The North West European election

I wrote when I received my postal ballot paper for the North West Region in the European elections on 23rd May that in terms of the candidates presenting themselves it was literally the most horrifying ballot paper I have seen in my life.

One of the candidates standing in the North West is the former EDL founder who has a conviction for mortgage fraud and multiple convictions for assault, Steven Yaxley-Lennon, standing under the alias under which he is better known, Tommy Robinson.

The first candidate on the Brexit party list is Claire Fox who is best known as a BBC journalist but whose track record particularly in respect of the IRA bombing in Warrington which killed two young boys and injured 56 other people has caused concern and controversy including the resignation from the Brexit party of one of the candidates who had been due to stand with her, Sally Bate.

At the time of this atrocity Claire Fox was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party which defended "the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom" shortly after the bombing.

Colin Parry OBE, father of one of the two boys murdered in the 1993 bombing, called on Ms Fox to explain herself, and she did in fact telephone him. After that conversation he tweeted that he gave her some credit

"for having the gumption to call me today"

but added that

"the fact that she repeatedly refused to disavow her comments supporting the IRA bombing which took Tim’s and Johnathan’s young lives proves she hasn’t changed her original views."

From everything I know about Colin Parry who has bent over backwards to try to bring peace from the evil that claimed the lives of his young son and so many other innocent people, he is a moderate and incredibly patient and reasonable man. If he is not satisfied that Claire Fox has repudiated her past views on the IRA murders in Warrington, then neither am I.

I can entirely understand why people are deeply upset that these elections are taking place at all. I am one of them.

The majority of those who cast their votes decided to leave the EU, and that decision should be implemented, and should have been implemented by now.

But while we are still in we are legally bound to hold these elections.

And while these elections are taking place, and candidates like Yaxley-Lennon and Fox are standing, responsible citizens need to ask if we are willing to sit back and allow them to be elected without even bothering to vote for someone else. As Edmund Burke wrote,


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