Dear All
Ukip did very well in the European elections, even in
Scotland, they managed to capture a seat which the Scottish National Party had
banked on getting, in an attempt to kick start their failing and ultimately
doomed independence campaign.
Face with the threat of being branded ‘racist’ by the SNP,
the people of Scotland, and I include myself in that, decided Ukip represented
the best possible chance to deny Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon's proxy, Tasmina
Ahmed-Sheikh an MEP spot.
Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh didn't deserve to be an MEP.
And you don't play the race card politics when your
candidate is from a minority, I guess some SNP people aren't the 'master
strategists' that Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon would have you believe
they are.
That is the George Laird view, which incidentally should be
the Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh view as well. Ukip did her a favour by default; they
afford her the opportunity to learn politics, not out of a book but as an
activist.
Ukip went on to become the first party in 100 years to win
an election as neither; the government or main opposition party!
It was and is a remarkable achievement by any stretch of the
imagination, overall the European election campaign was rather poor I felt by
the major parties; they just went through the motions, they had no vision
either of a new Europe or a reform one.
At its core, the Ukip approach was to speak out on behalf of
the British people over matters of concern that the major parties ignore or at
best give lip service too.
Immigration!
The offshoots of that are jobs, schools, housing and social
cohesion.
To the winner go the spoils, sometime the spoils don't seem
at first glance to be worth it, Ukip has been in negotiations to form a group
in the European Parliament.
Why is this important, well an alliance with at least six
other parties is essential in order to attain group status under the rules of
Brussels! You might think, so what, Ukip and six other parties are in a group,
big deal, well it is a big deal.
Being in a group comes with major political advantages
such as membership of key committees. At some point in the EU there will be
reform, the current setup with 28 members has had serious problems, even if you
were not Eurosceptic, everyone in the club knows this coming, shaping the
direction of that new future is important.
One of the changes I wish to see is the EU internal
immigration policy.
My policy allows member states in conjunction with the EU to
set criteria for an EU citizen to go and work in another member state. The
policy would also allow for the removal of an EU citizen if there are breaches
of the rules. Free movement of Labour is important, however, this principle is
being abused and importantly nothing can be done about it under the current
setup.
Other advantages of being in a group under the rules of the
EU are priority of speaking rights in the parliament. Speaking time when the
big players are in the chamber to present an alternative view point, and substantial
grants to hire staff to support the group’s MEPs in the work. The value of
research and think tanks cannot be overstated for what is needed to be done now.
If Nigel Farage hadn't managed to pull off setting up a
group, Ukip and other parties with a similar view point would have been marginalised
in Brussels . He
has previously managed to pull off having a group called the Europe of Freedom
& Democracy (EFD).
UKIP made great advances in the European elections, no one
can dispute that, but politically in other countries so did several other
Eurosceptic parties across the continent.
Interestingly, Nigel Farage says that by the Conservative
Party has been involved in a
‘dirty tricks’ operation to try and break up his group by
courting its members. On the surface there is nothing wrong in making allies,
even new allies. David Cameron keeps talking about reform and has done so for
several years. Some of what he says doesn't quite gel together because he
appears to be promising things he can't deliver without major help.
Farage says his allies from Finland
and Denmark
along with others were offered goodness knows what to go and sit with David
Cameron’s much reduced band of Conservative MEPs. Oddly, Cameron accepted into
his group MEPs from a new Eurosceptic German party, the AfD. I can't say I
have heard of them but apparently they are the sworn political enemies of
Angela Merkel. Given the influence of Germany in the EU, perhaps this
decision may not be as wise as first envisaged. Cameron would need to get
Merkel onboard for his platform of change in Europe .
In truth, the Conservative Party rank and file has never been fully in love
with Europe even although it was Ted Heath who led Britain into the EU in the early
days of the 1970's.
Although things are going well for Ukip, and they deserve
their success, they need to wake up and smell the coffee as well, they just
cannot be a party of protest, they have to engage in the EU reform process and
in a meaningful way. It is not enough to just complain because people get tired
and drift away from listening to you. if played properly this could help
strengthen Ukip as a political force not just in Europe but also domestically
in the UK for both Westminster and Holyrood
elections.
Politics in Europe could
possibly be interesting again over the next few years, how Nigel Farage and
Ukip play it will certainly be worth watching.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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