Just to show that Skuds isn’t the only one who can use song titles for his posts….

We have been a touch busy recently and, among other things, we spent a very rainy Saturday last week helping the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth Group in their protest against EU Biofuels targets.

(I’m holding the % and a T, Rob has T and I – luckily the driving rain and wind stopped long enough for the photocall!)

We were asking passers-by to sign post cards asking their MEPs to vote against a legally binding target for Biofuel use.  The problems this will cause are many: deforestation, habitat loss, lack of food availability in the developing world, but the one that got most cards signed was, inevitably, closer to home. More grain was harvested last year than ever before but, because so much was used for Biofuels, the cost of bread and animal feed has actually increased. Tell people that Biofuels are partly to blame for the cost of their weekly shop and they were queueing in the rain to sign up!

Even if your local Friends of the Earth group hasn’t organised any postcard signings or other events you can still let your MEP know how you feel via the FoE website http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/press_for_change/biofuels/index.html the link is at the bottom of the page.  I sent off my email and even got a couple of replies. One was a fairly measured reply from one of the Conservative MEPs and the other was, well, from UKIP.  I nearly coughed up my own skull at this reply since it was basically a rant about how corrupt and undemocratic the European parliament was. I’m not sure if I’m brave enough, or stupid enough, to reply to this guy but what I really want to know is what are UKIP doing getting themselves elected as MEPs?  I assume he draws whatever allowances he is entitled to so this must, in UKIP’s mind make him corrupt, and since he must have been elected I would like to know how much he paid for the votes he got (since that must be his proof of the ‘undemocratic’ dig). Mind you these guys believe that wind turbines will alter prevailing wind currents in our climate so I don’t think I will take their advice on renewable energy….

My favourite bits of the story:

Mr Donne said Mote had worked tirelessly for the European Parliament, travelling extensively to meet his constituents as well as attending meetings and acting as a “thorn” in the side of the European Union by “exposing corruption”.

If he is so keen on exposing corruption, I wonder why he tried to have reporting restrictions imposed on his court case. That was after his attempts to claim legal immunity from prosecution failed.

The court heard that Mote ran a successful public relations company employing 30 full-time staff until it collapsed in 1990

It was a successful company until it failed? Isn’t that a bit like someone jumping out of a tall building and claiming a successful unpowered flight right up to the point they hit the pavement?

My least favourite parts of the story:

The offences, totalling £65,506, occurred between February 1996 and September 2002 while Mote was living in Langley, Crawley [*]

In other words, well before he was elected. But its worse than that – he knew that proceedings were imminent and managed to keep it quiet until straight after his election. Would so many voters have gone for UKIP if they had known? Worst of all:

But 71-year-old Ashley Mote, a former Ukip representative, will retain his seat in Europe because he would only have been disqualified if he had received a term of imprisonment of more than 12 months.

Will he still get paid for the 9 months he is unable to do his job? Will he do the honourable thing and resign?

[*] Some confusion here. I think its Langley, West Sussex and not Langley Green in Crawley, West Sussex.

One recent post on there is about Andrew Spence joining the BNP, a story which amused me when I saw it in the papers. It amused me because in the comments on a local blog someone had mentioned in passing, just a day or so earlier, that Richard Trower, who stood as the BNP candidate for Crawley at the last general election, runs a road haulage firm based in Horsham district.

Andrew Spence is the bloke who runs a road haulage firm and who orchestrated the protests over fuel prices. I am sure that not all road haulage firm owners are members of the BNP and its just an amusing coincidence rather than an emerging trend.

The other interesting thing about Andrew Spence, and the one which I think is significant rather than just an amusing coincidence, is that he stood at the last election for UKIP. Yet another example that the membership of those two parties is interchangeable, despite UKIP’s protestations. Is someone producing special coins for racists to help them decide who to stand for? Ones with BNP and UKIP on instead of heads and tails?

"I have decided to seek refuge from political correctness by applying for asylum with the British National Party – Britain's finest and most decent party – in our country's hour of need."

I referred to him as "Mr" with some justification, as he became a reverend by founding his own church, and subsequently running the Christian Council of Britain – a known front organisation for the BNP.  The BBC story mentions that Mr West was suspended from the Tory party, but in fact he was re-instated while being investigated.  His local Conservative association said that they believed him when he said he was going to BNP meetings to preach the bible to them. 

What made West jump before he could be pushed was the new Tory 'A List' of candidates. I suppose its a good sign that Cameron's more progressive public image is flushing some of the closet nutters out of his party, but is there a danger of the BNP becoming the Tories' SDP if too many of the die-hards decide they have had enough?  I don't think so. I think that the majority will stay in the party in the hope of steering it in the 'right' direction after an electoral success.

The other reason why the BNP or UKIP will not do to the Tories what the SDP did for Labour is that it is a lot easier to persuade members to leave a party which is seen to be drifting to an extreme position for a more centrist party than to leave for a more extreme party, and also because the extreme right-wing nutter is spoilt for choice.

Mr West was previously a lecturer in political philosophy and equal opportunities law and sat on his county's Racial Equalities Council…

The only topics or policies mentioned are withdrawal from the EU and immigration.

The candidate’s biography states that his career has been sales and marketing. I hope he does a better job of selling his automotive parts than he does of selling these dodgy policies.

It also says “About to be divorced.” All I can say to that is – what took her so long! Imagine having to share a house with a xenophobe.

I am not a big fan of golf. I got a set of clubs for Christmas several years ago and haven’t used them yet except to take a couple off to the pitch & Putt course. But its good to see Europe competing as a team. Because of the sheer size of the US, the only way they can be engaged in competition is by another union of states like Europe. I wonder if any of the ‘little englanders’ will eventually realise that the same applies to business? Or maybe the UKIP feel that Britain could have taken America on at golf on our own.