g hall

As with A Mote if found guilty then he goes until then lets wait and if they exonerate him what then ?

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."

Anthony Butcher

He has already confessed and paid back most of the money.

__________________
If you care about what's in your food and where it comes from, then get it labelled!
Label My Food - http://www.labelmyfood.org.uk

g hall

And did he not also say he didn't know he couldn't do it - I know ignorance is no excuse but lets see what else surfaces

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."

gc

Quote from Today's Daily Mail:

"Alisher Usmanov, tipped to become Arsenal's next owner, has been labelled a 'gangster and a racketeer' by Independence party MEP Thomas Wise. In an EU debate on energy policy, Wise claimed Usmanov served a six-year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his pardon coming at the behest of a mafia chief and heroin overlord. Usmanov's lawyers said their client did not commit any offences and was fully pardoned."

One might note that innocent men are aquitted, guilty men are pardoned!

Anthony Butcher

What is the "Independence party"? Is that a reference to UKIP? He isn't a UKIP MEP anyway!

Very odd indeed

__________________
If you care about what's in your food and where it comes from, then get it labelled!
Label My Food - http://www.labelmyfood.org.uk

gc

And you base this statement on exactly what?

Anthony Butcher

The official list of UKIP MEPs!
UK Independence Party - UKIP MEPs

__________________
If you care about what's in your food and where it comes from, then get it labelled!
Label My Food - http://www.labelmyfood.org.uk

gc

Thank you very much!

And your personal opinion is...?

Go on, share it with the world.

Anthony Butcher

It is fairly well documented on the first page of this thread

__________________
If you care about what's in your food and where it comes from, then get it labelled!
Label My Food - http://www.labelmyfood.org.uk

Barboo

Anthony, if Tom Wise isn't a UKIP MEP, then what is he?

He is still a UKIP member in good standing, no party disciplinary action ever having been taken against him. He is still identified on the European parliament and IND/DEM group websites as a UK Independence Party MEP, and describes himself as a UK Independence Party MEP on his own website. The only difference is that his name has been removed from the MEP list on the party website, and the MEPs claim that he has 'lost the party whip'.

I think you have fallen for the posturing of MEPs (and this is not confined to UKIP) who wish to be regarded in the same light as MPs. In the Commons, withdrawal of the whip means expulsion of the MP from the parliamentary party, but that does not apply in the context of the European parliament because national parties have no status there. Once elected, MEPs do not sit or speak or vote as members of their party, they function only as individuals or as members of their EP group. Having been elected on a UKIP slate of candidates, and having joined the IND/DEM group with other UKIP MEPs, Tom Wise's status could only have been altered if he had been a) expelled from the party on whose slate he was elected, or b) expelled from the group, thus making him an 'independent' MEP. As neither has happened, he can only be a 'UKIP MEP' still.

By way of confirmation, you will find on the europarl website the following entry under Debates of 5 September 2007:

8. Explanations of vote

Gerard Batten, Derek Roland Clark, Nigel Farage, John Whittaker and Thomas Wise (IND/DEM), in writing. Although UKIP makes the point on principle to support any repeal of EU Legislation, this is a national security issue and as such the party could not support a measure that could place air passengers and crew at risk. As HMG has stated, terrorism remains a serious and continuing threat.
ends

As Batten, Clark, Farage and Whittaker joined Tom Wise in this written explanation, referring jointly to what they all describe as a UKIP point of principle, it shows that regardless of what they would have you believe, out of sight of party members in the European parliament these MEPs all accept Tom Wise as their UKIP colleague.