.

The second instance was based on lies presented by Mark Croucher, Clive Page & Paul Nuttall for UKIP, in an attempt to bankrupt me to shut down the flow of facts about UKIP which I present. They lost their case in Court and to date have failed to act honourably and pay the some £13,000 they owe me.

The third instance was based on a pack of lies presented by Gerard Batten regarding which the police were misguidedly duped into interviewing me under caution for some 3 hours. The police decision was there was absolutely no case to answer and that I had not acted in any breech of the law and Gerard Batten was shown to have lied to try to build a case.

Let us be certain – I can unequivocally state that any claim by UKIP that they have intimidated those who publish under the name Junius into giving up is untrue and like so many other stories that emanate from UKIP and its placemen is just a pack of lies.

I understand that there is a possibility that even though Team Junius are no longer posting there MAY on occasions be guest postings, hosted on the blog.

This posting was made with the approval of Team Junius

By. LINK

UKIP: Neil Hamilton and Farage's offer of an MEP seat

The Hamiltons: A joke in British politics

We have published - along with GLW - details about how Farage offered Neil Hamilton the lead MEP position in the South West. We were mocked by the Farage sycophants for publishing 'lies'. So is the Independent now telling lies too?

It was interesting to note that Hamilton - the disgraced ex-Tory MP- has always declined to deny the wish to stand as a UKIP MEP when asked by concerned UKIPPERS. We can confirm that many UKIP branch chairmen in the SW are VERY unhappy at the prospect of Hamilton becoming a UKIP MEP. Indeed, complaints have been made to UKIP HQ and Farage faces a potential backlash over this this issue.

We would have thought that the fiasco over Bannerman and Andreasen - who saw the selection process rigged by Farage in order to ensure they became candidates - would have made him realise that his judgement was flawed to say the least. However, Farage is too arrogant to admit personal mistakes and is determined to see Hamilton as an MEP in the South West.

Would any serious party really want the joke that is Hamilton representing them in Brussels? The man has more baggage than an Easy Jet! But what Farage wants, Farage gets. And to hell with the consequences!

Here's a few facts about Hamilton:

Cash for Questions

On 20 October 1994, The Guardian published an article which claimed that Hamilton and another minister, Tim Smith, had received money, in the form of cash in brown envelopes. It claimed the money was paid to the men by Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods. In return, the men were to ask questions on behalf of Al-Fayed in the House of Commons. Smith admitted his guilt and resigned immediately. Hamilton claimed innocence but was forced to resign five days later, on 25 October 1994.

The "cash for questions" parliamentary enquiry took place in 1997, led by Downey. Hamilton vowed that if the "Downey report" found against him, he would resign.

Edwina Currie, a former health minister, gave evidence. She told the inquiry that in May 1988, Hamilton had been unmoved by a set of photographs that depicted smoking related cancers; that is, harm to young people which might be caused by a product (tobacco) that he promoted.^[19] Hamilton argued the pictures were irrelevant. Both Hamilton and Michael Brown had received a £6,000 honorarium and hospitality from Skoal Bandits.^[20] In late 1989, Thatcher banned the sale of Skoal Bandit products in the UK.

Downey reported that he found the evidence against Hamilton in the case of Al-Fayed "compelling". Hamilton received over £25,000 and had deliberately misled Michael Heseltine, then President of the Board of Trade, in October 1994, when he said he had no financial relationship with Ian Greer. In a phone conversation, Hamilton gave an absolute assurance to Heseltine that there was no such relationship. In fact, he had received two payments from Greer in 1988 and 1989, totalling £10,000.^[21] Hamilton had asked for payment in kind so the money would not be taxable. He also failed to register his stays at the Hôtel Ritz Paris and at Al-Fayed's castle in Scotland in 1989.

On 3 July 1997, the enquiry found Hamilton guilty of taking "cash for questions". Hamilton, Smith (also found guilty), Brown and Michael Grylls were harshly criticised. If Hamilton and Smith had remained in parliament, Downey said he might have recommended long periods of suspension for both. Hamilton rejected these findings, whereas Smith, who had stood down, accepted them, apologised for his conduct, and retired from politics altogether.

From Wiki

Still happy for this joker to become a UKIP MEP?

From the Independent:

The controversial former Tory MP Neil Hamilton is being lined up to head Ukip’s list of candidates for the June 2014 European elections, party sources have claimed.

Mr Hamilton, who reinvented himself as a television personality after he lost his seat following the “cash-for-questions” affair, was elected onto the party’s national executive committee two years ago. Party members hope his wife can be convinced to run alongside him.

Showing that the debacle of Robert Kilroy-Silk’s nine-month membership has not put Nigel Farage’s party off celebrity candidates, the pair could be joined on the list by DJs Jon Gaunt and Mike Read.

But The Independent has seen internal emails from grassroots members complaining about being “totally ignored” over selection choices.

To read the original: LINK

Also see: LINK

Another potential UKIP MEP waiting in the wings? - Questions that Patrick O'Flynn and Nigel Farage must answer

Heading for Brussels as a member of Nigel's EUKIP Gravy Train?

Patrick O'Flynn - chief political correspondent for the Express - has been the subject of some interesting discussions recently. His coverage of Farage has been laudatory to say the least. Indeed, he appears to be falling over himself to present Nigel in the most glowing terms - LINK - He even spoke at the UKIP conference!

Sources close to Farage have told us that O'Flynn has been offered a lead MEP position by Farage in exchange for a pro-Farage/UKIP line. We can confirm that Farage has met O'Flynn. The MEP lists have also been discussed.

Would Mr O'Flynn care to comment on this? And would Nigel like to confirm or deny the offer of a MEP seat to O'Flynn? And is O'Flynn's boss at the Express aware of these allegations and the fact that O'Flynn's supposed impartiality has been seriously brought into question?

This is not the first time Farage has been accused of offering an MEP seat to a journalist. Here is an interesting article by Michael Crick of Channel 4. The video that accompanies the original article is also most interesting. Farage's discomfort can clearly be seen. Nigel is not a very good liar! You will need to click on the link at the end of Crick's article to view it.

From Channel 4 News:

In my Channel 4 News report from South Shields last night I was unable to include a series of exchanges I had with Nigel Farage about the controversial former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan, who has frequently in public defended the use of phone hacking.

Mr McMullan had planned to stand as a Ukip candidate in tomorrow’s election in Kent, but then, three weeks ago, the party’s national executive committee barred him from standing. McMullan is now standing as an independent tomorrow, under the slogan “Save Village Pubs” (he’s a pub landlord himself).

I first noticed Paul McMullan’s connection with Ukip when I spotted him at the party’s spring conference in Exeter on 23 March, and I even mentioned his presence in my report from Exeter on C4 News that night. McMullan claimed not only to have joined Ukip, but also that he had been appointed press officer of the party’s local branch in Dover and Deal.

Mr McMullan told me yesterday that while he was in Exeter that weekend, Nigel Farage actually encouraged him to put his name forward as a Ukip candidate, not for the council elections, but for the European elections next year, and the Westminster general election in 2015. McMullan recalls Farage saying: “Marvellous. Go and get the forms filled in,” and encouraging him to join the recruitment process for Ukip candidates.

Yesterday afternoon in South Shields, I put to Nigel Farage Paul McMullan’s claim that the Ukip leader had actually urged him to stand for election. It was an example, I suggested, that the party didn’t know what it was doing. Farage vehemently said he didn’t remember any such conversation. “I don’t recall saying anything to Mr McMullan about him being a candidate.”

Paul McMullan says that he had two personal connections with Farage. He says the Ukip leader was a friend of his older brother in Kent, and also his former father-in-law, whose funeral Farage attended. “I like Nigel Farage very much,” says McMullan. He was the sole reason I joined Ukip, and why I wanted to stand. I joined Ukip because of him. I’m not sure I’ve said anything bad about Ukip, and I still think they make a lot of sense.”

McMullan was subsequently picked as a Ukip candidate for the council elections tomorrow, but then the Ukip high command heard about it, intervened and quickly axed him. “There was a feeling that his candidacy for Ukip would be a distratction as he’d be the story rather than the party,” the Ukip executive chairman Steve Crowther says. Ukip feared their 55 other candidates in Kent would be “overshadowed by Mr McMullan’s personality”. Paul McMullan has described the decision as being “stabbed in the back with a rusty blade”.

If Nigel Farage did encourage McMullan to become a Ukip candidate, it was a highly questionable judgement by the Ukip leader. McMullan has frequently appeared in the media in the last few years defending the use of phone-hacking, both at the News of the World, and elsewhere. “I see nothing wrong with it at all,” he says. “I’d happily hack your phone if I’d got something that suggesting you were doing something against the public interest, like being in the pay of one of the political parties.”

It’s all very curious. One man’s word against another. Nigel Farage against Paul McMullan. Not an easy choice.

To read the original: LINK

Also see: LINK

UKIP's fascist ally in the EDF group makes racist remarks about black minister

Mario Borghezio

And so Farage's friend and colleague in the EDF group - of which Farage is president - has launched a vitriolic attack on Italy's first black minister.

On Italian Radio 24, he said:

• "This is a bonga bonga government.”
• “Kyenge wants to impose her tribal traditions from the Congo."
• "You can't say the word '******' in Italy, only think it"
• "She seems like a great housekeeper, but not a government minister."
• “(Mario Balotelli is) not a minister. He kicks a ball and that's fine if someone from Congo or Africa wants to do that.”
• "Africans are different. They belong to an ethnicity much different from ours. They haven't produced great genes."

And what did Farage have to say? Nothing!

It's no different when Borghezio praised mass murderer Breivik. Farage did nothing! See: LINK

Sorry Nigel, but the days of the media ignoring your racist bedfellows is over. The media spotlight is now firmly upon you. You're going to have to explain why you are still prepared to sit with this man and others like him. And the same goes for all those other UKIP MEPs in the group!

Many good men and women now represent UKIP as councillors. Chris Pain is one such example - a man of integrity and patriotism. Farage's willingness to sit with fascists like Mario Borghezio can and will damage their reputations in the UK. We can't allow this to happen!

It's time for UKIPPERS to demand answers from Farage. Just why are you still willing to sit with a man who praises mass murder and refers to blacks as n*ggers! Is getting more money as part of a group - plus the ego boosting title of president - more important than the reputation of the party and your members?

From the Gazzetta del Sud:

A member of the European Parliament from the xenophobic Northern League party on Tuesday made racist comments about Italy's first black minister, Cecile Kyenge. "This is a bonga bonga government, they want to change birthright citizenship laws and Kyenge wants to impose her tribal traditions from the Congo," said Mario Borghezio in an interview with Italian Radio 24. A 48-year-old doctor who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyenge was sworn in Sunday as integration minister in the left-right coalition government of Premier Enrico Letta. When asked if he considered Kyenge an Italian, Borghezio said, "The country is what it is, and the laws are made of crap". "You can't say the word 'nigger' in Italy, only think it," Borghezio added. "Pretty soon you won't even be able to say illegal immigrant - you'll have to say 'your excellence'. "She seems like a great housekeeper, but not a government minister". When asked about Mario Balotelli, Italy's star soccer player with African roots, Borghezio said, "he's not a minister. He kicks a ball and that's fine if someone from Congo or Africa wants to do that. "Africans are different. They belong to an ethnicity much different from ours. They haven't produced great genes. Enough consulting these Mickey Mouse encyclopedias. "Kyenge is a doctor. We gave her position in a state-run facility that should have gone to an Italian".

To read the original: LINK

Dr Richard North on the 'Rise' of UKIP

UK politics: no further forward

---

I expected a certain amount of hostility when I raised the issue of turnout at the Campaign for Independent Britain meeting yesterday. But when I pointed out that the vote was shrinking, suggesting that this contradicted claims of a popular movement "on the march", I got a general murmur of agreement.

To judge by some reaction though, while Farage is to lauded for his "plain speaking" and "straight talking", that same freedom should be denied to anyone wishing to look beyond the media hype.

Even Autonomous Mind is enjoined to get behind "the only team in town" and to "stop the continual sniping at UKIP". The anointed one's party, it seems, must be exempted from the normal process of critical analysis, as we bow down and hail the stupendous victory of The Great Leader.

Actually, though, Booker is right. He sees in the "surge" for the Farage Pothole Party not any great support for the party itself, but a reaction to the behaviour of the political classes – a Europe-wide reaction which is reflected in the growth of dissident parties in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Greece and elsewhere.

In some senses, it perpetuates the continued degradation of the voting system, which is supposed – in theory – to pick the best individual candidate to represent the voters in their areas. In some cases we have seen elected "paper" candidates with no political experience, representing a party which has no track record in local government.

In other words, the vote was not so much for UKIP as against the political classes, something which was picked up by Martin Hill, the Conservative leader of Lincolnshire county council. He acknowledges that UKIP has successfully "plugged in" to this issue of EU migrants. Unease about this social change has been worsened by a feeling that Westminster is not listening to voters or speaking their language, particularly in rural areas, he suggests.

"People feel there is a political elite a bit divorced from ordinary people", Hill adds. "On the doorstep, it wasn’t the policies, it was about the feeling of the disconnect".

This distinction is incredibly important when it comes to trying to understand the nature of the processes we are witnessing, which are otherwise swamping by the media chatter which is no more accurate nor perceptive than it ever has been.

Crucially, we see in the response to Farage, renewed calls for a referendum, and even the idea of a "mandate referendum". This some Conservatives MPs want as early as next May, in which the public will be asked whether they want the government to negotiate a "new relationship with the EU based on trade and political co-operation".

Slated as a "UKIP killer", if this gathers a head of steam, it is very dangerous for the eurosceptic movement as a whole.

To reject the very idea of such a referendum invites the claim that people are not interested in "Europe", to refuse a mandate is to suggest that we are happy with the way things are, and to vote "yes" gives the prime minister a spurious authority for something he can't do anyway.

On the other hand, the very last thing we want is an "in-out" referendum - which we would be certain to lose, setting back the movement for a generation. If Mr Cameron had any sense, he would offer just that, calling Farage's bluff and lancing the boil.

And it is here that the criticism of Farage is strongest - and rightly so. Ten years ago, many of us were arguing with the man that UKIP needed to develop a credible exit plan.

Ten wasted years later, the party still does not have a credible exit plan. Furthermore, last Thurday's "success" brings us no closer to getting one. Nor indeed does the party have a strategic plan to secure our withdrawal from the EU – other than perhaps getting the anointed one to Number 10 where he can wave a magic wand and lead us to the sunlit uplands.

Yet, to point out that a possible (and likely) outcome of Farage's long-term dereliction is to lead us blindly into a referendum contest that we cannot possibly win is seen by is growing band of acolytes as heresy and even worse.

But, without a plan, without a strategy, we lose. Farage's disparate bunch of amateurs are up against real professionals. Confronted with the might of the media, the political establishment, the wealth of corporate business and the power of the EU, our chances of winning a referendum always were slight. For all the energy and funds expended on the Farage folly, all we might have achieved is one step closer to annihilation.

In my next post, therefore, I will sketch out the bones of a plan, offering ideas of how we can actually go about getting ourselves out of the EU, ideas which I set out to the CIB yesterday.

Photograph courtesy of David Wilkinson, with thanks

 

To read the original: LINK

 

And:

 

I will be in London today talking to the Campaign for an Independent Britain, on the general subject of "the way forward" for euroscepticism.

It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that my list of things we must have in order successfully to secure an exit from the EU does not include the Farage Party, which is more and more looking like a cul-de-sac. And in a subliminal message which affirms that, we see the front page of the Daily Mail (left) where any news of the "great victory" is remarkably absent.

Unfashionable it may be to say in certain quarters, but to attract the support of 6-8 percent of the electorate in council elections (and 9.4 percent in a by-election) is not evidence of a wildly successful popular campaign. And this is less so when, with each passing election, the pool of engaged voters steadily diminishes, as evidenced by the declining turnouts.

As we have remarked before, the obsession with share of the vote, where turnout is in free fall, has the hallmarks of two bald men fighting over a comb – although it is more like a gang of people squabbling over its possession.


It is perhaps appropriate, therefore, that the newspaper that makes the greatest front-page display of the Farage Party success is the loss-making Guardian. This left-wing newspaper is only too well aware that the only way of resuscitating the flagging Labour campaign is to big-up UKIP in the hope of damaging the Conservative Party.

Therein lies an uncomfortable truth. However, much it may protest otherwise, at its current level of support, when it has absorbed the transferable votes from the BNP, arising from the collapse of another one-man-band, by far the greater bulk of UKIP's support comes from disaffected Conservatives.

Come the general election, which is the only election which matters to the political claque, the Left will certainly be egging on the "party of protest" in the expectation that it will continue to do disproportionate damage to the Right.

And, confronted with the challenge, Mr Cameron's Conservatives will do whatever it takes to neutralise the threat. For, if Farage has succeeded in anything, he has certainly got the attention of the political classes.

The ironic thing is that the most immediate outcome of grabbing the Guardian front page is one of two possibilities – either the election of the Labour Party to office in the 2015 general election (with or without the Lib-Dems), or resurgent Conservatives who will most likely offer as the bribe to restore their fortunes an EU referendum that we cannot possibly win.

I would find this latter even doubly ironic – for UKIP to force upon the nation a referendum for which it is wholly unprepared, where it would be completely outflanked, then to saddle us with a lost vote which will set the eurosceptic movement back a generation.

But then, whatever else, Farage has never included amongst his attributes anything approaching tactical acumen or strategic planning. Right now, though, his dogged pursuit of a twenty-year-old game plan might now look on the threshold of a breakthrough. But the truth is that it has no better chance of success now than when he first scribbled it on the back of a beer-soaked bar mat, at the end of a boozy planning session.

Perhaps that "plan" emanated from the Grand Old Duke of York pub, because Farage is marching his troops to the top of the hill. Too soon, he will be marching them down again, back into the intellectual cul-de-sac from which his "cunning plan" originated.

And that is what I will be telling the CIB today, plus a few more home truths. Those views won't necessarily be welcome, but I suspect there may be a few there capable of straight thinking and I won't have to make a quick dash for the exit. We shall see.

To read the original: LINK

 

UKIP: Nigel's Ultra Secret Election Victory Video

We are happy to present a short film intended for release when Nigel Farage becomes PM. It's Nigel's personal vision of what the UK will become under our new wise leader and all round good egg - the genius that is NIGEL FARAGE, GOD BLESS HIM!

It's production was ordered by UKIP High Command - in association with Peter 'Up the Duff' Reeve Enterprises - in the immediate aftermath of the May 2nd elections.

We expect it to be broadcast to a bewildered nation in 2015 or thereabouts.

 

Congratulations to Nigel Farage for sending shockwaves across Westminster

We will be the first to admit it - UKIP did much better than we expected. They gained 147 councillors, came second in South Shields, shook the political elite in Westminster and brought the EU and immigration firmly into the political spotlight.

However, we must remember that two thirds of the electorate didn't vote and UKIP failed to gain control of a single council. Also, there were approx 2000 seats up for grabs. Gaining 147 seats certainly can't be compared to election landslides under Thatcher or even Blair. The real winner was apathy.

We must concede that many people were attracted to UKIP due to those reports concerning far-right candidates in the party. For example, many ex-BNP supporters decided to vote UKIP because they shared the views expressed by the candidates highlighted in those stories.

All the three major parties have been given a bloody nose by UKIP and an electorate who rightly feel betrayed and ignored by the so-called Westminster elite. Cameron didn't lose as many seats as expected but he now faces increasing pressure to move his party to the right and neutralise UKIP. Labour failed to make the gains they expected and the Lib Dems did very badly - and deservedly so!

Members of the Junius Team have already spoken to senior Tories and we can confirm that they are extremely worried about UKIP. We have been made aware of a report which states that UKIP can be expected to take a  number of seats from them in the Euro elections.

One senior Tory has said to us that Cameron needs to be booted out by the end of the year. He wishes to see an alliance between Farage's UKIP and a revitalised Conservative party under Boris Johnson. And there are many others who share his views at the top of the Tory tree.

Or will a new Tory leader simply ignore UKIP and move the party to the right in order to win back their former supporters? Maggie Thatcher neutralised the NF by doing just that in 1979.

Let us be quite clear on one thing - Farage is corrupt, vindictive and we have no admiration for the man. He's a man motivated by ego and greed. However, we must give him credit for shaking Westminster to it's core.

There are many good people in UKIP and we share their commitment to getting the UK out of the EU. We also wish to see an end to uncontrolled immigration. And that's why it's a tragedy that UKIP is lead by the dishonest and the corrupt.

It's time for UKIPPERS to ensure that talent is encouraged in the party. However, the party is so centralised under Farage that this will never happen. UKIP's undoubted success today will further strengthen Farage's control and thus ensure that his sycophants will remain firmly in place.

Nigel Farage is UKIP and UKIP is Nigel Farage. This will cause serious problems for the party in the future. Any scandal involving Farage could seriously damage UKIP - perhaps fatally.

We can confirm that a documentary exposing Farage is now near completion. The success of May 2nd will ensure that it will now be broadcast. And you can expect other revelations regarding Farage from certain sources - including from his former colleagues.

The spotlight is now firmly on UKIP. The leadership of the party was frankly surprised by the hostile press campaign waged against them  - they haven't seen nothing yet!

But nevertheless, congratulations to Nigel Farage - and those ordinary activists - for making the Westminster 'elite' realise that they ignore the British people at their peril.

See: LINK