The Libertas dream is over

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Declan Ganley's hopes of a pan-EU eurofederalist party standing candidates in every member state have been scuppered.

Libertas Germany has missed the deadline for registering candidates and won't be allowed to stand candidates in the upcoming imperial elections. They are also struggling to meet the criteria for registration in Romania and Italy.

Gangley did an excellent job in helping to secure the no vote to the EU not-a-constitution - indeed, UKIP supported him financially and practically - but he's a eurofederalist at heart and Libertas, despite Ganely's very clever words, is a eurofederalist party.

Libertas isn't EU-sceptic

Libertas launches in the UK this morning and it's going to be interesting to find out whether people understand the basic point about Declan Ganley. He's not against the European Union, far from it. He's very much a supporter of the project, just wishing to change very slightly the direction it's going in, that's all.

There's a rather bewildering assumption that because Declan campaigned so successfully for a No vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty that he's therefore against further integration, ever closer union and the rest of the federalist claptrap. We in UKIP stood alongside him in that campaign and thoroughly admire what he achieved. However, we're also very much aware that he's in favour of much of what makes up the European Project. It's really just the Lisbon Treaty he doesn't like.

Ganley starts from the same place that I do (and therefore his analysis, at this point, is obviously correct). The European Union is responsible for some 75 per cent of our laws, the aim of the grand project is to move power away from the people and place it firmly in the hands of a technocratic class of bureaucrats and there's very little or no democracy in the way that it functions. We both agree further that something about this needs to change. However, what it is that should change is where we diverge and this is where Declan and Libertas fall into error. Essentially, the same error the Conservative party has itself fallen prey to.

They both believe that, while the current situation is dire, matters can and will be improved by working from the inside, by attempting to change the direction of the juggernaut. Libertas is running on the idea that a few more elections, say an elected European Union president, will solve matters, that the voice of the people will be heard. The Tories seem to think that, well, it's difficult to know what the Tories actually intend to do about anything or, indeed, whether they would do anything if they themselves could make up their minds. We're still waiting for them to leave the EPP, something Cameron promised would happen in months, not years or weeks - that promise being what swung his election to the party leadership.

But however well-meaning this all is, however nice it would be to be able to believe that any of us could change the direction we're being moved in, this simply isn't possible. We're not being offered any choices on how the EU is going to work in the future, how it is going to develop. There are no opportunities to force or insist upon our own blueprints either. The parliament does not have the power to initiate legislation: that stays very firmly with the Commission. We are faced with only two choices. We accept the way the EU is, the way that decisions are made and the drive to creating a federal superstate. Or we reject that vision and decide to leave.

You'll recall that they didn't listen to the French or the Dutch in the referendums on the constitution. Also that they're not listening to the Irish on their referendum on the renamed and repacked constitution (now called the Lisbon treaty). They won't listen to calls for reform, for changes in direction, from inside the parliament either. The basic policy idea of both Libertas and the Tory party is flawed: they are arguing for negotiations with people who will not negotiate.

This is how we get to my and our position in UKIP. These changes that people desire are simply not possible while we remain within the Union. We have to leave and to cooperate where we wish and need to but for the rest of it simply become an independent and sovereign nation once again.

Nigel Farage is the leader of the UK Independence party (UKIP)

An inauspicious start ?

Declan Ganley is a man used to ruffling feathers. He is also used to success and therefore will not be pleased to learn that his proposed pan-European political party, Libertas, may have fallen foul of European bureaucracy at its inception!

Ganley has become a big name in politics after successfully leading the Irish 'No' campaign against the Lisbon Treaty. He has since made it clear that his ambitions do not end there. Ganley announced that he intended that Libertas would contest the European elections in a large number of EU Member States on an anti-Lisbon Treaty platform.

However it now appears that the funding Libertas were hoping to access through registering themselves as a pan-European party could be in jeopardy. On Thursday 5th February it was announced that two of the signatories, a Bulgarian MP and an Estonia MP, have denied signing up for that purpose. As a result the European Parliament’s administration has been requested to look into the issued by contacting all the European, national and regional law-makers whose signatures were submitted by Libertas to verify whether they signed with the understood purpose of forming a pan-European political party.

Until confirmation of Libertas’ status is acquired all funding available to them as a pan-European party will be suspended. With less than four months until the European Elections this hick-up could not have come at a worse time for Libertas. If it is not resolved rapidly (has anything ever been resolved quickly once ensnared by EU red-tape) it could seriously damage Libertas’ ambitions. Only time will tell as to the impact this incident will have; however, without doubt it is an inauspicious start!

Irish Times: Libertas faces UK electoral hurdle over party name

Libertas has made a classic mistake, one which quangos make time and time again and which a professional (or wannabe) politician really shouldn't make - announcing their name before registering it!

Libertas faces UK electoral hurdle over party name

LIBERTAS HAS hit an unexpected hurdle in Britain because a close associate of a rival political party has already registered Libertas UK with the electoral commission.

Bridget Rowe, a friend of UK Independence Party chief Nigel Farage, is listed as the leader of Libertas UK on the electoral commission’s website. The party was registered on December 19th, 2008 and is expected to field candidates in England, says the commission.

An electoral commission spokesman said yesterday one of the criteria for successfully registering a political party in Britain was that no party with the same name already existed on the commission’s list.

It is now unclear whether Declan Ganley’s Libertas, which wants to field candidates in Britain in the upcoming European elections, will be able to compete under its Libertas brand.

A Libertas spokesman refused to comment on the registration issue yesterday. Mr Ganley also moved quickly to distance himself from controversial Czech MEP Vladimir Zelezny, who last week registered Libertas as a party in the Czech Republic.

Mr Ganley, who wants to set up Libertas branches in all 27 EU states ahead of the June elections, issued a press release yesterday stating that he had not “recruited” Mr Zelezny.

Mr Zelezny is a controversial character in the Czech Republic, where he has been convicted of tax evasion and is the subject of several investigations by the authorities. He told a Prague radio station last year he is a “fierce eurosceptic”, adding that the EU’s “over-regulated environment strongly resembles what we know from our communist past”.

A Libertas spokeswoman in Brussels said this week the former media mogul Mr Zelezny had registered the Czech branch of the organisation “with the knowledge” of Libertas, a comment that was published by The Irish Times.

Mr Ganley said yesterday this was not true and accused this newspaper of trying to attach his name to “a Eurosceptic agenda”.

“Mr Ganley said that while Mr Zelezny had registered the name Libertas in the Czech Republic, this action was not done on the request of Libertas in either Dublin or Brussels, and indicated nothing more than the enthusiasm of support for the Libertas project being expressed by people across the continent,” said the statement.

“Mr Zelezny had not, as implied in the report, been asked to stand in the European elections by Libertas, or in fact been the recipient of any specific request from Libertas in relation to its campaign, nor had he been the subject of any announcement made by Libertas, as reported,” it added.

Asked to clarify what relationship Libertas and Mr Zelezny currently enjoy, or will have in the future, Libertas refused to comment yesterday. The party also refused to speculate on whether it would run Libertas candidates under the party registered by Mr Zelezny. Mr Zelezny also refused to return phone calls made by The Irish Times yesterday.

I did something similar when my local authority announced that it was selling itself to the city region that Birmingham was setting up. Myself and a couple of fellow city region sceptics registered their company name on the weekend before they said they were going to do it. The media loved it, the local authorities were less than impressed. It didn't stop the city region project but it held it up for a while and got some publicity.

I liked this quote in the Libertas statement:

Mr Ganley said that while Mr Zelezny had registered the name Libertas in the Czech Republic, this action was not done on the request of Libertas in either Dublin or Brussels, and indicated nothing more than the enthusiasm of support for the Libertas project being expressed by people across the continent

They're either very deluded or incredibly stupid if to think that people will see what are obviously two separate instances of someone registering their party name as a spoiler as a show of support. It's been done to stop Libertas from setting up under that name in the UK and the Czech Republic, it's nothing to do with supporting Libertas!

I don't know how much involvement Farage had in registering Libertas UK but it was a stroke of genius.

Abit of New Years Fun

UKIP statement on Libertas Launch

Nigel Farage made it clear yesterday that there is absolutely no common ground on Europe between Declan Ganley's new party, Libertas, and UKIP.

Mr. Farage said that "Libertas has nailed its colours firmly to the David Cameron mast of wishing to stay within the European Union and try to reform from inside. Declan got one thing right, they didn't listen to the Dutch, they didn't listen to the French and they're not listening to the Irish over reform. So why do he and Cameron think they'll listen to them?"

"I think it will come as a surprise to many to learn just how pro EU Mr. Ganley is. When he says that Europe is too important to fail and that it is important to all our futures then you begin to see the true picture.

"UKIP remains the only party committed, absolutely clearly, to Britain leaving this political union and becoming a free and sovereign state once again. One where our laws are made by us for ourselves, rather than the vast majority being made in Brussels.

"Surprisingly Mr. Ganley is now claiming that when the Irish voted no in their referendum it was not a vote against the EU. I'm sure this will come as a surprise to many of those who did vote no. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Cameron and the europhile wing of his party deal with the possibility of their vote being taken by Libertas.

"What Mr. Ganley has done today is show that there is absolutely no common ground between our positions. He thinks that, along with the Tories, reform from within is possible. We know, as the Dutch, French and Irish situations have shown us, that this is not possible. Only by leaving can anything be made to change."

There is still only one party committed to an independent Britain and thats UKIP so on the 4th of June vote UKIP.

Our Country is being lost piece by piece we must act now to stop this duplicitous, undemocratic betrayal. Please join US, the only party that will put an end to this betrayal.

UKIP Lord Pearson on Radio Five Live Tonight

UKIP's position and response to the launch of Libertas will be spelt out by UKIP's Lord Pearson on Radio Five Live tonight at 10pm.