After a long, hard fought campaign I lost out to the incumbent, Tory Cllr Denise Le Gal, by 43 votes and just 1% share of the vote.

The full Farnham North results were as follows:

Conservative: Denise Le Gal: 1,005 votes, 32% share of vote
UKIP: Alexandra Swann: 962 votes, 31% share of vote
Independent: 575 votes, 18% share
Liberal Democrat: 349, 11% share
Labour: 231, 7% share

Of course this was terribly disappointing but also a huge step for UKIP. We did not stand a candidate in this division in 2009 so to come so close can only be considered an achievement. Unfortunately, UKIP does not yet have the fire power or financial resources to defeat the Conservative party machine, especially in Tory heartland of Surrey.

Thank you so very much to everyone who voted, my brilliant agent Cllr Elliot Nichols, the South West Surrey UKIP committee (with a special mention to Hugo Alexander), Winston McKenzie, Sam Mayhew and everyone else who came out to help. Now we need to concentrate on the Euro elections next year and the Waverley Borough elections in 2015 (along with the General, of course).

Across Surrey UKIP gained 3 county Councillors and came second in many others.

I am currently running in the Surrey County Council elections as the UKIP candidate for the Farnham North division.

The campaign has been long but truly inspiring; UKIP does not have the man power or financial resources of the Conservatives – especially in this area – but seeing my local branch rally and witnessing first hand the changing feeling on the door step has been quite something.

In the past month we have had two stalls on Farnham’s main street, The Borough, to boost UKIP’s presence in this formerly true blue area; the response to our leaflets has been tremendous and our thanks go to for allowing us to set up outside.

One of the greatest things about UKIP’s surge is seeing people who have never before voted or cared for politics getting involved, engaging and in some cases becoming politically active.

Today we went canvassing with Winston McKenzie, his agent Marianne and my agent Elliot, up to the Sandy Hill council estate in Farnham North. A young lady who lives on the estate – and who has never voted before – has been so inspired by UKIP that today we had her out wearing a purple rosette, knocking on doors, convincing her friends we are worth giving a shot. Even if I lose on Thursday, this alone will make the campaign and exhaustion worth it.

Surrey is known as a very affluent area but, like everywhere, there are pockets such as Sandy Hill where many people face real problems – whether it be housing, social services or not having anyone to sit down and explain changes to certain benefits – and I heard one particularly heart breaking story this afternoon. Over a serious problem faced by a young lady for the past four years, the Conservative incumbent has done nothing to help, our MP isn’t listening and the lady needed someone to stand up for her, to listen and to fight her corner; I want to be that person – not for the allowances and free iPad/blackberry offered to every Surrey councillor – but because local politics is about making small differences in the lives of local people.

Tomorrow we have the Irish Times coming to Farnham to see my campaign in action; after having French and Italian media here last week I doubt this little market town has had so much outside attention for years!

Thanks for taking the time to read. I will update tomorrow evening.

Which I think makes three new Cllrs in Surrey alone this week.

Cllr Elliot Nichols, who is in fact my local borough councillor, joined the light side yesterday. Like a good Tory he had the decency to talk to his former colleagues first.

Are we a threat? Of course we are.

I do not envy him going to tonight’s council meeting!

… because it said I still work in Brussels, much to the derision of those leaving comments on my Telegraph Blogs articles because I don’t like tax yet was on the payroll of the taxpayer.

I realise the irony of this which is one of the reasons I left Europarl (along with the serious issues of conflicts of interest and a need to be based in London).

Thanks.

Apparently I am one of the 10 people behind Nigel, according to London Loves Business.

If for a moment you suspected that Ukip boat was an aging boys’ club, then you have clearly not met the much talked about, and much photographed, Alexandra Swann.

Her defection from deputy chairman of Conservative Future into the Ukip fold early this year was probably the best PR win the right-wing party has ever had – and might well have for a long time to come.

A “libertarian, meets anarcho-capitalist” is how the the blonde 24-year-old describes herself. She is fast becoming an assured presence on live TV.

Genuine flattery.

Even crazier, someone has actually written something nice about Gawain on the internet, heh.

Rarely am I so proud to be a member of UKIP.

The brilliant, irrepressible Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenckley, former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, former Deputy Leader of UKIP and bastion of climate scepticism has just been kicked out of the Doha climate talks.

And in true Monckton style, he did so by dressing up as “Monckton of Arabia”, procuring a series of camels and placing onto said camels the words “STOP – CLIMATE HYPE – CFACT” (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow – a Washington based organization that offers a balanced voice to the increasingly hysteric climate narrative). A video of this can be seen here:

Unfortunately, Aziz the camel chucked Lord Monckton into a sand dune so the Arabian Lord was forced to enter the conference on foot.

But it wasn’t the camel antics that had the great Lord evicted from climate camp.

As the diplomats gathered for the climate conference president’s assessments of how close the countries are to coming to an agreement – given the success of Kyoto, the answer would probably be “not far at all” – Monckton slipped into the area reserved for the Burmese delegation and started to speak.

“In the 16 year we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming” said he, to an apparently bemused audience that swiftly darkened into a booing, hissing rabble of greater pantomime quality than our Arabic villain himself.

Needless to say, in the true form of these climate change fascists, Lord Monckton was removed from the hall and was stripped of his U.N. credentials. Of course, the point he was trying to make – that there has been a 16 year stall in global warming and climate change policies do very little but raise energy tariffs, forcing the poorest into fuel poverty and pushing investment offshore despite showing little to no remedy to an imagined problem – went ignored.

A dark day for Doha.

In Lord Monckton’s own words .

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/alexandraswann/

Happy days.

After I graduated from the University of Exeter in 2009 I went straight into a job in Parliament while studying for a full-time Masters degree in the evenings. I chose Birkbeck College, University of London, because they offer full-time evening courses and I didn’t want to spend two years on something that I could do in one.

Exeter is a cracking university. I was there this weekend, so attached to it I am. My lecturers were by and large rational folk who didn’t use their platform as an opportunity to convert a few additional comrades. My dissertation supervisor, who also taught me for third year modules on theories of liberty and equality, oversaw my 15,000 words about the concept of toleration in the liberal tradition; to me, the term “rights” conjures visions of John Locke, JS Mill, Nozick and Rawls.

So when I applied to study Human Rights Law at Birkbeck I expected a year of reasoned discussion about the theories and notions behind modern human rights discourse.

Ohhh I was so wrong.

Birkbeck is a hotbed of communism; half my lecturers, although pleasant, were out and proud Marxists. I was the only (then) Tory in the village. My refusal to condemn the Western world and self flagellate for the sins of my forefathers were met with derision and horror. My audacity to work for a Conservative, the right, the devils, was met with abhorrence. I was shot down in no uncertain terms for questioning the use of “welfare” (for me, I think in terms of Ronald Dworkin, not state) and daring to query whether statist socialism is actually all that good a thing.

Today I received an email from my old university and it sums up finely just why I hated it so much; this left wing commitment to holding diversity and unqualified equality as inherently valuable in themselves. I have no problem with diversity, yet holding it as a value, an end in itself to be pursued, I find strange. Likewise equality; “equality of what?” to quote Amartya Sen. Liberty? Distribution? Before the law?

The email is paraphrased below; needless to say, I will not be taking part.

“Birkbeck Faces: A diversity initiative”

As you are a Birkbeck graduate, we are delighted to invite you to participate in a diversity and equality project about the Birkbeck community. We want to engage people who have influenced the ethos of Birkbeck, have been involved in change to promote diversity; or are role models who reflect the diversity of the Birkbeck community.

Interested?

We would like you to provide a brief written statement, have your photograph taken and be willing to record two quotes from your statement on film.

If you would like to participate, please pick two words from the following list that are meaningful to you in relation to equality and diversity and write a statement of up to 150 words for each word.

The words have arisen from previous projects undertaken in 2011 about tolerance, freedom from discrimination, cultural diversity and identity. Some of these are concepts, some values, whilst some relate to the range of emotions that people have previously shared, all remain powerful.

Trust, Hope, Faith or Belief, Courage, Belonging, Forgiveness, Identify, Challenge, Idenitfy, Refuge, Invisible, Silence, Justice, Prejudice, Separation, Dignity, Dialogue, Respect, Acceptance, Traditions, Loss

We would like you to describe what your chosen words mean to you in the context of equality and diversity. You can discuss your own views and beliefs, talk about someone or something that has shaped these; or discuss your experiences or something you have witnessed.

Arrrgh. The very thought makes my face itch.

Perfume wearers of Chanel to Davidoff beware; the days of your scent of choice may be numbered as EU bureaucrats launch a consultation into an outright ban of some key ingredients.

The European Union has now turned its regulatory eye to the potential allergens found in many perfumes, extending rules implemented in 2006 which state that all labels must mention the presences of these substances. The “Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety”, worthy of parody in itself, has told the Commission that certain ingredients including tree moss, found in Chanel No 5, should be banned entirely while the levels of various other potential allergens must be reduced.

The industry is worth a staggering 1.85 billion euros to France alone and the key players are understandably up in arms; the LVMH group which owns Dior and Guerlain has appealed to the EU, but it is not just French perfume houses who will suffer if these regulations go ahead.

Among the so-called dangerous substances are citral, found in lemon oils, and bergamot; small producers of these natural ingredients will take a serious hit in what amounts to yet another example of the damage reaped by thoughtless, unnecessary EU regulation on to small and medium sized businesses.

But for what great cause shall so many stakeholders bear such cost? Has anyone ever been killed by a perfume? Potentially gassed by Thierry Mugler’s Angel perhaps, but genuine perfume related irritations or injuries are particularly rare. The Commission itself admits a lack of evidence while Chanel report just 15 known cases in the 90 year history of Chanel no 5.

Furthermore, this beggars the question of why consumers cannot be trusted to vote with their feet and take responsibility for their own allergies by avoiding offending perfumes and steering hall of House of Fraser for the duration of the festive period. Many people are allergic to nuts, some cripplingly so, yet the Commission is yet to wage war on Belgian chocolatiers or Bombay mix.

I am surprised that the Gallocentric Institutions are allowing this wholly pointless and deeply damaging prospect to flourish, but once the Commission have in mind to ban something, inevitably they will have their wish. If the Commission proposes these rules as expected in January 2014 we will once again see the destruction wrought so regularly by Brussels on industry, small business, taste and sense.

Taxes are rising.

The EU wants a budget hike, a 6.8% increase to their already monumental budget to be precise. This has been backed by numerous Labour & Lib Dem MEPs as well as a certain Malcolm Harbour MEP, Conservative representative in the European “Parliament” to the taxpaying citizens of the West Midlands.

Last week 53 brave and brilliant rebel Conservative MPs joined forces with Labour MPs to support Mark Reckless’ amendment which called for a real-terms cut in the EU budget. I cannot fathom why Cameron thought it would be anything but a good idea to call for his party to back this amendment; as it is, Brussels are very unlikely to respect the views of our lowly national parliament, it is almost certain that a deal will not be reached and the budget will increase in line with inflation. Cameron looks like a weak leader, the EU’s overarching power is once again illustrated and his status as a dyed in the wool Europhile is entrenched.

So taxes will definitely rise to fund this rise. Business taxes too are going up. Energy prices are about to increase drastically, in part due to energy taxes which fund useless windfarms…

But there is one place set for a tax cut.

Brussels. The same Brussels that is hell bent on embezzling ever increasing levels of taxes from European taxpayers.

Two years ago the EU applied a 5.5% levy on employees of the European Institutions in an apparent gesture to show that we are all in this together. A lovely press release it made, I am sure, but it was time limited and in January this will be lifted. In effect, a 5.5% tax cut for Eurocrats. This will be coupled with a likely pay rise of 2-3.7%.

A great time to be a Eurocrat. Yet they will still be striking in November.

Mind. Boggles.