Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Conservative donors fed up with UK PM Cameron coddling EU are switching to UKIP

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5/26/13, Conservative donors threaten to switch to UKIP unless Cameron toughens up on Europe,” UK Daily Mail, Gerri Peev

Tory donors have threatened to switch their allegiance to UKIP unless David Cameron adopts a tougher stance on Europe.

In yet another blow to his leadership, former Tory treasurer Lord Kalms said he was ‘willing to pack my bags’ and sign up with UKIP unless the Prime Minister adopted more traditional Tory policies.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage is set to seize on discontent among Tory MPs and UKIP’s recent success in the polls with a fund-raising appeal.

He has been invited by City financier Crispin Odey to pitch to wealthy donors for support. Lord Kalms, the Dixons tycoon, is one of the most likely to start bankrolling UKIP.
 
He said Mr Farage was ‘very, very attractive’ and a ‘first-rate guy,’ adding: ‘UKIP deserve all the support they get.’ He told the Sunday Times: ‘I have always been a Conservative but that loyalty is wearing very, very thin.’

‘If UKIP has the right policies, that’s where we’ll go. I am very, very disenchanted and won’t tolerate being dragged down into Europe without some fight.’

He urged the PM to stop trying ‘to be all things to all men – that means you are nothing to nobody’.

Lord Kalms was stripped of the Tory whip after he said he would lend his vote to UKIP in 2009….

Three of the most generous donors to the Conservatives have reportedly complained about the PM’s emphasis on gay marriage. Separately, one former Tory donor Andy Brough, has joined UKIP….

A boost in financial support is likely to follow UKIP’s recent success in the local elections, where it won 23 per cent of the vote. It is also on course to come first in the European elections next year.

But the rising profile of the party recently led to a bitter confrontation with protesters in Edinburgh which left the party leader shaken. Mr Farage was forced to barricade himself into a pub after angry Scots turned on him, calling him a ‘racist scumbag’.

Mr Farage has revealed he has now had to rethink his security situation and hired bodyguards. ‘I have to think about security for the first time ever, I’m afraid. Horrible,’ he said.
 
He added,’ What I’ve done for the last 15 years is to book halls all over the country… and just turn up, park outside, bowl in, do my bit, meet the people afterwards. Sadly that’s going to change.’
 
A summit to discuss an electoral pact with UKIP is also being planned by the Bow Group – whose president is Sir John Major – and the Conservative Grassroots [corr] body of local parties….

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Farage revealed that UKIP was speaking to ‘about 20’ Tory MPs about standing on a joint ticket.

He also cited two Labour MPs – Kate Hoey and Gisela Stewart – who the party would not stand against as they were considered ‘friends’ in the Eurosceptic movement.

He is also in talks with Tory councillors who want to defect, while one Tory MP had been in touch with a go-between but Mr Farage had vetoed him after taking one look at his voting record and deciding, ‘no, no way’.” via Free Republic
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EU audit finds 89 billion taxpayer pounds unaccounted for, an increase of 8% over 2010:

11/6/12, “Audit ‘seriously undermines credibility’ of EU spending,” UK Telegraph, Bruno Waterfield

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4/25/13, EU Lawmakers Vote to Scale Back Mandatory Auditor-Rotation Plan,” Bloomberg, Jim Brunsden

European Union lawmakers voted to scale back plans that would force banks and large listed companies to rotate the auditors they use, more than doubling the length of time before they would have to make a change. 

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee also voted today in Brussels to water down a proposed ban on audit firms providing consulting and other services to companies whose accounts they review. … 

The EU is reviewing audit rules following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which the European Commission has said raised questions about the quality of company audits. Regional arms of the top four accounting firms -- KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu — have a market share that exceeds 85 percentin the majority of EU member states, the commission said.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial services chief, proposed the rotation rule in 2011 as part of measures to rein in the market dominance of the big four and prevent conflicts of interest. “…



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