Home What's New Speeches & Articles Newsletter - Apr 2008 Biography Diary Contact Information Photo Album Parliamentary Highlights Publications Links MEPs' Transparency   Conservative Party Latest News from Conservatives.com Conservative Party Website
		Re-selection speech Sunday, January 26th 2003 - Racecourse Conference Centre, Leicester Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, friends & colleagues: I'm delighted to be here today in Leicester, and I'd like to thank you for giving up your afternoon to be here too. I'd also like to thank you once again for all the hard work you did, as party members and activists, back in 1999. That euro-election victory was an amazing achievement. We were twenty points behind in the opinion polls, yet we beat Labour by a full ten points on election day. Before getting into politics in 1999, I had a long career in international business. So going to the European parliament was a bit of a culture shock. For the first week, I was wondering how on earth I'd got there. Since then, I've been wonder-ing how the rest of them got there! Seriously though, in all my business career I never worked so hard, or enjoyed my work so much, as these last few years. Mr. Chairman, I'm afraid I have to make a confession. For the last three years I've been in serious breach of the EU Working Time Directive! It's been a particular pleasure to work with my colleague Chris Heaton-Harris, and I can't speak too highly of the job he's done in the parliament. There are some regions where Tory MEPs have been competing against each other for places on the list. Here in the East Midlands, Chris and I have worked together as a team, and campaigned as a team. As it happens, we agree on all the key issues, which is great for us, but I believe it's also been good for the Party in the region. Sadly, one of the MEPs we all worked hard to elect, turned out to be a bad 'un. I share the sense of anger and frustration that I know many of you feel to see him still there in Brussels. But we may have a chance to sort that out. He'll probably head the Lib-Dem list next year. So now we have two good reasons to campaign in 2004 -- for a much-needed Conservative victory, but also to make sure that Bill Turncoat Dunn doesn't get back to Brussels. One of the biggest problems we face in the EU is excessive regulation, which seems to intrude into every detail of our lives. The first question I'm asked by most of the East Midlands companies I visit is "Why does the EU have so much damaging regulation?". And the second question is "Why do we implement the rules so much more rigorously than other member-states?". If it goes on like this it will soon be illegal to sell an ounce of cannabis on the streets of Leicester. Not because it's cannabis, of course, but because it's an ounce! Chris and I ride shotgun on the torrent of legislation that Brussels pumps out. We can rarely stop new measures altogether, but over and over again we make major improvements to bad laws. There was the noise directive that would have made the bar staff in your local pub wear ear-plugs. The vibration directive that would have limited farmers to two hours a day on their tractors. The vitamins directive that would have taken safe and familiar remedies off the shelves. The Corporate Social Responsibility proposals that would pile new burdens on business. The Temporary Workers Directive, which could cost 10,000 jobs in the East Midlands. I'm particularly proud of the work I did to save familiar equine medicines that could have been banned under the Veterinary Medicines Directive, and of my amendment to the Tobacco Directive that saved 200 jobs at Imperial in Nottingham, at least for five years. Even this Labour government has recognised the damage that some of these regulations will do. Often they ask British MEPs to vote against some proposal, and we Tories do -- not because Labour asked us, but because it's the right decision. But amazingly, Labour MEPs vote the other way, against their own government. It may be New Labour in Westminster, but it's still Old Labour in Brussels. These are the divisions we must highlight and expose. I've done a great deal of work on Countryside issues. Back in 1999, I went with colleagues to Paris to protest against the French beef ban, and I was very nearly arrested by the Gendarmes on the Champs Elysées. A few weeks ago Chris and I sent a demand to the French government for £30 million in unpaid fines. I organised a group of over twenty Tory MEPs who joined the Countryside March in September. And a few days later in Strasbourg I chaired a meeting of the parliament's Country Sports Intergroup where we had Kate Hoey to speak on rural issues. So the work we do in Europe is important. But I believe that our work in the East Midlands is more important still. (And here I'd like to pay a special tribute to my wife Sara, who keeps my UK appointments diary. She plans my weekend work, and without her I'd never be able to do half as much as I do). Chris and I have worked tirelessly up and down the region. We've been to innumerable Conservative AGMs, lunches, dinners and coffee mornings. And we've reached out beyond the party. We talk to farmers, fishermen, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce; to trade associations like the Engineering Em-ploy-ers, the CBI, the NFU, the Federation of Small Business; to local charities, pressure groups and NGOs; to schools and universities. We've visited literally hundreds of companies, large and small, up and down the region. But with all our work in the region, we meet only a tiny fraction of our four million constituents. To spread the word more widely, we have to use the media. That's why Chris and I set up a press office in Nottingham, and appointed Sally McNamara as Press Officer in 1999. She's now my research assistant in Brussels, but her successors Zoë Aylward and Emma McClarkin have kept up the good work. We've seen a steady stream of coverage in local press, with letters, articles and news stories -- and I'd like to thank all of you who have helped in letter writing campaigns. We've had excellent support from local radio stations, as well as regional TV. I've made a special point of speaking and debating and campaigning against joining the euro, and I give you my word that in any future referendum I will fight tooth and nail to keep the Pound. Chris and I cleared our desks for the 2001 General Election campaign, and threw ourselves into it, especially working with Tory candidates in Labour seats. We've turned out in council elections and by-elections, knocking on doors alongside our candidates, including many of you here today, and we've had some excellent results. I look forward to campaigning with you again in the May local elections. I've kept you up-to-date on our work in Brussels with regular newsletters, a comprehensive web-site, and also, of course, my two books. (Commercial plug there!) Ladies & Gentlemen, I believe that the tide is turning against Labour. They are failing comprehensively on public services, and undermining our economy with their tax & spend policies. The gilt is coming off their gingerbread. Blair may still walk on water, but his shoes are getting wet. Labour is failing in Europe. Jack Straw's Gibraltar policy was a disaster. He's managed to infuriate the Spanish and the Gibraltarians. And he's betrayed both Gibraltar's interests and British interests. Labour has failed on agriculture. We desperately need root-and-branch CAP reform -- and repatriation of agricultural policy to member states. But Blair found in October that Schroeder & Chirac had stitched up a Franco/German deal for the next ten years, and Blair was left out in the cold. John Prescott is pushing the Brussels regionalisation agenda, which will undermine local democracy and our long tradition of local government. But while Labour is failing in Europe, the European project itself is also failing. Europe is failing when jobs and competitiveness are swept away on a flood tide of red tape. Europe is failing when British farm incomes fall to an average £10,000 a year, and when there are no fish left in the North Sea. Europe is failing when it rushes headlong into a massive enlargement without counting the cost. Europe is failing when its own Court of Auditors highlights massive holes in the Commission's accounts, but instead of addressing the problem, Neil Kinnock fires the accountant! Above all, Europe is failing when it drafts a Constitution for a Superstate nobody wants, and threatens the very independence and democracy of our nation. That's why we need MEPs in Brussels with a clear voice and a clear vision, ready to speak up for Britain. That's why Chris and I want to serve a second term. Now some people say that every question has two sides -- and that a clever politician will support both sides! But I'm not that kind of politician. I believe in straight talking. I say the same thing in Brussels as I say in Leicester or Northampton -- and I wear the same Sterling pin in my lapel! Five years ago I made you a promise. I said that if you sent me to Brussels I would stand up and say what you would want to say, if you were there. I believe I have kept that promise. If you give me the privilege of representing you for a second term, I will continue to fight with all my strength and all my resources for you; for the Region; for the Conservative Party; for the Pound; and above all for British democracy and independence and freedom and sovereignty. Please give me your support.