Bloom’s family affair – he scams taxpayer so parliamentary staff work for his investment company

Another missive from UKIPs most gregarious of buffoons, Godfrey Bloom, with the Times exposing the fact that Godders has been gloriously ripping off the taxpayer by paying his parliamentary staff (using taxpayers’ money) to work for his investment company.

Still, why should anyone doubt a man who has the sheer gall to say: “I am pretty well known as the cleanest MEP in town. All of the people who work for me are fully qualified and trustworthy.”

Of particular amusement to UKIPwatch is that Bloom has always claimed that he does not employ any family members, ignoring the fact that one of the three assistants is his niece!

According to the Times:

“Emma Brader, his accredited parliamentary assistant, and Victoria Skowronek, his secretarial assistant, were both working in the York headquarters of TBO Investments yesterday, six days before the European elections. David McLaughlin, another member of his staff, is a director of TBO Investments.”

Indeed:

“(Bloom) confirmed yesterday that Ms Skowronek was his niece and lives next door to him in Wressle, East Yorkshire.

Also good to see that Godders’ renowned charm has still not deserted him. Have a look at this wonderful careers advice he offers his staff should he get deservedly beaten tomorrow:

“Ms Brader, 26, a leading point-to-point rider, wrote on Facebook that if Mr Bloom was not re-elected: “This would mean that Vicki and I would lose our jobs and Godfrey says we’d have to go on the game, but we wouldn’t make much money because we are too old!”

Bloom’s company TBO investment was recently fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for inadequate supervision and monitoring of staff providing advice to clients and for inadequate record keeping between December 2001 and October 2007, but that’s a story UKIPwatch will return to……

Media pack finally catch up on sleazy UKIP

After several weeks of being completely ignored, as the MP expenses scandal dominated the headlines, the press are starting to go after UKIP. This is not before time. People need to know about the candidates they are being asked to vote for and, when it comes to transparency and public money, UKIP are the grubbiest of the lot.

Poor old UKIP are now being reminded about what UKIPwatch has been saying for ages: that UKIP MEP Ashley Mote went to prison for benefit fraud; and that UKIP MEP Tom Wise is being prosecuted for money laundering. Even Nigel Farage has copped some serious flak after being caught admitting that he had taken £2m in expenses and couldn’t account for it. The eurosceptic Tory think-tank Open Europe has weighed in, including 6 U-kippers in its list of the 10 worst offending MEPs. Bloody hell, even the Sun is saying they’re a bunch of crooks.

The redoubtable Trixy (who after being forced out as a UKIP press officer last September has now come back working for gorgeous Godfrey Bloom in an unofficial capacity) staunchly defends her former boss Nigel Farage. She has a point about his work-rate, as Farage works his nuts off for UKIP, but UKIP deserve to be taken to task.

It is also an open secret that UKIP use their assistants’ allowance (and IND-DEM group money) to fund their party activity. You only have to take a quick look at the IND-DEM website to see evidence of this.

Paul Nuttal is apparently the IND-DEM official on the ECON legislative committee (a full time job for anyone who is doing it properly) but is also the Chairman of UKIP (surely also a full time job for even a semi-serious political party). This can mean that one of the following is happening: Nuttal takes his IND-DEM salary (which as an EU civil servant will be pretty generous) and doesn’t take a salary from UKIP. In which case, the taxpayer is paying him to be UKIP Chairman. Or, he’s taking home two salaries, which I don’t think is within the rules as an EU civil servant. Either way, the taxpayer is getting royally swizzed.

Similarly, Ralph Atkinson and Gawain Towler are also IND-DEM officials – paid by the taxpayer – despite being, ahem, very prominent in UKIPs activities.

Even so, unless you’ve been watching the party election broadcasts on the telly, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there wasn’t an election campaign going on.

UKIP clowns - Why the UK should leave the UK

UKIP may have been given an undeserved boost by the MPs’ expenses saga, (although the press are now starting to cotton on to the fact that, having had one MEP jailed for fraud and another facing trial for money laundering and false accounting, UKIP make the other parties look as pure as the driven snow) but there are familiar reminders of their incompetence.

This link to their website deserves to be posted in full –

http://www.ukip.org/content/video-zone/1050-trevor-colman-on-why-uk-should-leave-uk


Kind of says it all, really.

What became of the UKIP 12?

With the MPs’ expenses scandal dominating the news and doing enormous damage to the three main parties, it looks likely that one or more of the minor parties will get a big boost in support at next month's European elections.

But if anyone wants to register a protest vote against the major parties and thinks UKIP are a decent bunch of people who can be trusted, they should read this and think again. ‘What became of the UKIP Twelve?’ is a catalogue of corruption, fraud, jail terms, incompetence, racism and much more. A collection of UKIPwatch's 'greatest hits' if you will. Ahem.

The British people have been let down by some of their MPs, but also by the 12 UKIP MEPs, most of which fall into one of the following categories: useless, corrupt, bigoted and extremist. To any right-thinking person, voting UKIP on June 4th is definitely not the answer.

Happy reading!

What%20became%20of%20the%20UKIP%20twelve.pdf

Godders' answer to population growth - smoke yourself to death

The amusing Hugh Muir has this little piece in the Guardian poking fun at UKIPwatch’s richest source of fun, Godfrey Bloom. His description of Godders as “the self-styled Andy Capp of the European Parliament” is particularly apt.

It seems as though Godders’ solution to halt global population growth is to get people smoking cigs. In Godders’ words, “we are too many on this planet anyway and we are also getting older, who is going to pay for all those pensions if smokers are not dying?” Well said Godfrey, we should all be as selfless as you and smoke ourselves to an early grave.

With high quality English and first rate logic like this, it is amazing that Godders’ has not enjoyed a stellar political career.

The magnificent Mr Muir also draws attention to Godders' binge-drinking prowess. Godders, lest we forget, tried to outdo William Hague's 'I drank 16 pints' claims by telling his local paper that he maintained a proud record of at least one session of 8 pints or more each week. UKIPwatch now realises why Godfrey looks about twenty years older than his 59 years, but worries about the effect on his liver from an estimated 17,472 pints.

As Hugh says, while UKIPwatch would miss Godfrey immensely if he were to lose his seat, "looked at from this perspective, wouldn't more free time for Godfrey suit everybody?"

More UKIP panic after by-election thrashing

Nigel Farage has pledged to resign if UKIP win fewer than 10 seats – a stiff ask and one which none of the media give him a prayer of achieving.

The general consensus among the pundits seems to be that UKIP will struggle to hold more than half the 12 seats they won in 2004. Polling day is still over three weeks away so it’s way too early to make any predictions of a UKIP wipe-out, but if things are still looking bleak at the start of June we can expect the fur to start flying over at the Democracy Forum.

In the meantime, the only polling barometer is the result of this by-election in one of UKIPs strongest wards in Hartlepool. UKIP have a councillor in Hartlepool, and achieved their best performance in a Westminster by-election there in 2004 following the resignation of Peter Mandelson.

However, in a seat where UKIP had polled 373 votes in May 2008, with Labour winning with 488, this time UKIP could only manage 300 votes to Labour’s 532, despite having spent the last couple of weeks campaigning in earnest for the Euro elections. By-elections are not necessarily reliable barometers of public opinion, but UKIP would surely have expected to either take the seat or run Labour very close.

Hartlepool Borough - Rossmere: Lab 532, Ukip 300, Lib Dem 166, BNP 157, C 102. (May 2008 - Lab 488, Ukip 373, Lib Dem 258, C 197). Lab hold.

Swing 4.8% Ukip to Lab.

UKIP seek posthumous endorsement from legendary British federalist

UKIP have, predictably, co-opted Winston Churchill to appear on their billboards for the Euro elections, causing Tory MP and Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames to splutter that his grandfather is being cynically exploited.

As observers of the party of 'racists, cranks and gadflys' will be aware, most U-kippers are fairly stupid and possess what could reasonably be described as a limited understanding of history.

If they had any knowledge of history they would be well aware that during the Second World War, Churchill sought a union of France and Britain for the duration of the war. And after the war he agreed with Jean Monnet that structures should be put in place to bring Europe closer together to avoid further conflict. The same Churchill who UKIP are so cynically exploiting, told Conservative party conference in 1947 that:

"I strive for three great systems-the British Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union and the fraternal association with the United States. I believe that…this island will be the vital link between them all."

This would be the same Winston Churchill who said in 1946 in Zurich that:

"We must build a kind of United States of Europe" and:

"If Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance there would be no limit to the happiness, prosperity and glory which its 300 million or 400 million people would enjoy"

All of which begs the question: how can UKIP possibly associate themselves with a man holding such views. If any Tory politician said the same things now, Farage and co would immediately denounce them as a traitor to Britain!

In any case, is there anyone of even remotely Churchillian stature in UKIP? They've only got one decent politician in the whole party. Aside from Farage, most of the rest of them are still desperately searching for the family brain cell.

Wise in the dock

UKIPs 'plucky porker' Tom Wise finally appeared in court yesterday to face charges of money laundering and false accounting. He pleaded not guilty and has been released on conditional bail to reappear at the court on 8 June. UKIP are trying to distance themselves from Wise, with Farage telling anyone who'll listen that Wise was promptly expelled from UKIP when the allegations became public. Shame it's not true, eh Nige?

Indeed, despite the rubbery-faced Farage's claims, it seems that Wise is still chair of his local UKIP branch.

Is Tom Wise still a UKIP member, because this is just beyond a farce.

Bloom back in form

UKIPwatch was getting a bit concerned that Godfrey Bloom was going a bit soft in his old-age - mellowing, perhaps. He hadn't insulted anybody for weeks. We were delighted to see this wonderful, rambling, oafish speech from the mighty Bloomman.

Starting as he means to go on, Godders', in characteristically pompous style, tells MEPs that "I have spent 40 years in financial services, so I think perhaps I know a little bit about what I am talking about here".

40 years? No wonder our financial services sector is fucked!

What follows is a gentle, meandering ramble before Godders gets to the real meat of his short speech. You see, talking about legislation is too boring, demeaning even for a berk of his calibre. What Godfrey really wants to do is ignore the debate and shower everyone with a torrent of invective and abuse.

And here we are: Solvency II, which will, in his eyes, consist of "ignorant bureaucrats, Scandinavian houswives, Bulgarian mafia and Romanian peg-makers".

May God bless this stupid, boorish cretin.