The Bruges Group calls on the Conservative Party to stand firm

Robert Oulds 

As the Conservative Party Conference gets underway the Bruges Group calls for the Conservative Party to stand firm on the subject of the referendum and to make it central to their political campaign.

"There can be no subject of greater importance than the future of political independence and of political liberty in this country. It is vitally important that the Conservative Party holds the Government to its promise on a referendum on the new treaty, which is the same as the old one with just some of the bells and whistles hidden,” – said Robert Oulds, the Director of the Bruges Group.

"Eventually the Bruges Group, like almost half of this country’s population, would like a serious review of Britain’s relationship with other European countries. What matters now is that the people should be given a voice in the matter of this country’s constitutional future.

"The Labour Party is endlessly going on about manifesto commitments and the importance of the election promises. Well, here is a clear and, for once, unambiguous commitment that they are just unambiguously breaking.”

The Bruges Group will hold a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference where the speakers will be John Redwood MP and Syed Kamall MEP. They will both call for a referendum and explain that this will strengthen, not weaken parliamentary democracy.

It is further integration into the European Union that destroys parliamentary democracy not asking the people for their opinion.

MONDAY, 1st OCTOBER with
John Redwood MP

Champion of lower taxes and smaller government

&

Syed Kamall MEP

Member of the European Parliament and trade expert

THE SPEAKERS

JOHN REDWOOD MP
John Redwood, MP was first elected as the MP for Wokingham in 1987. In May 1993 he was appointed Secretary of State for Wales and was made a Privy Counsellor. In 1995 he challenged John Major for the Conservative Party leadership.

As a keen advocate of free enterprise he regularly speaks out for smaller government, lower taxes and more choice.

In December 2005 he was appointed as the Chairman of the Party's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group.

He has written widely on Eurosceptic issues, free enterprise and democracy. His most recent publications are; Singing the Blues, Third Way – Which Way?, Our Currency, Our Country, Stars and Strife: The coming conflict between Europe and America and The Death of Britain?

SYED KAMALL MEP
Syed became a Member of the European Parliament in May 2005. In May 2000, Syed was a Conservative Candidate for the Greater London Assembly. The following year, he was Conservative candidate for West Ham in the June 2001 General Election.

Syed is an associate of the Centre for Social Justice working to identify community based projects at the forefront of tackling poverty for the CSJ alliance. He also sits on board of the Conservative Party's Globalisation & Global Poverty working group. In the European Parliament he is the Conservative spokesman on the International Trade Committee.

Syed was educated at the Latymer School, Edmonton. He has a degree from Liverpool University, a Masters from the London School of Economics and a PhD from City University, London. He is a Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School where he has lectured MBA students in international business and strategy and supervised doctoral students’ research. He has written a number of articles on the international strategies of firms and foreign investment. In 1996, Syed completed a book on EU telecommunications policy.

Before entering the European Parliament, he worked as a consultant to companies on marketing, strategy and public affairs. In 2003, he started a diversity recruitment business. Syed is a co-founder of the Global Business Research Institute (GBRI), an educational body conducting outreach to business executives, journalists and civil servants, promoting a greater understanding of globalisation and its consequences. Syed’s interests include telecommunications, transport, postal services, broadcasting, global free trade and foreign investment.