Libertas or Jury Team? It has to be one of them!

The European elections on Thursday are going to be a watershed for British democracy. In the wake of the expenses scandal, the three main parties are going to get a battering. I see that UKIP and the BNP are favoured by some and UKIP's sun is rising. However, the sun goes down at night time and that's usually when UKIP's plotters are seen about town. In today's Daily Mail Peter Oborne says it all. He says -

"Both party leaders have protected more senior MPs. For example, Brown gave a clean bill of health to Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, Work & Pensions Secretary James Purnell and Chancellor Alistair Darling. Yet all three are tax-cheats whose conduct, if replicated by an ordinary member of the public, would undoubtedly lead to a criminal investigation. These men should not be allowed to remain in British public life.

Cameron is guilty of the same inconsistency. While being tough on some backbenchers, he seems blind to the fact that a number of his Shadow Cabinet have been guilty of loathsome and amoral conduct. I would never vote for a political party which includes Francis Maude (who claimed almost £35,000 for for a mortgage on a London flat a few minutes' walk from a house he already owned and then rented out) or Alan Duncan (who submitted thousands of pounds of expenses for his garden before agreeing that the spending 'could be considered excessive')."

If only this scandal was not promoted by the general public as being about duck houses and moat cleaning only. It is about cynical manipulation to keep acolytes in place and to feed a few MPs to the electorate to stave off the full effects of a political lynching. Oborne suggests -

"It goes without saying that it is impossible to support a racist party such as the BNP. Also, UKIP, the most obvious choice, can immediately be ruled out because one of its MEPs is facing prosecution for fraud. This leaves those of us seeking politicians of integrity and decency with just two possible parties: Jury Team and Libertas.

Jury Team is a new political movement set up by philanthropist Sir Paul Judge, who has an outstanding record as a businessman and has donated generously to many charities. His own integrity is beyond reproach and his list of candidates standing next week are independent figures (his team includes Esther Rantzen and former anti-sleaze MP Martin Bell) who are determined to clean up politics.

Meanwhile, Libertas was founded by charismatic Irish businessman Declan Ganley who, in a referendum, persuaded Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty which would have given Brussels many more powers. As a result, the British people already owe Ganley an enormous debt of gratitude. Equally, the European political class hate him - spending hundreds of thousands of EU money on a propaganda campaign linking him with a CIA plot devised by U.S. neo-conservatives to weaken the EU.

Significantly, this smear campaign has failed.

At a time of moral squalor and decay in Westminster and Brussels, both Libertas and Jury Team offer voters a hugely refreshing - and, perhaps, the only proper - alternative on Thursday."

I will be supporting Libertas. It was a tough choice, but in this respect Libertas is fighting for transparency in the European Parliament and the EU instutions. Jury Team would be a better bet for Westminster elections. But that's my view. I'm still a conservative thinker and politically driven in conservative ways. Just as Tories are not necessarily Conservatives, I am now a conservative that is not completely Conservative.