Roger Helmer MEP Defects to UKIP

Roger Helmer MEP (Right) with the Leader of the United
Kingdom Independence Party, Nigel Farage MEP (Left)

Roger Helmer MEP has announced that he is leaving the Conservative Party and joining the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).  

Mr. Helmer has been an Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region since 1999, having been re-elected in 2004 and again in 2009.  He has made his concerns over Conservative policy very public in recent months.  He made his announcement at UKIP’s Spring Conference in Skegness. Commenting on his decision, Mr. Helmer said:

“The fact is that UKIP represents the values and convictions of East Midlands Conservatives much better than Cameron’s Tory Party does.  I believe I can do a better job representing those views and interests as a member of UKIP than I could in the Tory Party.  The European project is collapsing before our eyes, yet the three main parties remain wedded to the Brussels dream.  UKIP is the only party which is ahead of the curve on this issue, and on other issues as well”.

In a letter to his former colleagues in the Conservative Party Mr. Helmer writes:

Roger Helmer MEP Speaks Out On Attempted Resignation

Roger Helmer MEP for the East Midlands Regin writes: In October, I announced my intention to resign from the European Parliament on December 31. I was asked by our delegation leader Martin Callanan to postpone that date to January 20 to cover some key votes in Strasbourg in January, which I agreed to do. However, I have not yet signed the Parliament’s formal deed of resignation. I made it clear at the time that a key reason for my decision was my disillusionment with a wide range of Conservative policies - a view which has been strongly reinforced by David Cameron’s vocal backing for further fiscal integration in the EU.

I announced my resignation in the confident expectation (shared by just about everyone) that I would be replaced by the next-in-line on the 2009 Conservative East Midlands list, Rupert Matthews. Since the introduction of the regional list system of voting, there have been nine mid-term vacancies for UK MEPs, and on every occasion the seat has gone to the next available name on the list. It has now emerged, however, that the Party has reservations over the succession.

After the 2010 General Election, a large number of very good people, including Rupert, were taken off the Westminster candidates list. Because he is not currently on that list, the Party has referred his case to the Candidates’ Committee, which will require him to undergo a candidate panel. This is entirely wrong-headed. The Candidates’ Committee exists to pre-qualify names for future elections. It cannot retrospectively disqualify names from previous elections. Rupert was on the list at the relevant time, 2008. He was duly selected under party rules, in a postal ballot by around three and a half thousand East Midlands Conservative Party members, as second on the list (subsequently moved to third under the positive discrimination process). He was then confirmed as next-in-line in the national euro elections of 2009. He has earned his place, he has a democratic mandate. It is outrageous that the Party should be minded to set aside the result of a national election, and many East Midlands Conservatives are very angry indeed.

The Party needs to issue a certificate in respect of such an appointment, and believes it can withhold the certificate in this case. But the Party’s right to withhold the certificate must be exercised fairly, proportionately and transparently. The certificate is intended to enable the Party to refuse someone who has (for example) been convicted of a serious offence, or who has left the Party. But where no such impediment exists, withholding the certificate would be arbitrary and perverse. I have made it clear that I will not sign the formal resignation papers until the position is clarified and Rupert is confirmed. I was happy to resign in favour of the next-in-line in the normal way, but I am not prepared to stand aside for some A-List Cameron protégée from St. John’s Wood.

However the Party says it will not call the panel and make the decision until I do resign. So we have a Mexican stand-off. I think that both I and Rupert (and our respective families) are entitled to some certainty and resolution on the issue. Accordingly I have indicated to the Party Chairman that if the situation is not resolved within a few weeks, I shall withdraw my offer to resign. I am quite prepared, if necessary, to stay in place for the remaining two and a half years of my mandate until 2014.

I have always argued that when a Conservative MEP is out of sympathy with Party policy, and unable to defend it, he should resign to make way for another Conservative. I believe that that is the decent and honourable thing to do, and I have sought to do it, but my intention has been frustrated by the Party’s reprehensible prevarication. I have also made it clear to the Party Chairman that I believe that my obligations on this point have been fully and finally discharged by my offer, made in good faith, to resign. Accordingly, if I am obliged to stay in place until 2014, I shall feel no further sense of obligation or responsibility to the Party.

Local MEP Takes Wind Farm Protest to Party Conference

Roger Helmer, who is one of the two Conservative MEPs in the East Midlands region of the UK, will be speaking out against excessive wind power development at a fringe meeting in the Freedom Zone at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester next week.

On Monday 3rd October at 10.15am a panel of three speakers, including Matthew Sinclair of the Taxpayers' Alliance, Struan Stevenson MEP (Scotland) and Roger Helmer MEP, will discuss the coalition government's very dangerous policies on renewable energy, and especially their commitment to wind power.

All three speakers have campaigned against current energy policies. Matthew Sinclair's new book 'Let Them Eat Carbon', is a very effective and damning critique of renewables policy. MEPs Helmer & Stevenson have joined local campaign groups in opposing wind farm projects near residential areas, and making information public to constituents who need to be informed of the real costs of Chris Huhne's decisions on energy matters.

Ahead of the event, Mr Helmer commented about the current Energy Minister's work:

"Mr Huhne's renewables policy is futile, ineffectual and vastly expensive. It is time for a re-think".

Members of the public and press are invited to attend the discussion panel next week in Manchester. The Freedom Association (of which Roger Helmer is a past Chairman), holds the annual Freedom Zone event on the fringe of the Conservative Party Conference. It is hosting the controversial debate, and a conference pass is NOT needed to access the Freedom Zone at the Bridgewater Hall on Lower Mosley Street, Manchester.

Roger Helmer: Futile Sacrifices

Roger Helmer is a European Conservatives & Reformists Group Member of the European  Parliament, elected as a Conservative to represent the East Midlands Region.

Roger writes:

They say that the Incas used to perform frequent human sacrifices to the sky gods, with the objective of praying for rain and preventing droughts. These sacrifices were accompanied by horrific and grotesque rituals and cruelty. If, despite these excesses, the drought came anyway, then the priests advised the people that there had been insufficient sacrifices, so more and more citizens should be slaughtered to appease the gods.

Usually, this seemed to work, the drought ended, and the credibility of the priests was enhanced (just as sick people mostly get better, and in olden times this might be taken as proof that the medicine worked -- in the days before double-blind trials).

East Midlands MEP Does Not Support Creation of European Diplomatic Service, Whilst Colleagues Vote For It.

Mr. Roger Helmer MEP, Conservative (East Midlands), today commented on recent activites of the European Parliament saying:

"Not me, Guv. I voted 'NO'."

Rt. Hon. William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary gave instructions to the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, in which the Conservatives' MEPs sit, were decisive in securing a crucial positive vote on the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Without a decisive call by United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary, Rt. Hon. William Hague MP, to his fellow party members in the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), whose members were elected on an anti-federalist ticket, the EEAS would probably not have got off the ground.

The Parliament voted on Thursday, 8th July on a decision to establish the European External Action Service, a new European Union's diplomatic corps that will be led by EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton.

To the surprise of many observers – including some ECR group members – the EEAS proposal was approved, in part thanks to the support of MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

Mr. Charles Tannock MEP, foreign affairs spokesman for the ECR group, said:

"We were opposed to the creation of the EEAS but we are now reconciled to engaging constructively within the new architecture in the best interests of our countries."

He argued that some changes introduced to the proposal had made it acceptable to the Conservatives.

"I welcome that Mr [Elmar] Brok, [a German centre-right MEP] as rapporteur, has included my amendment in his text, which supports national parliamentary involvement. This is crucial to ensuring that the new service is subject to proper democratic scrutiny."

Ms Ulrike Lunacek MEP, an Austrian Green, said that without the ECR group's support, the decision would have been postponed until the autumn, allowing EU member states more time to bargain for amendments to dilute the text, or fight for positions of influence in the future EU organisation.

"Without the ECR we wouldn't have achieved it."

Lunacek explained how some MEPs from the ECR group had seemed confused following the vote after being told to vote in favour of a text which they had previously attacked.

Until days ago, leading MEPs were saying that more time would be needed for the political groups to digest a compromise deal on the proposal reached in Madrid. They were categorical in saying that the vote on approving Ashton's proposals would take place after the summer recess.

However, on Thursday, 8th July, European parliamentarians overwhelmingly voted to set up the EEAS, by 549 votes to 78. Only MEPs from the left-wing Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) and the right-wing, Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group (EFD) voted against the proposal.

Asked to comment on the political importance of William Hague's move, Lunacek said:

"This is something I wouldn't have expected from Mr. Hague, so I really appreciate that. I hope this augurs for a more pro-European stance, in the Council especially. Being in government together with the Lib Dems hopefully helps somewhat. That's a positive sign."

Mr. Guillaume McLaughlin, a policy adviser from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group, said a few more obstacles had to be overcome before the vote could be held. The first was an internal division within the centre-right European People's Party group, with Polish Conservative MEP Jacek Sariusz-Wolski pushing for more 'geographical balance,' meaning fairer representation of Eastern Europeans in the future diplomatic service.

This view was opposed by leading European People's Party (EPP) member Mr. Elmar Brok MEP, who stood against the concept.

As discussions developed, Sariusz-Wolski apparently backed down after it had been agreed internally that Polish European Affairs Minister Mikołaj Dowgielewicz would get the job of deputy secretary-general of the EEAS. Instead of a tougher text on geographical balance, an agreement was reached that possible 'imbalances' would be taken into account during the 2013 review of the service.

Another aspect, Mr. McLaughlin explained, was the position of the Partido Popular, the Spanish centre-right opposition party, which was 'playing Spanish politics' and 'didn't want the Spanish Socialists to achieve anything during their presidency'.

During the conference of political group presidents, held before the Strasbourg plenary, all group leaders were in favour of holding the vote during the July session, except the EPP, which insisted on postponing the vote until autumn.

In this context, the votes by the ECR group proved decisive.

"The Tories, for God's sake, saved this,"

 McLaughlin fretted, adding that the coalition with the Liberal democrats had

"delivered some positive things already at European level".

He also said that a major factor in the vote's success was the absence of Mr. Brok from the conference of presidents, held on Thursday, 1st July. On that day, Mr. Brok was in Berlin on the occasion of the vote to appoint the new German President, Christian Wulff.

"There was in fact nobody from the EPP to defend Brok's position,"

The fact that the EPP was opposed to holding the vote at the July session, however, did not prevent the Parliament's biggest group from massively voting in favour of the EEAS blueprint, he added.

Daniel Hannan: "The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government"

For those of you yet to see the stinging attack on Gordon Brown by Daniel Hannan MEP I present it here. Notice that our MEP Roger Helmer is sat to Hannan right.

Having Dinner with Roger Helmer MEP

I had the good fortune to be sat next to Roger Helmer MEP at the Nettleham & District's Branch Annual Dinner earlier this evening.

We talked together for some time, even getting into the intricacies of the D'Hont Method used for the Election of European Parliamentarians from Britain and associated territories - which I found absolutely fascinating, and imagine would render most people bored senseless. European Elections are scheduled for June 2009 next year.

Roger explained his views regarding climate change. Despite what may be printed in the press Roger believes, rightly, that there is climate change; he is however, sceptical about the effect of climate change and the amount of conflicting evidence that can be presented to bolster any number of different positions. So he, like myself prefers to keep an open mind on the question of Global Warming.

Conservative MEP team chosen

The Conservative Candidates for the East Midlands European Elections in 2009 have been chosen by a postal ballot of all Party Members. The team is led by Roger Helmer MEP, supported by Emma McClarkin, Rupert Matthews, Fiona Bulmer and George Lee.


Retiring MEP,Chris Heaton-Harris, says

"This is a fantastic team to represent the East Midlands with a real depth of talent and wide range of experience".

The List on the ballot paper will be:

1. Roger Helmer
2. Emma McClarkin
3. Rupert Matthews
4. Fiona Bulmer
5. George Lee