With so many undecided voters that close to the elections, every door knocked, every letter delivered, every hand shook and every conversation had can make all the difference especially in three-way marginals.

Jim faces a double euro-sceptic threat in his constituency. George Galloway’s Respect Party seems to think of Europe as an irrelevance. They didn’t even field candidates in the European Elections last year. The real threat, however, is that the euro-ignorant Respect party wins enough of the Labour vote to let the Tories in by the default. Since last week the Tories have let the euro-phobic cat out of the bag. Faced with Nick making inroads in Dave’s vote, they have started accusing the LibDems of leading the UK in to a European ‘Super-state’ and to be soft on immigration. A right-wing euro-sceptic’s dream combination as it merges small government rhetoric with euro/xeno-phobic sentiments.

Come on Saturday and help to re-elect Jim and to make Britain a fairer, greener, safer and more pro-European country.

Don’t let the Tory get away with it!

If you will not have already joined us by then for to the Financial Transaction Tax Campaign session, which starts at 10am

you can join us for Jim’s campaign

at 11:30 for the morning session

at 13:15 for lunch or

at 14:00 for the afternoon session.

Please RSVP to lme.lse@hotmail.co.uk or call 07976 252 768 and let us know which session you will be attending.
Meeting point at all these times is Jim’s Campaign HQ
11 Market Way, E14 6AH next to Chrisp Street Market.
[It's close to All Saints and Langdon Park DLR stations - the Bus Number 15 also goes there.]

http://www.nrc.nl/international/europe/article2262660.ece/EU_election_results_from_the_Netherlands

PvdA (Dutch PES member party) looses 4 seats down from 7 to 3.

Geert Wilders’  far-right Freedom Party gains 4 seats.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/05/european-elections-the-netherlands-far-right

In the last 5 years the conservative EPP-ED was the largest group in the European Parliament. 21 out of 27 member-state governments are run/dominated by conservatives. A majority of Commissioners are Conservative as is the President of the European Commission.

Conservatives in Europe have been driving a neo-liberal agenda, liberalising markets and doing nothing to prevent the economic crisis or at least attempting to engineer a softer landing. The Party of European Socialists PES (of which the Labour Party is a member) has been calling for years for better regulation of financial markets, and decisive action against tax havens and tax fraud.

It is of particular irony – if latest opinion polls are to be trusted – that voters in the UK are flocking to the Tories who have been part of the European conservatives who have been responsible for those policies coming out of Brussels which voters do not like. 

UK voters are moving to the Conservatives and UKIP, if polls are right. Both parties are advocating less Social Europe – especially for workers in Britain- and some Tories are trying in Westminster to effectively do away with the minimum wage. UKIP and Tories alike have voted against the ending of the UK opt out on the Working Time Directive. They want a Europe of free trade only, with as little human rights, as little welfare state and as little protection of the environment as possible.

A land slide victory for the Tories/UKIP in these elections will do irreparable damage to Britain’s long term national interest and in particular the interest of a vast majority of her citizens. Low and middle income earners in the UK need more Social Europe not less, need more effective European and global regulation of financial markets.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP holds the view that too much EU regulation is responsible for the economic crisis. I am sure Poul Nyrop Rasmussen MEP (PES president) did not know whether to laugh or cry standing next to Nigel on “Record Europe” (the BBC EU news show). Farage pointing to his expertise on the subject – “I have worked as an investment banker in the City of London” is therefore attempting too steal the mantle from the Tories for UKIP to be the new political wing of the banking sector.

Economic crisis, banker bonuses, tax havens, tax evasion and tax avoidance, that’s yesterday’s news.

The British electorate is going to make a momentous decision on the future of Britain and the future of Europe without realising it, being too distracted by MP expenses.

Keep fighting for Britain’s future! – Vote Labour on June 4!

I got a letter from the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin: I have found it last Saturday morning, along with the party’s magazine “Hope & Glory” and a standing order form (just in the case I would like to subscribe to the party).
I do not think they have now started targeting people like me – I have clearly a name that reveals I am not a member of  “this island race” (to put it in their own words) not to mention a red and yellow “Vote Labour” poster on the window. All the material was anonymously put in my letterbox.

If this is a personal relief (I wouldn’t like to be on the BNP database, of course), it raises however more general concerns about their campaign: feeeling the victory more close, and possibly having collected some money, the BNP is not just focusing on its core electorate. They are instead trying to take advantage of the current situation of political disaffection in order to widen their appeal and gain their first ever member elected in a nationwide election (they already have few councilors in England and, since 2008, a member of the Greater London Assembly).

The letter is a mixture of exaltation of alleged traditional values, old fashioned rethoric, and appeal to the pride of a party that claims to be the only true defence of British interest. It very carefully does not mention anything that can be read as an openly racist comment, even if the nuance of some words and the continuous use of military metaphors is not certainly causal and when one finish to read the message is left with a feeling of fear about the future (and the present), the impression that something terrible is going to happen to our society, that external threat menaces our way of life and that it must be stopped, with any mean, violence not excluded.
As it clearly appears by their words: “It is really now or never, my friend and fellow British patriot. Will you come once more with me to the battlefront? Will you give all to free our nation from the traitors’ iron grip? Will you once again sacrifice for your vountry and our people? I need you to be strong to win this fight” or “A BNP victory on June 4th will lead to a massive awakening amongst the British public, which will enwure that our nation is pulled back from the brink of destruction and wipe the smile off the facew of the traitors and corrupt political elite”

Even if they have clearly decided not to show their fascist face any longer, the BNP is  a party promoting violence and a devided society, a party deeply involved in a politic of hate and discrimination, a party that under a new moderate suit covers the same old fascist face.

In the letter there is only one sentence that I can agree with: at the end of a long annoying tirade about “the proud history of our people and nation”, the “sterile, politically correct, inclusive society where evrybody else’s rights are protected” and the declaration that “We are now second class citizens in our own country”, Nick Griffin invites to vote BNP, underlining that “the future of our children and our children’s children depends on what we do now!”

It is undoubtedly true: it depends on our choice on the 4th of June if we will create a more democratic, open, respectful, equal, and inclusive society for the future generations.

To put the BNP out of mainstream politics, by denying them the honour to sit in the European Parliament, will be a good starting point.

Learn why the European Parliament and the upcoming elections matter in under 7 minutes.

click here or on any text in this post to view the video