Roger Helmer Resigns

'Europlastic' Tory MEP Roger Helmer has announced his resignation from the European Parliament, the reasons he gives are:

But it would be disingenuous to deny that my decision is dictated in part by my increasing disillusion with the attitudes of the Conservative Party. I am finding it ever more difficult to defend the policies of the Coalition, not only on my key issues of Europe, and of climate and energy, but on a range of other matters besides.

I think a congratulations and a special mention to the dogged efforts of Autonomous Mind is in order here, who, in no small part, has consistently made Roger's contradictory position more and more difficult to defend.

One would like to think that Roger at last has found some principles, but then we're reminded that he's nearly 70, he's been an MEP for over 12 years (for a party whose enthusiasm for the EU is obvious) and he now has a nice EU pension to look forward to, to ease the pain of 'retirement'.

Low Fat Spread

I want to tell a (slightly fictional) story...

Once upon a time I went a bit mad and decided to improve my health. I wanted to change from 'unhealthy' butter to something which I thought was a little more appropriate. My eye was caught by bright, colourful packaging that announced 'Gold Low Fat' spread. The 'low' part was emphasised so clearly that this seemed a good healthy option. After buying however, being slightly cynical, I studied the small print - the nutritional information - and to my horror discovered that it contained 38% fat (within the EU limit of 41% - in order to advertise it as low fat) and that a lot of that fat content was of the very unhealthy kind: hydrogenated vegetable fat.

Well over a third of fat in a product didn't seem to constitute 'healthy' so feeling deceived I traipsed back to the shop for an explanation. 'It is low fat', the shopkeeper insisted, 'it says so on the packet'. Anyway, as a gesture of goodwill, he replaced it with a new and improved version. Immediately I noticed two changes; the 'low fat' logo on the front of the product had been significantly increased (thus more prominent) and, reading the nutritional information, so had the fat content - this time to 39%. Apart from that the contents had remained the same.

Again I return to the shopkeeper with my concerns - there appeared to be a deliberate and renewed attempt to deceive customers on the nature of the product he was selling. He, by this time, was getting a little cross. But he came up with a newer apparently better alternative - a 'low fat lightweight' spread. Again the packaging had been changed, now it was covered in lots of cute pictures of trees and countryside scenes and the words 'low fat' now adorned most of the box. Inspecting the contents, however, revealed that the fat content had now increased to 40%. I decided to boycott this shop, buy my product elsewhere and in the meantime inform everyone I knew of the misleading nature of the original shop.

Within days I receive an angry letter from said shop accusing me of losing him customers and business and that really he did sell 'low fat' products if only people stopped reading the nutritional labels.

Anyway going off on a tangent Autonomous Mind has a great post on Tory euroscepticism and Roger Helmer MEP's 'strategy' on exiting the EU - basically vote Tory because they are low fat, no really.

Big Success?

Following on from Autonomous Mind's wonderful exposure of Roger Helmer MEP as a Judas goat, Helmer unwittingly reinforces AM's point by tweeting this today:

Apparently reducing the number of Strasbourg sessions is hailed as a 'big success'. A genuine campaigner against the EU and our membership of it, of course, wouldn't give a toss how many sessions Strasbourg has. All that matters is that the EU Parliament has no sessions at all in either Brussels or Strasbourg because it no longer exists or that it's irrelevant because the UK is no longer a member.

Mr Helmer, however, thinks that making the EU more efficient at its job is something to be proud of. It isn't.

Update: Ironies Too has an interesting post on another sidekick of Roger Helmer - the 'fierce Eurosceptic' Chris Heaton-Harris MP

"I Agree To Everything I'm Opposed To"

I struggle to add anything meaningful to Autonomous Mind's posts, exposing so-called euro-sceptic Roger Helmer MEP as yet another Tory Judas Goat, largely because the whole process has became unbearably tedious in its predictability. Decades of the same ol' Tory mantra - "in Europe, not ruled by it", "Tories are really eurosceptic" blah blah blah takes its toll. As Richard North wonderfully puts it:

Turning then to the Speccytwat, we then find a variation of the Tory theme, with the young Forsyth pontificating about how – on the basis of yet another inane an expensive EU law – Dave and his merry men need to "tackle Britain's relationship with the EU".

...Britain does not have a relationship with the EU – Britain is part of the EU. This country can no more have a relationship with this body than can we suggest that our own left feet have relationships with our own bodies.

The problem with which we are confronted, therefore, is that the Tory commentators are so incredibly thick that they cannot even get past first base.

Rather like the pesky pigeons that sat on my roof this morning at 5am - waking me up by cooing incessantly. Pompously sat there, sticking their chests out as if they're important, cooing the same dull notes over and over and over again. It's enough to drive me insane. Brainless and stupid, there's no point arguing with them, nope, the only solution is to get the airgun out.

Ted Heath Must Be Laughing In His Grave

Not my words, those are the words of Tory MEP Roger Helmer in the comments of John Redwood's post:

John: You’re absolutely right, as usual. But how on earth do we stop it, when the Tory High Command is more pro-Brussels than even New Labour were? Ted Heath must be laughing in his grave — all he hoped and planned for is coming true.

How earth do you stop it? By joining a proper eurosceptic party. You know you want to.

hattip: The Talking Clock

”I Like To Compare EU With Soviet Union”

From RT:

The European Union should not be expected to last forever, believes British politician and member of the EU Parliament Roger Helmer.

”I do not think that the European Union can last forever,” Helmer told RT. “I like to compare it to the USSR, we should not do the comparison too far, but I think there are a lot of factors.”

He also has some interesting comments on his party's stance on the EU, which he reiterates on his blog here. He is clearly disillusioned with his own party, one wonders how long before he takes Geoffrey Howe's "tragic conflict of loyalties" advice.