# Godfrey Bloom

Godfrey William Bloom (born 22 November 1949) is a former British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2004 to 2014. He was originally elected to the European Parliament for the UK Independence Party in 2004 and 2009. In September 2013, UKIP withdrew the party whip from him and he sat as an Independent until the end of his term of office in May 2014. Bloom resigned his UKIP party membership on 13 October 2014.

## Quotes

* I want to deal with women's issues [...] because I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough.
* I am here to represent Yorkshire women, who always have dinner on the table when you get home.
* No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age.
** Speaking on his first day at the European parliament in Strasbourg, as cited in "Ukip's bloomer over women's rights", The Guardian (21 July 2004)
* Terrified young women beaten into prostitution often from Eastern Europe ... is only a very small aspect of the flesh trade.
** From an article in The Sprout, a Brussels political magazine, as cited in "Brothel-visit Euro MP under fire after saying: Most prostitutes not exploited", The Yorkshire Post (10 March 2006)
** In the article, Bloom admitted he had visited brothels while a Hong Kong-based businessman, but said he and colleagues were too drunk to have sex.
* I am always deeply suspicious of received wisdom. [...] 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. Recently 60 German scientists wrote to Chancellor Angela Merkel saying there was no proof for carbon causing global warming.
** From a debate at York University, as cited in "Climate change: man-made or myth?", BBC News (11 October 2009)
* What a racist comment. How dare you? That's an appalling thing to say. You're picking people out for the colour of your skin? You disgust me.
** To reporter Michael Crick of Channel 4 News, as cited in "Godfrey Bloom Loses Whip For 'Sluts' Comment", Sky News (20 September 2013)
** Crick had asked why there were "no black faces" on the front cover of the Ukip conference brochure.

### The Guardian (7 August 2013)

Rowena Mason "Ukip tells Godfrey Bloom to stop referring to 'bongo bongo land'", The Guardian (7 August 2013)
* [From a video of a meeting at Wordsley, near Stourbridge in July 2013] How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month when we're in this sort of debt to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me. To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid.
* You can torture people to death but you jolly well can't give them a full life sentence because that's against their human rights. We can't hang them because we're now a member of the European Union and it's embedded in the treaty of Rome. It's a personal thing but I'd hang the bastards myself. ... Especially for some of these, especially for the guy who hacked the soldier to death. I do hope they would ask me to throw the rope over the beam because I'd be delighted to do so.
** Bloom is referring to a then recent ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, not an EU institution.

## About Godfrey Bloom

* The trouble with Godfrey is that, he is not a racist, he's not an extremist or any of those things and he's not even anti-women, but he has a sort-of rather old fashioned territorial army sense of humour which does not translate very well in modern Britain. What he ought to have learnt is that time and time again he says things that overshadow the whole agenda that Ukip is fighting for. My opinion is Godfrey has gone beyond the pale.
** Nigel Farage at the time Ukip withdrew the whip, as cited in "", Channel 4 News (20 September 2013)
** Bloom had commented about women being "sluts" and, during their exchange, hit reporter Michael Crick on the head with the Ukip conference brochure.
* In the old days, they put idiots in the village stocks. Now we put them on the Today programme.
** John Prescott on Today, as cited in "Quote of the Day", Evening Standard (7 August 2013), p. A16
** In reference to Bloom's "bongo bongo land" comment.