CAUSE & EFFECT

When it comes to all matters EU a strange logic amongst our political classes arises. The EU is a massive problem of growing proportions in all parts of our lives and all aspects of running the country from the Prime Minister’s office down to the lowliest Town Hall worker – yet few of them will admit it, talk about it or even more important – do something about it. Worse still, most continue to delude themselves that somehow or other, God knows how, EU membership s beneficial and essential.

When you look at most problems that exist in this country affecting our lives, somewhere or other the EU is behind it, not even the removal of our household waste is free of EU meddling – even though our pro-EU political classes won’t admit it, the EU is the biggest blight upon this nation.

It is remarkable then to read in the Daily Mail a report by the EU Commission that warns: “Illiterate school-leavers and workless households are destabilising UK economy “.

Why are there illiterate children and workless households? One of the problems is down to the EU’s insistence on open borders, anyone from any other EU country has equal rights to come and live in the UK and take the jobs that would normally be given to the those who were born here or went through some vigorous immigration process to become official British subjects. Thanks to the EU the whole of Europe can just march in and take jobs at pay rates often below the minimum wage.

When here with their families they have to send their kids to school, many of their children cannot speak English which reduces the time teachers can spend actually teaching kids how to read, write, do their sums and all the other essential parts of early learning. Added to which, because of our EU membership, the important matter of teaching history has been seriously undermined as a large chunk of history is not seen as advantageous for brainwashing young minds to accept their EU laid out future as EU citizens, rather than growing up and leaving school with great pride in our British historical past. Giving Napoleon a thumping at Waterloo, sinking the Armada and the bowmen of England sticking two fingers up to the French at Agincourt does not help the plan to force us into a new nation of Europe.

So because kids can’t be taught properly due to these factors instigated by the EU, they leave school ignorant and as thick as two planks which the EU then picks on. It’s a strange EU world we live in.

The EU’s euro has created fiscal mayhem across the whole Continent, British taxpayers who are already being hit hard regarding the enormous cost of our EU contributions, have also been expected to bailout those nation now in total financial chaos because they were daft enough to sacrifice their own economies and economic freedom to join the doomed euro. This is money the British Exchequer should be using to help this nation and reduce our massive and growing deficit, yet the EU which is the cause of the problem again picks on the poor rate of growth in our economy – the whole situation is totally bonkers.

The EU has also laid down all sorts of ‘green’ objectives based on spurious report of global warming. One of the things this nation has done to attempt to comply, even though the EU’s targets are completely impossible, is to alter the system of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), road tax to you and me. Because of the fact people are opting for vehicles that either have very little or no VED the Exchequer is now losing £billions and is in a flap as to how it can recoup the loss – of course there is no talk of quitting the EU which would easily save far more than the loss of VED.

You could say all this is down to the age old situation of cause and effect, which seldom goes to plan. The EU is the cause of most of our problems and the effect is our politicians become ever more blind to the obvious while the people get hit with the results of a never ending stream of EU madness.

WORKING FOR THE EU

After my bone idle week doing little other than driving my better half to garden centres, enjoying the glorious sunshine in my Walsall garden and, of course, finding time for a pint or two at my favourite Walsall watering hole, the Lyndon House Hotel, yesterday it was back to the grindstone and a day going through a backlog of e-mails and catching up on neglected things.

One of the things that came my way set my thoughts racing, not that they go anywhere that fast these days, my question to myself was: what makes a pro-EU, anti-British person, tick? What qualifications do they need?

Obvious ones are to be totally blind to the truth, devious, in some extreme cases such blatant liars they make Billy Liar look like a saintly figure of truthful virtue. These are people who will quite happily describe black as white and white as black without batting an eyelid; reality for them has no meaning when it come to promoting their fetish for all things EU.

This then brings me to the words of Ken Clarke, that Tory oaf who never ceases to amaze us with his raptures for the EU and its crumbling currency, also for his illogical rants against anyone who cares for our nation and is opposed to the madness that is the devious world of the EU. Nothing that man says can be trusted or taken seriously.

His latest outburst of total illogicality came in a statement that Members of Parliament calling for a Referendum on EU membership are: "a few extreme nationalist politicians". Obviously in the distorted and unreal little EU bubble that is the world of Ken Clarke, anyone opposed to the EU has to be immediately branded as an extremist. To him the very fact that his actions in support of the EU, its mad directives, its insane bureaucracy and its job destroying legislation, as well as the fact it is undermining the once sovereign Parliament he has sworn an oath to, are perfectly rational and not extreme.

I know who the extremists are and Ken Clarke and other minority members of his pro-EU brigade fit the bill perfectly. Extremism is to undermine your nation, its Government, its democracy and people – which are all the objectives of the EU in its foolish quest to turn the whole European Continent into one anti-democratic nation called Europe, or the United States of Europe. When this objective has been completed, with the help of Quislings such as Ken Clarke, there will be no United Kingdom, no Ireland, Spain or any other nation, just one new nation of Europe.

It is because people can see what is happening and how the EU is destroying our right to be self governing they are, at last, turning against the EU. There is a clamour for an in/out referendum on EU membership, which will be the first since the corrupt and biased 1975 referendum in which the ‘Yes’ side deceived the people with its lies, as history now shows. According to the machinations of Ken Clarke those growing ranks of referendum supporters do not exist, he considers our much needed referendum to be a “ridiculous” idea and that the nation as a whole is only a bit Eurosceptic.

Ken Clarke is either delusional, totally barking or a blatant liar – take your pick. What we do know is that he is one of the EU’s men in Government and Parliament, by promoting the EU and spreading such mistruths he works for the unelected in the EU and not those who elected him into such a prominent position.

THE IDLE LIFE

A David Austin rose ready to be planted.

In years gone by there was a standing family joke, ‘don’t take your holidays at the same time as Derek and linda as it always rains. This week is my first holiday week of the year and what a week we chose - the warmth and sunshine has been glorious.

Here in wonderful sunny Walsall has been great, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being bone idle, although there have been things to do still, such as driving Mrs B to an assortment of garden centres, such as David Austin Roses where we were privileged to be able to have a chat with the man himself. David Austin is a long standing member of the Freedom Association so naturally we purchased one of his roses for our little Black Country garden.

We also have been finding time to visit my favourite watering hole in Walsall, the Lyndon House Hotel which has been having a big day today as the book launch about Crabtrees, the big electrical company that not only began life in Walsall, but on the actual site of the Lyndon.

Big political events have been taking place in Walsall too as the town has finished up with a hung Council after the results of the May 3rd elections. The previously ruling Conservative group lost overall control during this year’s local elections, although Labour in Walsall bucked the national trend and did not do as well as their party in other Council areas nearby such as Birmingham and Dudley where they now rule.

Here in little Walsall the hopes and dreams of the Labour Leader. Tim Oliver, who before the election was preparing for Council governance, were well and truly dashed at a Council meeting where they did not have the success needed to take control. The Tories in Walsall on election night were spitting nails at us in UKIP as they blamed us for the loss of Rushall Shelfield where our candidate. Tim Melville, took a decent vote for UKIP.

It always makes me smile when we in UKIP become the target for Tory vitriol, the minute they lose where we have a candidate they blame us as they see our votes as theirs. This arrogance never ceases to amaze me, people who vote UKIP do so as they see themselves aligned to UKIP, not the Tory Party which is not only responsible for this nation being totally subservient to the EU, but also responsible for ensuring we remain in that sorry state as their pro-EU leader David Cameron and his pro-EU party put in place a three line Whip instructing their MPs to vote against giving us our first real in/out referendum since the fraudulent and corrupt 1975 referendum. Why don’t they say the same things to their other opponents in the Labour Party and even their coalition partners, the Lib Dims?

Here in Walsall we no have the situation where a Tory Lib Dim coalition rule on the slimmest of majorities mostly because three independent Councillors, all of which used to be Labour Party members, abstained in the vote for control of the Council.

Meanwhile my holiday is passing by and I am thoroughly enjoying being bone idle in the sunshine. Tomorrow I take my car to the garage to sort out its diesel smoking problem, I foretell another visit to the Lyndon House Hotel, and it is doubtful there will be any blogging here for a few more days as I live the idle life.

ON THE WIRELESS

Derek on the wireless standing up for imperial weights and measures.

From time to time I am invited to give talks or take part in debates about the EU at schools, colleges and various groups, my performances often vary, but when something begins to get me riled that is when I perform best - and this morning my dander was up.

As it happens this dank May morning I am starting a week’s break from work, and like most of my holidays they are spent at home doing all the jobs I haven’t had time for, so in keeping with holiday tradition the first job of the day was to a local garden centre. Listening to Radio WM on the way the topic of the statement made by that silly old duffer, Lord Howe came up regarding his intolerance to our Imperial weights and measures - he wants to fully inflict metric only upon us.

I could not resist calling the radio station from the garden centre whilst standing next to the ‘Mile a Minute’ plants and was asked to wait before going on air. What I didn’t know was that before me the presenter, Adrian Godberg, was about to introduce and interview one of Lord Howe’s sycophants, a chap named Robin Paice of the pointless Metric Association.

He waffled on about why we should go fully metric, it seems the main reason he had for this was due to the fact that some years ago Nasa built a satellite with some measure in metric and some in imperial because one of the part manufacturers had confused metric for imperial and the thing blew up - so according to this chap we must all go metric because of this interstellar mishap.

Adrian Goldberg then said he was going to ask members of the audience what they thought and said: “the first caller on the line is Derek from Walsall’, by now my blood was boiling and I went for it.

My first comment was that I was a member of the British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA) which, unlike the intolerant Metric Association, has no problem with people having the basic freedom to use both systems, as we had been legally free to do so in law from the late 1800’s. I also made the point of poor old Steve Thoburn, who sadly is now dead and gone, and asked; why should it have been illegal for him to sell a pound of bananas to an old lady who asked for exactly that? If both were happy with the deal and no one was ripped off, then where is the problem?

This Robin chappie retaliated with the nonsense that t is confusing having prices in both metric and imperial and having just metric would remove the confusion, which of course it wont as most know imperial but not metric and don’t know what they are buying in metric. I made the obvious point that often packaged goods shown only in metric keep the packaging size the same but the content weight reduced, which people would notice in pounds and ounces but not in metric as they don’t associate with them.

The point I raised on the wireless this morning can be weighed in the very difference with those who are pro-EU and pro-metric and those, like the members of the BWMA and myself who worry about the anti-democratic nature of the EU and the intolerance of the metric only fascists. We stand up for tolerance and freedom while they stand for intolerance and the suppression of freedom.

SCOTLAND BETTER OFF OUT

The Daily Telegraph often throws up odd little snippets tucked away in the side of its pages, yesterday (17th May 2012) there was a small heading: “Scottish Independence ‘threatens EU rebate’”. I could not help but home in on this.

The article relates to some little known character, Patrick Layden QC, who the Torygraph informs us was a former lawyer for the Scottish Executive. It seems he has warned that other EU countries could exploit the separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK as the United Kingdom will cease to exist as an EU member state.

His interpretation of things is that both Edinburgh and London would have to reapply for membership of the EU and would then be readmitted without the current privileges such as the EU rebate won by Margaret Thatcher. He did not mention the fact that Tony Blair as PM gave a whopping great chunk of our rebate away on the vague promise of the French agreeing to the reform of the CAP – which has never happened.

There has been quite a bit of debate about the situation should Scotland go it alone, some have taken it that Scotland only would have to reapply for EU membership but not the rest of the UK. An independent Scotland would be a miniscule rump in the EU with no influence or say whatsoever. The North Sea oil that Scotland claims as its own would quickly be grabbed by the EU as a ‘common resource’ and Scotland would be left with virtually nothing.

If the people of Scotland really did want power and influence rather than pushing for the break up of the Union they would do better by campaigning for the UK to leave the EU. As part of a fully independent UK that has freed itself from the EU’s bureaucratic and costly shackles and returned to Parliamentary democracy, sovereignty and real freedom, it would, as previously, the Scottish electorate would have greater representation in Parliament than the average Englishman due to the way Scotland has smaller constituencies.

Out of the EU there would be no EU rebate to worry about as the taxpayers of this nation would save £billions in EU contributions and industry and business would be able to thrive again as the mass of restrictive and burdensome EU regulations are lifted. Scotland, like the rest of the UK, would really be better off out of the EU.

1.8288 METRES UNDERGROUND

The most useful things in life are often the most practical and familiar things. For the people of Britain when measuring or weighing things they automatically think in imperial weights and measures, they know them and can visualise them.

Just think of a pint and immediately a pint glass of beer comes to mind, it’s the same with feet and inches, people relate to them, even those who to Europeanise them were taught only the Continental system of metric measure automatically use imperial.

Sadly, shoppers are forced to try and work out what measures they are buying when they go to the supermarket. When buying a bag of sugar, flour or other things they have to guess by the packaging size just how much they are getting. If it looks like a pound of flour they buy it hoping the confusing metric on the packet translates to a pound.

This system has steadily been enforced on the British people with the feeble excuse that it standardises all weights and measures, the problem is it has become a swindlers charter. What looks like a pound of flour may actually be three quarters of a pound leaving shoppers to not realise just how expensive the goods they have purchased are.

Motorists don’t look at the volume of fuel they have just put into their cars, they watch the cost and buy it by the pounds worth. We no longer work on miles to the gallon; it is miles to the pound. It is the same now for many goods as our imperial weights and measures system has been undermined by those who loathe their own country and want Britain fully subsumed into a new undemocratic nation called ‘Europe’.

One of those who has brought about this sad and unnecessary sate is the old dead sheep worrier, Lord Howe who as Geoffrey Howe turned against Margaret Thatcher and betrayed all those who believed in real Conservatism – not the imitation Conservative Party we have now.

Although little is heard of Lord Howe these days as he sits quietly and festers away in the House of Lords, from time to time the silly of duffer pops up and makes a stupid comment about scrapping our much loved imperial system, as the old fool has recently done with his comments about the dual system being a ‘deeply confusing shambles’. He then states the only solution is to go fully metric.

If this stupid old Lord actually stopped to consider the insanity of that statement he would realise the best way to create a shambles is to scrap the system, of weights and measures people know and replace it for one that has little meaning. There are two things that need abandoning, one is the metric system and the other is Lord Howe.

If Lord Howe has his way we will all end up being like the sad old man in George Orwell’s classic 1984 trying to buy a pint of beer and being told they only sell litres. Soon we will have the EU version of 1984 and Lord Howe will have helped in its creation. Let’s hope he is soon 1.8288 metres underground before he can do any more harm to this nation.

IT HAS ALL GONE WRONG

As we watch the eurozone lurch from one crisis to another and from one EU panic ridden meeting after another, all in an effort to save its beloved euro, I am keep thinking just how relevant the humorous posting below this one is.

The EU has been sold to us as the body that has saved the continent from war since the end of what the EU describes as a “Civil war” in 1945. It makes the claim that the EU is the reason for keeping the peace in Western Europe – it seems NATO has nothing to do with this as far as it is concerned.

As well as peace, harmony and goodwill to all mankind, the EU was to be the bringer of wealth, jobs and enriched lifestyles for all the people of Europe. You will have to read the below posting to gather how Blackadder would sum this up too.

So, when we remove our EU regulation rose tinted specs, what exactly are we left with? Well, you only have to take a look at the EU ‘Club Med countries to see just how successful the EU has been regarding all its blissful promises. The EU has cost the taxpayers of this country and across the EU £billions in payments none can really afford, it has made us all poorer rather than richer. In fact its decision to create a single currency for the whole Continent was madness on a scale not seen in Europe since the days of Hitler. Despite warnings from those with a sound understanding of economics the EU pushed on regardless and now the result, in all its disastrous glory, is there for all to see.

Across Europe today, thanks solely to the actions of the EU, there is high unemployment which is increasing day upon day. Youth unemployment in Spain now stands at 50%, Italy is in trouble, so too is Portugal Ireland and other poorer eurozone nations. However, it is Greece at the moment where all eyes are fixed, the situation in that country is dire.

The EU, under the instructions of Frau Mekel, the German Chancellor, is lecturing the Greeks to accept the stringent austerity package that the European Union wants to impose upon Greece in order to save the euro, this is despite the fact even the German people are now voting against austerity measures in their own country.

The situation in Greece is desperate and highly flammable. People are losing everything, some are now predicting the riots seen on the streets of Athens could even turn into civil war. The situation is the same in Spain where tens of thousands of protesters made their displeasure known in plazas all across the country.

The EU was sold to us as the bringer of peace, harmony, wealth and well being, like all Utopian dreams which are seldom based on reality, the opposite is now the case. These things which the EU and its sycophants have always bragged about are now, as predicted by the more practical of us, are now turning to dust. In reality the EU has been the bringer of poverty, unhappiness and soon, conflict. It is time the EU was disbanded; it is a vast social experiment that has gone disastrously wrong and Blackadder’s terminology was spot on.

BLACKADDER EXPLAINS THE EURO CRISIS

This bit of fun came to me in an e-mail, as they say, there is much truth in jest.

Baldrick: "What I want to know sir is before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there's only one type of money that the foreign people use. And what I want to know is, how did we get from one state of affairs to the other state of affairs"

Blackadder: "Baldrick. Do you mean, how did the Euro start?"

Baldrick: "Yes sir"

Blackadder: "Well, you see Baldrick, back in the 1980's there were many different countries all running their own finances and using different types of money. On one side you had the major economies of France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, and on the other, the weaker nations of Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal . They got together and decided that it would be much easier for everyone if they could all use the same money, have one Central Bank, and belong to one large club where everyone would be happy. This meant that there could never be a situation whereby financial meltdown would lead to social unrest, wars and crises".

Baldrick: "But this is sort of a crisis, isn't it sir".

Blackadder: "That's right Baldrick. You see, there was only one slight flaw with the plan".

Baldrick: "What was that then sir?"

Blackadder: "It was complete bollocks"

ROGER HELMER LAMBASTE FOR EU COMMISSION TAJANI

Roger Helmer, who earlier this year came to the common sense option to quit the pro-EU Conservative Party to join UKIP as the only sensible option for him to challenge the serious problem created by membership of the anti-democratic EU, has gone on the attack in the European Parliament. Watch and enjoy.

CABLE CANUTE

King Canute was famous in history for allegedly saying he could stop the tide coming in, he sat in his chair on the shore line and commanded the tide to stop and eventually came away with wet feet, he scarpered before it got too high.

This to most seemed like a mad thing to do, and history tends to distort thing, but from my understanding he did this to prove to his subjects that he was not infallible as many were crediting him with an almost God-like status. When the tide laped around his feet and robes he leapt backwards, saying: 'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.' He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again "to the honour of God the almighty King".

King Canute did what he did to prove he was not superior to God, however, Vince Cable, who as we all know is a member of the most pro-EU party on God’s earth, the Liberal Democrats, is proposing to show that he is more powerful than the EU by “close down the red tape factories of Brussels”.

The question has to be asked, has Vince Cable decided to abandon Liberal Democrat and Conservative policy on EU membership and taken up UKIP policy instead, which is for leaving the EU in favour of returning to Parliamentary sovereignty and democracy instead?

Sadly, King Vince (Canute) Cable has about as much chance of scrapping the thousands of entrenched EU laws, regulations and directive that every successive British Government has enshrined into British law since 1973 as Canute did when trying to stop the tide.

Sadly, the tide of regulations which, as Lord Tonypandy once pointed out, has swept up the River Thames and has now swamped Parliament. The European Working Time Directive, which he describes as a “heavy-handed one-size-fits-all”, and is a regulation he is now determined to restrict, will be unstoppable as long as we remain in the EU, no British Government will be allowed by the EU to remove it.

Sadly, like all politicians, Vince Cable deludes himself when he thinks he can make laws in the UK without recourse to Brussels. Any attempt to remove enacted EU legislation will bring a tide of EU wrath and heavy fines which will add an ever greater fiscal burden on British membership of the EU which the nation can ill afford. The EU is political hobby that is about to drown Mr Cable, our latter day King Canute.

SHIFTING POWER

I couldn't resist putting this video on the blog, this is Cameron on the Lisbon Treaty and proof of the Lisbon lie he fed to us all.

THE UKIP EFFECT

It’s hard to believe that voting for who you want to be in charge of emptying your bins and responsible for tackling the problem of dog poo on the pavements could create massive upheaval in the Government.

This though is exactly what has happened after the disastrous results for the Tory Lib Dem two tone coalition Government after last week’s local elections, there is obviously panic in the air. According to the Daily Mail the panic has, or so the Mail informs us, that there will be late changes made to the Queens speech.

Now we have given the EU £billions in payments as our contribution for membership of this club that makes our laws, and given further £billions in bail-outs to prop up the currency disaster known as the eurozone, and as there can be little left as the black hole known as our deficit gets deeper by the minute, the statement is to be made: ‘No more bail-outs’. Talk about horses bolting and locking stable doors!

The Tories are spitting nails over the fact UKIP did so well in the local elections last week, they blame UKIP for spoiling their chances. So, it seems, their poor showing in their eyes has nothing to do with how useless their leader and Government has been over the last two years, or to do with the votes garnered by the Labour Party and even their coalition partners, the Lib Dems. It also seems the decision of the electorate has nothing to do with it either, despite the fact we in UKIP were getting calls from people asking who their candidates are as they have had it with the other political parties – a large number of those people said they had always voted Tory, but no more.

UKIP as a whole achieved around 13% of the vote last week with a certain number of candidates elected. To some this may not have been enough as we need people in Parliament and control over town halls, but UKIP is now having an effect just as Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party’s 3% of the national vote had in 1997. Because of the threat of the Referendum Party in the run up to that election the other three parties promised a referendum on membership of the euro – it was thanks to Sir James and his party that the Blair Government did not take us in to the mess that has become the eurozone as they knew the electorate would vote no. The Referendum Party will go down in history for that fact and now UKIP is having a similar effect.

Unlike the Referendum Party, which was a one election and one issue party, UKIP has grown into full party status along with its membership, number of candidates and MEPs. It is now established in its own right and is not just a threat to the Conservative Party, it aims to be a threat to the other pro-EU parties too, all of them will, increasingly, be having to look over their shoulders to see UKIP on their tail, all will have to moderate their support for the EU, this is the UKIP effect, it is one that will grow and grow – the other parties can no longer feel safe.

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

Who was it who had the bright idea of ensuring the House of Commons bars only sell weaker strength beers? After the results of the local elections last night (Thursday 3rd May 2012) Cameron and his leftie Lib Dem crony will be in need of a strong drink or too.

For them the night was a lousy one as their votes fell away and many Tory run councils went to Labour. Although Ed Milliband may be pleased, not all went as well as he would have liked for his Labour Party. In my own town of Walsall Labour did take some wards, but not enough to take outright control leaving the Walsall Labour leader to negotiate with others to see if he can take over the running of the Council. I’m not sure how Pete Smith, who returns to the Council on the slimmest of majorities for the Socialist Labour Party, will react to an approach from Labour whose candidate was the long serving Ian Robinson.

Pete is well liked and respected amongst most political activists in Walsall, his political views may not be to the liking of many, myself included, he has to be greatly admire for his political honesty and for the way he serves those who he was elected to represent – he does what a good Councillor should do. I not only like Pete Smith, but have great admiration for him – I just wished we had more Councillors like him.

What was most pleasant for us in UKIP in Walsall was seeing the size of our vote increase and that of the Liberal Democrats evaporate, although they did manage to hold on to two of their strongholds in Willenhall North with the re-election of Ian Shires, their leader, and the election of Doreen Shires in Short Heath.

Our UKIP candidate who stood against Ian Shires achieved 13% of the vote beating the Tory candidate who got 10.5%. In other wards the Liberal Democrat vote almost disappeared, you needed a magnifying glass to find it. The invisible Liberal Democrat standing in the Paddock Ward where I stood got just 75 votes, my vote shot up to 444 votes which was 10.2% of the vote. However, our best UKIP result came in the Streetly Ward where our eager newcomer to UKIP, Steve Whitehouse, gained 17% of the vote.

At the end of the night as the count in the university campus came to an end, and the Tories began licking their wounds after a bruising night, the first people they turn against and pin the blame on rather than looking to themselves, are us in UKIP. They have this strange notation that somehow or other we in UKIP are the same as them. However, as I am constantly remind them, we are not the same – they are members of a rabidly pro-EU party with a pro-EU leader who called a three line whip against an in/out referendum on EU membership, and UKIP is an anti-EU party with a anti-EU leader. If they as individuals consider themselves to be anti-EU and like us then they need to quit their pro-EU party and join us. It is no use blaming us in UKIP for their losses, why didn’t they blame the Labour Party too who took seats from them? The logic is just the same.

Over in Dudley, where UKIP is really strong and had a large contingent of UKIP candidates, the Labour Party at the end of the night decided it was time for them to not only take control of the Council from the Conservative Party but also their title of the ‘Nasty party’ too. It seems their council leader in his victory speech made reference to racist groups in which he included the BNP, the EDL and UKIP.

This was sheer left wing bile, spite and nastiness, there is no way UKIP can be considered as racist, we have members of all races and religions in our ranks, we even ban members of the EDL, ex members of the BNP, National Front and other extremist groups from joining the party. This slur on UKIP created outrage in the Dudley count with calls for an apology for these Labour lies. UKIP will have to consider legal action against the Dudley Labour group.

We now wait and see what happens in Walsall, what sort of deals Labour Leader Tim Oliver can pull off or if a minority Conservative group can retain control. For many politicians and ex-Councillors, as they lick their political wounds, no doubt those famous words will be on their lips: ‘The electorate have spoken – the bas”*/!+”.

MAKING OUR MARK

Walsall Council House, the place the candidates are aiming for.

Before this blog goes back to tackling the EU problem, I am sticking with the theme of the local elections which are due to take place tomorrow, Thursday 3rd May as today is the last day of campaigning.

I hate making predictions of how well, or badly the political parties involved will do, so often things turn out differently, but there is a mood across the electorate that the press and media seem to be picking up. One thing they are homing in is just how unpopular Cameron is with what should be his own natural supporters, some of them consider him to be more socialist than Labour.

Added to this now people have had the experience of seeing what the Liberal Democrats are like in Government, the rosy Lib Dem mist that clouded the vision of many has cleared and they no longer look like a moderate alternative to either left wing Labour or Socialist Conservative – so where are the abandoned voters planning to place their crosses tomorrow?

In the Paddock ward in Walsall where I am standing as the UKIP candidate, the chances are it will remain Tory, although I think with a reduced margin – it is after all the second safest Conservative ward in Walsall, after Streetly. This still does not stop Rose Martin, who is my Tory opponent and an old friend of nearly forty years from worrying, or so I hear on the grapevine. I am looking forward to the prospect of hammering the Liberal Democrat candidate there who does not look as if he has done any campaigning in the ward at all. The Labour candidate has been looking very chirpy every time I bump in to him – he is obviously expecting his vote share to increase.

One of the most interesting wards for us in UKIP in Walsall, and for the area as a whole, is the Pheasey Park Farm Ward where our UKIP candidate is Steve Grey, there is literally a three horse race between Steve, the sitting Conservative Councillor Adrian Andrew and the Labour candidate Patti Lane, who I gather has been campaigning like mad in the hope she can snatch the ward off the Tories.

This ward used to be a Labour ward until Adrian Andrew muscled his way in there for the Conservative Party in 2000, followed by Chris Towe and Mike Bird, who is the Tory leader on Walsall Council. The interesting question here is, what are the electorate planning to do? At the count tomorrow night that ward will definitely be one to watch.

Something else we are having to watch, or those of us who will be turning up at the Wolverhampton University campus just off the Broadway in Walsall, will be our footwear – I joke not. Walsall Council have sent out explicit instructions on what those attending the count can or cannot wear on their feet, they plan to have an inspection on the door to ensure our shoes comply with their footwear directive. Because the count is taking place in the sports hall the university people are panicking about damage to their floor, hence the ban on high heels and certain types of shoes.

I hear news that the Labour leader in Walsall, Tim Oliver, is preparing to take control of the Council, no doubt he is doing the David Steel thing and telling his troops: ‘Go back to your wards and prepare for control of the Council.

If the Tories do badly tomorrow night then the first ones they will blame will be us in UKIP – it’s always our fault when they lose elections. They won’t blame the other parties standing against them, but for some strange reason they seem to think that UKIP should not oppose them, I don’t know why as we are not the same. They belong to a pro-EU party that has lost its way; we in UKIP are in an anti-EU party that is very focussed, we are not an extension of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party nor any other political party, we are UKIP and are now set on making our mark on British politics, although we will try not to mark the sports all floor.

SOME OF US ARE DIFFERENT

Over the last few days this blog has, unofficially, become a bit of a campaign diary rather than a blog to expose the disaster of our membership of the European Union. So, we have until Thursday and as all my efforts, after a day doing my work in the office, are for my local election campaign as a UKIP candidate in the Paddock Ward in Walsall, I may as well keep reprting my campaigning efforts.

First and foremost, one of the problems with this election campaign has been the weather, which to use a common expression regarding English weather, is ‘bloody awful’. Obviously this has been the same for all of us campaigning as we are dodging the wind and the rain trying to ensure our election leaflets are not blown away or soaked. The only candidate it does not seem to have been a problem for is the Liberal Democrat candidate as I have not seen a single leaflet from him, unlike the Labour and Conservative candidates who have been busy.

By last weekend I have covered the ward in leaflets and am now in the process of putting out a second very basic leaflet. Last night I went out, after the rain had stopped, with a bunch of 300 leaflets freshly bashed out on my own copier. The campaigning started well as I went door to door on the Gillity Village delivering. I met one chap and had a chat with him; he was positive and said he would vote for me. So with a smile on my face I set off again and delivering my leaflets. Sadly, the next person I encountered wiped the smile off my face, “Your all the same” she responded after I introduced myself – that’s the first time I have heard that in this election, it usually gets thrown at us a few times by polling day.

I tried to explain why I was not the same, but despite the lady being polite and promising to read my bashed out photo-copied election address, she wasn’t really interested.

Never mind I thought, you can’t win them all, and continued on my merry way pounding the streets of Gillity Village. As I walked up one drive, as I was about halfway up the door began to slowly open and an elderly lady peered out looking a little puzzled. Despite the old girls age she had obviously made an effort, she had her lippy on and her hair was done, she looked quite smart. I flashed my best smile and said: “Hello, I’m Derek your UKIP candidate in the local elections”. “Oh, that’s a shame” came the reply. This was a new one to me, in all the elections I have stood in over the years, I can’t say I have encountered that one. I don’t know who was the most confused, the old girl who was obviously not quite the full ticket, or me not knowing how to respond to that one.

Come the early hours of Friday morning, then we will know what’s a shame or not, it will be a shame if the people stick like voting for donkeys with the same clapped out old three parties. Let’s hope some common sense prevails and they realise we are not all the same – some of us are politicall different.