Yesterday we highlighted the suspension of Philip Lardner as Conservative candidate for North Ayrshire & Arran because of remarks he made about Ian Smith, Enoch Powell and Edward Heath. By way of background republished below is an article Mr Lardner wrote for Freedom Today about Zimbabwe.
"ALBERT CAMUS, the 20th century French writer, said that, ‘Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness. Men who have greatness within them don’t go into politics.’
As a candidate in the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary Elections on the 3rd of May I would, naturally, wish to exclude myself from such a damning verdict on politicians. After all, we all like to think we are above the foibles and failings of others around us. Having been described on the UK Independence Party’s unofficial web blog as an ‘Honourable Tory rebel . . . Who has been true to his values . . . By signing up to the BETTER OFF OUT campaign’, it would be quite easy to fall into a self-indulgent delusion that greatness may be lurking around the corner. The truth is, I am not aware that my joining BETTER OFF OUT actually qualifies me in terms of Party technicalities as a ‘rebel’, although I would certainly like to think my decision was honourable.
My decision to join BETTER OFF OUT was prompted by a realisation during recent campaigning that in almost all important areas of our self-governance the European Union is utterly dominant, making our deliberations over party manifestos virtually pointless. Our European Union ‘border’ now lies completely open to over 400 million EU citizens, with the immigration policies of successive governments already having perilously diluted our common values.
It is also becoming increasingly clear that our British identity and United Kingdom are under threat as never before. Not only do few politicians appear willing to make a stand to defend them, but many appear to be deliberately conspiring in their undoing, often breaking the oaths they took as MPs and Privy Councillors in order to put EU and foreign interests before those of their own Queen and country. The decline of our strategic manufacturing base, politically-correct brainwashing of our children and uncontrolled immigration - legal and illegal - are just a few of the threats we face. So where are the great men, or for that matter, great women of politics to step forth in our time of need?
With 646 Members of the Westminster Parliament, and a few hundred Members of the Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies, why is it that so many of our Parliamentarians seem to care so little for the interests of the people they seek to represent? If they’re not willing to speak out, why, we must ask, do they actually want to get elected in the first place?
Sir Lewis Namier, in The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, was clear about the motives of eighteenth century politicians for wanting to enter the House of Commons: ‘Men went there “To make a figure”, and no more dreamt of a seat in the House in order to benefit humanity than a child dreams of a birthday cake that others may eat it . . . The seat in the House was not their ultimate goal but a means to ulterior aims.’
At that time, of course, the economic self-interest of the individual MP would almost certainly have involved enterprises which either directly or indirectly profited the emerging Empire and national interest. The opportunity to exploit markets at home and in the colonies usually created jobs and wealth on our farms and in our own towns and cities. Today, however, our politicians seem only too happy to hand over our jobs and money to foreign control with no apparent regard for the self-interest of their nation or the British people.
In the exercising of its devolved powers, the Labour/Liberal coalition (which constitutes the “Scottish Executive”) recently handed a contract for two fishery protection vessels to a Polish yard in preference to a yard on the Clyde - so much for Devolution helping Scots!
Politicians should be driven by a desire to make our country a better place to live in; to make our passage through life easier, not more difficult; to make a stronger and more secure United Kingdom for the future for our children. Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian Prime Minister, noted that there were too many politicians in the world ready to say, “These are our principles, but if you do not like them we can change them for you”. The fudge or compromise is often promoted as being pragmatic and unavoidable, but principles must be our bedrock: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit” (Matthew, 12:33).
The turnout at the last Scottish Parliament Elections in 2003 was only 49.5%. John Curtice, the professor of politics at Strathclyde University, and Martin Boon, from the pollsters ICM, were commissioned by the Electoral Commission to conduct a wide-ranging survey into the electorate’s apathy. They found that most of those who did not vote (57 per cent) took that course of action deliberately because they did not trust politicians to keep their promises.
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