PROFESSOR Tim Congdon CBE, from Huntley, has been adopted as UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Forest in the coming election.

The economist and businessman was formerly an adviser on economic policy to Mrs Thatcher's Government.

He quit the Tory Party in 2007 to join UKIP after accusing David Cameron of landing the party with a 'misguided baggage of badly rationalised policies'.

As one of the world's leading monetary analysts and a former member of the Treasury Panel (the so-called 'wise men') between 1993 and 1997, Mr Congdon says he is "acutely aware of the near terminal damage done to this country by a profligate Labour Government and the three main parties' abject surrender of Westminster's sovereignty".

"Instead of tackling the single defining issue for this country – who governs Britain? – our discredited political leaders are busy staging an end-of-pier beauty parade in the hope that those voters who haven't already slipped anchor in despair will advance, in a kind of trance, towards the polling booths.

"But then it's hardly surprising that the Lib/Lab/Con Pact prefers not to talk about what really concerns people. After all, the three main parties are unanimous in their subservience to Brussels.

"This makes it impossible to tackle in this country's best interests issues like health, farming, tax, energy, welfare, transport, defence, crime and immigration. It also means we pay a wincing £45 million a day for the 'privilege' of being governed by the EU.

"If ever there was a time to reject a discredited bunch of self-serving political hacks who when they weren't force-feeding us with their culture of entitlement were busy killing-off common sense, at our expense, this surely must be it.

"Think independent and we'll make history! And we'll bring about the  renaissance this country so sorely needs."