Monthly Archives: January 2010

January 21, 2010 · 1:05 pm

Lack of Foreign Languages is bad for young Britons

Both the Guardian and the Daily Mail today feature articles about the parlous state of modern language teaching in British schools.

Reading these two pieces you could be forgiven for not knowing that the EU requires all member states to teach two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue.

There are good reasons for this.  Knowing another language allows you to work in other countries.  If any of our youngsters wish to work abroad outside the English speaking world, they would obviously have to know the language of their preferred destination.  Because so many of our children can’t do this, they potentially lose out.

The main problem is, of course, that English is such a universal tongue.  We can go to the USA, Canada, Australasia, most of the Indian sub-continent and a large part of Africa and speak our native language.  But we can’t hack it in Germany, France and the French speaking countries, Spain and South America, to name but a few.  However, if we upped our game to the required two foreign languages we could go to vastly more places to work, thereby expanding opportunities for our young people.  French and Spanish, for example, in addition to English, would enable Brits to live and work in a significant proportion of Europe, Africa and Asia as well as South America.

Languages have the ability to pay, and it really is about time the UK learnt that.  These two articles today also stress how those young people who are proficient in another language get better jobs at home.  Many employers ask for this qualification for their more senior and fast track jobs.

There is also a cultural dimension.  Languages are fun and teach you about other ways of life, other preoccupations and other views of the world.

Please let’s give our teenagers and young people a chance.  Foreign languages are too important to be consigned to the twilight zone.  They must be a full and important part of the mainstream curriculum.

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· 9:35 am

Godfrey Bloom is at it again

Now that the Commissioner-Designate Hearings are over, we can look back on the choicest moments.  Not that there are very many as MEPs, on the whole, take their duties at these Hearings very seriously.

None more so perhaps than the appalling Godfrey Bloom (UKIP Yorkshire and Humberside).

While attending the hearing of Michel Barnier, French EPP Commissioner-Designate for the Internal Market, Mr Bloom claimed that he represented the City of London.  As London MEP  I take great exception to Mr Bloom’s claim.  I’m sure the same goes for the rest of my London colleagues, including presumably UKIP’s very own Gerard Batten.

However, good triumphed in the end.

Mr Barnier, an experienced politician who doesn’t miss a trick, replied to Mr Bloom with the immortal words: “I (Barnier) thought you represented your constituents.”

 Michel Barnier maximum points, Godfrey Bloom absolutely none and a well deserved kick in the teeth.

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January 20, 2010 · 9:37 am

Further Reasons not to buy Property in Northern Cyprus

You will remember that in May last year I warned on this blog against purchasing property in northern Cyprus.

It appears that I have been vindicated.  The Court of Appeal (Civil division) in London yesterday handed down its judgment in the long running cause celèbre, Case No: A2/2006/2114 Apostolides v Orams.  The Court of Appeal decided in favour of Mr. Apostolides and no further appeal is to be allowed.

This judgment has determined in a final way that the legal rights of displaced Cypriots against trespassers, as determined by the Courts of the Republic of Cyprus, can be enforced in the United Kingdom. 

The details of the judgment provide that the Cyprus judgments be registered and enforced in the UK.  The Cyprus Court had made a number of Orders against David Charles Orams and Linda Elizabeth Orams, regarding land at Lapithos in Cyprus belonging to a Cypriot refugee, Mr. Apostolides.  In particular, the Cyprus Court ordered that the Orams should:

-           Cease trespassing on the land belonging to Mr. Apostolides;

-           Deliver up possession of the land to Mr. Apostolides;

-           Pay ‘mesne profits’ (effectively, rent) to Mr. Apostolides in respect of the period of their occupation;

-           Knock down the villa and fencing they had built on the land; and

-           Pay certain sums in respect of Mr. Apostolides’s costs of the proceedings.

The Orams will also be ordered to pay the legal fees incurred by Mr. Apostolides, regarding the London  and Luxembourg proceedings.

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January 19, 2010 · 12:11 pm

Neelie Kroes hearing less than adequate

Commissioner-Designate Neelie Kroes is facing difficulties following her Hearing last Thursday.  Competition Commissioner throughout the last European Parliament mandate, Ms Kroes, a member of the Liberal Group from Holland, has been given the digital agenda portfolio by Commission President, Jose Manuel Barosso. 

Ms Kroes had a reputation as a strong Commissioner when she held the Competition brief.  I therefore expected her to breeze through her Hearing this time.  She is, after all, the woman who stood up to new technology giant Microsoft.  For many years, Microsoft tied its ‘Internet Explorer’ web browser to its ‘Windows’ computer operating system. Concerned that – given Microsoft’s dominance of the PC operating system market – this deprived consumers of choice and resulted in fewer innovative products, Ms Kroes set about opening up the market.

 The initiative proved successful and in October 2009, Microsoft offered commitments to remove this barrier to competition.  No mean achievement for the EU in general and Ms Kroes in particular.

 After such a feat you would have thought a Hearing before MEPs, albeit on a different portfolio, would have presented no problems at all.  But this was not the case.

 I went to the part of the Hearing which concerned the Culture and Education Committee dealing with cultural diversity and media pluralism.  I did, in fact, ask Ms Kroes how she would go about securing futher pluralism in the media and lessening the concentration of media outlets in the hands of certain individuals and corporations.  I have to say, she didn’t seem to understand the question and gave a less than adequate reply.

 Mine was not the only question mishandled.  Ms Kroes, in addition, did not appear interested in the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of cultural diversity, which the EU is signed up to. 

 We have not, so far, rejected Ms Kroes, but she is to be re-interviewed tomorrow.  I will be bringing you an update as soon as I possibly can.

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January 18, 2010 · 9:37 pm

Daniel Hannan MEP decides to break the law

Last year I highlighted London UKIP MEP Gerard Batten was not paying his television licence. In UKIP, obeying the law is selective, and I will not repeat the list again. The Conservative Party now seems to be moving ever closer to UKIP’s morality with the news that Daniel Hannan MEP has also decided to not pay for his television licence.  Here’s his position on BBC radio’s Any Questions:

“Asked by host Jonathan Dimbleby whether he hoped to threaten the survival of the state broadcaster, he added:

“I think it is anomolous in this day and age to have a state broadcaster, funded out of general taxation.”

As the studio audience responded with heckles and boos, Mr Hannan was quick to emphasise that his personal views did not reflect the policies of the Conservative party.

A spokesperson for the TV Licensing Authority said: “Television licensing law still applies to you no matter what you use to watch TV.

“Whether it’s a laptop, PC or any other device that receives television, you need to be covered by a TV Licence. It’s the law.

If a Labour representative decided they were only going to obey the laws that suited them I think there would be media coverage, but there seems to have been very little notice taken of Daniel Hannan’s law breaking. Conservative Leader in Europe Timothy Kirkhope has taken no action, prefering to take disciplinary action against Edward McMillan-Scott for objecting to the Conservative’s European group leader Michael Kaminski’s extremist views. David Cameron seems quite happy with this state of affairs too. Shouldn’t they be asking Daniel Hannan to do what every Labour representative does and pay their taxes? The television licence is in effect a tax. Perhaps there are other Conservative representatives who take the same view? Conservative supporter Charles Moore has also decided not to pay his licence too.

The BBC has taken no action, which seems to show partisan bias. There’s an election coming and if Conservatives are going to ignore the law, and UKIP too, then the BBC should be enforcing the law and not turning a blind eye. It’s inaction is starting to bring into question its impartiality, which is especially important in a pre-election period. Let’s not forget that Daniel Hannan is one of the most popular Conservative representatives amongst ordinary Conservative members and activists.

As someone who makes laws how can Daniel Hannan expect anybody to obey any law that he votes for when he has no respect for the law? An honourable representative would either pay up and apologise or resign. Remember Daniel Hannan’s pompous youtube video hit? Look at this interview where he says he was doing what his constituents want. Daniel Hannan has millions of decent constituents who pay for their television licence. They expect him to pay his share and not to take a free ride on their backs.

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January 16, 2010 · 8:20 pm

Alison McGovern for Wirral South

I was delighted to see Southwark councillor Alison McGovern was selected as the Labour candidate for Wirral South just before Christmas. Alison is a rising young talent in the Labour Party. She organised an excellent canvassing session for the European Elections last year in East Dulwich.  I’ve had a look at the photos from that day and I couldn’t use any of the ones with Alison because she was always coming into or out of shot. She was a ball of energy taking details and sending people on to the next door, and therefore never quite captured by the camera.

Her website is very good, full of positivity and defending Labour’s record. She is also very active on twitter and has a feed letting people know what she is doing. The “tell me what you think” page is one of the best I have seen and she offers plenty of opportunities for people to let her know what they think.

Alison is a believer in electoral reform and she uses in an election year to address the issue to Liberal Democrats:

“If you live in Wirral South, you might know that traditionally the Liberal Democrats come third behind Labour and the Conservatives.  So in previous elections, votes for the Liberal Democrat candidate have not had much impact on the result of the general election.I am a keen supporter of the ‘single transferable vote’ system so that people express a first and second preference, rather than just put a cross against one candidate

This would mean that in areas like Wirral South, where voters are aware that their first choice candidate is unlikely to win, they can still choose between supporting either of the larger parties as a second choice. 

I think it encourages people to vote, as there would be no wasted votes, and also would mean that the chosen MP would have support from a majority of their constituents.

But for this general election, I hope that Liberal Democrat voters who don’t want a Tory Government will consider voting for me to ensure that David Cameron doesn’t become prime minister by default.” 

I couldn’t put it better myself.

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January 14, 2010 · 9:13 pm

The Hearing of Androulla Vassiliou

I’ve just come from the Culture and Education Committee’s hearing for Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner-Designate for Culture, Education, Multiligualism, and Youth.  Mrs Vassiliou is the Commissoner-Designate from Cyprus and held the public health commission portfolio in the last Parliament.

As Co-ordinator for the Socialists and Democrats, I asked the second question, which was:

“Do you agree that the new EU 2020 strategy must include a strong social dimension and thereby contribute towards the fight against inequalities, social exclusion and poverty?

My Group, the S & D Group, calls for the Commission to put the interests of citizens at the heart of its 2020 strategy, particularly in this time of economic hardship, by opening up opportunities for a decent job through better quality education and professional training, which in turn promotes integration and social inclusion. Do you agree?”

She did agree, and her answer demonstrated an understanding of what we can do to improve people’s lives through better educational opportunities.  Ms. Vassiliou did not perhaps provide a huge amount of detail in how she was planning to do this, but I was encouraged by what she said.  Throughout her hearing she was enthusiastic and obviously very committed to her prospective job.

Ms. Vassiliou made a number of other interesting points, I was especially interested by her desire to encourage more women in to scientific research and more men in to teaching.  She had statistics that showed that a disproportionate number of women were teachers and men scientists.  Ms. Vassiliou stated that this was an issue which she would like to address.

Commissioner-Designate Vassiliou also answered questions on higher education and vocational training, lifelong learning, youth policy, multilingualism and sport, among others.  She answered well on all the topics, with the possible exception of sport.  Her nomination as Commissioner has been endorsed by the S & D Group and also by the Culture Committee Co-ordinators from all the political groups. 

I hope that Ms. Vassiliou will live up to the promises she made in the Hearing.  If she can then she will be a strong Commissioner, who I shall look forward to working with.

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January 13, 2010 · 12:40 pm

Bulgarian Commissioner-Designate Jeleva not right for the Job

The European Parliament may be about to ask Barroso to reconsider one of the Commissioners-Designate.  The Designate in question is the Bulgarian nominee, an EPP candidate from Bulgaria called Rumiana Jeleva.  Her portfolio was to be International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.  Mrs. Jeleva went in front of the Development Committee yesterday and was asked a series of very difficult questions about her declaration of interests.  The accusation levelled at her was that in her previous work as a Member of the European Parliament she had failed to declare that she was registered as the manager of a trading company called Global Consult.  Mrs. Jeleva flatly denied these claims, stating “…I have declared everything… any accusations towards me… are unfounded.”  Although the accusations weren’t unfounded, they were perhaps not quite as bad as they first appeared.  It transpired that, though it was true that she was registered as manager for Global Consult, the company was entirely inactive during her time as an MEP. 

But it turned out that this was anyway rather a moot point because once the discussion of Mrs. Jeleva’s financial interests was put to rest, she then failed to give satisfactory answers when questioned about her new portfolio.  With a remit like International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, you expect a detailed understanding of the situation in places like the Congo and Afghanistan, but all Ms. Jeleva could do when questioned on these areas was give vague answers, using phrases like “work with the local players” and “call for people to do better”.  The portfolio she has been given has such obvious potential for good, you really want someone you can trust will be able deploy the resources of the European Union in the most effective and beneficial way.  Unfortunately Romania Jeleva did not instil that trust in me, or many of my colleagues.

The European Parliament has an oversight role for just this reason.  We want to make sure that all Commissioners do their job well.  Now the question becomes; what do we do about Rumiana Jeleva?  The Parliament doesn’t have the right to reject one Designate, we would have to reject Barroso’s entire Commission.  Barroso could give Mrs. Jeleva another portfolio, but perhaps she should consider stepping aside and allowing Bulgaria to nominate another Commissioner.

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January 12, 2010 · 6:50 pm

Tax Credits more effective than Married Couples’ Tax Allowance

Yesterday’s Financial Times carries an interesting of piece of research showing that Conservative proposals to introduce a married couples’ tax allowance would do little to achieve the party’s claimed goal of reducing child poverty.  This quotation from the FT puts it in a nutshell:

“Conservative proposals to introduce a married couples’ tax allowance would do little to achieve the party’s goal of reducing child poverty, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found.  It would provide a financial incentive for some cohabiting couples to marry, and for some married couples to have children, the IFS concluded.  But the institute said the policy would not necessarily boost the number of marriages, encourage more child-bearing or produce better outcomes for children, since it was not clear that people would act on the incentive in practice.  It would, however, reduce the incentive for second earners in a couple to work at all, or work extra hours.  By contrast, spending the same amount of money on the working tax credit or the child tax credit would be a far more effective way of cutting child poverty. A married couples tax allowance would lift 10,000 children out of poverty, compared with 100,000 if the working tax credit were used or 130,000 if the money went into the child tax credit.”

I was thinking of writing a blog but was contacted by Progress for my views. You can read them here and those of others like pictured Kate Groucott; part of the impressive Labour team in Islington standing for the other elections this year, the London Council elections in May. I expect Labour to win back control of Islington, and whilst the General Election is most important, I will also be campaigning to increase the number of Labour councillors in London in the coming months.

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· 5:11 pm

The Tories do it again and again

Commissioner-Designate Reding, whose proposed portfolio is civil liberties, justice and home affairs, has just given an impressive performance at her Hearing.  I made a point of being there as her brief also includes women’s rights.  Although I didn’t agree with everything Mrs Reding said, especially her equivocation whether or not she would introduce a Directive combating violence against women, I believe her heart is in the right place.  She has, after all, a strong record on women’s issues, and as she herself said regarding her appearance before members of the Women’s Committee, “la boucle est bouclée”; “horses for courses” in other words.

It was, therefore, a great shame that London Tory MEP Marina Yannakoudakis chose to put a fly in the ointment.  While all the other questions from most of the political groups in the European Parliament dealt with matters of policy such as the gender pay gap, female genital mutilation and the forthcoming Bejing Conference, Marina Yannakoudakis chose to make the point that it is the EU sovereign states that are best placed to deal with matters of criminal law, such as violence.

I read this as Tory code for the British Conservatives do not wish to be in the European Union.  Phrased in the way it was, Mrs Yannakoudakis’s question was very anti-European and very much out of step with the rest of the MEPs present.  Though not as blatant as Charles Tannock yesterday, Marina Yannakoudakis is clearly in the same mould.  There is now no doubt tha the Tories in Europe are moving further and further to the right.

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