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Godfrey Bloom

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Godfrey Bloom
MEP
Bloom in 2009
Member of the European Parliament
for Yorkshire and the Humber
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 May 2004
Preceded byRobert Goodwill
Personal details
Born (1949-11-22) 22 November 1949 (age 74)
London, England
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Political partyUKIP
UKIP MEP (2004-2013)
Independent MEP (2013-)[1][2]
Spouse(s)Katryna (Katie), née Skowronek[3]
Residence(s)Wressle, near Selby
WebsiteGodfrey Bloom MEP

Godfrey William Bloom TD (born 22 November 1949) is a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) but sits as an independent Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Bloom was elected for UKIP in 2004 and re-elected in 2009. He has received attention from the British media for making remarks considered objectionable by his party leader, and for expressing a position of climate change scepticism.

Bloom resigned his party whip from UKIP on 24 September 2013 and sits as an independent MEP.[1]

Biography

Bloom was born in Lewisham, London, son of Alan William Bloom, a gas fitter, and Phyllis Bloom née Gandby[4][5]) and attended St Olave's Grammar School.[6] He stated that his father was a fighter pilot during the Second World War[7] and his mother was in the WAAF. In 1986, he married Katryna (Katie) Skowronek, an equine physiotherapist.[3]

Bloom worked as a financial economist.[5][8] In 1996 he warned, in Money Marketing, that "split caps" were not the solid safe investment people thought, and later in the year explained in Financial Adviser the dangers of what was to become "precipice bonds".[citation needed] In 1996 he was part of Francis Maude's regulatory consultancy panel from which he later resigned.[citation needed] In his last position, he worked as the director of the investment company TBO in which he is a major shareholder.[9]

Political career

In 2004, Bloom's election to the Yorkshire and the Humber seat was UKIP's first seat in the region in the European elections.[8] In 2009, he was re-elected. Bloom is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.[5]

On 20 September 2013, during the party conference, UKIP withdrew the whip from Bloom. At a party conference meeting he had jokingly referred to his female audience as sluts.[10] Subsequently,[11] he got into a confrontation with journalist Michael Crick in the streets, hitting him over the head with the conference brochure,[12][13] and allegedly threatened ITV reporter, Paul Brand, by saying, "You treat me badly, you'll get a lot worse than that (Crick's slap) ... that is a threat to any journalist."[10]

On 24 September 2013 he resigned his party whip from UKIP but retains his party membership with UKIP. His statement said: "I have felt for some time now that the 'New UKIP' is not really right for me any more".[1]

In December 2013, as a result of his various controversies, Bloom was awarded the Plain English Campaign's Foot in Mouth Award.[14] A spokesman said that Bloom was "an overwhelming choice" who "could easily have won this award on at least two other occasions... [he's] a wince-inducing gaffe machine and we could fill a page or two with his ill-advised quotes from 2013 alone."[15]

Views and controversies

Banking and financial crisis

Bloom was ejected from the Mansion House in 2009 for heckling Lord Turner for giving staff bonuses after the massive regulatory failure of 2008/9. According to the Daily Telegraph he was the first man to be ejected since John Wilkes in the late-18th century. In a letter to UKIP, Turner wrote that "Mr Bloom will not be receiving any further invitations to Mansion House events nor will be welcome at the Brussels Annual reception [...] As to future Mansion House events we will be seeking a different MEP from UKIP as a potential guest."[16] Bloom signed the petition in disgust at the knighthood for the failures of Hector Sants.[17]

He is a member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.[18]

Bloom was a co-author of Wolfson Prize Economics Submission with Professor Pat Barron and Professor Philipp Bagus.[19] He warned that credit agencies would be "castrated" by too much regulation of the EU.[20] Bloom claims that most MEPs have "little or no business experience" and do not understand the consequences of their actions.[21]

Women's rights

A few weeks after being appointed to the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on 20 July 2004, Bloom told an interviewer that, "no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."[22] Around the same time, he said that "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."[21][23] 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, he claimed, putting women out of work.[21]

Bloom confessed that had visited brothels in Hong Kong. He claimed he never consummated the visits, and also claimed "terrified young women beaten into prostitution often from Eastern Europe [...] is only a very small aspect of the flesh trade", and concluded that "in short, most girls do it because they want to."[24]

After inviting students from the University of Cambridge Women's Rugby Club to Brussels in 2004, he was accused of sexual assault, making "sexist and misogynistic remarks" and using offensive language during a dinner party. One student handed a formal letter of protest to the President of the European Parliament, heavily criticising Bloom's behaviour. Bloom who sponsored the club with £3,000 a year, admitted making misogynist comments but denied sexual harassment.[25][26]

In a piece for politics.co.uk in August 2013, Bloom attempted to set the record straight about his earlier comments on gender equality.[7] He argued against quotas for women in boardrooms, claimed that feminism was a "passing fashion" created by "shrill, bored, middle-class women of a certain physical genre" and that any men who supported feminism were "the slightly effete politically correct chaps who get sand kicked in their face on the beach." He said that women were better at "[finding] the mustard in the pantry" than driving a car.[27][28]

Climate change

Bloom rejects anthropogenic global warming. He said 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".[29]

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.[30] In the clip, posing in front of the present Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, Bloom said, "Here we have one of the most truly fascist boats since 1945, well done the French for sinking (it)."[31] 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 removed.[30]

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 said he did not know a man had been killed, then said he had forgotten.[32]

Other controversies

In December 2008, Bloom was carried out by an intern after making a speech in the European Parliament while drunk,[33] the second occasion on which he was accused of being drunk in the chamber.[7] During the speech, Bloom denied that MEPs from Poland, the Czech Republic or Latvia have the ability to understand economic relations. In February 2012, Bloom interrupted a debate with the question whether the Cambridge University Women's Rugby team should wear their logo on the front or back of their shirts. Later he admitted consuming alcohol and "very heavy" prescription painkillers after breaking his collarbone in a riding accident.[34]

On 24 November 2010, Bloom was ejected from the European Parliament after directing a Nazi slogan at German MEP Martin Schulz who was speaking in a debate on the economic crisis in Ireland. Bloom interrupted Schulz and shouted "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" at him.[7][35]

At the height of the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Bloom complained about the lack of manners of the political class. On his website, he pointed out that, unlike many others, he would not employ family members in his parliamentary staff. Bloom later conceded that three members of his staff were also employed part-time at TBO, the company in which he is a major shareholder, and one of these is his wife's niece.[9] Bloom failed to declare his interest in TBO to European Parliament officials and in 2008 Bloom's company TBO was fined £28,000 by the Financial Services Authority for 'posing an “unacceptable risk” to customers'[36]

In July 2013, Bloom made a speech about Britain's foreign aid in which he referred to countries as "Bongo Bongo Land". A video was passed to The Guardian newspaper.[37] A spokesman for UKIP was reported as saying that Bloom's remarks were being "discussed right at the very highest level of the party".[37] After refusing to apologise,[7] he later said he regretted the comments[38] but clarified it by saying that whilst he intended it to be derogatory, he regretted that it had caused offence and he didn't mean it to be racist.[7] Party leader Nigel Farage has asked him not to use the phrase again.[39]

In an interview in August 2013, Bloom described Prime Minister David Cameron as "pigeon-chested; the sort of chap I used to beat up."[7]

During a LBC Radio interview in November 2013, he called for the unemployed and public sector workers to lose the right to vote.[40]

In January 2014 broadcaster Michael Crick stated that while supporting the motion "Post-war Britain has seen too much immigration" in a debate at the Oxford Union, Bloom asked a disabled student who was speaking against the motion if he was Richard III.[41] According to Crick, Bloom told him that the student had taken his remark "in good spirit" with both sharing drinks during an after-debate reception, suggesting Crick confirm this with the student. Crick followed up the suggestion whereby the student accepted Bloom's version of events, stating that, although the comment was not "very nice," he and Bloom got on well, and that Bloom was "a very interesting man to talk to."[41] Fellow supporter of the motion, journalist and author Douglas Murray, described Bloom's comment as "gruesome"[42] and "the cruellest thing."[41]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Godfrey Bloom quits as UKIP MEP after 'sluts' joke row", BBC News, 24 September 2013
  2. ^ "Godfrey Bloom To Quit As Ukip MEP After 'Sluts' Row", The Huffington Post, 24 September 2013
  3. ^ a b Natalie Clarke "His (many) enemies call Mr Bongo Bongo a sexist monster... so what's it like to be married to him? Wife of UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom reveals all", mailonline, 16 August 2013
  4. ^ Certified Copy of an entry of Birth. General Register Office.
  5. ^ a b c "Godfrey Bloom". European Parliament. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Bloom, Godfrey". UK-Whoiswho. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Sarah Rainey (24 August 2013). "I used to beat up lads like the PM, says 'Bongo Bongo' Bloom". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  8. ^ a b "UKIP wins first seat in region". BBC. 14 June 2004.
  9. ^ a b "UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom pays assistants who also work for his investment firm". The Times. 30 May 2009.
  10. ^ a b "Godfrey Bloom: UKIP MEP Calls Women 'Sluts'", Sky.com, 20 September 2013
  11. ^ Rowena Mason "Ukip's Godfrey Bloom has whip removed after 'sluts' remark", theguardian.com, 20 September 2013
  12. ^ "Thwack! MEP's blunders derail Ukip party conference", Channel 4 News, 20 September 2013
  13. ^ "Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom whacks Michael Crick over the head with party brochure", telegraph.co.uk, 20 September 2013
  14. ^ "2013 Foot in Mouth award winner". Plain English Campaign. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  15. ^ "Foot in mouth gong for Godfrey Bloom, Yorkshire and Humber MEP". BBC News. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  16. ^ "No more Bloom for Mansion House". Daily Telegraph. 3 October 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  17. ^ City Diary (3 October 2009). "No more Bloom and bust for Mansion House". Telegraph. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  18. ^ "Home". Vonmisesinstitute-europe.org. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  19. ^ "The Wolfson prize" (PDF). www.godfreybloommep.co.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2011.[dead link]
  20. ^ "MEP: Strict regulation will castrate rating agencies". FTAdvisor. 16 January 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  21. ^ a b c Daniel, Mark (2005). Cranks and gadflies: the story of UKIP. Timewell Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-85725-209-5.
  22. ^ Booth, Jenny (20 July 2004). "UKIP man champions a woman's right to clean fridges". London: TimesOnline.
  23. ^ "UKIP MEP in row over working women". BBC. 21 July 2004.
  24. ^ "Brothel visit: Euro MP under fire after saying most prostitutes not exploited". Yorkshire post. 22 October 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  25. ^ "UKIP Man in Brussels faces harassment claim after trying to quash his sexist reputation". The Independent. 3 October 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  26. ^ "Harrassment case MEP brings debate to Bowtell" (PDF). Varsity (Cambridge University student newspaper). 22 October 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  27. ^ "Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom disparages women drivers, feminists... and mild-mannered men". The Independent. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  28. ^ "Comment: Let's face it – men and women are different". politics.co.uk. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  29. ^ Climate change: man-made or myth? Len Tingle, BBC News, 1 October 2009.
  30. ^ a b "MEP Godfrey Bloom hails Greenpeace ship attack". BBC News. 10 February 2010.
  31. ^ "Rainbow Warrior bombing praised". The New Zealand Herald. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  32. ^ John Vidal "Godfrey Bloom 'forgot' Rainbow Warrior death during Copenhagen rant", theguardian.com (blog), 5 February 2010
  33. ^ Hannan, Daniel (10 December 2008). "A drunk Eurosceptic makes more sense than a sober federalist". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  34. ^ "UKIP MEP makes Euro Parliament speech on booze and drugs cocktail". Political Scrapbook. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  35. ^ "BBC news on the incident". Bbc.co.uk. 24 November 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  36. ^ "Political Scrapbook".
  37. ^ a b Mason, Rowena (6 August 2013). "Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom criticises aid to 'bongo bongo land'". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  38. ^ "UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom 'has regret' over 'Bongo Bongo' phrase". BBC. 7 August 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  39. ^ Peter Dominiczak "Godfrey Bloom says he’s promised Nigel Farage not to say ‘bongo bongo land’", telegraph.co.uk, 7 August 2013
  40. ^ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/519461/20131104/ukip-godfrey-bloom-voting-unemployed-public-sector.htm
  41. ^ a b c Crick, Michael; "Godfrey Bloom does it again, only worse", Channel 4 News, 24 January 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2014
  42. ^ Douglas Murray "My night with Godfrey Bloom", The Spectator (blog), 25 January 2014
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