Why the Conservatives are not putting up a candidate for EU President
Did you know that if you vote Labour in the European Elections next Thursday you are voting that Martin Schulz should be the next president of the EU Commission?
Or that if you vote Lib/Dem you are voting for Guy Verhofstadt for that position?
No?
You're not alone.
None of the Labour literature I have seen during this election campaign mentions that they are part of an EU-wide socialist group which is putting up Herr Schulz for EU Commission President and a Labour vote is supposed to be a vote for him. Indeed, their literature says very little about their policies on Europe, full stop. Most of it, and all their election promises, are about UK issues and things a Labour government of the UK woud supposedly do.
The nearest thing to a statement of policy relating to Europe in the entire Labour European Election address is a paragraph arguing that they think it would be a bad idea for Britain to leave the EU.
I have not seen a single Lib/Dem European leaflet in the whole of the campaign, and did not get a freepost election address from them, so I don't know if they mention Guy Verhofstadt, who was confirmed as the nominee for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) at their party congress in Brussels on 1 February. Speaking to delegates, Mr Verhofstadt said his priorities for the campaign would be attacking euroscepticism and promoting a federal vision for Europe.
If I have not seen any Lib/Dem material for months other than for their local council candidates in South Lakeland, it's a reasonable bet that not too many other people have seen Lib/Dem literature either. So it makes no difference whether their leaflets mention Mr Verhofstadt if nobody has seen them.
There was a commendable attempt by the BBC this week to explain the runners and riders for the EU commisson presidency, and one or two blogs like Debating Europe here have provided more material but I still doubt that more than 1% of the electors of Europe could say which candidate has been put forward by which group.
The idea of introducing more democracy into the choice of EU leaders is a good one, but piggybacking on the EU parliament elections is not engaging with the electorate in Britain and I doubt it will do so in the rest of Europe.
The Conservatives and our AECR (Alliance of Conservaties and Reformists) colleagues concluded that putting up our own candidate as some sort of virility symbol would be a pointless piece of tokenism. We will use our votes at the EU parliament and the council of ministers for whichever candidate offers the best deal for Britain.
Or that if you vote Lib/Dem you are voting for Guy Verhofstadt for that position?
No?
You're not alone.
None of the Labour literature I have seen during this election campaign mentions that they are part of an EU-wide socialist group which is putting up Herr Schulz for EU Commission President and a Labour vote is supposed to be a vote for him. Indeed, their literature says very little about their policies on Europe, full stop. Most of it, and all their election promises, are about UK issues and things a Labour government of the UK woud supposedly do.
The nearest thing to a statement of policy relating to Europe in the entire Labour European Election address is a paragraph arguing that they think it would be a bad idea for Britain to leave the EU.
I have not seen a single Lib/Dem European leaflet in the whole of the campaign, and did not get a freepost election address from them, so I don't know if they mention Guy Verhofstadt, who was confirmed as the nominee for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) at their party congress in Brussels on 1 February. Speaking to delegates, Mr Verhofstadt said his priorities for the campaign would be attacking euroscepticism and promoting a federal vision for Europe.
If I have not seen any Lib/Dem material for months other than for their local council candidates in South Lakeland, it's a reasonable bet that not too many other people have seen Lib/Dem literature either. So it makes no difference whether their leaflets mention Mr Verhofstadt if nobody has seen them.
There was a commendable attempt by the BBC this week to explain the runners and riders for the EU commisson presidency, and one or two blogs like Debating Europe here have provided more material but I still doubt that more than 1% of the electors of Europe could say which candidate has been put forward by which group.
The idea of introducing more democracy into the choice of EU leaders is a good one, but piggybacking on the EU parliament elections is not engaging with the electorate in Britain and I doubt it will do so in the rest of Europe.
The Conservatives and our AECR (Alliance of Conservaties and Reformists) colleagues concluded that putting up our own candidate as some sort of virility symbol would be a pointless piece of tokenism. We will use our votes at the EU parliament and the council of ministers for whichever candidate offers the best deal for Britain.
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