Thursday, December 31, 2009

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Should we be helping illegal immigrants in Calais






This coming weekend volunteers from Kent Refugee Help will travel to Calais to hand out clothes, sleeping bags and blankets to immigrants in the French port.

Kent Refugee Help is a registered charity, which helps peoples who have been detained at the Immigration Centre in Dover.

On the surface the idea of crossing the Channel to make sure the assembled migrants are able to survive the onset of winter can only be seen as a decent act of human kindness. And there are many who will not consider it any more than that.

Volunteer Kate Adams points out it is a ‘humanitarian crisis’ made worse since the French authorities in September tore down the wooded encampment area known as ‘The Jungle’ where up to 800 immigrants lived – waiting to smuggle themselves Britain.

But in September the French Government demonstrated it will play a part in breaking the illegal immigration chain that leads from Africa to Britain by making it more difficult to ‘live’ in Calais.


read more at Your Ashford

Monday, December 28, 2009

10 Reasons to leave the EU, Dan Hannan




Here's Tory rebel Dan Hannan's list of 10 reasons why the UK would be better off out of the European Union. UKIP welcomes his support!

1. Since we joined the EEC in 1973, we have been in surplus with every continent in the world except Europe. Over those 27 years, we have run a trade deficit with the other member states that averages out at £30 million per day.

2. In 2010 our gross contribution to the EU budget will be £14 billion. To put this figure in context, all the reductions announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference would, collectively, save £7 billion a year across the whole of government spending.

Read the rest of Hannan's blog here.










Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To all of our members,


Merry Christmas
&
Happy New Year

To all of our members, supporters, voters and their families
Looking forward to even greater success in
2010

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

TV Leaders Debates






UKIP Leader Lord Pearson has called on all the major TV broadcasters to make way for the Party in their planned national debates in the lead-up to the General Election.

With Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg all slated to appear in the televised 90-minute pre-election debates, Lord Pearson has insisted UKIP be included as well.

After writing to the heads of the BBC, ITV and Sky, Lord Pearson said: "It would be wrong for UKIP, which came second in the last test of national political opinion, to be excluded from these debates.

"I accept that UKIP may not win the General Election, but nor will the Liberal Democrats.

"We suggest that an acceptable alternative would be for UKIP to appear in a part of each debate linked to four vital policy areas: membership of the EU, direct democracy, immigration and the economy.

"Our position on the first two of these areas will be diametrically opposed to the policies of the three main parties, and our position on the other two will be sufficiently different to deserve inclusion in the televised events. Surely the British people should be allowed to see us tested on these great issues in open debate?

"Our presence would provide the voice of real opposition, which will not be heard if we are not there. And, I would suggest, it would also make the debates rather more entertaining."

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Kent Unemployment November 2009




Good news for Ashford with 51 more people finding work than last month. This means that the Unemployment rate in Ashford is now 2.9%

KCC Area Summary
• The KCC unemployment rate remains at 3.3%, this is below the national rate of 4.1%.
• Six KCC districts saw an overall drop in unemployment since last month. The biggest reduction in claimants was in Dartford district which saw 91 fewer claimants than in October (a reduction of 4.3%). Dover saw the biggest increase in claimants with an additional 125 claimants, an increase of 5.6%.
• Thanet district continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the KCC area at 5.8% (4,196 claimants). Tunbridge Wells district has the lowest rate at 2.0% (1,263 claimants).