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Back to routine
I feel I should get back into the routine of writing newsletters
before the summer recess beckons so here goes.
Hopeful beginnings
The first thing to mention has to be the election campaign and
outcome. At the outset I was looking forward to enjoying the
campaign with the prospect of a really good result on the horizon.
Clouds gathering
That feeling evaporated on day two of my programme as the Daily
Telegraph unleashed its assault on MPs expenses. This spread a
cloud over the whole campaign and opened the door for minority parties
to garner two sorts of protest vote. One the familiar one about
the EU in general and the other about MPs expenses.
Campaign success
We soldiered on and somewhat to my surprise I found a recognition on
the doorstep that the European Parliament election was different from
and by implication not as bad as the House of Commons issues so
people’s fury at the latter abated somewhat. Unfortunately all
this gave a new lease of life to what had become a somewhat tired and
tarnished protest movement just before the start of the campaign,
namely Ukip. Such is politics.
Better than expected
Yet on the night of Sunday 7th June as the South West
results were flashed upon the electronic display board at Poole it
became apparent we had done better than we did five years ago in
2004.
Tory gain
How so? Well in 2004 there were seven South West euro seats in
contention and we won three of them but our third was the seventh to
be declared so this time round with only six seats being contested on
the same performance we would only have got two seats. I know
this well because I was our third and that seventh last time!
Instead we achieved three out of six, a Tory gain of one seat from
Labour leaving them without an MEP in the South West. Ukip
maintained their position with two seats and the LibDems kept their
sole seat though their MEP couldn’t be bothered to attend the
declaration at Poole.
Changeover
This outcome means I have two new Conservative colleagues from the
South West, Julie Girling MEP and Ashley Fox MEP to replace Neil
Parish and Caroline Jackson who did not stand for re-election.
Neil has represented the region in exemplary fashion for 10 years and
is now moving on to be PPC in Tiverton and Honiton where I wish him
every success.
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Caroline has represented both
the region and constituencies within it over a period of 25 years and
her distinguished career has included a stint as Chairman of the
European Parliament’s Environment Committee for five years.
New Team
I am sure the new team will bring energy, expertise and experience to
bear in representing the region. To keep faith with our practice
of maintaining constituency cover for correspondence and
casework we have agreed that Julie will be the primary point of
contact for Gloucestershire and Somerset while Ashley will cover
Bristol, Wiltshire and Dorset and yours truly will continue to look
after Cornwall and Devon. We will share Gibraltar to underscore
the importance we Conservatives attach to the Rock.
Contact details to follow
We will be circulating contact details in due course once Julie
and Ashley have set up their office and staffing arrangements.
Please note that this geographical apportionment of constituency cover
is not exclusive and every one of us will welcome invitations to visit
from throughout the region.
The new Group
Our first challenge in the new Parliament, apart from the
bureaucratic nightmare of dealing with all the administrative
procedures of becoming MEPs (yes I have to do it all as if new), has
been setting up the new Group in keeping with the Prague Declaration
and commitment by David Cameron. So far we appear to be on
course to being the fourth largest group in the Parliament and we can
work as the non-federalist centre right in parallel with but separate
from our former allies the EPP.
European Conservatives and Reformists
We are the European Conservatives and Reformists Group – ECRG.
We Conservatives make up just under half the new group as the largest
national delegation, followed by the Poles, Czechs and single MEPs
from Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, Latvia and Estonia but watch this
space as last minute jockeying takes place.
Gauging our weight
The first test of how much clout we have will be the debate and
vote about the next Commission President and the next President or
Speaker of the Parliament. Hopefully in the latter case we will
avoid the grave error of choosing someone with vache in their name!
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