It simply has not happened. Ken Clarke, repeatedly promoted by Margaret Thatcher of the Single European Act, is in the Shadow Cabinet, having first been a Minister before George Osborne was born. Michael Heseltine is the power behind David Cameron. But Dan Hannan, usually held up as the Great White Hope, is not a member of either House of Parliament, and really cannot expect (or wish) to receive the Whip for very much longer.
I want to vote for a candidate in the tradition of the Attlee Government’s refusal to join the European Coal and Steel Community on the grounds that it was “the blueprint for a federal state”. Of Gaitskell’s rejection of European federalism as “the end of a thousand years of history” and liable to destroy the Commonwealth. Of the votes of most Labour MPs, and one Liberal, against Heath’s Treaty of Rome. Of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s unanimous opposition to Thatcher’s Single European Act. Of the 66 Labour MPs who voted against Maastricht, including, in Bryan Gould, the only resignation from either front bench in order to do so.
Of the votes of every Labour and Liberal Democrat MP, without exception, against the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies annually between 1979 and 1997. Of that half of the French Socialist Party which successfully opposed the EU Constitution. Of that half of the UKIP vote which, based on its geographical distribution, must be Old Labour or Old Liberal rather than Old Tory. And of the No2EU – Yes To Democracy list at the 2009 European Elections, which in London included Peter Shore’s erstwhile agent, and which in the North West included the immediate past Leader of the Liberal Party.
Do you?
If so, then you are going to have to be that candidate.
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Why am I going to have to be that candidate? Is it because these views are held by such a tiny minority that there is no chance of anyone else standing up for them?
ReplyDeleteIt is because that majority opinion is no longer represented by, or even tolerated within, any political party. Like all the opinions listed on the British People's Alliance website, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe BPA, meanwhile, could not be tolerated AS a political party, and was persecuted out of existence by the Electoral Commission. Like the Pro-Life Alliance before it. And like UKIP after it.
When there is a body of parliamentarians, then it can coalesce into one or more new parties, as the old ones first emerged. So we need to get our people in.
The BPA, meanwhile, could not be tolerated AS a political party, and was persecuted out of existence by the Electoral Commission.
ReplyDeleteChinny reckon?
Has your Telegraph blog been persecuted out of existence too?
ReplyDeleteAre you saying the British People's Alliance doesn't exist? I thought you said it would certainly contest every seat in the UK.
ReplyDeleteIn what way did the Electoral Commission bully the BPA out of existence?
ReplyDeleteLong-term readers will have no need to read that story again. It is the past now. The BPA is now ... well, see the website, it's all on there.
ReplyDeleteOh, and my Telegraph account still works. As does the link.
ReplyDelete