Jury Team Profile - Paul Perrin

Here is another response from Jury Team candidate Paul Perrin who is standing in the South East region.

You can view Paul's Jury Team Profile, here.

Should you wish to vote for Paul, text PAUPER01 to 86837

As with the other candidates if you wish to ask questions or raise points you can do so in the comments field, or via Paul's contact details on his profile.

Please answer True or False to these statements:
1. The EU should have even more control over the governing of member states including the UK. False

2. The EU is the future of Continental Europe; the UK should be less resistant to this and more willing to be engaged with EU partners. True

3. The EU is fundamentally undemocratic in how it is made up and how it functions. True

4. If elected to the EU Parliament I will always vote in favour of returning legislative powers to member states. True

5. Counties like Iceland and Norway should be made to join the EU. False

6. Ireland was wrong to vote NO in their referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. False

7. The main reason why people are against the EU in the UK is because the Tabloid media runs scare stories. False

8. I believe the UK should be a part of a federal Europe, whether as the UK or as component nations or regions. False

9. The UK should leave the EU as swiftly and as amicably as possible. False

10. The UK Parliament should be sovereign. No laws made by the EU should be above the law making decisions of the UK Parliament. True

11. The UK and France should give up their seats on the UN Security Council in favour of an EU representative. False

12. The city of London and UK financial institutions should be regulated by the EU. False

13. The EU has kept peace in Europe for 60 years. True

14. If the UK left the EU, it’s economy would never recover. False

15. Plans should be made for the UK to join the EURO within the next five year sitting of the EU parliament. False

16. UK armed forces should answer to a European Military Chain of Command. False

17. The EU should be allowed to collect taxes directly from European citizens and/or businesses. False

18. There will never be war in Europe as long as the EU is strong. True

19. The UK should not be allowed to declare war without the approval of the EU. False

20. The UK should be allowed a referendum whether it accepts the EU Lisbon Constitutional Treaty before it comes into force. True

21. I am prepared to give up some small freedoms so that the UK and/or the EU governments can better protect us from terrorists. False

22. The EU should have control of EU wide policing to make standard the same across Europe, as well as centrally gather intelligence. False

23. UK Common Law is incompatible with European Courts. We should protect Common Law. True

24. People who stand opposed to the EU should be punished. False

25. The Eurovision Song Contest is a wonderful form of European entertainment and the voting is in no way rigged. False

In no more than 200 words for each question, please tell us about the following:

Q. If you are elected to the EU Parliament, by what method and frequency will your expenses be made public?
As I have already mentioned on my campaign blog pauper01.blogspot.com my intention is that all expense will be charged to a debit card setup for the purpose, statements would be annotated and published online monthly.

Q. Have you ever stood for an elected position before?
Not for public office

Q. Do you have you own website or blog?
pauper01.blogspot.com – jury team campaign blog
free-english-people.blogspot.com – general blog for political notes/essays

Q. Do you regularly read any particular newspapers or magazines? Who are your favourite writers/Journalists?
I listen to the Radio 4 when I work, I get news headlines online as I work from a number of sources (Bloomberg, SKY, BBC, Google etc), I get news from a number of mail lists and read a number of blogs – Order-Order, Conservative Home, Labour List, Daniel Hannan, Nick Robinson, Robert Peston Martin Mardell. Sunday papers are usually The Times and Mail on Sunday.

I don’t really have any favourite journalists, I read what is available and make up my own mind.

Q. Why did you decide to stand for Jury Team instead of an existing political party?
I am would not be prepared to take a ‘whip’ I will only vote according to the views of my electorate and my own conscience, so standing for a party is not an option.

I have strong views on democracy (as direct as possible) and been involved in a number of new media related political projects, jury team was a natural fit.

Q. What is the very first thing you will do in your official capacity if elected?
On the admin side I would first establish communication channels between myself and my electorate – blogs, twitter a platform for surveys etc.

Politically I would identify the most important matters for my electorate, and identify the issues that are in progress in the EU that are most relevant and formulate a plan for my work in office. As I believe in small government, my priority is to look to remove barriers and cut red tape – not to introduce new programmes or paperwork.

Q. And, as you have been good enough to answer the above, in no more than 1,000 of your own words, tell us why we should vote for you.
There are two threads to this:

1) Administratively, I want to set a gold standard in accountability and openness for elected representatives. This will be a long term legacy regardless of what else I achieve.

2) Politically I will promote the movement of power to as close to the people it affects as possible. I do not believe there is so much that need to be done at the European level to justify the EU in its current form. To justify its own existence the EU keeps accumulating powers that it should not have, and doing work that are not necessary.There is work to be done at the European level and we should work openly and honestly with our European neighbours on such issues – but this does not need organisations of the size and expense we currently see.