eurealist.co.uk

He says this is just the start of his fight in a campaign against an assault on civil liberties.

He might be better advised to come clean about his real target which is not as advertised the Labour Government but rather his own party leaders.

The controversy over the Tory leaders demands that MEP must fill in a right to know form on expenses twice a year, has thrown up an important point;

The Tory MEPs according to the leaked memo are prepared to challenge the idea based on rule two of the EU parliament which says that MEPs have an independent mandate and “do not accept instructions”

Rule 2 : The independent mandate
Members of the European Parliament shall exercise their mandate independently. They shall not be bound by any instructions and shall not receive a binding mandate.

What then is the point of electing anyone to the EU parliament on party lines.

We already know that prospective MEPs do not produce manifestos, but the argument is always advanced that when voting for them we do know what their party stands for.

We might have some idea of that, but if this EU parliament rules means the MEP does not need to follow party lines and is independent of his own party then that argument must be false.

So we are effectively voting for someone to represent us in the EU parliament without the slightest idea of what they stand for or which way they might vote on any given subject.