Tom Wise MEP in the European Parliament Ind - Dem Group UK Independence Party UKIP Eastern Region Region


An end of the Parliamentary year round up! 16th July 2008

As the Parliamentary year comes to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the year's work.

The year saw me first establishing myself as an 'Independent UKIP MEP', and subsequently my resigning from the Independence & Democracy Group. For the record, I am still a member of the Party and have continued to use that to good effect.

I have found now that I have a great deal more freedom, and I am no longer associated with politicians with a very different agenda to the one on which UKIP MEPs were elected. I was reassured when Roger Knapman also left the group following consultation with his members in the South West.

I attended the Lisbon conference in October 2007, to be there when the Treaty was signed. During my visit, I was delighted to be able to host a cocktail reception for the Portuguese branch of the Royal British Legion.

The following month I was honoured to be invited to parade with British Sikhs at the Menin Gate in Ypres at the annual November Remembrance service there.

In the latter part of the year, I took 'ownership' of a double decker bus, and what a sound investment that has proven to be! The bus has attended more events and rallies up and down the country than I have space to list here.

We have not restricted our help to UKIP events, however, and have given as much assistance as possible to other non-party groups who are calling for a referendum on the Constitution.

This has been ample justification of my decision to sit apart from the main UKIP group: I have been able to use my budget to good effect, which is what I was elected to do. Without this independence, I would not have known where my money was going. I regret to inform you that since my resignation from the Ind Dem Group, I have tried to hand the bus to them (it is registered in the Group's name), but it sits idly in a field. They simply do not seem interested either in using it in the UK or taking it back to Brussels.

In January 2008, following a briefing with Commissioner Borg, I outlined legal infringements made by Spanish fishermen, and drew attention to Spanish government complicity in these matters. As a result, infringement proceedings have been instituted by the Commission against the Spanish. I argued that under existing legislation, there is sufficient reason to ban Spanish boats from EU waters! The Commission actually seems to agree with me, but let's wait and see what happens. I'm afraid to say that such matters generally drag on for years and years...

In February I chaired a meeting in Guernsey, involving elected politicians from both the main Channel Islands and also the Isle of Man, where we discussed issues concerning sovereignty of the Crown dependencies in the context of the Lisbon Treaty. The Islands are very concerned about the implications of the Treaty, and their relationship with the UK may change radically. Unfortunately, a second conference, this time on the Isle of Man had to be cancelled, but Nigel Farage was able to step in and speak there on the subject.

In March I attended UKIP's South West rally, where I was pleased to meet a number of old friends and acquaintances. This gave me an opportunity to unveil my booklet "Dead in the Water", a critique of the Common Fisheries Policy. Although work began on this project whilst I was a member of the Ind Dem Group, it was funded and produced outside their auspices, as otherwise I would not have been able to identify it as a UKIP project - another illustration of the advantages of Independence.

In April I attended a meeting of the Eastern Counties NFU at Harpenden, held to celebrate their 100th year. Earlier in the year, at a meeting in Brussels, my NFU contact in Brussels had complained to me that UKIP was not properly engaging with the Parliament's Agriculture Committee through simple non attendance. As a rule, British interests are not always at the top of the agenda, and so I now try to attend this committee regularly, in addition to my own committees.

I have also spoken at a number of schools in the region throughout the year, and as always, once they realise exactly what is going on in the EU they are quickly converted to the Eurosceptic position and pick up on the propaganda that had hitherto been their only contact. Many MEPs and other UKIP colleagues have reported these phenomena, and it confirms just how vital it is to continue to repeat our message at every opportunity.

I remain heavily engaged in my Committee work, and apparently have the highest record of voting for British interests of all MEPs in the Parliament. No EU legislation has ever been passed unanimously in my committees. Sometimes all we can do is to be a thorn in the side of the EU, but committee work is absolutely vital as it gives us advance warning of new legislation as soon as it appears on the horizon.

I am a full member of the Culture and Education Committee, a substitute on Fisheries, and I regularly follow Agriculture, Budgetary Control, and attend other Committees where there is relevance to my own work.

I have not missed a single plenary session (except when I was hospitalised in Strasbourg, November 2007) in either Strasbourg or Brussels, as forefront in my mind is the fact that I was elected to say "NO", and to vote NO, save when voting yes is to remove more or existing powers!

Lastly, I decided to forgo the traditional July "end of term knees-ups" in Strasbourg, (and goodness knows there are enough of them!). Instead, I took a trip to the site of the Natzwiller concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains, only some 30 miles away from Strasbourg. This was the only Nazi extermination camp on French soil; every horror imaginable took place here. It was the primary place of internment for resistance fighters, including eleven British citizens. Four female SOE operatives were murdered here by lethal injection.

I think every politician should be required to visit such a place once: if we lose sight of the value of individual freedom, of democratic debate, open and transparent government and a free media, then what might the alternative be?

Tom Wise MEP.
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