On Friday 20th February, the Oxfordshire Branch of The European Movement held an open evening called "Any Questions on Europe?" for members of the public to see some of the candidates in the forthcoming EU elections and put questions to them. Lord Hurd (current President of the Oxfordshire Branch of the European Movement) chaired the discussion, and there were six speakers, Richard Ashworth MEP (Conservative) , Catherine Bearder (Liberal Democrat) , Philip Vander Elst (UKIP) , Dr Derek Wall (Green Party) and Janet Sully (Labour Party) . The event was fairly well-attended, as it deserved to be, since the issues discussed are so momentous. When asked what the single most important issue was, five candidates followed example of the Greens and said climate change. The Labour speaker, Janet Sully, did not explain how our government’s decision to expand Heathrow airport is consistent with that priority. Regarding the economy, the Conservative M.E.P. Richard Ashworth said that he was totally against any form of “protectionism” even when British people face unemployment, which is easy for him to say since his own rather well-paid position is not under any threat from competition. How would he feel if somebody undercut him by offering to do his job for less money, with no pension rights? Would he be happy to go and pick olives in Spain or grapes in Bulgaria for whatever market wage was on offer there? On the thorny question of whether Turkey should be permitted to join the EU, Mr Ashworth expressed his view that if it does not, we will pay a price by encouraging it to go down the fundamentalist road. He did not say what the price would be for letting it in. He also disagreed strongly with Philip Vander Elst about whether the true cost of EU membership for Britain is £5 billion or £50 billion per year. It all depends on how you calculate “cost”. On one question the six panel members were unanimous: all condemned the government’s decision last week to ban Dutch MP Geert Wilders from travelling to the UK to show his controversial film about the Koran. They all agreed that the Home Secretary had over-reacted and that free speech ought to be respected. In fact, it appeared that on most issues, five of the panel agreed about everything and it was only Philip Vander Elst, the UKIP candidate, who differed, knowing he was outnumbered but gallantly arguing his case. Lord Hurd expressed his view that the further stages of EU integration are quite compatible with the sovereignty of the British Parliament, which shows a surprising lack of awareness of what is in the Lisbon Treaty. Some panel members expressed a pious wish for the EU to be reformed and Green candidate, Dr Derek Wall, who spoke with some passion, said that he thought the commissioners should be elected. They did not explain how they would deal with the situation that faced the EU President, Vaclav Klaus, this week, when he attempted to address the EU parliament about his misgivings on the subject of closer integration and the lack of any genuine opposition within the parliament, and MEPs booed, heckled and then simply walked out. http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=uqJEWaGFk9Q Altogether, I think that this was a stimulating and worthwhile evening, and we should hold more events of this kind especially aiming them at young people who need to get involved in democracy. | 
