We always welcome articles from our readers – here is one from guest writer David Walter following the visit of MEP Marta Andreasen at the weekend, who he interviewed during her trip to Ryde.
On Friday, quite unexpectedly, I was asked by Andrew Turner MP if I would like to meet our MEP, Marta Andreasen, who would be visiting the Island arriving at Ryde on Saturday.
I’d decided during the week to get off the fence and join the Conservative Party, so very much a ‘new boy’ I was invited to the fundraising dinner on Friday. Being all eager, my wife and I offered to help canvass in Ryde during Mrs Andreasen’s visit. As it happened, I managed to have a long discussion with Andreasen and offered to write up my notes and share them with other Island residents.
“Mrs Andreasen, what sort of response are you getting from the man in the street?” I asked. “I see a lot of anger that people want to release but it isn’t just anger about the EU”, said Andreasen, “people are angry that incomes are not keeping up with inflation, jobs have been hit and they are frustrated that they feel powerless to do anything about it. When people say they are planning to vote UKIP, many say it’s to get out of Europe and cut immigration. Others say they are so fed up with the system they won’t vote at all”
Andreasen is well placed to understand why people feel like this. Unlike many politicians who stalk the EU offices in Brussels and Strasbourg who have never done a ‘proper’ day’s work in their lives, schooled into public life and politics along with their Milupa and rusk, Marta Andreasen is a worker. Andreasen, an Argentine-born Spanish accountant whose résumé looks like someone at the top of the commercial accountancy profession, has worked as an auditor with Price Waterhouse and as Finance Director for companies such as Rockwell Automation and Lotus Development. Very notably, Andreasen was awarded the “Corporate Sentinel” award by the Fraud Examiners Association of the USA, in 2004 after being voted the “Personality of the Year” by Accountancy Age, in 2003 and was recruited by the European Commission in January 2002 as Chief Accountant where she refused to sign-off the accounts because she believed them to be fraudulent. Mrs Andreasen was then dismissed by Neil Kinnock for being ‘disloyal’ – or to put it another way, doing the job she was paid to do, protecting the interests of taxpayers throughout Europe.
In 2009, Andreasen was elected UKIP Member of European Parliament, believing that Britain’s interests lie outside of the EU, or inside a very different EU. Andeasen’s experience within UKIP led her to the conclusion that UKIP is badly managed and lacks a coherent sense of direction. Neither does UKIP have the willingness or plans to engage with the EU during any major renegotiation or disassociation.
“You cannot just walk away from the existing system. Around fifty percent of the UK’s laws have EU control, for a start”, says Andreasen. “We still need MEPs from the UK who will roll-up their sleeves and get stuck-in”, Andreasen continues, “and much of this will be very technical so we need the best highly qualified people available, not people jumping on the bandwaggon for vanity, fun or whatever motivates them. Being a working MEP is a gruelling task, the hours needed would surprise you. Some seldom attend, having their own interests, which I think is a shameful abuse of their taxpayers’ money and a dereliction of their nations’ interests”.
Andreasen decided to leave UKIP to join the Conservative Party, in the belief that only the Conservatives have the infrastructure as well as the political will and power to manage Europe instead of letting Europe manage the UK. As for Labour, Andreasen said, with a smile, “Is Neil Kinnock driving Europe on behalf of the UK?” To those who have decided to vote for UKIP or abstain, Marta Andreasen says “Please think again. Tell me one thing that Nigel Farage has achieved in all of his 15 years in the European Parliament and then decide if that’s the kind of MEP you want to represent your interests. If you decide to abstain, where does that get you? Someone is going to be elected in any case so why not use your vote – it is your right – to vote for someone who you trust the most of all”
As we wound up the interview for Andreasen to catch her ferry back to the mainland I told her that I had been sitting on the fence myself, feeling that anger and helplessness but that she had convinced me. I shall be voting Conservative on May 22nd. I don’t see there’s an attractive alternative, to be honest however much the ‘pie-and-pint’ politics of the personable Nigel Farage had seemed attractive. Good luck in the election, Marta, it was a pleasure and a privilege to meet you and thank you for talking to me.
