> Follow The Money!

A GUEST POSTING:

Why does Nigel Farage put up with Christopher Monckton? Many people have asked the question. Monckton is a largely discredited fantasist, so why does he remain in the upper echelons of UKIP? Let us speculate...

Monckton is an'expert' for the Heartland Institute, a US based lobbying group that presents itself as think tank. Climate change denial is one of the institute's specialities, although it's so-called experts concentrate their efforts on questioning legitimate science without presenting anything of their own.

There is, of course, big money behind the Heartland Institute - oil company money.

 Heartland received $736,500 from Exxon Mobil between 1998 and 2006, although it no longer discloses funding details largely due to negative attention fron the press. The institute's own figures suggest that other oil, gas, and energy companies donated $260,000 in 2007.

So now we may have a clue as to why Farage puts up with Monckton. Is largesse the motive for UKIP MEP's climate change denial speeches and articles?

Another Heartland Institute 'expert' is Chris Horner, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which is another recipient of Exxon Mobil funding. Horner's involvement with CEI's euro-offshoot, the European Enterprise, brought UKIP MEPs and saffers into his orbit. Horner was a guest speaker at a climate change denial conference in the European Parliament hosted by Roger Helmer. Helmer has spoken alongside Horner at other events.

Iain Murray is also to be found at the CEI. It was Murray who wrote UKIP's statement rebbuting the IPCC. In 2004, the only year for which information is available, the CEI paid Murray $65,000. Let us be clear about this: this is oil industry money, being paid to an 'expert' to write policy statements for poltical parties. None of this is illegal, of course, but it certainly brings into serious question the integrity of those policies.

The Heartland Institute and the CEI have another common policy interest, tobacco. Philip Morris have been major donors to CEI over the years. In 1994 one of their 'experts' wrote "Perhaps, in the fine tradition of civil disobedience championed by Thoreau, we should even think of smoking as a civic duty,".

If that sounds strange, a paper published by the Heartland Institute yesterday (Nov 11th)  states:
"Nicotine’s beneficial effects include correcting problems with concentration, attention and memory, as well as improving symptoms of mood impairments. Keeping such disabilities at bay right now can be much stronger motivation to continue using nicotine than any threats of diseases that may strike years and years in the future."

Guess what? Philip Morris have also been pumping big bucks into the Heartland Institute!

A few years ago, UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom was ordered to cancel a conference questioning the detrimental effects of passive smoking in the European Parliament after allegations that tobacco industry money was behind the event.

We could go into more detail here, but that is for investigative journalists to do.

> Did Farage Lie To The Press About His Business Interests?

A GUEST POSTING:

It was a huge embarrassment to Nigel Farage when his off-shore tax avoidance scheme was exposed by the press. He had of course recently criticised such schemes in the European Parliament. But of course, if it is him, it is different. He can do anything he wants.

Questions were also asked about his business interests, and his tax affairs. With regard to the latter, we understand that questions are still being asked.

In his own defence Farage claimed that, amongst other things, he had no business interests.  ‘I packed up business completely in 2004.’ he told the press.

This was not entirely true, as he was at that time director and sole shareholder of Thorn in the side ltd.

Now we note that he has revised his declaration of financial interests to the European Parliament.

He acknowledges that he is paid by the company a sum between 1001 - 5000 euros per month.

The question is, was he receiving an income at the time he told the press that he had  ‘ packed up business completely in 2004.’?

Investigative journalists might want to take a close look at this, we are reliably informed.

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• Why Nigel Farage worries me

> A UKIP Leadership Coup?

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"It's an utter shambles. We've no organisation, Mike Scott-Hayward is nowhere to be seen, no-one's heard from Christopher (Lord) Monckton (Ukip Scottish president) and it's really not like any political party I've ever heard of. Communications disappear into a black hole, there's brewing friction and internal politics has taken over. Every party has divisions but there's no structures here to deal with it. It's all very demoralising."  - Senior UKIP source.

The Herald in Scotland reports on a possible UKIP leadership coup north of the border. We think it would be a coup indeed if they could find any leadership at all up there!

The serial liar and conspiracy theorist, Monckton, has always been (theoretically) leader of UKIP Scotland. It is a shame he never made more use of his office, its the only one he claims that really exists. His humiliation in the US a few years ago was a delight to watch.

Related articles

• UKIP Cult in Disarray in Scotland, as ever!
• Ukip has chanced upon the neglected part of British politics | Alex Andreou
• David Cameron goes fishing for Ukip votes in the blue waters of euroscepticism
• Every attempt is being made to stop us from speaking. Nigel Farage.

> UKIP & Le Pen: The links & what they mean.

A GUEST POSTING:

There was an interesting moment on Sunday when Andrew Neil asked Paul Nuttall about alleged links with Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front.

Nuttall stated that he had never met her.

As recently as the early part of this year reports from Brussels referred to meetings between UKIP and Front Nationale figures to discuss the formation of a political group in the European Parliament after next May's european elections. Godfrey Bloom, of course, was co-founder of the European Alliance for Freedom, a far-right pan-European political party. The photo shows the UKIP logo side by side with the EAF one.

This is from a statement issued by Front Nationale last year:

‘Marine Le Pen joined the European Alliance for Freedom last October. This pan-European platform was founded at the end of 2010 and despite its opposition to the European Union such as it is organised at present, has been recognised by the European Parliament. The members of this Alliance have come from the ranks of those movements engaged in the patriotic and sovereignty struggles of our time. They include for example the Austrian FPÖ of Heinz-Christian Strache, the British UKIP of Nigel Farage..."

Mme. Le Pen is in the ascendency, and is probably the most prominent populist politician in Europe. Farage is said to be seething about this.

Pan-European parties will be able to contest 'virtual' constituencies. To be top of the candidates list in one of these parties is a guarantee of a job for life, which is what Farage craves. He knows that a seat in Westminster will never be his, and a Tory peerage is dependent on his patrons toppling Cameron and replacing him with one of their own, David Davies, most likely.

However, The EAF is now very much Le Pen's vehicle, and she is steering it well. The will be no political space for a second far-right party. Farage has missed the boat and he probably knows it.

Related articles

• Anti-immigration far-Right parties will fight EU elections together, but without neo-fascists
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• Marine Le Pen hopes to create pan-European eurosceptic movement
• UKIP Cult in Disarray in Scotland, as ever!
• France's Front National to team up with other far Right parties for European elections

> Steve Crowther Should 'Count the Paperclips'!

A GUEST POSTING:

In the political context, UKIP often refer to the issue of the EU as 'The elephant in the room'.

Now, in the context of UKIP, its constant internal strife, and litany of incompetence, an MEP has raised the matter of another elephant in the room. Disgraced (at least for the moment) Godfrey Bloom has turned his fire on Party Secretary Steve Crowther.

The independent MEP, who is still a UKIP member, and who contrary to what the press were told here in the UK is still a member of the far-right EFD group in the European Parliament, said he felt there was "no future for me" in Ukip after the party chairman, Steve Crowther, publicly criticised him for advocating "radical" policies.

"Clearly there's no future for me in the party when the chairman, an ex-LibDem who believes he should have an interest in policy and not count the paperclips which is what he was employed to do, now feels he is entitled to criticise me when I talk about radical or libertarian policies, it's something I simply don't tolerate."

Crowther has repeatedly demonstrated his total lack of political acumen, and an absence of any ability in the field of policy. Some might argue that this makes him perfect for the job, as he will fit in alongside so many others posessing similar ineptitude.

Described by one MEP recently as a "nauseating little shit", Crowther has one quality that ensures that he has at least a temporary future in UKIP - a brown nose.


Read the original here.

> UKIP's Partners Want New EU Legislation To Send Unwanted People To Us.

A GUEST POSTING:

Everybody's favourite fascists, & UKIP's partners in the European Parliament, Lega Nord, have come up with a great idea.

Lorenzo Fontana, one of their MEPs, is calling on the European Commission to produce legislation to "ensure an equal distribution among the 28 member states of immigrants arriving at the coasts of southern Europe and across the EU border with Turkey, in accordance with the principle of solidarity and burden sharing".

Basically, this means passing immigrants and refugees our way.

Or to paraphrase the famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me,
And we will send them all to Kent.

So, we have new EU legislation, the passing on of unwanted human beings, and recognition of the 'solidarity' of the EU.

Nice company Nigel Farage keeps.

> More Hypocrisy From The UKIP Fuhrer.

A GUEST POSTING:

The following is taken directly from UKIP's 2010 manifesto. It appears in the transport section.

"Invest in three new 200mph plus high-speed rail lines including a new line between London and Newcastle with a spur to Manchester, a London-Bristol-Exeter line and a linking route via Birmingham."

Note please the words new, high-speed, and link.

So that would be HS2, then.

But now, of course, that others have taken the lead and roused opposition, it becomes prudent for the little man in the silly suit to pretend that he was against it all along. In fact, he has even claimed that UKIP is the only party to have opposed HS2.

Calling for it in a recent manifesto is a funny way to oppose it!

Or perhaps they thought that nobody would notice!