With just two days to go before the EU elections, support for Libertas, the pan-European reform party is growing rapidly in the media. As the shine comes off UKIP as the alternative vote, journalists across the board are taking a fresh look at Libertas, the party that took on Brussels and won.
In just the last day or so, the Daily Mail included a glowing piece by Peter Oborne and then the Sun joined in with an endorsement by Trevor Kavanagh and a further compliment in the editorial.
Here are some of the highlights:
“A better bet is Libertas, the new party that sensationally humiliated established political parties in Ireland last year. In a brilliant campaign, backed by The Sun, Libertas turned a near-certain YES into a bombshell NO on the Constitution.”
- Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
“Many voters are tempted by the increasingly credible Libertas.”
-The Sun Says column
“At a time of moral squalor and decay in Westminster and Brussels, both Libertas and Jury Team offer voters a hugely refreshing - and, perhaps, the only proper - alternative on Thursday.”
- Peter Oborne, Daily Mail
Meet your Libertas South West candidates
These are your Libertas candidates for the South West region:
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Letter to the Times (again!)
Sir,
I find it fascinating that in today’s Times, you publish David Cameron’s speech where once more he has appropriated Libertas’s policies and is pushing them as his own ideas. He does, however, confuse some of the issues. He seems to hint that “judges” - by which I assume that he means the European Court of Human Rights - are part of the EU when really it is nothing to do with the EU. We signed up, quite rightly, to the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore can expect to have rulings on it influencing our laws. After all it is the job of any independent judiciary to rule on the law. Is he proposing that we no longer accept these rulings?
What I think he is trying to say, and he will need to read our policies a little more closely, is that the European Court of Justice should also operate as an independent judiciary and not create any law, as they are not accountable to the electorate.
He also states that he will “pass a law requiring a referendum to approve any further of transfer of power to the EU” . I’m afraid this is another empty promise as, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by the time he comes to power, there is a very convenient article – article 48 – which effectively makes the Lisbon Treaty self amending. Anyway, as 80% of our laws will come from Brussels, we will have no power left to transfer. I would be interested to know what the Conservative policy on the Lisbon Treaty actually is: will they have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty whether it has been ratified or not?
Incidentally, as one of the MP’s caught up in the expenses scandal is also a Times Journalist, will you be practising what you preach and taking disciplinary action against Mr Gove?
Regards
Nick Coke
I find it fascinating that in today’s Times, you publish David Cameron’s speech where once more he has appropriated Libertas’s policies and is pushing them as his own ideas. He does, however, confuse some of the issues. He seems to hint that “judges” - by which I assume that he means the European Court of Human Rights - are part of the EU when really it is nothing to do with the EU. We signed up, quite rightly, to the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore can expect to have rulings on it influencing our laws. After all it is the job of any independent judiciary to rule on the law. Is he proposing that we no longer accept these rulings?
What I think he is trying to say, and he will need to read our policies a little more closely, is that the European Court of Justice should also operate as an independent judiciary and not create any law, as they are not accountable to the electorate.
He also states that he will “pass a law requiring a referendum to approve any further of transfer of power to the EU” . I’m afraid this is another empty promise as, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by the time he comes to power, there is a very convenient article – article 48 – which effectively makes the Lisbon Treaty self amending. Anyway, as 80% of our laws will come from Brussels, we will have no power left to transfer. I would be interested to know what the Conservative policy on the Lisbon Treaty actually is: will they have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty whether it has been ratified or not?
Incidentally, as one of the MP’s caught up in the expenses scandal is also a Times Journalist, will you be practising what you preach and taking disciplinary action against Mr Gove?
Regards
Nick Coke
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Letter to the Times
Sir
They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery but David Cameron seems to be talking it to extremes with his “new” policies which are, in fact, old Libertas policies.
- Referendum on the Lisbon treaty – Libertas Policy since we started.
- Full disclosure of expenses - Libertas Policy since we started.
- “take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street” - Libertas Policy since we started.
- “decentralisation, transparency and accountability” - Libertas Policy since we started.
We have many more, and I will watch with some interest which others he will hijack in the absence of any fresh ideas from his own party. I suspect he will not be hijacking our pan-European approach as he is powerless to do so or our Pro-European approach because his party is too divided to let him.
Regards
Nick Coke
They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery but David Cameron seems to be talking it to extremes with his “new” policies which are, in fact, old Libertas policies.
- Referendum on the Lisbon treaty – Libertas Policy since we started.
- Full disclosure of expenses - Libertas Policy since we started.
- “take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street” - Libertas Policy since we started.
- “decentralisation, transparency and accountability” - Libertas Policy since we started.
We have many more, and I will watch with some interest which others he will hijack in the absence of any fresh ideas from his own party. I suspect he will not be hijacking our pan-European approach as he is powerless to do so or our Pro-European approach because his party is too divided to let him.
Regards
Nick Coke
Nicholas Sherman
Nicholas is not a politician but, frustrated by the waste and mismanagement in which the EU community indulges, he can no longer stand on the touchline and criticise without actively trying to do something to stop it. While recognising that root and branch reform will be an uphill struggle, he nevertheless sees Libertas as a catalyst for change at last.Trained as a lawyer, his commercial background has been in senior IT management all over the World. Nicholas (62) speaks German and French fluently, shares his life between homes in the UK and France, has close family ties with Germany, and his wife, Rosemary is Canadian. Together they brought up a severely disabled daughter, in the course of which they have been heavily involved in charitable work.
One of Nicholas’s proudest achievements was leading a group of national charities to persuade 450 Members of Parliament to spend a day with a disabled person in the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), an initiative which lead to far greater awareness of disability in Parliament.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Never read the Lisbon Treaty?
There was a very good article in the Times today by Camilla Cavendish.
In it she mentions the Lisbon Treaty and I have copied out the quote below
“The readiness of politicians to relinquish power amazes me. Take the European constitution, now rebranded as the Lisbon treaty. I read all the drafts of that document, spoke to lawyers and became convinced that its calculated opacity was a charter for the creeping takeover of national policy by bureaucrats and judges. There were brilliant MPs who could debate every inch of the detail - David Miliband, Gisela Stuart, David Heathcoat-Amory, Chris Huhne. But I met others who hadn't even read the document and looked incredulous that I had."
"I once ran a construction company. I didn't sign contracts that I didn't understand, especially when they involved other people's money. So I could not believe that on an issue of such consequence - for their own role as well as for the nation - MPs had not done their homework. When the annual EU membership fee is £6.5 billion, when EU directives have driven almost half of the regulations passed here since 1998, and when implementing those regulations has cost £106 billion (according to a recent study by Open Europe), it is not surprising that people ask what MPs are doing. “
I hope Caroline Flint reads this article and is thoroughly ashamed by her admission that she has never read the Lisbon Treaty but it is gratifying to note that, even though the Times seems to be a Party Political Broadcast for the Conservative these days, at least some of their journalists seem to be singing the Libertas tune. Hopefully, as a result, more people will realise that the only way of stopping the Lisbon Treaty is to vote Libertas.
Nick Coke
In it she mentions the Lisbon Treaty and I have copied out the quote below
“The readiness of politicians to relinquish power amazes me. Take the European constitution, now rebranded as the Lisbon treaty. I read all the drafts of that document, spoke to lawyers and became convinced that its calculated opacity was a charter for the creeping takeover of national policy by bureaucrats and judges. There were brilliant MPs who could debate every inch of the detail - David Miliband, Gisela Stuart, David Heathcoat-Amory, Chris Huhne. But I met others who hadn't even read the document and looked incredulous that I had."
"I once ran a construction company. I didn't sign contracts that I didn't understand, especially when they involved other people's money. So I could not believe that on an issue of such consequence - for their own role as well as for the nation - MPs had not done their homework. When the annual EU membership fee is £6.5 billion, when EU directives have driven almost half of the regulations passed here since 1998, and when implementing those regulations has cost £106 billion (according to a recent study by Open Europe), it is not surprising that people ask what MPs are doing. “
I hope Caroline Flint reads this article and is thoroughly ashamed by her admission that she has never read the Lisbon Treaty but it is gratifying to note that, even though the Times seems to be a Party Political Broadcast for the Conservative these days, at least some of their journalists seem to be singing the Libertas tune. Hopefully, as a result, more people will realise that the only way of stopping the Lisbon Treaty is to vote Libertas.
Nick Coke
Thursday, 21 May 2009
UKIPOCRISY
In a video sent around Europe today, Libertas exposes the hypocrisy of the UK Independence party.
www.libertas.eu/ukip
UKIP’s message of cleaning up Brussels is in direct contrast to how its members operate. Instead of fixing the problem, UKIP has become the problem. During the past European parliamentary term, a full quarter, 25%, of UKIP MEPs were either convicted of fraud, expelled for the same reason, or resigned in disgrace.
Nigel Farage can't stop the sleaze because he employs his wife, they refuse to publish even the most basic details of their expenses and UKIP has the laziest MEPs in Britain, attending just 60% of votes over the last five years.
DON'T judge UKIP on what they say but on HOW they behave. UKIP cannot change anything in Brussels - Libertas is the ONLY party that can change what is happening and stop the gravy train that is pouring out of Brussels. UKIP are NOT the answer, Libertas is.
www.libertas.eu/ukip
www.libertas.eu/ukip
UKIP’s message of cleaning up Brussels is in direct contrast to how its members operate. Instead of fixing the problem, UKIP has become the problem. During the past European parliamentary term, a full quarter, 25%, of UKIP MEPs were either convicted of fraud, expelled for the same reason, or resigned in disgrace.
Nigel Farage can't stop the sleaze because he employs his wife, they refuse to publish even the most basic details of their expenses and UKIP has the laziest MEPs in Britain, attending just 60% of votes over the last five years.
DON'T judge UKIP on what they say but on HOW they behave. UKIP cannot change anything in Brussels - Libertas is the ONLY party that can change what is happening and stop the gravy train that is pouring out of Brussels. UKIP are NOT the answer, Libertas is.
www.libertas.eu/ukip
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Labour MEPs should disclose ALL expenses
Under pressure from Libertas Chairman Declan Ganley, former Labour Minister Denis MacShane MP admitted on television that Labour MEPs should disclose ALL expenses claims in advance of the European election on the 4th June. Labour MEPs just weeks ago voted to keep their expenses hidden from view.Speaking on the BBC's Daily Politics Show, Mr MacShane also said that Libertas' campaign to put Europe back in the hands of the people, 'sounds terrific'.
Chairman, Declan Ganley said, "it's easy to make promises and conjure up soundbites on television, when the Brussels reality is completely different. On 12th March, Labour MEPs voted to keep their taxpayer-funded expenses a secret."
"We will be watching the British Labour Party closely on behalf of voters over the next three weeks, to ensure that - this time at least - they stick to their word."
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