Our British ‘Bloc-Heads’ in Brussels
Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England
Since the vote for Leave almost 2 years ago, little or no attention has been paid to our government representatives in the European Parliament. This is because our current ruling coalition is represented in this European Institution by a group of politicians who are completely at odds with each other, and of whom the public are scarcely aware.
And perhaps there is a reason for that. They just don’t seem to care anymore. From climate change deniers to UFO conspirators, anarcho-liberalists to supporters of federally imposed green legislation, the UK Conservative Delegation is deeply divided not just by factions of Brexiteers versus Remainers.
Step forward, Rupert Matthews MEP and John Flack MEP. The former has been made the Conservative Spokesman for Energy. An expert in UFO sightings, his works include “Paranormal Surrey” and “A History of Alien Activity from Sightings to Abductions to Global Threat”. Perhaps he’s going a bit farther afield in search of new trade opportunities post-Brexit.
However, the latter has been appointed to replace one of the most influential MEPs in the Parliament, Vicky Ford, who chaired the single market committee. Named by Politico as the ninth most important MEP in the Parliament out of 751, Ms Ford was instrumental in abolishing data roaming charges across the EU. Now she sits as an MP, having won the seat of Chelmsford in the snap election last year. John Flack, on the other hand, has made it clear that he has no interest in such committee work, and believes it would be “a dastardly plot to ratchet us quietly into a ‘United States of Europe’”.
The state of British politics aside, how does this all play out in a wider European context? The UK Conservative Delegation sits within a ‘voting bloc’, called the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group. Dreamed up by David Cameron in 2010, the idea was to rip out all of the Conservative MEPs from the largest and most influential group in the Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP). The new ECR Group would then allow UK Tory MEPs to be lumped together with Danish nationalists, Polish populists and some members of the rebuked Alternative für Deutschland party. Thankfully, the AfD were later ejected, by the group chair and most senior elected Muslim politician in Brussels, Syed Kamall. The result of Cameron’s epiphany would finally appease Tory backbenchers and show them that the Conservative Party really did have a say in Europe.
But it was in the wake of last year’s Tory party conference in October, that two of the Remain supporting Tory MEPs were pushed off the ship before having their chance to jump. Richard Ashworth and Julie Girling both left the conference in Manchester to travel all the way to Strasbourg to vote against the Government and in line with Brexit Coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt’s report on the state of the ongoing Brexit negotiations. They subsequently had the whip removed and went to join the EPP Group.
The good news is that they will be replaced by two members of the Swedish Democrats, an anti-immigrant party that has its roots in white supremacism.
As for Northern Ireland’s representation, the DUP doesn’t even sit in the same voting bloc as the Tories, for that position is held by none other than Jim Nicholson, who is a member of the Ulster Unionist Party. The DUP’s representative is Dianne Dodds, an independent MEP and spouse of the party’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds. Some may be concerned as to why she has no inclination to work with the Tories whatsoever.
And then there’s Dan. The man who in June last year proclaimed in the Parliament’s plenary chamber that MEPs “Instead of constantly legislating, should clock in for their generous attendance allowance and then go and work on their golf handicaps, or read a novel, or do something other than meddling in the lives of everybody else”. Daniel Hannan MEP, the architect of Brexit was one of the Leave campaign’s most prominent voices. Once expelled from the Tories, when it was part of that EPP Group, Dan Hannan has been reaccepted in his new home in the comfort of the madhouse of the ECR Group. “How have we let all of this happen?” some Brexit-sceptics may ask. Perhaps like Dan, we should ask ourselves, “Why did we even bother?”.