William Dartmouth (South West) and Mike Nattrass (West Midlands) have vowed to do “everything in their power” to ensure Garry Mann is brought home as soon as possible and “see justice is served”.

Mr Dartmouth said:

The European Arrest Warrant was supposed to be an important weapon in the war against terrorism. Instead it is being used to drag people from home and family to face trial and punishment in foreign lands for minor offences.

What is shocking is that our judges are forced to admit there is nothing they can do faced with this Arrest Warrant. I call on this new Government to put an immediate stop on the use of this warrant until it can be looked at again.

It may still be an important part of the work in tracking down terrorists or serious criminals but not for lesser crimes which should be handled in our own courts.

Mr Nattrass said:

I am appalled by this whole situation and I agree with William Dartmouth and Fair Trials International that the trial was a travesty of justice. We will do everything in our power to get Mr Mann back home where he belongs.

We no longer have control over who is taken from our country by the European Union as our MEPs have handed away that control. Gone are the days when a British subject could rely on a British Court to refuse extradition to a foreign country in unjust or unproven circumstances.

Mr Mann is a father of six and my thoughts are with his family. As a result of the European Arrest Warrant Mr Mann has been dragged away from his family without a fair trial.

Now, I have already covered the substantive aspects of Mr Mann’s case both on Legal Leanings and through an open letter to Her Majesty’s Government, so beyond the above quotes, I do not feel that anything needs repeating.

However, I will say that these MEPs hold a far greater sway than a lowly blogger such as myself, and it is fantastic to see that, not only are they going to be getting as involved as they can, but also that there are others in this country who have not yet given up hope for the rights of a British citizen.

This episode is not over yet…

Referring to Cllr Rehman Chishti, who was elected as the Parliamentary Candidate to a standing ovation almost two years ago, Bob Oakley said ‘the Conservatives’ candidate is not that popular within his own party’.

Mr Oakley was speaking after the Eruopean Election results, in which UKIP came in second. Although most commentators agree that votes will shift from UKIP to the Conservatives at a general election, Mr Oakley stated ‘I think we shall do well in the general election’.

His claims as to Cllr Chishti’s internal popularity appear to be just as misguided. This author has heard no such disquiet amongst the local Conservative ranks, although there were admittedly some people who preferred other candidates during the selection stage in June & July 2007.

Indeed all the noises being heard from the Gillingham & Rainham membership at present appear to be resoundingly supportive of Cllr Chishti’s campaign, and many members are doing all they can to ensure that he is the successful candidate at the next general election.

The party has also been pushed in to fifth place in the South of England by the Green Party, although its number of seats has not changed. Nationally, with Scotland and Northern Ireland yet to declare, Labour came in third, behind the Conservatives and UKIP.

The BNP, described recently by Lord Tebbit as ‘Labour With Racism‘, took seats from Labour in the North West (Nick Griffin) and Yorkshire and the Humber (Andrew Brons), causing accusations that Labour’s failing government was to blame for the ‘terribly sad moment‘.

Labour’s Deputy Leader Harriet Harman was forced to admit that they had suffered a ‘very dismal result‘ in the European elections, facing the worst defeat since 1922.

In the South East, which includes Medway, and in the South West, Labour came fifth, trailing behind Conservatives, UKIP, Lib Dems and even the Green Party. Although no seats changed in the South East, in the South West, Labour lost one of their two MEPs to the Conservatives.

The result will put even more pressure on Gordon Brown, who is today facing a crunch meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party, to resign.

Mr Oakley, who fought in Medway in 2005, is the final candidate from the four main parties in the constituency to be selected, giving a list of candidates which looks like this:

The event started with a question and answer session involving Labour MP Paul Clark, Conservative G&R Chairman Brigita Amey and Liberal Cllr Andy Stamp, in which several students left hugely disappointed by Mr Clark, and disgruntled by his views on certain topics, however were left largely uninspired by Mrs Amey and mainly unswung by Cllr Stamp.

Perhaps it was that it was politics, or perhaps it was the dull monotony of the censored questions being asked at the compulsory event, which included Howard and Rainham Mark students, that made the session, and indeed the subsequent, more intimate sessions with Green Party and UKIP representatives quite boring.

The Green Party spun half-truths about the new Kingsnorth Power Station. UKIP’s Bob Oakley told one group not to trust anything in the media, whilst complaining to another group of a matter in which he had only been informed the BBC’s version of events.

The Mayor of Medway, Cllr Val Goulden, and her Escort, Cllr Tony Goulden, provided, in my opinion, the best session of the day. She spoke about the role of Mayor and how the Mayor is selected (I refrained from telling her that her predictions for the Party with the Mayoralty were, in fact, wrong according to my own calculations, though).

Overall it was, for me, a highly informative, and very interesting day. For most others, it was a waste of several hours. And Cllr Stamp? Maybe the Alan Collins brand of sarcasm wasn’t really to his liking. Sorry, Councillor.

Editorial Update, 11/02/08 23:46

I have left it a couple of days before making a full editorial comment on this event. I decided that it would be best to properly hear the views of others before making my final assessment, whilst trying to make the above article as objective as possible.

Most people left the event largely unimpressed by Paul Clark. In fact, that is something of an understatment. The chances of Mr Clark having won too many votes are slim to zero. He acted completely disinterested when anyone but he were speaking, and even shook his head when Brigita Amey stated, factually, that all politicians had the same aims: to improve the Country.

Brigita Amey won broader support. The Conservative views on taxation (42% of our income, are you mad?) and ID Cards (why should the government have the fact that I have had a speeding ticket on a tiny datachip on a card?) were hugely popular with many students. And whilst they were looking for someone youthful, I was looking for someone who actually spoke sense, so Brigita was certainly, for me, the best of the speakers.

Andy Stamp connected with most of the students. He was not too much older than them, but sometimes sounded quite naive, and his principles were, well, self-interested. I’ve already said it once to him, but try this principle out for size: people are looking for politicians who will listen to them and their needs and act upon them, not remain stubbornly on one, negative track and never mind anyone else. Did the last Lib Dem government not learn that lesson? Oh, wait…

The rest of the day doesn’t even bare writing about. Comments after the event were made about how scruffy the Green Party reps were, how annoying the UKIP guy was and how someone so ill-informed could become an elected representative (I’m not going to say who, though, because I like them).

As I said previously, I did enjoy most of the day, regardless of what my fellow students thought. I learnt a lot of useful facts (all handily scribbled down for reference) and many new topics for possible future blog posts are now floating around in my head. Which feels like it is about to drop, so I shall have to leave it there – I still have a last email to write before I go to sleep.

“British Euro MPs led a noisy protest yesterday at a signing ceremony for a new EU rights charter. Around 100 heckling Eurosceptics from Britain, France, Poland and Italy wrecked what was supposed to be a solemn event at the Strasbourg Parliament. They waved placards and banners, stamped, booed and chanted “referendum”.”

However, far from being a disgrace to their countries, these campaigners are to be commended for standing up for the rights of their constituents to decided for themselves whether or not Europe is permitted to grow at the present alarming rate into a Soviet-style super-state.

The only disgrace being shown to member countries is the contempt being shown by their leaders in refusing them the right to decide on this vitally important issue.