gimlet

Taken from the Freedom Association site

OPEN LETTER TO CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (on private letterhead)

25th April 2006

You may have heard that I have recently decided to join the UK Independence Party and it occurs to me that you might be interested in a word of explanation. I was actually on the high seas when David Cameron made his unfortunate comments about UKIP, hence the delay in my reaction to the way in which he has gratuitously insulted a group of ordinary, decent patriotic people pursuing the perfectly legitimate political objective of trying to bring about the restoration of self-government.

This was, I thought, the last straw until I heard that Francis Maude had compounded the error by saying that UKIP do not want a multicultural society, inferring that he and the Conservative Party do. Has he not thought this one through? Does he not realise that the consequence will be to reduce our once settled and cohesive society to one replicating all the sectarian divides of the Balkans, Iraq and other troubled nations? Given that Cameron, according to Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, (who must presumably agree with him) is “committed to the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union”; given that Cameron, like his predecessor, Michael Howard, has appointed Francis Maude, one of Britain’s two signatories to the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) to be Party Chairman; given that Cameron has brought back INTO phpbb_positions of influence so many of the Europhile dinosaurs like Heseltine, Ken Clarke, John Gummer and the aforementioned Francis Maude (who once told me to my face that the Maastricht Treaty was ‘a good deal for Britain’) and given that Cameron has now displayed his utter contempt for UKIP - don’t forget 2½ million votes in the EP election– as did Michael Howard when he was Leader, by calling them ‘Cranks and Gadflies’, it is clear beyond a peradventure that there is no hope that the Conservative Party is intent upon pursuing the national interest.

Unless and until the so-called Conservative Party buries its obsession with the collectivist, corrupt, sclerotic and anti-democratic European Union it has no claim on the votes of either those who are truly conservative nor upon those who prize their freedom and democracy.

For 40 years, from 1960 – 2001 I was a member of the Conservative Party and during that time served the Party in just about every capacity, including several years as a Conservative County Borough councillor and 14 years as a Conservative Member of Parliament. In November 2000 I told the House of Commons that I couldn’t ‘go to the hustings as a candidate for a Party that maintains that one can be in Europe, but not run by Europe’, a slogan which, whilst initially popular at the time of the EP election in 1999, was soon recognised to be a complete contradiction in terms – an oxymoron of classic proportions.
For just as long as the Conservative Party refuses to address the everyday concerns of its natural supporters e.g. the levels of Taxation, the breakdown of Law and Order, uncontrolled immigration, the erosion of individual liberty, the undermining of our democratic institutions, not to mention schools ‘n’ hospitals, it deserves to remain in Opposition and probably will. Vote Blue, go Green is a catchy slogan but the reality is that by voting Blue what the people will actually get is more of the same collectivist, i.e. Red, policies of the unelected and unaccountable Commission in Brussels.

I have written this more in hope than anger but should be obliged if you would note that it is an open letter and one to which I will be agreeably surprised to receive much by way of response.

Yours sincerely,
Christopher Gill

UKIP MAN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gill

for them, like me who never heard of him

Jools

I remember him. He was one of the Maastricht Rebels, and it's because of them that I first became aware of the sell out to the EU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht_Rebels

Britannist

He's a good chap. If it wasn't for the euro-rebels (as they became known at the time) we would never have got the europhile Major Government to agree to a referendum on the euro. Blair was forced to honour that referendum commitment before he won the 1997 General Election. It was the fear of losing that euro referendum that led to the 2003 Blair-Brown press conference when they "postponed" joining the euro. They obviously feared losing the referendum. Had their been no referendum guarantee from Major (passed on to the Blair regime) then this shabby europhile Government we have now would have just taken us straight INTO phpbb_the euro when it was launched.

Mr. Gill and a few other Conservative euro-rebel MP's are to be thanked for putting their own political careers on the line in order to put the national interest and the rights of the British people first.

Nicholas Budgen (one of the Conservative euro-rebels) has since died. Sir Teddy Taylor is now involved in the Campaign for an Independent Britain EU withdrawal petition (to be officially launched on 29.4.2006).

Let's hope that UKIP can get some MP's INTO phpbb_the Commons who can do what those anti-Maastricht euro-rebels did 14 years ago.

Jools

Mr Gill and the other rebels are of course to be thanked, but the Referendum Party's pressure for a public vote was the real catalyst for Major's agreement to a referendum, wasn't it?

douglas denny

It was. In the last few days of the 1997 election.

I am more sure now than I have ever been, which is from 1997, that Sir Jimmy Goldsmith is a true hero and will prove to be the single most important person in saving Britain from the EU.

In his personal life some liked him, some loathed him - I can forgive him everything - for what he did to help Britain, in what was (and he knew it) the last year of his life.

I am fairly sure that history will reveal that it was he who provided the turning point in Britain's relationship with Europe.

By forcing the weak John Major government INTO phpbb_conceding a referendum on the Euro currency he has saved us . How? because almost as soon as the words left his mouth (I remember it fairly well, he was being interviewed on TV after one of his 'soapbox' speeches in public) the other parties (who's tongues were drooling for power) said they would do the same. Major could not get the Ref. Party and the word "referendum" out of the newspapers, and TV (I think but am now not so sure that he was asked a question about the Referendum Party) so he said:

"We (Tories) are going to give the people of Britain a referendum on what really counts to them - their currency and whether to join the new Euro currency"

The others announced within hours that they would do the same.

That was that. ALL the parties were then committed unequivocally to a referendum on the currency which they thought would be easy. Not so. Biggest political blunder of all time - except perhaps the granting of a referendum by Bliar on the EU constitution which might prove to be just as significant. Bliar did it for his (unknown) reasons, however - but Major was forced INTO phpbb_it by Goldsmith.

The best example I can think of where momentous events are produced, in circumstances of what was regarded at the time as defeat - but actually was a stupendous victory. Politics is NOT always about winning seats outright; it is about pushing the equilibrium in the direction you want, when events then take on a different course than they would otherwise do so.

After the Major declaration, what happened was world economic downturn and other factors which caused decline in the Euro and there has never been any serious moves towards Britain joining it from that moment on.

Without the common currency there cannot be a common political entity, and vice versa.

By being out of the currency we are now awaiting it's collapse - which will herald the collapse of what is the political entity too.

What is likely to happen is there will be a formation of a core EU set of countries who will integrate politically and with a common currency. The rest including Britain will have a peripheral status only or get out ..... end game. We win.

Sing the praises to Jimmy Goldsmith! God Bless him !

Douglas.
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Sarumano

Christopher Gill is a very good speaker if you want to get him into one of your local speech meetings.

No, I'm not a relative