UKIP ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The venue of this year’s party conference had to be hurriedly changed in August, due to some unsatisfactory circumstances arising at our originally booked venue. The new venue was the Troxy Centre in Commercial Road, Limehouse, in Docklands. One of the speakers pointed out, interestingly, that Limehouse had been famous in London for its opium dens in the 19th century.

Party chairman John Whittaker opened proceedings with a brief review of the last year. He emphasised that, contrary to rumour, UKIP’s accounts were NOT under investigation by the electoral commission. He noted that the view that we should leave the EU was now openly expressed in the media and respectable, unlike 3-4 years ago where it was still regarded as an “extreme” view.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch , one of the UKIP duo in the House of Lords, made the historic first-ever report to the party by a sitting representative in Parliament. In a fascinating short speech, he pointed out that the House of Lords is actually very Europhile but shamefully, this was largely for mercenary reasons : every member of the upper House , as with the House of Commons, has to declare outside interests, but the sole exception to this is EU pensions and the latter can be withdrawn by the EU if the recipient does not promote the EU in public utterances ; so Lords in receipt of EU pensions are carefully never to say anything adverse about the EU comply. We all know that the EU accounts for around 75% of all legislation coming into force in Britain, but the perception has been that it is at least “scrutinised” by Parliament. This impression was corrected by Lord Pearson, who pointed out that hundreds of laws were passed into law before the scrutiny was finished .He declared that Westminster had become a very expensive irrelevance to Britain. He fulsomely praised Nigel Farage for his strong leadership of the party and also singled out Christopher Booker for praise as a “true hero of our dying democracy”

At this point the chairman announced that the party Treasurer for the past 18 months, Bruce Lawson, had stepped down due to work pressures, but that the party had achieved a sensational coup by recruiting as party Treasurer none other than Marta Andreason, the former EU auditor who had refused to sign off the EU’s accounts due to gross accounting irregularities; for this she had been sacked by the then Commissioner responsible for this area, our own beloved Neil Kinnock. There is to be a new position of Financial Controller, reporting to Marta, and the whole Treasury function s being upgraded. Bruce Lawson will continue to assist the Treasury function following his departure as Treasurer. Marta gave a short speech to the conference. Marta’s appointment was mentioned by the Daily Telegraph on October 5th.

Professor Tim Congdon, UKIP’s chief economics spokesman, and acknowledged to be one of the UK’s leading economists, then delivered a surprisingly emotional speech. He described the EU Constitutional Treaty as an “obscenity”.

He pointed out that the WORLD IS CHANGING, and by way of illustration pointed out that 23 years ago when he first visited Shanghai, a city he knows well, still had just the few buildings on its famous Bund waterfront area over 20 or 30 stories in height, almost unchanged since its heyday in the pre-war era, when it was run as effectively a colony of the UK and France .When he visited Shanghai recently, it had literally hundreds of buildings as high or higher than that. Europe is only one part of an ever changing world, and a diminishing part of that world. To have shackled ourselves to that part of the world was a truly terrible mistake. The economic future of the world is definitely not in Europe. He pointed out the somewhat surprising fact that China is actually a low-tax economy, with eh State accounting for just 20% of GNP, compared with the EU average of around 45%.

He also pointed out that the real villain of the Northern Rock fiasco was the EU Market Abuse Directive, which had forced the Bank of England to disclose its support for the bank, leading directly to the catastrophic bank run – the first in nearly a century and a half in the UK.

He declared that Gordon Brown is not the “conviction politician” he likes to paint himself as, but a “soundbite politico”.

We were then honoured with a rousing speech by the Housing Minister of Guernsey, David Jones. He reminded us that Guernsey is not a member of the EU, and its Government is answerable solely to the Queen. The intention of the EU is to end Guernsey’s independence and it can do this after the Reform Treaty has been ratified, as that will effectively render the Queen a citizen of the EU. British weakness in the face of the EU juggernaut was now leading to a “tide of repression” sweeping over Guernsey from the EU. Turning to Britain, he said that it ha been donated by the people’s own representatives to a foreign power. However, under our own constitution, Magna Carta, sovereignty is inviolate regardless of what Parliament or the Queen does.

In an entertaining interlude, former Tory MP and now leading member of UKIP Wales Sir Dai Llewellyn said that whilst both he and Dave Cameron had attended “Slough Grammar” (Eton) and also had in common membership of Whites club, he had the beating of Cameron in being a member of the smartest club in the World – UKIP.

Party leader Nigel Farage then delivered his main speech of the conference, declaring that Euro-nationalism was the new enemy. He also said that immigration was putting intolerable pressure on public services and creating social tensions and unemployment. This is why UKIP had toughened its stance on immigration, proposing a 5 year moratorium on immigration, except for those with work permits (see new policies below)

Touching briefly on the question of “re-branding” the party, he confirmed that outside consultants had advised the party that the name UKIP was now so firmly established in the public mind , and therefore a valuable “brand”, that it would be counter-productive to change the party name so that would not happen. On the question of the £ logo, which had been in use since 1999, he said that many people in the party, though probably a minority, were of the view that a fresh “image” was now required. However, in the absence of a better logo, this would also stay, unless and until someone thought of a better one.

Party Deputy Leader David Campbell-Bannerman praised the invaluable work of the policy committees he had established, which were reporting their proposals for the first time today (October 5) He summarised the main proposals:

• UKIP were going to specifically encourage UK Manufacturing

• UKIP would increase deportations of undesirables

• UKIP would put a Grammar School in every town

• UKIP would abolish student loans and bring back grants

• UKIP would SUPPORT OUR ARMED FORCES AND RECRUIT MORE TROOPS

• UKIP would make foreign lorries pay more to use our roads

• UKIP would put a stop to the persecution of motorists by the police

• UKIP would bring back the Matron to our Hospitals

• UKIP would make prison sentences mean what they say

• UKIP would introduce a flat tax system and abolish inheritance tax altogether

• UKIP would scrap green taxes and wind farms

• UKIP would introduce Workfare

• UKIP would redirect our energy policy to more Nuclear and more Clean Coal

He bemoaned the fact that the Queen was to be deleted from UK passports in three years’ time: “a very funny kind of Common Market”

The policy groups were then given an opportunity to explain their findings in greater detail:

Law and Order

Tam Large outlined the main proposals which were:

• Repeal the Human Rights Act and enact a Rights and Responsibilities ( yes : responsibilities ) Act

• Deport all radical Imams

• Enforce the Treason laws (Treason still carries the death penalty)

• No ID cards

• Corporal Punishment will be re-introduced to schools

• Prison places will be doubled

• The Crown Prosecution Service will be abolished.

Defence

UKIP is unbelievably lucky in having Rear Admiral Heaslip as a party member and as co-chairman of its Defence Policy Committee. Rear Admiral Heaslip joined the Royal Navy aged 12, and he ended is career after commanding Britain’s submarine fleet, including our nuclear submarines, in the 1980s.

Gerard Batten MEP summarised the conclusions of UKIP’s Defence policy committee.

· the lives of British service men and women should never be committed to military action and put at risk unless it is clearly understood why we are doing it, and that it is clearly in the British national interest to do so

· a continuing commitment to NATO, which has been the cornerstone of our defences over the last 58 years.

· Our forces in Iraq are now little better than sitting ducks in a shooting gallery. We should withdraw them in good order as soon as possible.

· There should be better pay, the reinstatement of military hospitals and medical care, and the provision of decent living accommodation.

· We must increase the army to at least 125,000 personnel just in order to enable it to meet its existing deployment roles.

· We should restore the Royal Navy to its 2001 strength with two new aircraft carriers, two assault ships, 25 to 30 destroyers and frigates, 12 fleet submarines, and 20 to 25 coastal vessels.

· Much as we might like to, we cannot un-invent nuclear weapons, and in an increasingly dangerous world mutually assured destruction is a concept that has been proved to work. We should therefore renew Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. We should commission four new British designed and built nuclear submarines.

· Defence should be the number one priority of any government, and it has to be paid for.

The attempt by the EU to integrate the UK’s armed forces into an EU force is being denied by the old parties, and yet anyone who cares to look at the facts can see that it is exactly what is happening.

Britain’s armed forces are our proudest asset. We have to restore them to the position they deserve. No just in terms of fighting capability, pay and conditions, but also in terms of the respect and regard they deserve and are entitled to from the civilian population.

The armed forces are still held in high regard by right-thinking people. But the way that they have been used by this Labour government is a national disgrace and a scandal.

Energy

Professor Derek Smith said that UKIP would rationalise the use of Gas, with no dependence for supplies on Russia) There would be a concentration on nuclear.

Generally the policy would be helped by UKIP’s end to uncontrolled immigration

Trade

The main points of UKIP’s policy were summarised by Tony Stone and David Sinclair:

UKIP approves of Free Trade, not Trade Blocs such as the EU .David Sinclair said that the EU is essentially protectionist, protecting its own lazy, inefficient interests.

UKIP will aim for a Commonwealth Free Trade Area. David pointed out that the commonwealth contains one-third of the World’s population and no less than 13 of the world’s most dynamic economies. There is also considerable support for this in the Commonwealth.

A UKIP-led Britain would support poor countries by promoting free trade with them, rather than “aid” which is of little help and tends to get stolen by their corrupt governments.

Torquil Dick-Erikson is an erudite veteran anti-EU campaigner who specialises in Crime and Punishment, an area where the UK is supposed to have an opt-out from the Napoleonic Corpus Juris System to be imposed by that Treaty .Some hopes. In his address to the conference, Torquil declared that the UK’s opt-out was “worthless”.

Torquil lives in Italy quite near to the training camps of the new European Gendarmerie which is preparing even now to patrol the streets of Europe, including, eventually, the UK.

He showed on the big conference plasma screen what is openly available to view on www.eurogendfor.com – the paramilitary-style riot police with their aggressive fascistic badge.

Chillingly, he pointed out that, whilst the UK could leave the EU peacefully at present, simply by repealing the 1972 European Communities Act, in the future – assuming we can still pass a repeal in a Parliament which by then may be illegal - it could just be ignored as an impertinent act of rebellion by our EU masters, and there would be little we could do about it if the EU physically control our streets.

UKIP’s other Peer, Lord Willoughby de Broke, criticised the big parties for proposing legislation which they must know can only be implemented with EU approval. A case in point was Dave Cameron’s recent promise to abolish HIPs (Home Information Packs). HE CANNOT DO THIS as it is an EU Treaty obligation and could only be done if we left the EU.

He also added to Lord Pearson’s comments about the blatant bypassing of Parliamentary procedures, pointing out that some laws emanating from the EU were even put into law with no scrutiny at all.

Malcolm Wood, the Regional Organiser for the South West counties, explained how that Region was spearheading a rolling series of Parish Polls for a Referendum on the EU Reform Treaty (Constitution), pointing out that there were currently 36 of these in train nationwide.

UKIP has recently formed a new youth wing called Young Independence. Speakers from YI explained how YI aimed to campaign in all colleges and universities in the UK, focusing in particular on the abolition of tuition fees. “Politics in Britain today have become a career, not a passion” said James Braund.

The conference was then addressed by councillor Henry Reilly from UKIP Northern Ireland, who had defected to UKIP from the Ulster Unionists. In a fine and powerful speech, he warned that there was a growing feeling amongst Britain’s armed forces that they lacked support from Britain’s politicians. Quoting Edmund Burke, he said “Do good and fear nothing; tell the truth”

The final speech of the conference came from Roger Knapman MEP, party leader 2002 - 2006. He praised his successor Nigel Farage. He reminded the conference that we often forget , or half-forget , what our movement has achieved so far , in particular the firm promise of a referendum should there ever be a proposal to scrap the pound for the Euro, which seems unlikely in the near future, and the abandonment of Regional Assemblies(although something equivalent would probably replace them)

The motions for debate on the second day were largely uncontentious.

The conference concluded with the national anthem.