In Bed with Berlusconi

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!

HOME ALONE

In June, the Liberal Democrats and Tories joined forces in support of an unbelievably unjust report "on common standards and procedures for the return of third country nationals residing illegally".

European Labour MEPs, tried to amend the report to prevent unaccompanied children from being deported, unless their family or guardian was able to look after them when they were returned to their home country. There were obviously concerns that if unaccompanied minors were deported, alone, without any supervision, they could fall victim to paedophiles or child slavery or any of the other myriad of dangers that we know could occur.

Almost all Tory and Lib Dem MEPs voted against this specific amendment.

The UK opts out of EU wide immigration legislation preferring to create its own national legislation. Here at the European Parliament, protocol dictates that when a report does not affect their country MEPs can vote on individual amendments but should abstain from voting on the whole report, passing it into legislation. That was exactly what both Labour and Tory MEPs did.

Lib Dem MEPs, however, threw protocol to the wind and voted in favour of the whole report. They backed a raft of draconian measures, including deporting children, with little concern for their welfare after they had been deported.

As I have said before, with such a hard-right agenda it is difficult to see where the word 'liberal' fits into Liberal Democrat. Mind you, when Lib Dems vote for directives such as this one it's hard to see them as true 'democrats' either.

The Struggle for Equality

At the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee here at the parliament the other day we were discussing the 2008 report on 'Equal Opportunities for men and women'. Many of my colleagues on the committee expressed their absolute frustration that for yet another year the pay gap between men and women has remained infuriatingly static. Our work trying to give equal opportunities and equal outcomes to every member of society is certainly an uphill struggle.

Back from committee this led me to think that it is 80 years since women won the right to the vote in the UK and with that the right to a political life. But women are still denied the top jobs. In Europe, as I have blogged recently, the senior jobs are consistently awarded to men and that trend looks set to continue into the next term. In the UK our Tory colleagues have only paid lip-service to the promotion of women: in the absence of both Gordon Brown and David Cameron at Prime Minister's Question Time in April Harriet Harman, as deputy leader stood in for Gordon Brown but on the Tory side David Cameron was replaced, not by his deputy leader Theresa May, but by William Hague with May demurely seated behind. As Harman rightly pointed out, this looked like women should be seen but not heard on the Tory side.

It is 40 years since the Equal Pay act meant that women and men should be paid an equal salary for equal work. However, the pay gap in the UK is still alarming. In full-time work women get paid 17% less than men and in part-time a shocking 38% less. The UK's pay gap is fairly much in line with the pay gap between the sexes that is felt right across the EU.

It is 20 years since the first black female MP, Diane Abbott entered the House of Commons. To date there have only been three black, female MPs sitting in the Commons. Dawn Butler, MP for Brent South, has experienced racist and sexist attitudes within the Commons itself. One such incident the Tory (it's always them isn't it?) MP David Heathcote-Amory questioned why Butler was on the members' section of the terrace asking if she was an MP. When she replied that she was he said "they're letting anybody in nowadays". He later denied that his comments were racially motivated but it is hard to see how they could be interpreted otherwise. In the European Parliament there are only four non-white female MEPs out of a total of 785.

So it is obviously with pleasure that I welcome Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill. This legislation is not the beginning of this is issue in the UK, and it is certainly not the end, but another step in an 80 year old journey that will hopefully lead us to a truly equal society. In the UK we serve as a 'best practice' example to our European colleagues on a number of issues my hope is that in the future we will lead the way on equality as well.

MEPs' EXPENSES

Following last week's revelations about UKIP MEP Tom Wise, you may like to see this offering on Tory David Sumberg

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1105_brussels_exposed_2.shtml

BAD DAY FOR LONDON

There is no getting away from it - Thursday 1 May was a bad day for the capital. Ken Livingstone has done an extraordinarily good job on our behalf. His most striking achievement, the congestion charge, was one of the boldest moves I have seen in my thirty odd years in politics. It took a very special politician to embark on a course of action which, while beneficial for the city as a whole, upset many vested interests and invited the wrath of the capital's only newspaper, the appalling Evening Standard. Many would say "it was the Standard wot won it" thanks to the paper's relentless and uncritical campaign for Boris Johnson.

As a London representative resident in the capital's centre, I was very aware of the real improvements made by Ken. Since there are many more buses I now use them in a way I did not eight years ago, and I have found my Oyster card immensely helpful. Ken is a true Londoner and worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of London.

My congratulations to the Labour members of the Greater London Assembly who were returned: Nicky Gavron, Murad Qureshi, Val Shawcross, John Biggs, Jennette Arnold, Joanne McCartney, Len Duvall and Navin Shah. I know they will keep up Labour's good work.

MEPs EMPLOYMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS

Tory MP Derek Conway was recently exposed for employing his two sons in his office while they were at university and working elsewhere. Allegedly neither of them actually did any work for their father as their allegiances were somewhere else. Although Conway denied this, he will not stand again for the House of Commons at the next general election.

Yesterday the European Parliament voted to ban MEPs employing their relatives. I was one of the large parliamentary majority who supported this measure.

Our allowances and expenses are rightly being closely scrutinised. It is important that you as taxpayers know what we receive and how we spend it.

MORE OLYMPIC WHINGING

Seventy-five pence in every one pound spent on the Olympic site will aid regeneration in east London. The Olympics will be of tremendous benefit to certain run down areas of London badly in need of extra resources.

Instead of supporting the Olympic preparations and understanding the opportunity the Games will provide for London and the country as a whole, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has now jumped on the anti-Olympic bandwagon. Edward Leigh, Tory Chairman of the PAC has accused ministers and officials of underestimating the true cost in order to win government and public support for the bid.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, has denied that there was any intention to mislead on the costings for the Games. Quite right too. We need to stop whinging and get on with the Olympic project which will be good for London and good for Britain.

BRIAN COLEMAN'S EXPENSES

Tory GLA Member Brian Coleman has run up a £4,147 taxi bill this year - more than all the GLA Members put together, including Ken Livingstone. He managed to claim £420 in one fell swoop by asking the cab to wait while he addressed a meeting of the Jewish Forum in Barnet during December.

While I firmly believe we elected representatives need adequate resources to do our jobs, over four grand to travel round the capital seems a bit steep, especially since Ken's transport improvements have made it much easier.

The odious Coleman denies booking any of the cars himself. He thought he was being ferried around in a GLA official car. "Because I've been Chairman and Deputy Chairman I'm entitled to an official car when attending official functions in the morning dress and wearing the diamonds around my neck," he told "Metro" newspaper.

Yet there is no official car and indulging in the bells and whistles of office is Coleman's choice ninety-nine percent of the time. Murad Qureshi, a Labour Member of the Greater London Assembly said, "He (Coleman) justifies getting taxis everywhere because he wears his bling around. There's no reason for him even to be wearing it."
You and I are paying Mr Coleman's insecure need to puff himself up. His sense of self-importance is really quite extraordinary and expensive.

TODAY'S TORIES - CUDDLY AT HOME, NASTY ABROAD

Last plenary session we voted on a report on sexual health of women and girls in developing countries, which included a section on providing money for maternal health in developing nations, an established part of the European Parliament's overseas aid budget. An amendment to the report to cut funding for this important service duly appeared, encouraged no doubt by Development Committee member and religious zealot, Anna Zaborska.

Slovakian Zaborska, who views Aids as god's punishment for homosexuality, is a natural suspect for such anti-women sentiments. However, eleven Tories voted for the amendment and in favour of cutting references to the call by the UN's development goals for universal access to reproductive health care. Very nasty indeed. I wonder if David Cameron knows.

CAMERON AND THE ABORTION TIME LIMIT

We are all waking up to David Cameron’s anti-woman agenda. Although he hides it well with plausibly warm words, the modern Tory Party is no more in favour of equal opportunities than its previous incarnations. Take the abortion time limit. Cameron has decided to vote to lower the legal limit for abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill comes before the Commons in a few weeks.

According to the sycophantic “Daily Mail” the reason he has stuck his neck out on such a contentious issue is the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries. You will remember that the delightful Ms Dorries is the woman who took “Emily’s List”, the organisation which provides funds for Labour women to get selected for parliament, to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The grounds – Emily’s List requires those it helps to state that they are in favour of a woman’s right to choose. The delectable Dorries claimed this was bribery to vote a certain way. Needless to say, the Standards Commissioner saw Dorries’s complaint for what it was and rejected it.

Her latest nonsense is to attack the Government's relaxed approach to sex education. Yes, you’ve guessed it – sex education encourages young people to have sex. Dorries has either not seen or willfully ignored evidence from the Netherlands and elsewhere that sex education reduces teenage pregnancies. Surely even she would think this is what we should be aiming for. Just in case you haven’t clocked it, Nadine Dorries is a right-wing Christian evangelist. "I try to live like a Christian. I try not to lie, to help others.” She told the Daily Mail. She is also on record as saying that she sees evil in late abortion. She would do better to be less focused on evil and more humanitarian in her approach.

THE TORIES AND WOMEN

The Tories are still making noises about getting more Tory women into Westminster and having more women on their front bench. Mr Cameron wants two of the final four candidates in each Westminster selection to be female. He has also said he will increase the number of women on his priority list from 50% to 60%.

Hazel Blears is on record as saying that the changes will fail to change the Tories and that the Conservative Party is still failing women. You only need to look at the Tories in the European Parliament to see the real proof of just how true that is. There is only one woman Conservative MEP and she is standing down at the European elections next year. In the 2004 Euro elections there were two regional lists which did not include any women at all.

The Tories will complete their selections for the next European elections very soon. It will be interesting to see whether David Cameron's fine words have any substance.

The Nasty Party

25th Feb 2008

In case any of you were ever in any doubt, the Tories really haven't changed. David Cameron's efforts to seem greener, more women and race friendly and generally nicer, cannot disguise the real Conservative Party.

The following blog posted on the Conservative Home website is proof, if ever it were needed.

"Posted by: James Burdett 20 February 2008 at 15:16 Peter Franks @1351. ---

Dan Hannan is a true Tory and he now joins that other true Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer.

The trouble is that the majority of our MEPs are NOT true Tories at all and many of them should be expelled from the Conservative Party, not given 'safe-passages' back to their lush posts where they do untold damage to Britain.And heaven help us if Caroline Jackson - married to a Tory MEP who defected to Labour - were used as a template for more women MEPs. CJ: is a classic example of why quotas and preferential selection are a disaster. We just need the best people".

You may be interested to know that Caroline Jackson is the Tories' only women MEP and she is standing down at the European elections next year. She is, in addition, a very conscientious MEP who has contributed a great deal to the European Parliament. If the Tories had more representatives like Caroline, they may become a bit nicer and a lot more influential.