No2EU Candidates, Definitely NOT aboard the EU Gravy Train

This letter and Dave's reply have been sent to the Brighton Argus over the last few days.

Old warhorse renews his appetite

It was good to read that Brighton's old political warhorse Dave Hill has renewed his appetite for political struggle and will be contesting the European elections as lead candidate for the No2EU – Yes to Democracy party (The Argus, May 5). However, his quote: “I now have the chance to represent that socialist opposition to neoliberalism, privatisation, wage cuts and the EU gravy train in the European Parliament”, requires clarification since No2EU’s website says it will not sit in the European parliament and that its elected candidates will only nominally hold the title MEP. Despite a rush of new parties appearing for next month’s election, no others appear to be giving voters the chance to demonstrate their outright opposition to the EU by electing candidates who will boycott its so-called parliament. I guess the prospect of an MEP’s pay, perks and allowances is just too attractive.

Dave has repiled to try and anwser these very justifiable concerns.

Letter from Dave Hill submitted to The Argus 11 May 2009
Here’s my answer to the question about whether I will take up my seat in the European Parliament if (as is very possible) elected as MEP campaign (as lead candidate for the NO2EU-YestoDemocracy in the June 4 European elections.
MEPS can expect to `make’ £ one million in a five year period by claiming various allowances and their pay will rise by even more after June’s election. This, at a time when millions of hard working families- including members of my own family- are living on low and poverty wages and millions of manual and white collar working class families are finding the going tougher and tougher.
The European Parliament- just like Westminster- is a gravy train! And we (the NO2EU-YestoDemocracy campaign and candidates) are not jumping aboard! A major plank of our policy is `No to the EU Gravy Train’. We will absolutely not get rich from getting elected as MEPs! We are united in opposition to the EU Gravy Train.
How do we do that? Within the NO2EU campaign there is debate between those who argue that The NO2EU-YestoDemocracy candidates and campaign should actually get stuck in- as Workers’ MEPS on a Workers’ Wage. This happened, honourably, once before, (with Dave Nellist, lead NO2EU Eurocandidate for the West Midlands, and a handful of other Westminster socialist MPs in the 1980s). All expenses were immediately made public and presented openly regularly to trade union and party organisations and made openly available- to make sure there was no get rich quick fiddling within or without the rules!

The other view within NO2EU, currently represented on the developing website, is to boycott the EU and its Parliament completely, taking no pay or expenses whatsoever.
How should workers’ elected representatives best proceed? Of the two views about how best to advance the interests, pay, conditions of the working class, my own view is that workers’ elected representatives (MPs, MEPs) should accept a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, fair being the regional average for a skilled worker- not that of a hedge fund investor! and that we should act primarily in Britain as spokespeople for the campaign and movement and workers’ interests.
The decision about which of these two anti-Gravy Train policies to adopt will likely be taken by a convention of supporters following election. But for all of us, we want to derail the Gravy Train! Not climb on board!
I would take the gravy train argument further, I would reduce pay and expenses for all MPs and all MEPS- and, furthermore, instead of cutting public services, tax the rich instead, with the 50% tax rate coming in at £60,000, and 75% tax rate coming in at £100,000, and a 95% tax rate coming in at £200,000. When millions of workers and pensioners are on less than £10,000 a year poverty wages, it’s time for the rich who have milked the system and grown rich and fat out of the Thatcher and Blair/Brown giveaways, and time for and upper middle income earners, to pay their fair whack. Then we could raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour and pensions to £164 a week. As well as renationalising the railways, keeping the post office public, reversing the post office closures, and putting green investment into job creation and building a decent public service infrastructure in this country.

Funnily enough, when I asked local MEPs at a Brighton public meeting on Saturday what their pay and expenses were- who had `made a million’ in their five years as MEP- there was a deafening silence! I have written to all the region’s MEPs to get them all own up about how much they have received in pay and expenses in the last five years as MEPs!
Barbara Booker is very welcome indeed, as is any elector, to come to my monthly public reportback meetings and become a member of my pay and allowances scrutiny committee (if I’m elected) showing any EU pay and expenses claimed/ received. I promise you, it’ll be just a fraction of that of the current money grabbing expense account fiddling of many of our current MPs and MEPs. There won’t be any bathplugs, bidets or bungs there!
Just socialist representation, by a Workers’ MEP on a Worker’s Wage.

Professor Dave Hill, lead NO2EU candidate in the SouthEast region Euroelections
Brighton

Workers' Candidates For a Workers' Europe

In the South East, as the biggest constituency in the UK there are 10 candidates on the list. The No2EU - Yes To Democracy slate is one that has Trade Union and Socialist Campaigners from across the region.

The Candidates are:

Professor Dave Hill – Former East Sussex Labour Group leader, long standing Socialist and Trade Union Activist.

Garry Hassell – RMT executive committee

Kevin Hayes – Ford worker, Unite

Owen Morris –Construction worker and supporter of Lindsey and Olympic site protests

Gawain Little – Teacher and CND National Council member

Robert Wilkinson – NUT Wokingham and District Secretary

Jacqui Berry – Medway trades council president

Nick Wright – Graphic designer and teacher

Nick Chaffey – Youth worker, Unison Activist

Sarah Wrack – Student Campaigner Sussex University, Youth Fight For Jobs Steering Committee.

Workers' Candidates for a Workers' Europe.

Former Brighton councillor to run for EU seat

FROM BRIGHTON ARGUS


A former Brighton councillor is to come out of political retirement to fight for a place in the European Parliament.

Working class activist Dave Hill, a political icon in the city in the 1970s and 80s, has vowed to make a radical comeback on the international stage.

Professor Hill retired from politics in the early 1990s after becoming disillusioned with the Labour Party and losing his hearing.

The 63-year-old became an academic at the University of Northampton and wrote 16 books on how education affects the class system.

At the same time he underwent ground-breaking NHS treatment on his ears.

Today, with renewed hearing, Mr Hill has announced he will be making a comeback and will run as a socialist MEP for the South East in the European Parliament elections on June 4.

He said: "With the new digital hearing aid I can hear enough to take part in political debate again.

"I was hailed a Labour moderate in the 1970s but Thatcher's class war against the working class, pay, conditions, public services, together with the rightward rush of Labour, made me into a Marxist and a strong socialist.

"I now have the chance to represent that socialist opposition to neoliberalism, privatisation, wage cuts and the EU gravy train in the European Parliament to represent the working class, the class from which I come and whose interests I try to represent."

Mr Hill, of Cumberland Road, Brighton, will be the lead candidate for the new Socialist group, NO2EU-Yes to Democracy, which is organised by the RMT union, the Communist Party of Britain and the Socialist Party.

He was a tireless political campaigner throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

During that time he stood twice as a Labour Party general election candidate for Brighton, served both the old Brighton Borough Council and East Sussex County Council and was leader of the county council’s labour group.

He left the Labour Party in 2005 after 44 years as a member and joined the Respect Party before forming the new NO2EU-Yes to Democracy group.

The United Kingdom will send 72 MEPs to the European Parliaments this year of which ten are from the South East.

Fundraiser Gig

Chairman Wow! will be playing a No2Eu Yes to Democracy fund-raising Gig at the Horse and Groom, Islingword Road, 8:30pm. £5. Come along, Bring your friends!

The final list of candidates for the South East will announced soon and then the campaigning proper can begin.

No2EU - Yes To Democracy South East is up and running!

No2EU - Yes To Democracy Supporters have begun to put together a campaign in the hope of standing a list of candidates in the South East on June 4th. This campaign has no big business backers and will rely on support and donations from trade union branches and members.

The Euro election region for the South East covers:

Bracknell Forest

Brighton and Hove

Buckinghamshire

East Sussex

Hampshire

Isle of Wight

Kent

Medway Towns

Milton Keynes

Newbury

Oxfordshire

Portsmouth

Reading

Slough

Southampton

Surrey

West Sussex

Windsor and Maidenhead

Wokingham

So if you can help with the campaign in your area, get a No2EU speaker at a union branch meeting or distribute campaign material then get in touch at: No2EUSouthEast@gmail.com.

Online donation will be availible at www.No2EU.com very soon.