Just in! Vote Rigging for Dummies. Foreword by Nigel Farage and Michael Zuckerman. Afterword by Paul 'Benito' Nuttall. Copies can be obtained from the UKIP website shop.
The NEC Elections
The complaints regarding Bloom’s attempts to rig the vote continue. Even Roger Knapman has threatened to get involved.
Demands have been made that the membership lists be compared with the returned ballot papers in order to see if any members appear more than once. Zuckerman is resisting this.
One NEC candidate has described the count to us as a “f****** shambles and a disgrace to democracy”.
Here are a few facts about the count:
Ray Finch was set to win a place on the NEC. Suddenly another ballot box was produced. The votes inside tipped the balance in favour of another candidate.
Zuckerman was conspicuous by his absence. John Knotts replaced him as acting returning officer.
There were no official scrutineers
Ballot paper numbers were not checked against a master list of names and numbers.
Envelopes with more than one ballot paper – such as husband and wife - were immediately invalidated. No questions asked.
Many envelopes also contained the Godfrey Bloom 'approved list '. They were all accepted.
Some candidates have still not been told the number of votes cast!
Here are the final results:
Steve Allison 2275
George Curtis 1849
Hugh Williams 1748
Jill Seymour 1696
Mick McGough 1604
Elizabeth Burton 1548
Julia Reid 1491
Coburn 1,452
Micklethwait 1,326
Finch 1,317
Pain 1,261
Bours 1,248
Henke 1,198
Rowlands 1,191
Black 1,077
Daly 1,051
Mason 958
Garner 924
Atkinson 881
Jones 863
McKenzie 857
Harrison 847
Slaughter 832
Povey 822
Moyies 807
Mackay 789
Macey 751
Durrance 749
McIntyre 694
Swain 687
McWhirter 653
Hookem 634
Macarthur 559
Duxbury 500
Evans 421
Carter 392
Dodman 355
This is what Dr Edmond had to say on his excellent blog:
Another UKIP election surrounded by allegations of ballot rigging. The mysterious box of ballot papers that allegedly appeared at the last minute whose contents allegedly moved Mr Finch from in the lead to, well not elected to the NEC. When you add in the Junius allegation of a 'B' list of approved candidates sent out to some members by a UKIP MEP and subsequently find 4 B listers were elected then of course questions will be asked. The UK media would ask questions if this happened in a Banana republic!
You can't stop MEPs taking ill judged actions. The only solution is the long term one of selecting better MEP candidates. With this end in view, when on the SWCC I argued that UKIP use the ERS service which cost only a few pence per ballot more than an internal ballot and would have squashed most allegations of ballot rigging and given UKIP their seal of approval. This was passed by the SWCC but stopped by the Cabal. I wonder why?
The ERS also always uses FREEPOST so would have generated a higher response than the actual ballot that I estimate was in the low 30 percent range. The ERS will not only issue; receive and count votes, they will also verify the database containing the membership details of the voters. A service worth paying for in my opinion.
When at the NEC I tried to have the ERS used for all regions MEP selection ballots. I was shouted down by Farage and Whittaker who claimed completely wrongly that the ERS only did Single Transferable Vote ballots. I had a copy of an email at that meeting from the ERS stating they would use any system the client wanted including specifically the UKIP one. Still Farage and Whittaker insisted this was wrong and then there was the usual Cabal tribal chants from Clarke, Denny et al in support of NF.
There was so much to gain from using the ERS that one must ask why not? Well the latest allegations answer that question. As to those elected I know Julia Read is honest decent and will speak her mind without fear or favour. I cannot say the same about the rest that I know who were elected.
So now we move on to another leadership ballot. Last time this was conducted by the ERS funded by Mr Mickelwaite who was I believe subsequently reimbursed by Lord Pearson. It was a fptp election thus showing Farage and Whittaker were wrong but nothing unusual in that -it happened all the time. Let us just hope the ERS is used this time also.
Every professional body I and my wife have ever been a member of uses the ERS for their elections. They all have larger and better resourced head offices than UKIP yet they still see the ERS seal of approval as worth paying for. It stops dissent and argument about the probity of the election. Its high time UKIP learned its lesson on this. It became a political laughing stock over Pearson but a banana republic allegation will be much more damaging.
To see the original: LINK
Frank ‘Baloney’ Maloney may stand for leadership
Good old Frank!
"I'm thinking about it. Ukip needs to modernise and it needs the leadership to bring it into the modern world and to modernise its image.
The majority of people see us as cast-away Tories or old English. I don't think that's the case. I'm not an ex-Tory and I'm not old English, but I am patriotic. If Ukip makes the wrong decision now, it will stagnate and simply become a party of protest."
We just hope that Frank remembers how you spell ‘Britain’. Last time he stood for election it caused him a lot of trouble! See above. Also see: LINK
For an amusing take on the UKIP leadership election see the Independent: LINK
Porn Earl looking for a Press Officer
The Earl of Dartmouth is currently advertising for a Press Officer. The wage will be between £75,000 and £85,000 a year.
The odious Paul Nuttall has been quick to deny any UKIP involvement.
So why are applicants instructed to send their CVs to UKIP's Head Office? And why are they being misled into thinking that the job involves working for a political party when Nuttall says different?
Here is an extract from the advert:
Established UK political party looking for experienced journalist to head media team based in London.
Dartmouth's website clearly states says his EU allowances are fully committed to employ three assistants in the West Country and one in Brussels. It certainly doesn't mention a media team in London.
We sincerely hope that UKIP has not lied again. The advert is quite clear in stating that the job involves working for a political party. Deliberately publishing a misleading job advert can be damaging to your health. We would REALLY hate to see UKIP involved in yet another scandal.
See: LINK
John Papworth
How interesting to note that the UKIP website "shop" contains a book by John Papworth.
Mr Papworth is a stalwart of the Green movement.
However, his career is somewhat shady. He has done a couple of stints behind bars, and was even 'defrocked' by the Church of England for encouraging people to shoplift from supermarkets.
Funny party, very funny people.
The complaints regarding Bloom’s attempts to rig the vote continue. Even Roger Knapman has threatened to get involved.
Demands have been made that the membership lists be compared with the returned ballot papers in order to see if any members appear more than once. Zuckerman is resisting this.
One NEC candidate has described the count to us as a “f****** shambles and a disgrace to democracy”.
Here are a few facts about the count:
Ray Finch was set to win a place on the NEC. Suddenly another ballot box was produced. The votes inside tipped the balance in favour of another candidate.
Zuckerman was conspicuous by his absence. John Knotts replaced him as acting returning officer.
There were no official scrutineers
Ballot paper numbers were not checked against a master list of names and numbers.
Envelopes with more than one ballot paper – such as husband and wife - were immediately invalidated. No questions asked.
Many envelopes also contained the Godfrey Bloom 'approved list '. They were all accepted.
Some candidates have still not been told the number of votes cast!
Here are the final results:
Steve Allison 2275
George Curtis 1849
Hugh Williams 1748
Jill Seymour 1696
Mick McGough 1604
Elizabeth Burton 1548
Julia Reid 1491
Coburn 1,452
Micklethwait 1,326
Finch 1,317
Pain 1,261
Bours 1,248
Henke 1,198
Rowlands 1,191
Black 1,077
Daly 1,051
Mason 958
Garner 924
Atkinson 881
Jones 863
McKenzie 857
Harrison 847
Slaughter 832
Povey 822
Moyies 807
Mackay 789
Macey 751
Durrance 749
McIntyre 694
Swain 687
McWhirter 653
Hookem 634
Macarthur 559
Duxbury 500
Evans 421
Carter 392
Dodman 355
This is what Dr Edmond had to say on his excellent blog:
Another UKIP election surrounded by allegations of ballot rigging. The mysterious box of ballot papers that allegedly appeared at the last minute whose contents allegedly moved Mr Finch from in the lead to, well not elected to the NEC. When you add in the Junius allegation of a 'B' list of approved candidates sent out to some members by a UKIP MEP and subsequently find 4 B listers were elected then of course questions will be asked. The UK media would ask questions if this happened in a Banana republic!
You can't stop MEPs taking ill judged actions. The only solution is the long term one of selecting better MEP candidates. With this end in view, when on the SWCC I argued that UKIP use the ERS service which cost only a few pence per ballot more than an internal ballot and would have squashed most allegations of ballot rigging and given UKIP their seal of approval. This was passed by the SWCC but stopped by the Cabal. I wonder why?
The ERS also always uses FREEPOST so would have generated a higher response than the actual ballot that I estimate was in the low 30 percent range. The ERS will not only issue; receive and count votes, they will also verify the database containing the membership details of the voters. A service worth paying for in my opinion.
When at the NEC I tried to have the ERS used for all regions MEP selection ballots. I was shouted down by Farage and Whittaker who claimed completely wrongly that the ERS only did Single Transferable Vote ballots. I had a copy of an email at that meeting from the ERS stating they would use any system the client wanted including specifically the UKIP one. Still Farage and Whittaker insisted this was wrong and then there was the usual Cabal tribal chants from Clarke, Denny et al in support of NF.
There was so much to gain from using the ERS that one must ask why not? Well the latest allegations answer that question. As to those elected I know Julia Read is honest decent and will speak her mind without fear or favour. I cannot say the same about the rest that I know who were elected.
So now we move on to another leadership ballot. Last time this was conducted by the ERS funded by Mr Mickelwaite who was I believe subsequently reimbursed by Lord Pearson. It was a fptp election thus showing Farage and Whittaker were wrong but nothing unusual in that -it happened all the time. Let us just hope the ERS is used this time also.
Every professional body I and my wife have ever been a member of uses the ERS for their elections. They all have larger and better resourced head offices than UKIP yet they still see the ERS seal of approval as worth paying for. It stops dissent and argument about the probity of the election. Its high time UKIP learned its lesson on this. It became a political laughing stock over Pearson but a banana republic allegation will be much more damaging.
To see the original: LINK
Frank ‘Baloney’ Maloney may stand for leadership
Good old Frank!
"I'm thinking about it. Ukip needs to modernise and it needs the leadership to bring it into the modern world and to modernise its image.
The majority of people see us as cast-away Tories or old English. I don't think that's the case. I'm not an ex-Tory and I'm not old English, but I am patriotic. If Ukip makes the wrong decision now, it will stagnate and simply become a party of protest."
We just hope that Frank remembers how you spell ‘Britain’. Last time he stood for election it caused him a lot of trouble! See above. Also see: LINK
For an amusing take on the UKIP leadership election see the Independent: LINK
Porn Earl looking for a Press Officer
The Earl of Dartmouth is currently advertising for a Press Officer. The wage will be between £75,000 and £85,000 a year.
The odious Paul Nuttall has been quick to deny any UKIP involvement.
So why are applicants instructed to send their CVs to UKIP's Head Office? And why are they being misled into thinking that the job involves working for a political party when Nuttall says different?
Here is an extract from the advert:
Established UK political party looking for experienced journalist to head media team based in London.
Dartmouth's website clearly states says his EU allowances are fully committed to employ three assistants in the West Country and one in Brussels. It certainly doesn't mention a media team in London.
We sincerely hope that UKIP has not lied again. The advert is quite clear in stating that the job involves working for a political party. Deliberately publishing a misleading job advert can be damaging to your health. We would REALLY hate to see UKIP involved in yet another scandal.
See: LINK
John Papworth
How interesting to note that the UKIP website "shop" contains a book by John Papworth.
Mr Papworth is a stalwart of the Green movement.
However, his career is somewhat shady. He has done a couple of stints behind bars, and was even 'defrocked' by the Church of England for encouraging people to shoplift from supermarkets.
Funny party, very funny people.
Whilst boxer, charasmatic personality, Frank Moloney would make a viable 'personlity' for UKIP campaigns, I don't think Mr M is a suitable candidate for leadership of the party.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he does makes a good point that UKIP needs to modernise.
What is more important though at this time of chaos,division and lack of democracy within the party is that there is a need for a leader with the appropriate experience,clear vision of where the party needs to go, and what changes it needs to make to achieves these goals and personal integrity.
A demonstrated committment to democracy within the Party would go a long way too.
UKIP does seem to be a mish mash these days, of people with grandiose ideas of themselves who seem to get away with so much unscrupulous behaviour.
This is not helped by the fact that there are so many of them!
There are so many 'camps' in UKIP, probably far more than at Glastonbury.
UKIP does seem chaotic too, with everyone being 'a law' unto themselves, with no accountability, except to others, who are also a law unto themselves, with no accountability!
There needs to be basic structures and mechanisms of accountability, that everyone can agree on and maintain.
The fact that any mechanism of accountability that exists are not adhered to, is worrying very worrying indeed.
'Camp Farage' is the one to watch!
ReplyDelete