That Lib-Dem grandee and Europhile Ken Clarke, who accidentally wandered into the Tory party, has been bad mouthing those of the free electorate who might be considering voting UKIP in the upcoming elections on Thursday.

This despite the fact, that these are the very same people he wants to vote for him and his adopted Conservative Party.

Trust me, if you hadn’t guessed already, he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

I worked for UKIP very briefly in its early days (1998-99) in a communications advisory rôle, after I’d discovered some of the dark truths about the European Union and the deliberate deception of its real intentions spun by our political classes to Britain’s hard-working citizens.

(If you want to learn more about that in a lighter and more digestible form, try reading my thriller COLD MONDAY ).

I worked at the very top of UKIP with its erstwhile leader at the time, Michael Holmes. Nigel Farage and others of the current hierarchy were all there. I can assure you that they were all passionately anti-racist.

Knowing what the accusations of their enemies would be, the party went out of its way to encourage ethnic minorities to join them with welcome arms. Any signs of racism were ruthlessly stamped on. And to no small extent UKIP has succeeded. Just look at the lists of members and candidates.

Far from being the ‘clowns’ that Mr Clarke describes, some in UKIP have a far sharper vision of what Great Britain could and should become. Of Europe, but not in a political or monetary union with it.

Not joined at the hip in the EU. More a Hong Kong of Europe. An off-shore Switzerland on steroids, but much, much more…

Part of a new expanded world-wide Commonwealth of democratic free-trading nations.

Apart from the existing customers of the USA and old Europe, its new customers would be India, China, Brazil and the smaller developing countries of Africa and Asia.

Britain would be more self-sufficient in agriculture and farming, and energy. Already a centre of excellence in finance, insurance, and car production, it would expand specialist ship-building, aeronautics and IT.

Water desalination plant and recycling development, green methane power technology like electricity-generating window glass and river turbines, will be high on the wealth creating agenda for the nation’s industrial renewal.

Does that sound like the thinking of clowns, Mr Clarke?

One wonders if he’s ever stopped to think why he is the Minister without portfolio. It’s just possible there’s a reason.