Letter to the Editor
Derby Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 18th April 2006
Dear Sir,
Bill Turncoat Dunn MEP tries to justify his betrayal of all those who worked so hard to secure his election as a Conservative in 1999 (Opinion April 13th), by asserting "Thank goodness, in Britain people are elected as individuals, not as party apparatchiks". This is as near to a downright lie as makes no difference.
In Westminster Elections, it is still possible to argue that we elect individual candidates, not parties, although as we all know the "personal vote" is a minor factor, and most electors do indeed vote for the party, not the candidate.
But euro elections are different. As Turncoat Dunn knows very well, euro elections are conducted in Britain on a party list system. Personally I think it's a rotten system, but we're stuck with it. And electors vote for a party, not an individual. It's true, as Bill likes to point out, that the names of party candidates appear on the ballot paper, but it's also true, as he tries to ignore, that voters vote for a party list, not an individual. Bill offered himself for election as a Conservative on a Conservative list, and by defecting to the Lib-Dems he was betraying all those who selected him and worked hard for his election. He should be ashamed of himself.
He tries to justify his perfidy by arguing that the Tory Party changed its position on EU issues, not him. But at his selection meeting in Nottingham in 1998, he was repeatedly challenged on his known Europhile views, and he repeatedly repudiated them. He deliberately set out to mislead the meeting, and if he had been more straightforward, he would never have got onto the Conservative list in the first place.
Yours faithfully
Roger Helmer MEP
Conservative MEP for Derbyshire
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