UK Independence Party

From SourceWatch
(Redirected from UKIP)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Articles and resources

The UK Independence Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that is archly anti-european Union, despite contesting European Union seats. They are broadly right wing, said to draw their support from dissatisfied conservatives.[1] UKIP has been most successful at European elections which is ironic because they are anti-europe. They sit as part of the wider alliance of Europe of freedom and democracy Group of MEPs, this means UKIP are in alliance with Lega Nord and other far right parties .

Funders

A Channel 4 investigation carried out in 2013 noted: "Since 2001, Ukip has received the sum total of £7,075,092.56 in donations, according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission. (The party was technically founded in 1993, but the Electoral Commission's data doesn't go back that far). The donor who stands out is Paul Sykes, the Yorkshire businessman and property developer. ..Stuart Wheeler, Eton-educated businessman and treasurer of the party, was known for making the largest single donation to the Conservatives when he gave £5m during the 2001 election campaign, but he turned to Ukip. He gave Ukip their largest single donation from an individual in 2010 of £150,000, and has given the party £514, 957 since 2001... The second largest individual donation since 2001 came from someone who has never been named as a Ukip supporter, and that's Julian Blackwell, owner of Blackwell's, the publishing group...Sir John Craven, 73, former chairman of mining group Lonmin, is another person who's opened up his chequebook for the party: in July 2007, he donated £7,500, and another £5,000 in December of the same year...But scrolling on through Ukip's accounts, another Old Etonian emerges as a fan of Ukip, and that's James Donald Charteris, or Lord Neidpath, as he is known, a former close friend of the Queen Mother...Speaking of artists, there's also Viscount Michael Cowdray - a British heir and film producer and member of the Pearson publishing family. And 12th richest British aristocrat, according to the latest Sunday Times rich list, and the 10th largest landowner in the UK...Another name which caught FactCheck's eye was Lady Yvonne Vinson, wife of Nigel Vinson, or Baron Vinson, the British businessman and inventor..." [2]

Leadership

Deputy leader of the UK Independence Party is Christopher Monckton , an odd choice for a party that claims to be democratic because Monckton is bereft of any power base not being elected to anything, and does not even have a seat in the House of Lords .[3]

UKIP Leader in the House of Lords is Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the other UKIP lord is Lord Willoughy de Broke.[4]

Nigel Farage is the leader of the UKIP as a whole. It is the second time he has served in that post.

The Party contest elections at local, parliamentary and European level. They are most successful at European level where they now have 12 MEPs. They have never won a seat at Westminster.

At European Parliament UKIP is part of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping of eurosceptic parties that includes Lega Nord


Policies

UKIP is anti European Union and anti immigration. It is Libertarian.


The UKIP manifesto states "UKIP accepts that the world's climate changes but we are the first party to take a sceptical stance on man-made global warming claims."[5] They also call for a halt to all UK contributions to the IPCC, the UN Framework Convention and to UK contributions to any EU climate-change policy. They plan to freeze all state funding for scientific research into global warming. Another policy objective states "Encourage the development and use of renewable energy sources other than large-scale wind generators" .[6]

The UKIP is staunchly skeptical of climate change. At their Spring Conference in March 2010, the party leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch said "we must question the whole theory of man-made climate change."[7] . The UKIP party website endoses the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change which claims that CO2 is not a pollutant and "That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis. "[8]

The UKIP's position on climate is (in the opinion of this writer) not just an invitation to ridicule for a political party to hold; but also an indicator of how skepticism of the science of climate change is being ideologically driven.


The UKIP also has a pro smoking and anti tobacco ban stance. It is listed as a supporter of The International Coalition Against Prohibition [9]. UKIP MEPs Nigel Farage and Godfrey Bloom spoke at their conference in Brussels[10].

They have been described by British Prime Minister David Cameron as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists".[11]

List of UKIP MEPs

There is one other UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire , who has withdrawn from the UKIP Party whip in the European Parliament.


Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ "[1]"
  2. ↑ channel4 The publishers and knights bankrolling Ukip, organizational web page, accessed March 1, 2015 .
  3. ↑ "[2]"
  4. ↑ "[3]"
  5. ↑ "[4]"
  6. ↑ "[5]"
  7. ↑ "Paragraph 17[6]"
  8. ↑ "[7]"
  9. ↑ "[8]"
  10. ↑ "[9]"
  11. ↑ "[10]"
  12. ↑ "[11]"

External resources

External articles

Retrieved from "https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=UK_Independence_Party&oldid=672157"