A CHANCE FOR A REAL E.U. RENEGOTIATION

E.U. TREATY TALKS

While the Lib Dems implode after their disastrous election results, let us look forward to the implications for next year. I have thought for some time that the Tories would be the largest party after the General Election. Labour’s under performance in the North last week has strengthened my view. Therefore there is a reasonable prospect that David Cameron will be in a position to try to renegotiate our treaty arrangements with the E.U.
Up to now I had thought that his demands would be unacceptably high even for our German and Swedish allies. This is because the Better Off Out wing of the Conservative Party is exerting increasing pressure on him. The result would be that Cameron would come back with a weak package of concessions that he would try, and fail, to sell in an in/out referendum in 2017.
However the scale of hostility to the E.U project across a large number of countries is such that the impetus for change has grown and Cameron may be able to get meaningful concessions. These could cover immigration controls, the working time directive, benefit tourism and the “ever closer union” clause of the Treaty of Rome. If all this happens, then the chances of the British people making the disastrous decision to come out of the E.U may be avoided. But don’t hold your breath. Hostility to the E.U is running high in this country.

 

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESULTS IN THE NORTH

In the North West it was sad that Lib Dem Chris Davies lost his seat and that the Green’s able candidate Peter Cranie just failed to secure a position. The region would have been better represented by a wider range of MEPs.
Of those who were elected, I have to say the UKIP team impress me. I don’t agree with their policies but Paul Nuttall from Liverpool, the party’s Deputy Leader has developed well as an articulate and friendly spokesman for his party. Then there are the new North West UKIP MEPs. Louise Boers, the former Brookside actress, has a very warm personality and gave her best on the BBC’s Question Time this week alongside Piers Morgan and hard tackling footballer Joey Barton. Finally Steven Woolfe, the party’s economics spokesman will have a hard task when UKIP’s right wing policies on cuts and the health service come under scrutiny.

Labour’s team in the North West are all new and untried. Teresa Griffin has been preparing for this moment for four elections and said all the right things in her victory speech in Manchester Town Hall on Sunday night. Afzal Khan is a very pleasant man, let’s see if he can make a practical difference for the region in Brussels.
The big question mark centres on Julie Ward who has not held elected office before and hails from Bishop Auckland in the North East. She was originally in fourth place on the Labour list and thus very unlikely to win a seat. But the late decision by Arlene McCarthy to withdraw pushed her up to third place. There are fears in Labour circles that she may defect to the Green Party
For the Tories the feisty Jackie Foster starts her third term representing the North West and Saj Karim just held on to his place.
Labour topped the poll in the North West but in Yorkshire and the Humber, it was UKIP. With the controversial Godfrey Bloom gone their brand new MEPs are Jane Collins, Amjad Bashir and Mike Hookem. The other MEPs are all experienced Brussels hands. Linda McAvan and Richard Corbett for Labour and Tim Kirkhope for the Conservatives.

 

LOCAL COUNCIL RESULTS IN THE NORTH

Labour underperformed in key parts of the North, raising serious questions about their ability to win next year. Even the unambitious “35%” strategy to just get across the line is undermined with their 31% projected national vote share in these elections.
Failing to take Trafford into no overall control and to win in West Lancashire where the Mayor will keep the Conservatives in control, were major disappointments. Targets were also missed in Kirklees and Calderdale, although Bradford was won. In Leeds there were no Labour gains to strengthen the party’s majority.
UKIP found the North West hard going with a smattering of seats in Oldham, Hyndburn and Bolton but east of the Pennines the nine gains in Rotherham caught national headlines.
The Greens are now the official opposition in Liverpool, although their leader John Coyne tells me he may not occupy the Town Hall office reserved for him on cost grounds.
Let’s finally turn to the Lib Dems. There has been much reporting of their implosion in Manchester, Rochdale and Liverpool but in Stockport they will still run the council with ratepayers support and in South Lakeland they had no losses at all.
Next stop, the Newark by election on Thursday.

2 thoughts on “A CHANCE FOR A REAL E.U. RENEGOTIATION”

  1. Hi Jim – What a great success for me and Labour in the NW on Sunday eve! Someone alerted me to your blog which is interesting but perhaps lacking in research regarding myself. I remember you asking me why I had decided to stand as a Labour candidate – I told you I was angry about social injustice. Your view that I might defect to the Greens is rather odd and without substance. I campaigned against the Greens in Cumbria – see this letter which responded to Green claims http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/letters/you-say/the-european-elections-1.1136187 For your information I am in the Labour Party because it is the most diverse and truly representative of modern Britain and the only real hope (with the PES) in the battle against the rise of xenophobia across Europe. Running a successful business (IPS) in Co Durham for 30 yrs rather shapes one’s views and political beliefs – I arrived here in 1984 at the end of the Miners’ Strike and have known first-hand the devastation caused by Thatcher’s government. When you work with poor white working class communities, providing mental health and youth engagement services against an unremitting onslaught of punishing austerity measures, you develop a dialogue, a way of connecting to the most vulnerable people in society. Whilst I am ‘green’ in many ways the Green Party sadly cannot make the all-important connection with the kinds of people who are left behind by society. I am thrilled to be elected as a Labour MEP to represent one of the most diverse regions in Britain, a place where I lived and worked in the early 1980s. You can find out more about me from my website – sorry not updated as yet as life has been very hectic. In particular, you might want to check out the endorsements, especially those from Stephen Hughes outgoing NE MEP and Kevin Marquis of SED. I look forward to meeting you again soon. All good wishes. Julie Ward NW Labour MEP Elect P.S. As well as being a successful business-woman I have also been a journalist. I’m sure you will agree that we older people can have many identities!

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