UKIP and the EU

Like many political commentators, Salvu Felice Pace failed to comment on several facts regarding the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in his article covering the recent British general election (May 17).

He pointed out that the contentious issue of the European Union was hardly mentioned during the election period - which was perfectly true. However, what he failed to point out was the fact that all three of the so-called main parties are, to varying degrees, all in favour of EU membership. So too is one of the most powerful forces in the UK which controls a major part of the British media - the BBC. Our state-owned broadcasting company is now so biased many people refer to it either as the "Brussels Broadcasting Corporation" or the "Biased Broadcasting Corporation", which, without doubt, deliberately ignored, as much as it could get away with, the UK Independence Party's aims and campaign which, as the only non-racist political party in the UK, advocates complete withdrawal from the EU.

After my first election campaign in 1997, when I stood as a candidate for Sir James Goldsmith's Referendum Party, I remember seeing a headline on the front of one of the UK's Sunday broadsheets referring to the general election: Eurosceptics Routed. Mr Pace's comments reminded me of that headline as he too failed to notice the obvious. In fact, despite only taking an average of 3.3 per cent of the vote, the Referendum Party succeeded in forcing the leaders of the other political parties into offering a referendum on membership of the euro - a luxury the people of Malta are being denied as your government, to fulfil its EU ambitions, will just take you in regardless of the economic consequences and the number of Maltese jobs which will be lost due to having the wrong interest rates and surrender of the Maltese economy.

Since 1997, those of us campaigning against membership of the EU, especially those of us in the UKIP, have made steady gains. The main reason Tony Blair has not called the referendum on the euro is down to the fact he knows he cannot win it. He has now promised a referendum on the EU Constitution due to the pressure we have placed upon him.

After the death of Sir James and the demise of the Referendum Party in 1997, I joined UKIP and stood as its candidate for Walsall South during the 2001 general election. At that time I spent a lot of my canvassing time explaining as much about UKIP, which few had heard of, as I did explaining our election manifesto.

During the recent general election, again in Walsall South, I did not have to explain anything about UKIP as everyone recognised the name, many of whom were either disillusioned Labour or Tory voters who switched their votes to UKIP. Like most UKIP candidates this resulted in a doubling of my vote giving me a high enough percentage to save my election deposit.

Had the press, which is either aligned to the Labour or Conservative parties, or the BBC given us fair and unbiased coverage, our vote would have undoubtedly been higher.

UKIP's next big push will be the referendum on the appalling EU Constitution which is designed to create a single country called the United States of Europe and will give the EU unprecedented powers. UKIP has grown fast in recent years. Soon the press and media will not be able to ignore us and it will be due to the enthusiasm of UKIP and other anti-EU activists that the people of Britain will vote no in the referendum on the EU Constitution.

The people of Malta too need a political party such as UKIP since Alfred Sant and the MLP have sold out to the EU. Every voter across the European Union should have the right to say no to the EU.