Originally Posted by SponPlague:
Two of our MEPs get to sit on the NEC - would you stand for that?

Probably not - my wife complains about all the committee meetings I already attend. :-)

I might consider if I was asked to by a lot of members.

I think that we really need to build lines of communication between our MEPs and the grassroots. I think this is better done by being in regular contact with branch committee members and county organizers than sitting on the NEC.
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For the benefit of those who haven't seen my other thread devoted to this topic, here is a lengthier description of what I hope to accomplish.


1. Behave with honesty and integrity.

I have no intention in getting caught up in the expenses racket. I will not sign in to parliament to collect the daily allowance unless I actually intend to be there. I will arrange a third party with no ties to myself or UKIP to act as the paying agent for my office and staff expenses (most likely an accounting firm). I will not hire family - an easy promise as my wife, Ileana, is not particularly interested in politics and has a productive career as a pharmacist.

I will only sit as an MEP for a maximum of one term (five years) to protect myself against going "native". I don't believe I would, but I think it is best to put a limit on my time as an MEP in this manner simply because it makes it impossible to make a "career" out of it. Making this promise now also means I cannot change my mind on the matter.

I feel confident in being able to promise all this due to the fact that my wife and I tend to live quite modestly. As an MEP's base salary (about £52,000 after next year's elections) is the equivalent of our current family income, and Ileana will continue to work, I cannot forsee why we would need so much money that it would be necessary to milk the system for extra income.


2. Using the resources available to me as an MEP to build the party's membership and ability to campaign successfully in Southeast England.

I foresee four resources that as an MEP I would be able to utilize to transform UKIP into a competitive rival to the Lib Dems and Tories in Southeast England.

The first resource is money. As I indicated above, my base salary as an MEP is equivalent to Ileana's and my current household salary. As my wife Ileana will continue to work, this means that in real terms we will have a fairly substantial surplus each month.

It is my intention to donate a substantial amount of money every month to worthy projects by UKIP branches and UKIP PPCs in the Southeast of England. I consider worthy projects to be things such as the membership recruitment scheme that Christchurch Branch instituted and which we are currently emulating in Lewes, the purchase of proper printing equipment such as a Risograph for use by Southeast branches, and campaign training for PPCs, local/county candidates and interested others.

I will resist to the best of my ability demands for donations to projects instituted by the center of the party as I believe that we will see more benefit per pound spent on projects at the local level. I will also monitor the outcome of projects financed by me - I think UKIP often spends money carelessly and without regard to results.

The second resource is paid staff. At current exchange rates, MEPs have a staffing allowance worth approximately £145,000 per annum. I'm fully aware of that MEPs staff cannot be used explicitly for party political purposes. However, if staff are hired in a part time capacity then they should be expected to volunteer some of their own time to party matters. An interesting idea put to me by Steve Allison is to actually employ our most capable PPCs as staff of an MEP. This would hopefully allow them to become known by having them represent me, the MEP in the constituencies they intend to stand in. I think this particular idea is very worthy of further investigation. Ideally I would like to keep well-paid full time staff to a minimum and hire three or four PPCs part time as long as I can ensure that we do not fall afoul of any rules. (Please note, these are my proposals and clearly, depending on the rules MEPs are expected to follow they may not be feasible in the exact manner I am suggesting - I do believe in working within the rules.)

The third resource is office space. While MEPs offices cannot be used for party political purposes, they do serve a valuable purpose in that they advertise UKIP not just as a political party, but as a "successful" political party with elected politicians. MEPs have an office allowance of approximately £36,000 per year at current exchange rates. I am hoping that I can squeeze two offices out of this in different parts of the Southeast, probably one in Lewes Constituency (to improve my profile as PPC there - yes there is an element of ) and one in Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire in order to improve our profile there.

The last resource available to MEPs their ability to open doors for others. What I mean by this is that people elected to office are treated differently than people who are aspiring to be elected to office. MEPs, get invited to attend various events or debates to which UKIP activists or UKIP PPCs might not. Of course MEPs cannot attend everything they get invited to (nor should they want to necessarily). Rather than attending events myself I would try to send a representative on my behalf such as the PPC or chairman for the constituency where the event is taking place. This allows our PPCs and branch chairmen to gain exposure that might otherwise be denied them.


3. I will campaign hard for UKIP in next year's Euro and County Council elections.

If selected to be in one of the top three spots on the Southeast list of MEP candidates it is my intention to resign from my current employment later this year in order to be able to devote myself full time to campaigning. If you feel that I should be further down the MEP list I will still campaign to the best of my ability by focusing my efforts on helping organize the election campaigns in Lewes, and Runnymede.

I believe that strongly contesting next year's County Council elections is a key step to doing well in the Euros, and to that end I will be working hard to persuade our Southeast branches to put candidates in place as early as possible in order to help them build up name recognition. In Lewes we have already recognized this fact and we hope to select our first two county council candidates later this summer with the rest to follow in the early and mid autumn.


4. Conclusion

In short, what I hope to accomplish if I become an MEP is to devote more time, energy and resources to organizing UKIP in Southeast England. At the end of my term in 2014 I will would consider myself to have been successful if there are a few dozen UKIP councillors on our Southeast local and county councils, our average branch membership is at least 300, every constituency has had a bright, hardworking, PPC in place for at least two years, and UKIP is polling in at least third place in Southeast England. At present this may sound far-fetched, but I believe that if we pay attention to building a strong foundation first by recruiting new members and activists, and honing our campaigning techniques this is an entirely achievable goal.
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Originally Posted by SponPlague:
Two of our MEPs get to sit on the NEC - would you stand for that?

I have no intention of doing so.

I am, however, in favour of each MEP being on one of our policy committees (and attending EVERY meeting) so that we have a wide range of specialties and can form a genuine shadow cabinet. This will broaden the public knowledge of our party instead of seemingly leaving it all to NF.
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Since we're all talking about what we would be able to do if elected to boost the party here's my gambit.

The Times.

I can get our ideas and policies into the press(well, at least sometimes I can).

That's of some value I would submit?
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Nice common sense concise article except that it doesnt mention the obvious other alternative to nonsense sorting and land fill ... ie mass use of unsorted waste as oil replacement fuel for high tech power stations with integral cost based metal etc recovery.

But as there is no mention of UKIP then this is the first "light under bushel" selling point I have seen in any candidate.
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With the cost of raw materials rising I would have thought householders could now expect to be PAID for their rubbish by private licenced contractors. If those contractors want certain things sorted by householders they would presumably pay a bit more.

Certainly agree that the EU and our own government fanatics don't help to bring rationality to decisions on what should happen to what (recycling, burning, dumping, converting, etc.).
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Fresh faces hopefully! I think this time the average age will be considerably lower and some women!
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Except that spanish woman Anderson or whoever, no way jose(a) representing a British Subject! What are UKIP thinking about?
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Originally Posted by prober:
Nice common sense concise article except that it doesnt mention the obvious other alternative to nonsense sorting and land fill ... ie mass use of unsorted waste as oil replacement fuel for high tech power stations with integral cost based metal etc recovery.

But as there is no mention of UKIP then this is the first "light under bushel" selling point I have seen in any candidate.

Fair enough.....but "I'm standing to be a candidate to be a candidate in an election in a year's time" isn't the most thrilling biography that I can attatch to a newspaper piece.
:-)
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Shame Delroy or Rustie Lee didn't stand. With them elected that would have put the PC anti UKIP lobby's nose out of joint!
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