LIVERPOOL

I am in a very rainy Liverpool on a Culture and Education visit to the city, the 2008 European Capital of Culture. Liverpool is regaining its 1960s spirit. Its cultural life is vibrant, innovative, sometimes reaching exceptional heights. It has been very good to see that Britain has produced such a champion Capital of Culture.

We have been subjected to a hectic schedule, starting yesterday with presentations from key players in the Liverpool arts scene, including Phil Redmond, creator of “Brookside”, “Hollyoaks” and “Grange Hill” who has taken on the daunting task of Deputy Chair and Creative Director of the European Capital of Culture. More presentations followed today from community arts organisations, theatres and museums, all extremely enthusiastic about what they do.

Two moving things stand out for me about the various visits we made today to community arts and museums/art galleries. Anthony Gormley’s work “Another Place” on Crosby Beach is a massive installation of 100 cast iron figures on the sands. It is just amazing. The Tate Liverpool is a must for any visitor. From the Rodin’s “The Kiss” in the entrance foyer to Picasso’s “Weeping Woman”, the gallery is an absolute delight, boasting works by Gwen John, Pierre Bonnard, Edgar Degas and Rene Magritte, not to mention an entire room devoted to Andy Warhol.

The theme of our visit has been the way art can encourage urban regeneration. Liverpool has certainly been transformed. The old docks area no boasts refurbished warehouses used for shops and flats, not to mention Tate Liverpool itself.

A big thank you to all those who organised the trip. It has, incidentally, been good for my MEP colleagues to see a UK success story. We leave tomorrow, so I hope to bring you another Capital of Culture blog tomorrow.

GORDON BROWN

So Congress has rejected the financial rescue package, plunging the world into an ever deepening financial crisis.

And who is it that the British people trust the most, by a large lead, to steer them through these difficult times? Why, Gordon Brown, of course. A poll in today's Independent shows Gordon 10 points above David Cameron as the person most trusted to take us through the present turmoil.

It just shows that Gordon's experience, knowledge and financial wisdom will win out in the end.

UKIP & Women

NO RELIGIOUS BAR TO THE THRONE

Many congratulations to Downing Street for their excellent plans to end the 300 year old exclusion of Catholics from the throne.

Although I have condemned the attitude of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to abortion, contraception, embryo research and IVF, I do not believe we should discriminate against anyone for their religious beliefs. I am not anti-Catholic or anti any other religious faith. I am against certain dogmas proclaimed by the Catholic Church where they undermine and attack the lives and aspirations of women.

I also believe that members of the government should maintain collective responsibility for government legislation. This means that if a member of the government cannot vote for government legislation because it goes against their religious beliefs, they should resign.

It's also good to see that Downing Street proposing that the throne will be inherited by the oldest child irrespective of gender.

Of course we will still have a hereditary head of state, but that, I think, is another argument.

I can only agree with Geoffrey Robertson QC quoted in the "Guardian" on 25 September:
"I welcome this as two small steps towards a more rational constitution. The Act of Settlement determined that the crown shall descend only on Protestant heads and that anyone 'who holds communion with the church of Rome or marries a Papist' - not to mention a Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Rastafarian - is excluded by force of law.
"This arcane and archaic legislation enshrined religious intolerance in the bedrock of the British constitution."

At last we are beginning to shed our ancient prejudices. About time too.

ADVICE FOR THE CABINET RESHUFFLE

I recently received an email. The writers do not want their names published, as you will understand from reading it.

Dear Mary,

Thank you for taking such a strong line in helping families to have children. Ruth Kelly and those who share her views do not sadly understand how it is for those who struggle to conceive. The legislation going through Parliament is about enabling families to use all the medical advances to have children. We write with some experience, having tried for many years and invested considerable personal time, money and emotions. If your critics had experienced several miscarriages and the death of a child at birth I wonder if they would write with such dogmatic hard hearts?

We have had great support from friends and family. However, at our family church there are some who disapprove of the use of IVF. They hold that every egg that is fertilised should be re-implanted even if this means that medically the likelihood is that all the eggs will miscarry, or the mother faces serious threats including possible death. To allow this view to be imposed, is to us akin to allowing Jehovah's Witnesses to ban all blood transfusions.

It is fine for Jehovah's Witnesses to not allow blood transfusions for themselves, but they should not be allowed to impose this view on the rest of the population. Similarly if Catholics and other faith groups do not wish to take advantage of IVF that is their choice, but why should they be allowed to stop those of us who desperately wish for a child and have been bereaved?

Gordon Brown in his speech said in his speech at Manchester that "on the side of hard-working families is the only place I've ever wanted to be" and "We do it because fairness is in our DNA."

Can we ask you to lobby Gordon Brown ahead of his cabinet reshuffle to ensure that when he does the reshuffle he makes it clear to EVERY member of the Cabinet that they must support the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill when it comes before the House of Commons in the Autumn for its third reading. We want and need this legislation and yes we voted Labour.

Here is a chance for Gordon Brown to show that fairness is in his DNA and to support the many not the few. If people like Des Browne or Paul Murphy have strong consciences on these matters then they should exercise them honourably from the backbenches. Being members of a government is about providing leadership and working for the people ahead of your personal self interest. It is not a Woolworth's Pick'n'Mix.

One final thing we will continue to vote Labour. We have always worked for and financially supported International Development. The Labour government's doubling of the Aid budget and world leadership as attested by Bono and Bob Geldof in striving for millennium goals makes us very proud to be British. We also know from projects we have long supported that more children are alive in Africa today because we have had 11 years of Labour government.

When religious fundamentalists say they will not vote Labour again because of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill do they not recognise that under all the other parties more children in Africa will die because Aid will be cut? If life is sacred why do they not vote for the Party that has done more than any other organisation internationally in the last 10 years to save lives?

Please keep on campaigning so that families like us and millions more like us across the country have the chance to have children.

In Bed with Berlusconi

CYPRUS

At the risk of awakening all your pent up hostility to MEPs, I'm going to talk about the excellent meeting over dinner I had yesterday evening.

Two Cypriot MEPs, Ioannis Kasoulides and Panayiotis Demetriou , invited those MEPs who are member of the Parliamentary Friends of Cyprus to meet them in an informal setting to catch up with developments on the island. Over mezes in an extremely good Greek restaurant in Brussels we discussed the situation in Cyprus, especially the current talks between the leaders in the south and the north, Mr Cristofias and Mr Talat.

Two other MEPs were there, Jean Lambert and Sarah Ludford, with Graham Watson MEP joining us for a while.

The evening was made even more pleasant by the real optimism that this time there may well be a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Very many thanks to Mr Kasoulides and Mr Demetriou.

RUTH KELLY

So Ruth Kelly, our only Opus Dei Cabinet member, is to leave the government. While her ostensible reason is to spend more time with her young family, the "Today" programme and maybe others believe this is not the full story.

It appears that Ms Kelly is at last doing the decent thing and going because she cannot support the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill due to come before the House of Commons soon for its third reading. It is well known that Kelly not only opposed but forced a free vote during the second reading on three of the Bill's most important clauses: screening embryos for diseases to allow "saviour siblings", the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for vital medical research and ending the requirement for a father in IVF treatment.

All this is, of course, entirely in line with the Catholic Church's attitude. Kelly put her religion before the wishes of those who elected her during the second reading of the Embryology Bill. Her decision to go means that this, thankfully, will not happen again.

THE PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH AT LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE

The man hath certainly cometh. Gordon Brown's speech had everything, not least that this will be the "British century" thanks to our scientific genius, our cultural industries and our language, to name but a few. An upbeat fighting speech indeed, one of whose themes was that tough times strengthen our resolve.

Gordon on form cannot be bettered and this was vintage Brown boldly stating that a fair society is the mission of us all.

Labour stands for fairness above all. "We don't give in and we never will", the aim being to develop all the talents of all the people and achieve much higher rates of social mobility.

The speech had everything. On declaring that healthcare is a right to be enjoyed by all the Prime Minister received a rapturous standing ovation. He then went on to tell the story of how the sight in his right eye was saved thanks to the NHS - a rare and moving piece of personal history which brought tears to my eyes.

As the symbol of the fairness which is at the root of Gordon's and Labour's beliefs, the NHS will get more money. Each patient will have care plan. There will be no prescription charges for those suffering from cancer. Everyone over 40 will be entitled to a free annual health check. Labour is the Party of the NHS and we will always support it.

Fairness also drove Gordon's pledge to eliminate child poverty by 2020. There will be ground breaking legislation to enshrine this pledge to end child poverty in the laws of the land. Now that children's centres exist across the country, nursery provision will be extended to two year olds.

Finance for education will also be increased. Any child who leaves primary school unable to read, write or count will get personal catch up tuition. Gordon's government will also fund over one million extra families to get on line, an important policy as Britain has more people who participate on the internet than any other country.

Gordon also spoke about pensions, law and order, migration and the developing world. His heartfelt pledge to work to end poverty in developing countries was extremely well received and even got a few to their feet.

As befits the best Chancellor we have had for a very long time, Gordon put forward a package to ease the present turmoil, based on transparency, sound banking, responsibility, integrity and global standards with global supervision. On this and law and order his guiding principle was reward those who play by the rules and punish those who do not. Sounds to me that this is about as good as it gets.

Harriet Harman got a special mention for the Equalities Bill she will soon introduce. JK Rowling obviously featured thanks to her extreme generosity.

And finally, Members of the European Parliament who have done so much work to free agency workers from the scourge of exploitation. Unlike the Tories Gordon Brown and the Labour Party see Britain's future in Europe. We are not extremist and isolationist like the Tories. Gordon and David Miliband are working and will continue to work with Britain's partners in the EU, especially concerning Georgia, the Middle East and other conflict zones.

The Prime Minister's speech at Party Conference is the nearest we have to a state of the nation address. I have little doubt that the nation is in good hands.

GORDON BROWN

All the evidence suggests that Alistair Darling’s assertion that we are facing the worst financial situation for 60 years is spot on. Venerable American banking and insurance institutions plus Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae have bitten the dust while our home grown banks and building societies have hit their lowest point for a long time.

The world in indeed in the throes of a financial crisis. The credit crunch is hitting us all.

Step in Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister gave an excellent interview on the Andrew Marr show yesterday morning. Grave, in complete control and sounding very wise, he would have aroused confidence in even the most committed prophet of doom.

I certainly feel safe with Gordon at the helm. There are very few people in the world who can match his knowledge and experience in economic matters. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Women to Rule Rwanda Parliament

If they can do it why can't we?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7620816.stm

CLONING TORIES

europarlTV

Back in 2006 I wrote to the Secretary General of the European Parliament to suggest that our meetings in Parliament should be podcast via the web. I thought this would be an excellent way to demystify what goes on in the Parliament. It would also allow citizens and lobbyists to follow meetings in more detail and would ensure more transparency over what goes on here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4890928.stm

I'm delighted then that some three years later the Parliament has introduced a similar system by streaming the audio and video from meetings over the web.

I've just come back from the launch of europarlTV. EuroparlTV is split into four sections, each for different audiences.

One part is for those with a special interest in politics, including lobbyists and academics. There's another section for school-age children. There's a section with background material and finally a feature to stream meetings live.

You can see europarlTV yourself by visiting http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/

FEDERATION OF INTERNATIONAL ACTORS

Yesterday I spoke to the Federation of International Actors on how we can work at European level for action in getting equal opportunities in the performing arts.

They were an interesting group of actors from a number of countries. The meeting was held in the Drill Hall, a theatre and local centre in Chenies Street, WC1, which has been the location for one of the polling stations in my Ward. Small world.

I spoke to the FIA about recent reports in the European Parliament which might interest them. Two in particular could directly affect equality and the way of life of many members of the FIA.

Firstly, earlier this month Parliament passed a report on gender stereotyping called "How marketing and advertising affect equality between men and women". You may have read about this in the Eurosceptic press as "Brussels to ban housewives on television". Adverts are generally short and have little time to get their message across, and so MEPs wanted to ensure that advertisers did not play up to, or reinforce stereotypes as a way of selling products.

As often happens with EU reports on gender issues, the report was deliberately misunderstood by certain quarters of the media. The report was not about preventing adverts which are "discriminatory or harmful" to women, but about ensuring that advertising does not lead to stereotyping or typecasting because of lax or lazy editorial standards. Improving how we portray men and women, not just in adverts but in the media at large could go some way to improving the employment conditions for performing artists.

There was also a bill passed in June 2007 concerning the social status of Artists. Employment conditions for artists contribute greatly to problems in gender representation. As in other professions poor social and employment protection affect women more then men. The very nature of the employment contracts in the profession disadvantages women.

The report made a number of suggestions about improving sickness insurance, unemployment protection and pension provision for artists. These measures would help to ensure an employment landscape that was more able to accommodate both men and women equally. There were also suggestions that the Commission launch a pilot project of a European electronic social security card especially for European artists. This would help artists working across national borders to receive social security that they were entitled to. The report also highlighted problems with cross-border employment and the difficulties obtaining visas and work permits. The report stressed the need to take into account the atypical nature of artists working methods. Poor social protection disadvantages women, particularly those with young children. It makes it harder for them to balance work and family life.

Finally there is a report coming up on the "Equal treatment and access for men and women in the performing arts". My colleague, French Liberal MEP Claire Gibault will be drafting this report, and it is likely to be dealt with at the end of this year or at the start of next.

But like on other reports, there are a number of MEPs who don't see the importance of these issues. They prefer to get cheap anti-European press rather than address the issues that concern people. For that reason it's important for organisations like Equity and the FIA to lobby MEPs to make sure that they understand the importance of these issues and make that these reports are passed.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS

I was very pleased to be asked to speak to the National Alliance of Women's Organisations yesterday. I was a member of NAWO during my time as Chief Executive of Gingerbread so it was good to go back.

One of my themes was "What has the EU ever done for Women?" Well quite a lot actually! For example if we look at the accession countries, especially Turkey, we can see that they have moved a long way towards gender equality. This is because these countries want to be part of the EU and so have been forced by our assessment criteria for entry to make these necessary changes.

There has been much work done on other legislation - environment and climate change. These are important issues in today's world and arguably these are of more interest to women.

We can also learn a lot from what other member states are implementing in their countries, for example Sweden is particularly progressive in terms of parental leave and women's rights. We can and should look at what other Member States are doing and question what can work here.

I also talked about the European Parliament itself. The EP is the only directly elected multinational political assembly in the world.

The EU has three main institutions: the Commission, the Council and the Parliament. The European Commission acts as the executive and proposes legislation, while the Council and Parliament work - as a bi-cameral legislator - to amend this legislation. The Parliament itself works through Committees where the drafting and amending is done, so therefore a lot of lobbying starts here.

Each of the UK political parties sit as part of larger pan-European political parties, so the Conservatives sit as part of the European People's Party (EPP-ED), and Labour sit with the Party of European Socialists (PES). We don't sit as a national block, but work together with like minded politicians from other countries.

Parliament itself is comprised of 30% women compared to just 20% in Westminster. Yet this doesn't tell the whole story as some parties are much better represented than others. The Labour party has 8 women out of 19 MEPs, while the Liberal Democrats have 7 female MEPs out of a group of 11. They actually have more women then men! The Conservatives on the other hand have only one female MEP out of a group of 28, while UKIP actually have none.

Some countries are also better represented then others with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Estonia and Sweden doing particularly well. Cyprus and Malta on the other hand have no female representation. It goes without saying that an equal balance of men and women is important for representative democracy, and it remains a cause for great concern that in the 21st century women still do not have a voice equal to that of their male counterparts.

Since NAWO were interested in lobbying, attempting to influence legislators in the formation of policy, I spent some time on this. Lobbying is definitely on the increase in the European Parliament. Many different groups seek to lobby their MEPs on many different causes. MEPs differ from their Westminster counterparts in that they regularly table amendments to reports which are adopted, so therefore they have much more influence on the legislation that they pass than backbench MPs do.

Lots of people lobby their MEPs, and MEPs actually like to hear the views of their constituents! All of this information is readily available on the European Parliament's website at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/

WOMEN IN POWER

Over the summer I published a guide to female Members of the European Parliament. In this short video I introduce some of the findings from the guide.

EUROPEAN ENERGY

I spent most of this morning in Industry Committee where MEPs were voting on several key pieces of environmental legislation. The reports were on extending the European emissions trading system (known as ETS); on carbon capture and storage (CCS); and on renewable energy.
As the Industry Committee is one of the big legislative committees, I normally get a huge amount of lobbying on most reports - but never more so than on environmental issues.

The votes went well and there was pretty good agreement between many of the political groups. The committee supported keeping the 20% target for renewable energy by 2020 and also adopted strict sustainability criteria for the use of biofuels. The Socialists, Liberals and Greens also won a review clause on the use of renewables - this means an assessment of the impacts of renewable transport fuels on food and feed production before 2014.

The British Tories frequently talk about renegotiating the UK's membership of the European Union, indeed many Tory MEPs think we should pull out of the EU altogether. If the Tories think we can tackle climate change without any cooperation at EU level, they must be living on another planet. Indeed, this is one of the reasons why the Swedish green party are becoming more pro-European.

These are big, heavyweight reports that will have a real impact on the energy sector and on helping Europe meet its targets towards cutting CO2 emissions. You just have to look at the number of lobbyists and NGOs packing the committee room to see that the decisions MEPs take have a real impact on environmental legislation. If there was nothing at stake, the lobbyists wouldn't be interested.

These reports have now passed through the committee stage. There will soon be further negotiations between Parliament and the European Commission and Council before a final vote is taken at a full sitting of the Parliament. Don't expect the lobbyists to go away any time soon!

HELEN MIRREN

Our theatrical "grande dame" is getting herself in the news a lot lately and on subjects she would be better off keeping quiet about.

It has just come to my notice that Dame Helen thinks prostitution should be legalised - that somehow this would help prostituted girls and women.

Helen "the Queen" Mirren really needs to learn some home truths. In those countries where prostitution has been legalised - for example Holland and Germany - illegal prostitution continues to flourish. Brothels were legalised in Melbourne, Australia more than 20 years ago. Since then the number of unlicensed brothels has increased more than three times.

There is no evidence that legalising prostitution keeps the women safe. There is, however, plenty that shows it results in an increase in demand for men buying sex. $11.3 billion was spent in Australia last year on prostitutes and strippers. The trade there is growing at the rate of eight percent a year.

The demand for buying sex in increasing in the UK. This in turn leads to an increase in trafficking women to meet the demand. I would hope that Dame Helen would condemn this vile trade whereby women and girls are forcibly coerced into prostitution. Ending the trafficking of women and legalising prostitution do not mix. The choice is either one or the other.

The only realistic way to end trafficking women is to reduce the demand for sexual services. There is only one way to do this - criminalise the act of buying sex so that punters think very hard about what they are doing.

SEX IN ADVERTS

It's interesting just what gets the Daily Mail going. Last week the European Parliament passed a report designed to prevent stereotyping of men and women in adverts.

So far, so good you may think. I for one don't particularly like seeing women in a state of undress for no particular reason or men always doing the DIY. Yes, the report does apply to images of men as well as women.

It's also not legally binding. It's an own-initiative report in European Parliament speak.

Yet the Daily Mail ran a piece attacking the EU and displayed a large picture of the Eva Herzigova Wonderbra advert which they claimed would be outlawed if the provisions in the report became law. There was also the usual Mail rant on Europe. You can't help think that the main point of this was to print the famous picture of a scantily dressed super model and use the EP report as another vehicle to have a go at the European Union.

The Mail and others missed my very important amendment to the report:
" Notes with extreme concern the advertising of sexual services which reinforces stereotypes of women as objects, in publications, such as local newspapers, which are readily visible and available to children"
The amendment, tabled by myself, was agreed by the whole European Parliament - a step on the road to ending the advertising of brothels and sexual services in family publications.

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET

Child safety on the internet was discussed at both the Women's Rights and the Culture Committees today. A report written by centre-right MEP Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou from Greece was passed by the Women's Committee.

The Culture Committee commented on this Report in what the EP calls an "Opinion" - a document also written by an MEP and then voted on by the Committee concerned. This child internet safety Opinion drafted by right wing Tory, Christopher Heaton-Harris, proved so good that I voted for all his recommendations! It's not really peace breaking out but a good example of European consensus at its best.

The Culture Committee also discussed a Report on media literacy, shorthand for access to media, understanding and evaluating content and creating communications. Written by the Austrian Socialist Christa Prets who leads for the Socialist Group on the Culture Committee, this Report looks at range of modern communication tools - TV, film, video, radio, newspapers and magazines, computer games and the internet more generally.

One footnote to the Culture Committee meeting. UKIP member Tom Wise voted against every single report. UKIP's "policies" seemingly come down to mindless opposition.

Committees meet all this week. The EP is very organised in the way it does its business, working on a monthly cycle. There are two weeks of Committee meetings, one for political groups and one week taken up by the plenary session.

By the way, congratulations to Andy Murray who has done amazingly well. Maybe we will soon have the first British male tennis player to win a grand slam since Fred Perry.

EUROPEAN WOMEN

Last week I had a meeting with Commissioner Margot Wallstrom and a group of female MEPs to discuss ways of getting more women into senior jobs in the European Union. At the moment the top jobs in each of the European Institutions (Parliament, Commission and Council) are held by men. The European Parliament is currently made up of only 30% women. The Commission fairs only slightly better with just 33% being women. Whichever way you look at it - that can't be good for representative democracy.

With European elections coming up in 2009, Commissioner Wallstrom has launched an initiative called the Inter-Institutional Network of Women to try and address this lack of female representation in European politics.

You can find out more about the campaign at http://www.send2women.eu/

At the meeting we also discussed ways of increasing turnout of women at European elections.

It's also worth pointing out that whilst 30% female representation is pretty bad, some parties fair a lot worse that others. UKIP have no female representation in the European Parliament - they are an entirely male delegation. The Tories have just one female MEP out of a group of 28 MEPs. That's just 4% women - only marginally better than the percentage of women in Parliament in Iran!

HOPE, AT LAST, FOR CYPRUS

Cyprus, that small, beautiful, troubled island beloved of British holidaymakers, is again making news. It may, for a change, be good news. The days of division and distrust could finally be coming to an end...

You can read the rest of my article, published yesterday, on the Guardian's Comment is Free website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/04/cyprus.eu

STRASBOURG

The European Parliament normally meets in Brussels. But 12 times a year it is obliged to hold a full session in the French city of Strasbourg. This is a ridiculous state of affairs, but unfortunately MEPs do not have the power to decide where the Parliament actually meets.

The requirement to meet in Strasbourg is written into a European treaty which former Tory Prime Minister John Major sadly signed up to in 1992. Any attempt to abolish Strasbourg would now require the agreement of all member states - something France has been resisting.

More than one million European citizens have signed an online petition ( www.oneseat.eu ) which calls for scrapping of the Strasbourg Parliament. Why not add your name to the petition?

MEPs were therefore delighted when, over the summer recess, the ceiling of the Strasbourg Parliament collapsed. MEPs were due to have two four-day-long meetings in Strasbourg this September. But, because of the repair work, the meetings have been relocated to take place in Brussels.

By holding all our meetings in Brussels this week, MEPs have clearly demonstrated that there is absolutely no reason to continue holding meetings in Strasbourg. The Parliament in Strasbourg sits empty for 307 days a year costs €200 million per year. The only reason for keeping it open is French national pride. That is certainly not worth €200 million a year.

I will certainly be continuing my campaign against the wasteful commute to Strasbourg. At the moment I'm investigating whether MEPs can use a legal loophole to abolish Strasbourg without having to change the European treaties.

Watch this space for more information.

SARAH PALIN

The appalling Nadine Dorries is back writing her blog and, as she puts it, "raring to go" after a good break. Her first subject - Sarah Palin.

Dorries as ever makes sweeping, untrue assertions, not so much about Palin herself as those other groups she hates. And Dorries hates with that kind of vitriolic passion reserved for people who can never conceive of being wrong. "She's [Palin] anti-abortion, loves being married and a mother. All things the sisterhood on the left hate." Or 'The sisterhood on the left may be political, mobilised and vociferous, but they are a minority. And oh how they loathe a sister on the right."

As a matter of fact, assuming I am one of those "political, mobilised and vociferous" members of the leftie sisterhood, I don't "hate" Sarah Palin. Though I profoundly disagree with many of her views, I also believe we need more women elected representatives. Sarah Palin is one of those women breaking through the "sticky layer of men" as we should more accurately call the glass ceiling. I would, incidentally, say the same about Dorries, though her achievement in climbing the greasy pole is not in the same league as Palin's.

I happen to think the media in the United States and increasingly in the UK is going over the top on Palin. Barack Obama was absolutely right to say candidates' families are off limits in political campaigning. Palin should be judged on her political abilities and views.

Although I want more women in positions of power, I cannot support much of what Palin stands for. I am in favour of a women's right to chose. I am a humanist actively attacking the oppressive attitude of much organised religion towards women.

But what I and many, many women want is more of us up there making the decisions. I am a member of an all party group of women MEPs and women European Commissioners (yes there are a very few) headed up by British Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis and the Socialist European Commissioner from Sweden, Margot Wallstrom. Although there are some representatives from the centre-right group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, which includes Nadine Dorries's Conservatives, the vast majority of this group are from the centre-left of the political spectrum. That, I am afraid, says it all.

DATE RAPE

So Helen Mirren, fine actress that she is, thinks date rape should not be a matter for the courts. Citing her own experience in the "Independent" yesterday she effectively says that since she came to no harm, it's OK for women to be coerced into sex against their will. However, the world has moved on since she came to London as a young woman 40 years ago.

Date rape is a complex issue. Sex must never be forced on women. Rape is a criminal offence. I would not only defend the right of any women to say "no" but go further and say that women should be enabled to stand up for themselves in all circumstances. Men too must understand that no really does mean no. Yet, having said that, there are occasions when date rape is not an entirely clear cut issue.

In the Independent today Ann Widdecombe states in her usual forthright manner that if a women accepts an invitation to a man's room she knows what she is letting herself in for. As with many of Widdecombe's outpourings, this is simplistic in the extreme. I for one would hope that we are not so obsessed by sex that women and men are not able to communicate in other ways. Widdecombe also comes perilously close to saying that there is a certain type of behaviour that means women are asking for it. I for one had hoped that the notion that if women cross certain boundaries which never apply to men they are "no better than they should be" was well and truly dead in the water. Maybe I have been too optimistic.

The conviction rate for rape has fallen to an all time low though the number of rapes reported to the police has increased. The improvements in the way the police deal with rape victims does not seem to have spilled over to the criminal justice system, which still appears far too often to take the Mirren and Widdecombe line. This may to some extent be due to the fact that alcohol is involved in the overwhelming majority of rape cases - over 70 percent according to one study.

It is the drinks which do the damage rather than the much vaunted "spiking" which only occurs in about two percent of investigated rape cases. Drunken women are just as culpable as drunken men. If you drink to the point where you lose control and your memory of events is severely impaired, it is difficult to make sense of what may or may not have happened.

Out of control drinking, particularly by young people, is one of the key questions which needs to be addressed in the date rape debate. All of us, including the young people concerned, have a responsibility to reduce destructive binge drinking. Why do people, especially the young, feel the need to get out of their heads on a regular basis? Is drink too cheap and easily available? Should pubs and bars be stricter about serving more alcohol to those who are already drunk?

I believe there should be more places for young people to go which do not involve drinking. This is where community responsibility kicks in. I also believe making alcohol more expensive would help. Women are not responsible for violent and intimidating behaviour by men. They are, however, responsible for their own actions.

HAPPY PHONES

Within the next year or so the number of telephone calls made from mobile phones are likely to outstrip those made on traditional landlines. We are clearly becoming more and more dependent on our mobile phones. That means it's really important that we get good service from the mobile phone companies.

Ofcom, the UK's telecoms regulator has just launched a consultation to see how happy people are with their mobile phone service.

You'll remember that MEPs recently cracked down on mobile roaming charges, and it's looking increasingly likely that further action will be taken on text message charging from abroad.

However another important problem area concerns so called 'mobile termination rates'. These are the charges that mobile phone companies charge each other for routing calls over their networks. Mobile termination rates are the reason why it's almost always more expensive to call a customer on another phone network than on your own network. It's often hard to know how much you're likely to be charged for calling another network.

Both Ofcom and the European Commission are looking at tackling these charges. That way calling between mobile phone networks should be cheaper and the prices more transparent.

What would you like to improve on your mobile phone service? Or are you happy with the service you get for the price you pay?

You can find out more about Ofcom's consultation (and even contribute yourself) on the links below.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/msa08/