Euro Tory Leader, Timothy Kirkhope, looks to see what's been leaked by his group
There seem to be two Conservative parties in the ECR Group, but which is the ‘real’ one? Whilst many Conservative MEP’s are sticking to the party line, many out of conviction, some out of a desire not to rock the boat ahead of a UK election, a few seem to be campaigning against official policy as loudly as they can.
We have recently covered events in the ECR and this has led to a complaint from Roger Helmer MEP, who wrote that “We are of course familiar with the obsessive hostility of the EPP to the new ECR group.” This caused some surprise amongst some Conservative MEP’s, one of whom said, “Look, we’re all Conservative, we just disagree on federalism, it’s the socialists who we oppose and we are working with our colleagues in the EPP to defeat them whenever we can”.
Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Leader of the Conservatives in European Parliament agrees, saying, “We have made it clear that we want to maintain excellent relations with the EPP. Today, we enjoy very strong relations with them and have shown that, on a number of areas where we agree, such as the election of President Barroso, we can work well together. We intend to continue to cooperate to maximise the centre right vote wherever possible.”
In defence of his claim, Roger Helmer cites “Published statements of leaders of EPP parties alleging that “The Conservatives have aligned themselves with extremists”. We know that senior EPP people including Wilfred Martens have (for example) been in Washington briefing against the British Conservatives and the ECR group, which they have described as “unstable” and unlikely to survive (their objective, of course, is that it should not). Reluctance to make deals even when it is clearly in their interests to do so. Mendacious attempts to smear our group leader Michal Tomasz Kaminstki as a Nazi, anti-semitic, homophobic.” And so on.
This illustrates the divided state of the ECR Group. Whilst Helmer is complaining about “obsessive hostility”, these words might also be applied to his attitude to official policy. As a leading light in the Better Off Out campaign, it is hard to reconcile their aims with Tory leader, David Cameron’s recent statement on Europe, “I don’t want us to leave the EU because I don’t think it’s sensible and I don’t think it’s the right thing for Britain.” Likewise, it is hard to see the continuation of Cameron’s environmental policies with Helmer’s climate Change denial. He recently hosted a conference in the EP advocating that man made climate change was a myth. Interestingly, also speaking at that meeting was Daniel Hannan’s fellow blogger at the UK Daily Telegraph, James Delingpole, who recently wrote on his blog a piece entitled “Is Edward MacMillan-Scott the most tedious, annoying and ghastly member in the entire Euro parliament?”
This was more like an outpouring from a Tourette’s sufferer than considered journalism that left many wondering what had happened to the Telegraph’s editorial standards. Some have suggested it was in revenge for the paper’s recent apology to MacMillan-Scott, but nevertheless, it does stand as an example of “obsessive hostility”.
