Now that the European election campaign is in full swing, I will, no doubt, have any number of stories, both serious and on the lighter side. While the East Dulwich estate, was probably on the serious side, my two engagements on Friday were most definitely heavy duty.
Burson Marsteller
At 8.30 on Friday morning I did a breakfast meeting organised by the PR company Burson Marsteller for clients who were interested in discussing the European elections. It was a panel discussion – always a challege at that hour in the morning. On the patform were my MEP colleague, Liberl Democrat Baroness Sarah Ludford, the number four on the Conservative list in London, Belgian born Jean-Paul Floru and Professor Simon Hix from the LSE.
The most useful comment came from Professor Hix who, with a clarity politicians often lack, put the EU in context by telling the audience that the EU is about the single market, how it is regulated and by whom. While not the whole picture, it is a definition I will remember. My two fellow MEP candidates said more or less what you would expect, though I was rather surprised that Sarah Ludford treated the audience to a tirade about the internal workings of the European Parliament. Jean-Paul was one of the most libertarian Tories I have come across for a long time, who viewed ”free trade” as synonymous with “freedom”. It was also very obvious he was not an MEP and therefore lacked the knowledge Sarah and I have as a result of being in the Parliament for a number of years.
My thanks to Michiel Van Hulten, Head of Public Affairs for Burson Marsteller in Brussels, and former Dutch Labour MEP. Michiel was a good colleague in the 1999-2004 European Parliament so I was pleased to see him again.
ACEVO
From the dizzy heights of professional public relations, I was brought back to earth later in the day with a visit to ACEVO, the organisation for leaders of voluntary organisations. The European arm of the group, known as EUCLID, is producing a website for the European elections. They asked me to do a piece for this venture, so I was filmed, recorded and generally put through the mill. It was very good to be asked to do this as it was a good opportunity to get the Labour message cross. As a former chief executive of a national voluntary organisation, Gingerbread, the lone parent charity, it was good to see all the valuable work being done by the ever growing third sector.
