Floru 's Blog

"As a child in Belgium I was struck by the high level of unemployment among my peers. The less well off were chained in a welfare state which did not allow them to improve their situation. If you worked you were taxed to the hilt.

On the other side of the channel Margaret Thatcher gave new hope. Lower taxes created wealth for all. I had to go. I chose for Britain in 1994.

Today we have to fight to ensure that the suffocating spiral of taxation and regulation which kills economic progress is not imposed upon us by Europe".

Jean-Paul Thierry Floru was born in the city of Aalst, Belgium (Flanders) in 1969. He obtained a law degree from Leuven University in 1995 (LL.M). In 1994 - 1995 he spent one year as an exchange student at the University of Leeds.

After finishing another two years of law studies at the College of Law in London (1996-97), he trained and qualified as a solicitor at the City law firm Lovells. After 2000 he set up two small businesses and he no longer practices law.

In 2005 JPF set up Freedom Alliance, which aims to promote the philosophical principles of freedom, and of which he is a director.

He was elected a City of Westminster Councillor for the Hyde Park Ward in 2006. He is a Eurosceptic and is active in the campaign for a referendum on the new European Treaty.

In April 2008 JPF was selected by postal ballot of all the Conservative Party members in London to occupy the fourth place on the list for the 2009 European election. As the Conservatives currently hold three seats, the fourth place is the battle position which JP intends to win.

JPF was active in student politics in Belgium, where he became the chairman of the Liberal Flemish Student Association in 1993 (a political party which was equivalent to the Conservative Party at the time). He became active in local politics in Islington in 1995, and stood as a paper candidate for the Highbury Ward at the local elections of 1998.

JPF lived for two years in New York City (2000 - 2002), where became a supporter of Mayor Giuliani's Zero Tolerance Policing, and where he witnessed the first election of George Bush jr.

JPF was elected in 2006 as a Councillor for the Hyde Park Ward, City of Westminster. His fields of interest include Planning (the defence of the architectural heritage and the support of new architecture with potential landmark status), de-regulation and Finance (reducing spending and keeping the council tax low).

JPF pursues politics to support individual freedom and free market principles. He is a founder and director of Freedom Alliance, an independent organisation which collaborates with a number of think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute, Open Europe, the Institute of Economic Affairs, Reform, the Centre for Policy Studies, the International Policy Network and the Globalisation Insitute to organise Freedom Week.  Freedom Week is a one week seminar at Cambridge University, where students are taught about the basic principles of the free market and individual liberty by renowned lecturers.

JPF is fluent in English, Dutch and French and understands German. His hobbies are painting, travelling, gardening, writing, books (especially history and biographies), horse riding (beginners level) and fighting the nanny state.