2015 was another very successful year for our Party.

Yep, it’s Christmas again, you all make sure that you have a good one, I will. But then again I always do. I don’t want to be anywhere but at home for this time of year, which is why I always buzz off to Malta in January. Which I shall be doing 7th Jan 2016 for the month.

Looking back over the year, yes it was very eventful, it started in Malta for me as usual, some of our Mediterranean friends said that they would make it to the conference this year, they didn’t, you just wait till I get there this coming Jan.

Feb – On my return I was called down to the Bath University Politics Forum as guest speaker, that went very well, a good turn out and was well received.

March – Went back down to Ashburton where the Loony Party was born in June 1982, at the invitation of the West Country News. They thought it a good idea that they should have an update because the news was out now that Boris Johnson was intending to stand against me for the Uxbridge General Election seat. Met up with Basil Fawlty and we did a very good TV interview.

April – Saw me back on the Daily Politics Show with Andrew Neal and Jo Grimmond, very good. If you have not seen it its up on our web site. Plus guest speaker on the Bournemouth Uni Politics Radio Show ! With the run up to the by-election quite a lot of independent radio’s are getting in touch. At least ten during April.

May – Come the big one , Me and Boris slugging it out on stage in Uxbridge. He won that one, I can’t wait for the rematch.

72 votes, so he presented me with his latest book called ‘72 Virgins’, quite a nice touch I thought! Plus we, the party, appeared on the Arabian BBC channel and the French Overseas TV channel.

June – Took the month off for my birthday!

July – In my local council roll, I was elected Chairman of Highways and Transport on the local Fleet Council. Our Co-ALE-ition range of beers had now come to an end. Probably could have carried on if the General had ended being another coalition.

August – Spent ten days up in Liverpool visiting and promoting the party. It’s a shame that we don’t have anybody standing there, it was the scene of our greatest triumph beating Doctor David Owen and his Social Democrat Party in Bootle. We now have four potential candidates for the future.

September – What a wonderful conference, can we do better than that, we will try to next year. I’ll say no more, all of you that were there know what I mean.

October – Saw the last of our Co-ALE beer shows at the Royal Ascot Race weekend, five on all at once. A special thanks to Derrill Carr for all his hard work and enthusiasm for setting up our beer range, to Steve and Joy and all the others who joined in, especially the Brewers. A lot of good publicity was achieved for the party through JD Wetherspoon, which we must thank Tim Martin and his team for.

November – Quite quiet apart from a few local things, like switching on the towns Christmas lights, good job too cause we are now building up to the Oldham West and Royton By-election to be held on Thurs 3rd Dec. I was thinking of doing it myself but then thought why not ask if one of our Manchester members would like to stand instead. Of course we will was the answer from Lord Cameron of Roundwood, I’ll talk Sir Oink-a Lot into doing it. Sir Oink was a star, turned out to be a great candidate. So there we were, all set and ready to go, with the Flying Brick as his agent what could go wrong, nothing was the answer. Myself and Chinners our Spin Doctor, moved into Oldham seven days before and got the campaign up and running. Lord Cam, Johnny Disco and Sir Oink joined us during the week and generally, as usual we got a great reception.

The count night was up to expectation too, a lot of predicting that we might beat Liberal and Green, but was not to be. We came last, we didn’t let you down. Oinky got 141 votes, but in spin doctor terms our result was 141% up on last time, better than all the others. It was pointed out on many occasion that I personally was the only Party Leader at the count. It’s surprising the things that people notice and pick up on. We were all invited back to the UKIP (victory party) afterwards, but it got so late for most. I say all, only our party! Myself and Chinners went along to fight our corner and good fun was had by all. The party goers and those who attended our party malarkey. Yes, and a special thanks to all our party members who got involved on the count night.
So I’ll finish where I started
A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
See you all in 2016