UKIP: Mark Croucher crawls out from the sewers

Mark Croucher - also known as Balding Friar Tuck

 

 

It would appear that the Winball Pizard, aka Mary Hinge, aka Mark Croucher is back in the employ of UKIP.

In what capacity we are not certain, possibly his silence is simply being paid for. Infamously, in his guise of Winball Pizard, Croucher's e-mail address was the destination of some stolen documents passed on by the notorious Jon Ison, a paid assistant of Paul Nuttall. This is believed to be the subject of an ongoing police investigation, so we will say no more at this stage.

 

You may recall that Mr Croucher and UKIP still owe a substantial amount of money to GLW after they lost a court case against him in 2010. LINK. We have, of course, passed on our information to GLW and his legal team.

Nice people at UKIP, aren't they?

 

UKIP will lose Eastleigh

Farage with another UKIP loser - Diane Martine James

How we have laughed at the usual Farage sycophants and useful idiots during the Eastleigh campaign! They claim, as usual, that UKIP is going to win their first seat in Westminster. How many times have we all heard that before?

Ms James is competent enough but she has no chance of winning. Farage knows that UKIP will fail and that's why he declined to stand himself. He simply can't face the humiliation of losing yet another Westminster election. His fragile ego won't take it. He needs praise, success and media attention. We can well remember his humiliation in Buckingham. He was almost in tears when told he'd came third to two pro- EU candidates, one of whom was an independent candidate dressed as a dolphin! LINK

Farage also claimed that he was too busy in Brussels to stand. That should tell you how far Nigel is committed to getting seats in Westminster! UKIP simply exists to win seats on the EU MEP Gravy Train for Nigel and his chums.

We actually feel sorry for Ms James. Imagine have to tolerate being surrounded by incompetents, sycophants and the brain dead - the usual happy band that Nigel likes to surround himself with.

However, we note that it appears Ms James has been less than honest when it comes to providing details of her background. See GLW - LINK. Facts given out by her and UKIP can't be confirmed and we are supposed to take their word for it. Remember UKIP's track record of lies regarding previous UKIPPERS such as Bannerman, Monckon and Andreasen? Is it any wonder that many doubt what Farage says about Ms James?

We also note that Ms James is an independent councillor. One can only wonder why she can't bring herself to become a UKIP councillor!

Her biggest gaffe during the campaign was to brand all Romanians as criminals - LINK - and her performance on Channel 4 news was less than inspired - see Dr Edmund's blog below. She comes across as a political lightweight, a useful tool for Nigel and a possible future member of the UKIP MEP Gravy Train.

Forget the sycophants! Forget the polls which claim UKIP is set to win it's first Westminster seat. UKIP will not win. They will lose. However, don't be surprised if you see Ms James suddenly appear on UKIP's MEP list.

Remember these facts:

NO MPs in Westminster.

NO members in the Welsh Assembly.

NO members in the Scottish Parliament.

NO members in the London Assembly.

NO elected mayors or police chiefs.

No members in the Northern Irish Assembly.

Directly elected councillors don't even run into three figures.

More non-members than current members.

A minuscule youth wing.

Lead by an MEP based in Brussels.

The only party to be reliant on the EU for financial survival.

Britain's third party? Don't insult our intelligence!

See Dr Edmunds blog for some interesting observations on Eastleigh: LINK

UKIP members only forum

We note that UKIP members forum has recently been reactivated. It had been closed down due to various extremist comments being posted on there by certain UKIPPERS. Not that Farage had a problem with the comments regarding homosexuality, etc. It was just that he didn't want the media to realise just how extremist UKIP was under his so-called leadership.

The comments -  by Douglas Denny and others - were sent on to a national newspaper by those interested in exposing corruption and extremism in UKIP.

Rest assured that we - along with GLW - will be monitoring the 'new' forum. We will, of course,  be passing on any relevant comments to interested parties.

David Bannerman slaps UKIP

From Guido:

Tories’ Black Belt Plan to Chop UKIP Vote

 

The Tories are definitely not worried about UKIP, that’s why they have asked one of their top MEPs to come up with a three point plan to beat them. David Campbell Bannerman, who was UKIP deputy leader before returning to the Tories, highlights the dangers in a “creative” briefing note seen by Guido:

“Judo teaches you to use the strength of an opponent against them. Applying this analogy to UKIP, we should acknowledge the one strength of UKIP: they seem to be in tune with the majority of the British population on the EU issue. Multiple polls show that over 54% of the public and two-thirds of Conservative Party supporters (You Gov Poll August 2011) want to leave the EU. They may appear to be more in tune with traditional Conservatives on other policies such as immigration, grammar schools or the environment”

Rather bizarrely, Campbell Bannerman goes on to tell Tory candidates to disrupt UKIP pub meetings:
 
"let the pub landlord know that people attending these meetings must not be given any free food or drink as this is classified as treating”. That’ll make the difference in the Euros…

To view the original: CLICK HERE

 

This is what GLW had to say:

 

Hi,

David Bannerman is a self serving, dishonest liar & cheat – well suited to EU politics.

He is still under investigation by OLAF for fraudulent abuse of public funds, along with his fellow charlatan Stuart Agnew, also an MEP, who openly admitted defrauding the public purse on behalf of UKIP to fund staff & political activities.

Derek Clarke UKIP MEP was found guilty and ordered top repay over £30,000 he had perloined as with Tom Wise UKIP MEP who stole a similar sum, with help from sometime Tory Lindsay Jenkins, and he was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

David Bannerman’s route back to the gravy train is not that assured as he is so despised by the Tories for his duplicity & corruption the present MEPs in his region have opted to stand again to try to block his duplicitous greed.

The Tories’ only hope is he has one of his lame scripts adopted as he is on record as aiming to dump politics for Hollywood if he ever had the chance!

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

Nuff said!

Congratulations to Chris Pain!

We would like to congratulate Chris Pain on his election to the NEC. At last, the NEC will have an independent voice! And we would like to thank all our readers who followed our advice to vote for Mr Pain.

We note that Wolfman McGough was re-elected. He now has another term in which to kiss the Fuhrer's backside. He will enjoy that. It proves that you don't have to have brains or talent to get ahead in UKIP. You only need the willingness to prostitute yourself for Nigel.

The Wolfman gets ready to enjoy another term as Nigel's a*se licker

 

The other winning candidates are non-entities with little talent or brains - ideal members of the Farage Sycophants Club.

 

Alan Bown (2,678)

Piers Wauchope (2,331)

Sebastian Fairweather (2,293)

 

 

Marta Andreasen and UKIP: The end of a not so beautiful relationship

 

"to mould and shape (UKIP) in any way he sees fit, regardless of the views of others".

 

"Nigel promotes the people who say yes to him and will be grateful for getting the job and will never contradict him".

 

Andreasen on Farage

 

And so Marta has flown the UKIP nest and found a new home with the Tories. Farage is furious and has been heaping insult after insult on his former colleague. But has Nigel forgotten who promoted her? Has he forgotten who twisted the rules to ensure that she was selected as an MEP candidate? And the name of the person who did all this? Just check the photo above!

Yet another example of Farage's 'leadership' qualities!

And we happily note Marta's criticisms of UKIP under Farage. We have - along with GLW - been pointing out Farage's failings as a leader for years. The man is corrupt, dishonest and a disgrace to the Euro-realist movement. Fortunately, certain revelations concerning this man are now in the hands of interested parties. We await developments with interest.

From the BBC:

Relations between UKIP leader Nigel Farage and MEP Marta Andreasen had become strained.

A senior member of the UK Independence Party has said she is leaving the party to join the Conservatives.

Marta Andreasen, a South East region MEP, sent her resignation letter to UKIP leader Nigel Farage on Friday.

It comes two weeks after she accused the UKIP leader of bullying and being “anti-women” and “a Stalinist” and threatened to leave the party.

In response, Mr Farage said the Tories “deserve what is coming to them” and added: “The woman is impossible.”

Marta Andreasen, 58, said resigning from UKIP to join the Conservatives was not a decision that she took lightly.

In an open letter expressing her dissatisfaction with UKIP, she accused Mr Farage of treating any views other than his own with contempt.

Ms Andreasen said she did not believe the party could offer “real leadership”.

She said Mr Farage surrounded himself with “an old boys club of like-minded sycophants”, whereas Conservative leader David Cameron had shown “he can listen, adapt and do what is right for the country, not just for personal gain”.
 

The MEP said the prime minster’s speech on Britain’s relationship with the EU last month had convinced her the Conservatives were the “true referendum party”.

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps said he was “delighted” to welcome her to his party.

“She brings a wealth of experience – and a dedication to fight for what’s best for the British people in Europe,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Friday, the UKIP leader said: “Having left the OECD, the European Commission and UKIP in unpleasant circumstances, the Conservative Party deserve what is coming to them.

“The woman is impossible.”

Relations between Ms Andreasen and Mr Farage had been strained for some time, with Ms Andreasen calling for Mr Farage to quit after the party’s poor performance in council elections in 2011.

Since then, UKIP’s fortunes have improved and it recorded its best performance in a parliamentary by-election in Rotherham in December.

Ms Andreasen, who is Spanish but was born in Argentina, worked as an auditor and financial director for various companies before working as an accountant for the European Commission in 2002.

She later joined UKIP and was elected in 2009. She currently sits on six committees in the European Parliament.

Ms Andreasen had been UKIP’s sole remaining female MEP, after Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from the party in 2010.

Ms Sinclaire later brought a sexual discrimination case against the party which was subsequently dropped.

At the time, UKIP issued a statement affirming its “opposition to discrimination on all grounds as prescribed by law and otherwise” and stressed that sexuality was “no bar to involvement or advancement” within the party.

To view the original;  CLICK HERE

From Richard North's blog:

From many accounts, Marta Andreasen is an impossible woman, and UKIP is well rid of her. But the fact that she became a UKIP MEP at all is a reflection of how Nigel Farage manipulates the party list to put his own candidates in place – very often in breach of his own party rules.

Nevertheless, when she was first introduced at their conference in Bournemouth, a party activist remembers that Nigel himself introduced her as their new golden girl - the UKIP equivalent of a then ascendant Sarah Palin. How things change.

For what it's worth, my view is that she should never have been included in the list in the first place. Those with longer memories will recall that before Farage found her a home, she had already sought a place on the Tory list, only coming over to UKIP when offered a paid post as its treasurer.

However, one cannot entirely disagree with her analysis of UKIP, when she says that that party has [some] "good people in it at grassroots". Despite that, she has been at odds with Farage for a long time, having called for his resignation as party leader as early as May 2011. And she is not wrong when she declares that he treats any views other than his own "with contempt".

Andreason saw UKIP as his plaything "to mould and shape in any way he sees fit, regardless of the views of others". Sadly, there is truth in that as well. I myself formed that view long before she joined the party, and very much recognise the validity of her claim that, "Nigel promotes the people who say yes to him and will be grateful for getting the job and will never contradict him".

"Under his leadership - and I have questioned his leadership obviously a number of times – the party has become a dictatorship", she said in an interview earlier this month, adding: "This is a Stalinist way of operating and he doesn't care about the membership or the grassroots…".

Currently, she says about Farage, "His actions, surrounding himself with an old boys' club of like-minded sycophants, are dictatorial, in sharp contrast to those of David Cameron, who has shown he can listen, adapt and do what is right for the country, not just for personal gain".

Responding to her defection to the Tories, Farage says of Andreason, "Having left the OECD, the European Commission and UKIP in unpleasant circumstances, the Conservative party deserve what is coming to them. The woman is impossible".

On the other hand, Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, says that her defection is a vindication of Mr Cameron's European policies. Her words on the Prime Minister's record "prove that the Conservatives are the only party who can protect Britain’s interests in Europe".

Standing back from that, one can only regret - as does Autonomous Mind - that the eurosceptic cause is served so badly by all these shenanigans. We have enough difficulties and hurdles without our own side adding to them.

 

To read the original: LINK

 

Also see: LINK

 

 

UKIP: Marta fires another salvo at Nigel Farage

 

Marta launches another rocket attack on Nigel Farage! We note that Andreasen is described as the 'former Chief Accountant of the European Commission'. Lies! She was NEVER the Chief Accountant! She was merely one of many accountants working for The EU where she was employed by Neil Kinnock's department to complete accounts.

From The London School of Economics and Political Science:

Five minutes with Marta Andreasen, UKIP MEP for South East England – “UKIP could do more to attract women if they respected the women that they have”

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) gained the second largest share of the UK’s vote in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections. In an interview with EUROPP’s editors, UKIP MEP and former Chief Accountant of the European Commission, Marta Andreasen, discusses the EU’s democratic deficit, the UK’s EU membership, and how UKIP should approach the next European and UK elections.

This was originally published on the LSE EUROPP blog.

Does EU membership benefit the UK?

Well in general terms I would say that the UK’s EU membership is more beneficial to the EU than it is to the UK. It is true that the UK benefits from the single market, but the UK would be able to develop other markets that would replace the business that they get from the single market. In fact the UK buys more from the EU than what it sells to other EU countries. Given the present crisis, the UK should be looking for other markets because the European market is shrinking.

If the UK were to leave the EU, should it adopt the Swiss or Norwegian models as an alternative?

Well the model cannot be Norway or Switzerland or any other country; the model would be a unique one developed by the UK. And why do I say this? Well, the UK has already been in the EU: it has already incorporated a lot of EU legislation. So the UK would have to do away with all this legislation during an intermediate process, and I think that this would lead to bilateral negotiations with separate Member States within the EU. So there would be a completely different agreement, not with the EU itself, but with other Member States. So talking about Norway or Switzerland as an example is not correct.

What more should the European Commission be doing to ensure EU funding is spent correctly?

Well I think the European Commission should be asking the right questions before they release the money. Suppose we are talking about EU aid, for example, they need to know that this goes to an administrative body in the country where the funds are being sent – a respectable body – and that this body will take responsibility to properly administer it and pay out the funding.

The same happens with Cohesion funding. The European Commission says that the responsibility for managing funding lies with the Member States and then they don’t care what happens. If the funds are found to be improperly spent, then they ask the central government to return the money. But the money is sometimes paid out to bodies that are not part of central government, such as regional administrations or even private companies. Essentially there needs to be ex ante control, before the money leaves, because once the money has left it’s very difficult to have proper control.

Do you think that the EU has a democratic deficit?

Yes, I think it has a democratic deficit because the legislation that affects our lives is produced by an unelected body, which is the European Commission. Our taxes go to an unelected body, which is the European Commission. So from that point of view I think it is an undemocratic arrangement. Of course people will say, “well you vote for MEPs every five years and they should represent your interests”, and this is true, but ultimately the institution that proposes legislation is the European Commission. Even if we vote in favour or against the legislation proposed, the Commission still keeps the power to develop the implementing measures for every piece of legislation. People don’t know a lot about implementing measures, but actually implementing measures can become a very different piece of legislation than the original regulation itself. They can force the Member States to adopt a lot of requirements that were not provided in the original legislation. So I think this constitutes a significant power.

With regard to budgets, again they can actually give the money to whoever they want. Of course there is a budget approved with certain lines, but within those lines they can give it to France, Italy, Spain (or any other country) without giving any explanations really.

Are the EU’s institutions capable of tackling and resolving the economic crisis in Europe?

No, I don’t think so because the EU’s institutions were, I would say to a great extent, responsible for the crisis. Therefore I can’t see that the bodies responsible for the crisis can solve it. Let me give you an example, the European Commission brought Greece into the euro, in the full knowledge that Greece was not up to the economic level of the rest of the Member States. It was Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Commission, who should have checked the statistics sent by Greece and they failed to do their job.

Then the legislation that they have produced in the last decade has not actually turned Europe into the most competitive and great economic power that they said it would. And they also requested a lot of money – almost one trillion euros went into the budget for the last seven years – and this has not produced any results. In fact we have gone down – the economy of Europe has declined – so frankly I don’t see that the European Union can produce the solution to the crisis.

You are UKIP’s only female MEP. Could UKIP do more to attract women to the party?

Well UKIP could do more to attract women if they respected the women that they have. It’s not a question of putting female candidates on the list: you probably have seen that now for the Eastleigh by election they have recruited a female candidate. It’s a question that firstly, the candidates should be put in lists where there is a possibility for UKIP to win the seat, and this is not going to be the case in Eastleigh – nor was it the case in the Corby by election.

The most important thing is that once a female is elected, and she represents the people (and the party before the people) they should respect this female in as much as they are doing a good job. Putting myself as an example, I think that I have done a good job for the party and for the people that I represent, but I haven’t had the respect that I would have expected.

Do you think that Nigel Farage is the right person to lead UKIP into the 2014 European Parliamentary and 2015 UK general elections?

Well the 2014 European elections will be very much framed around the possible referendum in the UK and in that sense it is possible that he may be successful. I’m not saying that he’s the right person to lead it, but even if he’s not the right person I think that he will be successful. Let us say that he will probably return the same number of MEPs that we have today if the political conditions stay the same, but a lot can happen in one year.

With regard to 2015 then no, I don’t think he’s the right person because he just doesn’t want to get to Westminster (the UK Parliament). We are led by the wrong person. Nigel has no interest in getting to Westminster. If he was interested in Westminster then he would have stood in the Eastleigh by election. If he was interested then he would have focused on areas where we have a chance to get to Westminster. What he’s doing is using our limited financial and human resources across the country in by elections where we have little chance of winning a seat. Yes it’s great to get more votes, but that doesn’t get us to Westminster.

Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.

About the Interviewee

Marta Andreasen is a Member of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom Independence Party. She previously worked as Chief Accountant for the European Commission.

To see the original: LINK

UKIP: Hell Hath No Fury like Marta Andreasen

Is UKIP really a ‘Nigel Farage dictatorship’ rife with sexism?

by Mary Honeyball

UKIP seems to be a party filled with anti-women sentient – it is a one man band and it is all about Nigel Farage, or so it certainly seems, claims Labour Party MEP “A woman’s place is cleaning behind the fridge.” Well that’s what they seem to believe in UKIP.
 
Indeed, in 2004 UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom said just this and the events which unfolded last week shows little has changed in the intervening years since Bloom made such remarks.

It would be laughable if it was not so damaging, offensive and humiliating for those on the receiving end. So it is hardly a surprise to learn that the party’s only female MEP might have suffered alleged discrimination from within the party. But it was a surprise to see Marta Andreasen MEP launch a searing attack on the leader of the party Nigel ‘too much air time’ Farage.
 
She has said of Farage: “He doesn’t try to involve intelligent professional women in positions of responsibility in the party. He thinks women should be in the kitchen or in the bedroom.” Andreasen continued by telling the BBC (to view the article CLICK HERE) that she had been openly criticised by her party leader and other MEPs, claiming that this amounted to bullying.
 
“I’ve been bullied, in private situations, for decisions I have made by Nigel,” she said. “I have been accused of being disloyal, breaching confidence and breaching my contract with the party. There’s an attitude that either you keep silent about everything that’s been going on in the party or suffer the consequences.” Andreasen said she believed

Farage – who was re-elected as leader in 2010 after standing down a year earlier to contest a Westminster seat – “did not like women” although this is purely her opinion and allegation.
 
I have appeared alongside Andreasen before on the BBC’s Newsnight programme and her views were some of the most thoughtful that I have seen come out of UKIP. We should give weight to what she says because what she is demonstrating is that UKIP seems to be a party filled with anti-women sentient. It is a one man band and it is all about Farage, or so it certainly seems.
 
Andreasen who, represents South East England in the European Parliament, has said she will not stand again. Still, this is a brave thing to do – to reveal a bullying culture at the highest level of the party while she is still in office and to do it so publically is courageous. She also claims in an interview with LondonlovesBusiness.com that Farage runs his party like some kind of dictatorship:
 
“Under his leadership – and I have questioned his leadership obviously a number of times – the party has become a dictatorship,” she said. “This is a Stalinist way of operating and he doesn’t care about the membership or the grassroots.”
 
We also should not forget former UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire – a lesbian, who won a sex discrimination case against her former colleagues on a default judgement at Exeter Employment Tribunal. This came after UKIP failed to lodge a defence. Sinclaire alleged that UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom had called her a “queer”. We can only draw our own conclusions from all of this..

 

To view the original: CLICK HERE

 

Also see: LINK

 

UKIP: Nigel Farage's hypocrisy

Gary Cartwright on UKIP's failure to defend British interests .... again!

 

 

Some years ago, an MEP and myself produced a booklet titled 'Dead in the Water'. This was a critique of the Common Fisheries Policy, and we were both rather proud of it. It was very well received, although we had a wee bit of a problem because of it at a UKIP conference in Exeter.

We had booked a stand where we coud talk about, and distribute, the booklet. Then something interesting happened.

The organiser, who we had already paid for the stand, called and told me that a certain senior MEP had called him several times "begging" him to keep us away from the conference. Doesn't like to be upstaged, see.

We attended anyway, and it was a success for us.

Yesterday the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for CFP reform that should see the end, at last, to the practice of discarding dead fish in the sea. This is an issue that unites eurosceptics and europhiles alike. It is a disgraceful practice.

But I note that UKIP failed to vote in favour of this much needed reform.

I have read much criticism by UKIP members of the discards policy. So why did they not vote in favour?

Because if discards are banned, then they will have nothing to complain about, and complaining about anything and everything is their stock in trade. There is a lot more to CFP reform than eliminating discards, of course. These reforms will benefit the fishermen and the communities they support. They will benefit the consumer, and relieve the pressure on fish stocks and the environment. It was interesting to note attempts to block the reform by the Spanish, who are responsible for much of the problem. They will have been pleased to see UKIP helping them out by failing to back the reform.

If UKIP is not going to stand up for the interests of British fishermen, what is the point of them? Perhaps it is they who should be discarded!

 

To read the original: LINK

UKIP MEP brands Nigel Farage a Stalinist ...... and his views on woman are positively Victorian!!

 

No surprise there! We - and GLW -  have been pointing this out for years. Farage is a control freak who surrounds himself with sycophants and useful idiots. He needs them to massage his inflated ego!

 

But how ironic that Marta has attacked him yet again! It was Farage who rigged the selection process to ensure that she earned second place in the SE MEP list! LINK. He will regret that to the grave. Another example of his 'leadership' qualities!

 

From the BBC:

A senior member of the UK Independence Party has threatened to quit after accusing leader Nigel Farage of being a "Stalinist dictator" and "anti-women".

Marta Andreasen, who represents the South East England in the European Parliament, said she was unlikely to stand as a UKIP candidate next year.

She told the BBC that Mr Farage did not want "intelligent, professional" women in key positions in the party.

He responded by describing the criticism as "laughable nonsense".

Relations between the two have been strained for some time, with Ms Andreasen calling for Mr Farage to quit after the party's poor performance in council elections in 2011.

Since then, UKIP's fortunes have improved and it recorded its best performance in a parliamentary by-election in Rotherham in December.

“Start Quote

He doesn't try to involve intelligent professional women in positions of responsibility in the party. He thinks women should be in the kitchen or in the bedroom”

 

End Quote Marta Andreasen UKIP MEP

Ms Andreasen, who worked for the European Commission before joining UKIP and being elected in 2009, told the BBC that "if things don't change" within the party "she can't imagine a way to continue".

Of Mr Farage, she told LondonlovesBusiness.com: "Under his leadership - and I have questioned his leadership obviously a number of times - the party has become a dictatorship. This is a Stalinist way of operating and he doesn't care about the membership or the grassroots."

And she told the BBC she had been openly criticised by her party leader and other MEPs, suggesting that this amounted to bullying.

"I've been bullied, in private situations, for decisions I have made by Nigel. I have been accused of being disloyal, breaching confidence and breaching my contract with the party. There's an attitude that either you keep silent about everything that's been going on in the party or suffer the consequences."

Ms Andreasen said she believed Mr Farage - who was re-elected as leader in 2010 after standing down a year earlier to contest a Westminster seat - "did not like women".

"I am the only female MEP," she added. "He doesn't try to involve intelligent professional women in positions of responsibility in the party. He thinks women should be in the kitchen or in the bedroom."

She said she planned to stay in the European Parliament as a UKIP representative until the end of the current Parliament in 2014, to see out her "mandate" and "look for ways I can continue to represent the membership". She said she might consider standing as an independent next year.
'No bar to advancement'

Asked about Ms Andreasen's comments, Mr Farage told the BBC: "This is just laughable nonsense." When asked if he disliked women, he joked: "They've caused me a lot of trouble over the years."

Mr Farage has defended UKIP as being different from other parties after Prime Minister David Cameron said some of its members were "pretty odd people". He said UKIP did have "some eccentrics" but this was healthy and he was an unusual party leader in that he was a conviction politician.

Ms Andreasen is the party's sole remaining female MEP, after Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from UKIP in 2010.

Ms Sinclaire later brought a sexual discrimination case against the party which was subsequently dropped.

At the time, the party issued a statement affirming its "opposition to discrimination on all grounds as prescribed by law and otherwise" and stressed that sexuality was "no bar to involvement or advancement" within the party.

To read the original: LINK

UKIP is turning into Walter Mitty World!

We have had an MEP who may or may not be a distant nephew of a former Prime Minister. A member of the House of Lords who wasn't actually a member of the House of Lords, and now we have a descendent of Guy Fawkes who - guess what - is not actually a descendent of Guy Fawkes!

Phillip Fawkes "is the 10 times great grandson of Fawkes" declared Farage to journalists (Daily Mail, Feb 4, p18).

Actually, as the mail reports, that is not quite the case....