EU CONSERVATIVES IN TOTAL DISARRAY

       BY TERRY MOORE IN BRUSSELS  25 October 2010   

This month's resignation by the Conservative's leader in the European Parliament (EP) has thrown Euro-Tories into a state of flux. In a wholly unexpected development, Timothy Kirkhope MEP stood down after five years in the post.

            Kirkhope states that he wants to spend more time developing the Tories' right-wing grouping in the EP, i.e. .the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The ECR is nicknamed by many as 'The Addams Family' of EU politics because of its motley collection of parties and partners.

            One Brussels-based wag has already commented that "it's like a weird echo of John Nott's resignation when he stated he wanted to spend more time with his family, except in this case it's the Addams Family that Timothy wants to spend more time with".

            This yet another example of the Tories' growing incoherence in the EP. The latest damming development; sees the new Latvian Government refuse to go into coalition with the Tories' Latvian allies 'For Fatherland and Freedom Party' because of their ultra-nationalist position.

            The new Latvian leadership said this week that "having the nationalists in the government would raise ethnic tensions and harm Latvia's image abroad". It appears that the Conservatives in the EP don't worry about associating with ultra-nationalists or about their image abroad, reputational damage seems to be acceptable.

            The ECR group has also had the embarrassing misfortune of having to "virtually defenestrate" the current Czech President from the website of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. The website has a picture of President Klaus as one of the five main images (another one was a youthful looking Margaret Thatcher). However, it was pointed out that Klaus is not a member of the AECR and it was entirely inappropriate to have his image on the website.

            Another minefield for David Cameron's regular breakfast meeting with ECR leaders when he came to Brussels for the European Summit (29-30 October). Last time Cameron met the leader of his Czech allies but snubbed the second largest party in the coalition, the Polish Law and Justice Party. However, it appears the Poles, led by their often absentee leader of the ECR, Michael Kaminski, will insist on Cameron meeting the volatile Jaroslaw Kacyński.

            Bets are now being taken on who will lead the Tories disparate band in Brussels. There are 25 Tory MEPs in the EP and it will be amongst those ranks that the new leader will be elected.  

            Early indications are that the leader will be one of six current MEPs, The daily Telegraph's blogger Daniel Hannan, a compromise candidate Struan Stevenson, Richard Ashworth, the aptly surnamed Nirj Diva and Mr Bean's (Rowan Atkinson) politically dyspraxic cousin, Martin Callanan.. An outside bet is Geoffrey Van Orden MEP (Vin Ordinaire to his critics).