Frederick Forsyth Guests at Conservatives’ Annual Dinner



One of the world’s greatest living authors, Frederick Forsyth, was guest of honour at Harlow Conservatives’ Churchillian Dinner last Thursday night. The annual dinner is organised by the Harlow Conservative Association’s Ladies Committee, under Chairman Mrs Pam Norton, in honour of former Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, who was Harlow’s Member of Parliament in the days when Harlow was part of the Epping Constituency.



The dinner took place at the Churchgate Hotel, Old Harlow and was packed with 100 guests from several Conservative Associations as well as Harlow’s, and included Harlow’s Member of the European Parliament Geoffrey VanOrden. One of the main events of the evening was the presentation of the Vincent Dunn Trophy for Campaigning, which went to Councillor Lee Dangerfield, who took a Council seat in Staple Tye from the Liberal Democrats in May this year.



Vince Dunn, as he was known, who died from Cancer last year, was a major figure in Harlow over the last 40 years, perhaps best known as landlord of the Marquis of Granby Public House in Old Harlow. He was also a life-long Conservative and supporter of the Harlow Conservative Association and many other aspects of community life across the town, including Old Harlow Cricket Club.



Harlow Conservative Association decided this year to perpetuate his name with a silver trophy to be awarded annually to the member who has done most to campaign.



The guests learned that Frederick Forsyth is not only a legendary author, but has also been an RAF pilot and a journalist and broadcaster of some distinction. He was working for Reuters in the early 1960s and covered the demise of the Macmillan Government, the height of the DeGaulle administration in France and the birth of the Common Market. It is this subject that has occupied his political thought ever since and he spoke with detailed authority of the plot by European federalists to mislead the peoples of Europe, and Britain in particular, in believing in a Single Market, when the real intention has always been a Single Federated State of Europe.



He warned of the incompatibility of the desire on one hand for a Union of Sovereign States and on the other of a Single Sate in a Post-Democratic age with an Oligarchy Government, what he described as a rigged pseudo-democracy of the few, by the few, for the few.



He said he believed Britain, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is being coerced by the threat of being ostracised from Europe if he opts for a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty. He said he believes UKIP has no hope of doing anything to change this because of what he describes as the Achievable Political Reality (APR) that they will never come to power, therefore the Conservatives are the only hope to change the destination of Europe.



Afterwards Robert Halfon said, “The Churchillian dinner is our flagship event and each year it is better, due to the tireless work of our Ladies’ Committee. Frederick Forsyth was both entertaining and thought provoking. I certainly share many of his fears about the destination of the European Union and firmly believe we must have a referendum on the new European Constitutional Treaty, which is simply the old Constitution by another name.”