Since news of the Cameron using the kind of insult he usually reserves for UKIP to describe his own people, visits to the UKIP website have reportedly increased by 300%.  It also coincides with 36 Tory constituency associations writing to Cameron telling him to ditch his support for gay marriage or resign.

We’re welcoming new members in Telford & Wrekin every month and we’ve got so many people turning up to our meetings that we’ve outgrown the room we’ve used for years.  You can join UKIP through our branch for just £10 for the first year.

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But regardless of Devious Dave’s habitual dishonesty, surely the bill is a good thing if it means we get a referendum? Well I’m afraid you’re going to me disappointed.

One of the most important principals of parliamentary sovereignty is that no parliament can bind its successor. That means that any law passed before the election can be repealed after it.

This draft bill is an empty gesture – it is for a referendum in 2017 and after the Tories lose the next election the next government can repeal it. The only way to guarantee a referendum on our membership of the EU is to pass a law for it now for it to happen before the next election.

Our resident “eurosceptic” MPs will no doubt claim this empty gesture as a victory and judging by the conversation I had with Daniel Kawczynski recently they’re probably ill-informed enough to believe it! Between now and the next election we will be reminding voters of David Cameron’s broken promises on the EU (remember his “Cast Iron Guarantee”?), that Labour went to court to have a judge rule that it was unreasonable to expect anyone to keep their manifesto promises and that UKIP is the only party committed to an in/out referendum on membership of the EU.

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Cllr Mitchell will represent the Manor ward on Shifnal Town Council, whilst Cllr Choudhary will represent the Idsall ward.

The current Mayor of Shifnal, Councillor Eileen Briscoe, has been left licking her wounds today after being ousted by Cllr Choudhary who won by just 3 votes!

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Andy Mitchell with Conservative candidate Stuart West

Congratulations to our three Telford & Wrekin candidates for yesterday’s Shropshire Council elections for a great campaign that was sadly not reflected in the result.

Andy Mitchell came second in Shifnal South & Cosford with 40.24% of the vote, Richard Choudhary came third in Shifnal North with 17.92% of the vote and John Smith came second in Albrighton with 21.75% of the vote.

Of course we are disappointed at not winning any of the seats but this is the first time we’ve had a full throttle UKIP election campaign in any of these divisions and next time we’ll win them.

We’ve already got a number of candidates in place for the 2015 local elections and will be filling in the gaps in the coming months.  If you want to play a part in the purple revolution, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do for each other.  First year’s membership is discounted if you join through the UKIP Telford & Wrekin website.

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The Conservatives have been in control of Shropshire Council for far too long and have shown an unhealthy disregard for democracy.

Abolishing the district councils has failed to deliver the savings it promised as expected. Shropshire residents knew that it wouldn’t which is why they overwhelmingly rejected it in referenda but councillors ignored their wishes and did it anyway. They’ve ignored voters’ wishes on car parking charges and school closures. They’ve wasted money on consultants and councillors’ iPads and broken the law trying to get more money out of elderly and vulnerable people to pay for their care homes.

The 51 Conservatives, 14 Lib Dems, 7 Labour and 2 independent councillors have treated Shropshire residents with contempt – this is your opportunity to vote for change.

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Liam Mason

Labour

427

Tom Hoof

UKIP

255

Gladys Gregory

Independent

120

Rodney Pitt

Conservative

113

Tobias Haynes

Independent

44

Tom would like to thank everyone who voted for him and we’d like to congratulate him on an excellent performance.

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According to Telford & Wrekin Council’s Arts & Culture Service Manager, the number of events the council puts on has been scaled back due to budget constraints and St George’s Day has been cancelled. Instead, they want to start an annual festival in the park during the summer.

The Stone Cross St George’s Day parade in West Brom regularly attracts over 25,000 people who parade through the town and finish up in Dartmouth Park for music, entertainment and a market. The parade attracts people from all over the country and provides an enormous boost to the local economy.

Since the council moved from the civic offices to Addenbrooke House, they don’t even fly our national flag any more and now they’ve decided that our national day isn’t important enough to celebrate. There are six flag poles on the entrance to Ironmasters Way where there the council’s new offices are so there is no shortage of opportunities to fly the flag and if there is money for a summer festival, there is money for St George’s Day.

The Stone Cross St George’s Day parade is organised by local residents and funded from donations after Sandwell Council, like Telford & Wrekin, decided that our national day wasn’t worth celebrating. If that’s the only way our patron saint’s day will be celebrated in Telford & Wrekin then we will have to organise future events ourselves. If you’d like to be involved in organising a St George’s Day event for next year then please get in touch.

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Andy and Denis have been working hard over the last week to deliver the newspapers to large sections of Shifnal and Cosford and we’ll be straight back out  to deliver letters and leaflets when we’re done.  Jill and Bill have been climbing ladders putting posters on lampposts all morning.

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