There is evidence already to illustrate the Reform approach to doing an honest days work where you've been elected. Farage has an interesting record of attendance in the European Parliament when he was an MEP, and as an MP in Clacton the vast majority of his time seems to be spent earning multiple second incomes - how many times has he held a constituency surgery and listened to the issues of his constituents? What is his attendance record in the Commons like?
He was not elected as a MEP to work with the EU. Those who voted for him and his party knew this
Then he could have taken an abstentionist position and refused both salary and attendance. Did he do that? Did he fuck.
His focus was for the UK to leave the EU. Those who voted for his party knew this
They still had obligations that they did not fill. Things they were paid to do which they did not. You still haven’t come back on my question.
There is, of course, no reason why a political party shouldn't stand on a platform of leaving some political entity and stating that the Parliament of that entity should have no jurisdiction over the constituency they're standing in. Nor, any issue with people voting for such parties. There are plenty of examples of this. There also seem to be two reasonable approaches politicians elected on such a platform can take:
1. To take their seats, and use that position to both work hard to minimise what they see as the harm that political entity is doing to their constituents and/or maximise whatever good that can be done for the constituents, and to use that position to argue for their constituency to leave that political entity. In the UK that would be the approach taken by, for example, the SNP in Westminster.
2. To refuse to take their seats, and the associated salary and personal expenses, in protest against the political institution. Which would be the approach taken by, for example, Sinn Fein in UK Parliamentary elections (though, Sinn Fein MPs still use their positions to do a lot of case work for their constituents).
We can argue the pros and cons of both those positions, I'd accept both to be honourable and consistent with independence politics - the question is what's most effective at achieving the desired independence and serving constituents before that.
The issue with UKIP MEPs was that they did neither of these - they accepted the seats and money, but then didn't do anything to either argue for UK leaving the EU or reforming the EU within that position or work for the best for the people of the UK (even within their own understanding of what's best). Farage et.al. seemed to have failed to notice that to be a good MEP (MP, councillor, mayor etc) is hard work.
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Answers there will be none.
1. To take their seats, and use that position to both work hard to minimise what they see as the harm that political entity is doing to their constituents and/or maximise whatever good that can be done for the constituents, and to use that position to argue for their constituency to leave that political entity. In the UK that would be the approach taken by, for example, the SNP in Westminster.
2. To refuse to take their seats, and the associated salary and personal expenses, in protest against the political institution. Which would be the approach taken by, for example, Sinn Fein in UK Parliamentary elections (though, Sinn Fein MPs still use their positions to do a lot of case work for their constituents).
We can argue the pros and cons of both those positions, I'd accept both to be honourable and consistent with independence politics - the question is what's most effective at achieving the desired independence and serving constituents before that.
The issue with UKIP MEPs was that they did neither of these - they accepted the seats and money, but then didn't do anything to either argue for UK leaving the EU or reforming the EU within that position or work for the best for the people of the UK (even within their own understanding of what's best). Farage et.al. seemed to have failed to notice that to be a good MEP (MP, councillor, mayor etc) is hard work.
The provinces won't even heed Ottawa, what on earth makes you think they'll obey Brussells?