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Godfrey William Bloom TD (born 22 November 1949) is an English author, economist and former politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2004 to 2014. He was elected for the UK Independence Party in the European elections of 2004 and 2009, representing UKIP until September 2013, when UKIP withdrew the party whip from him. He then 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.[4]

Key Information

During his tenure, he received attention for making remarks considered objectionable by his party leader, for his opinions concerning climate change and for making other controversial comments. On 20 September 2013, UKIP withdrew the party whip from Bloom after he hit journalist Michael Crick in the street with a conference brochure,[5] threatened a second reporter, and at the party's conference jokingly referred to his female audience as sluts.[6] Bloom resigned his party whip from UKIP on 24 September 2013 and thereafter sat as an Independent MEP until the end of his term in office on 2 July 2014.[1] Nigel Farage, the UKIP party leader, said "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".[7]

Bloom was removed as Honorary President of the Ludwig von Mises Centre in December 2017, the organisation citing his comments on Twitter.[8]

Early life

[edit]

Bloom was born on 22 November 1949, the son of Alan Bloom and his wife, Phyllis.[9][10] His father served as a fighter pilot during the Second World War.[11] Bloom was educated at St. Olave's Grammar School.[10]

Military

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Bloom was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport (Territorial Army) in 1977.[12] attending the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst for the two week course for territorials. In 1992 he was promoted to the rank of major.[13] He left the TA in 1996.

Professional career

[edit]

Bloom worked as a financial economist.[9][14] In 1996 he was part of Francis Maude's regulatory consultancy panel from which he later resigned. In his last position, he worked as the director of the investment company TBO in which he is a major shareholder.[15]

Political career

[edit]

Bloom contested the Conservative-held seat of Haltemprice and Howden at the 1997 general election, coming fifth.

In 2004, Bloom's election to the Yorkshire and the Humber seat was UKIP's first seat in the region in the European elections.[14] In 2009, he was re-elected. In the parliament Bloom was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.[9]

On 20 September 2013, during its party conference, UKIP withdrew the whip from Bloom. At a party conference meeting he had jokingly referred to his female audience as sluts.[16] Subsequently,[17][18] he got into a confrontation with journalist Michael Crick in the streets, hitting him over the head with the conference brochure,[19][20] and allegedly threatened ITV reporter Paul Brand, by saying, "You treat me badly, you'll get a lot worse than that (Crick's slap) ... that is a threat to any journalist."[16]

On 24 September 2013, he resigned his UKIP party whip, while retaining his party membership. His statement said: "I have felt for some time now that the 'New UKIP' is not really right for me any more".[1]

Bloom and Crick met again in May 2014. The two shook hands and had lunch together and Bloom thanked Crick, describing the incident as a "defining moment" that made him realise that he "wasn't really suited to party politics".[21]

In December 2013, as a result of his various controversies, Bloom was awarded the Plain English Campaign's Foot in Mouth Award.[22] A spokesman said that Bloom was "an overwhelming choice" who "could easily have won this award on at least two other occasions... [he's] a wince-inducing gaffe machine and we could fill a page or two with his ill-advised quotes from 2013 alone".[23]

Views and incidents

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Banking and financial crisis

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Bloom was ejected from the Mansion House in 2009 for heckling Lord Turner for giving staff bonuses after the massive regulatory failure of 2008/09. According to The Daily Telegraph he was the first man to be ejected since John Wilkes in the late-18th century. In a letter to UKIP, Turner wrote that "Mr Bloom will not be receiving any further invitations to Mansion House events nor will be welcome at the Brussels Annual reception [...] As to future Mansion House events we will be seeking a different MEP from UKIP as a potential guest."[24] Bloom signed the petition in disgust at the knighthood for the failures of Hector Sants.[24]

He is a member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.[25]

Bloom was a co-author of Wolfson Prize Economics Submission with Pat Barron and Philipp Bagus.[26] He warned that credit agencies would be "castrated" by too much regulation of the EU.[27] Bloom claims that most MEPs have "little or no business experience" and do not understand the consequences of their actions.[28]

Women's rights

[edit]

A few weeks after being appointed to the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on 20 July 2004, Bloom told an interviewer that, "no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."[29] Around the same time, he said that "I just don't think [women] clean behind the fridge enough" and that "I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home."[28][30] Bloom told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point, that equal-rights legislation was, he claimed, putting women out of work.[28]

Bloom stated that he had visited brothels in Hong Kong. He said he never consummated the visits, and also claimed "terrified young women beaten into prostitution often from Eastern Europe [...] is only a very small aspect of the flesh trade", and concluded that "in short, most girls do it because they want to."[31]

After inviting students from the University of Cambridge Women's Rugby Club to Brussels in 2004, he was accused of sexual assault, making "sexist and misogynistic remarks" and using offensive language during a dinner party. One student handed a formal letter of protest to the President of the European Parliament, heavily criticising Bloom's behaviour. Bloom, who sponsored the club with £3,000 a year, denied sexual harassment.[32][33]

In a piece for politics.co.uk in August 2013, Bloom attempted to set the record straight about his earlier comments on gender equality.[11] He argued against quotas for women in boardrooms, claimed that feminism was a "passing fashion" created by "shrill, bored, middle-class women of a certain physical genre" and that any men who supported feminism were "the slightly effete politically correct chaps who get sand kicked in their face on the beach." He said that women were better at "[finding] the mustard in the pantry" than driving a car.[34][35]

Climate change

[edit]

Bloom rejects anthropogenic global warming. He said in 2009: "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".[36]

Rainbow Warrior bombing

[edit]

At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Bloom was filmed in front of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, saying, "Here we have one of the most truly fascist boats since 1945, well done the French for sinking one of these things."[37][38] He was referring to the 1985 bombing of the ship's predecessor by French government agents in which Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira was killed. After criticism, the video was removed from Bloom's YouTube channel and he said he had forgotten about the death.[39]

Other incidents

[edit]

In December 2008, Bloom was carried out by an intern after making a speech in the European Parliament while drunk,[40] the second occasion on which he was accused of being drunk in the chamber.[11] During the speech, Bloom said that the MEPs from Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia did not understand economic relations. In February 2012, Bloom interrupted a debate with the question whether the Cambridge University Women's Rugby team should wear their logo on the front or back of their shirts. Later he admitted consuming alcohol and "very heavy" prescription painkillers after breaking his collarbone in a riding accident.[41]

On 24 November 2010, Bloom was ejected from the European Parliament after directing a Nazi slogan at German MEP Martin Schulz who was speaking in a debate on the economic crisis in Ireland. Bloom interrupted Schulz and shouted "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" at him.[11][42] He then proceeded to call the latter "an undemocratic fascist", a remark for which he was removed from the chamber. Labour MEP group leader Glenis Willmott described his behavior as "an insult to all those who have fought against fascism" whilst Liberal Democrat group leader Fiona Hall described him as a "national embarrassment".[42]

At the height of the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Bloom complained about the lack of manners of the political class.[citation needed] On his website, he pointed out that, unlike many others, he would not employ family members in his parliamentary staff.[citation needed] Bloom later conceded that three members of his staff were also employed part-time at TBO, the company in which he is a major shareholder, and one of these is his wife's niece.[15] Bloom failed to declare his interest in TBO to European Parliament officials and in 2008 Bloom's company TBO was fined £28,000 by the Financial Services Authority for 'posing an "unacceptable risk" to customers'.[43] In August 2014, TBO was fined and ordered to pay more than £2 million in damages to a retired couple, having ignored their request for cautious financial planning and "gambled" almost all their clients' money on high risk investments with an almost complete loss.[44]

In July 2013, Bloom made a speech about Britain's foreign aid in which he referred to countries as "Bongo Bongo Land".[45] A video was passed to The Guardian newspaper.[46] A spokesman for UKIP was reported as saying that Bloom's remarks were being "discussed right at the very highest level of the party".[46] After refusing to apologise,[11] he later said he regretted the comments[47] but clarified it by saying that whilst he intended it to be derogatory, he regretted that it had caused offence and he didn't mean it to be racist.[11] Party leader Nigel Farage later asked him not to use the phrase again.[48]

In an interview in August 2013, Bloom described Prime Minister David Cameron as "pigeon-chested; the sort of chap I used to beat up."[11]

During a LBC Radio interview in November 2013, he called for the unemployed and public sector workers to lose the right to vote.[49]

In January 2014, broadcaster Michael Crick stated that Bloom, supporting the motion "Post-war Britain has seen too much immigration" in a debate at the Oxford Union, asked a disabled student who was speaking against the motion if he was Richard III.[50] According to Crick, Bloom told him that the student had taken his remark "in good spirit" with both sharing drinks during an after-debate reception, suggesting Crick confirm this with the student. Crick followed up the suggestion whereby the student accepted Bloom's version of events, stating that, although the comment was not "very nice," he and Bloom got on well, and that Bloom was "a very interesting man to talk to."[50] Fellow supporter of the motion, journalist and author Douglas Murray, described Bloom's comment as "gruesome"[51] and "the cruellest thing."[50]

In December 2017, Bloom wrote a tweet identifying Goldman Sachs as an "international Jewish bank" (in response to a tweet about Brexit by the bank's CEO Lloyd Blankfein).[52] The tweet was alleged to be anti-Semitic by two other tweeters.[53]

On 2 December 2019, days after the 2019 London Bridge stabbing, Bloom tweeted in response to pleas from the father of one victim, Jack Merritt, that politicians not use his son's death for political gains:[54]

"As I understand it your son died because he believed early release for jihadists was justified because they could be rehabilitated

Society is demanding these releases stop immediately
A very pragmatic view, nothing vile about it.

Grieve silently is my advice" [55]

References

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Godfrey Bloom

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Godfrey William Bloom TD (born 22 November 1949) is a British libertarian economist, author, and former who served as a (MEP) for representing the Independence Party from 2004 to 2014.
Educated at , Bloom underwent military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served in the Territorial Army, attaining the rank of Major in the Royal Corps of Transport while acting as logistics liaison to the 4th Armoured Division in ; he holds the and Bar for his service.
He pursued a 35-year career in London's financial sector, beginning in 1967 with , later managing fixed-interest funds, life assurance companies, and winning international recognition for fund performance at Mercury Asset Management.
Bloom advocates Austrian School economics, emphasizing free markets, sound money, and opposition to central banking and fiat currency expansion, as detailed in his publications including The Magic of Banking: The Coming Collapse.
In the , he contributed to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on and , delivering speeches that critiqued state fiscal policies and attracted over 60 million online views.
A vocal Eurosceptic, Bloom campaigned for British for 25 years, aligning with UKIP's platform on national and .

Early life and education

Childhood and family

Godfrey Bloom was born on 22 November 1949 in , . He was the son of Alan Bloom, a who served during the Second , and his wife Phyllis. Bloom grew up in amid a family environment shaped by his father's military background, which emphasized discipline and resilience in the post-war era. No public records detail siblings or additional extended family influences from this period.

Schooling and early influences

Bloom attended in , a selective state established in 1571 and known for its rigorous academic standards, including a traditional emphasis on , , and sciences that cultivated disciplined among pupils. This environment, characterized by high entrance standards and a focus on intellectual merit over social considerations, provided a foundation in empirical reasoning that aligned with Bloom's subsequent advocacy for evidence-based analysis in economics and . During his early adulthood, Bloom pursued military-related education through a two-week commissioning course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1976, tailored for Territorial Army officers, which introduced him to leadership principles, , and strategic under pressure. This brief but intensive training marked an initial engagement with defense studies, emphasizing practical causality and —concepts that echoed in his later critiques of state interventionism. Bloom later became an associate member of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS), an advanced institution for strategic studies affiliated with the UK's , where he presented papers and lectures on and policy. His involvement with the RCDS, including contributions to services and national defense forums, reflected an ongoing intellectual interest in historical precedents and geopolitical realism, predating his formal political career and informing his empirical approach to libertarian principles such as skepticism toward centralized power.

Military service

Training and commissioning

Bloom underwent officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, completing a specialized two-week commissioning course designed for Territorial Army candidates. This abbreviated program, tailored for reserve officers, emphasized essential leadership, tactical, and logistical skills while adapting regular army standards to part-time service requirements. He passed out of Sandhurst in 1976 and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Corps of Transport (Territorial Army), focusing initially on logistics coordination. His early role involved serving as a logistics liaison officer attached to the 4th Armoured Division in Germany, where responsibilities centered on supply chain readiness and operational support in a Cold War NATO context. This posting highlighted practical emphases on efficient resource allocation and rapid deployment, underscoring the TA's role in augmenting regular forces without the full immersion of standard 44-week Sandhurst training.

Territorial Army roles and experiences

Bloom served for 30 years in the Territorial Army, initially with the and later in the , attaining the rank of major and earning the with bar. Following his commissioning in 1977, he acted as logistics liaison officer to the 4th Armoured Division in Germany as part of the during the , contributing to sustainment operations in a forward-deployed environment. In the early , Bloom participated in major divisional exercises such as Crusader and Lionheart, which tested Territorial Army integration with regular forces in simulated large-scale maneuvers against potential threats, demonstrating the reserves' operational readiness and logistical support capabilities. These experiences highlighted the effectiveness of well-funded and trained reservists, with Bloom observing that high-level exercises validated the TA's role in national defense preparedness, though he noted subsequent inefficiencies arising from reduced funding and training post-Cold War, based on direct involvement in Rhine Army logistics.

Professional career

Financial services in the City

Bloom commenced his professional career in the in 1967, entering the investment department of Matthews Wrightson as one of the first city management trainees. He accumulated over 35 years of experience in , encompassing diverse responsibilities such as pension fund trustee advising until 1986 and general management of a unit trust company. From 1986 to 1992, Bloom served as a fund manager at Mercury Asset Management, where he specialized in fixed-interest investments and secured an international prize for his performance in that category. His funds achieved top-decile rankings for a record 14 consecutive quarters, demonstrating proficiency in and amid fluctuating interest rates and credit conditions. Fixed-interest management required rigorous evaluation of sovereign and corporate debt sustainability, exposing practitioners to empirical patterns of distortions and default risks during inflationary and deflationary cycles. Bloom concluded his City tenure as a financial research economist from 1992 to 2004, focusing on and impacts on investment portfolios. In this capacity, he analyzed currency dynamics, including volatility and interventions, which informed strategies for hedging against in global markets. His professional track record emphasized quantitative modeling of economic cycles, prioritizing undervalued assets over speculative bubbles driven by loose credit.

Authorship and libertarian advocacy

Godfrey Bloom has authored several books critiquing central banking and promoting principles of the , including The Magic of Banking: The Coming Collapse (2013), which argues that fiat currency systems and inevitably lead to economic instability through and malinvestment, drawing on historical precedents like the collapse of the . In this work, Bloom employs causal analysis to demonstrate how government interventions distort market signals, leading to boom-bust cycles, as evidenced by empirical cases such as the 1920s credit expansion preceding the . His writings emphasize of financial markets and a return to commodity-backed money to prevent such failures, positioning central banks as institutions that prioritize political ends over sound . Bloom's libertarian advocacy extends to public endorsements of the gold standard as a mechanism for limiting monetary expansion and preserving , arguing that historical adherence to gold constrained fiscal irresponsibility in pre-1914 Britain, where real wages rose steadily without the inflationary distortions seen post-World War I. Through associations with organizations like the , where he has contributed discussions on Austrian economics and critiqued interventionist policies, Bloom has highlighted empirical failures of Keynesian demand management, such as persistent in the , as vindication of praxeological critiques over mainstream econometric models. These efforts underscore his role in disseminating first-principles economic reasoning against prevailing narratives that attribute crises to market deficiencies rather than state-induced distortions. In A Dinosaur's Guide to Libertarianism, Bloom critiques regulatory overreach and the erosion of individual sovereignty, using historical analogies like the British Empire's pre-interventionist prosperity to advocate for minimal government interference in voluntary exchange. His analyses consistently prioritize verifiable historical data over theoretical abstractions, challenging the credibility of academic and media sources that downplay the causal links between monetary expansion and asset bubbles, as seen in the dot-com and crises.

Political career

Entry into UKIP and electoral success

Bloom joined the Independence Party (UKIP) in the late , motivated by his opposition to British adoption of the currency and concerns over the European Union's trajectory toward and administrative overreach. His libertarian economic perspective aligned with UKIP's advocacy for monetary sovereignty and resistance to supranational integration, which he viewed as empirically detrimental to UK fiscal autonomy given the projected costs of entry estimated at billions in lost competitiveness and benefits. Before achieving European electoral success, Bloom stood as UKIP's candidate in two general elections for the East Yorkshire constituency, highlighting the party's platform against EU bureaucratic waste and in favor of repatriating powers to Westminster. In the 2004 European Parliament elections, UKIP leader persuaded Bloom to head the party's list for the region, where UKIP polled 16.5% of the vote—totaling approximately 255,000 votes—and secured one of the six seats under the system, with Bloom elected as the inaugural UKIP MEP for the area. The campaign focused on restoring national , promoting free-market policies unencumbered by regulations, and publicizing data on the UK's net annual contribution to the , which exceeded £3 billion at the time after rebates.

Tenure as MEP


Godfrey Bloom served as a (MEP) for from July 2004 to June 2014, representing the (UKIP). Initially aligned with the Independence/Democracy Group, he later joined the (EFD) Group until January 2014, after which he sat as a non-attached member. During this period, Bloom focused on economic critiques within the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), serving as a member from 2009 to July 2009 in the sixth term and continuously from July 2009 to June 2014 in the seventh term, while also acting as coordinator for the EFD group on ECON matters. In ECON and plenary sessions, Bloom advanced first-principles-based arguments against systems and EU subsidies, exemplified by his May 2013 speech decrying as a "criminal " that enabled lending of non-existent funds, contributing to systemic banking malpractices exposed post-2008 . He issued opinions critiquing the EU's , highlighting inefficiencies in state overspending akin to those revealed in the contemporaneous UK parliamentary expenses , though focused on EU budgetary parallels. Bloom's plenary interventions, such as on taxation programs in November 2013 and residential credit agreements in September 2013, emphasized data-driven exposures of fiscal irresponsibility, pushing for reforms to curb monetary expansion and agricultural subsidies that distorted markets. Bloom's chamber speeches garnered significant public attention, accumulating over 60 million views on platforms like and for content addressing banking scams and tax malpractices, amplifying UKIP's Eurosceptic discourse. These viral addresses, including critiques of EU irrelevance through economic data on net contributions and regulatory burdens, presaged arguments by underscoring the lack of tangible benefits from membership. Within UKIP and EFD alliances, Bloom collaborated on opposition to EU financial instruments, such as development cooperation funding, advocating reduced fiscal transfers and highlighting causal links between interventionist policies and . His tenure thus prioritized legislative scrutiny over consensus-building, influencing public skepticism toward EU institutions via unfiltered economic realism.

Exit from formal politics

In September 2013, UKIP withdrew its from Bloom following disputes over his public statements, prompting him to resign from the party's while continuing to serve as an independent (MEP) for until the conclusion of his term on 2 July 2014. This shift to independent status stemmed from Bloom's insistence on maintaining his longstanding positions without adjustment to party or media expectations, which he later described as a principled stand against enforced conformity within UKIP's evolving structure. Bloom's departure highlighted tensions with UKIP leadership, whom he accused of prioritizing image management over substantive policy consistency, particularly as the party sought broader electoral appeal ahead of the 2014 European Parliament elections. He defended his parliamentary record empirically, pointing to consistent attendance and opposition to during his tenure, which aligned with voter mandates from his 2004 and 2009 elections rather than shifting party directives. On 13 October 2014, after his MEP term ended without re-nomination under UKIP, Bloom resigned his party membership entirely, citing its drift toward and internal machinations as incompatible with his commitment to unvarnished advocacy. This exit marked his full withdrawal from formal party-affiliated politics, emphasizing loyalty to individual judgment over organizational allegiance. In his 2013 autobiography Guinea a Minute, Bloom critiqued the broader for superficial manners masking ineffective interventionism, arguing that such approaches—evident in fiscal and foreign policies—lacked empirical grounding and prioritized narrative over results.

Core views and intellectual contributions

Economic philosophy and banking critiques

Godfrey Bloom's economic philosophy draws heavily from the , emphasizing individual action, market prices as signals of scarcity, and the dangers of government intervention distorting resource allocation. He has delivered speeches framing Austrian economics as "applied common sense," critiquing state manipulation of money supply as the root cause of economic instability. Bloom argues that central banks' expansionary policies, such as implemented post-2008 , artificially suppress interest rates and fuel asset bubbles, leading to malinvestments in unsustainable sectors like housing and finance. This aligns with , where credit expansion detached from real savings generates booms followed by inevitable busts, as evidenced by the 2008 collapse triggered by prior low-rate policies from the U.S. and . Bloom advocates for sound money tied to a , viewing as a proven that has maintained over millennia without physical or monetary decay. He contends that abandoning the in 1971 under U.S. President Nixon enabled unchecked creation, equating printing to legalized counterfeiting that erodes savers' wealth through . In his view, restoring a commodity-backed currency would enforce fiscal discipline on governments, preventing the risks seen in historical episodes like Weimar Germany or modern , where fiat debasement exceeded 1,000,000% annually. Bloom has praised initiatives like Germany's potential gold repatriation as a step toward monetary , arguing it could avert the "destructive forces" of endless expansion. Central to Bloom's banking critiques is his condemnation of as inherently fraudulent, akin to a where banks lend out deposits multiple times over without full backing, creating money from thin air. He highlights how this system, requiring banks to hold only a fraction—often as low as 0% post-2020 U.S. reforms—of deposits in reserve, amplifies , as demonstrated by the failures of institutions like , which had leveraged assets over 30 times their capital. Bloom calls for or under market competition to eliminate this "criminal scandal," asserting it would align lending with actual savings and prevent boom-bust cycles driven by illusory credit. Bloom explicitly rejects , which he sees as justifying and intervention to "stimulate" demand, instead favoring approaches where market signals guide production without central planning. In his book The Magic of Banking, he exposes how Keynesian policies perpetuate dependency on state borrowing, contrasting them with Austrian emphasis on and . This stance leads him to critique post-crisis bailouts, totaling over €1 trillion in , as rewarding malinvestment rather than allowing to reallocating resources efficiently.

Defense, foreign policy, and military history

Bloom has critiqued Britain's entry into the First World War as an avoidable catastrophe precipitated by entangling alliances and a failure to prioritize neutrality, arguing that a more pragmatic assessment of national interests could have kept the out of the continental conflict. In a 2025 lecture, he contended that involvement in 1914 stemmed from insufficient , positing that detachment from the alliance system would have preserved Britain's and resources without compromising security. This perspective reflects his broader historical realism, viewing imperial overreach—exemplified by post-19th-century expansions—as a causal factor in Britain's relative decline, where military commitments exceeded sustainable capacities. In foreign policy, Bloom endorses measures to counter perceived threats, including decisive state actions against non-state actors deemed terroristic or ideologically extreme. He praised France's 1985 bombing of the vessel Rainbow Warrior in as an effective response to "green ," stating that such operations halted disruptive activism, though he later clarified he did not condone the resulting death of photographer . This stance underscores his support for pragmatic, interest-driven interventions limited to direct threats, contrasting with expansive humanitarian or alliance-based engagements. Bloom advocates prioritizing robust domestic military capabilities over prolonged foreign entanglements, asserting that defense constitutes the state's sole legitimate function and requires efficient procurement to maintain deterrence without fiscal waste. Commissioned by the UK's Libertarian Party, his analysis critiques modern procurement inefficiencies and geopolitical missteps, such as interventions in Afghanistan, as erosions of national readiness driven by media and policy failures. He emphasizes empirical historical precedents, like the clarity of Cold War-era Soviet-focused strategies, to argue for a lean, capable force structure focused on homeland defense rather than indefinite overseas commitments.

Social and welfare policy positions

Bloom proposed disenfranchising long-term welfare recipients and employees from voting to realign incentives toward productivity and , arguing that those dependent on state funding have a in electing policies that expand welfare provisions. In a November interview, he specifically targeted "generational unemployed" individuals, contending that perpetual benefits erode personal accountability and perpetuate societal dependency. This stance drew criticism as akin to "social apartheid," but Bloom maintained it as a mechanism to disrupt voting blocs favoring unsustainable redistribution. He critiqued expansive welfare systems for fostering moral hazards that trap individuals in unemployment, citing the risk of newly jobless workers becoming permanently detached from the labor market under generous benefits. During a May 2009 European Parliament debate on employment policy, Bloom urged measures to prevent transitions to long-term unemployment, emphasizing that state support should not subsidize idleness but incentivize rapid re-entry into work. UK data underscores such concerns: by 2011, government analysis identified intergenerational worklessness affecting over 3.9 million people across households where no adult had worked for years, correlating with expanded post-1997 welfare expansions that raised effective marginal tax rates above 70% for low earners, deterring employment. Bloom stressed personal responsibility as foundational to social stability, advocating reduced state intervention to preserve family-based support networks over bureaucratic welfare. He argued that over-reliance on aid undermines individual agency and traditional structures that historically mitigated through mutual obligation within families and communities, rather than universal entitlements that dilute incentives for self-improvement. This perspective aligns with his broader libertarian framework, prioritizing causal links between and outcomes over compensatory policies that, in his view, exacerbate dependency cycles evidenced by rising workless households from 5% in the 1990s to over 9% by the 2010s.

Environmental skepticism

Bloom has dismissed narratives of impending anthropogenic climate catastrophe as empirically unfounded, emphasizing natural variability and flaws in prominent datasets over assertions of human-driven CO2 dominance. In a 2009 memorandum to the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, he argued that observed climate changes are "not exceptional compared to previous centuries," attributing them primarily to natural cycles rather than human activity, with no convincing evidence of significant anthropogenic influence. He specifically critiqued the IPCC's "Hockey Stick" temperature reconstruction as "comprehensively debunked by independent statisticians," highlighting its role in promoting exaggerated warming trends. Bloom pointed to discrepancies in raw data and predictive failures as evidence of systemic issues in alarmist modeling. He noted conflicts between Climatic Research Unit (CRU) records and satellite measurements, which indicate more moderate temperature rises, and referenced leaked CRU emails revealing efforts to "hide the decline" in temperatures and potential data falsification. In a 2009 speech, he labeled global warming a "scam," citing independent analyses showing since 2002 and flat temperatures since 1998, in direct contradiction to IPCC projections of rapid heating. He further invalidated IPCC claims linking increased costs to warming, describing them as non-peer-reviewed and false, which undermined policy rationales like the Stern Review's cost-benefit assessments. On policy responses, Bloom viewed carbon trading schemes as driven by investment interests rather than , criticizing media promotion of such mechanisms as indicative of bias toward profitable "carbon trading driven investment schemes." He opposed costly mitigation efforts, such as the EU's emphasis on renewables, which he argued in 2013 endangered electricity supply security without addressing purported risks, and instead advocated for a to rigorously examine data through independent statisticians before enacting expensive interventions. This stance prioritized empirical validation and historical precedents of over what he termed unsubstantiated , noting no global warming had occurred for 15 years by that point.

Controversies and public clashes

Gender and employment comments

In July 2004, Bloom stated that no self-respecting owner would hire women of child-bearing age, citing the substantial costs and productivity disruptions from statutory maternity leave, which at the time entitled women to up to six months of paid absence under directives. He argued that such policies, by imposing uncompensated risks on employers, incentivize in hiring to safeguard business viability, a position he framed as pragmatic rather than . At the UK Independence Party's annual conference in 2013, during a fringe event titled "Women for UKIP," Bloom jokingly suggested renaming the gathering of female activists from "women" to "sluts," in reference to behaviors like heavy drinking that he claimed contradicted advocacy for victimhood narratives in women's safety discussions. He defended the remark as highlighting double standards, where feminists decry yet overlook personal agency in risky conduct, positioning it as blunt realism against sanitized . Bloom consistently opposed gender quotas in corporate boardrooms and public sectors, contending that they undermine and introduce inefficiencies by prioritizing demographic targets over competence. In August 2013, he invoked biological variances, asserting women are innately superior at domestic organizational tasks—such as locating mustard in a —compared to spatial demands like , thereby challenging policies that ignore sex-linked cognitive differences in favor of enforced parity. These views emphasized empirical incentives and inherent traits over quota-driven equality, which he deemed detrimental to productivity and fairness.

Foreign aid and international interventions

Bloom has consistently criticized British foreign aid as ineffective and counterproductive, arguing that it fosters dependency in recipient nations while diverting resources from domestic priorities. In a speech at the 2013 UK Independence Party conference, he questioned the allocation of approximately £1 billion monthly to African countries plagued by high prevalence (around 40%), (up to 50%), and illiteracy (around 60%), asserting that funds rarely reach the populace and instead finance luxuries for corrupt officials, such as swimming pools and Bentleys. He used the phrase "bongo bongo land" to describe such governance-failed states, emphasizing that aid perpetuates mismanagement rather than promoting development, and urged reallocating it to British needs like . Bloom defended the core argument despite backlash, noting on that the terminology might offend but the waste—evident in audited reports of aid diversion—demanded scrutiny over . This stance aligns with Bloom's broader causal analysis that foreign aid undermines by subsidizing dysfunctional regimes, as evidenced by persistent metrics in top recipients despite decades of transfers totaling billions annually from the UK's 0.7% GNI commitment (enacted in 2015 but building on prior escalations). He has called for scrapping the aid target, prioritizing taxpayer value over virtue-signaling, and cited empirical failures like stalled growth in aid-dependent economies per World Bank data, where corruption indices correlate inversely with development outcomes. Regarding international interventions, Bloom advocates a realist emphasizing national defense over expansive or ideologically driven operations. As a former Territorial Army officer and military historian, he has praised targeted actions serving strategic imperatives, such as France's 1985 bombing of the vessel Rainbow Warrior to halt nuclear test protests in the Pacific, which he commended in 2009 for countering "green fascism" during a climate event—though he later expressed regret over forgetting the death of photographer and clarified opposition to fatalities. This reflects his view that interventions against threats like eco-disruption or warrant decisiveness, inverting common critiques to defend state necessities against non-state interference. Bloom opposes prolonged or unnecessary entanglements, critiquing Britain's entry into as avoidable through neutral diplomacy rather than alliance entanglements, and questioning modern conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war as influenced by misleading narratives from intelligence agencies. He argues such interventions drain resources without clear gains, echoing his aid critiques by favoring restraint to preserve military readiness for genuine threats over or humanitarian pretexts that mask .

Media and physical incidents

On 20 September 2013, at the UKIP annual in , Godfrey Bloom struck political correspondent on the head with a UKIP after Crick asked why the featured no black faces on its cover. Bloom responded verbally by calling Crick "disgraceful" and slamming the down, framing the exchange as a reaction to pointed questioning aimed at eliciting a racially charged response. Bloom offered no apology for the action, later describing it in a December 2013 interview as "nothing more than if I'd whacked a wasp in a pub garden" and admitting a tendency toward such "punch-ups" because "it would be a bit of a lark." He maintained an unrepentant position, stating "I don’t do apologies," and cited over 15,000 supportive emails from the public with only 47 opposed, interpreting the incident as emblematic of pushback against journalistic tactics that seek to portray critics of establishment policies—such as those on immigration or multiculturalism—as inherently prejudiced. This event underscored a pattern in Bloom's media interactions, where verbal retorts often escalated amid perceived double standards in coverage of non-mainstream political challenges, though physical confrontations remained rare.

Other provocative statements

In November 2013, Bloom advocated stripping workers and individuals receiving of the right to vote, arguing that their financial dependence on the state created an inherent that skewed electoral outcomes toward expanded . He contended that taxpayers funding these groups should not be outvoted by those benefiting from redistributed resources, framing the proposal as a safeguard against fiscal irresponsibility rather than disenfranchisement. Critics labeled the remarks as promoting "social apartheid," but Bloom maintained they reflected pragmatic realism about incentive structures in welfare democracies. Amid the 2009 UK parliamentary expenses scandal, which involved over 400 MPs repaying £1.3 million in improper claims including moat cleaning and duck houses, Bloom publicly decried the political elite's entitlement and lack of decorum. He highlighted on his website how the scandal exemplified systemic hypocrisy, with legislators decrying fiscal austerity while exploiting taxpayer funds for personal luxuries, underscoring a disconnect between rulers and the governed. In October 2013, Bloom proceeded with the launch of his A Guinea a Minute despite UKIP withdrawing the party whip over prior controversies and postponing the initial event. He described the book in a whimsical style recounting his career, refusing to retract statements and emphasizing personal candor over political expediency. The unapologetic stance drew further rebuke from party figures but aligned with Bloom's pattern of prioritizing unfiltered commentary.

Post-political activities

Continued writing and publications

Following his departure from the European Parliament in 2014, Godfrey Bloom continued authoring books rooted in Austrian school economics and libertarian principles, applying them to contemporary financial and regulatory issues. In 2017, he published The Magic of Banking: The Coming Collapse, a concise analysis arguing that the international banking and currency system's reliance on intervention and fractional reserve practices renders collapse inevitable, providing empirical illustrations of malinvestment and credit cycles for non-specialist readers. Bloom extended these critiques in A Dinosaur's Guide to Libertarianism: Why Can't They Leave Us Alone?, decrying regulatory proliferation and state overreach as erosive to individual liberty and , with specific indictments of post-referendum bureaucratic persistence hindering . Bloom maintains an active online presence via godfreybloom.uk, where he disseminates essays reinforcing Austrian critiques amid fiscal strains, including analyses of post-Brexit regulatory layers that impose compliance costs on small enterprises equivalent to 4-10% of turnover for firms under £2 million in annual . These pieces advocate preserving the organic economies of market towns against centralized planning, arguing that such locales thrive on low-tax, low-regulation environments fostering rather than subsidised idealism detached from praxeological realities. He substantiates persistence in monetary warnings with , such as UK public sector net debt reaching 97.9% of GDP by March 2023 and averaging 7.9% over 2022-2023, attributing both to unchecked and rather than exogenous shocks.

Speaking engagements and recent commentary

In September 2025, Godfrey Bloom addressed the Heritage Party Conference with a speech titled "The State of Politics," critiquing the prevailing political dysfunction and outlining a restoration agenda centered on reclaiming national sovereignty and economic liberty. He emphasized the erosion of traditional institutions under successive governments, positioning the Heritage Party as a for reversing Blair-era constitutional changes and regulatory overreach. Bloom highlighted the vindication of his earlier forecasts on fiscal mismanagement and bureaucratic expansion, which he argued had materialized in the 's post-Brexit stagnation and rising debt burdens. Bloom has continued engaging in international economic discourse, notably commenting on the India- Free Trade Agreement signed in 2025. In a July 2025 NewsX , he analyzed the deal through a free-market lens, cautioning that while it could spur in goods and services—potentially creating jobs and leveraging Brexit's flexibility—it risked entrenching new regulatory if not vigilantly negotiated to prioritize over protectionist clauses. He stressed the need for the to avoid replicating EU-style barriers, drawing on his prior advocacy for unfettered to underscore the agreement's potential as a genuine post-EU opportunity rather than a diluted compromise. Recent interviews have seen Bloom revisit themes of institutional decay and interpersonal political dynamics. In a February 2025 discussion, he described the UK government as riddled with "utter ," attributing it to entrenched elites and pointing to his historically cordial yet ideologically divergent relationship with , whom he credited for mainstreaming euroskepticism but critiqued for softening on certain libertarian principles. A September 2025 conversation with further elaborated on remedial strategies, including abolishing bodies like the and to dismantle perceived politicized oversight and restore parliamentary primacy. These engagements underscore Bloom's ongoing role as a commentator validating his long-held warnings on erosion and elite capture.

References

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