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They share Bentley passion... but MEPs are on a collision course
YOU might expect members of the exclusive Bentley Drivers' Club to treat each other with the utmost respect and get on like old pals.
After all, the founding aim of the club was to foster the spirit of comradeship created by the Bentley racing teams of the past.
But two of its esteemed members have had an unseemly falling out. And not just any members – two of the region's MEPs.
UK Independence Party's Godfrey Bloom – no stranger to controversy – has threatened to try to get Tory Timothy Kirkhope thrown out of the club for "caddish behaviour" after he was landed with a fine for protesting in the European Parliament.
Mr Kirkhope rejects Mr Bloom's claim that he was partly to blame for the fine of two days' attendance allowance – nearly 400 – but has challenged his rival to carry out his threat.
"I look forward to the disciplinary hearing in the club," said Mr Kirkhope.
Referring to Groucho Marx's comment "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member", he went on: "I didn't know Mr Bloom is a member of this august body, but it does put me in mind of the Marx brothers that any club that has Mr Godfrey Bloom as a member, I should be resigning from anyway."
Set up in 1936 by Bentley enthusiast Keston Pelmore, proud drivers from around the world are members of the elite club, owning a range of models dating from 1919 to the present day.
Mr Bloom is a frequent driver of his 1982 Mulsanne model, which he has owned for about a year and once belonged to celebrated cartoonist Giles, while classic car enthusiast Mr Kirkhope is a less frequent user of his Brooklands vehicle, which he has owned for more than a decade.
The row over their membership of the club broke out after Mr Bloom was fined two days' allowance for his part in a protest in the European Parliament when a group of MEPs brought proceedings to a halt as they called for a referendum on the EU Treaty.
Mr Bloom accuses Mr Kirkhope of voting in favour of the fine as he sits on the parliament's constitutional committee which advises the presidency on various issues of conduct.
But Mr Kirkhope says the committee is not the one which decides fines, which is a matter for the president, and was only involved in a technical debate over what powers the president had to act. In any case, he was unaware Mr Bloom was among the protesters.
The resulting spat hardly seems fitting for a club which proclaims its raison d'etre as "keeping alive that wonderful spirit of sportsmanship and comradeship created by the famous Bentley teams of the past".
"It's quite interesting I was demonstrating along with half a dozen of his Conservative party colleagues," said Mr Bloom, whose flirtations with controversy include remarking how women do not clean behind the fridge enough.
"The Bentley Drivers' Club go off on rallies together, have an annual ball and stuff like that. He's (Mr Kirkhope] a fellow member and I think he should be drummed out for caddish behaviour."
Mr Kirkhope laughed off the prospect of a complaint being made. "That would be great fun – I look forward to that," he said. "I think it's unlikely they're so politically motivated in the club."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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