Why did they do it?

Recently three so-called Tory grandees, Lords Patten, Brittain and Garel-Jones, have protested against the Tory plan to leave the EPP (European Peoples' Party, - a centre-right group at Brussels/Strasburg. They are identifying with various left wing writers, Guardian, etc, and Labour speakers, as well as Jose Manuel Barroso.

Furthermore, the Grandees have made known their views at a time likely to do most damage to the Tory cause just before a Euro-election, which is why the Guardian and Labour are also involved. The UKIP leadership must be highly delighted.

The image that these people are trying to put across is that the Tories are about to leave a very reasonable and accommodating EPP, and join a group with members who have strange views on climate change and sexual and racial issues. The party will become marginalised, it is said.

A number of things ought to be said to explode all this:

1) Roger Helmer, MEP, last week week pointed out on his blog that the group is already marginalised, - within the EPP. The EPP is very much pro-federalism, and EU statehood, thus very much a prime mover in the project. They gave an undertaking to respect the Conservative position on Constitutional matters, but have never allowed that position to be mentioned by the group, with a federalist leader speaking on their behalf allegedly. Group money has been spent exclusively on the promotion of federalism.

Helmer feels that they are wanted because their numbers boost the money coming to the EPP, which otherwise wants them to keep quiet. The EU promoters do not want any sceptical group, and they have already made it harder to gain funds by raising the number of nationalities required in the membership of a group.

It Helmer's view being outside and not muzzled by the EPP will mean that they will be able to accumulate support from many countries, and upset the cosy leadership assumption that there is no widespread opposition to what they are creating.

2) The EPP has within it some elements who hold views similar to those condemned by Mr. Barroso, - the Polish Civic Platform, Forza Italia, the German CDU and the Austrian People's Party. A candidate to join the EPP is Alleanza Nazionale, the Italian fascist grouping. These are acceptable to Barrosso, and to Patten/Brittain/Garel-Jones, presumably because they are federalist?

3) The racist, homophobic views which the critics condemn in the parties the Tories may associate with are also found within the main left group, the Party of European Socialists, especially the Self-defence League. The group also includes a former IRA man, a former German terrorist and sundry communist sympathisers.

4) The Tories in helping to form an independent group will be able to use resources to campaign for the kind of Europe they believe in, and will have a consistence in what they say at home and in Europe. This has largely been lost since Mrs. T.