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Eurealist :: Main Page: “Cheese UKIP and Voting
by Eurealist on May 5, 2005 08:54AM (BST)
To call me a wavering voter is something of an understatement with 13 hours to go before the polls close, I still have not decided who to vote for, or even if I will vote for anyone.

My LibDem incumbent MP, whose small majority of 1600, must be under threat from the renewed Conservative campaign, has in the past been very helpful. Although I have to accept he is not going to become a raving Eusceptic at any time in the near future, (the Consevative candidate calls him an arch federalist) at least he has taken my inquires seriously, and has done his best to glean what information he can to help by writing to various ministers on my behalf. So as a super social worker, which is what we are electing nowadays, he has already proved himself. On the other hand, although I do not like Howard, and for me his policies on the EU do not have the feeling of being solidly based, and he has not stood up for the people against the onslaught by Blair on our civil liberties, the Conservatives are best placed to rid us of Blair, and they just might give pause to the EU intergrationalist, or Howard might just go EU native like the preceding Prime Ministers, if he finds himself in power. I had pretty much decided that I should vote for UKIP as the only party that recommends withdrawal from the EU.

All these things were on my mind as I arrived in Ludlow on an errand to replenish our depleted cheese selection. As any foodie will tell you Ludlow is the Mecca of quality foods, as a small market town of what used to around 9,000 souls, I think it has grown a bit recently, Ludlow boasts three good cheese shops and a very good cheese stall on the market. I had parked the car and whilst on my way to the Deli on the Square, noticed that the UKIP Candidate had set up his stall and with a couple of helpers was trying to distribute a variety of election materials to the few early morning shoppers.

Living as I do right out on the edge of the county there has been very little election activity in our little hamlet. From UKIP nothing at all, so in a joking manner I asked the UKIP man if they were intending to garner any votes from the outlying areas, one of his helpers got out a map and asked where the black hole in their coverage was. Anyway after a little chat about his chances, not much it would seem, I did get my cheese and headed home ready to serve lunch.

I was a taken by surprise when a few minutes after I got back the UKIP candidate and team arrived and parked up on the car park. When I greeted them at the door they said that they thought they would pop out for lunch, not being averse to taking a few quid on an otherwise quite mid week lunch time I presented them with the menus and took their orders. After they had eaten we got to talking about the election and the EU, I got the distinct impression that they were not expecting greet things in the polls, the EU after all has not been an item on the election menu, a point expressed by Helen Rumbelow in today’s Times “the voters just want to hear from you when Europe is on the agenda. No wonder all the main parties have made sure that Europe is not mentioned in this campaign.”

But that really is not the point of all this, I was somewhat taken aback when the UKIP candidate expressed the view that the people do not deserve democracy if they do not get out there and campaign for it, if they do not then they have to take what they get, a view that I can appreciate. My suggestion that an elected MP owes allegiance to the people who elected them first, and party second, was rebuffed by the claim that if the MP owed his place in parliament to the party, then the party had every right to expect loyalty.

Of course an MP does not owe his place to the party, but to the thousands of people who vote for them, the party may belive that they are the real power, but as the UKIP candidate, and hopefully Tony Blair will find out the only power the party has comes from the people, the party’s have no intrinsic power in themselves.

That a UKIP candidate who stands on a platform of returning power to the British parliament should belive that the people are subservient to the party machine, is to me unacceptable, what is the point of returning power to Westminster and still having a top down system of government that I dislike so much about the EU Eurocratic system.
So now I am completely stumped, The Greens? if there are any candidates out there who want my vote today and I might be able to finagle another out my wife, please let me know what you can do for democracy and the sovereignty of the people.”

Eurealist :: Main Page: “One Stop Propaganda Shops
by Eurealist on May 5, 2005 11:24AM (BST)

From the Times today we learn that;

“THE Government has “forced” the European Commission to abandon plans to open European information centres across Britain because it believes that they could be construed as propaganda in the run-up to the referendum on the European constitution next year.”

Goody for them, what the EU terms as information, others would call by its proper name propaganda! to have a string of “EU one stop prop shops” throughout the UK would in no way enhance an open debate on the benefits of our membership of this undemocratic union, and the only reason the EU has for spending our money on their propaganda is that they want to get the job of controlling our government and making us all EU Surfs, done before we all wake up to the facts.

The centres, are part of the ongoing EU campaign to fight growing Euroscepticism among European citizens, and would have provided “information” to the British public about EU treaties, European policies and legislation, the workings of the European institutions and how to apply for grants.

The Commission has already agreed to a request from Britain to suspend other aspects of its “information” campaign in this country, including advertising campaigns and grants available for conferences. Mark that “a request from Britain”

Those local authorities who have already jumped onto the EU bandwagon and opened EU information points around Britain will also now lose EU funding.

Margot Wallström, the European commissioner responsible for Propaganda, they say “communication” but she refuses to communicate any answers to totally reasonable questions by commenters on her own EU funded blog, made her irritation clear. “We have an obligation to make sure that information and the chance to put questions is accessible to citizens,” she said.

An obligation to whom, to the citizens who did not ask to be made citizens in the first place and who are refused permission to reject that unwanted citizenship, and who have not asked for more of their money to be spent on propaganda or to the Commission who have not been elected by the people and have no democratic mandate.

“This is in the mutual interest of citizens and EU institutions. But we cannot force ourselves on a member state. It has to be based on mutual trust.” Trust! Whom should we the people trust the EU, the Government who want to remove more of our rights by ratifying a new Constitution for Britain by the back door, and will use any trick in the book to achieve their aims. I suspect that the government will be up to their own trick because they have not refused these one stop shops they have merely asked the commission to postpone them for the time being because they think they will be counter productive in their attempt to con us all into believing the EU is not really important, and the CONstitution is only a tidying up exercise.

The desirability of the Commision to make us all good little EU Surfs and belive we are EUeans rather than British, is confirmed by arch federalist Richard Corbett, MEP, Labour’s CONstitution spokesman in the European Parliament, when he said: “We should not cave in to the screaming allegations of anti-Europeans that all information is propaganda. They don’t want people to know about the EU, they want them to be in ignorance. But why should people who want information lose out because of the ‘no’ campaign?”

I suggest he might like to reflect on a definition of propaganda “The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.” He might like to then explain exactly what the difference is between that and “One Stop Prop shops” throughout the country, only giving one side of the debate about the EU.

We do want people to know about the EU we want people to understand that 80% of the laws we have to obey emanate in Brussels, that the people we elect no longer make our laws; that it does not really matter whom we do elect they cannot change EU law; that ratifying the Constitution will effectively ma