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."

The Great European Rip-Off

Best selling author David Craig made an impassioned plea today to voters to send an unequivocal “enough is enough” message to our politicians in Westminster and Brussels.

“You may think that most of our MPs at Westminster are crooks, but their stealing and thieving is petty cash compared to what’s happening in the European Union” claimed the author.

The vast scale of corruption and waste in Brussels is exposed in his latest book “The Great European Rip-Off”. David Craig is a candidate for Libertas in the South East region in the European elections on 4th June.

“Libertas has a mission to stop the waste, end the corruption and put democracy into the heart of Brussels. I want to do everything I can to assist that mission.”

David Craig previously caused a political storm when he released “Squandered – How Gordon Brown is wasting over one trillion pounds of our money”, exposing the shocking amounts of money wasted under New Labour.

World first: star in your own ad for Libertas

This week, Libertas is launching a revolutionary advertising campaign on the internet: in keeping with our mission to return Europe to the people, we’re asking anyone who supports our cause to make an ad for us.

Instead of one big corporate TV spot, we’re creating thousands of individual “people ads” - it’s grassroots, democratic advertising.

Here’s an example below. Please click on this link today (http://libertas.thisad.co.uk) and make your very own ad, which will then automatically run on sites like MySpace and help get the vote out.

It only takes a couple of minutes, it’s completely free, and most importantly, it lets you spread the word and convince others to vote Libertas on June 4!

Thank you,

Robin Matthews

Trust in politicians is dead. They are traitors to their country.

This has been the darkest point in the history of British politics. Trust in politicians is dead.

Politicians right across the board have been exposed with their fingers in the till, and all they can say is that it was the system at fault. It’s disgusting. We should be able to trust our politicians enough to give them a suitcase full of used notes and say ‘just take what you think is right’. We shouldn’t have to implement a system of detailed controls to check that they aren’t fiddling the system!

Politicians are the guardians of our society. If we can’t trust them not to rob from us, then we certainly can’t trust them to run the economy, to handle massive business contracts, to run the NHS, to look after our personal information and so on.

These people are traitors to their country. They have irreparably damaged the entire political system. Full disclosure is the only way that we can drag the political class out of its current depression. That’s why this week we have made a series of ground-breaking pledges about how we will behave if elected. I strongly urge all other parties to follow suit.

It’s no longer simply a case of making sure that this doesn’t happen again. Too much damage has been caused. Our party leaders need to take a strong lead on this and completely rethink the way they do politics. If Libertas can make these promises, why can’t they?

-Robin Matthews

The most undeserved political rise in history

UKIP’s sudden boost in the polls is the most undeserved political rise in the history of Britain. The expense scandal has led to a massive 12% protest swing to UKIP in the latest poll, boosting them to 19% from their previous position on 7%. I am shocked.

There is no party that could deserve public support less if people are angry over expenses. UKIP lost two of its twelve MEPs to fraud charges, both Nigel Farage and Robert Kilroy-Silk employed their wives, they refuse to publish their expenses and UKIP’s MEPs are the laziest in Brussels, voting just 60% of the time. They have done nothing to deserve public support over expenses.

UKIP were well on their way to losing most of their seats in this election, having dropped 9% in the polls from their 2004 high point of 16%. They’ve done nothing for five years, apart from waste tax payers’ money on their lavish lifestyles in Brussels.

I am livid that in the same week that Libertas has launched a series of sleaze-busting pledges designed to stamp out sleaze in Britain, UKIP is gaining by default from this current scandal having done absolutely nothing to earn it. Bitter? You bet I am.

- Robin Matthews

Why Vote Libertas!

From Trevor Bending, one of your 6 Libertas candidates for the Yorkshire & Humber Region.

To:
End the corruption and absenteeism of MEP’s: http://www.libertas.eu/uk/news
Vote Libertas!

Make a Difference in Europe: http://www.libertas.eu/uk/why-libertas
Vote Libertas!

Bring transparency and cut bureaucracyin the EU: http://www.libertas.eu/en/policies
Vote Libertas!

Join the party and Vote Libertas!: http://www.libertas.eu/uk/get-involved

Libertas is fielding full party lists of candidates across all nine English regions.

See also:
Libertas Eastern Region: http://libertas-eastern.blogspot.com/

Libertas East Midlands: http://libertas-em.blogspot.com/

Libertas London: http://libertas-london.blogspot.com/

Libertas UK Party Leader Robin Matthews blog: http://robin-matthews.blogspot.com/
More details coming soon.

Try Votematch to check the parties against your own views!

Yesterday, Declan Ganley, founder of Libertas, met with EU President (see 3. below) and supporter of democracy Vaclav Klaus at Prague Castle.

As far as I can make out, the EU has not one but 4, or possibly 7, Presidents, depending on how you count:

1. President of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (former PM of Portugal) 2004-9
2. President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering 2007-9 (German MEP since 1979; highly decorated lawyer and writer; leader of the centre-right European People's Party 199-2007 - the dominant political party grouping in the EU - mainly Christian Democrat.)
3. President of the European Council = Head of Government (Chief Minister) or Head of State (currently President Václav Klaus ) of that country (currently Czech Republic) being the 6 monthly (4.) President of the Council of the European Union = designated government minister(s) = currently: 5. Alexandr Vondra (leading Czech politician),
6. HSH Prince Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena von Schwarzenberg (that's one person) and
7. Jan Kohout (from Jan - June 2009 when Sweden takes over - Presidency countries already decided until June 2020). (5.,6. and 7. all successive Czech Foreign Ministers)
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Parliament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_People%27s_Party
and links therefrom
(trying to sort this out from EU sources is virtually impossible!)
The UK government pages on this are helpful
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/TheUKandtheworld/DG_073418 or
http://tinyurl.com/p33eap
and states:
The Lisbon Treaty: President of the European Council
The Lisbon Treaty, signed in December 2007, aims to make the changes needed for the EU to work more effectively. One of these changes is to create a permanent, full-time President of the European Council.
The full-time president will be a politician chosen by the leaders of the member states. The president will serve for two and a half years, instead of a country taking charge every six months. This change should provide more continuity.
(No mention of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty!).

If you would like to see greater transparency in EU politics and want to find out more about what the main UK parties' positions are and whether you should give your vote to Libertas on 4th June, try the independent 'votematch' website's questionnaire - takes a few minutes, fun to do and is very revealing!
http://www.votematch.co.uk/
Do the survey, then follow the debates from 'debatewise' for more information. (http://www.debatewise.info/) - supported by both Tony Benn and Boris Johnson!