UKIP ORKNEY and UKIP BLACK ISLE now underway.

Set off early on Friday to pick up Peter Adams, then on to meet Ross Durrance near the Black Isle. Enterprising trio then pushed on to Gills Bay to catch the Pentland Ferry with minutes to spare.

Great visit. Into Kirkwall where I went for an interview with The Orcadian whilst Peter and Ross set up in the Orkney Hotel. Our meeting started at 7.30 pm. I got one lapsed/forgetful member to renew at the outset and Peter handed out application forms to new supporters.

After fi...elding questions and at bit of pushing, saying I would not be content until we had a new branch, six of the delightful Orcadians there present agreed, with Paul Dawson taking the chairmanship. Delia Hall was effusive and enthusiastic and becomes the Teasurer and Secretary. Well to the fore was Robert Smith, our candidate at the last elections.

Next morning, after some happy post-meeting wassailing, Paul popped over and reported he had already recruited an additional new member! Happy, Peter, Ross and I set of for the return ferry, via a visit to the Italian POW Camp Chapel. Wonderful place.

And so to the Waterfront in Inverness where we had a good albeit rapidly convened UKIP meeting. I left encouraged by the enthusiasm exhibited and braced myself for the fast drive back to the Black Isle. Ross was at the wheel!

Ross chaired a meeting of our Highland reps, mostly addressing plans for our forthcoming Highland Event. Watch this space for more on that.

After the main business, I set to, gleaning that there were enough members present to form a committee for another new branch to be based on The Black Isle. I went on to suggest that the key players, Iain, Phillip and Ron, that they might like to start regular pub meetings.

We stayed overnight with Phillip and Christine, and I was delighted over breakfast to hear Phillip discussing which pub the new branch night adopt! Quick work. The beer must be good!

When I have my breath back, I will set of on another trip and hope to report the establishment of more new UKIP branches across Scotland. After all, the polls tell me that 8% at least Scots support UKIP - all I have to do is find them! All!See more

UKIP spearhead in Scotland - now at 9%!

Nigel Farge is front page news in The Herald -

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/farage-independence-dead-in-the-water.20285722?utm_source=headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email%2Balert

UKIP Scotland is progressing steadily.  Some media outlets are still a bit shy of us, but the more astute media folk have begun to notice that significant numbers of Scots are following and supporting us.  

I am off to Kirkwall and the Black Isle this weekend - and I hope to bag a couple of new branches.  Across Scotland, we have had an increase of 30% in membership - signed up subscribing members - since October.

Watch the Social Media - if the conventional press can't keep up, you can follow blogs etc.

Read our policies on the UKIP website - it's easy - google UKIP.

Now is the time to join UKIP

UKIP in Scotland is growing behind the scenes.  We are planning to form new branches and I urge people who have thought about it to start acting - the time to join UKIP is now.

Nigel Farage has been on STV again and this will awaken the printed media; they have ignored us for too long.    They cannot ignore our growing support - up to at least 8% now.

Hat's off to STV for opening up democracy - it is not for the chatteratti to decide who gets publicity. 
The role of reporters is to report, not to pontificate!

UKIP will breakthrough in Scotland at the next European elections. That is because we know that people want to escape from the EU, not from the UK.

EU OIL GRAB - UK/SCOTLAND BEWARE!

IMMEDIATE

Not only the SNP but the whole Scottish Nation has to wake up to the realities of sovereignty.

Mr Salmond wants out of the UK and into the EU - Amendment 63 to the Fisheries' Policy should wake him up. It is a the clear intention of the EU body politic to take full central control of, basically, everything. Here that foreign collective bureaucracy wants to sneak in central sovereign control of our sea bed - UK or Scottish, whatever the result of the Scottish Referendum

That means the EU is staging a oil grab - and a lot more.

Scotland ; wake up! We need a United Kingdom that has wrestled itself free from the central control of the EU body politic. There is no such thing as Independence in the EU, Alex. And the UK itself is in the same trap. We most certainly would be Better Together and Better of Out - and UKIP alone, it seems, offers that."

NOTES

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EU threatens Essential Sovereignty:

Time for that Referendum Dave?

Hidden in an amendment within a huge report on the EU’s Common Fisheries policy, UKIP has discovered an attempt by Brussels to seize control of the UK seabed, owned by the UK Crown: A power grab that should trigger a UK Referendum.

The vast majority of the mineral rich seabed, inside the 12 mile limit of British Territorial Waters, is Crown Estate, or property of the Crown and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.

Yet Amendment 63 would permit the EU to claim ownership via a direct power grab, without any consultation or prior approval from British people, the British Parliament or the Queen.

Under David Cameron’s “Referendum Lock” this should be subject to a direct appeal to British voters.

Speaking in the debate in Strasbourg this morning, Stuart Agnew MEP, the UKIP fisheries spokesman, said of the amendment, tabled by a Spanish MEPs,

"The British people, Parliament and Her Majesty the Queen will also be alarmed to discover that Amendment 63 would create a new power without a word of objection by Her Majesty's Government or the Tories.

“That power is sovereignty over the seabed as opposed to merely controlling the fish in the water above it. Any new power must mean a UK referendum.

“Therefore if this amendment is carried it must be the subject of a UK referendum under Mr Cameron's ‘referendum lock’.”

Later Mr Agnew said, “If this legislation is passed, then Cameron is duty bound to give us that vote under his own law”.

Notes

Statement by David Cameron, 25/5/2010

“My Government will introduce legislation to ensure that in future this Parliament and the British people have their say on any proposed transfer of powers to the European Union.”

The amendment

Amendment 63

Proposal for a regulation

Part I – Article 5 –indent 1

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment
– ‘Union waters’ means the waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Member States with the exception of the waters adjacent to the territories listed in Annex II to the Treaty;	– ‘Union waters’ means the waters and the seabed under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Member States with the exception of those adjacent to the territories listed in Annex II to the Treaty;

Justification

In order to include sessile species.

Video of Speech by Stuart Agnew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ELeQM4Tq0--

Gawain Towler
Press Officer
EFD Group in the European Parliament
UK Independence Party

Tel: +44 (0)207 2229365

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