Launch event for Jury Team

The Jury Team today (Wednesday 20th May 2009) launched our European Election Campaign at One Great George Street, Westminster.

The launch (click here for the BBC report) featured speeches from:
- Sir Paul Judge, founder of the Jury Team and former Ministerial Adviser in the Cabinet Office
- Esther Rantzen, journalist and broadcaster
- Martin Bell, OBE, former Independent MP and MEP candidate in 2004
- Phillip Oppenheim, former Conservative MP and Treasury Minister who has indicated that he will stand as a Jury Team candidate at the next General Election if MPs who have cheated on expenses are not de-selected
- Dr Richard Taylor MP , independent MP for Wyre Forest

Esther Rantzen said,
“I’m a new girl in this game but I’m here because I think the people deserve hope. What we’ve been hearing in the recent weeks has been depressing and many would think that all MPs are greedy, venal and dishonest. But we have to apply judgment.
“I’ve been a floating voter all my life. I’ve never been able to swallow a manifesto whole and I believe there are many across the country like me. People who don’t feel listened to; people who have never found a political party.
“I think these people need to follow Martin Bell’s example. There are plenty of people of experience outside of Parliament and it’s time they came forward to make a difference.
“I am outraged and appalled by the conduct of the MP for Luton South and having spoken to people the constituency, I know they want a change. I will make my decision on whether to stand next week, but I do hope I inspire others to come forward and oppose the MPs that have behaved so disgracefully.
“Even if we fail, we will make the election more interesting!”

Sir Paul Judge said,
“This is an extremely important day for our political system. Today we present for the country, 59 candidates who have been selected in an open primary by the general public. They have legally committed themselves to our three guiding principles of democracy, accountability and transparency and to abiding by the seven Nolan Principles of Public Life..“The Jury Team candidates are pledged to vote on conscience for the good of their constituents and the country and will not be required to obey a party whip;
“In this way, our candidates are completely different to every other MEP candidate standing on 4th June. When you vote for the Jury Team you are voting for real change and not the staged and cosmetic change other parties offer.
“Vote for the Jury Team and take a stand.”

Martin Bell said,
“I have never seen anything like our current situation in politics before. Everybody is talking about the expenses scandals and everybody is angry. Our misbehaving politicians have finally done the impossible – they have united the country behind one aim: getting rid of them.
“Independent MPs and MEPs are part of the answer. Independent MPs and MEPs have the independence of mind and can aim and act to change the way the system works. They have the ability, unhindered by the oppressive party system, to vote for change and effect change.
“Everybody who wants to see the end of this sorry episode and the beginning of a new politics should vote for an independent and end the tyranny of the party system.”

Phillip Oppenheim said,
“Like most people, I am fed up with the current Parliament. We were promised that government would be “whiter than white”. Instead, our country is run by career politicians with no experience of the real world; and far from the promise of “democratic” Lords reform, peerages are sold to party donors or dished out to deadbeat failed politicians who sell their votes to the highest bidder. We didn’t elect them. We wouldn’t employ them. We can’t kick them out.
“Many peers and MPs seem more interested in ripping off the taxpayer than sorting out our problems which have got worse and worse. Even if Commons officials did advise people like Andrew MacKay that their claims were within the rules, that just epitomises the problem of too many MPs who have become institutionalised and lost the ability to make what most people would consider to be normal judgments of what is right and wrong.
“I think there is now a role for independent candidates for whom politics is a vocation rather than a career and who have experience outside of the incestuous world of politics. This is why I have said I will join the Jury Team in standing against corrupt MPs at the next General Election.”