Wednesday 4 September 2013

UKIP DISTRICT CHAIRMAN LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN FOR TOUGHER SENTENCES FOR ANIMAL ABUSE




Zoe Kerr continues to fight for a justice with regard to the derisory sentence issued to Simon Tidswell for the murder of her two dogs Frank and Macey, initially denying the charge, Mr Tidwell then changed his plea which afforded him a lenient sentence. Miss Kerr and her supporters believes the laws on animal cruelty and sentencing must be changed to help deter people from perpetrating such crimes, they believe the sentences as they are now serve as no deterrent and make a mockery of the court system in relation to animal abuse.

Zoe Kerr has joined forces with a UKIP District Chairman and animal rights campaigner Jason Smith to put the issue of proper sentences for animal abuse on the political agenda.  Jason launched a UKIP district campaign Saturday for ‘Tough Sentences for Animal Abuse’, the campaign aims to raise awareness of issues of sentencing for animal abuse with the aim of bringing the debate to parliament.  Jason has launched a petition on the government website and hopes to gain the 100,000 signatures required to generate a debate in the House of Commons.

Jason Smith says: “I was horrified after seeing the pitiful sentence passed down for the murder of Zoe’s two dogs, as an animal rights campaigner I offered my support to Miss Kerr and will work to help her receive justice on this tragic event. 

At the same time I will work towards gaining the 100,000 signatures required to have the issue of sentencing for animal abuse debated in parliament. I personally believe animal murders of this kind should receive a jail sentence; I would like government to set proper guidelines as we need to ensure sentences for animal abuse are a proper deterrent.”

Zoe Kerr says: “Not only did I lose my beautiful dogs in such a horrific way and will never get over it, I have been completely let down by our justice system and the criminal has worked the system to his advantage.

Animal abusers must have a sentence that reflects the severity of their crimes and the impact they have on the victims, my dogs were my family, I have lost my family.  The criminal has not been punished and our justice system has let me the victim down, this needs to change, the laws need to change.”


Anybody who supports this campaign should sign the below petitions and distribute to family and friends:

Tough Sentences for Animal Abuse:

CPS ( Crown Prosecution Service ): Review and consider appealing a far too lenient prison sentence:
http://www.change.org/petitions/cps-crown-prosecution-service-review-and-consider-appealing-a-far-to-lenient-prison-sentence

Thursday 13 June 2013

UKIP Bradford pledges support for the National Media Museum

UKIP Bradford Spokesman Jason Smith announced Monday that the UKIP Bradford & District are officially coming out in support of the cities National Media Museum, UKIP Bradford want to see funding available for the Museum to stay open and continue with free entry.

UKIP has been at the forefront campaigning to save other Bradford landmarks; they were the only Bradford political party to support the retention of the landmark former Odeon cinema and in 2007 called on Bradford council to give local people binding referenda on the buildings future.

UKIP Bradford also announced that its slate of candidates for the 2014 local elections will all stand on a ticket of protecting both the Odeon building and the National Media Museum.

Spokesman Jason Smith said: “As the UK’s ‘City of Film’ it is unthinkable that we could see the closure of our National Media Museum. This fine museum is one of few remaining landmarks that exist to draw people in to Bradford. All our candidates will campaign vigorously to highlight the plight of the Museum and safeguard this important local attraction.

UKIP do not accept the government argument that we have no money to fund our fine museums, why is it that our government claim we have no money to protect our museums and local services yet they can find money to pay £53 million per day to the EU and £23 million per day in foreign aid?  It is all a question of priorities and we believe their priorities are wrong.

As the nation’s fastest growing party, we ask all our supporters to sign the Telegraph & Argus petition to highlight this issue and bring pressure on the government to safeguard the future of our museum.  We have so far succeeded in protecting the Odeon and now we aim to help Bradford people raise awareness to protect our media museum and ensure it stays free to the public.”

Sunday 2 June 2013

Reports that UKIP will stand aside for Tory MP in Shipley...

I would just like the opportunity to clarify the situation with regard to UKIP candidates standing at the next General Election. Contrary to various articles, there are no current plans for UKIP to stand aside for Tory candidates at the next election, irrespective of whether that MP is euro-sceptic or not.

Additionally, UKIP has made it clear that there could never be any deal or agreement with a Conservative Party led by David Cameron. It seems the Tories are circulating stories and rehashing old quotes in an attempt to neutralise UKIP. Unfortunately, all it is doing is showing the public how much they fear the UK’s fastest-growing party.
While UKIP respects Shipley MP Philip Davies’s stance of withdrawal from the EU and his support of the ‘Better Off Out’ campaign, the reality is that Mr Davies stands on a Conservative ticket of remaining in the EU.

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford Chairman,

T&A: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/news_opinion/tafeaturesletters/10429916.UKIP_and_election/

The offending (untrue) original article suggesting UKIP would stand aside for Mr. Davies:
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10377086.UKIP_pledges_not_to_split_vote_of_Shipley_Tory_MP_Philip_Davies/

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Winning tax ways

SIR – It’s difficult to understand how John Appleyard (Letters, May 20) manages to translate my comment of UKIP will “cut tax for everyone” into “hard-working people get crumbs while the idle rich get the cream”.

Mr Appleyard seemed to have missed the entire text of my letter as I mentioned low-wage earners will pay no tax at all. That can hardly equate to “crumbs for working people”.

He continues that “there would be less money available to spend on vital services”. He must remember that UKIP’s pot of money is much larger than that of the old EU parties, as UKIP would,

a) not pay £53 million per day to the EU;
b) not pay £23 million per day in foreign aid;
c) stop funding invasions of other countries;
and d) stop bailing out private banks.
On tax, UKIP is like the lottery ticket where everyone is a winner!

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford Chairman

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/news_opinion/tafeaturesletters/10445566.Winning_tax_ways/

Friday 24 May 2013

Choice is the key

SIR – Peter Finan accuses me and others who oppose windmills of selfish nimbyism (Letters, May 20).
While Mr Finan might not be bothered about a 40 per cent drop in his house price, I’d wager there are many people out there who would not want to be saddled with a massively devalued property.
So you are stuck with a windmill next door, unable to sell your property or at best take a huge loss while seeing continued hikes in power prices due to the costs of green energy. So you’re effectively

I’m happy for Mr Finan to have a garden full of windmills, but why can’t people who oppose them have a choice also? Rather than being a Nimby, I’d say I was more of a ‘Nirbyuta’ (not in residents back yard unless they agree).
Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/news_opinion/tafeaturesletters/10441637.Choice_is_the_key/

Thursday 23 May 2013

Latest Letters from the Chairman in the Local Paper

Windpower problems


8:54am Friday 17th May 2013 in Readers' letters By Telegraph & Argus

Sir – Mr John Hall suggests windmills are very effective and reliable (Letters, May 15).
Whatever planet Mr Hall is living on must have a constant wind that never fluctuates because on this planet the wind varies and amazingly sometimes never blows at all.

Mr Hall’s windmills will therefore not work if the wind is (a) not blowing fast enough (b) is blowing too fast or (c) is not blowing at all. Whichever way you ‘spin it’, the windmill is ineffective most of the time.

Mr Hall claims windmills are ‘clean’ yet each windmill needs approximately 30,000 tonnes of concrete in its base to stop it falling over and environmentalists can provide evidence that turbines affect wildlife, specifically birds.

Like most windmill enthusiasts, Mr Hall seemed to ignore my comment that they drive down house prices, by an estimated 40 per cent! I wonder has Mr Hall got a windmill in his back garden?

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford Chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury




Missing the point

9:06am Thursday 16th May 2013 in Readers' letters

SIR – John Appleyard is very far off the mark when he claims ‘Parties so similar’ (Letters, May 13) in regard to UKIP and the Tory party.
While the Tories are only for tax cuts for the rich, UKIP supports tax cuts for everybody, our flat tax and abolition of NI will see everybody pay less tax, our no tax on minimum wage will see all low wage earners pay no tax at all.

He claims both parties want to exit the EU, well that is true of UKIP, but the Tories want to ‘renegotiate our relationship’ and Cameron has stated his intention to stay in the EU at all costs.

While UKIP oppose windfarms, this is certainly not the policy of the Tories; a cursory glance at the horrific Tory manifesto will confirm this.

In fact, Mr Appleyard is so far off the mark, you can only hope he never takes up archery!

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury, Bradford




Climate debate fears?

8:37am Tuesday 14th May 2013 in Readers' letters By Telegraph & Argus

SIR – Ron Harding wades in (T&A April 30) on the big ‘global warming’, ‘climate change’– or whatever it’s called this week – discussion, suggesting that myself and colleagues always come to the conclusion that ‘experts’ are wrong.

This is, of course, not the case; while I disagree with most ‘official scientists’ who support the theory of man-made global warming, there are many thousands of independent scientists who are sceptical of this and who I more often than not tend to agree with, but as they do not fit in to the mainstream political climate agenda, you never seem to hear of them, at least not in the mainstream media.

People might remember environmental TV personality David Bellamy, who in 2004 famously suggested the theory of man-made global warming was “poppycock”, very soon after he mysteriously disappeared from our TV screens altogether. I wonder are the establishment afraid of a proper debate on this issue?

Jason Smith, Ukip Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury, Bradford




Lose-lose situation

8:33am Monday 13th May 2013 in Readers' letters By Telegraph & Argus

SIR – Ashley Forsyth (T&A, May 7) rightly highlights the Tories’ devastating plot to concrete over our district’s countryside, mentioning that David Cameron made a comment about our ‘lovely countryside’.

What I think David Cameron was thinking when he looked at all the lovely green belt area was, ‘look at all that potential space for more nice windmills!’.

Cameron’s family have ‘history’ with windmills – his father-in-law earns almost £350k a year from a publicly-subsidised wind farm on his 3,000-acre estate.

When we see windmills popping up in our back gardens, ruining the landscape and driving down our house prices, we must remember that, as they’re massively subsided, we’re effectively paying towards the destruction of our green belt!

So it’s a lose-lose situation, that’s unless you’re a Tory landowner!

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury




No green solution

12:40pm Friday 10th May 2013 in Readers' letters

SIR – Thanks for John Hall’s response to ‘Facing Facts’ (T&A, April 25) where Mr Hall actually faced the fact that ‘extreme weather cannot reliably be linked to increased CO2 in the atmosphere’.

A few more weeks of debate and Mr Hall could well be transformed from Camberwick Green’s Windy Miller to The Simpson’s Mr Burns!

That brings me on to our potential energy crisis – Mr Hall’s party of choice chooses to promote windmills, which are neither reliable nor cost-effective.

I would suggest his solution of concreting over our green belt with heavily-subsidised windmills will not only lead to an energy shortage down the power line, but will also see even larger increases in our energy bills as consumers indirectly subsidise this unreliable energy.

For our future energy security should we look to include shale gas in our energy plan? The US has and has seen consumer bills reduced dramatically.

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury




Ban this testing

8:35am Tuesday 30th April 2013 in Readers' letters By Telegraph & Argus

SIR – I fully support everything Ashley Owen of Animal Aid says (Letters, April 23). I personally find any animal experimentation disgusting and believe animal testing is no better than animal torture.

One of the biggest increases in animal testing is due to the EU’s REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Directive, which mandates that all chemical substances must be tested to ensure they are safe, even substances that might have been used for years without any problems.

In an 2009 article by Thomas Hartung and Constanza Rovida in the Nature journal, they estimated that 54 million vertebrate animals would be used under REACh.

I’d like to see a national referendum on the question of banning animal testing, I am confident when people see the kind of ‘experiments’ animals have to endure then I believe most will support a ban.

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury