I'm gutted that I can't make this year's UKIP conference at Eastbourne.
Of course if it was true that I am indeed one of one of Big Tobacco's paid "stooges" then I'd be able to go because I'd have an income or a lot of money but at the time when tickets needed to be booked, and a lift was in the offing from my branch Chairman, there was not a sniff of any work in sight and I could not spend one penny on anything that was not essential.
I have come to admire and pin my hopes for a better economic and social future on UKIP. I'm happy to promote what the party stands for and put my head above the parapet to stand as a candidate when and where needed. However, my family must always come first and if money is tight then little jollies like weekend conferences are the first to be struck off the calendar.
Now, as the conference is almost upon us, and some work has started to dribble in, it's too late to change my mind and so I'll wait to hear how it all goes and maybe even buy the conference DVD after the event.
It certainly promises to be a good one as UKIP finally comes of age. The public is beginning to see it is the only alternative to the current state of affairs where people are too scared to speak their minds, our youth is lost and out of control, parents have no idea any more where the boundaries lie and what they should do if their kids cross, and too many are persecuted because they do not buy into the 21st Century healthist religion and repent for their bad lifestyles.
Many former main stream politicians are flooding over to UKIP as they see that Labour has lost its soul, the Conservatives have lost their heart, and the LibDems are plugged into the life support machine switched on by Tories that could fail at any time.
One such crossover is Neil Hamilton who we last saw leaving John Major's Govt in the Cash for Questions affair.
All that sleazy stuff of the former Conservative MPs now seems like a porn star's picnic compared with the utterly sinister and downright criminal workings of the last Govt which simply took the piss and stole cash payers' cash because it could.
I have come to believe that everything that is wrong with this country began when the EU decided that Europe should be a superstate and its citizens should be robbed, lied to, forced to accept alien cultures, and to abandon free thought, free action and free speech.
It is such a huge machine that it has become like the Monster Raving Loony Party making irrelevant and ridiculous laws because it must "do something" about "something" some self interest lobbyists or fake charity deems needs to be done.
Labour gave the UK's rights away to three unelected people and never asked us what we thought. Instead they called us racists because we questioned where this union would take us. The NuConservatives are so scared of not being like Labour that they dare not question whether being in this political union of one leader, one country, one nation is a good thing or not.
Back in 1973 when our parents and grandparents were privileged enough to be given a say, what they wanted was free trade with friends and neighbours to spice life up a bit. My mum wanted to be able to buy the ingredients for spaghetti bolognese at the new local supermarket instead of having to order them specially from the local delicatessen which no longer exists, incidentally.
No one was ever asked about political union. No one was ever asked about the loss of our own Govt's power to make laws. No one knew that one day we would be criminalsed for having a smoke and denormalised for eating a doughnut.
And if we were even allowed to complain about some of the oppression forced upon us then maybe we could grudgingly live with it.
My mind on the EU and UKIP was made up in 2009 when as voters and citizens of the EU we planned to attend the The First Anti-Prohibition Conference in the very Parliament in Brussels that was supposedly ours.
When it was cancelled two days before it was due to start after one phone call from an UNELECTED smoke free officer direct to her pal the EU President, and the whole thing had to be moved to a hotel across the road at the last minute, I knew then that the EU was a dictatorship and free will and free votes were just window dressing.
I am sure the UKIP conference which begins on Thursday September 8 will be a huge success and I wish the delegates all the best. I'm sorry I can't be there but I understand that the Spring Conference next year will be held at Skegness which is practically on my doorstep and so one that I can't fail to miss.