Nigel Farage addressing the Ukip conference. Photograph: REX/Nils Jorgensen
Digby Jones says the EU needs radical reform. That's why he wants a referendum, as soon as possible.
He says he would decide how to vote nearer the time.
But if Britain came out, there would be a free trade agreement with
the countries of Europe within 24 hours, he says. Because they need to
trade with Britain.
Jones says one in three girls born now will live to be 100. For boys, the figure is one in four.
What do you call a society where the state pays for you when you are
young, where you work in your middle age, and where the state pays for
you for many years in your old age? Greece.
There never was enough money to pay for pensions. It is just that people died too early for people to find out.
Jones says people in Europe have been "lied to" by their leaders
because politicians said they could have high public spending and low
taxes.
So they borrowed to meet the gap.
And now the people who lent the money want it back, he says.
Jones says he does not want any public servant to work harder for the
tax he's paying. But he does want them to work more effectively.
And back to Digby Jones. He eventually ended the BBC car story with a
line about how the driver picked up a drunk by mistake because the
drunk said he was Lord Digby Jones.
Jones is now defending business. Business creates wealth, he says.
Politicians should work with the grain of wealth creation. But this is
no longer the West's time, he says.
More on Godfrey Bloom.
Digby Jones is telling a story about being booked to do a TV
interview when he was trade minister, and the car not turning up. It is
going on a bit ...
Digby Jones' speech
Digby Jones says he is glad to share some thoughts on business with a political party in the ascendant.
When he became a trade minister in the Labour government, he told Gordon Brown he would not join Labour. That gets a cheer.
He says he would have said the same to the other lot. He does not want to join any party. His constituency is business, he says.
Here's Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, on Godfrey Bloom.
Sadly, this immature, public schoolboy mentality is an unpleasant
fact of politics - and Ukip seem to excel at it. Bloom may well be
trying to dismiss this as a joke but there's nothing funny about sexism
or about a party that tolerates it.
(Incidentally, Ukip seem to dislike the Green almost as much as they
dislike the European Commission. Roger Helmer's energy speech this
morning contained a passage attacking the Greens, and Lucas personally,
for their stance on fracking.)
More on Godfrey Bloom.
Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader, is speaking again, on education. (He's the education spokesman.)
The idea that better exam results show pupils are getting better is "baloney", he says.
Trying to send 50% of pupils to university is a mistake, he says.
In Europe Greece is the country with the highest proportion of people
going to university. And Denmark is the country with the lowest
proportion. And which country is most productive? Not Greece, he says.
And Digby Jones, Ukip's star guest speaker this afternoon, also thinks the party should act against Godfrey Bloom.
And here's a quote from Nigel Farage on Godfrey Bloom.
Nigel Farage thinks Godfrey Bloom should lose the Ukip whip, according to Sky.
In his conference speech Farage actually talked about rowing with
Bloom about what Bloom has been saying. (See 12.03pm. ) After his
"Bongo-Bongo land" comment, Bloom admitted that he had been told by
Farage not to use the phrase again.
Updated
There are too many officials in the Ministry of Defence, Bloom says.
Israel runs its procurement policy with just 3,000 staff, he says.
The MoD runs the Met Office. He would start by getting rid of that
because of the lies it has told (about climate change, he implies).
And that's it. He gets a warm round of applause.
Bloom says he hates the way politicians fly out at Christmas to have
a meal with soldiers, and then fly home. That's "bogus" support, he
says. He would stop that.
Bloom talks about the moral compact with soldiers.
Politicians always let soldiers down, he says.
When soldiers are abroad, they worry if their families are being looked after, he says.
Bloom says he is an ex-soldier. And he's a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies.
Bloom says defence is the most important job of the state.
In a leaked memo recently, he said agreeing Ukip defence policy was
like herding cats. That is because Ukip has more experts in defence than
in anything else, he says.
Godfrey Bloom is speaking now.
He says it is a great pleasure to talk to Ukip members.
It is also good to know who you're real friends are, he says.
(That may be the only reference we hear to the "sluts" row.)
Jane Collins, the chair of this session, says Godfrey Bloom will be the next speaker.
There is a big cheer when his name is mentioned.
He's a lovely man, she says.
Updated
Godfrey Bloom has taken to Twitter to explain himself.
Diane James, the Ukip candidate in the Eastleigh
byelection, says Godfrey Bloom should "consider his position" following
his "sluts" comment, according to Sky.
Updated
“Jones says one in three girls born now
will live to be 100. For boys, the figure is one in four.
What do you call a society where the state pays for…”
Ukip conference live
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