Tuesday, 15th May 2012
Mark Pritchard, MP - Why we should have an In or Out Referendum
Roger Helmer, MEP - Freedom from the EU
Hjörtur J Guðmundsson - Iceland, EFTA and the EEA
Mark Pritchard MP
Mark is the Conservative Member of Parliament for The Wrekin in Shropshire which he has represented since 2005. In March 2012 he resigned from a party position due to concerns over an increasing number of government policies, including those on immigration and Europe. He also argued that the government needs a more robust policy on immigration and that it is timid over Europe, and that the EU is holding back growth and costing jobs.
His political interests include, defence, foreign affairs, counter-terrorism, cyber-security and animal welfare. He is a member of the Joint National Security Strategy Committee and a member of the UK’s Parliamentary delegation to NATO.
Roger Helmer MEP
Roger was first elected to the European parliament in 1999 representing 4.1 million constituents from in the East Midlands. He was first elected as a Conservative but joined UKIP in March 2012.
Prior to politics Roger Helmer had a successful career in business which began in 1965. He went on to hold senior marketing and general management appointments in a range of companies, including well-known multinationals. 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.
Roger is the author of the Bruges Group publication, Cool Thinking on Climate Change.
Hjörtur J Guðmundsson
Hjörtur J Guðmundsson is a journalist at the Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið. Previous to his career in journalism he was Managing Director of Heimssýn, the Icelandic movement opposed to EU membership. He has written extensively through the years about Iceland’s relations with the EU mainly for domestic but also for some foreign publications.
He is a member of the Icelandic Independence Party which is conservative / libertarian party and a fellow of the Danish free-market think-tank The Copenhagen Institute.