Libertas candidate stands down for Greens

Breaking news: It's not just Joanna Lumley who's backing the Greens. The North West's lead candidate for Libertas is standing down and supporting the Green Party's Peter Cranie for the win.

Ben Tallis, who is also the UK Policy director for Libertas, has decided to stand down for two very good reasons.

As a committed anti-racist he's decided that the battle to keep Nick Griffin out of the European Parliament has to take precedence over other concerns. That means backing the Greens.

Secondly, he'd become disturbed by some of the candidates in the Eastern European nations for the Libertas slate. Tallis has criticisms of the Lisbon treaty and EU structures, as do I, but is also a committed European and by no means sees himself as a Europhobe. However, he fears that some elements in Eastern Europe are distinctly dodgy, particularly about Jews and he felt, understandably, he could no longer lead the North West list for the organisation that makes great play of its pan-European nature.

Whilst Libertas are unlikely to make political waves here in the UK, especially now, they are a significant force in some parts of Europe - Ireland particularly - so it does matter what their politics are. Whilst there are some positive aspects to their platform (the criticism of Europe's institutions without feeling the need to blame the EU for everything, UKIP style) it is a deeply contradictory organisation.

Just a quick google search will show that for an organisation without borders they make an extraordinary number of comments on immigration, nor does there seem to be much coherence from one state to another, which is surprising given that the slates were essentially determined from the office of one wealthy businessman in Ireland.

Ben has taken a principled stand and withdrawn his candidature from the race and we sincerely thank him for his endorsement of Peter Cranie.