Tagged: UKIP candidate
Ban Benefit Claimants From Driving, UKIP Candidate’s Leaflet Suggests
A Ukip-branded leaflet has suggested benefit claimants should be banned from driving on UK roads to ease congestion.
The document, which appears to have been sent out by the campaign of Lynton Yates, the Ukip candidate for Charnwood in Leicestershire, asks why claimants “have the privilege to spend the taxpayer’s hard-earned money on a car” and suggests they instead “catch a bus”.
“We could likely remove six million cars from the road if benefit claimants were not driving,” it reads. “Why do they have the privilege to spend the taxpayer’s hard-earned money on a car, when those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road? These people could really catch a bus!”
> So they no longer buy petrol or oil, pay for repairs, etc – less money into the economy and less tax paid – VAT. We’re all tax payers, whatever our employment status.
And even if you did ban them, what difference would it make to those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road ? They’ll still be struggling.
UKIP non-thinking at its best !
Ukip confirmed that the leaflet had been sent out by the campaign team of one of its candidates but a spokesman stressed:
“These are not Ukip policies and they will not form part of the Ukip manifesto.”
Yates, a local councillor on Leicester county council’s transport committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
Labour’s shadow health minister Jamie Reed said Ukip was “not so much a political party but a stag night out of control”.
The leaflet, which emerged on the Facebook page of a Charnwood resident, echoes the suggestion of the former Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom that benefit claimants should not vote.
In past local and EU elections Ukip has struggled to keep track of racist, homophobic and bizarre statements made by a handful of candidates. It will hope to keep such incidents to a minimum in the runup to the general election as it has brought in much stricter vetting regime for candidates.
> Nevertheless, this is still how these people think, what they believe. Do we want them in any public office (wages paid by the taxpayer, don’t forget).
This article was written by Rowena Mason, political correspondent, for The Guardian on Wednesday 21st January 2015
UKIP candidate is evicted from hotel after angry outburst during political meeting
> UKIP candidates behaving badly…again.
Police had to be called to a public meeting when a UKIP candidate standing in tomorrow’s local elections was thrown out.
A torrent of swearing and shouting led to Stephen Brand being asked to leave the Park Hotel in Tynemouth following his outburst at North Tyneside Question Time run by the People’s Assembly on Monday night.
He is standing in North Tyneside’s Chirton ward for the UK Independence Party against independent candidate Amanda Normand, Labour’s Margaret Reynolds and the Conservative candidate Heather Sarin.
Two officers from Northumbria Police were called to the sea-front hotel at around 7.50pm to calm scenes in the hotel’s ballroom after Mr Brand interrupted a speaker during a discussion on education.
Despite being told by audience members to be quiet and sit down and wait his turn to speak, he continued to shout and became aggressive when event organisers approached him to usher him out of the room.
At one point he shouted that if anyone laid a hand on him “it would be assault”.
A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “We were called to the Park Hotel in Tynemouth following reports of a man shouting during a meeting.
“Officers attended and at the request of the manager, officers asked him to leave, which he did.”
He received no police caution or warning for his behaviour and willingly left the scene.
However his outburst just days before the election was not welcomed by fellow UKIP candidate Gary Legg, who is standing in the Monkseaton South ward.
The former member of the RAF had been invited as part of a panel of six representatives from political parties for the question-and-answer session and he is now working with the party to clarify how events unfolded on Monday night.
Joan Hewitt, who co-organised the event on behalf of the People’s Assembly, said: “Normally I wouldn’t condone the highlighting of an unpleasant incident but I think this shows that this particular UKIP candidate was not agreeing with the nature of the event, which was participatory.”
Also speaking on the panel was North Tyneside’s current Labour deputy mayor Bruce Pickard, Alan Furness, who is standing as a Conservative candidate in Valley, Martin Collins for the Green Party in Wallsend, Tim Wall standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in Benton and David Taws, the independent candidate for Collingwood.
A spokesman for UKIP said the party was conducting an inquiry into the incident, however Mr Brand will still stand on Thursday.
He said: “There is a suggestion of provocation. We would apologise however.
“It will be referred to the national executive committee who will look at everything and the committee may determine what the appropriate action is that should be taken.
“It’s very difficult before an election to do anything else. Ballot papers have gone out and they have got his name on it.”
Source – Newcastle Journal, 21 May 2014
South Tyneside – can UKIP break Labour’s grip at local elections?
The moment of truth has almost arrived for those standing in next week’s local elections across South Tyneside.
The 18 seats up for grabs in the borough will be contested by 59 candidates on Thursday.
At present, Labour dominates South Tyneside Council in what has long been been one of its traditional heartlands.
That could be about to change, though, as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) looks to gain a foothold in the region for the first time.
Just last month, UKIP leader Nigel Farage predicted a “mini-earthquake” after claiming Labour had turned its back on the North East.
Shop manager Richard Duffy, 45, says he is thinking about casting a protest vote for UKIP.
He said: “Since arriving on the scene, I think UKIP has forced the main parties to take a good, hard look at themselves.
“None of them has done anything about the level of immigration. This is an important issue and people have been feeling uneasy about it for years.”
> Some people might… the sort of people who’d like to vote for the BNP but don’t have the nerve. The sort of people who start sentences with : “I,m not racist, but…”
Ex-factory worker Valerie Storey, 63, of Boldon Colliery, has already put a cross next to a UKIP candidate on her postal vote.
She said: “Everyone I know seems like they want to vote for UKIP. People just see Labour and the Conservatives as part of the establishment, while UKIP is on the outside.
> Yeah, a party of the common man – no millionaires, desperate swivel-eyed ex-members of the Tories or political opportunists and business-orientated vested interests in UKIP.
“I think it is worth voting for a different party to see if they can make things better. If they do, great, but if not, at least I can say I have tried.”
Others, such as retired driving instructor Bill Grieves, 72, of Westoe, South Shields, simply lack enthusiasm for the upcoming elections.
Mr Grieves says he has voted Conservative in the past, but that is unlikely to be the case next week.
He said: “I have always felt I should vote, but on this occasion, I do not know who to vote for.
“I cannot trust any of the parties in terms of what they say or do.
“They do not seem to care about the common man in the street.”
“I used to have faith in politics, but not now. I think the damage has been done, for me and probably others too.”
Former secretary Denise Coulter, 54, of Whiteleas, South Shields, agrees with that sentiment.
She said: “You do not see many people from poorer backgrounds going into politics these days. It seems only to be for the privileged few.
“They do not know what it is like to live on the dole, or have very little money or even nothing at all. I find it very frustrating.”
Alice McLechlan, 85, of Brockley Whins, South Shields, is a retired factory worker. She says she will vote next week, but it will be with a heavy heart.
She added: “I normally choose a Labour candidate, but in these elections, I’ll go for an independent.
“Labour would need to do quite a lot to make me change my mind.”
One person who still has faith in Labour is unemployed Joan Merryfield, 62, of Brockley Avenue, South Shields.
She said: “I have always gone for Labour because it gets things done, but you can understand why people are not too bothered any more. They are just fed up with politics.”
Source – shields Gazette, 17 May 2014
UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR 