k2

well now the truth can be told about kilroy.
you may remember i wrote about kilroy appearing on some dodgy celebrity programme. his fellow east midlands meps got a little hot under the collar about kilroy being there. he is not doing his job they said. i even got an anonymous message from one of the meps (or their representatives) about the piece. ah fame at last.
now kilroy is off the programme, no one liked him.
so back to work for kilroy.
yet his mep opponents are still not happy. so glenis, roger and others now have a petition to encourage kilroy to give up his role as a mep. not that he will and not that the european parliament will kick him out.
why? i am sure that they are concerned with the democratic process and see that kilroy’s lack of attendance at the european parliament as an insult to democracy and setting back the european cause in the uk. now i have to admit if i had done a little more research the last time (because i always fact check – right!) i would have learnt that roger helmer has form in this as back in 2005 he was part of a group of meps who wrote to the president of the european parliament to complain about kilroy’s lack of effort.
regardless of what you think of the european parliament i have to agree with helmer and colleagues, if you are not going to work as a mep don’t stand as one.
kilroy has argued that in his election manifesto he said he was anti-europe and would not attend the european parliament. so to that extent kilroy can claim to be one of the few politicians who is carrying out his manifesto pledges.
fair enough.
kilroy can claim that his victory was based on the fact that the people of east midlands had cast a protest vote. so kilroy not going to parliament is one on the nose of johnny foreigner. i have no problem with such a protest vote and protest action by an mep, the real problem is that kilroy, for all his problems with the european parliament, is not shy about taking their (well our) money. kilroy’s principled stand against europe might have been better if he wasn’t trousering the cash. it is a principled stand, isn’t it.
i would like to think that roger and glenis are trying to make a serious political point about kilroy’s abuse of the democratic process. i suspect it is more to do with the fact that the next round of european elections are due in 2009 and they are all worried that kilroy has had so much free publicity that he will win his seat again if he chooses to stand again.
i agree it would be a travesty if kilroy was to win again, yet sometimes that happens in a democracy.
politics and politicians have an image problem, we don’t trust them and sleaze plays a big part of it. someone like kilroy doesn’t help them.
the reason we vote is to have representation. it is fine that kilroy wants to be a mep to protest the european project, but that protest has to be more than not showing up for work. kilroy claims he asks more questions of the european parliament than his fellow meps. big deal. it is easy to draft variations of several questions and send them off to the commission and then get some written answers. hell i can do that from here (vote for me people of east midlands).
even worse is the fact that kilroy barely keeps his website up to date, so even those in his constituency who agree with his position and want to know what kilroy is doing to prevent the commission making changes to the british way of life are left in the dark.
contrast his site with the sites of glenis willmott and roger helmer and you can see that they are at least trying to make a difference.

the perma-tanned one is always going to have an advantage over the other prospective meps because even without a few weeks on a celebrity show the kilroy name is one that people recognise.
the meps would be better off ignoring kilroy and getting on with explaining to the electorate why they should vote and what they will get for the votes when they are cast. the more they make it about kilroy, the less important it becomes and more like a celebrity show spat.