This article is taken from Roger Helmer’s wonderful blog.
I trust readers will forgive me for taking time to describe a relatively trivial incident – but one which is illustrative of the way it’s possible to convey a totally misleading message in a few words. Not surprisingly, the example comes from a Labour MEP, Seb Dance, who is also a leading proponent of climate alarmism in the European parliament.
He recently posted the following Tweet: “UKIP MEP makes way to his seat waiving (sic) a giant Union Jack as two brave Yazidi women praise Germany for accepting victims of rape and genocide”. This paints a graphic picture. Apparently I (for it was I to whom he referred) had been making an eccentric gesture, waving a giant flag around in the hemicycle in a flamboyant but inappropriate and slightly absurd manner. And he seeks to imply that this was a deliberate gesture intended to insult and belittle the two women in question.
The reality was totally different. The two Yazidi women were receiving the Sakharov Prize. Like most decent people, I have huge respect and sympathy for the sufferings of the Yazidi people in the conflicts in the Middle East, and I have no doubt that these two women, who had suffered much themselves, were worthy recipients of the prize. I have rather less respect for the prize itself, which I see as merely a propaganda device for the European parliament, rather than a serious initiative to promote freedom of thought.
In any case, my actions had no relation at all to the Sakharov event, which immediately preceded the Tuesday voting session in the hemicycle. I was merely taking my place in the chamber ahead of the votes, as were dozens – hundreds — of other MEPs. It is totally normal to have some particular formal event – a speech from a foreign head of state, a prize award or whatever – immediately preceding the voting session, and it is totally normal for MEPs to enter the chamber during such an event.
Now we UKIP MEPs customarily display a small Union Jack (OK, Union Flag, for pedants) on our desks during voting. You may or may not agree with this gesture, but we choose to do it, and it is within the rules. On this occasion, at the previous UKIP MEPs’ voting meeting, London MEP Gerard Batten, who is the unofficial custodian of the flags, had handed them out to colleagues, and I had taken mine down to the chamber. I was not waving it with a Napoleonic flourish – I was merely carrying it to my place. And as for “waving a giant Union Jack”, the flag in question is about four inches high. I am struck by the huge contrast between what actually happened, and the rather absurd picture that Seb Dance paints in his Tweet. And note the way he hypes up the emotional temperature with his reference to rape and genocide.
I replied: “Oh dear, Seb. The “giant flag” was all of four inches high. I was carrying it, not waving it. And you don’t spell ‘waving’ like that”.
Good for you, Roger, for your disdainful dismissal of the moron MEP.
But you need not worry about your reputation among UKIP Members who have met you or seen you at Conference. We know you’re a good egg who doesn’t behave like the liar and exhibitionist Seb Dance libellously suggested.
This Labour stooge, whose interest in ‘Emissions of Certain Atmospheric Pollutants’ must surely arise from his own constant stream of toxic emissions from all orifices, is a loser.
I know he’s a loser because he’s in Labour, and I wouldn’t believe a word any Labourite wrote even if he used his own arterial blood to write it in.
Roger,
This is all very interesting but exactly what relevance does it have to anything? If you, as you say are shocked at how this Labour MEP tweeted then you must be extremely politcally naive IMO. Considering the amount of time you have been an MEP this incident seems petty and inconsequential, does,’ anything more interesting happen there? Cannot you not tell us what is actually going on and what you and your colleagues are doing about it?
After all, you all get paid a considerable amount of money out of our £350 million paid weekly.
DD, there is a certain lack of graciousness in your approach to long-standing, long-serving and well-respected UKIP members who have been elected to the most thankless task of representing us in the EU Parliament when none of us (including Roger) want to be there.
Do you read Roger’s blog every day to see what he says about what’s going on in Brussels and Strasbourg (£100m a year for monthly moves betweeen them)? I don’t, but then I’m not really interested because I already know that it’ll be undemocratic, wasteful, corrupt,ridiculous and infuriating. All I want to know is that we will be out soon, and then what goes on in the EU Parliament will be a matter of sublime indifference to most of us (I suppose we’ll need someone to keep an eye on what they plan to do with their self-aggrandising EU army).
I hope that Roger and every other UKIP MEP (not the exes, D James & S Woolfe) claims and squeezes every euro they can get out of the EU – salary, expenses, perks, pension, the lot. That way, we’ll be getting some of our British contributions back for people who deserve it: the people who have helped to achieve Brexit by reporting back what was going on there and fighting against the unelected dictatorship in any way they could.
Panmelia,
You refer to what they do as a ‘thankless task’, so there is no money to be made in it then?
No I do not read Roger’s blog every day where is it? but I do know about that obscene amount of money spent on their unnecessary moves you talk about, and about all the other waste that goes on, but he could have told us much more than this IMO silly little article.
So, are you suggesting that they do not already squeeze every penny out of it, probably like all the other MEP’s, but why not donate some of it back into UKIP’s drastically starved funds. That way we will benefit from them being there as will ultimately the British public.
FYI, DD, every UKIP MEP is obliged to contribute a percentage of their income from the EU to UKIP funds and has signed an agreement to do so. I think it is 12%, but cannot swear to that. They have been doing this since being elected and will go on doing it until the next EU election in 2019 or whenever we are officially out, whichever is sooner.
The UKIP MEPs do not perform this role for money, but to undermine the EU however they can and make voters aware of the scandalous waste made of their taxes. Their role is often referred to as ‘the turkeys who voted for Christmas’. Personally, I could not bear to do it even if it paid 100 times the going rate. It must be like wading in a foul-smelling swamp (one that needs draining every bit as much as the Washington one).
This was NOT a silly little article, but a very good example and reminder of the gross misrepresentation of UKIP and its elected representatives by disgusting Labour drones and the MSM in general. This has not gone away, but intensified since Brexit.
You can find a link to Roger’s blog at the top of this very article, provided by Viv.
Finally, might I suggest that you save your spears and arrows of criticism for UKIP’s enemies (there are more than enough targets for you in their ranks) rather than aiming them at our members, friends and representatives. You’re doing what’s called ‘friendly fire’ in military circles, but it’s not friendly at all, it’s destructive and demoralising.
Some of us might start wondering if you are posturing as a UKIP supporter in order to keep sniping.
Panmelia.
OK, I fully accept your point and applaud them for the work they do and the contributions they make if you are correct in your figures, but any contribution is gratefully accepted I would think.
As for your snide comment about posturing as a UKIP supporter I take that as a nasty insult, I will have you know I have worked very hard for my branch delivering 640 leaflets recently, when did you last deliver some? And I make regular contributions to my local branch, so you can just go and shove that remark where the sun don’t shine.
Keep up the good work Roger!
Ignore the brickbats. Mister Dance is a foolish manchild who will be cowering for pity when the SHTF as it surely will if we dont achieve BREXIT soon.
The next few years are going to see monumental changes across the world and one good thing coming is the collapse of the labour vote. They are finished – allow them to tweet each other with their childish tantrums.
Hear, hear, CK! And Roger – please keep those giant union Jacks (all 4 inches of them) aloft on your desks in the Parliament of Fools (excepting the UKIP MEPs obviously). Another epithet for this Parliament, pace Chaucer, is The Parliament of Fouls.