Tory localism is a busted flush.

Oh the Conservative Party, that great hope for localists nationwide. Erm, no. As some locals are now finding out, the Tories are as anti-localist as Labour were.

Alex Singleton joins DCBless UKIP.

A positive to take out of today's goings-on: Alex Singleton, a former Telegraph journalist and now public relations man has joined UKIP today thanks to the defection of David Campbell Bannerman.

UKIP members deserve better.

David Campbell Bannerman is someone I knew fairly well, having been based in the same region that he is an MEP in, helped run his website and spent the evening with him when he was elected.

But his actions have shown that David Cameron is welcome to him. Bannerman has decided to suck up to the Conservatives having dissed them and Cameron just a year ago. He shows as much backbone as your typical Tory MEP, defending the indefensible.

Ken Clarke was put in charge of law and order by David Cameron.

Surely they can't deflect it that easily? Tories seem already keen to palm away Ken Clarke's slashing of the length of prison sentences by insisting that Ken Clarke is a maverick and not representative of feeling at the top of the Party.

I think not. While Clarke's wording may have been a bit over the top for Cameron's liking, he was put in charge of law and order by the Tory leadership. Putting a wet like Clarke in charge of sentences for murder, rape and so on was always bound to result in such a softly softly approach, even if it flies in the face of evidence that longer, harsher sentences deliver results.

I imagine that Clarke may be turned into the fall guy. Not because of his soft on crime stance which the likes of Cameron agree with, but because he delivered it in a matter to blunt and clumsy. The real debate here is the death of the Tories as a Party that resembles anything like being tough on criminals.

Power to the people: first UKIP-controlled Council has big ideas.

My good friends Cllr Pete Reeve and Cllr Lisa Duffy have big plans for Ramsey Town Council, the first ever UKIP-controlled Council in the country.

It is a blueprint for a much more democratic society. While some Tory backbenchers write books and talk about localism, UKIP Cllrs are now practising it.

So, UKIP's plans for Ramsey? Youngsters from all of Ramsey's schools having control over a small budget. Community groups making presentations to the Town Council directly. Public participation at Town Council meetings extended from a paltry 2 minutes to 15 minutes. Open politics. Citizen's truly empowered and give a  voice.

Those who dismiss UKIP as being just about the EU are either incredibly ignorant or burying their heads in the sand. This is hopefully the first of many UKIP Councils up and down the country that turn the way local government operates upside down.

EU wants to control internet content.

The Council of Europe has been discussing plans since February for the EU to have a “single secure cyberspace”, with all “illicit content” from outside the EU being blocked in a system not dissimilar to the way that the Chinese control web content.

Osbourne bottles it, taxpayers foot the bill.

Poor old George Osbourne. Apparently he has no choice but to give potentially billions of British taxpayers money towards the Portugese bailout cause by the eurozone crisis. And I thought Parliament couldn't bind its successor.

35% of Tory members could see themselves voting UKIP.

Lord Ashcroft's report on what David Cameron is doing wrong seems largely common sense: the public want the economy dealt with, a tough stance against the EU and immigration to be limited. I expect the public to be sorely disappointed.

LibDem President backs EU referendum.

The tide does seem to be turning. Many Tory and Labour MPs want an EU referendum. The Green Party Leader wants one. UKIP want one. And now the President of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, wants one.

Those who seek to undermine Nigel Farage undermine UKIP.

Lets look at some facts. Nigel Farage was first elected as Leader of UKIP in 2006 with 45% of the vote. He took on a Party with some tremendous internal difficulties, but steady progress was made. Issues other than the EU were focused on for the first time, most prominently immigration and education. UKIP saw two peers defect giving it a Parliamentary foothold for the first time. Bob Spink MP also defected, though later bizarrely claimed not to have done so. The Party started to attract a number of young people attracted by Farage's media-savvy, modern delivery. Media profile increased for the Party, and many of those I know in the media say that it was Farage who made them think UKIP were no longer just swivel-eyed obsessives. In fact many in the media world have said to me that they are amazed he puts up with UKIP's brand of internal in-fighting rather going to play in the "big leagues" of the Tory Party.

Roger Knapman uses Nikki Sinclaire's staff to attack UKIP leadership.

There is no denying it, Marta Andreasen's intervention on Monday demanding the head of Nigel Farage has been unhelpful to UKIP as a party. Particularly given the results that UKIP scored in the local elections.

It is undoubtedly partly the party's own fault. To come out with the accurate local and regional elections results 5 days after the election counts were generally completed allowed its own enemies to write the story. And so they did. 

Marta went onto the BBC to attack Farage's failures despite the successes and today former leader Roger Knapman has stuck his oar in. Which is odd, because he has been conspicuous in his silence since the re-election of Farage as leader last Autumn.

But his intervention has outed himself as driven not by care for the party, but by a hatred and jealousy of Farage. The evidence? He is working with Nikki Sinclaire, who is now running a separate political party, Samra half of whose candidates are paid by Ms Sinclaire.

Roger Knapman's statement reads as follows:

A number of unhappy UKIP MEPs have approached me in recent days.
It is a disappointment that the party has not capitalised on its past successes and does not seem to be moving forward electorally. At the time when UKIP should be pressing for a referendum on our continued membership of the EU, and highlighting the extreme costs of that membership, the party leadership seems besotted with the idea that we should join an unsuitable pan-European grouping that would mean we become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
I hope that the leadership will listen to these MEPs, and to the party membership, and reassess its priorities.
Ends
Notes for editors. Roger Knapman is a former Conservative MP and Party Whip. He was UKIP party leader from 2002-2006, and was a UKIP MEP from 2004-2009.
For further details contact Nicole Carroll. 0044 7974 233902

I note that Mr Butcher has removed the contact details on the Democracy Forum.

Who is this Nicole Carroll?

Well she describes herself as a Trainee Press Officer & Social Media, Birmingham City fan, Journalism graduate.

OK, so who does she work for? Well she has retweeted a Nikki Sinclaire tweet previously, but that is no crime.

However she is in Strasbourg this week: Flights were fine, tiny plane from amsterdam though, 28 degrees in Strasbourg. And she is clearly enjoying the champagne lifestyle. 

Still, it shows that Roger is putting out press releases through somebody who is in the European Parliament who is in Strasbourg, so what, but how about this? Her Linked-In Page states quite boldly


Nicole Carroll Trainee Press Officer at the office of Nikki Sinclaire MEP Worcester, United Kingdom

 Current Trainee Press Officer at Nikki Sinclaire MEP

So there we have it, Roger Knapman the former leader of UKIP is using the office of Nikki Sinclaire who runs her own political party, opposed to UKIP to attack the party leadership. 

Don't be fooled by his protestations of care. It is bitter recrimination that drives him. UKIP deserves better than this.

Latest YouGov poll has UKIP winning 3 seats in the Welsh Assembly.

The latest YouGov has been broken down and shows UKIP tied with the LibDems on 7% nationally. More importantly however, this would give UKIP  firm foothold of 3 seats in the Welsh Assembly, the same number of seats that the Liberal Democrats would win.

This would officially make UKIP the joint-fourth biggest Party in Wales - arguably even the fourth outright given that UKIP has a Welsh MEP whereas the LibDems do not.