Welcome David Campbell-Bannerman MEP

Welcome to David Campbell-Bannerman MEP who today has returned to the Conservative Party from the UK Independence Party of which he was formerly chairman.

Mr Campbell-Bannerman will join the East of England's excellent team of Conservative MEPs, Geoffrey Van Orden, Vicky Ford and Robert Sturdy and sit with the only practical and effective Conservative grouping in the European Parliament that opposes ever-greater political integration, the European Conservatives and Reformists.

It is well known that UKIP MEPs are often absent and fail to stand up for British interests in the European parliament.

UPDATE: David comments on his own move on the Blue Blog and Cambridge Conservative Deputy Chairman Timothy Haire welcomes David as a new member of Cambridge Conservatives.

Conference for business

Conservative MEPs Geoffrey Van Orden and Vicky Ford are holding an all-day conference entitled "What can we do for your business in 2010?" on Monday 15 March at Clare College. If this could be helpful to your business then please register by e-mailing Geoffrey - see below.

European Team Supports Coleridge

The Conservative European team for our region (East of England) was supporting Coleridge tonight, knocking on doors. We have a strong team going into the elections for the European Parliament, determined to stand up for British interests in Europe.

Conservatives have a track record of getting good deals out of Europe - sadly many of these have needlessly been trashed by Labour in the hope of being 'good Europeans', such as the rebate and opt-outs on various bits of legislation.

Pictured above are Vicky Ford (left), who is third-placed candidate on the Conservative list and Robert Sturdy MEP (right), both of whom take a special interest in Cambridge.

All Time Favourite

I've just rediscovered one of my all time favourite political speeches - from William Hague's demolition in the House of Commons of the Lisbon Treaty, the rehashed European Constitution.

What a pity our local MP broke his election promise to support a referendum on the European Constitution, as the Government went on to ratify the treaty despite Ireland's No vote and performances like that above from William Hague...

Europe and the cost of living

One of the reasons why so many people I'm speaking to are not going to vote Labour at this election is that they are fed up with the way prices for fuel, food, council tax, electricity, gas etc etc are rocketing up, whilst the Government continues to insist everything is fine and inflation is only around 2%.

I was discussing the huge rises in just about every type of foodstuff with a voter on the doorstep yesterday and had a thought:

Is the EU spending taxpayers money providing farming subsidies to farmers who are or could be growing these crops that are now being priced so highly on the world markets?

If so, is there any justification for this, or should now not be the ideal time to stop all forms of agricultural subsidy in the EU, as it would remove the burden of subsidies on the taxpayer once and for all, which could then be used to help people suffering from higher prices on just about everything...

So I've just written to Robert Sturdy MEP, one of Eastern Region's excellent Conservative MEPs and farming expert to ask this very question!

Full list of candidates

The full list of candidates at the City Council elections is now available here. The usual suspects are standing in Coleridge, and it is a re-run of last year's contest between myself and Labour's sitting Councillor who was 18 votes ahead last year.

UKIP are also standing again. It was very frustrating watching where UKIP voters second votes went last year, as it is quite clear that they cost the Conservatives the chance of getting a Councillor elected. It will be the same for potential UKIP voters again this year - if you want to help the fanatically pro-EU Labour party stay in power, even after they broke their promises of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, then carry on voting UKIP - I can't think of any other reason to vote for them!

European Betrayal: David Howarth’s ‘Anne Campbell’ Moment

It seems like an eternity ago, but until 2005 Cambridge used to have a Labour MP, Anne Campbell. No small part of her downfall was her stance on tuition fees. Having promised the electorate she would say no to tuition fees, she then decided to do the party loyalist thing and vote for them. No amount of weasel words from her that she had meant to be talking about top up fees could persuade the electorate she hadn’t promised one thing before an election, and as MP, had voted a different way.

Prior to the last election, the Lib Dems promised Cambridge residents a referendum on the European Constitution. By betraying this promise and abstaining on the Conservative’s demands for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Cambridge Lib Dem MP David Howarth may well have just had his ‘Anne Campbell moment’ – and the Cambridge electorate know they can never trust him again to keep his promises.

It’s no good weaselling that the Lisbon Treaty isn’t the European Constitution – as Mark Littlewood, former Lib Dem Head of Media said:

‘There are differences but they are differences of nuance, and I think you need to go through some pretty perverse constitutional contortions to be able to go back and explain to the electorate why that promise for a referendum doesn't hold'

As for the Lib Dems fake outrage and walkout of parliament because they couldn’t ask for a referendum on EU membership itself - why should this be relevant to a discussion on the Lisbon Treaty? Personally, I certainly don’t want Britain to leave the EU as it currently is, for example, they do important work to make free trade and the common market happen, and they have important work to do on cross-border environmental issues.
But I do think the EU is far too bureaucratic, and far too far from democratic control by the people of Europe – a point reinforced by the way politicians have brought back the Constitution almost unchanged as the Lisbon Treaty, ignored previous referendums rejecting the plans and breaking promises to hold new referendums. So no, the question is not whether we should remain in the EU, but how to give people a real say on whether further powers should be transferred to Europe as this Treaty implies.

Don’t take my word for how badly Lib Dem MPs behaviour has gone down – ask some Lib Dem activists like this and this.