Roger Helmer is a UKIP Member of the European Parliament representing the East Midlands. He was first elected as a Conservative MEP in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009. In March 2012 he left the Conservative Party and joined UKIP, arguing that UKIP now represented the policies and principles he had always supported, better than Cameron’s Conservatives did. He cited a range of issues, especially the EU, and climate and energy policy, but also defence, immigration, taxation, foreign aid, grammar schools and university admissions. He currently sits on two committees: Unemployment and Petitions. During the 1999/04 parliament, Roger was also a very active member of the “interparliamentary delegation” to ASEAN (the nations of South East Asia), plus Korea. He is currently a member of the Korea delegation. During the course of his long business career before 1999, he spent a total of twelve years running businesses in East and South East Asia as a resident, so he brings a wealth of detailed knowledge of the region to his work on this interparliamentary delegation. Born in 1944, Roger attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Southampton (1955 – 62), and then won a State Scholarship to Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A.
He started his business career in 1965 with Procter & Gamble in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, going on to hold senior marketing and general management appointments in a range of companies, including well-known multinationals like Readers Digest, National Semiconductor, Coats Viyella and the whisky firm United Distillers, now part of the drinks conglomerate Diageo. During the course of his business career he lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea, and ran businesses in the Philippines, Vietnam, Guam and Saipan.
In September 1998, following his selection as the #1 candidate for the Conservative Party in the East Midlands, Roger left his job as Managing Director of a Leicester textile company, Donisthorpe Ltd (the UK subsidiary of a French textile multinational), to campaign full time ahead of the 1999 euro-elections, and took up his new role as an MEP immediately afterwards. He has found his decades of business experience invaluable in the European parliament, not least in helping him to fight the battle against the tide of intrusive and prescriptive EU regulation and red tape which is causing such damage to economic competitiveness across Europe.
With like minded-colleagues, Roger has developed close relationships with conservative political groups in the USA, and has been a regular speaker at American conferences. He was appointed “Adam Smith Scholar” by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.
He has earned a reputation – and even the grudging respect of political opponents – for his clear, consistent and forthright approach to the question of Britain’s relationship with the EU. He believes that most of his constituents would be happy with the sort of relationship the British people thought they had voted for in the 1975 referendum – a relationship based on free trade and voluntary cooperation. He believes that the UK would be Better Off Out of the EU, and that the British people have the right, the ability, the will, and the manifest destiny to govern themselves.
Whenever Roger has a spare Sunday at home in the East Midlands, he enjoys rural life and walking the dog. He and his wife Sara share their home in rural Leicestershire with two horses, two cats and a greyhound.
Roger has published several books and DVDs on European issues, “Straight Talking on Europe” in 2000; “A Declaration of Independence” in 2002, and “Sceptic at Large” in 2011. He also published “Cool Thinking on Climate Change”, with the Bruges Group.
Roger,
someone on ConHome said I should come here to ask you, so I have.
Given, that the Conservatives are supposed to be leaving the EPP-ED grouping in 2009, and given that the Tory grassroots aren’t going to let David Cameron meet fellow centre-right leaders at EPP meetings, I presume that MEPs like yourself and Dan Hannan are busy rounding up potential partners from around Europe. How’s it going? Have we got lots of willing eurosceptics champing at the bit to join up with the Conservatives?
No one has said that Cameron can’t meet fellow centre-right leaders. He can and does. But yes, we do have a Conservative group in the parliament, the ECR.
There are some good people out there, but for obvious reasons it is not too wise to name names at this stage. However, we have a problem: we have gone to these poeple four times (or is it five?) under successive Party leaders, and said “If we left the EPP, would you join us?”. And like the little boy who cried wolf, we’re losing credibility. The attitude now is “Show us the colour of your money. Leave the EPP, and then we can talk”. But we have made one step forward. The federasts used to say “We can’t leave the EPP and join Jean Marie le Penn and Allesandra Mussolini”. This was always a nonsense, since if we joined the Unattached (i.e. the “None of the Above” group) we would not have any necessary connection with other members in that group. But now the hard right have gone away and formed a new group, so that objection, spurious as it was, has gone way.
Roger,
I visited your site of another. I am a American from Florida and I am well aware of your honors here that you greatly achieved. I keep up with the British News since my Wife is from England as well. I was advised on a recent event in which I will not mention regarding you honorably stepping out on after further research and in the best interest and I want to thank you personally for your overall decision in the matter. I wish you the very best in your political position and your goals. If you can view my e-mail off your site and e-mail me, I will gladly direct some information to you that may spark your overall interest. God Bless you and best of luck.
Mr Helmer,
I’d like to congratulate you on an excellent and informative website.
I agree wholeheartedly with your views on climate and it is refreshing to see someone such as yourself speak openly and honestly on the subject, especially when many view politics in an increasingly disassociated manner.
RFID cards are another concern that many simply ignore and do so at their peril my concern here is that new technology such as contact-less credit cards along with the new passport requirements will introduce it anyway by stealth and both systems are reliant on central database technology which is great cause for alarm.
Anyway – I’d just like to say thanks for your efforts and that there are just a few politicians left who inspire confidence such as yourself.
West Midland and indeed the whole UK would be better off out of the EU and a English Parliament to stand up for English Affairs.
England would be better off with some English Democrats
But the English Democrats is full of British Nationalists from the BNP.
If I vote Conservative in trhe European elections will you undertake to publish all your expense claims on-line so that I can see how my money is being spent?
I have. And they are.
How can anybody vote for you or the Conservatives in future when you have just blurted out plainly homophobic comments to the media? Homophobia is an appalling reality and you have just gone and demonstrated to the British public that YOU are a homophobe. This is appalling.
For your information one in five lesbian and gay people have been victims of homophobic aggression over the past three years. This was revealed by a 2008 survey of UK hate crime. Experiences of homophobia ranged from beatings and sexual assault to persistent harassment and insults, often from neighbours and colleagues. The gay rights charity Stonewall said the lives of Britain’s 3.6 million lesbian and gay people were overshadowed by the fear of homophobic crime. It commissioned YouGov to carry out the first comprehensive national survey into the problem, questioning more than 1,700 lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The poll found a homophobic crime or incident had been experienced by 12.5% over the past year and 20% over the past three years. One in six of the victims had been physically assaulted and one in eight had been subjected to unwanted sexual contact. Almost nine in 10 had experienced homophobic insults and harassment. Three-quarters of the victims had not reported the incident to the police, often because they did not think the complaint would be investigated. Only 1% of hate crimes that were reported to the police resulted in a conviction. Two-thirds of victims who reported incidents to the police were not offered advice or referred to support services. The charity was prompted to commission the poll by the murder of Jody Dobrowski, a 24-year-old assistant bar manager who was beaten to death in a homophobic assault on Clapham Common, south London, in 2005. Almost half the lesbian and gay people in the survey thought they were at greater risk of being physically assaulted than a heterosexual. One third said they altered their behaviour so as not to appear lesbian or gay in an attempt to avoid becoming a victim of crime. One in 10 said being a victim of crime was their biggest worry, more than being ill or having financial debts. The survey showed lesbian and gay people were more likely to
report crimes in areas where the police were gay-friendly employers. Hampshire, South Wales and Lothian were praised for taking homophobic hate crimes seriously. Stonewall said all police officers should be trained to recognise homophobic hate crimes. Other recommendations included stronger action against homophobic bullying in schools and a zero-tolerance policy against bullying in the workplace. Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of Stonewall, said: “This was the first statistically significant national survey into the extent and nature of homophobic hate crime. The experiences it has uncovered are shocking. We hope the whole criminal justice system will now rise to the challenges that this research poses.” The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said the findings would help the police improve the service. Mike Cunningham, the deputy chief constable of Lancashire and Acpo’s spokesman on equality, said: “It cannot be acceptable that a third of victims do not report incidents to the police because they do not think the police would, or could, do anything about it. Neither is it right that two thirds of those who reported incidents to the police were not offered or referred to advice or support services. The findings offer the service a real opportunity to make real improvements.
Dear Mr Helmer,
The major parties now recognise the significance of the “gay” vote.I doubt that there is a single gay voter who has not been deeply offended by your comments on “the non-existence of homophobia”.I trust your party leader will take note of the millions of UK gay votes you have just lost to the Conservative Party for the forthcoming General Election.
You seemed to have worked around the world.Is a move to Poland now opportune?
Et tu Helmere? Please tell me that the Daily Telegraph (page 20 of the issue of 10th Feb 2010)has got it wrong. Are you seriously fighting a rearguard action to preserve the outragously over-privilaged MEP pension arrangements and strived to remain anonymous in the process?
I have cheered and respected you for years. I have enjoyed and enthused at your speeches. I displayed your ‘Love Europe, hate the EU’ car sticker until it disintegrated. In the meantime I spent a liftime’s hard work building up a pension fund from which I have had to take two drops in drawings in as many years to preserve the capital in the credit crunch. Now to find one of the few politicians I trusted and respected also seeks to keep his snout in the trough is deeply depressing. But I await your denial.
Brian Senior, Arundel, West Sussex
Sorry — only just picked this up. The Telegraph report was wrong in every respect. I have sought to ensure that the parliament fulfils its contractual conditions, but I do not stand to benefit personally at all — I’m already too old for the provisions in dispute.
thank you for an the excellent epistle in Washington Times.
Hello Roger, I’m afraid I can’t see my recent comment against your Nocton Dairies blog. Have you moderated this? If so, I would appreciate being told the reason why. In any case, you should be aware I am going to publish my comment on the Nocton blog, so your local voters can see what I have had to say. Regards.
To me, Roger Helmer MEP and his opinions reflect a combination of traditional (and always worthy) Conservative values, conmmonsense, attention to detail and factual content. In particular, is there any UK Conservative who has challenged the so-called consensus on “global warming” with such determination and consistency? As recent media revelations have shown, the facts (and probabilities) are now conforming more to Roger’s views regarding this issue and others. If only our mainstream media would present the full and overwhelmingly negative facts about the EU? Multi-culturalism simply does not work, and UK citizens continue to face a daily dose of political, social and cultural bias from the BBC. Roger Helmer’s blog is essential reading, for all who have a genuine interest in many of the most pertinent issues of modern western society.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/melting-sea-ice-forces-polar-bear-to-swim-for-nine-days-2194481.html
I participated in the recent Reach & Teach organised by MPOC ( Malaysian Palm Oil Council ) where you delivered a presentation concerning climate change. one of the issues you highlighted that I shared with my friends was the polar bear as good swimmers.
one of my cool climate change friend sent me the above link. only those authorities who track this polar bear will know the fate of this bear is due to natural causes or anthropogenically caused.
I can’t say what happened to a single bear — I wasn’t there. But the rapidly increasing numbers in polar bear populations speak for themselves. And if this bear did swim for nine days, it rather makes my point that they’re excellent swimmers! By the way, even if the slight warming in the Arctic was a cause of this bear’s marathon, that doesn’t make it anthropogenic. A key point of my remarks was that the slight changes we’ve seen over the last century are entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate cycles.
The European Community would be able to let us into the community so that it pressed the government of Croatia. Because we the citizens are helpless. Do you have any idea. For the citizens what to do.
Best regards
Zoran
Dear Mr Helmer. I enjoy reading your blog and would like to think you can do something to stop the ruin we seem to be heading for.I do, however, get the feeling that the waves you make are just small enough not to jeopardise your reselection, come the next election.
One request. Could you please increase your font size? The tiny print if very trying to my sad old eyes!
BS
it is possible to increase your font size in your web browser easily enough, just zoom the page size, if you cant enlarge the font size with ….. ( View / Text Size in Internet Explorer for instance ).
My wife, who is Angolan, peered over my shoulder wondering what I was doing on the computer so late in the evening.
Well, just between you and me, I hate Brazilian soaps which is all she watches this time of night so having been caught out, I stuck my finger into the screen at your picture and said, ‘This man, if we were living in my province, would be our Member of the European Parliament!’
‘Hah!’, she said, ‘The Belgians can’t even hold their own country together and you let them run Europe?’
Roger,
You would be taken more seriously if you did something about that ridiculous pantomime moustache. You don’t need comedy props now that you are a serious politician. It makes you look like an oddball.
Roger, great blog. How can we contact you? You might be interested in listening to the podcast we shot with Doug Carswell MP about banking reform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtIaK3XU98I&t=0m26s.
Regards,
Paul
The conservatives have always claimed to be the party of business. They have never supported the typical small or medium business people who used to be the bedrock of their party. UKIP needs to offer support to business people both to help the economy and to grow membership.
Roger
1. Do you have any info on the future EU maps seen by ukip meps reported on by UK column on friday?
2. HS2 ‘if they can not get the train set they already have to work why do they want a new one?’
Dear Sir,
I’d like to suggest a new party policy, if I may.
No immigrant should be entitled to ANY sate benefits, have access to the NHS, Legal Aid, or Social Housing, until they have lived and paid Tax and National Insurance contributions, in this country, for at least 10 consecutive years.
You cannot take anything out of the pot, until you’ve put something in.
This simple policy would free up thousands of Hospital beds and much needed Council Houses for the indigenous population. It will slash the current benefits budget by at least one third, and prevent any more Abu Hamza or Abu Qqatada, drawn out situations, ever rising again.
It will also cut the number of immigrants seeking to enter the country, and hopefully drive out many of those who are here only for the benefits and the healthcare.
It may not cure all our problems, but I feel it could be a vote winner.
Geogre Mainwaring
Walmington-on-sea
Presuming that you do not ignore people who are polite simply because they disagree with you, I look forward to seeing my recent comment released from your moderation queue.