Expenses challenge to all East Midlands sitting MEPs

In an open letter to all newspapers in the East Midlands region I have challenged all sitting MEPs to publish their expenses in full before the election. At every husting I attend they all state they are totally transparent – even Derek Clerk. If anyone can find full details of their expenses on the web please let me know. UKIP leader Nigel Farge claimed on Sun radio that he had published his accounts on the web. When I challenged him as to where, he said he had given them to “Open Europe”. I pointed out that they are not on this web site and why were they not on his web site. He said he would check and put them on his site – seeing is believing.

The Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems are up to the same tricks. Some even produce an accountants certificate. No details, just a signature stating that they comply with the expenses and allowances rules. See Glenis Wilmott (Lab) accountants certificate below.

- Richard Elvin


The Editor

The Letters Page
Newark Advertiser Co Ltd

27th May 2009
Dear Sir/Madam
In light of recent events it is important that UK voters know exactly where their tax money has been taken advantage of. I, Richard Elvin, Libertas lead candidate for the East Midlands Region, am hereby calling upon all of the incumbent MEPs in this region:

Glennis Willmott (Lab) Bill Newton Dunn (Lib Dem)
Roger Helmer (Con) Christopher Heaton-Harris (Con)
Robert Kilroy-Silk (UKIP) Derek Clark (UKIP)

to publish their expenses and allowances IN FULL before the elections on June 4th and to bring them to public attention. This should not be a problem for any MEP that has nothing to hide, and is confident that they have shown their electorate the respect they deserve by not abusing their position as a public servant to steal from the public and the people they represent.

Libertas has been committed to full disclosure of expenses and democratisation of the EU since it was set up at the beginning of this year, months before the recent expense scandal broke in the national news.

Libertas is a party of honour and integrity who won't abuse their position and who won't use the tax money of the people of Europe to line their pockets, as so many MEPs have done over the last 5 years.

Yours hopefully

Richard Elvin
Libertas.eu
East Midlands Region

UKIPOCRISY

In a video sent around Europe today, Libertas exposes the hypocrisy of the UK Independence party.

www.libertas.eu/ukip

UKIP’s message of cleaning up Brussels is in direct contrast to how its members operate. Instead of fixing the problem, UKIP has become the problem. During the past European parliamentary term, a full quarter, 25%, of UKIP MEPs were either convicted of fraud, expelled for the same reason, or resigned in disgrace.

Nigel Farage can't stop the sleaze because he employs his wife, they refuse to publish even the most basic details of their expenses and UKIP has the laziest MEPs in Britain, attending just 60% of votes over the last five years.

DON'T judge UKIP on what they say but on HOW they behave. UKIP cannot change anything in Brussels - Libertas is the ONLY party that can change what is happening and stop the gravy train that is pouring out of Brussels. UKIP are NOT the answer, Libertas is.

www.libertas.eu/ukip

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

Size Matters

With nearly 600 candidates now running across Europe, Libertas will be fielding the most candidates EVER in a European election...

That’s more than five times the next largest party. 15% of the vote across Europe will give us around 120 seats. If UKIP get 15% in the UK they get 10! If the Conservatives could get half the vote they would end up with 36 seats. With 120 seats Libertas can change Europe.

Richard Elvin

NFU Hustings

The NFU hustings at Greetham in Rutland allowed me the first opportunity to meet all the main opposition – those who would not attend the Hustings in Leicester because the BNP had been invited were present. I was in the company of three sitting MEPs and the private secretary to a member of the House of Lords. They were keen to participate in the “usual political point scoring” off each other.

I stuck to the main message. Libertas are a grass roots party; Europe must change to suit the needs of its Citizens; the EU must be accountable and a servant to its Citizens; the EU should be transparent. Libertas is the only party that is pan-European; when you vote for Libertas you are voting for a Party that can bring about real change rather than a solitary voice from 1 country out of 27.

- Richard Elvin

James Daniels

I’m a candidate for the East Midlands constituency in the European elections on June 4th. I come from Lincolnshire, I have 3 daughters and am a professional engineer. I’ve become involved in politics because I believe that as database and surveillance technology advance and it becomes ever more feasible for the state to monitor its citizens, the more important it becomes that our governing bodies be open, transparent and accountable.

The EU has grown out of an organization designed to regulate trade. Its institutions are not open, transparent or accountable.

After the so called European Constitution was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands, that is, after the voters gave the wrong answer, it was resurrected with minimal changes as the Lisbon Treaty. I do not believe that this is acceptable, “No” should mean “No”.

Libertas was founded to organize the “No” campaign in the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Having won that vote, it has now established independent branches across the EU to become the first pan-European party to contest the European Elections. I joined it because I perceive it to be a grass roots movement which can tell the career politicians that enough is enough.

I joined Libertas to campaign for open, transparent and accountable government of the EU, rather than secretive political deals. I joined and am giving up my time, because I want to see democratic decisions respected, and an end to the contempt with which our political elites treat us all. And I joined because I want to see the EU slimmed down so that it stops intruding so much into ordinary people’s lives and stops spending so much of their hard earned money.

William Winter

Hello, my name is William Winter and I'm a Libertas candidate for E. Midlands, UK, for the elections on June 4th. To help you make an informed decision in the ballot box, here's a bit about me.

While I am a committed European (I have lived in the Netherlands for 5 years and I speak both French and German, if badly) I am furious that 8 out of 10 new laws in Britain come from an unelected source in Brussels over whom we have no democratic control. After 1000 years building our democracy we now see our heritage being given away to these Brussels bureaucrats; it is time it stopped - and Libertas is the best chance, probably the only chance, of stopping the Lisbon Treaty and moving towards open, honest democracy.

I am NOT a politician; I am NOT a committee man! I am a retired company director who has spent his working life trying to achieve, to get things done. I have worked mainly in chemicals with 5 years running a factory and sales in northern Europe while living in Holland and later 10 years running a business making scientific instruments in the East End of London. I now live in Northamptonshire.

My priorities are to change the EU to a democracy; to fight secrecy and dishonesty; to fight European waste; to fight the mercenary money-grubbing fiddling of expenses; to fight for openness, honesty, accountability and less government from Brussels.
Curiously my priorities exactly match those of Libertas.

So do please vote for me, vote for Libertas on June 4th

It’s Stamp Out Sleaze Week!

Following a weekend dominated by MPs’ expense scandals, I am proud to announce that Libertas is today leading the charge to Stamp Out Sleaze.

The party is launching five pledges this week, one each day, designed to tackle the root cause of sleaze.

Our first Stamp Out Sleaze pledge is a promise from all Libertas candidates that, if elected, they will publish their expenses in detail, including receipts and explanations of what the purchase was for. Tax payers have a right to see how their cash is being spent and whether they are getting value for money.

We want to lead by example. Politics doesn’t have to be dirty. Our politicians should be people that we can trust to look after our money both wisely and frugally. That’s why we are today promising to be completely open about how we spend tax payers’ money, and I invite all the other parties to sign up to this pledge too, and together we can rebuild trust in our politicians.

The EU is broken, but Libertas can fix it.

- Robin Matthews

The downward spiral of trust in politicians

As everyone will have seen, the news in the UK this weekend has been dominated with the expense abuse by UK MPs from all sides. While the Labour party have been claiming expenses for sink plugs and films, the Conservatives have let the taxpayer foot the bill for their dog food and light bulbs. I wonder, where is the party of integrity? where are the politicians who seek to represent their people as best they can? rather than bleed them dry and let them pick up the tab for all manner of trivialities.

It is no wonder that people distrust politicians when they are ripping off the public left right and centre.

Now, I know there are some that genuinely want to help their constituents, and who do possess the moral fibre to use their expense accounts legitimately and responsibly, but they should not be the exception, they should be the rule.

The fact is, it is a poorly organised system, which is easily abused because of its lack of transparency and openness. If there was a system of full disclosure of expenses (as advocated by Libertas), then none of this would happen.

I notice David Cameron has told MPs to "say sorry" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8043057.stm) to the public for essentially stealing their money - using it to line their pockets and subsidise their already well paid positions instead of putting it into underfunded public services.

The same thing is happening in Brussels, but people in the UK feel so disengaged with European politics that it is largely unnoticed. The Taxpayers' alliance published an eye-opening report on how easily expenses can be abused in Brussels, and how MEPs can become millionaires in one 5 year term. It's been around a while but for those that are yet to see it, it can be found here - http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/files/meppay-1.pdf

Is an apology enough? Does that absolve these rip-off merchants?

The answer is to introduce full disclosure and openness for all expenses, so that people can see exactly where their hard earned money is going in the UK and in Europe.

Libertas has always been committed to democracy accountability and transparency.

With turnout so low in the UK for the European elections it plays into the hands of the mainstream national parties, who have now been exposed as untrustworthy expense cheats, who are only apologising now they have been caught out. This has been going on for far too long, and they have known exactly what they have been doing.

To usher in a new era of openness and politicians you can trust vote for Libertas on June 4th. To keep upto date with all of the Libertas news including candidate launches across Europe sign up to the Libertas mailing list at www.libertas.eu and encourage your friends to do the same...

Deaf Ear to Democracy

In an incredible display of arrogance and disrespect for the will of the people, members of the European Parliament will have a lengthy debate tonight on the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty. That’s right, the Lisbon Treaty, the same Treaty that Libertas defeated in Ireland and - according to the EU's own rules - is now dead.

Apparently, the bureaucrats in Brussels don’t care what the people think. And the truth is, they don’t need to. Because, right now there is no one to hold them to account.

That’s why the movement you are building right now is so important. It’s up to you whether or not Europe will be accountable to its people. Libertas is our last chance - our only chance - to make sure we have democracy at the heart of the European Union.

The European Elections are only 29 days away. Please email everyone in your contact book. Ask your friends. And get ONE more person to join the movement today.

http://www.libertas.eu/spread-the-word

The MEPs will debate a total of five different reports for this anti-democratic debate, including the Parliament’s new role and responsibilities in implementing the Lisbon Treaty. This discussion is a perfect example of the inherent disrespect the EU has for the democratic views of European citizens, and the lack of accountability to which we are strongly opposed.

This morning Libertas Chairman, and leader of the winning “No” campaign in the 2008 Irish referendum, Declan Ganley said, “Members of the European Parliament are completely out of touch with reality. Instead of debating real issues like how to solve the economic crisis, they are spending resources on something which does not exist because it has been rejected by the people who were allowed a vote on it.

This displays their arrogance, their disrespect for democracy and their waste of taxpayers’ money".

No wonder multiple newspapers across Europe have now confirmed that Brussels is living in fear of our movement, the Libertas movement. What those bureaucrats fear most is a movement of the people. Because they know that if millions of us act together, as Europeans, we will create a new hope for the future – a Europe where Brussels is efficient, focused on creating jobs and restoring our economy, and is overseen by the people.

Please email everyone in your contact list. Ask your friends. And get one more person to join the movement today.

http://www.libertas.eu/spread-the-word

The Libertas movement is gaining tremendous momentum across Europe. We have united the leading figures of the “No” campaigns in France, Ireland and the Netherlands (Declan Ganley, Philippe de Villiers and Eline van den Broek) who worked tirelessly to make sure that the people in their countries were given a vote.

But, now, we need YOU. Our movement is in your hands. You are it. The new hope for Europe will live or die based on what you do now.

So, if you want a strong Europe, a democratic Europe where only elected leaders make the law; if you want a referendum on any Constitution; if you want a real solution to the economic crisis; if you want to hold Brussels to account; if you want to renew the hope that we all had for Europe, then help build the first true party of Europe. A party dedicated to openness, accountability, transparency and democracy.

There are millions of others like you who want a new Europe – they are your friends, your work colleagues, your family members, your neighbours, and members of your community and now we need you to get them to join our cause.

East Midlands Libertas launch

On Friday 1st May I represented Libertas at a senior citizens forum in Leicester. I was scheduled to share the platform with three sitting MEPs – Bill Newton Dunn (Lib Dem), Derek Clark (UKIP), Roger Helmer (Cons) and representatives from the Labour party, Greens and BNP. Derek Clark pulled out and could not find anyone else to take his place and Roger Helmer and the Labour speaker pulled out at the last minute stating they would not share the platform with the BNP. This might tell us something about the Labour and Conservatives view on democracy – we might not like what the BNP say but we supposedly still live in a democratic country which believes in free speech. This point was not lost on the very astute audience.

We all had five minutes to tell the audience about our respective parties followed by a lengthy and searching Q & A. The Libertas message obviously struck a cord as the first three questions were directed to me.
The very articulate audience posed many varied and difficult questions to the panel. It came as no surprise to me that the audience were very interested in the European project but had little or no knowledge of how it works and the democratic deficit that currently exists. Bill Newton Dunn, who has served 25 years as an MEP, did his best to try and convince the audience of the merits of the existing arrangements but it was very gratifying that my counter arguments always received a round of applause. The Q & A were mainly dealt with by Bill and me. The Greens and BNP tended only to contribute on their main topics.

I really enjoyed my first public Q & A sharing a platform with a sitting MEP of long standing and representatives from two other parties. I was very disappointed that Labour, Conservative and UKIP made the excuses they did and were not present.

We in the East Midlands are planning numerous forums – at local Universities, town halls, and with local business groups and societies. We will ask all the other parties to take part. If we invite the BNP and they agree to attend will that mean we will never get the opportunity to go head to head with Labour, Conservatives and UKIP?