I appear to have recently been designated as a "Europhile". This is defined in the text as someone who is supportive of the Euro.  As someone who has consistently and publicly stated over a number of years that I am opposed to the Euro I am puzzled by this.  Could you please explain?

I e-mailed you yesterday evening, You have purported to up-date your web site today.  You have not responded to my e-mail. The information you are publishing on me is incorrect.  Each day you fail to respond/vcorrect the information constitutes further false publication.  Your web site is recording the number of visits and so there is a clear record of the number of times people have accessed it.  No doubt the implications of this are clear to you.  Can I please have the courtesy of a response.

Dear Ms Andrew,

Thank you for your communication.  Your designation is based on information from people who worked with you in Bromley and Chislehurst Conservative Association, Bromley Council and the London Chamber of Commerce.  We would be very interested in documentary evidence proving your scepticism.  A testimonial from your local MP - who is a well-known sceptic - would also be helpful.

I look forward to hearing from you, and will not publish this correspondence for the moment.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster

Thank you for replying.  I am puzzled further by your response as to your sources of information.  There may be one particular source who fits the description you have given as regards local connections and who may be acting malciously for reasons I need not expand upon now but would be happy to expand upon in an appropriate forum. It follows from this comment that the motives of the person in question or the ultimate source thereof may disguise the truth.   As regards the London Chamber of Commerce given that, during my time as a Director (and before), during the one and only major debate on the issue of monetary union that took place, I spoke against what became Chamber policy (i.e to support the Euro) I am most surprised that you should have received such information.  The Chamber is a large organisation and those who really knew me there and really knew what I thought would not have given you that information.

In terms of setting the record straight if you will  provide me with an address I will send you a copy of my 1997 election manifesto, a letter which I issued during the 1997 campaign on Europe and a copy of my fighting fund letter in 1997 signed by Lord Tebbit.  You can rest assured that Lord Tebbit would not have signed a fighting fund letter for a "Europhile" and I had to be "checked out by him" before he agreed to do do.  I am also happy to send you an extract from my recent speech to the K&C selection committee on the Europe issue.  You can also check with them my answer to a question put on the question of the Euro and comparative interest rates.

So that there is no doubt about the matter I am not anti-European and would therefore not be properly categorised as a Eurosceptic. I positively support a common market but not at the price that is now being demanded.  However I have consistently maintained opposition to the Euro and anyone who really knows me will be able to support that both in relation to statements I have made publicly but also in relation to statements I have made privately.  I have also said that I am opposed to the Euro on both economic and constitutional grounds.  You will no doubt appreciate the effect of this position.  I have also said that I oppose further European intergration and have expressed some support for the concept of a twin track Europe with the UK being on the slow not the fast track.  I havent gone further on this because I haven't had the time to think the proposition through fully - though this gives you an indication as to where my present thinking lies.  I have also opposed most recent moves for a common legal system, tax system, army, withholding tax etc.

You state that the reason for your web site, in terms, is the pursuit of truth.  You purport to expose those who say one thing to selection committees and something quite different in other environments. I raise no issue with you over that.  However I do have an issue where information is published, obviously with a purpose, which is neither reliable or accurate. I hope this clarifies the position. I await your response.

Dear Ms Andrew,

Thank you for your very long e-mail of earlier today.

I do provide my home address below, but do not think it is necessary for you to send me your election address.  Instead, I invite you to comment on the following:

Do you answer in the affirmative both of the following:
 

1) If elected or re-elected to Parliament, would you oppose our joining the Eurozone even if joining were to be recommended by the Party leadership?

2) If elected or re-elected to Parliament and required to choose between accepting the supremacy of European Union law in this country and leaving the European Union, would you vote for British withdrawal?

If you cannot answer both of the above in the affirmative, do you accept the line currently taken by William Hague, which is to oppose our joining the Eurozone for this and for the next Parliament and to resist any further British integration into the European Union?

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster

To reply my position on the Euro has always been clear.  I oppose it on both constitutional and economic grounds.  The constitutional position cannot change irrespective of the economic position.  My position on this would not change in a Parliamentary or indeed any other context.

On your question of legal supremacy I am a lawyer and much of my work involves European law.  I have previously researched the jurisprudential issues for a yet unfinished book.  Your second question is, with respect, misconceived.  The European Communities Act 1972 (and this is the one and only time this has ever occurred) is not legally repealable (there may of course be a political dimension here)and established the supremacy of European law.  It is a problem I grapple with professionally on almost a daily basis.  In that European law is already supreme I have difficulty in following the sense of your question.  Interpreting it on a broader basis do I favour withdrawal from the EU.  My present answer is no.  Could I envisage circumstances where withdrawal becomes a serious issue my answer would be yes.  How I would respond in such circumstances I cannot answer. It would depend on the circumstances.

Perhaps this illustrates the danagers of trying to distill complex and sophisticated debates into "little boxes". Though you show no real interest in it my election manisfesto in 1997 said "I believe in co-operation with but not domination by Europe.  This is remarkably similar to "In Europe but not run by Europe".  I also want to see the Conservative Party re-elected.  Otherwise the dangers of further European integration under a Labour Gov are clear for all to see.  You may not like the length of my e-mails but I sufficiently wise to know that the way you ask the question determines the answer.  You clearly have your own agenda,  My views are clear and consistent,  I also value my integrity.  As I understand libiteranism it respects others liberty.  I hope you will value mine.

I note that you have now re-classified me as a "?".  I am content with that within the definitions you are using but again express my concern about trying to put complex views into such narrow "little boxes".

The debate is really too important to seek to trivialise it in this way.

Dear Ms Andrew,

I have read your e-mails of today, and on the strength of them have decided to reclassify you as a don't know.

I note that you are content with that reclassification.  For myself, I am barely content with it.  Your assertion that the European Communities Act 1972 is "legally unrepealable" is absurd.  Parliament is sovereign.  It passed the European Communities Act.  It has chosen to allow other bodies to exercise a wide jurisdiction under that Act.  But it can repeal the Act as any time it feels inclined.

This, at least, is the view taken by Mr Justice Hoffmann in the cases of Stoke-on-Trent City Council v B & Q plc and Norwich City Council v B & Q plc (Chancery Division), reported in The Daily Telegraph, 18th July, 1990. See also per Lord Denning MR in Macarthys Ltd v Smith: "if the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty [of Rome] or any provision in it or intentionally of acting inconsistently with it and says so in express terms then I should have thought that it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute of our Parliament" ([1979] 3 All England
Reports, 325).

The European Communities Act only becomes unrepealable if Parliament dissolves itself, and hands on the Act as part of the constitutional law of a less powerful successor body.  Unless that happens, the Act is legally no different from any other.  Given the political will, it could be repealed in half an hour.  What legal means could be used to frustrate the will of the Queen in Parliament?  What British soldier or police officer would lift a finger to execute the writ of some European court?

If, on the other hand, you are right, your complacent tone does you no credit whatever.  If, without any consultation of the people - if with a lubrication of deliberate falsehood - we really had been placed under the supreme jurisdiction of a foreign power, that would justify and even require immediate action.

By insisting on a view of our Constitution that is manifestly wrong, you are helping to advance the cause of European Union supremacy that you claim to oppose.  It is only because I believe that you are sincere in what you say that I do not reclassify you as a Europhile.  However, I am now publishing our correspondence so that others can see on what evidence your don't know classification is based, and so that they can decide for themselves whether your inability to answer my questions qualifies you to stand for and perhaps sit in a Parliament where our relationship with the European Union will be finally settled one way or another.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sean Gabb
Candidlist Webmaster