I am going to take a break. I will still be posting from time to time, but not as frequently. It may take a while for me to approve comments so please bear with me. I do appreciate everybody who takes the time to share their views, so please keep commenting. I hope all my readers have the chance to go “offline” for a break too during the summer.
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Conservative and UKIP MEP Poor Attendance Records
The Votewatch website has published attendance figures for MEPs for the last year. These need a little interpretation. They only reflect MEPs attending the plenary voting sessions of the Parliament. Like most of my colleagues I spend more time in committees and working with the different political groupings.
To recognise this the European Parliamentary Labour Party publishes the attendance records of Labour MEPs every quarter. This demonstrates that we do not just turn up to vote. Voting remains MEPs strongest power where we agree, amend or refuse legislation. So attendance should be good but there are times when we have conflicting commitments. This especially applies to people like Labour’s Leader in Europe Glenis Willmott (90%) who also has to attend meetings with leading members of the Labour Party in the UK. This results inevitably in diary clashes and a similar situation probably explains Conservative Leader Timothy Kirkhope’s 79% attendance. UKIP’s Nigel Farage had a serious accident which partly explains his 70%. My own attendance is 87%.
620 of the 736 MEPs had attendance records of 80% or better. I think it is worth examining those British MEPs with attendance records in the bottom sixth of all MEPs. If any of those I mention have had health or other reasons which explain their attendance records then I will be happy to acknowledge that. I assume in my comments that as MEPs we should be ensuring we represent and vote for our electors.
I am surprised to see Vicky Ford (79%) and Ashley Fox (79%) as new Conservative MEPs having poorer attendance records. My view is that one of the best ways to understand the job is to spend as much time as you can in the Parliament in your first year. Far more typical is the new Welsh Labour MEP Derek Vaughan (93%). Continuing Conservatives Nirj Deva (77%), Roger Helmer (76%) and James Elles (75%) take almost a quarter of their time elsewhere.
Scottish Nationalist Alyn Smith (74%) and Scottish Liberal George Lyon (74%)both have similar records.
Continuing with the Conservatives Robert Sturdy (69%), Dan Hannan (67%) and Saj Karim (65%) consider that they can spend a third of their time elsewhere. All in it together? Not if you are a Conservative MEP. Imagine the outrage for a teacher, police officer or job centre worker who was absent a third of the time. Over a third of the Conservative MEPs (9 of 25) effectively take a day off a week from their responsibilities to represent the British people in Europe.
Of course I am very unhappy with the BNP’s Nick Griffin who attends 79% of the time. I’ve got a nice big fat round figure of zero which would be far more suitable to me.
UKIP MEPs have consistently set poor performance standards so it is unsurprising they have poor attendance records. For those UKIP supporters who say their poor attendance record reflect their disdain for the Parliament, why do some attend regularly whilst others stay away? Some consistency would be welcome.
Right at the bottom (and pictured) is Paul Nuttall (58%) competing closely with Godfrey Bloom (60%) to be Britain’s worst attending MEP. David Campbell-Bannerman (65%) is not far behind and Gerard Batten (78%) is London’s worst MEP. 5 out of 12 UKIP MEPs with poor attendance records is sadly not that great a surprise.
Two parties who claim they will represent British interests in Europe have many representatives with the poorest attendance records.
I want to finish with a gentle boast. Of the British mainland parties only Labour has representatives consistently voting on behalf of the British people.
Filed under Labour Party
Further EU Action against Trafficking
Anna Hedh MEP: 'More than 80% of the victims are women'.
A new EU Directive on human trafficking will oblige the UK to prosecute British nationals who have committed trafficking crimes in another country. The legislation allows for a higher standard of assistance to victims, including free legal counselling and legal representation and will also bring in special protective measures for child victims of trafficking. The Directive highlights the need to avoid confusion and duplication which can stifle efforts to prosecute traffickers and for effective coordination between relevant public authorities.
Having already successfully campaigned earlier this year to save the Metropolitan Police’s specialist human trafficking unit, I am closely following the progress on this Directive .
The recently ratified Treaty of Lisbon has strengthened EU action in the field of judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters, including trafficking, and the European Parliament, as a co-legislator, has a vital and full role to play.
Everyone agrees that trafficking is a violation of human rights; yet it is a phenomenon which persists on a wide scale across Europe. It occurs for a variety of purposes related to exploitation, including sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, exploitative labour, benefit fraud, organ transplantation and criminal activity. Despite the seriousness of the crimes involved, convictions against traffickers are rare. A recent study by the Fundamental Rights Agency found that in five EU Member States in the period from 2000 to 2007, there was not a single final conviction issued.
I strongly support introducing a European-wide legal instrument which will ensure successful prosecution of perpetrators, better protection of and assistance to victims, and prevention of trafficking. My only criticism is that the gender perspective in this Directive is not as strong as it could be. According to UN figures, women are victims in more than 80% of trafficking cases. I intend to work closely with Anna Hedh, the Swedish MEP who is steering the legislation through the European Parliament, and all my colleagues in the Women’s Rights Committee to ensure that the European Parliament produces as robust an instrument as possible, which will have a real and lasting impact on the lives of victims.
Filed under Labour Party
UKIP Ally Goes Potty
The Evening Standard Diary ran this clip today.
‘All sorts of potty ideas seem to emanate from the European parliament but London MEP Mary Honeyball has found an EU equivalent of the Early Day Motion which seems downright cracked. Italian politician Mario Borghezio is calling for “public archives on UFOs to be opened up and for records to be declassified.”‘
The aforementioned Mr Borghezio is a member of the political group which UKIP belong to – Europe of Freedom and Democracy.
I am left wondering whether UKIP MEPs are aware of this astonishing EDM (Written Declaration in Euro parlance).
I have to say I have rarely come across something proposing a greater waste of public money. Funny, I always thought UKIP were the self appointed guardians of the public purse. Well, perhaps not.
Filed under Labour Party
If only you knew what really goes on in the European Parliament
One of the things I have found most frustrating in my 10 years as an MEP is the seeming impossibility of getting information on the EU and what we do as MEPs out to a wider audience. Indeed, one of the reasons I started this blog was to put forward my, and the Labour Party’s, perspective on the European Parliament.
However, we now have a potentially much bigger fish in the form of a report about European Parliament and EU communication. Currently before the Culture and Education Committee, this report written by Danish MEP and former journalist Morten Lokkegaard, tells us unequivocally that “access to information for citizens and communication between policy-makers and voters are central elements” to our democracy and that we need clearer explanations of the local, national and European implications of laws and policies being considered in Brussels.
Mr. Lokkegaard goes on to say “politics and communication are two sides of the same coin. Consequently a problem arises if politics fails to be communicated properly. It is in this context that the EU faces its greatest challenge.”
These are very much my own views which the majority of my colleagues would also agree with. I would even go so far as to say many of us are desperate for our, i.e. EU and Euro Parl, news to become mainstream and raised out of its current Euro ghetto.
Lokkegaard has some serious thoughts. In an imaginative proposal, the report puts forward the idea of setting up a group of correspondents from among the specialised, accredited journalists in Brussels, whose role would be to cover European news in a more instructive manner while guaranteeing editorial independence. It also calls for public broadcasting to include European news to tell people more about the decision making process in the European Union.
No report of this kind would be complete without mentioning the “new” media. Lokkegaard seeks to expand the role of interactive media – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. While agreeing these forms of communication have their place, the report warns the EU and European Parliament to tread delicately in this area. It stresses “although social networks are a relatively good way of disseminating information rapidly, their reliability as sources cannot always be sufficiently guaranteed and they cannot be considered to be professional media”. It also “underlines that the way in which data is handled on social network platforms can in many cases be dangerous and give rise to serious breaches of journalistic ethics and that caution is therefore required when taking up these new tools.”
The report therefore calls for a code of ethics for this new type of media to be drawn up, something I would definitely support. The internet has now reached the stage in its development when we have to consider regulation, both self regulation and, where needed, binding legislation.
Morten Lokkegaard has produced a thought provoking report with plans for concrete action. I hope it will encourage us all to think about how we communicate both what we are doing and why we are doing it. If this were to improve, some MEPs such as myself may feel less frustrated at the seeming lack of interest and knowledge about what actually goes on in the European institutions.
Filed under Labour Party
Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up
Although the week’s news was dominated by the minute-by- minute updates of alleged Northumbrian murderer, Raoul Moat, the coalition government haven’t escaped the headlines entirely. Michael Gove remained in the spotlight after he failed to shake off the furore following his decision to cancel school building projects.
His announcement that some 700 school redevelopments would be scrapped in an effort to cut the deficit sparked outrage among members on all sides of the House.
Worse still, an almighty mix up followed with the Department of Education saying that some schools would be saved from the cuts, only to find out later this was a mistake and Gove was forced to apologise, again.
Even Conservative MPs are angered by this. Tory MP Philip Davies tabled a question asking why the projects in his constituency will be cut, and two dozen MPs have signed a motion condemning the ‘cavalier attitude towards pupils, parents and teachers.’
I don’t think I’ll have a chance to watch education questions tomorrow when Gove will be asked to offer a plan B for those schools hit by the controversial cuts, but I certainly hope he’s at home right now planning something to reinstate those education projects so badly needed across the country.
Gove isn’t the only minister currently facing the heat. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is also planning a £1bn attack on ‘bureaucracy’. He plans to reduce the number of health quangos There are disturbing rumours that the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which employs 2000 staff, will also be abolished.
It’s become terribly fashionable to bash the quangos, but they do a job and my concern is who will take on their role if they are abolished?
Many of the campaigns these organisations have been involved in have had a huge impact on our lives, in some cases proving to be life saving. Take the FSA campaign to reduce our salt intake or the saturated fat campaign, both of which have had a significant impact on how we as a nation think about food and our own personal health.
Other health quangos in the firing line are the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the NHS Blood and Transplant. Both these organisations provide an essential service and they must not simply be done away with.
Both Lansley and Gove will face a huge backlash against their proposals. Is this an early warning of the tornados facing the government? Andrew Rawnsley asks just that in today’s Observer, which you can read here.
Meanwhile, on our side, Vincent Moss in today’s Sunday Mirror reveals that Peter Mandelson’s memoirs say Brown never got over losing his battle with Blair to become Labour leader in 1994. I hope there is something more compelling in Mandelson’s books than going over old stories that we have all heard time and time again. If I decide to read it, I will want to know that there will be something a bit more insightful. The full Sunday Mirror piece is here.
Of course we still have Blair’s memoirs ‘The Journey’ to come out – due in September. Watch this space (and many others no doubt)…
Filed under Labour Party
Tories whipped to abstain on HIV/AIDS prevention
Few things are more important to us both as individuals and also collectively than our health. Who would disagree with that old saying “you’re all right as long as you’ve got your health”?
The British Tories would seem to be the answer to that one. While the coalition government has ring fenced NHS spending, Conservative Euro MPs are taking quite a different line on the global spread of HIV and AIDS.
Yesterday in Strasbourg we voted on a comprehensive resolution on HIV and AIDS requesting the European Council and Commission step up efforts to address HIV/AIDS as a global public health priority. The resolution talked about access to health care for all, addressing the needs of women and children when it came to HIV and AIDS and called on the international community to provide affordable HIV/AIDS medication.
Specifically, the resolution called on the EU member states and the European Commission to allocate at least 20 percent of all development spending to basic health care and to increase their contribution to the Global Forum to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It further asked that developing countries prioritise healthcare, and AIDS in particular.
None of this seems too radical to me. I would even go as far as saying that I cannot see why any reasonable person would oppose such a resolution. Surely we all want as many people as possible to be healthy and we support measures to combat disease.
Yet this does not seem to be the point of view of the British Conservatives. When this resolution was put to the vote, they were whipped to abstain on it. I’m afraid I don’t have voting figures as the vote was taken by a show of hands. I did, however, watch the ECR Whip, who clearly indicated that the Group should abstain.
It seems the Tories are back to their old tricks of voting against or abstaining on almost everything which comes to the European Parliament. We should also never forget that the Tories’ ECR Group contains some strong right wing elements who take a “moral” anti AIDS stance, no matter what the cost may be in human lives.
Fortunately the overwhelming majority of MEPs were not of the Tories persuasion and the resolution was passed with a large majority.
Filed under Labour Party
Plans agreed for the new European Diplomatic Service
Today the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of plans to establish the new European External Action Service (EEAS).
I am very pleased to see that there will be a strong commitment to gender balance in recruiting staff to the new body, which will effectively act as the EU diplomatic service. This is due in no small part to our very own Baroness Cathy Ashton who as High Representative (HR) for external affairs will head up the EEAS. Cathy is, and always has been, a strong advocate on behalf of women, and I was heartened to hear her say earlier this week that there are good women candidates applying for posts at all levels in the EEAS.
Based in Brussels, the EEAS will also have an important human rights remit, something which Labour MEPs have worked hard to encourage.
In another welcome move, we now know that the Service’s budgetary accountability to Parliament is guaranteed, and that the European Parliament will have full budget discharge rights.
As we took the final vote on the EEAS in the European Parliament earlier today, I noticed that the ECR Group, the Tories in other words, voted in favour. This was interesting since their usual policy is to either vote against or abstain on almost everything in order to demonstrate their Euroscepticism.
But not this time. What is more, I was told by a tweety little bird that David Cameron used heavy persuasion to get his MEPs to support the EEAS resolution.
It’s been a long time since I have seen such a swift and brutal U-turn as the one David Cameron is doing on Europe. I wonder what all those anti-European MPs who voted for him think about the way he’s going now. Not to mention the Tory grassroots.
Filed under Labour Party
Support Labour bloggers Alex Hilton and John Gray in their libel trial
Tomorrow two leading London Labour activists face a court action.
Alex Hilton (right) was Labour’s candidate in Kensington and Chelsea at the General election and brought many a smile to my face with his legendary Recess Monkey blog, now sadly defunct.
The other defendant is John Gray. I am a big fan of John Gray, and was delighted to see him elected in May as a Newham councillor. I’ve posted previously on John here. He’s an activist in my union UNISON and I had dinner with him at Annual Conference last year, so I don’t pretend that I’m not biased – I heartily recommend John’s blog.
They have both been accused of libel by a Conservative woman in Tower Hamlets, Joanna Kaschke.
Alex writes…
“This Friday 9th July, my three year litigation comes to a head with a pre-trial review at which John Gray and I are seeking the case to be struck out as an abuse of process. If you can get to the Court your moral support will be deeply welcome. The whole thing’s a pretty traumatic experience for us. Just get into the High Court and ask for the Kaschke vs Gray and Hilton case and they’ll direct you. If not, please join us afterwards – from 5pm – for freedom of speech drinks at The George Pub on the Strand, just opposite the High Court.
“Oh, and why am I in court? I run a website called Labourhome.org which, just like facebook, lets anyone write anything without editorial interference. Somebody wrote something that I never even saw at the time, which upset the subject of the piece, Ms Johanna Kaschke. My defence is
1. It’s either true or so near the truth that there’s no reputational damage
2. she consented to public discussion by putting similar material on her own website first.
3. What she has said about herself is so similar to what was written on Labourhome that there’s no reputational damage.
4. I deleted the piece as soon as I knew about it and offered her a prominent space on the site for a retraction.
5. Under the e-commerce directive I was operating an automated service and I am therefore protected against liability.
“Libel and defamation need reform. They are occupational hazards for bloggers. I have received several letters from solicitors and had to stand up to them. Some I publicise on this blog. Others I deal with privately. For some reason I seem to attract attention from self important men who don’t like it when I stand up for women, can’t think why? I have seen women with excellent cases destroyed by expensive lawyers who use technicalities and the sheer weight of procedures to win. I think it is beholden to elected representatives to take a stand. Alex and John are taking a stand for free speech. Ms. Kaschke also sued Labour blogger Dave Osler and lost.”
Filed under Labour Party
London – the greatest city in the world
I was very angry to see this on the BBC website. “Is London sucking the life out of Britain?” The answer is an emphatic “no”.
Far from extinguishing life, I truly believe London is the greatest city in the world. Even this piece on the BBC website had to acknowledge that London is in the super league with Paris, New York and Tokyo.
Having spent time in both Paris and New York, I know London is far better than either of these cities. London has more theatres, cinemas, museums and other cultural venues, better shops, greater sporting opportunities and a lively atmosphere quite unlike anywhere else. Few places in the world can match us for ethnic diversity, one of the reasons why London was awarded the 2012 Olympics.
Since I have never visited Tokyo, I’m not qualified to comment, though my hunch is that it’s unlikely I would prefer it to London.
We should all be proud of what our capital gives us. Thanks in no small part to London, Britain is a prosperous country. While it may be true, as the article claims, that talent is drawn from other places in the country to the capital, surely it is good that this talent is encouraged and given the opportunity to develop?
It’s all very well to wish that the UK was a less centralised country. But the fact is that for hundreds of years there has been a concentration of power and people in London. For the number of people living in Britain, its geographical size is relatively small. This inevitably means there will be large population centres, and as travel gets faster, so more people will live in the capital.
I get very fed up with having to defend London from criticisms such as those voiced in this piece. Yes, London is a large and crowded place and it’s expensive. However, we are not insular, accommodating as we do people from all over the world, while those who claim we are rude and not interested in each other have obviously never experienced the sense of community felt in all parts of our city, the greatest in the world.
Filed under Labour Party
