Comment: This is what a Ukip reshuffle looks like
By Janice Atkinson
On Monday, the results of the Ukip membership's vote for their MEP candidates was revealed.
On Tuesday, Nick Clegg made a speech starting his campaign to stay in Europe.
At the weekend, Adam Afriye tried to bring forward the EU referendum from sometime in 2017 to the autumn of 2014.
And Labour? They seem to be attached to the EU with an umbilical cord. But I will wager that they too will offer an in/out referendum before the next election, or even before the European elections next year.
So it’s all about Europe. Excellent.
Cameron tried to shoot the Ukip fox by promising a referendum vote in 2017 and James Wharton’s private members’ bill is designed to do that. However, it has some hurdles, not least Afriye’s proposed amendment, which will surely fail as Labour and the Lib Dems will not support it.
Private members bills are precarious and nuanced things. It will fall at the next post, as it is designed to do. Cameron wants it to fail as he doesn't want a referendum. He embraces Europe, with a faux Eurosceptic narrative designed to appease the 'rabid' right-wingers in his party – and to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.
Cameron is deeply hated and mistrusted by his own MPs, but it is up to them to shoot their own fox, not Ukip.
Back to Ukip's batch of MEP candidates, who are primed, ready and waiting for the arguments of leaving the EU.
We will be nailing the lie that three million jobs are under threat from the EU, that the little EU is no bigger than Birmingham and that we are a little isolationist state that has to be shackled to the EU for survival. The list goes on.
I am immensely proud to have been chosen by the membership to fight alongside Nigel Farage as his No 2 in the south east where we have a great team, including my friend Ray Finch at No 4.
Here come the girls. Ukip is fielding a slate of top women candidates.
In the south east it's yours truly at No 2, Diane James, who fought the Eastleigh campaign, at No 3.
In the south west No 2 is Dr Julia Reid.
In Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire the No1 is Jane Collins.
No 2 in the north west is Louise Bours.
No 1 in the West Midlands is Jill Seymour.
No 2 in the East Midlands is Margot Parker.
And not a token gender quota in sight. Can Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservatives say the same? Labour insisted on all women shortlists, the Tories gerrymander theirs behind the scenes, interestingly with the exception of Marina Yannakoudakis, their third MEP in London, who remains in third place – one which I predict she will lose.
These Ukip women are going to Brussels and it will be a better place because of them.
It's an incredibly exciting time in politics.
Clegg's pro-EU speech today is succinctly summed up by Nigel Farage: "Whereas I have spent the last 14 years in Brussels fighting against the growth of this undemocratic and increasingly power hungry remote bloc of bureaucrats, Nick Clegg spent a decade – five years working for the Commission and five years as an MEP – learning to walk their walk, and evidently talk their talk. No wonder the Lib Dems are losing votes hand over fist."
Ukip are calling on the public to make the 2014 Euro elections a referendum on our membership. If you want to have your say, then vote Ukip. We cannot trust the old parties. Until then it's £53 millio per day down the guggling drain into the EU coffers.
That's why I want to be a UKIP MEP: to stop Nick Clegg and because I want my country back.
Janice Atkinson was a 2010 Conservative parliamentary candidate for the seat of Batley and Spen before she left the party and joined Ukip. She hopes to join Nigel Farage in Brussels as an MEP in 2014. Follow her on Twitter.
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