The European Parliament elections take place on Thursday, May 22.
The Spalding and South Holland Voice has compiled a guide to the candidates to fill the five East Midlands seats.
We gave every party vying for an East Midlands seat an invitation for each candidate to address Voice readers directly.
The UK is divided into 12 electoral regions with between three and ten MEPs representing each region.
The five current MEPs for East Midlands are Bill Newton Dunn (Liberal Democrats), Roger Helmer (UKIP), Emma McClarkin (Conservative), Derek Clark (UKIP) and Glenis Willmott (Labour).
Submissions listed by alphabetical order of party:
AN INDEPENDENCE FROM EUROPE
Chris Pain: A vote for An Independence From Europe is a vote to leave the EU, not a UKIP/Con referendum.
In my role as an MEP, I would try to bring back taxpayers’ money for projects in our region.
My aim would be to:
- Implement full border controls with an ‘Australian style’ visa system based on national needs. Stop unlimited Immigration; deport illegal immigrants and foreign criminals. It is not about race it is about space.
- Transfer foreign aid to UK citizens in need. Countries with nuclear and space programs do not need our taxpayers’ money
- Improve pensions for the elderly
- Make no cuts in NHS frontline health services, put medical staff back at the heart of the NHS, real matrons to run MRSA free hospitals
- Increase police on the beat, restore law and order
See my website www.cllrchrispain.com
Alan Jesson:
- Introduce ‘boot camps’ for young offenders to stop them spiralling into a life of crime.
- Reclaim British Fishing Waters from the EU: abandon EU fishing quotas and shameful ‘discards’, implement movable ‘no fishing zones’ to protect stocks. Reclaim £2.5 billion fish sales to the UK a year.
- Cut Council Tax by abolishing PC jobs and EU Landfill Tax which costs £3 million per council on average
- Improve pensions for the elderly and bring in Government backed OAP homes, so that elderly do not have to pay bizarrely high prices for accommodation. Most of them have paid taxes all their lives and then are penalised when they retire.
Val Pain:
- Stop the HS2 scheme that will exceed £100 billion plus and spend the money on the country’s road and rail network.
- Make provision for parents to take their children on holiday for ten days a year during term time. Lincolnshire is reliant heavily on tourism and agriculture so it is difficult for parents to take children on holiday between March and October. The idea would be to form a contract between the child, parent and school so that the work is caught up during the term times. Most parents take the education system seriously but quality time with your family is just as important and also part of the learning curve.
- Restore free dental checkups and eye tests.
- Demand zero tolerance on crime.
- Foreign lorries to purchase a Brit Disc to use our roads: No to 60 ton EU ‘Super Lorries’
John Beaver:
- Clear UK’s debt by leaving the EU: in 2010 if we had left the EU we would have saved £112 billion per year. This figure will rise to £356 billion per year by 2018 (these figures are provided by Open Europe Group which is a pro European Organisation). On top of this the UK is giving £10 million of taxpayers’ money to prop up the Euro over the next five years.
- British jobs for British workers – it is commonsense that we offer jobs to local people rather than advertising in foreign papers. This is creating mass youth unemployment in the UK and the youth are facing a life of long term reliance on the benefit system. Allowing mass unlimited EU migration lowers the wage structure so that now the minimum wage has now become the maximum.
Carl Mason:
- A vote for An Independence From Europe is a vote to leave the EU and not a UKIP/Con referendum. We will enter into a free trade agreement with the EU whilst increasing trade with the Commonwealth Free Trade Area where CBC estimates there is $1.8 trillion of trade and $100 billion of foreign investment available to the UK annually once we are free of the EU tariffs and restrictions.
- Make foreigners pay their own translation fees instead of our government paying, this is being funded by our tax payers.
- Make sure that rivers are dredged properly in order to reduce flood risk. This has to be a priority to protect lives, livelihoods and valuable farm land. Ensure coastal protection against flooding and sea surges. Stop wasting £7.5 million putting sand on the beach to see it washed away each year. We need long term sea defences.
BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY
The candidates are: Catherine Ann Marie Duffy, Robert Malcolm Brian West, Bob Brindley, Geoffrey William Dickens and Paul Hilliard.
CONSERVATIVE PARTY
Emma McClarkin MEP: Britain’s relationship with the EU is not working. The EU needs fundamental change. It’s time for the British people to decide our future.
We joined a Common Market for increased trade, growth and jobs. But today we have a European Union obsessed with political integration and harmonisation. Too many powers have been given away to Brussels. It’s time to bring powers back.
Only the Conservatives are committing to delivering real change in the EU and giving the British people their say in a vote. So if you want to keep out of the Euro and take back control of our own borders; if you want to keep out of future EU bailouts and take back control of justice and home affairs. And if you want to see real change in the European Union and to have your vote in an In or Out Referendum you need to Vote Conservative.
Rupert Matthews: I work in publishing, as Editorial Director of Bretwalda Books, a business I set up with two colleagues in 2010. We export to several European countries including France, Germany, Spain, Iceland, Sweden and Italy and while most of our books are printed in the UK we source some specialist printing from Malta. The company is not restricted to Europe. We export to the USA, Canada and other English-speaking countries – and those with English as a second language such as India. Although born in Surrey I had to good sense to marry a Lincolnshire Yellowbelly lass, we were married and lived near Grantham. I also have a passion for Lincolnshire sausages, and hope to work off the effects of this while campaigning around Spalding and the rest of the county in the run up to the elections on May 22.
Other candidates: Andrew Iain Lewer, Stephen John Castens and Brendan Clarke-Smith
ENGLISH DEMOCRATS
Kevin Sills: We can all plainly see that almost everything is going wrong under 50 years of Lib/Lab/Con policies.
The 2009 EU Conservative Manifesto stated “Our MEPs will support the further enlargement of the EU, including to the Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Georgia and the countries of the Balkans” and all three main parties want this.
Indeed the ex-Tory, present MEP and now lead UKIP candidate I believe voted for “EU enlargement”
Quite simply “I fear for our children’s future if Labour and Conservative keep winning elections”.
You can name any subject and it’s a combined disaster, immigration, pensions, defence, drugs, foreign aid, NHS, increasing VAT, crime, business taxation, youth unemployment, low wages, house shortages, prisons, MP salaries, elderly care. We only need around nine per cen to get MEPs so, enough is enough, “if you’re English…vote English Democrats”.
Terry Spencer: As one of the oldest candidates aged 81, I have seen a lot, including being in the Royal Marines, a lecturer and having my own business for over 40 years and I’m still working. I am a member of RSPB, Norfolk Railway, National Trust, Inland Waterways and Camping Club and talk to many people, who mostly say the same thing, that England has gone “to the dogs”.
We, the English, must be independent and govern ourselves, above all other matters, until we do, we cannot control our borders, make our own laws, trade freely or protect this “green and pleasant” Christian land.
Please think of England when you vote! Vote English.
David Wickham: I’m not voting British UKIP, for me it ‘s simple, my children are in debt in order to obtain their university education, yet my cousin’s children get that same free in Scotland,
The same unfair treatment the “English” face, when they have to pay for elderly care/(home seizures and prescription charges.
We English are took advantage of, by self-serving career politicians who’s interest is to maintain “Thatcherite” policies, Ukip are now part of this and are closet Tories promoted by the “British” media. They state anything they think you want to hear! They have done so many u-turns this year and have no present manifesto, which is laughable.
We want England to leave the EU, protect our countryside, farming and village “way of life”. We will re-open smaller railway stations and cut foreign aid to use here, to look after our own. English jobs for English workers!
John Dowle: I live in historic Lincoln and I am proud to be English. My interest in politics is a recent discovery and has matured over the last six years. I have become more and more aware of the terrible damage occurring in my beloved country and cannot sit around, doing nothing as I believe time is running out.
We are mostly controlled by a monster called the EU. It is all consuming and I wish to get England OUT, the quick and easy way via English Independence, which will expel us from this expensive club.
We need “equal UK rights” and England needs to Govern itself, until then the other Parties can say what they like, but power sharing with Scotland/Wales/N.Ireland within a “British” Parliament, then being ruled also by a “European” Parliament will get England nowhere!.
We’re putting England first!
Oliver Healey: As one of the youngest candidates, aged 25, I have recent memories of how hard it was for my mother to feed her children and pay the bills.
People struggle paying their rent or mortgage with the high fuel price’s, increased VAT & fuel tax especially. Boot sales and pound shops are about the only thing booming, town centre shops are empty and pubs closing down at a high rate per week. We need to help our own people before paying out £55million a day to the EU. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world and so many people want to emigrate under this Lib/Lab/Con domination. Please this time support England, before it’s too late!
LABOUR
Glenis Willmott MEP:In the European Parliament Labour MEPs are standing up to the big energy companies, the banks and fighting to protect your rights at work.
Labour MEPs delivered measures to cap bankers’ bonuses, but Tory MEPs failed to support these rules. Labour MEPs backed a €6billion fund to provide a jobs guarantee for young people looking for work. Tory MEPs refused to support this whilst thousands of young people in the area are out of work.
Britain needs to be on a strong footing, safeguarding jobs and growth for British workers. Businesses across the area would close with the loss of thousands of jobs if Britain leaves the EU, as UKIP and an increasing number of Tories have demanded.
- Glenis Willmott has been an MEP for the East Midlands since 2006 and is Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.
www.gleniswillmott.eu
Twitter @Glenis_Willmott
Find out more www.eastmidslabour.org.uk
Rory Palmer: Families in the East Midlands are, on average, £1,600 worse off under the Tories.
Prices are rising, wages are stagnant and living standards are falling.
Ed Miliband is committed to freezing energy bills, saving the average household £120 per year. Labour will expand free childcare for working parents, and we’ll help people struggling to get on the housing ladder by getting Britain building again. The European elections on May 22 are your chance to send a message that this Tory-led government should put hardworking people first and tackle the cost-of-living crisis families in Spalding, South Holland and Lincolnshire are facing.
- Rory Palmer is Labour’s deputy city mayor of Leicester. He was elected as a councillor in 2007. As deputy city mayor Rory has led efforts to tackle youth unemployment including the introduction of new council apprenticeships and paid work placements.
Linda Woodings:Our priority is to make Europe work for people in our region. To do that we have to win sensible reforms in Europe, not be isolated on the sidelines when big decisions will get made without Britain’s voice getting heard. If proposals come forward that see more powers moving from the British to Brussels Labour will offer an in/out referendum on our EU membership. Labour will put this commitment into law.
Labour will work to close the loopholes in agency workers rules and make sure the National Minimum Wage is properly enforced. We will stop a race to the bottom on wages and skills and will work to protect your rights at work.
- Linda Woodings is a Communication Workers Union representative, campaigning to protect and improve employment rights; to protect the postal service and to restore call-centre jobs back to the UK.
Twitter @LindaWoodings
Khalid Hadadi: A vote for Labour on May 22 is a vote for:
Freezing gas and electricity bills until 2017; building more homes – 200,000 a year by 2020; 25 hours of free childcare for working parents of three and four year olds; a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee for young people unemployed for over a year; strengthening the Minimum Wage Families across the East Midlands are telling us they are worried about the cost of living crisis. Tackling the cost of living crisis is Labour’s priority. Labour are on the side of working people, not on the side of big business or the bankers.
- Khalid Hadadi is a Brussels based European Affairs Manager for Channel 4. Khalid has extensive experience of European policy having worked as Senior Adviser for the BBC’s EU and International Policy team for ten years.
Nicki Brooks: Labour is focused on the issues that matter to families in the East Midlands. People are worried about the cost of living crisis, rising energy bills, the cost of the weekly shop, long hours and stagnant wages and opportunities for their children. We will take action on zero hours contracts.
Labour will work to protect the thousands of jobs in the area that depend on our trade with the European Union. We need growth and investment to get the economy moving.
- Nicki Brooks is a member of Gedling Borough Council in Nottinghamshire. Nicki believes passionately about issues of equality, fairness at work, clamping down on tax avoidance and the environment. Nicki runs Respect for Animals and has been at the forefront of lobbying in the European Union that has led to the bans on the import of fur from seals and cats and dogs.
Twitter @NickiBrooksx
THE GREEN PARTY
Sue Mallender: Sue (54) comes from Walsall.
She went to Nottingham University gaining a first class B.Ed degree, then taught in state secondary and primary schools in East Midlands. She has two grown-up daughters. She is now a Play and Youth Co-ordinator with Nottingham City Council and a senior Steward for Unison.
Sue was elected to Rushcliffe Borough Council in 2003 and is in her third term and leader of the Green Group. An active member of her community, Sue says: “Communities and local government need real power to act and not be dictated to by Westminster or Brussels.
“On big issues like climate change, environmental protection, human and workers’ rights and preventing armed conflict in Europe, the EU has an important part to play.
“If elected I will work towards regulation of finance, support investment in the local economy and policies for people and the living planet on which we depend.”
Simon Hales: Simon is 45, he lives in Derby and works in IT.
He is actively campaigning against fracking in the East Midlands that he believes is more about boosting company profits than supplying affordable energy.
He says: “The only way to secure long term affordable energy for all is to invest now in renewables.
“Fracked gas will not be cheap, much of the profit will go off-shore and much of the cost will be borne by local communities.
“I look to the EU to take a strong line against fracking and to support research and development in renewables.”
Simon is also an active member of the People’s Assembly and supports their opposition to austerity economics that he says hurts the most vulnerable in society.
Richard Mallender: Richard (46) was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
He graduated from Teesside University in software engineering, then in Artificial Intelligence from Aberdeen University.
He has worked in IT for both Local Government and industry.
He now works for Nottingham City Council on a sustainable Transport Strategy, he is a member of Unison.
Richard is a councillor for Lady Bay ward in Rushcliffe; he is chairman of the Green Party’s National Executive.
Married, Richard lives in Rushcliffe.
Richard says: “The Green Party is strongly democratic and we think it right that people should have a say about our relationship with Europe.
“With globalisation I think it is important for countries to learn to work together to solve common problems and to face global threats like out of control financial dealings, international crime, resource shortages and cross border pollution.
“We recommend the UK being strongly influential inside a reformed EU.”
Peter Allen: Peter (54) was born in Crawley, Sussex and went to Manchester University to study Politics and Modern History.
He remained in the North West, where he married and raised his family.
He now lives in Glossop, Derbyshire.
Peter works for Manchester City Council where he is currently an outreach worker.
He is a member of Unite union.
Peter says: “The EU certainly needs reforming, but with successive Governments weakening social provision and workers rights we look to the EU to strengthen worker protection such as the Working Time Directive.
“I want to see the European Parliament strongly promote the interests of ordinary people and stand up to the power of multinational corporations that manipulate national Governments.
“I want it to promote renewable energy over the interests of the oil and gas companies and to oppose the destructive TTIP treaty with the USA.
Kat Boettge: Kat (37) was born in Munich, Germany, where her mother was Deputy Green Mayor.
She came to Nottingham in October 1999, to train as a psychotherapist.
She established her own practice in the city, working with people with learning difficulties.
A town councillor for Kimberley, she lives in Nottingham with her daughter; she is the Green Party spokeswoman for Social Care.
Kat says: “I am very concerned about the sort of world my 14-year-old daughter will live in. I want to be elected to try to make that world a better place for her and for all people. In the European Parliament I will work to push the EU to take serious action on climate change, I want to see real reforms in the EU to make it serve the interests of people, not big corporations. Britain belongs in the EU and must be a strong voice there.”
THE HARMONY PARTY
Steve Ward: I will be concerned to ensure the East Midlands does not become a lost region, of low priority in a European Super state; I shall strongly argue for “value for money investing” that benefits the local economy. I want all East Midlanders to live proud and to know their common-sense has an active voice in me.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
The candidates are: Bill Newton Dunn, Issan Ul-Haque Ghazni, Phil Knowles, George Smid and Deborah Violet Newton-Cook.
UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY
Roger Helmer MEP: I have had the privilege of representing the East Midlands since 1999. Initially a Tory, I thought they were a Eurosceptic party. But it became clear that the Tories were intent on staying in the EU. They make no serious attempt to address the problem of mass immigration. They have an energy policy which will have no effect on the environment, but is forcing pensioners into fuel poverty, driving industry and investment off-shore, and covering the country with wind farms. They tolerate perverse EU policies which are costing jobs in Lincolnshire.
UKIP, which I joined early in 2012, recognises that all these damaging policies are driven by Brussels. EU membership is making us poorer, and less democratic, and less free. We want our country back, and only UKIP has a policy for independence and self-determination. We believe that the best people to govern Britain are the British people.
Margot Parker: I’m standing for UKIP in this election because I know that UKIP are the party who have the vision to make our country better, and the desire to make life easier for the hard working people of our region.
I’ve had a successful career working in business, including positions as a company director, but I’m also a mum and a grandparent. I understand how tough that can be, and I know the difficulties that parents face in bringing up their children in today’s society.
In these elections, UKIP are offering the people of Spalding and South Holland the chance to take back control of our country. The decisions we make now will have far reaching consequences on the world we leave behind. For the sake of the generations who follow us, let’s make this the election where we bring real democracy back to the people of Britain.
Jonathan Bullock: I am a UKIP Borough Councillor and have been a member of the Local Government Association Rural Commission for the last seven years. I have also been a member of the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association for over 10 years.
I have seen at first-hand how much the EU interferes at local level, usually through various directives that the Government forces councils to follow. A good example is the preponderance of bins and recycling boxes on the pavements. This is due to Councils being forced to meet recycling targets emanating from the EU, which the UK Government has to implement due to the EU Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive.
Another example is the over-building in rural areas which is the consequence of uncontrolled immigration which we can do nothing about whilst we are members of the EU. Please vote UKIP to make a change!
Barry Mahoney: I bring hope for the future that Spalding and South Holland will regain its freedom and independence from the EU. In return government by our elected Westminster parliament, control of our borders, supremacy of English Common Law and traditional British freedoms. This will be accompanied by an increase in prosperity as the estimated cost of £170bn per year, inclusive of the £55 million per day direct contributions, are saved.
Regaining powers from the EU will mean greater power can be devolved to local level enabling decisions on local issues affecting Spalding and South Holland to be made by locally elected representatives. The more local are the representatives the more accountable and more able to tailor solutions to fit specific local conditions.
The cast iron guarantee of a referendum on membership of the EU has not been honoured. This European Election can be used as a substitute for the denied referendum.
Nigel Wickens: I wish for our country to be a free, independent, self-governing democracy. I have wide ranging political beliefs, which span the political spectrum and UKIP is my natural political home because it is democratic, tolerant, broad minded and progressive.
Now 53, having built a career running businesses and brought up three sons who are now adults and making their own way in the world, I’m committed to getting total control of our country back to Westminster where we can fully hold our elected representatives to account at the ballot box.
My specific areas of interest include environment and sustainability. I believe we need to adopt sustainability principles in order that we can begin to reverse the damage caused to the planet since the industrial revolution and enable future generations to develop and use resources that enrich their lives and environment.
