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Michael Brotherton former Conservative MP for Louth joins UKIP

Britannist

This is from an article titled "Return of the Spectre of europe" in today's Sunday Telegraph (It is a report on Lord Pearson and Lord Willoughby de Broke joining UKIP and can be found in a thread in the British politics section of the forum titled 'Huge coverage of UKIP as Cameron opposes Better off Out'):

"Today, Michael Brotherton, the former Tory MP for Louth, and John Ireland, a Tory branch officer with Calne Conservatives, announce their defection to UKIP.

Mr. Brotherton said: "The only political party in the UK that now reflects the true values of Conservatism is the UK Independence Party (UKIP)."

Mr. Farage said: "What started as a trickle of defections looks as though it may turn into a flood. People are coming out of the woodwork."

A link to the full article ('Return of the Spectre of Europe') can be reached via :P :

:arrow: http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=17112

Karen

Good. It seems only a question of time before a sitting MP, perhaps under threat in a marginal - like Adam Hoilloway - comes over. There is hope of a Labour peer coming over. This would be good to lessen the chances of us being seen as a party of former Tories all ready to throw in the towel as soon as Williams Hague finds a suitably woolly form of Euro-realist words to dissolve UKIP without upsettinmg his masters in the Brussells government. But the Conservatives are 'commtted to theUK's membership of the European Union. Never forget that.

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Lady Di, Hitler and Communism are dead. Forward to Independence!

Britannist

I think it's David Cameron who is committed to EU membership (as he said again on Marr's programme yesterday) rather than the Conservative Party.

But David Cameron's pro-EU stance is a minority view in the membership of the Conservative Party - I know that the majority of Consrvatives wants a trade-only relationship with the EU.

Or want out of it altogether.

Karen

Actually my quotation was from Michael Howard: the Conservatives only adipt a Euro-realsit stance when in trouble and have never entertained the idea of leaving the EU. It was their plan to join it to begin with. Watch Ted Heath's lips and all that. The only Tory who had reservations was Mrs T and she has never gone so far as to suggest we leave it. Tories are Traitors!

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Lady Di, Hitler and Communism are dead. Forward to Independence!

Britannist

At least half the Conservative membership want out of the EU :P . And that is how they would vote in a secret ballot in an 'in or out' referendum. 8)

exo-politics

Unfortunately they have voted in Cameron on the grounds that he is best suited to win them an election. If they really felt strongly enough on the grounds of the EU then they wouldn't have voted Cameron into the job, they would have chosen a more Eurosceptic candidate. In all fairness, the alternatives weren't much better in that respect, but they weren't unelectable either.

Britannist

Remember that David Cameron promised to take UK Conservative MPs out of the EU 'Parliament' EPP group "within months and not years" during his campaign in 2005 for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

This broken promise will have influenced some into voting for him.

At least one fairly recent opinion poll found that of the millions of Conservative voters (not Conservative party members) up and down the land - the majority want out of the EU.

exo-politics

Leaving the EPP is far short of leaving the EU, it's not even close. It's not even as Eurosceptic as Blair 'attempting' to retain our rebate during he British Presidency of the Union, and even then I'm sure Blair tried to some extent (regardless of how poorly he performed on our behalf). If the Conservatives REALLY wanted to leave the European Union they would certainly not have voted for Cameron. They may on the whole wish to leave the European Union, but when they filled out their ballot paper they considered electoral success more important than sticking to their values. The outcome? Cameron was elected and the Conservatives chose the path of favouring the European Union even more than they did before.

I'm not doubting that the Conservative membership have the best intentions, I just don't believe that they feel that strongly about the independence of their country. They want a 'quick fix' and chose Cameron as their man. I hope just as much as anyone else they will come to their senses, but when that happens I believe they will have to join up with us as the Conservative party is not about to change. This is the same party which laid out the ground for us to go in, the same party which stayed in for 5 (counting on from Heath) terms of governance and the party which still wants to keep us in. They are a party of weak words, weak gestures and deceit, who I would deem less trustworthy on the issue than Labour.

Britannist

A recent opinion poll showed that the majority of Conservative voters (not members) in the country wanted out of the EU.

UKIP argues that such voters would be better served by UKIP and should vote for UKIP.