EU Tries to Gag MEP
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Ashley Mote�s Constituency Bus Banned by European Parliament
The only Member of the European Parliament with a mobile constituency office has been banned by the parliament�s administration from using it.
Two months ago the Danish secretary-general, Harald Romer demanded the converted bus used by Ashley Mote, MEP, Independent, south-east England, be sold immediately. Mr Romer is now enforcing his decision with threats of legal action against Mr Mote, whose parliamentary allowances were used to purchase and convert the bus originally. The EP retained ownership.
Ashley Mote is one of ten MEPs representing the biggest and most densely populated constituency anywhere in the EU.
He has been using his mobile office since 2005 to make himself more easily accessible to the six million people who live in what the EU chooses to call south-east England. The constituency covers eight counties, from east Kent to west Hampshire, around London to north Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. At its extremes it is 175 miles x 150 miles.
“This bus has been an ideal way of solving a real problem. It has enabled me to make contact with hundreds of constituents in some 30 towns and cities, many of whom had serious problems in their business and private lives caused directly by the EU. Without the bus, they might never have found help?, Mr Mote said. “How many people in the south-east even know who their MEPs are, let alone how to contact them??
“The EP administration�s decision to ban my bus is more about who I am, how effective I have been as a constituency member, and what I say, than about the need to recover parliamentary funds. This ban is petty, vindictive, and further evidence � if it were needed � that genuine accountable parliamentary democracy is a figment of the EU�s imagination. As usual the bureaucratic mind wins over all logic and common sense, and regardless of the best interests of ordinary people?, said Mr Mote. “They elected me, not Mr Romer.”
To respond to, or comment on this Email, please email ashley.mote@btconnect.com
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