Bonde hangs up his voting card

After 29 years in Brussels the veteran Danish Eurosceptic MEP, Jens-Peter Bonde is retiring. Choosing May 9th as his final day - a bit odd it being Europe day - he is standing down to spend more time with his family, his bicycle and his European Political Party, the EUDemocrats. Though he has moved from a position of outright withdrawal to hard core reform of the EU he has notched up a number of salient victories against the entrenched institutional interests.

Amazingly his most recent campaign has received a massive boost on the day on which his resignation was announced. According to the FT the Commission is planning to release the names of the people who sit on the 3,200 internal working groups, the people who actually set policy.

In many was this is a fitting tribute to the man who, almost single handedly took on the Danish establishment and won the 1992 Maastricht referendum in Denmark. It was that 'No' vote that awoke Britain to the possibility that we could indeed say no. Within two weeks of John Major's election victory dozens of Tory MP's had signed the infamous "Fresh Start" EDM which was the real founding of the new Eurosceptic movement in the UK.

"That this House urges Her Majesty's Government to use the decision to postpone the passage of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill as an opportunity to make a fresh start with the future development of the EEC and in particular to concentrate its efforts on the chosen agenda of the British presidency which is to extend the borders of the EEC and to create a fully competitive common market."

Goldsmith, the Referendum Party, UKIP et al. owe a great debt of gratitude to Jens-Peter.

I personally wish him well.