This candidate was e-mailed on 07/01/10 with the following:
In the light of the current state of the country, with so many Britons hurting, many of us firmly believe that this country needs a referendum on our relationship with the European Union, to determine whether we remain subordinated to the EU or return to being a self-governing nation.
Too often, party has prevailed over country on this matter while our membership of the EU has been responsible in so many ways for the emasculation of our democracy and for many other woes.
As you may be aware, a new movement has been formed as a response to the continued democratic deficit which EU membership has enabled and promoted.
The Albion Alliance http://albionalliance.org.uk/ comprises a cross-party grouping who wish to rebuild our broken country on a solid foundation based on freedom, self-determination and natural common sense and in so doing, ask the voters to only elect representatives who are willing to show that loyalty to this country and its people are held to be above party politics.
For this to happen, it is necessary to ask that MPs who are elected will, through their sheer numbers, be able to ensure that such a referendum is held. It must be made plain that we are not asking politicians to forsake their party, simply to put the people whose votes they seek above their respective party and party whips.
The question which you, as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, must answer when questioned by your electorate at the next General Election is whether you stand for fully-fledged absorption into and citizenship of what will be a United States of Europe, or citizenship of the sovereign United Kingdom.
With all due respect, you can have one or the other, but not both. They are simply mutually exclusive, resulting in what may be termed a question of Primary Loyalty.
Supporters as well as the administrators of the Albion Alliance are writing to all Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the next General Election to request them to sign the Albion Alliance pledge, a personal commitment to put Country before Party in working to enable a referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU.
The Albion Alliance pledge is a personal commitment direct to every candidate’s electorate and, frankly, we need a firm non-obfuscated answer on the matter please, i.e. a simple Yes or No.
Looking forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
James Higham
David Phipps
Ian Parker-Joseph
for The Albion Alliance
——————
Lord T 7-Jan-2010
On 07/01/10 the following response was received:
“Yes. I believe the EU has drifted into a federal and over centralised project which is not working in the interest of ordinary people and makes decision making too distant from communities. I therefore support a referendum on our relationship with the EU. The timing and wording of that referendum needs to be carefully decided so that it is not used by the EU to reinforce the status quo during a recession period rather than empower ordinary people and give them a chance to express their views about the sort of relationship they want with Europe in a balanced and practical way. The basic thrust should be to repatriate powers and enable localist decision making and the timing of the referendum should be engineered to build on that position at the optimum time. I am fundamentally opposed to a federal Europe referred to as a United States of Europe in which the self determination of communities in our country are blocked. I have long held this position and believe people, communities and country come before party and that decisions are best made as close to the people as possible. I hope this is helpful to your supporters and thank you for your e-mail,
Matt
Cllr Matt Wright Tel: 01352 741835 Mobile: 07791 804599
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate – Vale of Clwyd
Web Site: www.cllrmattwright.com”
Following an article in the Daily Post, a North Wales newspaper:
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2010/01/29/north-wales-election-candidate-in-eu-controversry-55578-25711046/
the candidate subsequently emailed the Albion Alliance as follows:
From: Matt Wright [mailto:matt@valeofclwyd.orangehome.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 6:45 PM
To: ian.parker-joseph@albionalliance.org.uk
Subject: Web Site
Dear Mr Parker-Joseph,
Could I just clarify an issue. I recently had an e-mail asking for my view on a “United States of Europe”, which I oppose. You did not state that the intention was to propose a Private Members Bill and this aspect was not in the question sent to me. I support Conservative policy to re-negotiate powers and not to allow the transfer of any further powers to the EU without a referendum.
Matt
Matt Wright Tel: 01352 741835 Mobile: 07791 804599
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate – Vale of Clwyd
Web Site: www.cllrmattwright.com
To which the following reply was sent:
Dear Mr Wright,
Thank you for your email.
The crux of the email that was sent to you by the Albion Alliance (07/01/10) was in reference to the need for a referendum on the UK relationship with the EU, (para 1) and in particular whether you would be willing to sign up to the Albion Alliance pledge (penultimate para), a pledge to your electorate.
We provided a link (http://albionalliance.org.uk) in the letter where the pledge is on full view on the front page in order for you to view that pledge before making a response, and asked that you give a yes or no answer.
As the first word of your reply to our letter was Yes, we of course took that at face value, and assumed that you, as other respondents have done, had indeed taken the time and the modicum of effort needed to read the pledge and had responded accordingly.
The reference to a United States of Europe was in passing, referring to a hypothetical question that may indeed be posed to you by your electorate, and was not the central theme of our letter, so am sorry to hear that you took it to be so.
This was pointed out to Tom Bodden when he telephoned me (28/01/10 13:15) for clarification on this matter, he agreeing at the time that the question posed was indeed both clear and unequivacal. I have to say at this point that I am concerned that the writing of Tom Bodden in the Daily Post leaves much to be desired in the accuracy stakes, when in particular he indicated that the Albion Alliance is an anti-EU Campaign, which it is not.
The Albion Alliance is a grass roots campaign concerned with the democratic deficit, it is totally neutral in so far as the EU is concerned other than to say that we are campaigning for the right to a plebicite vote, we are not campaigning either way for the result of any such vote. By remaining neutral we have garnered the support of candidates on both sides, pro and anti, and shall continue in this vein.
We do not have support from any political parties, (also alluded to by Tom Bodden) nor do we seek it, as our attention is based purely on the candidates of all parties, and the pledge which we ask them to sign up to is a pledge to the electorate, not to us, we only act as a conduit for communicating with candidates and a holding bank for those pledges.
I also indicated to Tom Bodden that should you wish to have your entry in our database changed from a yes to a no, then you may of course write to us and we would adhere to your wishes, but would of course reserve the right to publish that, as we do with all other correspondence, another fact sadly not reflected correctly in The Post article.
I shall therefore be writing direct to Tom Bodden to correct the inaccuracies in his story.
With regards to your support of Conservative Party policy to re-negotiate powers and not to allow the transfer of any further powers to the EU without a referendum, I appreciate and respect that support. However it does little to alter the relationship as it currently stands, which is the whole basis for the Albion Alliance campaign, designed specifically to give the voters of Britain the final say in that entire relationship, not just little bits of it.
As you have already indicated in your email below that you support Conservative party policy, it is incumbant upon me to ask whether you include in that the Private Members Bill which is currently being put forward by Douglas Carswell, which also has cross party support. Ref: http://www.talkcarswell.com/show.aspx?id=1276
I hope this addresses your concerns, and I leave it to your goodself on how you wish to proceed further.
Kindest Regards
Ian Parker-Joseph
for Albion Alliance
David Phipps – 02/02/10
The candidate responded:
From: Matt Wright [mailto:matt@valeofclwyd.orangehome.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 4:07 PM
To: ian.parker-joseph@albionalliance.org.uk
Subject: Re: Web Site
Thanks Ian, the e-mail didn’t refer to a Private Members Bill so can you remove that point if that is what the pledge is about. I want to see powers re-negotiated back to Britain and the time for that to be done properly. I don’t want to be bounced into a federal Europe and I don’t want any Govt to give away anymore powers without a referendum. I am appalled that Brown denied us a referendum and then went and ratified the treaty.
Matt
Cllr Matt Wright Tel: 01352 741835 Mobile: 07791 804599
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate – Vale of Clwyd
Web Site: www.cllrmattwright.com
As a result of this last email, the candidate’s pledge has been altered to ‘No’
David Phipps – 02/02/10
A further email has been sent to this candidate as follows:
Matt,
We are not able to remove single points from the pledge, therefore we will mark you on the database as a NO, will not pledge.
You say you do not wish to be bounced into a Federal Europe, but please note however, the UK is already in a Federal Europe, no matter how it is wrapped up and delivered to the public by Westminster. It came about on 1st December 2009, the day that the Lisbon Treaty came into force in all 27 member states, the EU assumed executive power, legal personality.
As any nation is based upon law, it is the establishment of the European Legal System, and having that legal system take primary position in every member state defines the Federal Europe we now live in.
We find all too often that our politicians, and those standing to become politicians, do not really know what the legal position regarding the EU actually is, happy to follow the party line without bothering to read either treaties or legal advice. Please let me reinforce the legal position that the UK now finds itself in.
Such documents are to be made available to the public, your voters, via our website as we approach the election, so please do not be surprised when they appear to be better informed on our current position than yourself, and are willing to question you on why you will not allow them to have their say in a plebicite, whilst you appear to be happy to just tinker around the edges.
I quote:
The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed on 13 December 2007 by the 27 Heads of State or Government of the Member States of the Union, comes into force on 1 December 2009. It amends the two fundamental treaties – the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Community, with the latter to be known in future as the ‘Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union’ (TFEU).
The European Union, which will henceforth have legal personality, will replace the European Community. Accordingly, under the Treaty of Lisbon, the ‘pillar’ structure will disappear and the Union will have a new institutional framework.
This is taken from a press release of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, 30th November 2009, which I attach above.
Kindest Regards
Ian Parker-Joseph
David Phipps 02/02/10
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