McMillan-Scott makes no impression

adrian drummond

Twerp.

David Boycott

He used to be my MEP and always was a pompous moron. Deaf to the wishes of his electorate, he has been too busy in Brussels surrendering our sovereignty and claiming expenses to have any conception of public opinion at home.

He will be as much use to the LibDems as the equally odious Quentin Davies has been to Labour.

Walsingham's Ghost

McMillan-Who......

strapworld

Hell hath no fury like a former tory scorned!

Richard Manns

"Europhiles of Ken Clarke's stature."

I must admit my ignorance, but how many EUphiles are there left? And they were struggling in the 90s and I can't imagine the next generation is replenishing them.

JohnAnt

McMillan-Scott couldn't find his own a**e using both hands.
But what's this, David: "The overwhelming majority of the Tory leadership and party are eurosceptic, often intensely so."
Oh yeah? Really? So why don't they say so themselves, at all, ever?
Did mother tell them if they can't say anything nice, not to say anything at all?
Or maybe they're just shy?

Vulture

'Edward McMillan-Scott fights a lonely and determined battle...' Yeah, right: determined to draw his MEP's salary and exes just as long as he can do so, just the way he has done since first boarding the Brussels gravy train all those years ago.

Nor should it be forgotten that Scott owes his seat on the gravy train to Francis Maude who wangled it so that his chum got to the top of the Tory list. So why doesn't the loathsome Thatcherite-turned-Portilloite-turned-Daveite Maude join his Europhile chum in the Lib Dems? He would certainly not be missed.

Stevie

You'd know, hey Strapworld? LOL.

Andy Leeds

So one assumes this gormless moron will now resign his seat. After all the EU Parliament is elected by PR - a big thing with LibDems - and the people did not vote for a LibDem but a Conservative, so he must resign. Will of the people and all.

William Blakes Ghost

First we had Anna Spann and her feminine aids. Now we have that mad europhiliac McMillan Scott. I can't wait to see what the Libdems have for an encore?

saddleworth

He appears to exemplify the results that we get from the corruption of democracy by party lists. Would a prat so out of touch with conservative voters ever have been elected but this corrupt electoral process. Europhiles love it but then again they have no basic believe in democracy (and nor do Lib Dems given the rate at which they would wish to hand over further powers to the unaccountable who inhabit the EU cesspit)

David Lindsay

It is entirely appropriate that, in the week that Clegg declared himself the heir to the Prime Minister who signed the Single European Act, he should welcome Edward McMillan-Scott. Most Tories are Eurosceptics? Pull the other one!

McMillan-Scott did not even oppose the Iraq War, but the Lib Dems will take anyone, from the polling booth to Strasbourg. They are defined by what they are not, rather than by what they are. McMillan-Scott has left the Tories because of their association with Michal Kaminski, who like all their new associates at Strasbourg is far too good for them anyway. Look at the things for which those parties stand. The Tories are no more in agreement with such positions than are the Lib Dems. But the Lib Dems will not even sit next to people who hold such views.

The Tories do not support generous welfare provisions, public services in the public sector, universal healthcare provided by the State, workers’ rights, or the public ownership of important companies. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in generous welfare provisions, public services in the public sector, universal healthcare provided by the State, workers’ rights, or the public ownership of important companies, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Tories do not support the safeguarding or restoration of family life in general and paternal authority in particular by the safeguarding or restoration of high-wage, high-skilled, high-status employment such as coal-mining. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in the safeguarding or restoration of family life in general and paternal authority in particular by the safeguarding or restoration of high-wage, high-skilled, high-status employment such as coal-mining, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Tories do not support measures for the payment of mothers to stay at home with their children, for adoption and against abortion, for palliative care and against the euthanasia opposed by Gordon Brown, for the traditional marriage supported by Barack Obama (or, at the very least, against compelling anyone to conduct deviations from it), against sex and violence in the media, against State toleration of drugs and prostitution, against unrestricted Sunday trading, or against supermarkets opening on what are supposed to be public holidays for everyone including shop workers. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in the payment of mothers to stay at home with their children, in adoption rather than abortion, in palliative care rather than the euthanasia opposed by Gordon Brown, in the traditional marriage supported by Barack Obama (or, at the very least, against compelling anyone to conduct deviations from it), in action against sex and violence in the media, in action against drugs and prostitution, in restrictions on Sunday trading, or in public holidays for everyone including shop workers, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Laughing Cavalier

Nobody respects a turncoat. Look at Davies and Woodward.

stephen

This is typical of the Lib Dems!

I know I have posted it already elsewhere on CH; but clearly Mandy sees the Lib Dems as his fellow travellers in the South West as he told the Western Morning News

"LORD Mandelson has made a direct appeal to non-Tory voters in the Westcountry to support the Liberal Democrats in a bid to hold back a Conservative landslide in the region.

The Business Secretary and key architect of Labour election strategy told the Western Morning News that the Lib-Dems "have more in common with Labour than with any other party".

Only Labour could form a government and deliver on Lib-Dem aspirations, he added.

Good "luck" to twerps like MacMillan Scott I hope the good West Country people will see him and his fellow Lib Dems for what they are! A vote for Lib Dem is a vote for another 5 years of Brown!

Ian, Essex

Can someone please explain to me how he can still hold his MEP seat. In the UK General Election you vote for the person to represent you and just hope he does not stab you in the back by defecting. In the European Election (using PR) you vote for a party and they then the party decides who represent them by a list. Surely if you no longer want to represent the party then the party should now select the next person on the list to take the seat. If this is not so then how is the proportional representation upheld?

TrevorsDen

Most of the Tory party are indeed Eurosceptic. They will do their best to make the EU work and will fail, but they are broadly Eurosceptic.

An ar**hole of a lefty French le Monde correspondent - wheeled out by Newsnight as part of its anti-tory propaganda campaign - illustrated the crassness of the EU brigade quite brilliantly.

So its no wonder the actions of the EU point us all in the Eurosceptic direction.

David Lindsay

TrevorsDen, pull the other one. Funny how he only ever fell out with the Tories over a grouping arrangement, never over any matter of policy.

Ian, Essex, that he does not have to resign his seat is as good an argument against party lists as you could possibly want, and the arguments against them are all very good indeed. The Edmund Burke quotation usually trotted out when MPs change parties was of course uttered before party names appeared on ballot papers, but if anything that is an argument for party names not to appear on ballot papers, as they did not do until very recently. As with party lists, the argument is essentially the same: we do not vote for parties in this country, we vote for candidates. If the party label is your reason for voting for a particular candidate, then people never had any difficulty finding it out. If you feel betrayed over this or anything else in the course of a Parliament, then that is what the following General Election is for.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the Labour MPs who mostly voted against Heath’s Treaty of Rome. Who all voted against Thatcher’s Single European Act. Who voted against Major’s Maastricht Treaty in far greater numbers than the Tories, including the only resignation from either front bench in order to do so. And who all, together with every Lib Dem MP, voted against the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies every year between 1979 and 1997.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the trade unionists who have spent decades defending the secure, high-waged, high-skilled, high-status jobs of the working class.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who today will not allow climate change to be used as an excuse to destroy or prevent secure employment, to drive down wages or working conditions, to arrest economic development around the world, to forbid the working classes and non-white people from having children, to inflate the fuel prices that always hit the poor hardest, or to restrict either travel opportunities or a full diet to the rich.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who today recognise that we cannot deliver the welfare provisions and the other public services that our people have rightly come to expect unless we know how many people there are in this country, unless we control immigration properly, and unless we insist that everyone use spoken and written English to the necessary level.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the Catholic and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against abortion and easier divorce. Like the Methodist and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against deregulated drinking and gambling. Like those, including John Smith, who successfully organised (especially through USDAW) against Thatcher’s and Major’s attempts to destroy the special character of Sunday and of Christmas Day, delivering the only Commons defeat of Thatcher’s Premiership. And like the trade unionists who battled to secure paternal authority in families and communities by securing its economic base in high-waged, high-skilled, high-status male employment, frequently marching behind banners that depicted Biblical scenes and characters.

And by accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, whose deep roots in the former mining communities, in the women’s suffrage movement, in the 1945 General Election victory, and elsewhere, make us unsullied by the weird cult of Winston Churchill, so that instead we can and do condemn his carve-up of Europe with Stalin, just as we condemn genocidal terrorism against Slavs and Balts no less than genocidal terrorism against Arabs, or the blowing up of British Jews going about their business as civil servants, or the photographed hanging of teenage British conscripts with barbed wire.

denis cooper

Many of the Tory party members are indeed "eurosceptic", for what that's worth, but those controlling the party are not. And as the members are loyal party political sheep most of them will follow their leaders anywhere, including into the slaughter house of "ever closer union". That's how it's been now for half a century, and that's how it will continue until the party has served its purpose and ceases to exist.

Nicholas

Treachery is never attractive but this nasty looking spud certainly has the face for it.

I hope the question of how he retains his CONSERVATIVE MEP seat is answered. By rights the pustule-head has just surrendered it.

TomTom

Top of the Conservative LIST for Yorkshire & Humberside was McMillan-Scott. Labour lost a seat to the BNP....so how do the LibDems now end up with two seats ?

The Conservatives got 24.5% votes cast and McMillan Scott headed the list but now he changes party and makes fools of those voting Conservative. They did not vote for McMillan Scott - his party chose him as their primary candidate but he has now decided he is not even a Conservative yet he still gets paid as an MEP.

Surely his Expenses are not in order ? He was not elected on a LibDem List

teledu

"The overwhelming majority of the Tory leadership and party are eurosceptic..."

Well, maybe so when compared with other Westminster politicians, but when compared with the average Briton, their euroscepticism is pretty damn modest.

TGF UKIP

Bet your bottom dollar, though, that he'll be on Marr tomorrow and into as many other radio and TV studios that Labour and the BBC can manage.

Just one more nail in the coffin lid that's slowly but inexorably closing on Calamity Cameron.

David Lindsay

He is still listed as an Honorary Life Member of the Tory Reform Group (President: Ken Clarke).

denis cooper

1970, David Lindsay; I believe that the names of parties first appeared on ballot papers for the general election of 1970, presumably following legislation passed under the Wilson government. I expect you'll correct me if I'm wrong.

Party logos came later, copying countries with poor literacy rates.

I'd remove them both, on the basis that if an elector is determined to vote for a party rather than a person then he should at least take the trouble to discover the name of the candidate standing in its interest.

I'd also like the Speaker to desist from referring to MPs by name, and instead revert to the previous formula of "the Honourable Member for ..." - whence actually "naming" an MP was a reprimand.

Shepley Tory

I took this bloke canvassing in Dewsbury before the Euros & he didn't impress me then, limp handshake and an aloof attitude. I laugh now when I remember his reaction when I took him to meet people at Dewsbury Bus Station (it was 5.30pm & was where there would be a lot of people). He couldn't wait to get away! The Limp Dems are welcome to him, shame we in Yorkshire will be deprived of a stronger voice in Brussels because of him.

stephen

just watched Clegg on C4 news they gave him a hard time and he was pretty slippery. One point they tried to tie him down on was cuts; he had to admit Lib Dems would not support the Tories if they were the single largest party and wanted to make cuts this year. As the C4 guy implied if Markets get wind of this sterling could be in for another bashing.

mitch

Never heard of him and now he is a limp I never will, good riddance to bad rubbish.

Peter From Maidstone

I am sure that the majority of people vote for a (least worst) party platform. If we are going to really have MPs as constituency representatives then we must have some way of recalling them when and if they either choose not to represent their constituency at all, or dishonour the privilege of being a representative. At the moment I am not represented by my MP in any meaningful sense whatsoever. Even when voting for her I have no clear idea that she will vote in accordance with my own wishes, intentions and interests on even a single issue. That is NOT representative government. It is just a massive fraud.

Frank P

He looks like the issue of a fusion of the the sperm of Martin Clunes and Peter Jay implanted in the womb of Polly Toynbee. The man therefore has a serious problem which could well explain his confusion.

2trueblue

Who do these people think they are? He gets voted in and then decides that HE will decide what party HE now wants to join? Controlling or what? This sort of behavior must be stopped as these peoples have no principles, and should not be allowed to leave their electorate unrepresented. If they change sides they should stand again and get themselves re-elected.They should also have to repay the party they originally joined any expenses incurred for their election, as they have in effect defrauded that party and the electorate for that area, by using their funds.

Annabel Herriott

Good Ol' Roger Helmer!! He was interviewed towards the end of the politics show this afternoon, and I am glad to report that he decimated E.McM.S with some deliciously well chosen remarks. Keep it up Rog! Your country needs you.

Otto

We currently have the odd spectacle of the Tory party, ostensibly the party of business and who actually took us into Europe, becoming the anti European party. Clearly about 60% of the Westminster representation along with the conservative media, much of the base, and the talking heads, would quite cheerfully be prepared to leave entirely unless our latest "demand" is satisfied. How this attitude enhances our diplomacy should the conservatives be elected is a bit difficult to understand. In practice it will be a huge albatross and likely to consume any conservative govt just as it consumed the Major govt. As for this little affair, Cameron made a mistake in stepping outside the mainstream Conservative grouping in Europe and signing up with these little Polanders and crypto fascists from Eastern Europe.....it's not the biggest deal in history but it's made him look a bit of a fool and climaxing right now adds to the impression that he's basically a bit of a lightweight.

bsmith

The man has seen the light. Opprobrium always precedes the acceptance of the truth