UKIP – The New Listener

Shailesh Vara on secret voting and the bid to oust Bercow

17:21 Thursday 26th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The last day of Parliament before the General Election has ended in tears, literally. The Government has botched an attempt to undermine John Bercow as the Commons Speaker, leaving him looking on the verge of crying, and dozens of MPs giving him a standing ovation. One of those who voted with the Government was North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara, who spoke with me afterwards.
(TAPE)
SHAILESH VARA: I voted in favour of having a secret vote, and I take the view that the vote is sacrosanct. And also, on important decisions, people should be able to have the secret ballot. It’s what we do normally when we have vote systems and I’m sorry that we had all the fuss that we’ve had today. But a decision has been taken and there it is. But ..
CHRIS MANN: It was all just a mechanic to try and get rid of John Bercow wasn’t it?
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Jonathan Djanogly on immigration and UKIP

11:22 Wednesday 4th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’ve been talking immigration this morning as UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has been setting out his party’s plans for a points-based visa system. Recently the party proposed a cap of 50,000 people a year, compared to the 300,000 currently entering the country. Now Nigel Farage is refusing to come up with a target figure this time, but he did say under the Auatralian system he supports 27,000 people would have been allowed to come here in the last year.(TAPE)
NIGEL FARAGE: That number will vary a bit every year. But all of those people that come will have to bring with them health insurance, and will not be able to claim benefits of any kind until they’ve been here and paid into the tax system for five years. And that I think is a fair way of dealing with people that want to come to Britain to work.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Now we had Rupert Read on from the Greens earlier, who said that there’s a better way to deal with immigration. That’s to sort out the problems at source, and then people wouldn’t want to come here. A sort of Utopian vision is what the Greens were presenting. We also heard from Heidi Allen as well, who threatened to quit if David Cameron doesn’t come up with the promised referendum in 2017.
(TAPE)
HEIDI ALLEN: It’s such a fundamental position of constant integrity that David Cameron has made to the British people, and I’m a member of the British people as well. And if that came to pass, if a referendum, you know, obviously we need to be in power in May, but you know it would be going back on one of the things that’s most emotive to people in this country. And that would be deceitful.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Well let’s get the view now of Jonathan Djanogly, the MP for Huntingdon. Jonathan, good morning.
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Most of our listeners it has to be said, I would say, 95% of the people listening to this show, sixty odd thousand, are pretty much in favour of what Nigel Farage is saying this morning. Where stand you?
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UKIP targets Peterborough

10:41 Monday 1st December 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: UKIP have been putting the finishing touches to their list of candidates for the next General Election. The South Cambs branch appointed Deborah Rennie out of a shortlist of four on Saturday night, and in Peterborough Mary Herdman was selected as the candidate to fight for Stewart Jackson’s seat. Peterborough will surely be a target for Nigel Farage’s party. We talked to UKIP last week and we heard Stewart Jackson saying, ‘why stand when my views are almost in line with yours?’. In fact when we spoke to Stewart he was almost begging the party not to field a candidate in Peterborough. Well their candidate joins us now. Mary good morning.
MARY HERDMAN: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Why stand? Why split the vote?
MARY HERDMAN: We won’t be splitting the vote. If you vote for UKIP you will get UKIP.
PAUL STAINTON: You’ll get Miliband they say if you vote for you.
MARY HERDMAN: No no. Definitely not Paul. If we can get MPs in a lot of seats throughout Britain, if you vote UKIP you will get UKIP. And we need UKIP in the Government.
PAUL STAINTON: Alright. Run through a list of policies then Mary that you’re going to be standing on.
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Rupert Read on Finite Resources and Five Party Politics

10:52 Tuesday 27th May 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: You’ve been getting in touch in your numbers, particularly about the recent elections. Gareth says: “I rather sympathise with Nick Clegg, because I think he’s a caring guy. I don’t blame him in terms of broken promises, because I think he was trying to reduce the effect of some of the Conservative’s policies. Nevertheless he was arrogant in thinking that anyone who doesn’t want a federal Europe was backward thinking and xenophobic, with racist tendencies. Europe must change, and that starts with the accounts. Corruption is rife, the parliamentary system packed with people who think they know best, despite the differences between the nations that make it up. I am just sad that the Greens didn’t make more headway, as they are the answer, if we want a healthy planet. And without that ..” says Gareth in Thorney, “.. we don’t have any future at all, whoever is in power.” Well that comment by email from Gareth came bang on cue, because we are returning to our main question now. Is it right to brush off the vast number of votes that UKIP received as protest? It’s been the defence used by numerous politicians following the UKIP victory in Europe. Another party who’s name has been associated with protest voting against the three main parties in the past is the Greens. Although they beat the Liberal Democrats both locally and nationally, thy failed to secure a seat in the East of England. Rupert Read was their lead candidate in the region and he joins us now. Rupert, good morning to you.
RUPERT READ: Morning Andie.
ANDIE HARPER: First of all commiserations. Last time you nearly made it. Did you think this time you’d get the extra push and get over the line, perhaps at the expense of the LibDems?
RUPERT READ: Well it was certainly a very tough election result once again for the Greens to come runners-up here in the East. So near but yet so far. We thought we had a real chance, but it was a very tough election, partly because of the overwhelming focus from the national media on UKIP, which I think was really quite absurd. And it makes me really angry that Nigel Farage and his party got this vast free amount of publicity, on top of the enormous amount of publicity they were able to buy thanks to their faceless multi-millionaire backers. And we in the Greens, at the national level – you gave us a fair crack of the whip here on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire – but at the national level we were really squeezed out. And it’s quite unfair, and as Gareth says I’m afraid unless things change pretty soon, the consequences are not going to be pretty for our children.
ANDIE HARPER: The point is that the Green Party is not hugely pro-European. You have lots of doubts about it, don’t you? But that doesn’t get focused on. It’s the anti-Europeans, the high-profile anti-Europeans, with a Leader who smokes and likes a pint and is no doubt a good bloke, that get all the publicity. You aren’t wholly pro-Europe, are you?
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Peterborough 2014 Election Roundup – New Kid on the Block

17:08 Friday 23rd May 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[B]EN STEVENSON: An historic night, not just for UKIP. As well there’s the Tories, who have lost overall control of the City Council for the first time since 2001. There’s a new kid on the block. UKIP created history by winning their first seat in the city, and then followed it up moments later with their second, and then their third. UKIP struck in Paston, Bretton North and in Orton Longueville, and it could have been more. A few high profile Conservatives were given a shock as well. Cabinet Adviser Janet Goodwin lost her seat to UKIP. Wayne Fitzgerald needed a recount to survive in the West Ward, and there were also recounts in Eye and Thorney. The Libdems and the Liberal groups both held on to their seats, and there were re-elections for three members of the Independent Group.

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Tory Defectors Join UKIP On Hunts District Council

17:12 Monday 4th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Two councillors at Huntingdonshire District Council have announced they’re joining the UK Independence Party. Cllrs. Ken Churchill and Rod Farrer were originally elected as Conservative members. They both left the Tories early this year. Now they’ve announced jointly they’re joining UKIP. It comes six months after that party won twelve seats in the Cambridgeshire County Council elections. Well I’m joined on the line now by one of those two, Cllr Rod Farrer. Hello.
ROD FARRER: Hello.
CHRIS MANN: Why have you decided to join UKIP?
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Stewart Jackson Post Conservative Conference 2013

17:22 Wednesday 2nd October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: What does one of our leading local MPs feel about the Conference and how it went? Stewart Jackson joined me, the Conservative MP for Peterborough.
(TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: Well I think what it did was to throw into sharp relief the big battles ahead. Because two or three weeks ago I think the people of this country thought it was going to be a battle about who could manage the country better, in terms of you’re all the same, you promise the same, you all look the same. And I think that that’s been blown out of the water now. We now have the biggest ideological battle I think for the future of our country since 1992. Two very stark competing visions of what Britain will look like after the next General Election, between principally Labour and the Conservatives. And I think that’s good for democracy …
CHRIS MANN: (GRUNTS)
STEWART JACKSON: … and it’s given people a clear choice.
CHRIS MANN: Is it the choice between a party with compassion, that’s Labour, and one, the Conservatives, who don’t really care about people at the bottom of society?
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Captured Markets

08:20 Thursday 12th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Senior managers at Cambridgeshire County Council could soon receive a pay rise, if proposals being discussed on Monday are approved. The news comes a few months after the Cabinet told staff they needed to reduce staffing costs by 3%. LibDem councillors are urging officials to reject the pay increase and say the proposal is devastating for staff morale. Well speaking to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Drivetime show, their Spokesman for Resources Ian Manning urged council officials to show leadership when considering the proposal to increase some Council officers’ pay. (TAPE)
IAN MANNING: This is about what does the Council have control of. The Council has, it individually has, direct control of the wages of the management and senior management staff. And that is why I think they should be showing leadership, in the same way that we did when we voted against giving councillors a pay rise. They should be showing leadership and saying we know how tough it is. We’re not taking more money. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well that’s what the LibDems had to say. Let’s get reaction from the Leader of UKIP on Cambridgeshire County Council, councillor Peter Reeve. Morning Peter.
PETER REEVE: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: We’re not talking about a big pay rise here, are we?
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