Rupert Read, the Lead European Election candidate for the Green Party in Eastern Region has today raised his concerns about the performance and behaviour of UKIP since the election of their MEPs in the region in 2004.Former Bedfordshire based UKIP MEP Tom Wise and a researcher have both been charged with one count of false accounting and one count of money laundering (1) from the period when Wise was a UKIP MEP. He now sits as an Independent MEP.Rupert Read has also raised questions as to the effectiveness of UKIP since the last elections in 2004 in representing their constituents.Rupert Read said"UKIP got two MEPs elected in 2004 here in Eastern Region on a platform that included preventing abuses of taxpayers' money in the E.U.The matter for which Mr. Wise has now being charged is abusing E.U. taxpayers' money while a UKIP MEP.According to an article in THE TIMES newspaper (2), Mr. Wise has already admitted embezzling money and using it to buy himself a new car".Rupert Read continued"I have been touring the region now for several months as part of the campaign for this year's elections and the message I am hearing from voters is that they have lost faith in UKIP.The Green Party offers a much more positive alternative to voters in this region who dont want to vote for the establishment parties. Green MEPs have been shown to be consistently hard working and committed to the policies they were elected on. If elected I am determined to uphold high standards in office and to be effective as a representative."ENDSNotes:
I have long been an active supporter of Medialens ( http://www.medialens.org/ ). Like many others, I have supported them with money, time, tips, and I have been proud to have done so. For they have done very important groundbreaking work over the years challenging the inanities and distortions of the 'mainstream' media. They have for example written important critiques of mainstream media coverage of dangerous climate change, of Iraq Body Count, of the corporate nature of most of our media, and much more besides. They have held the corporate media to account time and again. They ought to be saluted for all of that. It is therefore with a sense of deep regret (as well as of some foreboding) that I have finally to write to address the ways in which, lately, some of the wheels seem to be coming off their wagon. An early warning sign perhaps was their long-running spat with George Monbiot, over the Rwandan genocide and the terrible atr...
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