SOUTH WEST FIRST
LETTER FROM STRASBOURG - NOVEMBER, 2002
LETTER
FROM BOURNEMOUTH AND BRUSSELS
“MAY” IT CONTINUE
And now for something completely
different. The Conservative
Party Conference and a mini plenary session in Brussels to be precise.
The week started early for me on the Sunday as I was invited to
attend the Agents Dinner which is always held on the eve of the
conference. I think it is
fair to say the mood was slightly uneasy following all the difficult
press and media coverage of late. However
a speech by new Party Chairman Theresa May M.P. and a look in short
speech by our Leader Iain Duncan Smith, held out the promise of policies
and positive themes to come.
THE ‘QUIET MAN’
FORMAT
The Party Managers had decided
to radically change the format of the Conference which to a veteran of
some twenty past attendances like myself, was somewhat disorientating. Starting time was after lunch, not 9.30 a.m. and closing time
8 p.m., so all fringe meetings and receptions had to be outside that
period and the morning seemed unusually quiet on the first day.
DISPLAYING OUR
STRENGTH
My first port of call was our
Conservatives in the European Parliament stand in the exhibition hall.
With a good location, good display of loads of photos of all 36
of us in action, lots of goodies like mini chocolate bars to give away
and new pamphlets on offer, it attracted plenty of visitors.
I was pleased to see copies of the national version of my
pamphlet SESAME, as well as leaflets about the SMEs conference in
Brussels that I have been planning since last winter.
HELPING BUSINESS
SESAME “opening doors for
small Businesses” is the acronym for Supporting Every Small And
Medium-sized Enterprise. As
a small businessman before going into politics, I obviously identify
with this sector. I believe the best way we can support SMEs is through more
information and less regulation. The
pamphlet is about contacts and access to information including sources
of funding as my practical answer to the first point.
The efforts of all Conservative MEPs to counter red tape and
interventionist legislative burdens on business are our collective
response to the second. Copies
of the South West no frills version of SESAME are available from my
office in Exeter (while stocks last!) on request.
REASONED CYCLE
My next appointment is lunch
with the Motor Cycle Industry Association hosted by Steve Norris, who is
a biker as well as having been Tory candidate for Mayor of London. I have a long-standing respect for the bikers ever since my
election campaign in 1994 when they turned out in hundreds at a meeting
in Newton Abbot about European legislation on type approval and noise
regulation. Since then, I
have observed them to be a most effective lobby, reasoned and polite in
a way that belies the image they have in some eyes.
NEW POLICIES
In
the afternoon I meet up with Ginnie my wife and we sit in on the end of
the Education debate to hear Damian Green M.P. make a good speech which
included the first six of the new policies we had been promised.
When I was constituency chairman in Hammersmith in the 1980s I
remember persuading a rather diffident Damian to be our press officer.
Plenty of water under the bridge since then.
DR TUBE I PRESUME?
We stayed to listen to the
opening of the Transport Debate and were treated to a joke from one of
the speakers from the floor. This
lady caught the attention of the hall by reminding us that Ken
Livingstone’s partner was expecting his baby, and observing that that
just went to show that at least one tube in his life was working, even
if the London Underground was suffering strikes, stoppages and lack of
investment. I was intrigued
to see if this jest would prove a little too close to the bone for our
new look Party, but it was greeted with laughter and applause.
LISTEN, ENGAGE,
INFLUENCE
After that we circulated outside
meeting up with friends in the way one does at conferences before
heading off to the Enterprise First Europe (EFE) dinner with British
Telecom, which I was chairing. EFE
is the dinner discussion forum I founded two years ago for British
business and industry interests in Brussels to talk to Conservative MEPs
(and occasionally MEPs from other countries).
I think it is vital that we Conservatives listen to and re-engage
with business, and that certainly happens in Brussels, where they
recognise that Tory MEPs can influence and change legislation in a way
not possible for our shrunken band of MPs at Westminster.
ELECTION SPICE
After that it was time for the
South West Region Reception which is the principal reason I go to the
Conference, so as to meet up with as many of our team of South West
Conservative activists as possible.
It is a fine opportunity to catch up with folk and make new
friends too. Of course this
year many people are aware that the selection and ranking procedure for
choosing our Party list of candidates for the next European election is
the offing which adds a certain spice to the occasion.
The best spice came from IDS
in a short visit when he made a brief speech conspicuous to me for being
more confident and upbeat than the previous evening.
Arguably, a bit of sauce was provided by one of my colleagues
handing out goody bags to people as they left the reception!
YOUNG AT HEART
After that we repaired to the
main lobby of the Conference Hotel for a glass of champagne with a
friend who had been a candidate in the South West and with whom I had
campaigned both before and during the 2001 General Election.
The main point of telling you this was that the place was heaving
with young people, so we must be attracting some of the next generation
to join our ranks. And I am
all for them enjoying themselves into the bargain.
We didn’t stay all that long, I must confess.
‘POUNDING’
MESSAGE HOME
The
next morning I attended one of the fringe meetings that we Conservative
MEPs had organised. This
boasted Michael Howard MP our Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer as star
attraction, alongside a panel of my colleagues and a splendid lady from
the British Chamber of Commerce who spoke with feeling about red tape
and burdens on business from Europe.
Mr Howard gave us one statistic and built his speech around it.
In the period 1985-2002 average unemployment in the U.S.A. had
been 5.6%, whereas in the E.U. it had been 9.7%.
Long period, big difference, and the conclusion is less
regulation and more flexibility make for a stronger economy.
He also re-iterated his opposition to the U.K. giving up the
pound. We can’t say it too many times, that we must keep the pound
and say no to the euro.
COMPARING LIKE WITH
LIKE
At lunchtime I was on parade for
the corporate programme for business and industry leaders to meet
Conservative MPs and MEPs and be briefed by them.
I had had a chat with the man from Marks & Sparks who was
displaying great patience as MP after MP drew the analogy between M
& S troubles and recovery and the Conservative Party situation.
I gather this line was started originally by my former boss
Norman Tebbit, only to be challenged by an article from Boris Johnson
M.P. (and editor of the Spectator).
He had consulted the fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph who
pointed out M & S had done much more than go back to its core market
by designing new lines and generally dragging itself up-to-date.
So, I ask myself, what is the Tory Party equivalent to Agent
Provocateur ladies underwear that will propel us higher up the opinion
polls?
OUR MONEY, OUR POUND
My participation in the
Corporate Programme continued in the afternoon when I was one of a panel
of MEPs answering questions on a wide range of issues. It is curious how
people assume that MEPs should be completely sold on everything to do
with Europe including the Euro, just because we work there and take a
pragmatic view on matters we deal with in the European Parliament.
I welcome the opportunity to reassert my personal, long-standing
opposition to the UK giving up the pound and going into the euro, not
least on economic grounds.
REDUNDANT LIB DEMS
My final event at the Conference
was to attend the Bristol and Gloucestershire area reception commencing
10.30 p.m. This was
obviously not quite as thronged with people as the Regional reception
the evening before, but nevertheless a good opportunity to meet and
greet. Until, that is, we
four MEPs were called upon to say something for two minutes each.
I rather fancy by the time the selection hustings are over,
everyone will have had a sufficiency of listening to us!
The event closed with an introduction to the very recently
selected PPC for Cheltenham who expressed her determination to unseat
the present Lib Dem incumbent.
SCIENCE FICTION
On Wednesday I have to make my
way to Brussels via London and Eurostar in order to attend the mini
plenary session of the Parliament.
The travel takes up most of the day so I only reach my office at
4.30 p.m. where a pile of papers awaited. At six I have a meeting with a
scientist from Australia on a European Parliament visitors programme.
She tells me she has just been appointed deputy Chief Government
Scientific Officer but had worked in nanotechnology previously.
Nanotechnology is about very small machines and devices which
seems pretty much like science fiction to me, especially when I hear of
plans to link it with biotechnology.
KIWI FRUIT
This was the first instalment of
a Commonwealth evening because my next appointment was dinner with the
Ambassador of New Zealand to the EU Ms Dell Higgie at the Residence,
wearing my hat as a member of the Delegation for Interparliamentary
Relations with Australia and New Zealand.
By the way, I confess I don’t usually put the prefix Ms
(because it seems too pc or politically correct to me), but the
invitation was explicit. The
Ambassador is a tall, feisty lady whom I would not wish to upset.
EURO WINE ABOUT
QUALITY
Three fellow members of the
delegation also attended and we had a lively discussion about bilateral
issues as well as the state of play about enlargement and gossip about
party matters. We also
needed to discuss the arrangements
for the forthcoming visit of New Zealand parliamentarians during
the October Strasbourg session. The
main item of concern to our hosts was the regulation being brought in by
the Commission (and therefore not subject to Parliamentary scrutiny by
MEPs in the way a draft directive would be) setting out descriptive
words for wine quality and character which may not be used at all by
anyone other than the denominated EU region. Words like ruby, tawny and finest quality evidently are
limited to port from Portugal. Sounds
very protectionist to me and needs looking into.
GETTING INTO A PADDY
On enlargement we discussed the
prospects for the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty as well as how
close we are to agreeing terms with the accession countries.
I confess I hope the Irish stick to their guns and don’t give
in to a lot of pressure to change from their no vote first time around.
The pressure amounts to some unsubtle political blackmail that
enlargement won’t go ahead if they vote no plus a substantial sum of
money given to help the yes campaign.
The truth is the EU political establishment is so intent on
making enlargement happen that it will find another way to do it willy
nilly.
GIVE NOT TAKE
However another stumbling block
along the way may crop up within the accession countries if they find
the financial terms on offer difficult to stomach.
Because the member states are wholly unwilling to put their hands
in their/our taxpayers pockets to increase the size of the budget as a
proportion of gdp (which should be good news for us if it turns out to
be true) the entrant countries are being told that they can only expect
agricultural support at one quarter the level of payments to existing EU
farmers while they must make their full contribution to the EU budget
from year one. Likewise with regional aid or structure funds.
COST OF EXTENSION
The reasoning is that in
purchasing power a quarter euro buys the same in an accession country as
one euro in the existing member states.
I don’t think the new countries are too happy about this!
Let me say that in principle I am in favour of bringing these
countries back into the European family of nations, both because it
should improve the security aspect and because they will in due course
form a growing market for our trade, but there has to be a limit on what
it will actually cost us.
AMUSING MY COLLEAGUES
I will draw a veil over most of
the gossip at table except to say that I ventured the Livingstone tube
story which the new Zealanders understood well and once we had explained
that a tube is a metro or underground train, my Dutch and German
colleagues were suitably amused, particularly, as they were all women,
when I told them it had been a woman who made the joke in the first
place.
TV FAIR TO IDS
On Thursday morning I had to fit
in a shortened German lesson, a meeting with German aerospace
industrialists, another meeting of the bureau or management committee of
the Ciel et Espace Intergroup, votes on Energy Efficiency in Buildings
and CO2
Emissions Trading among other things, a
meeting with a chap from Unilever worried about a directive on
detergents and another with two ladies from Glaxo SmithKline about the
pharmaceuticals review, as well as set time aside to watch the IDS
speech on television before I dashed for my train back home to England.
It was an important moment for him and I felt he came out of it
very well. The acid test
was whether the media and press gave it a fair coverage or yet another
Tory bashing and it seems to me they stuck to fair treatment which makes
a welcome change.
VOTES
Back home on Friday I had a
Conservative business luncheon to attend in Sampford Peverell near
Tiverton (where I went to one of my first functions as the European
candidate for Devon nine years ago), as well as a meeting with a
constituent in the office later. At
the lunch the Chairmen of the Association, Roger Tanner reminded
everyone of the forthcoming selection and ranking procedure for European
candidates. I can only add
the hope that as many members as possible will make the effort to attend
one of the four hustings because the higher the turnout the more
authority will be vested in the list.
VOTING VENUES
The four venues are:-
Winter Gardens,
Weston-Super-Mare, Friday 8th November, doors open 5.30 p.m.;
St. George’s Hall, Exeter, Saturday 9th November, doors
open 9.00 a.m.; Stratford Park Leisure Centre, Stroud, Saturday 16th
November, doors open 9.00 a.m.; Bournemouth Conference Centre Sunday 17th
November, doors open 9.30 a.m. Only qualifying members of the Party may vote.
GILES
CHICHESTER MEP
|
