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All hot and bothered
The July session of the European Parliament was hot and fraught
with hazards being the last one before the summer break. Fraught
because on top of the usual Rumsfeld known unknowns there is always
something that can catch you out because you are tired. Plus, in my
case, my Brussels assistant was not in the office so it was all
hands to the pumps. My hands that is. She has left me for another
man. I can’t really complain as she is marrying him and returning
to England!
World Cup fever
In addition to the hot weather there were the closing stages of
the world cup. On the Tuesday night there was the Holland – Uruguay
match and I have to admit that I thought the South Americans had won
because Strasbourg was so quiet and without hooting cars. On the
Wednesday night it was the big contest between Germany and Spain. I
didn’t get to watch that match either because I was chairing one of
my European Energy Forum dinner debates. Attendance, it must be
admitted, was lower than usual but the debate about nuclear energy
policy was definitely up-to-scratch.
All my own work!?
After our event I went off to look in at the tail end of the
match in the big meeting room where the EPP hold their group
meetings and which I remember from when we Conservatives were
members of the centre right group. The room was dark and in cinema
mode so I couldn’t see anyone but at that moment the Spanish scored
their goal so I feel sure I played a crucial role. I left smartly
in case the Germans came to the same conclusion! The joyous sounds
of celebratory car horns hooting reverberated around Strasbourg into
the early hours.
Over-egging it?
The week before, one of those euromyth stories came out of the
woodwork. Shock horror Brussels is telling us we can’t sell eggs in
dozens or by size anymore according to the great British press.
Understandable outrage at the story but on closer inspection the
truth turned out to be rather different. The requirement is to show
the weight of food in addition to any other information. Only the
tabloids in thrall to Ukip could misinterpret this as saying we
cannot sell eggs in sixes or in small, medium and large but, hey,
never let an opportunity to bad mouth the EU pass by. And, of
course, if you read it in the newspaper it must be true, mustn’t
it?!
Compensation culture
This week a similar story surfaced following a vote on two
Regulations concerning the rights of passengers in bus and coach
transport and passengers travelling by sea and inland waterway.
These are intended to offer comparable redress for cancellations to
excessive delays to the rights afforded to air and rail travel.
Understandably this gave rise to great concern among small and local
operators about the implications for their
business viability.
It turned out that the left,
including the Liberal Group had voted for these measures whereas we
had voted against them applying to services which do not cross
borders, ie local services. The Member States in the Council
disagreed with the Parliament and wish to retain the power to decide
what levels of compensation are reasonable at a national or local
level. So on this occasion we put our trust in the member states to
stick to their guns and get a sensible outcome. |
Photo opportunity challenge
Turning to other matters your three Conservative MEPs for South West
of England and Gibraltar are working on a couple of joint
initiatives. One is to produce a newsletter leaflet giving a
flavour of things we have done during the first year of this
Parliament. So there has been a flurry of activity to gather
photos, captions and text for our own page and the common one. As
part of this we set about getting a photo of the three of us
together in Strasbourg in the Parliament. This proved to be a
logistical challenge because everyone was so busy that it was
difficult to arrange to be in the same place at the same time. At
the time of writing I don’t know whether the breakfast meeting one
or the one of us sitting in our seats in the hemicycle or chamber at
voting time has been chosen so watch this space but I hope to put
the one I like on my website.
Bring back the CPC
The other project is even more ambitious. It is to organise a CPC
style residential conference in the late autumn. The CPC or
Conservative Political Centre was the fore-runner of the CPF or
Conservative Policy Forum. It was abolished along with all the
other changes wrought by the Archie Norman so-called reforms in the
late nineties. Anyway the conference will, I hope, run from Friday
afternoon to the Saturday lunchtime with outside speaker-led
sessions on a range of topics including energy and agriculture plus
a session where we will break into discussion groups to debate
topical issues of the moment. And there will be a break for a cream
tea if I have anything to do with it! Formal notices inviting
participation will go out in due course.
Those magnificent men in
their flying machines
Finally at the end of the week I went to Bristol Cathedral to attend
a Service commemorating the 100th anniversary of the
founding of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company later to
become the Bristol Aeroplane Company or BAC. I was guest of the
successor company, Airbus. The Service was an impressive, moving
and fascinating account of the past 100 years with a very positive
message about the future and the importance of innovation. I was
naturally reminded of my father and his exploits as an aviator
eighty years ago and also of an unfulfilled ambition of mine to fly
in Concorde. What a beautiful plane she was.
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