18th March 2013: Last week at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Andrew Brons made the following speech during a debate on Syria.

He said:

"Syria is anything but a democracy but nor are many countries in the Middle East such as its fierce critic, Saudi Arabia. Nor for that matter are all of Mr. Assad's opponents in Syria, democrats.

"The Syrian Government's handling of the protests was, from the beginning, grossly disproportionate but its brutality has frequently been matched by the opposition.

"We can also judge a regime by its substantive policies. Before the conflict, women in Syria were relatively liberated. Religious minorities - particularly Christians, were free to worship without interference, although some Christians have been attacked by Islamist members of the Opposition.

"It is all very well to bemoan the huge humanitarian toll of the conflict but that is what happens when neither side is capable of winning decisively. It is also what happens when the protagonists are armed, albeit covertly, by outsiders.

"How long will it be before the armed forces of member states are dragged into the conflict and the body bags start to be flown home to Europe?

"How ethical was it, and is it, for the West to encourage other people to risk their lives to advance the West's political agenda: depriving Iran of an ally and Israel of an adversary. Was régime change really worth 70,000 lives?

"(Might the Ba'ath régime be replaced by a democracy? It might be replaced by an Islamist dictatorship. Democracies do not thrive when there are vertical divisions in the populace.)*

"The priority must now be to bring the bloodshed to an end. That can happen only if there are talks without pre-conditions on neutral territory."

*This paragraph was omitted because of shortage of time.

14th March 2013: Yesterday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Andrew Brons made the following contribution, under the 'Catch the Eye' procedure, to a debate on the European Council meeting to be held on the 14th and 15th March 2013.

He said:

"It has been admitted that unemployment is not falling and is not likely to do so in 2013.

"The value of the Euro will not allow the countries of the South to emerge from recession.

"Austerity programmes will not cure unemployment. You do not make countries richer by making them poorer.

"Globalisation might make the emergent economies richer but it will make European countries poorer.

"The Single Market might help low income member states but only at the expense of higher income member states.

"Uncontrolled immigration will make unemployment worse everywhere. We heard earlier from a Mr Farage about immigration to Britain. Is this the same Mr. Farage who said on 4th May 2010 that the UK ought to issue a quarter of a million work permits each year?

"Incidentally, the Romanian citizens to whom Mr Farage referred were not ordinary Romanians . . . they were the Roma."

Response:

Mr Sefkovic, the EU Commissioner for Inter-institutional Relations, said that he rejected statements about Romanians and Bulgarians, on behalf of the Commission. He said that this was stigmatising a population.

There are some who remember that when he was being interviewed by AFCO before his appointment in 2009, he was asked a question about a speech he had made five years previously about the Roma. He said that he could not remember what he had said five years before. We are confident that Mr Sefkovic dwelt only on their virtues.

You can hear Andrew's speech here.

14th March 2013: You can see, and listen to, Andrew Brons delivering his speeches in the European Parliament on the official European Parliament.

Click here and you will find the list of his speeches in date order.

You can also hear Andrew's hard hitting speech on the Preparations for the European Council Meeting made yesterday in which he savages the charlatan, opportunist and multicultural collaborator, Nigel Farage.

Click here, go to Wednesday 13th March and listen at around 11.35am.

13th March 2013: The following Press Statement has been sent out by the Office of Andrew Brons MEP to Britain's national newspapers and to the newspapers and media outlets covering his Yorkshire and the Humber Constituency.

"Yesterday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Andrew Brons was unsuccessful in his attempt to make a 'Catch the Eye' contribution to a debate on Strengthening the Fight Against Racism, Xenophobia and Hate Crimes.

Had he been called to speak, he would have said:

"George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was a caricature of reality but unfortunately reality has caught up with the caricature. Orwell created the concept of thought crime - the criminalisation of a state of mind, Xenophobia - literally fear of strangers - must apparently be criminalised - a thought crime in Orwell's sense.

"I asked the Council and the Commission for definitions of racism and xenophobia but they could provide neither. It is absurd to criminalise what cannot be defined.

"Incitements to violence against others, on whatever ground, including the ground of political opinion, must be condemned and prosecuted. However, this is not about preventing violence or hatred. It is about suppressing opposition to out-of-control immigration."