If you can't join us in Rome, join us online!

Over 1000 Libertas leaders, members, volunteers, supporters and special guests are joining us tomorrow in Rome for our first Libertas convention.

From 11am CET (10am GMT) we'll be streaming the convention live on http://www.libertas.eu.

Libertas Impact!

You know that you are making progress when you see others adapting to your view. This is what is happening to Libertas as the Conservative party suddenly starts talking about really doing something on the Lisbon Treaty. It is quite reasonable to ask why the Conservatives have been so quiet for so long on Europe. The answer, as everyone really knows, is that they are, and have been split, and would rather hide that split behind inaction, than bravely take up the major battles that are involved in reforming the EU. This has been bad for Britain.

Whatever contortions the Conservatives perform, they cannot alter the fact that the Conservatives' influence in the EU Parliament is small with just 27 MEPS out of 785. This is especially true as they have withdrawn from the main right wing group, the EPP.

It cannot alter the fact that the views on action that we in Libertas have in common with the Conservatives have a much better chance of being enacted in Brussels by a strong Pan European party - Libertas - with a clear purpose rather than one of the national parties trying to cobble together agreements with other small national parties.

The Conservatives have not been running a major campaign against the Brussels system of unaccountable civil servants running the show - Libertas has!

The Conservatives have not called for the EU commissioners to be elected - Libertas has!

The Conservatives have not been calling for more democracy in the EU government - Libertas has!

The Conservatives may be doing well in the natiinal polls but when it comes to Europe you should lend your vote to the party best positioned to reform the EU - Libertas
Here is a link to William Hague's article in the Times with the possible new policy on Europe!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6188749.ece

People are smart. Let's treat them that way.

I have spent over 20 years in the marketing and advertising business. I have always been encouraged to think that the best way to get people to grasp a message, is to provide them with the facts that support that message.

For example, I may have a beautiful house. I may tell you that and you might believe me. However, if I produce in front of you a photograph which demonstrates that it is indeed beautiful, you are much more likely to accept that message.

This applies as much to the European Union. The problem is, people are unaware of the facts, so don't reach a conclusion. But, people are smart, and when given the facts, they will reach a conclusion of their own...

Facts which support the reality that the EU is undemocratic in the way it operates:

All 27 EU Commissioners are appointed, not elected. Members of the European Court of Justice are appointed, not elected. Remember, Europe is now the place where 4 out of 5 of our laws in the UK are now created! There are even plans to appoint (not elect) a President of Europe. Imagine if President Obama hadn't been elected and they'd just appointed a successor to George Bush?

I invite you to draw your own conclusions.

The most supreme irony is that if the EU was a country itself, and had to pronounce judgement on whether it could enter the EU, it would have to say 'no' - because it isn't democratic enough!

Libertas launches Blogads campaign

Libertas’ innovative new media campaign has reached new heights following the launch of a “blogads” campaign.

The adverts, which link to the Libertas website will be EU-wide and on a variety of topics. The first will feature on some of the UK’s most influential and popular political blogs, including Guido Fawkes.

Libertas can now reach out to the millions of people that check these blogs every day, and offer them the chance to stand up to the unelected Brussels bureaucrats who are trying to take more power for the EU, bypassing the views of the people of Europe.

Robin Matthews, Libertas Party Leader in the UK says:

"What this kind of innovative e-campaigning allows us to do is highlight exactly how badly all major national parties have let down British voters. It's not just that Labour have broken their promise to hold a referendum, or that the Tories are toothless and aimless in the face of Brussels. It is that their MEPs have gone totally native as well, voting themselves massive pay increases while British families go to the wall. It's time that somebody held them to account.''

Where are the democrats? We see them dwindling away, even in Westminster, the Mother of Parliaments. The decline in representative government is reconfirmed every time the Government announces a policy to the media first rather than to Parliament. The latest example was the self-parodic announcement by Gordon Brown on his own website of flat-rate allowances for MPs - virtual government by internet pronunciamento!

The technocrats say it's all too complicated for the people, or even the people's representatives, to decide. Back in 1975 some argued as a reason for not voting in a plebiscite that it was for the elected representatives of the people to decide on any fundamental issue facing the nation. If that was true then - and MPs did combine, even to topple unpopular governments - it is not so today, when the people can no longer leave it to their elected representatives to exercise anything resembling the popular will - paradoxically often better reflected in the Second Chamber.


That's why Libertas helps to remind Government and Opposition that the people are beginning - slowly, perhaps - to articulate the demand that the trend to 'elective dictatorship' be finally reversed.

Cut-price democracy

The Shadow Chancellor predicts that in today's budget, Alistair Darling will 'forecast the longest recession that Britain has had since World War II'.

Today we also see the vote in Strasbourg on whether the 120 million Euro deficit in MEPs controversial secondary pension scheme, will be plugged by taxpayers money – a pledge guaranteed by the European Parliament.

All this in the same week that former UKIP MEP, Tom Wise, faces possible criminal charges for false accounting and allegedly laundering some £40,000 of his expenses.

Is it any wonder that the electorate has lost its faith in European politics, when daily it seems that its agents abuse their position and disregard the money of those that they represent. Once again it is brought into sharp relief that the disparity between reality, and the imaginings of the current EU machine, is a widening gulf.

Voting for any of the traditional, national parties will just mean more of the same.

Only a pan European party will have the power to affect real change. Only Libertas is capable of delivering the change we need.

Why Vote Libertas?

I used to vote Liberal Democrat in the European elections, because they were pro-Europe, but last year , in the Lisbon treaty votes in Parliament, the Liberal Democrats changed their minds and refused to support the proposal for a referendum on the Treaty showing to my mind that they were not democrats at all despite their title. If the Liberal Democrats had voted in favour of a referendum then there is a good chance that we would have had one.
Yet again politicians have shown contempt for the people

London Launch Photos

Three pictures from the London launch:

The confusion between activity and progress

It seems to me that the Brussels machine has turned into a huge and unwieldy monster. There are thousands of civil servants and thousands of lobbyists talking to each other. The estimate is that there are some 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels. 

These lobbyists and bureaucrats appear to use too much information as a way of diverting people's attention.

One of my favourite Winston Churchill quotes is, on writing to a friend, 'Sorry this letter is so long. I didn't have time to make it shorter'. It takes effort and time to pare things down to their essence. 

The bloated Brussels elite appear to use lazy thinking when it comes to governing Europe. There's loads of activity going on - lots of people debating, discussing, and lawmaking, scrabbling around like headless chickens pecking away. 

But how much of this activity is producing real progress? 

Libertas will slim down the waistline of this bulging bureaucratic machine. Libertas will aim to force the creation of a simple new more useful European Constitution and devolve many powers back to nation states, which after all know better on many issues how to govern themselves.

Max Burt

Max is a 44 year old Londoner. He grew up in Hampstead and now lives in west London, slap bang in between the tower blocks of Shepherd's Bush and the mansion blocks of Holland Park.

A life threatening car crash in 1999 left him with severe disabilities. He has now ‘rebuilt’ his life. After co-running a large advertising agency in his pre-accident days, Max now runs a business as a marketing consultant and spends time running a charity, aiming for more inclusion in mainstream society for people with disabilities.

He wants to run as a Libertas candidate for London, not only because he wholeheartedly agrees with the need for democracy and transparency in Europe, but also because he wants to apply his experiences as one of ‘the disabled’ to lobbying for the greater integration of all the groups that make up Londoners.

Susannah Prins

Frustration with the Government’s refusal to honor its manifesto promise of a referendum on the revised constitutional treaty lead Susannah to Open Europe – one of the UK's leading independent think tanks on the EU - where until recently she was Head of Development.

She decided to leave the think tank so that she could join the Libertas campaign full time and throw all of her energies into actively pursuing the reform of the EU. If the Lisbon Treaty is passed, it is self amending. This is our last chance for a Europe which we have a say in.

Susannah was in the core team of the “I Want a Referendum” campaign, which spearheaded the fight for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Britain

"There needs to be a very clear message sent to the next British Government that willful deceit and contempt for the electorate, will not do. A vote for Libertas will deliver that message. Libertas is the first pan-European party and is the only party which is currently capable of delivering real reform. We need a truly accountable and transparent EU which we can believe in; an EU which works for you."

Susannah has a diverse background with a First from Edinburgh University in History of Art and History of Architecture. She also has a passion for opera which she continues to train in outside of work. Susannah is 26 and lives in South London.

Victoria Wood

Victoria has lived in London for twelve years, originally hailing from Somerset where she was born and her family have lived for generations.

Having trained in business and finance, she went on to pursue her passion for film and learnt the trade of movie making. She now lives in West London where she has been working in film and event management for the last seven years.

She firmly believes that the European Union as an idea is incredibly important, yet throwing our civil liberties away in pursuit of this international harmony is a grave mistake. She wants the future she hands to her children to be as full of opportunity as the one she has now. An anti-democratic Europe will not provide this.

Peter Lloyd

Peter has lived continuously in London, currently in Putney, since 1975, and is 57 years old. Peter has spent most of his working career in the financial services industry, marketing shares in publicly quoted companies to investors, and witnessing at first hand the phenomenal growth in importance of London as a global financial centre.

In the last few years he has worked independently allowing him to focus on additional projects, especially charity work, and more recently researching and writing a book on individual liberty and the British constitution.

He believes that there is a crisis in democracy and that Libertas is the only party committed to addressing this problem head on, and that by being the first pan-European political party it is the most suited to reform the over-centralised, increasingly undemocratic and secretive EU. He believes that Libertas can cause a revolution in thinking within the EU itself, and a major shift in the attitude of the people of Europe towards the EU, by causing improvements in accountability, transparency, representation and in promoting value for money for Europe’s citizens.

Dominique Field

Dominique was born in 1951 in Tunisia. She was educated there and in France, where she studied Business at the Ecole des Cadres and Art History at the Ecole du Louvre. She lived for 5 years in the Far East, where she wrote a thesis on Chinese Ceramics at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, married an Englishman and had her first daughter.

After accompanying her husband to the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, she moved to Twickenham in 1984 and had her second daughter.

Both children are now independent and Dominique devotes her time to charitable and voluntary work. She works as a docent, leading visiting groups of children at the Royal Academy and as a volunteer at the Education Department of National Trust properties.

Dominique is standing as a Libertas candidate because, having been brought up in France and having lived in London for 25 years, she believes that she has a unique perspective on the European Union and is concerned that the European ideal should not be lost in corruption, bureaucracy and obfuscation.

Herbert Crossman

No one said politics should be boring, and Herbert Crossman brings his own brand of enthusiasm with him. Famous for hanging upside down in Trafalgar Square to protest against the "take, take, take attitude" of the British Government, Herbert is now keen to expand his protest to include Brussels.

He has a strong interest in exposing the abuse of MEPs' expenses in Brussels, as well as combatting wasteful EU projects that fritter away taxpayers' money.

He has political experience as a former Liberal Democrat councillor and also stood for the Referendum party in 1997.

Why I have become involved in politics

I recently heard someone describe two types of politicians.

Firstly, weather vanes. People who blow with the prevailing wind - in other words, those who espouse whatever the latest focus group says. In my view, these weather vanes are probably in the majority.

Secondly, there are signposts. People who very clearly point out a route forward, and only deviate from that route when convinced of a better alternative. It seems to me that politicians like this are in the minority. 

These are politicians with conviction. With conviction comes integrity. This I respect.

I have become involved in politics because I believe that the public deserves public servants with opinions - opinions that, regardless of whether you agree with them or not, are firmly held. Having the conviction to stick with opinions demonstrates an integrity which I think should be present in many more public servants than now.

The skill comes I think in knowing exactly when your own opinions should change. Having the integrity of your own conviction is one thing, but this needs always to be balanced by recognising and respecting the democratic process.

Championing better inclusion for disabled people

After my accident in 1999, I quickly realised that the group of people called 'the disabled' frequently find themselves on the fringes of society -  not only do disabled people face many physical barriers, but they are also often pre-judged. 

As a consequence, I have become involved in various organisations representing people with disabilities and their better inclusion both in the physical world and in people's minds.

In the past I have been on the DWP's steering committee Images of Disability, aiming to create more positive portrayals of people with disabilities in advertising. 

Currently, I am an Associate Member of the Employers Forum on Disability (EFD) and the Broadcasting & Creative Industries Disability Network (BCIDN).

A bit about me

I'm a 44 year old Londoner. I grew up in Hampstead and I now live in west London, slap bang in between the tower blocks of Shepherd's Bush and the mansion blocks of Holland Park, right by the new Westfield shopping centre.

After a life threatening car crash in 1999 which left me with severe disabilities, I have now 'rebuilt' my life. So major were my injuries that, after my accident, most people expected me to sit in front of the TV all afternoon. This is not the case!

Apart from running a business as a marketing consultant (I also used to co-run a large advertising agency), I spend the majority of my time running my new charity Diversability, aiming for more inclusion in mainstream society for people with disabilities.

In my spare time, I regularly indulge my twin passions for my beloved Arsenal and the theatre (one of the good things about using a wheelchair is that its relatively easy to get tickets to both).

My road back to recovery culminated in March when I married my partner Justine.