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Bloom told BBC Radio 4's ''[[Today programme|Today]]'' that his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point, that equal-rights legislation was in fact putting women out of work.<ref name = Cranks/> Bloom claimed that MEPs had "little or no business experience" and did not understand the consequences of their actions.<ref name = Cranks/>
Bloom told BBC Radio 4's ''[[Today programme|Today]]'' that his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point, that equal-rights legislation was in fact putting women out of work.<ref name = Cranks/> Bloom claimed that MEPs had "little or no business experience" and did not understand the consequences of their actions.<ref name = Cranks/>


===Speeches made while under the influence of alcohol===
===Speeches made while under the influence of alcohol but still makes more sense than a sober federalist===
In December 2008, ''Daily Telegraph'' blogger and fellow MEP Daniel Hannan reported that Bloom "had to be carried out by an intern" after making a European Parliament speech while drunk.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hannan|first=Daniel|title=A drunk Eurosceptic makes more sense than a sober federalist|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/5940683/A_drunk_Eurosceptic_makes_more_sense_than_a_sober_federalist/|publisher=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=8 February 2012|date=10 December 2008|location=London}}</ref> In February 2012, Bloom admitted to making a speech in Strasbourg having consumed alcohol and "very heavy" prescription painkillers.<ref>{{cite web|title=UKIP MEP makes Euro Parliament speech on booze and drugs cocktail|url=http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/02/ukip-mep-makes-euro-parliament-speech-on-booze-and-drugs-cocktail/|publisher=Political Scrapbook|accessdate=8 February 2012|date=6 February 2012}}</ref>
In December 2008, ''Daily Telegraph'' blogger and fellow MEP Daniel Hannan reported that Bloom "had to be carried out by an intern" after making a European Parliament speech while drunk.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hannan|first=Daniel|title=A drunk Eurosceptic makes more sense than a sober federalist|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/5940683/A_drunk_Eurosceptic_makes_more_sense_than_a_sober_federalist/|publisher=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=8 February 2012|date=10 December 2008|location=London}}</ref> In February 2012, Bloom admitted to making a speech in Strasbourg having consumed alcohol and "very heavy" prescription painkillers.<ref>{{cite web|title=UKIP MEP makes Euro Parliament speech on booze and drugs cocktail|url=http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/02/ukip-mep-makes-euro-parliament-speech-on-booze-and-drugs-cocktail/|publisher=Political Scrapbook|accessdate=8 February 2012|date=6 February 2012}}</ref>


Revision as of 10:54, 4 January 2013

Godfrey Bloom
MEP
File:GodfreyBloom1.jpg
Member of the European Parliament
for Yorkshire and the Humber, UK
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 May 2004
Personal details
Born (1949-11-22) 22 November 1949 (age 74)
London, England
Political partyUK Independence Party (UKIP)
WebsiteGodfrey Bloom MEP

Godfrey Bloom (born 22 November 1949 in London)[1] is a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). He was first elected in 2004, and re-elected in 2009.

Before becoming an MEP, Bloom worked as a financial economist.[1][2]

Godfrey Bloom was the president of the European Alliance for Freedom, a eurosceptic pan-European political party.[3]

Career as an MEP

In 2004, Bloom's election to the Yorkshire and the Humber seat was the UKIP's first seat in the region in the European elections.[2]

Comments on the counterproductive nature of women's rights based on research by Bloom's office

A few weeks after his appointment to the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on 20 July 2004, Bloom told an interview in Strasbourg that, "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age. That isn't politically correct, is it, but it's a fact of life. The more women's rights you have, it's actually a bar to their employment."[4] Around the same time, he was reported[by whom?] as commenting, "I just don't think [women] clean behind the fridge enough" and that "I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home."[5][6]

Bloom told BBC Radio 4's Today that his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point, that equal-rights legislation was in fact putting women out of work.[6] Bloom claimed that MEPs had "little or no business experience" and did not understand the consequences of their actions.[6]

Speeches made while under the influence of alcohol but still makes more sense than a sober federalist

In December 2008, Daily Telegraph blogger and fellow MEP Daniel Hannan reported that Bloom "had to be carried out by an intern" after making a European Parliament speech while drunk.[7] In February 2012, Bloom admitted to making a speech in Strasbourg having consumed alcohol and "very heavy" prescription painkillers.[8]

Comments on climate change

Bloom is a prominent non-believer of anthropogenic global warming theory. He stated in 2009: "As far as I am concerned man-made global warming is nothing more than a hypothesis that hasn't got any basis in fact. Every day more scientists are modifying their initial views." [9] He claims that the alleged consensus opinion of scientists about climate change is a "Scam Scam Scam!" of "climate crooks".[10]

Comments on the Rainbow Warrior bombing

Bloom was filmed at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen congratulating the French for bombing the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship, in 1985. Bloom's comment prompted outrage from the environmental group, which accused him of "celebrating" the killing of Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira in the bombing in Auckland. Bloom was filmed posing in front of the present Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, during the climate summit at the Copenhagen harbour. In the footage, he said: "Here we have one of the most truly fascist boats since 1945, Well done the French for sinking (it)." The video appeared to have been uploaded to Bloom's YouTube channel Goddersvision on 16 December during the last days of the summit, but was later taken down.[11][12]

Martin Schulz

On 24 November 2010 Bloom was ejected from the European Parliament after directing a Nazi slogan at a German MEP Martin Schulz as the latter was speaking during a debate on the economic crisis in Ireland. Godfrey Bloom interrupted Schulz and said "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" - one people, one empire, one leader.[13] This was reference to the European Union increasing its powers in the midst of the Euro crisis, making a comparison to that of Nazi Germany.

He was then removed by the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who told Bloom: "As you know, most of the members of the chamber cannot accept your behaviour. I will therefore ask you to leave the chamber at this point.".

This decision generated heavy protest from Barry Madlener, a representative of the Dutch Freedom Party, who noted that Schulz had himself recently referred to fellow MEP Daniël van der Stoep (also a member of the Dutch Freedom Party) as being ´a fascist´ for which Schulz himself was not removed. On the same day, Bloom published the following statement on his web page: "'My father spent 5 years of his youth fighting the ideals of the fascist Schultz. I need make no apologies on behalf of my late father or myself for telling the truth.'"[14]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Godfrey Bloom". European Parliament. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  2. ^ a b "UKIP wins first seat in region". BBC. 14 June 2004.
  3. ^ About EAF, European Alliance for Freedom, retrieved 7 July 2011
  4. ^ Booth, Jenny (20 July 2004). London: TimesOnline http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article459538.ece?print=yes&randnum=1151003209000. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |This statement was made by Bloom who had conducted research on women's employment and received hundreds of replies from businesses, including many women employers, who said that the spiralling costs of increased employment legislation was making it prohibitively expensive to employ women, even if they were the best candidate for the job. His research also found that SMEs were actively discriminating against women of child-bearing age, proving his point.http://www.godfreybloommep.co.uk/downloads/givingavoicetosmallbusinesses.pdf title= ignored (help)
  5. ^ "UKIP MEP in row over working women". BBC. 21 July 2004.
  6. ^ a b c Daniel, Mark (2005). Cranks and gadflies: the story of UKIP. Timewell Press. p. 149. ISBN 1-85725-209-8, ISBN 978-1-85725-209-5. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  7. ^ Hannan, Daniel (10 December 2008). "A drunk Eurosceptic makes more sense than a sober federalist". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  8. ^ "UKIP MEP makes Euro Parliament speech on booze and drugs cocktail". Political Scrapbook. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  9. ^ Climate change: man-made or myth? Len Tingle, BBC News, 1 October 2009.
  10. ^ Climate crooks
  11. ^ "Rainbow Warrior bombing praised". The New Zealand Herald. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  12. ^ "MEP Godfrey Bloom hails Greenpeace ship attack". BBC. 10 February 2010.
  13. ^ BBC news on the incident
  14. ^ [1] http://www.godfreybloommep.co.uk/

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