Douglas Carswell is absolutely right to say that we must leave the EPP. Daniel Hannan will not be crying any tears tonight at his apparent "expulsion" from the group for making what EPP Chairman Joseph Daul has preposterously described as "intolerable remarks".
Drama aside, today's events are a mere sideshow.
Attention must now turn to the formation of the new parliamentary grouping promised by David Cameron during the 2005 leadership election, a task delegated to the rock-solid Geoffrey Van Orden by the delegation's new leader, Giles Chichester.
Following the "Malaga Agreement" signed following the 1999 European elections, Conservatives were led to believe they would be part of a technical grouping (the "European Democrats") which whilst sitting with the EPP for "strength of numbers" would possess their own funding streams and freedom to determine its own agenda and staffing arrangements. After the 2004 elections, the ED element of the group was apparently boosted by the arrival of new MEPs from the Czech Republic and further promises of increased autonomy.
To this day, the ED has no funding, no staff and no prospect of any in the near future.
The same promises made in 1999 and 2004 will be made in the run up to the 2009 elections as the EPP desperately – and disingenuously - attempts to keep their "allies", the British Conservatives, on board.
The Party must hold its nerve on leaving the EPP and not allow itself to again fall victim to the hollow promises of the Gaullist EPP. We need our own group. Nothing more, nothing less.
Recent Comments