I've just been reading Tim Montgomerie's account of the Conservative MEP selection process HERE. When Tim originally asked on ConservativeHome for people to send him information on this I have to admit I was none too impressed. I was wrong. Completely wrong. If only half of what Tim writes were true it would be horrifying enough. I am astonished that the Electoral Reform Society lent their name to this selection process.
It is odd to say the Electoral Reform Society oversaw an election where candidates were not allowed to campaign, their election addresses were censored, scrutineers were not allowed at the count, the number of votes cast for each candidate was not made public, the turnout was not announced, and the number of spoilt ballot papers was kept secret. The Conservative Party often sends people abroad to teach third world political parties how to run elections. I wonder if anyone has been to North Korea recently.
Tim started ConservativeHome as a campaign to stop Michael Howard denying the party membership a vote in the 2005 leadership election. Many thought that having achieved that, there was no going back in the war for party democracy. Sadly those people have been proved wrong. The battle for democracy in European selections may have been lost this time, but the war has to continue.
14 comments:
But this is absolutely typical of the way Euro-politicians operate. I voted, in the referendum, all those years ago, to join a free trade area. Instead I find we have signed up to a hydra-headed bureaucratic monster which squanders our money, whose auditors refuse, year on year, to sign off the accounts and whose politicians personify corruption and the 'insolence of office.'
There is one certain way to resolve this problem. Repatriate sufficient power to ensure that there is no longer any need for MEP's.
Just think of the money saved from removing the most ineffective and pointless group of public servants this country has.
Clearly we have got to get rid of this useless bunch of MEP nobodies!
Iain, when are you going to wake up! Your obviously a bright enough lad! The Tory Party is not about democracy, it's about elitism. That's the whole point!
Electoral Reform Services is not the same as Electoral Reform Soc - they're an armslength service. They just run the ballot as per the rules of the organisation
Iain,
My concern is that Cameron and Co are fully paid up members of the EU United States of Europe Idea. They have as much intention of rocking that boat as Brown has.
We need a fresh party to speak for the majority of people who want to trade with Europe but NOT to be controlled by Europe.
When you get a country that does so little for Nato - as Germany- who then tries to block the Ukraine then you must start to be concerned. The Americans have lost so many young men and women as we have. How many Germans? How many Belgiums, Spanish? They are getting security on the bloody cheap.
This story is an absolute disgrace and when the facts get out will only aid the likes of the BNP and UKIP.
Why are we suprised? This is how European politics operates!
In this case, it is to the 'benefit' of the party because it keeps the awkward squad (of which I am a card carrying member) off the lists and thus neutering the issue.
But what can you do - if you stand as an independent Tory, you are history!
It sums up all that is worng with Euro style politiking!
Oh dear Ian - I was about to donate to the party again after many years of saying no - can it be true that Cameron and Co are no different to Brown & Co - I sincerely hope not but for now my wallets gone back in my pocket.
And one wonders why you used to get so hot under the collar when Peter Hitchens referred to the "Useless Tories".
He really is the Heir to Blair this Cameron chap. A voter friendly man of his times to front the outfit...meanwhile in the background, where the average voter doesn't look, the same old party political games are being played.
Seems I couldn't get past the conservative home comment moderator on this topic. But knowing how Ian is such a gentleman I'm sure he'll allow this.
See some of the Tory europhile MEPs go about their business here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceejnrM858k
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q6tiFHFLc
And the 2 lone Tory heroes here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8OlTsvzUA
Iain - as a candidate in the selection I think you should be aware that some of the information flying around is not actually true. We were offered the chance to scrutinise the count, we were told that we could participate in the "I want a referendum" campaigns (and many of us did), we were allowed to use websites and blogs to communicate with voters/members (again many of us did), we were allowed to give our own answers to Con-Homes questions (again many of us did). Controlling the amount of paper litterature that was circulated possibly helped to level the playing field between those with more cash and the rest of us.
It was not a perfect system but perhaps not as dramatic as you suggest. Thanks.
As a life-long Tory, and former ward chairman, (and we had two city, a county councillor and an MP then, all of our stripe)who was hissed at my local executive in 1992 for suggesting we reject the Maastrict treaty it seems hard to find a non-eurosceptic Tory today. It seems there are still outposts of the sods. Can we have another poll "Which is the most corrupt; the EU, te UN or the IOC?". 'Love Europe! Hate the EU'. I've not knocked on a door since those days; how many more of us are there?
"Tim started ConservativeHome as a campaign to stop Michael Howard denying the party membership a vote in the 2005 leadership election."
Oh so that's where it came from. It's the organisation responsible for ensuring a never-ending succesion of crap Tory leaders. Go Tim.
Iain, if half of what I'm-the-big-'I-am' writes about this were true I'd be impressed at Central Office for having the gumption to keep members out in this way.
And if half of what little-Miss-Drama-Queen writes in general is true we're living in an evil Soviet state where Marxist Labour politicians queue to tax you to the hilt, gag you, send you to the gulag, but where there's an Evangelical Government-in-waiting to moralise and inculcate happy-clappiness in us all. You're first down the salt mine, sunshine, with your deviant ways.
Alas, like the other half of his output, this half is nonsense, and is mainly made-up to try to strongarm and blackmail the Tory Party into doing what he wants.
You know full well the ordinary membership of the Tory Party is unrepresentative of Britain, and his readers more so. Ignore this drivel.
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