Elizabeth Jones is a British politician from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and a candidate for the Dartford seat in Kent in the forthcoming 2015 General Elections in Britain.}

Vice Chairwoman of UKIP Southwark London, Elizabeth is a lawyer by training and has worked for the renowned law firm TG Baynes which was founded in 1895 and also for Fisher Merdith LLP. She is the first female candidate to stand for any political party in the Dartford seat for the last 18 years, and the first for a major party since Margaret Thatcher in 1951.

(Elizabeth Jones, UKIP)

1. Manish Uprety: You see it was at the Dartford Station’s platform number 2 where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on 17th October 1961 since leaving primary school, and the rest as the fans, musicians and historians say is history. In the forthcoming general elections in the UK, you are UKIP’s candidate from the Dartford seat from where once Margaret Thatcher contested. In her times, Thatcher was nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by a Soviet journalist for her uncompromising politics and leadership style. How do you feel?
Elizabeth Jones: Well, I am the first woman to stand in Dartford since Mrs. Thatcher (except for a very minor candidate representing yoga and aerobics) so in that sense I am very proud. But unlike Mrs. Thatcher, I am going to win Dartford for UKIP.
2. Manish Uprety: It seems that the combination of Yoga and Aerobics can be a possible mismatch, a bit like Vikram Chatwal and Lindsay Lohan, and can be detrimental to the political career and aspirations of many such as for the minor candidate from Dartford. Yoga is a timeless philosophical thought and a spiritual discipline from India whereas Aerobics is a specific exercise method developed by Dr. Kenneth Cooper, M.D. and Col. Pauline Potts both of the United States Air Force.
In January this year, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker admitted that UK voters could soon choose to leave the EU. “It’s easy to fall in love and more difficult to stay together,” he said. It seems the whole EU affair turned out to be a romantic fiasco and an experimentation gone horribly wrong for the UK. In fact, the whole arrangement looks like an awkward Ménage à trois –pardon my French- for the EU, with Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party on the left, and UKIP and Nigel Farage on the right. The effects of this typical arrangement are witnessed at various levels. Famous writer Frederik Forsyth wrote recently- “An Italian at the European Central Bank is debauching the currency.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel – who was raised in an East Germany with a loo-paper currency – is against it but this time, for the first time, she has been overruled. She is between a rock and a very hard place.” In the cause of Euro-unification, Germans with their single and simple creed – never debauch the currency- have shovelled their savings and reserves into bailing out the spendthrifts and sipcoffee-in-the-sun brigade of southern Europe. He says Cromwell’s words of wisdom in the scenario might be apt- Stick with the Pound Sterling, the Dollar and Gold.
It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done. Do you not think what started as a politico-economic daydream in Maastricht, Netherlands in 1993 with ‘Ode to Joy” as an anthem is slowly turning into more of a nightmare. Friedrich Schiller, the German poet who wrote the poem “An die Freude” in 1785, later in his life was contemptuous of it and dismissed the poem as typical of “the bad taste of the age” in which it had been written. It is from history we learn that we do not learn from history. The UKIP always had an inherent dislike for a supranational structure which the European Union (EU) is. Why do you think that the days of the EU are numbered?
Elizabeth Jones: Almost all supranational bodies, from the United Nations downwards, are spectacularly corrupt, bloated bodies of undeserved privilege which achieve very little. UKIP values NATO without any further expansion of its membership, a reformed Commonwealth, and many bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements and specific Treaties and international agreements.
But the international scene, especially overseas aid, is full of obscene financial waste, theft and corruption and is almost entirely anti-democratic. These challenges need to be addressed. The EU is the very worst example of these failures and abuses and as such, given it is essentially bankrupt without the German and British financial support, it is indeed inherently flawed like the old League of Nations and doomed to fail.
3. Manish Uprety: In 2010, Mr. Nigel Farage’s speech in Brussels relating to Mr Herman van Rompuy and Belgium generated much heat, surprise, and popularity not only in the EU but also across the world. Mr. Farage’s contention -“free speech is an expensive business in the European Parliament”- is most certainly noteworthy.

What about this perpetual British obsession with Belgium right from the times of Monty Python, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, and now Mr. Farage who calls it pretty much a non-country? Once Mr. Farage had to ask the former Belgian Prime Minister to shut up while he was responding to a question and called the former Belgian Prime Minister the rudest man in the European parliament. It cannot be that bad, isn’t it? I have been to Brussels once. The city has pubs that serve cold beer-quite handy to deal with its colder, calculating and unfriendly ambience- and a tiny statue of a little boy relieving himself in the fountain as a landmark which is nothing comparable to the towering and majestic Big Ben in London.

I’m sure one can find more interesting ways to avoid disappointment and waste one’s money than to visit Brussels as a tourist. Better known as the European hub of the Indian airline Jet Airways or for its famous sprouts, Brussels can pass off as an avoidable city for any traveler which is not as vibrant and alive like London, Paris, New York, Santiago, Mexico City or Madrid, cities that have a palpable soul, but even someone like me would possibly observe that the country is okay save its dreary weather. Why make poor Belgium the whipping boy of the EU? Though Tintin comics are not as popular with kids these days as they were earlier; the railway train from St. Pancras does terminate in Brussels after all.
Elizabeth Jones: No. The UK went to war in 1914 due to the German invasion of Belgium, an infringement of Belgium’s neutrality, something we had guaranteed. The UK lost a million lives in the Great War of 1914-1918, as a result.
The British like Belgium- they love Tintin, Hercule Poirot, mussels and chips with mayonnaise sauce, their many lovely beers, and the extraordinary artistic output of many Belgian painters, and cultural icons.
The UK finds Brussels as the seat of the EU, a phoney capital- all our taxpayers’ money going to keep an unelected bureaucracy of powerbrokers in the EU fat and rich, stuffed with the finest Belgium food and beer, in order to achieve nothing. The ancient British parliamentary democratic principle of ‘No Taxation without Representation’ is firmly fixed in British thinking- that is the bedrock of the British Parliament. Brussels does not have that essential quality of democracy. Daylight robbery- that is the basis of the EU.
4. Manish Uprety: Thank you. I must say how beautiful and interesting a description-your keen elaboration on Belgium is the most elegant and enlightening one. What is UKIP’s impression of the foreign policy pursued by Britain at a global level in terms of its advantages and disadvantages? How shall Britain adapt and adjust its foreign policy when UKIP has a say in it?
Elizabeth Jones: UKIP would strengthen the UK militarily and be much more resistant to both Spanish deceptions and Argentine aggressions towards Gibraltar and Falklands, respectively.
UKIP would reinstate the UK into the World Trade Organisation to negotiate her own trade agreements. UKIP would press NATO to stop its dangerous attempts to expand eastwards to the very borders of Russia.
UKIP would want to re-examine the UK’s relationship to the Arab world in light of the spread of the virulent Wahabi doctrine by Saudi Arabia, and the occurrence and spread of an Islamofascist extremism throughout the world.

This even threatens internal stability in the UK today, so has become a factor in what should be the UK’s foreign policy which is far too tolerant of this form of Islamist doctrine coming into the UK and infecting UK citizens.
UKIP does not believe there are any benefits in being forced to share foreign policy with other countries whose interests are against the UK. We would therefore want to leave the EU and the UK’s relationship with the EU would then automatically become part of our foreign policy, not the surrender of our national interests.

We would need, for example, to address the return of our sovereign British waters for our own fishing fleets, and the immediate erection of the strongest possible border controls over immigration.
5. Manish Uprety: The US and India have a similar heritage. Both were British colonies once, and now strategic partners. The US is the world’s oldest democracy and India, the largest. The national anthem of the US ‘Star Spangled Banner’ was written by Francis Scott Key on HMS Minden, a ship built by the Wadia ship makers of India. Another one made by the family named HMS Trincomalee is the oldest British warship afloat, berthed at Jackson Dock, in Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience in North East England.

I remember I had a yellow coloured business card of Riyad, the younger brother of my friend Roy Wadia which had a ship printed on it in black. I let the card go in the Arabian Sea when I was in Mumbai a few years back. One cannot but let go things free sometimes- such is life.
Coming back, would it be correct to say that the so-called and much hyped ‘special relationship’ shared between the US and the UK is perhaps as potent, effective and real as James Bond or Valda- the Iron Maiden of DC comics? It was reported recently that Cadbury- the British chocolate- is to be banned from America after trademark dispute between Hershey and Cadbury.
Elizabeth Jones: Was Augusto Pinochet’s special relationship with the USA fictitious when he overthrew Salvador Allende? Was Winston Churchill’s? Was Ronald Regan’s with Margret Thatcher? We could go on. In reality the USA and the UK went through such historic formative links the like of which no other country in the world can lay claim to, and probably never will, not whilst English is the principal language of both countries, which is certainly not a guaranteed matter in the future.
Meanwhile, we share an unparalleled amount of trade and industrial ties, as well as an unparalleled two-way channel of hard, secret intelligence; we even trade in and share the ultimate military hardware like nuclear weaponry as equals, and we share fundamental values so embedded in our constitutional make-ups as to make us natural allies.
But there is always rivalry and dispute popping up, and self-interest. UKIP is very grateful that by and large the UK and the USA try not to let such influences spoil what is very productive relationship indeed. One half of all UK trade is with the USA. Without Britain, the USA would not exist in its present form, and vice versa.
6. Manish Uprety: I must make it clear that I am not an expert on relationship matters but merely a keen learner who would perhaps be all ears to what others have to say on the subject. I had read that Napoleon had once called Britain a nation of shopkeepers. What role do you think the UK would play in a globalised world which is increasingly becoming multiplex?
Elizabeth Jones: Well, it was intended as an insult by a seriously egotistical Frenchman, whom the British had to defeat militarily and imprison twice, who was a citizen of a country which we have twice had to go to war to liberate within the last 100 years, at enormous sacrifice to British lives.
If there is anyone in the world who thinks the British are mere shopkeepers, let them continue to hold their thoughts to themselves, for they must be the biggest fools in this world.
Britain’s role in our world is quite considerable- we seem to get an enormous amount of visitors, both short-term tourists and those who want to come and live here permanently. Why do they all want to come to Britain, if we are so awful? London is one of the Big Three financial centers of the world along with New York and Tokyo.
As for British art and culture, for a century relatively small both in size and number, and apparently only interested in running shops, it is little short of a miracle how much genius and perfection this country has produced- artistically, musically, and culturally. The British are not the people who like to boast about this however, so we are happy with the balance of things by and large, and Napoleon can think what he likes in his grave on St. Helena.
We might ask- can you name us any French musical group or singer with worldwide international success in the last 70 years? And what about British versions? Game, set and match to the English shopkeepers, we think.
7. Manish Uprety: Yes, you do have a valid point there. I unwillingly agree with people who say that the French do not sing but speak when they try their hand at singing like Dalida and Alain Delon in Parole Parole. Lil’ Nunu liked the song a lot. The sad part is that a parting always starts with a note about meeting. It breaks one’s heart but that is how it is.

I would have conveyed it myself to the French across the English Channel but Napoleon is dead, and I do not know the French language, and I am too old to learn it. You must have read Jay Shah’s letter to the CEO of Air France in November, 2013 that details the insensitive, appalling, obnoxious, and racist behaviour meted out to Indian passengers by Air France staff and Charles De Gaulle airport officials. Jay was one of the passengers flying on the Air France carrier from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Mumbai via Paris. And it seems the galling practice has become chronic and institutionalized in the land.

I recommend everyone including you should read ‘Cold Steel’ by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey about Lakshmi Mittal, a Calcutta-born industrialist who had raised himself up from humble beginnings, and his proposal of a friendly merger with rival Arcelor-a pan-European company. After I read about the Francois Mitterrand episodes in the book, I was very much saddened, disappointed and disillusioned. Such behavior is highly improper and unacceptable in any civilized society. I must say that the world would have been a much better place if instead of ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ the notion of “Dependence, Diversity, and Responsibility’ had gained currency.
You talked about the British role in rescuing the French twice in the world wars. I hope you also realize that it would not have happened without the help and sacrifice of the Indian troops in both the wars. Even the 15th century masterpiece by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli ‘The Birth of Venus,’ would have been lost permanently in July 1944, if not rescued by the Maratha Light Infantry of India. It is an army that fights on the battlefield to secure peoples freedom. It is very unfortunate that the present Europeans have forgotten India’s contribution which was among the major instruments that secured freedom for the European continent, the other one being the US participation in the war.

I very much remember Gordon Brown’s obstinate refusal to allow Gurkha veterans to live in Britain. Unlike India, Nepal was never a British colony but a friend of Britian as a free country. I remember an old saying about the famed British justice when they were in India- “Show me the man and I will show you the rule.” Winston Churchill was particularly known for his hatred towards India and its peoples, and solely responsible for the Bengal Famines- the worst genocide in human history for profit. When the then Delhi Government sent a telegram painting to Churchill a picture of the horrible devastation and the number of people who had died. His only response was, “Then why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?”
Perhaps Gordon Brown firmly believed that it is okay for a friend to sacrifice his life and die for him, but would not let him in his house for a cuppa tea. Et Tu Gordon- calling someone a friend when in need and stabbing him in the back at the very first chance- is like queering the pitch in international relations. I am glad that the common British people like Joanna Lumely still have a conscience and sense of justice unlike Gordon Brown, and fought for the rights of the Gurkhas- a trait that possibly helps Britain going in the rough waters. For a nation is but its peoples. No wonder Mahatma Gandhi used to stay with the common people of Britain whenever he used to go to the country. Well, the fact is that unlike Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi never won a Nobel Prize for his literary skills. His autobiography is titled- The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
Pardon my digression, coming back to our conversation, a century ago when India was a British colony, Sir Frederick Upcott, the then chief commissioner of Great Indian Peninsular Railway, vowed to “eat every pound of steel rail” if TATAs succeeded in making the alloy. Tata Steel not only acquired Britain’s largest steel maker Corus Group Plc in 2007 for $12-billion but the TATA Group is the biggest employer of people in the UK. The flow of Trade and Investments and Migration are key characteristics of globalization. However, UKIP is perceived as a party which is against migration in the UK. What is your take on it?
Elizabeth Jones: You mention the growth and success of  TATA steel in the UK. UKIP is proud of our Commonwealth of which India is a great part, and commends TATA for its commercial success as a top player in the global steel market.
UKIP has nothing against TATA, India or global steel markets- as long as they are not rigged. UKIP appreciates the skills and work of countless Indian immigrants into the UK across all sorts of fields- medicine, technology, finance and of course, steel making.
What we object to is a permanent right for 450 million people in the EU to come to the UK whenever they want, and by and large not make any contribution into the UK net. Our prisons are full of EU citizens who should by law go back but won’t. Our hospitals, schools and social houses are equally full of these non-contributory people. Many of them have no skills, no English, and no interest in Britain other than to use us. No one in India would accept such a standing ‘Right’ – of everyone in Bangladesh, say, to come and settle in India whenever they felt like it.
Even more relevant, would anyone in Chile accept the ‘Right’ of every single person in South America to come and stay in Chile whenever they wanted, free of charge for as long as they like and claim all Children welfare benefits- schools, health, housing, food?
The UK has accepted into its borders in the past 30 years, something approaching 10 million people. We cannot continue to be so generous.
9. Manish Uprety: Indeed, markets should not be rigged by the corporations as it breaches the trust and confidence of ordinary people. It came as a great shock when HSBC’s name comes out in the “Swiss Leaks” recently. It hits one like a beamer on the head as I had a student’s account with the Russell Square branch of the bank in London at the start of the last decade of the century.
What do you think about the recent terrorist attacks in France? Many in the British politics and media seem to have been ‘dismayed’ by the comments of Mr. Nigel Farage.
A Reuters report in February 2015 noted that a tiny country like Belgium is outstripping its European neighbours in providing foreign fighters for the likes of Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The European Police Agency says that there are up to 5,000 EU nationals in jihadist ranks. Do you think that the terrorist events in Europe reflect what many perceive as the miserable failure of the ‘welfare states’ of Europe in the assimilation process of the migrants or in the rights based Hausermannisms which are institutionalized by their respective national structures? What do you think are the challenges in the process? How do you achieve the fine balance between rights and responsibilities in the context of contemporary citizenship?
Elizabeth Jones: The recent wave of Islamist terrorist murders across Europe has been yet another example of the failure of multiculturalism across the European continent, as UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, has quite rightly and bravely said.
The anti-Western, Islamofascist propaganda agenda which lurks behind much of modern Islamic theory and practice has found ready recruits amongst the ranks of both the educated middle-class and unemployed and ignored of African and Asian extraction in a multiculturalist experiment which was doomed for failure in the 21st century Europe. Stoking the flames is an EU “Human Rights” policy of almost unlimited immigration.
You ask is it the failure of Europe to assimilate these millions of Muslims.

How could that be done? Multiculturalism is not going to satisfy the needs and deeply-held beliefs of anyone whose cultural, political, social and philosophical values are so inherently contradictory to the basic values of Judaeo-Christian European civilization, such as this protean version of Islam called Wahabism.
Saying this does not mean that these different values are necessarily wrong in their rightful place- it means they cannot be expected to mix happily with a system of values in Europe which loudly proclaims equality and secular Human Rights as the most important values for all.
It is therefore wrong for our political elites in the EU’s powerbases in Brussels and the European capitals, including London, to spread what is inherently a lie about our society and blame one group of citizens for failing to assimilate into another group of citizens. What if neither group of citizens particularly wants to assimilate but rather wants to promote and protect their own distinctive and different identities and values?
10. Manish Uprety: To spill the blood of an innocent is criminal and cannot be justified. War is monstrous. Violence’s very nature is one of tragedy and suffering. I would say that the qualities of compassion, empathy and kindness are vital for the mankind as they make us more human, not to mention respect for women which should never be compromised.

On the other hand, to argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
UK has sent warships including HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, to Falklands which Argentina calls as the Malvinas, to speed up the “operational drumbeat” at a time when Argentina plans to lease 12 long-range SU-24 supersonic, all-weather attack bombers from Russia and procure Malvinas class P-18 corvette offshore patrol vessels from China. I remember the noted British pacifist Bertrand Russell who was convicted, fined and also dismissed from his post at Trinity College, Cambridge in connection with anti-war protests during World War I. Russell had said “patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.” Do you not think that non-violent peaceful ways including negotiations and dialogue are a better substitute to deal with any contentious issue in a globalised world?
Elizabeth Jones: The UK has not escalated any tension in the Falklands. Argentina has done that repeatedly and provocatively. The Royal Navy has only sent HMS Dragon to the South Atlantic sector to protect Britain’s sovereign interests in the area under global international law, in response to the marked increase in military threat from Argentina, including the SU-24s.
We have always got a door open for negotiation with Argentina. The previous Argentine response to our global invitation to negotiate at the United Nations was General Galtieri’s barbaric military invasion. President De Kirchner’s warplanes lease deal with the Russians amounts to the same sabre-rattling military threat- not a symbol of diplomatic negotiation, global or otherwise.
11. Manish Uprety: Why does the UKIP think that the established British media has a deep rooted bias towards the party? Are its grievances genuine?
Elizabeth Jones: Basically, self interest. TV and Radio in the UK is massively dominated by the BBC- a liberal elite which funds itself through a compulsory levy on every single household in Britain without having to account for itself, demonstrate a profit, or popular acceptance.
Naturally the BBC knows how to preserve itself so provides what most people want very well- good quality entertainment programmes, documentaries and sport. However when it comes to politics, it is like a government office without a parliament to report to and no elections.
It has a large elite of extremely highly-paid directors but no shareholders, and they all see that if  UKIP continues to grow in popularity and succeed politically, we will force changes at the BBC which will mean the end of a rich and comfortable lifestyle for many people who would be unable to find work anywhere else.
The printed press in Britain is mainly owned by around 5 immensely wealthy businesses, some of which were on the side of Hitler in the 1930s (The Daily Mail for instance). Their influence lies inside the old ‘yesterday’ political parties, like the Conservatives (Times, Telegraph, Mail) and Labour (Mirror, Guardian, Independent), so they also see UKIP as a threat to their established profit bases.
UKIP does get very hard treatment in the British media but we would not censor our democratic Freedom of Speech or Expression one little bit, so we must persuade them of our message, just as we must do so with the British people at large. That is the challenge of democracy- the ballot not the bullet.
12. Manish Uprety: “The ballot not the bullet” is a very profound notion for the success of any democracy and the betterment of its peoples. It is something which the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi highlighted when he addressed the Nepalese parliament last year.

Nepal, as you know, is a country that had been afflicted by violence and strife for many years, and now as a democracy is in the process of developing its constitution.
Well, media has its biases everywhere. I could never fathom well enough why they don’t privatise the BBC. Should people pay money for better schools and healthcare or for running a media corporation in a functional democracy can be a big debate. But that is for the British people and government to decide. Anyway, what shall you say to the argument made by some that the Britain’s Parliament is no longer representative of its population?
Elizabeth Jones: The British Parliament was once the nation’s sovereign body in which all power was vested — the power of the Monarchy, the power to tax, the power to wage war, and the power to make law. It has ceded much of this sovereignty to the EU in Brussels.
Its geographically-based elected constituency MP system remains as representative as any other system if not more so, and much copied around the world. For example it may be mathematically the case that in the UK, which has a huge population, many people vote for a small political party across all the constituencies, but they will not be represented in the House of Commons by an MP of their own choice unless a sufficient number of them all live in and vote in a specific constituency.}

MPs represent all the people in their constituencies, not just the people who voted for them.
However governments have to be made up of MPs somehow and the tried and tested British solution to this is to give the largest single ‘group’ of MPs in a political party the right to make a government if they so wish. UKIP believes that it is the old political parties which have become stale and corrupt — people can buy influence and Honours like Lordships, and yesterday’s parties offer virtually the same thing time and again, always ending in failure.
The underlying parliamentary system is still the best and we are blessed with it. It has certainly been representative for many, many centuries and that is why the UK has not had a Civil War, or violent governmental overthrow for around 450 years, a record of internal peace which not one single other country anywhere in the world can claim. It is the old failed ‘yesterday’ parties which threaten this equilibrium through their failure and corruption.
The word ‘representative’ can also mean other things like whether there are similar numbers of types of MPs as there are certain types of people — old, young, male, female, etc. British democracy does not work on tokenistic gestures like this, and UKIP does not believe that such numerical arrangements would lead to improved democracy.
13. Manish Uprety: How to you think the ties between the UK and South America in general and Chile in particular can be strengthened? What is your message to the peoples of Chile?
Elizabeth Jones: We firmly extend the hand of friendship to all Chileans and would seek to support Chile’s sovereign independence and integrity at all levels, both bi-laterally and in the world’s supranational forums.
We welcome the established trade and cultural links between our two countries and would seek to further these whilst promoting British companies to seek opportunities to invest into Chile especially in infrastructure projects, technology, telecoms, and the health and education sector.
We would like to forge even stronger links between our two countries based on equitable partnership activities in the South Atlantic such as fishing, aviation, and resource exploration, and seek mutually beneficial security guarantees to assist and strengthen this development.
14. Manish Uprety: Thank you Elizabeth, I must confess that as always it is indeed a pleasure to speak with you. I like your straightforwardness. Who else can empathise more with the notion of freedom but a citizen of the Republic of India as the country made tremendous sacrifices to gain independence on 15th August 1947. Though I would have loved if my friend from Mexico, Rolando Veraza who also is a renowned sculptor would have made the statue of Mahatma Gandhi that the British government plans to install at Parliament Square in London.
Elizabeth Jones: My pleasure, Manish, India and UK have been in love for centuries even after our “conscious uncoupling” in the last century, and it saddens me greatly to see Germany sidling up to India, however, if our fad following EUphiliac MPs have not kept that relationship alive what can one do save for weep? We have let the love wither on the vine and failed both nations accordingly. Sometimes one never knows the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
It shall be wonderful to encourage scientific exchange of people and ideas for both our nations have an egregious tradition of intellectual innovation, promote free trade zones, and relaxation of visa restriction for our go- getters, and betroth George -son of Kate and William -in marriage to his Indian female equivalent in the due course of time.
15. Manish Uprety: Egregious tradition of intellectual innovation…yes, Mark Twain did refer to India as the cradle of the human race…like Yoga and Ayurveda, India did in fact contribute Zero , the notion of infinity and the Decimal system to the world, not to mention what is called in the west as Algebra… perhaps… I agree with what you say….. …and after all, I like to have my tea with milk, read Wodehouse in school, met John Major once while gallivanting in the streets of Edinburgh, grew up on the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd among others- well, Champagne Supernova of Oasis even inspires Metallica’s Lars Ulrich ……on the other hand, you admire Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi who died fighting valiantly for India’s independence in 1857.

I also remember that being a keen horse lover, you had mentioned your fascination with the glorious Marwari horse-a dazzlingly glamorous, super intelligent being with the genetic pointy ears-a breed marker- under used in the international horse scene…it is a small world indeed…interconnected yet apart.
Elizabeth Jones: Indeed very True…Thank you…I fully agree with you and I must say that it is a very profound thought for an ever globalizing world getting interconnected further with every passing moment. I am for stronger India-UK relationship and strategic partnership. I am also of the opinion that the Indo-British partnership will be a crucial one in the twenty first century that shall pave way for peace and prosperity across the globe and towards a better world for the future.
16. Manish Uprety: Mr. Farage quoted Mahatma Gandhi who had said “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” when he referred to the UKIP. Do you think that the time of UKIP has come in the UK?
Elizabeth Jones: The UK is not a place where revolutions take much root or hold. The British people are open to reason and calm debate, measured and gradual change, if supported, and cautious decision making.
At the same time, the British hate unfairness and bullying and if the scales of something are weighted against our interests, as they are in the EU, and undemocratic bullies try to push us around, as Brussels does, then sooner or later, the British will decide “Enough is Enough.”
By signalling their growing support for UKIP at the Ballot Box, the British people are doing just that, and UKIP’s time will have come when Britain finally decides to leave the EU. Then we start a new chapter in our national history, and that will have been brought about mainly thanks to UKIP.
17. Manish Uprety: Thanks Elizabeth for speaking to Nueva Diplomacia. I wish you well and give you a mantra which is from the Mundaka Upanishad- Satyamev Jayate (Truth Alone Triumphs). I should also tell you that Mick Jagger sang the Samskrit verse a few years back.
Elizabeth Jones: Thank you Manish. My best wishes to the readers of Nueva Diplomacia.

*DISCLAIMER* Nueva Diplomacia does not take any responsibility for the views and opinions expressed in the interview which belong solely to the interviewee.