Not just immigration

Cameron putting immigration at the centre of his manifesto is not the winning trick - the EU issue is about all of our sovereignty.

World Security

An Independent Scotland might well not be a weak nation, will not be a poor state but will not gain top table status, especially if run by a centralizing, overspending and smug government.

The United Kingdom, broken up by the independence of Scotland, will doubtless be diminished, certainly in the short and medium term.  And that will have an adverse impact on world security and stability.

Any perception that the UK's break up weakens it, will weaken her impact and influence in NATO, multiplying the effect current force reductions.  The reality of Scottish Independence with the subsequent uncertainty over Trident basing will create a shock wave amongst  the allies, and some mirth to say the least in Putin's front office.

The UK's voice in the UN Security Council may be deemed to be toned down - and perhaps her veto questioned.

Scotland is not a colony growing up to make its own way in the world. Scotland is a partner in a Union that has been a world leader and possible the most successful force for good, security and stability, despite an imperfect past.  Churchill might have said that the Union might not always have been perfect, but it has made a most impressive contribution.

I hope Scots will not follow the narrow inward looking selfishness so smugly exuded by Salmond and his people.

No call for bad mouthing First Minister.

As a former Chairman of UKIP in Scotland, I am appalled at reports that Coburn, a UKIP MEP, speaking in London, called the Scottish First Minister a racist, and I deplore the language and rhetoric used by both Coburn and Thackeray, the current unelected chairman of UKIP in Scotland.  Being “in your face” is not the basis upon which a political party can build a respectable image.

UKIP proper has the right perspective on the key issue of British Sovereignty; the twin objectives of keeping the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland intact, and of regaining the sovereignty we have already lost to the European Union.  Those messages have created the momentum which is seeing the rise of UKIP as a major political party in the UK; indeed, the surge created brought its gain in Scotland too.  

Putting forward a positive message is needed; not the vindictive, puerile personal disparagement of elected government ministers.

A fine example of a positive pro UK message is one which, I have long advocated: That the United Kingdom’s MPs should represent us all both in Parliament in Westminster, and also in four national parliaments

It is as wrong to slate the First Minister as it was for idiots to mob Nigel Farage on the Cannongate in Edinburgh.

Unfortunately, UKIP in Scotland is now gaining a less than palatable reputation; something which UKIP elsewhere has with increasing success combatted.   Little wonder that Better Together are concerned the modus operandi of UKIP in Scotland, and the distraction their rally may cause.

Reflection of Farage/Clegg Debate - and the EUs peacocks.

It seems that Nigel Farage and I are in step in our thinking on the Sevastopol issue - the EU has to be careful not to tread deeply into the Russian sphere of influence. At least Obama and the EU are now tacitly acknowledging that military options must be ruled out.
In his debate with Clegg, Farage is reported to have accused the EU of having blood on its hands over the Ukraine. Clegg on the other hand praised the bloc's influence in Eastern Europe; he is reported to have said "It was the British governments that pioneered the enlargement of the European Union so we'd have more peace, more democracy and more rule of law in our European neck of the woods."

Mr Farage responded by saying "we can all hang our heads in shame. We've given a false series of hopes to a group of people in the west of Ukraine; So 'geed' up were they that they actually toppled their own elected leader. That provoked Mr Putin and I think the European Union frankly does have blood on its hands in the Ukraine and I don't want a European army, navy, air force or a European foreign policy."

I think that the way ahead now surely lies in the EU and the USA recognising Crimea as part of Russia, with Russia withdrawing troops from the Ukrainian border and all parties, the USA, the EU's member states, Ukraine and Russia agreeing on Ukrainian neutrality, recognised and guaranteed by all.

Otherwise, we are set for a Black Sea Freeze, if not a wider Cold War II.

EU peacocking is a danger.

The EU is wrong to perform its current diplomatic sabre -rattling routine. 

The reality is that the interest which Russia has in Sevastopol, and hence Crimea, is vital to her; more vital to her than Portsmouth is to the UK. 

The old arrangement, the one put in place by Khrushchev at a time when no one dreamt that the USSR would ever fall or fail, gave Russia all she needed and let Ukraine have her place on the world stage.

The EU has disturbed that when Baroness Ashton (The English Woman) carried out her pas de deux with Kiev.  It is the EU which has the expansionist mindset.

So why all this EU peacocking?  Is it because it takes the eye off the Eurozone crisis?  

I think so: It is an old ploy, and a dangerous one at that.

Sevastopol

The EU has forgotten (or more likely, its unelected bureaucrats are ignorant of) the fact that Russia will hold her need for her Black Sea naval base - and the access that gives her - as vital to her interests - it is within what used to be recognised as the Russian (USSR) sphere of influence.

 

Stupid of the EU and unbelievably naive of Obama to not realise that.

 

A nation does not easily forget 25 million war dead nor which near neighbour was influential in that.

 

Putting it diplomatically.

 

 

Nationalising Familes in Scotland - State Controlled Childhood

The SNP are planning, or rather plotting, to appoint a so-called named person to be a guardian for each and every child in Scotland, without the consent of parents.

This is state imposition. It is tantamount to national control of families in Scotland - nationalisation of families.

I think that parents' common law rights, or, if you will, their so called human rights, are being usurped.  This must be illegal and is contrary to natural justice.

Not at all  British!

Mandela - Tribute

I was a school boy in South Africa when Nelson Mandela and others were convicted of acts of sabotage.

 The ANC, under Mandela, had resolved to switch from a campaign of non-violence in the face of the intransigence of the Apartheid Regime.   I recall power line pylons being blown up and on one occasion heard that a man had been shot whilst attempting to deposit bags of poison on the reservoir feeding Durban, my home town.

 I also clearly remember the bombing at Johannesburg Central Station, attributed to the African Resistance movement, not to the ANC itself: that bomb, placed by John Harris, killed a 77 year old woman and injured others. The event shocked South Africa and even as a child I had become aware of an often unspoken but palpable public fear as a backdrop to life. Harris was sentenced to hang and was executed in in 1965.

That background of fear in those days in South Africa, a fear that a mass uprising would lead to widespread bloodshed, led to the Apartheid Regime being kept in power by the white only electorate.

 It was as if there were two nations living in the same space but almost completely out of touch with each other, in different worlds.  I don’t doubt that if I’d been born a black South African, I’d have joined the ANC, and would have wanted to rebel. Years later, serving in Northern Ireland, I saw parallels in the Catholic Protestant divide.  These are divisions we still see across the world today – making the change and reconciliation in South Africa all the more remarkable.

Nelson Mandela had embarked on a change from a campaign of non-violence to one of an armed struggled. That led to his arrest and conviction.  One can only guess at how far that armed struggle would have gone, under his power and influence.

Mandela being sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island surely curtailed ANC violence, and, ironically the 27 years there profoundly influenced Mandela. When he was released, he was a man of peace. 

I visited South Africa the year before the first proper elections: the white population was still in fear – people barricaded their homes at night, avoided sleeping near windows, some even doing so in internal corridors.

But as I travelled about, speaking to all races, I sensed nothing but goodwill within each race. I felt that no one had bad intent though almost all still feared that others did.  Everyone held back and voted in hope. Mandela’s magic worked; the elections were a huge peaceful success.

Robben Island was the making of Mandela, and Mandela was the making of new South Africa, now a free sovereign nation. Living up to his legacy is now South Africa’s greatest goal and its next mountain.

Bedroom Tax - Put in hands of democracy

STOP BEDROOM TAX CHAOS WITH LOCAL DEMOCRACY

The Chairman of UKIP Scotland, Mike Scott-Hayward, wants local democracy restored not least of all to stop the chaos caused by the implementation of the so-called bedroom tax.

His comments come after a landmark ruling in a Fife case which deemed that a rather small room could not be used as a bedroom, and therefore the "tax" could not apply.

"The positive in this is that British justice does, eventually, work. A Judge appointed by the Lord Chancellor, Kenneth Clark, hears these cases and has made the landmark ruling, "Mr Scott-Hayward said.

"The silly side is that we are in this daft position in the first place. The first time I served as a councillor was in the days of North East Fife District Council. On the then Housing Committee, many tricky decision were taken on such matters - evictions, admission to housing lists, appeals against decisions made by officers, etc. - by elected members. We, in a sense, acted as a jury, applied common sense and had the authority as the Housing Authority, to decide to extent to which a pedantic ruling need be applied. Common sense and sensibility ruled the day, and these matters were often conducted in camera, and helped many hard pressed families.

"I contend that an appeal to panel of elected councillors should be the first recourse for any citizen who considers that an officer ruling is unfair. The councillors would therefore, as of old when we were still truly British, rather than as now increasingly continental in having too much direct rule by bureaucrats, use common sense and local knowledge to look after their people, the people who they are elected to serve.

"That would cut the cost of the number of cases that may need to go to a Judge, and go some small way to restoring local democracy."

We WOULD be better of OUT.

The Express is right - and I hope you all see it.

Oh, well, maybe the Scottish Express will not publish. So take a look at this:

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/416554/EU-membership-now-costs-British-business-billion


And remember, UKIP has being saying this for a wee while now.

Fracking

Displace coal and reduce carbon footprint?

https://dub119.mail.live.com/default.aspx#n=992449898&fid=91418cbd74114e1a90fbc774edd49815&mid=95c6f075-e026-11e2-a559-00237de4a7e6&fv=1

Turbine Tally?

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/birdwatchers-see-rare-bird-killed-by-wind-turbine-1-2980240

Does your councillor or MSP care?

What do you think?

http://joshrjones.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/white-throated-needletail.html

There is no sanity in the SNP or Coalition Governement wind energy policies.  If you voted for one of them - think again.

Does the Media make or report the news?

PRESS RELEASE IMMEDIATE
UKIP's Chairman in Scotland, Mike Scott-Hayward, has welcomed an Evening Express poll in Aberdeen which shows UKIP ahead of the Liberal Democrats, and just a neck behind the Labour and the Conservatives.

"The poll shows the SNP 35.7%, Conservative 11.9%, Labour 11.9%, Labour 10.3%, UKIP 8.7% and Liberal Democrats 4.8%.

"In contrast to this clear balance seen by the voters, BBC Radio Scotland held a radio hustings excluding UKIP from the panel. The usual Beeb judgement is that only the last election counts, not the present situation or the future. The panel on Brian Taylor's Big Debate was a four party melee - a very noisy incident often reduced to a level of shouting that equalled the unreasoning level of noise I heard on the streets of Edinburgh a fortnight ago.

"I acknowledge that Brian did play sound clips from other candidates, including Otto Inglis of UKIP, but the balance of babble might have been brought round to a better debate had the parties now showing above, say, 5% in the popular polls, all been participants.

"The rules followed by the BBC do entrench the establishment - luckily, voters are not bound by the same fixed mentality and I forsee UKIP beating at least one, or perhaps even two, so called major political parties here in Scotland, as we are already doing elsewhere in the UK".

Mike Scott-Hayward
Chairman UKIPScotland
07917365197/01334655040

FORMER LIBERAL DEMOCRAT TO BE UKIPSCOTLAND ENERGY SPOKESMAN

RENEWABLE ENERGY EXPERT AND FORMER LIBERAL DEMOCRAT TO BE UKIPSCOTLAND ENERGY SPOKESMAN

Michael Haseler, a renowned renewable energy sector researcher and leading commentator on the futility of wind power, is to be UKIP Scotland’s Energy Spokesman.

Announcing the appointment, UKIPScotland Chairman, Mike Scott-Hayward said “Mike Haseler is a well known and respected commentator on energy matters and is a core contributor to the Climate Change debate.

“His brief for UKIPScotland will be to cover all Energy issues affecting Scotland – energy security which requires nuclear power and cannot rely on wind; the realities of the adverse impacts of EU directives and consequent distorting subsidies which leads both to desecration of our landscape and to increasing fuel poverty; and achieving the best balanced and efficient use of resources.”

Australian born Mike’s family moved back to Britain and settled in Cheltenham where he attended the local Grammar School. He went to University in St Andrews and took a degree in Physics & Electronic with a module in Philosophy. He then joined Timex where he worked in Research, Development & Test on the Sinclair Flat Screen and Sinclair Spectrum.

He took an MBA at Strathclyde and then worked in a textile Mill as a quality and engineering manager.

After marrying he moved to Watford with his wife where he stood for the council as a Liberal Democrat.

Following the birth of their first child, Mike and his wife moved back to Scotland where he worked as a systems analyst.

Mr Haseler joined the Scottish Parliamentary Renewable Energy Group. As part of a SMART award, he carried out research into the renewable energy sector and became concerned at the lack of economic benefit from existing policy. He started campaigning to secure more jobs from wind energy and that led to him joining the Green party who chose him to stand at the 2003 Scottish election.

His career led him to start producing and installing weather monitoring equipment for wind farm site assessments.

Mr Scott-Hayward explained: “It was whilst doing this that he discovered the real horror of wind energy on local people and birdlife and he chose to leave the wind sector since when he has been a campaigner against wind and in favour of energy policies based on real science, not global warming alarmism. He formed the Scottish Climate and Energy Forum.

“As time progressed he came to recognise the value and sense of UKIP’s policy, and I am therefore delighted today to be able to announce that he will take the lead for us in Scotland on Energy.”

Mr Haseler, accepting the appointment, said “I have three children and I really care about the kind of world they will inherit. I left the Lib Dems as I saw the damage being done to UK industry by the EU.

“Now, seeing how the Scottish Government's zealous implementation of the EU diktat has caused these bird mincers to spring up everywhere, I am sure we have to leave the EU.

“I look forward to working with UKIP because it is the only party that wants to leave the EU and is rapidly growing in both Scotland and the UK.

"I know UKIP is the only party to base its energy policy on real science. This science tells us that the small rise we expect from CO2 will not be a significant problem and may even be beneficial.

"There is absolutely no need to destroy our historic landscape like this. Almost every other country, except the EU superstate, has realised this "global warming" non-science is part of an anti-CO2, anti-industry, anti-modern life obsession by extremists in society. They would lead us to economic suicide.

"We must exit the EU before we suffer the fate of Greece, Spain and all the other countries that have been brought to the edge of economic ruin by the failed European Union”

ENDS

UKIP SUPPORT SURGES IN SCOTLAND - FOURFOLD

UKIP SUPPORT SURGES IN SCOTLAND - FOURFOLD

I welcome the UKIP victories in England's councils they not really a surprise to us - and that is not complacency, it is because we have being experiencing a surge in interest from the grassroots of public opinion since the Corby and Rotherham by elections.

I am having to make time to be able to respond to people asking about us. The rate of enquiries and the level of our rise in the opinion polls outpaces our growth in membership. That is because most people who vote do not belong as paid up subscribers to the parties they support.

Our surge has seen us up by 400% in opinion poll ratings. A year ago, we had a vote at elections of just 2%. Polls last year, after Corby, put up us as high as 8 or 9 per cent. A 400% rise. 

Remarkably, the surge is coming from all parties and from none - people who may not have bothered in the past. The public are fed up with political parties who are arrogant and tell them what to think, want to price evrything, even their beer, to suit a political end.

All we want is a strong and sovereign Britain. Seems that that accords with folk, who know it means leaving the disastrous European Union and sticking together un the UK.  

We want stronger defences back; we want far, far fewer regulations and diktats; we want no wasteful subsidised wind turbines; we want simple effective taxes and fair support of those in need, and we want Britain back.

The surge has led UKIP in Scotland to setting up more branches - Lanarkshire, Orkney and Moray are now in being with a branch forming in the Black Isle as well. 

Next week, we launch in the Borders with Professor Tim Congdon addressing us on the awful costs and heavy financial burden of the EU - 10% of our GDP! That's £147 billion. Ordinary people understand where we are coming from - it's where they come from!

BRITAIN MUST LEAVE THE EU TO SAVE HERSELF

Renowned economist and former Treasury Panel “wise man” who advised the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1992 to 1997, Professor Tim Congdon, is on a speaking tour in Scotland next week.

Professor Congdon is UKIP’s Finance Spokesman. An economist and businessman, he is a strong advocate of sound money and free markets. For over 30 years, he has participated in public policy debates and in the UK’s public policy debates and is often regarded as the UK’s leading “monetarist” economist and as one of its most influential economic commentators.

The talks are open to the public. Mike Scott-Hayward, the Chairman of UKIPScotland said, “All are welcome. Tim’s talk will explain why Britain must leave the EU. In clear terms, he will show how membership of the EU destroys British jobs and makes us poorer."

The tour takes place at four venues: in Links Hotel 4 Alvanley Terrace, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, EH9 1DU on Wednesday 8^th May at 7.15 pm; on Thursday 9th May at 11 am at The Royal George Hotel, Tay Street, Perth; then at 2.30 pm on Thursday 9^th May at The Braes, 14-18 Perth Road, Dundee; and finally on Thursday 9th May, at 7.00pm at The Salmon Inn, Bank Street in Galashiels.

Venue details and free booking can be found on http://www.ukip.org/scotland/articles/1442-professor-tim-congdons-mini-tour

SNP – NOT JUST THE TORIES – ARE ATTRACTED BY UKIP

SNP – NOT JUST THE TORIES – ARE ATTRACTED BY UKIP

Across the United Kingdom, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) is attracting increased support, from the previously disengaged and from those now disenchanted with the existing politic elite. According the UKIP, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have seen supporters switch to them as, indeed, have some councillors.

This trend is also evident in Scotland where, according to the Chairman of UKIPScotland, Mike Scott-Hayward, even the SNP are now vulnerable to UKIP at grass roots level.

“We were delighted to hear a speech from a prominent former member of the SNP, Michael McCafferty, at our Spring Gathering in Edinburgh,” Mike Scott-Hayward explained.

“We paraded a range of speakers who had previously been members of other parties, and of none, putting to rest the myth that we are comprised simply of former Tories.

"Sure we have ex Tories, including me, but that is just part of the picture.Michael McCafferty, who had been involved with the SNP since from the late eighties and rose to being a member of the YSN National Executive, is now well ensconced with UKIP."

Mr McCafferty told the UKIP Gathering that he had come came to feel that the SNP had turned into just another party of ‘yes’ men and its obsession with the EU seemed misplaced.

He said, “Norway was always trumpeted by Alex Salmond as a role model for Scotland, and yet it wasn’t controlled by Brussels. Indeed the two most prosperous countries in Europe – Switzerland and Norway were fully independent which led me to question the SNP policy of further European integration.

“It was only by spending time in Ireland that I saw the true face of the EU. Ireland had bravely voted ‘no’ to the Lisbon Treaty, but a dodgy rerun got Brussels the ‘yes’ result it wanted. With the EU and IMF firmly in charge now, the country is but a shadow of itself, and is simply a pawn in a bigger game, in which Brussels owns the board and the pieces.

“The situation in Ireland, and in some of the other European countries, encouraged me to look again at the EU. The hand of Brussels was behind all of the major issues affecting the continent, and the UK was similarly being drawn into this economic and social mess.

“But one man was speaking up against this European madness….and it wasn’t Alex Salmond. Indeed it was only when I heard Nigel Farage last year, telling Merkel and Obama to butt out of Britain’s business that I finally decided that it was time to get back into the political game, by joining UKIP.”

Cohesion against the madness of wind as a significant energy source

There are a plethora of anti- wind energy groups.

Some wonder why they are not better co-ordinated and why a new  political party has, despite being little more than a group of single issue lobbyists, has registered?

Don't be confused - the ant-wind lobbies are all united together against wind energy; they have a strong message and Scotland Against Spin does quite well in reaching out to them all. 

As they all, however, lack political clout, some have formed a party.  That doesn't solve the wider issue, because the new party's policies are inept.

The reason for the lack of proper clout lies in the persistence of  political loyalties amongst the lobbyists.  This makes it difficult for the various groups to present a single clear political message.

So,  for most part, they proclaim the need to be "non aligned" in order to keep folk on board.

No one who is truly active on any political issue, however, can be wholly devoid of a party political view or avoid a party preference; for the thinking majority, innate and natural party loyalties are hard to drop.  

It is impossible to divide one's soul between a blind loyalty and a conflicting political objective. So there in the unspoken coalition of supporters of all parties (all but UKIP supporters) in which each member silently bears the dilemma that the party for whom loyalty is felt, does in practise support, promote and implement the abhorrent wind energy polices.  

The question is, can "non-alignment" defeat the dynamics of that dilemma?  Need it?  Will the dilemma lead to much, or continual, repositioning?

When the opportunity to have an impact greater than simple objection and protest arrives, that is, when standing at the ballot box, each individual will have to face down their own demons.  

Will they vote then for undying loyalties that promote wind and accept the drive from the EU, or will they think afresh and vote for UKIP, against both the stupidity of wind as a significant energy source, and against the continued subjugation of the UK to EU rules?

We will have to wait to see what they do on the day. In the meantime Salmond sails on, the Coalition continues dodging, and the EU seems unassailable.  A huge rise in UKIP members and poll support for our clear message could, however, shock the incumbents into policy change.

Scotland's New Party

Created wholly out of the swelling disillusionment with the Governents' Energy Policies, a new anti wind turbine party has appeared on scene.

Of course it raises the anti wind profile, but it doesn't raise the chances of success for two good reasons - splits any real anti-wind vote away from UKIP, and, like the established incumbents, ignores the fact that the driver is the EU, to which they all kow tow.

The real threat to the complacency of those in power will come from UKIP when all anti-wind activists vote for us (secretly if they wish). 

Which party has a policy to scrap DECC?

Which party has a policy to Repeal the Act? 

Which party will STOP subsidies, not simply switch the revenue source?