Sunday Telegraph readers misled into donating to a break away movement in Malta which is the subject of legal proceedings.
Christopher Booker, at the end of his Sunday Telegraph column on 3rd February 2003, asked for donations to go to an organisation in Malta to assist in their campaign against European Union membership.
I wrote a letter to the editor at the Sunday Telegraph (not published) advising their readers not to donate to that organisation because even Booker must have known that 1. it was not credible and 2. it was undermining the long standing and successful campaign against Malta’s EU membership CNI .
The Sharon Bonici to whom Booker asked that money be sent, left CNI and set up a rival organisation – NO2EU. So unsuccessful is that (virtually one woman) organisation that only a hand – full of people turned up to a meeting addressed by Booker and Nigel Farage MEP. In other words Booker knew of the extreme inadequacy of the organisation when he appealed to Sunday Telegraph readers for funds.
The international cross party eurosceptic magazine These Tides was also misled into publishing an advertisement which it believed was for CNI but which turned out to be for NO2EU.
CNI in Malta sent a legal letter to Sharon Bonici warning her to desist from using their name, incurring debts on CNI’s behalf and misleading supporters. Leaders of CNI in Malta tell me they are very disturbed by Booker’s column.
All in all a not very savoury mess to put before readers of a national Sunday newspaper – and ask for donations. The respectable Maltese anti-EU organisation, CNI, receives donations in the United Kingdom through a fund sponsored by the late Lord Shore of Stepney and Roger Helmer MEP and we recommend that you consider donations through them (to The Malta Independence Appeal at Hopcroft, Sutton Lane, Etwall, Derby DE65 6LQ).
Not for the first time Christopher Booker seems to be involved in a damaging split in the anti-EU movement. He stood on Referendum Party platforms during the 1997 general election campaign at the invitation of Sir James Goldsmith and then on the eve of the election urged voters to vote Conservative. Booker’s joint shenanigans with Nigel Farage MEP in the UKIP leadership elections contributed largely to the split within that party. The UKIP membership list was illegally obtained and – against the Party rules – used by Booker in a letter associated with the Sunday Telegraph (much to the anger of that newspaper) to launch an attack on my candidature for the UKIP leadership. (In the event I lost by 16 votes). The mailing of Booker’s letter was done by an individual based in Chepstow who publishes racist and thuggish material on the internet and who, during his illegal activities with the UKIP mailing list, was in close touch with Nigel Farage, the UKIP MEP who was supporting my main opponent Jeffrey Titford.
In this Malta case we see another joint Booker Farage initiative which has backfired. Booker advertised in his column that Farage was going to Malta to “help” in the anti- EU campaign. Having just aided a split in the anti-EU camp and having no connection with Malta, Farage, like Booker would of course be a gift to the pro EU movement.
Indeed all Booker’s ludicrous promotion of “NO2EU” has done is to give the pro EU movement space in the letters column of the Sunday Telegraph to tell Farage et al that the Maltese don’t need foreigners to decide their referendum!
The question which always arises for rational observers of the activities of Booker, Farage etc is whether they are really on the other side or are they just spiteful, untrustworthy and out of control? What is clear is that they and the organisations with which they are associated should be avoided at all costs.
