EU Referendum

Showing posts with label Libertas. Show all posts

link[i-link]The Independent reports that Declan Ganley, the would-be saviour of Europe, has quit politics. Mr Ganley had asked for a recount in the horribly complicated Irish voting system because he thought that some of his votes had been allotted to another candidate. It turned out to be the other way round and the votes, allotted properly put Mr Ganley 13,000 behind the front three runners in the North West euro constituency. (That is, clearly, not the same as the North West euro constituency in England.)

Mr Ganley has rather grandly announced that Libertas was not about him and his return to the private sector will not affect the campaign in the second Irish referendum one bit.

On the whole, this can be described as utter tosh. Mr Ganley made quite sure that much of the campaign was about him. Even if that were not true, his behaviour has done great damage to the cause, damage that it may not recover from.

As readers of this blog know, we were sceptical of Mr Ganley and Libertas.eu both for personal and political reasons. Mr Ganley and the Former British Soldier, Robin Matthews, who led the UK campaign, did little to endear themselves to people who were interested in their activity. (As I said before, I do not take kindly to people who patronize me, unless it happens to be the boss.)

Their political ideas were muddled, (and here) to put it mildly. The idea that there could be some sort of a reform of the European Union through the Toy Parliament, no matter who is elected is laughable in its ignorance of the structure of the political entity they were haughtily explaining to others. (Haughtily but rather vaguely.)

Added to that was the incoherent campaigning that consisted of appeals to eurosceptic groups interspersed with assertions that Libertas.eu was definitely Europhile, as, indeed, it was.

I lost track of the number of press releases I was sent, all of which attacked UKIP. When I asked for a reason, I was told that they were anxious to make sure that UKIP did not benefit from the expenses scandals and, therefore, they had to keep reminding people of such dubious characters as Tom Wise.

This would be logical if people voted solely on the basis of what they thought about the expenses scandal. But that was not so. The fact that UKIP came second, the vote for the various eurosceptic parties added up to a sizeable chunk and the BNP got two seats in the Toy Parliament would indicate that there was a great deal more on people's minds. That is why neither Libertas.eu nor Jury Team did particularly well. It was not simply an anti-politician vote, though there was an element of that.

Finally, there was Libertas's unfortunate tendency to be less than completely transparent in its descriptions of its activity.

For those or other reasons Libertas.eu did as badly as we expected in Britain and 25 other member states. Perhaps a little worse than we expected in Poland. What was rather shocking is how badly the party did in Ireland where the only other one to oppose the Constitutional Lisbon Treaty was Sinn Fein. Did the Irish really vote on domestic issues only or did they feel they had had enough of Mr Ganley and his merry men (and women)?

The answer can come only from someone who is better acquainted with the situation in that country. However, it seems to us obvious that Mr Ganley made a monumental mistake when he allowed his vanity to lead him into trying to form a pan-European party.

Flushed with the triumph of the No vote in the first Irish referendum he ought to have sat back and said that he was interested only in stopping the treaty. This could not be done in the Toy Parliament (a point that escaped Mr Ganley, I suspect) and, therefore, Libertas was not going to get involved in those elections but wait for the second referendum and campaign there.

At most, he should have campaigned only in Ireland, making that into a back-up referendum. He and his colleagues might have done quite well.

Instead, Mr Ganley decided to promote himself and his followers into a band of brothers dedicated to the salvation and reform of the European project. They failed miserably and deservedly. In the process, though, they destroyed Libertas's political credibility in Ireland and damaged, very severely, the chances of a No vote in October when the second referendum is likely to take place. (Smart money is on October 10 but no decision can be taken until the Referendum Bill is passed by the Dail in July.)

The battle in Ireland will be a tough one, made much tougher by Declan Ganley's recent antics and failure. We, in this country, must do all we can to help. This blog is standing by.

COMMENT THREAD

[Loband: Object Removed -]

... another press release from Libertas.eu. Well, one of several, I suspect and all attacking UKIP. I still find that rather odd. Having made it clear that they are frightfully "pro-European" or, put into real language, in favour of ever more integration in the European Union, why do Libertas think that potential UKIP supporters will vote for them instead.

Then again, is anybody apart from me reading those press releases? Has anyone sighted any mention of Libertas.eu in the media? People out there are discussing UKIP's and the BNP's chances but I have not heard a single mention of Libertas.eu, not in Shepherds Bush cafes and launderettes, not around Oxford dinner tables, not nowhere nor nohow.

This particular attack on UKIP calls them political dinosaurs but it has nothing to do with the view that nation states are the way forward, an idea that Libertas.eu clearly disagree with, unless they consider Europe a nation. This is about Godfrey Bloom announcing that he keeps his accounts in cardboard folders and not on-line. Presumably, that means he will not be publishing them on the internet, though he might if he is told to do so.

The question is, have those Libertas.eu candidates who are sitting MEPs published their accounts on the internet; the next question is when did they do so; and if they have not why not.

Incidentally, Libertas.eu still maintains that President Klaus has endorsed their party in the Czech Republic, though evidence there comes none. A little more honesty from the knights in shining armour would be in order. Still no attacks on the Conservatives, though their supporters may well vote Libertas as the ideas are not all that dissimilar. Hmm?

COMMENT THREAD

I have expressed some puzzlement over the fact that Libertas seemed to be spending much of its time attacking UKIP. After all, UKIP voters are unlikely to move to Libertas, whose political ideology (if one can call it that) is very different. The Conservatives, on the other hand, are not dissimilar in their views.

Naturally, being a cynical person, I thought of an obvious answer: the notion of some deal at some point between the two. It seems that others are thinking along the same lines.

EUObserver reports about the negotiations that are going on between the British Conservatives, the Polish Law and Justice Party and the Czech ODS, as well as a few smaller entities. They are finally talking about setting up a somewhat more sceptical and, possibly, free-market grouping in the Toy Parliament after June 7. (Possibly because the Law and Justice Party, for one, is a long way from being free-market.)

The new group expects to get at least 65 MEPs, which would make it the fourth largest in parliament.

Mr Zahradil said the group is also interested in taking in MEPs from the Libertas party, if Libertas politicians find themselves stranded after the EU vote.

"I believe we can negotiate on some of the political issues that are now being discussed within Libertas. My feeling is, they will not make it in seven countries. If they cannot establish their own group, in my opinion this [taking in Libertas MEPs] is perfectly negotiable," he said. "I assume they wouldn't want to be 'non-inscrit'."

That does raise the interesting question of why vote Libertas at all but then that has been the question all along.

COMMENT THREAD

Declan_Ganley[i-Declan_Ganley]As one would expect Libertas has been making much of the embarrassment that is afflicting our legislators, real and pretend ones. Should Libertas.eu be elected to the Toy European Parliament, they tell us solemnly, they will publish all their expenses on their website, thus ensuring complete transparency. This is part of their "Stamp out Sleaze" campaign that they launched yesterday to little public interest, the latter being entirely focused on details of MPs' spending.

Well, that is very nice, though I can imagine various ingenious ways of making sure that transparent expenses do not mean quite what they say. But there is another problem: Libertas.eu also boasts of the many existing euro- and national politicians they have acquired en route to putting up 550 candidates across Europe. Or as the Former British Soldier, Robin Matthews is supposed to have stated in today's press release:

Six months ago, Libertas didn't exist. Today it is fielding many times more candidates than any other party in Europe.

Since no other party in Europe is quite as much in favour of European integration as Libertas.eu is, that means very little. But what of those politicians who have allegedly joined them?

For instance, every press release tells us proudly in the Notes for Editors that "in Latvia we have a former Prime Minister as the lead candidate". Quite true, the lead candidate for the single region of Latvia, Guntars Krasts, was briefly the Prime Minister from August 1997 to November 1998 (well, maybe not that briefly by Latvian standards) but since 2004 he has been a member of the Toy Parliament. Try as I might, I can find no evidence that he has declared his expenses in detail in the last five years. Perhaps I am looking at the wrong sites.

Another rant on EUReferendum2.

UPDATE: Three press releases this morning (May 14) and they all attack UKIP, particularly the track record of their MEPs. Apparently, they do not turn up for votes, or some of them do not. Curious. Do Libertas really think that they can take votes away from UKIP, having made it quite clear that they are a "pro-european party"? Why not go for the Conservatives, whose ideas are not dissimilar? And what of those sitting MEPs who are intending to stand under the Libertas name? What of their voting record? Of course, there aren't any in Britain.

COMMENT THREAD

Did you know that "Europe" has not just been the most successful peace process ever (Denmark not having invaded Holland for some time) but has alos advanced the cause of democracy eastward and "removed the shackles of communism"? You did not? I thought everyone knew that. After all, that is what we were told by the Former British Soldier, Robin Matthews, who is also leader of Libertas in the UK (though, obviously not of Libertas.uk) and a prospective candidate for the Toy Parliament in the South-West.

He was introducing the London list- six prospective candidates, all people, as he explained after giving a ringing endorsement to the European project, which has, alas, gone astray, with experience in life and enthusiasm. Apparently, knowledge of anything to do with the EU or the Toy Parliament or, even, of basic history is not required. In fact, it might be a disadvantage. You wouldn't want the regional candidates to know more than the UK leader.

More on that launch with a dire prediction about any possibility of continuing sanity in the author over on EUReferendum2. Enjoy.

link[i-link]Two press releases from Libertas UK (as they still call themselves) yesterday. Well, at least, they keep themselves busy. I hear, by the way, that Jury Team has had a tremendous website response. People are knocking on the door very insistently or, at least, as some of the pro-referendum demo organizers realized, looking at the website. As a political force that remains ungagable.

One press release is a response to Caroline Flint's highly amusing admission that she had not really read the Constitutional Lisbon Treaty though she had assured us all that the Irish no vote was based on a misunderstanding of that document. How would she know, precisely?

Mind you, there is no call for the Conservatives to crow. I recall similar admissions by Conservative Ministers with relation to the Maastricht Treaty. Memory failure is no excuse in politics.

Libertas's comments about Ms Flint are reasonable enough. Having reminded everyone that Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen had not read the treaty either, they add:

Flint and Cowen can't read it and we shouldn’t have to. Democratic governance should be transparent and accountable, not opaque and elitist.

Not sure what they mean by elitist. After all, is it not the case that we would all like to see better and more intelligent people in politics and is that not elitist? The trouble with the whole Libertas mess is that they are not all that good at drawing conclusions either. The whole purpose of the European project is to be unaccountable – its founders and promoters have not time for democracy but, much worse, they have not time for accountability or freedom either.

That Libertas and its denizens do not understand what the fight is really about is shown by the sentence that follows:

Libertas advocates a peoples' constitution that is clear and understandable.

What is a peoples’ constitution and who actually needs or wants it (apart from Mr Ganley and the Former British Soldier, Robin Matthews)? What is wrong with the constitutional structures we already have? You know the ones that involve the Houses of Parliament or the Houses of the Oireachtas or whatever other legislatures the various countries have, not to mention existing legal systems?

The other press release, rather oddly deals with the … ahem … inappropriate expenses on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s account. Libertas, they tell us, are in a position to prove that this is merely one aspect of prevailing corruption that is present in the European Parliament as well as in the national one.

As in London, so in Brussels, where the bloated bureaucracy works for itself, not for European people.

Libertas has revealed that, fresh from awarding themselves massive pay rises and lower taxes, our MEPs have decided to also let their assistants help themselves to even more of our money. Employing family and friends (or even fictitious people) in these roles is commonplace and makes abuse very hard to track, making it easy for MEPs and their associates to help themselves to unbelievable amounts of European taxpayers cash.

I am shocked, I tell you, shocked, not least by the press release writer’s inability to put an apostrophe where it is required. But, seriously, none of us knew that about MEPs until Mr Ganley and his merry men came along. Or did we?

Never mind. Former British Soldier, present UK campaign manager for Libertas and prospective Toy Parliament candidate in the South-West, Robin Matthews knows the answer:

As Matthews explained “Libertas wants the people have their say so that together we can build a Europe that we can believe in. This means holding Brussels to account in order to stop the waste and save money. We need to open up the corridors of power and make the EU work for us, not for them."

Robin Matthews added "How can we expect national parties to hold Brussels to account for its corruption and waste when they are too are busy helping themselves to taxpayers money."

I am looking forward to Colonel Matthews explaining to me what he really means by the EU working for us, not for them. He certainly failed to do so at the launch.

COMMENT THREAD

Lynton-Cro[i-Lynton-Cro]Jonathan Isaby on ToryBoy Blog tells us that Lynton Crosby, known by the Conservatives as "the Wizard of Oz", has signed up to run the Libertas pan-European campaign. Actually, Mr Crosby's record is so-so. He did run four victorious campaigns for John Howard down under but, presumably, also the last non-victorious one.

The Conservative campaign of 2005 was shambolic and the defeat was far worse than it ought to have been, given the standing of the government. Boris Johnson won but, I suspect, that had more to do with Ken Livingstone than anyone else. Well, maybe Lynton Crosby helped.

On the whole, I think this is a bad move for Lynton Crosby. His presence will not solve the inherent contradictions and silliness of the whole idea of a pan-European party.

It seems, however, that sitting French MEPs are signing up to the project though whether the announcement by Frédéric Nihous, chair of CPNT (that's the huntin' and fishin' lot) and candidate for Libertas that he wants a Europe that does not belong to Brussels but to "us", meaning, one assumes French politicians is enough to cheer the rest of us on, is questionable.

COMMENT THREAD