ElectionLeaflets.org

We know there are such things as shell companies that are fielded like sockpuppets across the corporate financial landscape in a way that our legal infrastructure is incapable of dealing with.

But is there such a thing as a shell party?

The leaflet on the left has popped up in two places in the UK. It caught my eye because I have seen lots of Libertas.eu election posters here on my holiday in Ireland, and had generally ignored it as some sort of incomprehensible local politics I didn’t need to know anything about.

Here’s what their leaflet explains:

* No to the anti-democratic Lisbon Treaty
* New Treaty: A short, clear statement of what the EU does
* We demand a referendum on this new, understandable treaty

The Libertas Institute was a lobby group that was founded in 2006 by the Irish businessman Declan Ganley (a man now integrated into the US military-industrial complex) which successfully busted the Irish vote on the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008 and effectively sank the whole enterprise.

There are some interesting allegations connecting this lobby group to certain strategic interests in the US that may favour a conveniently weak European Union. It appeals to conspiracy theorists like me who see little evidence that democracy in Western Europe is uniquely strong enough to withstand the skilled PR company meddling that has indisputably goes on in other countries where people still turn out to vote. (Note: giving a speech at the Heritage Foundation is one sure way to raise suspicions.)

Nobody really knew what the Lisbon Treaty was about — and Libertas (like most everyone else) made no effort to explain it. But it didn’t matter. It’s too complicated. It goes to show that in our current embodiment of democracy, we can only handle voting for people. You like the look of their face? That’s all you need to know.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. Libertas UK is a brand new party based at: Suite 6.8, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0AU with Robin Matthews as Party Leader, Andrew Jamieson as Party Chairman and James Millard as Party Treasurer.

Meanwhile, over at the Electoral Commission, Libertas UK is registered as being founded on 19 December 2008 (initially branded as “New Dawn for Europe”) with the address: 400 Main Road, Westerham Hill, TN16 2HP, with Bridget Rowe as Leader, Mr J.M. Greenbough as Nominating Officer, and Mr Damian Wilson as Treasurer.

Now, I don’t know any of these people from Adam, but they have pulled together an astounding raft of candidates to run in the UK EU election, each with their own individual biographies containing Barnum Effect style paragraphs like:

I’m fighting in this election because I’m really concerned about the bureaucracy filtering from Brussels; this is not the democracy of today’s times regarding red tapes imposed on normal hard working people. It is a shame to hear abuse of tax payers money, as bureaucrats with dream salaries who still need more from tax payers to fulfill their expense claims, where the money should be used to help the people in need instead of useless expenses.

Obviously these people took a great interest in the First European Open Data Summit where Richard Pope and I (and several of our friends) could be found hacking EU obfuscated farm subsidy data — for food. (Hint: the donate button is at the top of the web-page.)

Maybe not.

What do I know?

Not a lot, because the statements of accounts and donations to this party are not going to show up on the database of registers until sometime after the election when all the money — wherever it is from — has had its effect.

Good thinking, that.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping Libertas from declaring all its income on its website ahead of the election so we know where it is coming from.

What do I know?

They’ve got a party constitution (written by Anthony Butcher on 2 March 2009) that merely outlines what meaningless entity appoints what meaningless entity in the party:

Policy Spokesmen

• Policy Spokesmen shall be proposed by the Party Leader, and approved by the Party Scrutiny Committee.
• Policy Spokesmen may be removed at the discretion of the Party Leader, or by removal of approval by the Party Scrutiny Committee.
• Policy Spokesmen shall be assigned specific policy portfolios, and are responsible for policy research, creation and promotion.
• Policy Spokesmen may appoint and dismiss other party members to assist them in their work.

What do I know?

A lot of the Libertas rhetoric seems to involve positioning itself as a pro-Europe version of UKIP — whatever that means.

They want to reform Europe, by being against the Lisbon Treaty whose purpose was, ahem, to reform Europe.

It’s a huge Treaty. There are a lot of good bits of reform in it. Which particular bits of the Treaty didn’t they like?

I haven’t the foggiest.

That still is one hell of a list of candidates. Where did they all come from? Was there some international golf tournament last November where they went round signing people up?

For those who are still puzzled as I am, you can also choose from the newly formed EU election parties No to the EU – Yes to Democracy Party or Jury Team — if you can make any sense of what they stand for either.