Strasbourg Commentary Plenary session 19th - 22nd Nov 2012

Strasbourg Commentary                Plenary session           19th - 22nd  Nov 2012

You will know that the ceiling of the Brussels debating chamber has started to fall in. This is a dome-like structure and, for reference, St Paul's Cathedral was completed in 1710, with no JCB insight, nor tower cranes.  Nor reinforced concrete, only Wren's primitive starter for 10, or rather for 302 years. And still there in spite of Hitler. It seems that it will be out of action until well into next year, so business due for Brussels is transferred to Strasbourg.

Tuesday.  Voting included the ridiculous intrusions into motor bikes. They want to prohibit owners from making modifications and adding parts; all will have to go to registered bike repair shop. In vain do I tell them that these bikers are responsible people and it's their necks at risk. No use, regs are regs. As a non-biker I have done my best to support them, attending rallies and their evening meeting in Buxton. The report on this issue was carried by 636 -16. The Tories, Labour & Lib-Dems all voted in favour, the 16 against were ourselves and some of the EFD group.

Then parliament voted for the right of EU citizens to vote and stand in Euro elections in other than their own country. How do you like that? Well, the Tories did, and the Lib-dems, and Labour, 618 altogether for, 23 against, including UKIP, of course.

Then, by 482 to 160 they voted against democracy on economic & Monetary affairs. National sovereignty, democratic legitimacy, were all voted down but they supported collective action, disclosure of commercially sensitive information and a Federal Europe.

Wednesday  More money voted away but at least they supported the exploration for shale gas, with reservations, which is transforming the US economy.

Thursday  We agreed on the need to stop the obscene business of cutting off shark fins before throwing the shark back into the sea to die in agony. You would have thought this was illegal everywhere but the Commission has, in its wisdom, previously ruled that governments who wished to allow their fishermen to do this would be allowed to continue. Hopefully 506 votes to 47 will put a stop to that but the UK government banned this years ago and we have replied accordingly to the dozens of emails in protest we have all received. It just goes to show the kind of people we are sharing the EU with.

You may have seen the extraordinary outburst of Guy Verhofstadt, the Lib-Dems leader; it’s on You Tube and the UKIP MEP's website.  He ranted at Nigel for not having appeared in the Fishing Committee, where he is a member, at all this year. If you have seen the video you will know that we are up against a madman. I can give you an up-date. Verhofstadt is a member of the Constitutional Committee which has met 12 times this year so far. Verhofstadt  appeared in the January & February meetings, but never since on any occasion. Moreover, unlike a lot of MEPs he is not a full member of any other committee. I leave you to ponder.

Never mind Strasbourg for now, I come to the main point. In Corby last Thursday Margot Parker recorded the biggest vote ever for UKIP in any by-election. That's a staggering achievement on its own but to have forced the Lib-dem candidate into 4th place, and a lost deposit, is wonderful. Remember, the Lib-dems are past masters at by-elections, flooding in bus loads of canvassers from all over. This time no, not many to be seen. They are temporarily out of it, demoralised by their abject performance at Westminster.     

Margot's performance in Corby was a lesson in endurance: she just did not stop. Helpers from many places played their part. Do you remember David Lott? Once of Hexham he was the Party's national Organiser for the 1997 (I think) elections but retired to live in France a while back. With his wife, Cathy, he was there in Corby the week prior to election!! London came up with 5 or 6 helpers.

No less impressive was our performance in the two PCC Elections we contested.  In Derbyshire, David Gale worked hard to get 16.2%, which is the fourth best UKIP result of 24 contests.  He was not helped by Derby University whose Student body ran a Hustings but banned him from appearing.  The Students Union have a ‘no floor’ policy and they reckon that ‘David/UKIP’ are extremists, not to say worse.  At least the Derby Telegraph printed an account of that, including David’s protest.

Meanwhile in Northamptonshire, Jim Macarthur worked equally hard with his campaign partly doubling up with the Corby By-election.  He was so effective that his 18.75% was the best result of all UKIP Candidates (the percentages quoted here are of the first preference votes cast, counting the second preference votes became very messy and to my mind undemocratic). 

To both of those, Congratulations for their efforts, they are part of our national result which saw us beat the Lib Dems in many other PCC elections.

Last Saturday I lent a hand with Lee Water's stall in Gedling. By the time I got there at 11.00 they had got rid of 100 videos and most of the literature. I stood out in the road with our plastic bags, not much in them due to the earlier rush, but still had people taking them from the hand without being approached.

All of which means that we are really on the up, but you knew that from the increased press/ TV coverage.  Now, the Lib-dems, and the Scots Nats, came to prominence partly via local elections,- and we have local elections next May.

Please make sure we have the Party name and logo on all the ballot papers. People will vote for us in elections where it really matters, Westminster and Euro, when we have become familiar on earlier ballot papers, so get your name down.  Don will send you the candidate guide but all you really have to do is to get 12 people to sign your nomination form and get it in by close of nominations. There is no cost to you.

If you do a leaflet that does need money but you do not have to do that, paper candidates will do. I know that a lot of members do not like that idea but it gets the name and logo on the ballot paper. Which message would you like to hear? -

 "I wanted to vote UKIP but could not find your candidate on the ballot paper".

                                                 or,

"Didn't know much about him/ her, but at least I saw UKIP on the ballot paper".

NEXT MAY WILL COME ALL TOO SOON.

Derek Clark    MEP                                   Strasbourg   22nd Nov   2012

Plenary Session Strasbourg 22nd - 23rd & 25th -26th Oct 2012

Plenary Session            Strasbourg                22nd - 23rd & 25th -26th Oct 2012 

If this seems a rather strange heading well, it was a strange week. You see, Strasbourg is normally a matter of 12 weeks (Mon - Thurs) once a month. This is by order of the treaty and now enshrined in law. Parliament being in recess for August poses a problem in accommodating the 12 monthly sessions, solved by having two sessions in Sept. But some MEPs dislike travelling twice in the month to Strasbourg, esp we Brits, there being no airline to carry us in one hop from anywhere in then UK. So a gallant Tory, Ashley Fox came up with the solution. Let’s have two in one week, Monday & Tuesday then Thursday & Friday, each to be officially two sessions, thus satisfying the law.

So it came to pass, and here I am on Friday afternoon, at 3.30pm, writing this, when I usually do it on Thursday. Do I like the arrangement? As a result I get home at 11.30 pm tonight, if I'm lucky, because I stayed for all the votes this lunchtime, which is more than many MEPs did. Actually, I think I'd rather get home on Thursday, leaving Friday clear; the extra week is not really material.

In any case, would you believe, this week has gone ahead but the Court is still considering the issue. So the whole thing could be thrown out, after letting it happen once, and revert to normal. That could not possibly be the reason for the lop-sided voting lists of this week of two sessions could it? Perish the thought, but see next para.

There are 760 MEPs and today's voting record shows that there were up to 540 voting today. Earlier in the week the figures are 650 plus. Draw your own conclusions.

All this is compounded by the collapse of the ceiling of the Brussels debating chamber; you have probably read about this in the press. The same thing happened in Strasbourg two years ago. Wonderful! I mean, there we have St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1710 and still in one piece, with numerous other examples of the same era to be seen across Europe, none of them built of reinforced concrete, steel skeletons & stainless steel, and not a JCB in sight.

 Because of this modernistic jerry building, closing the debating chamber in Brussels, the Conference of Presidents (!) decided to transfer as much business as possible to Strasbourg. So we had extra voting this week. Why not, after all that's what we are paid for. So why did they not spread it out during the week?  Sorry, I mean over the two official sessions of this week. What they actually did was to have two long voting sessions on Tuesday, one in the morning (ie coming up to lunch-time), the other in the evening, ie at 6.00 pm. (There is never a vote on Monday because it is so difficult getting to Strasbourg that hardly anyone is there before 5.00/ 6.00pm.) We then had more votes on Thursday, when the attendance was similar to Tuesday, and on Friday, with the figures shown above.

The Friday attendance was not just because of the day but also reflects interest in the topics. Let me bore you with Friday's list; "Human rights in the United Arab Emirates, Discrimination against girls in Pakistan, situation in Cambodia, Energy efficient labelling programs for office equipment, Markets in financial instruments, (2 versions), 2012 priorities, EU- Russia trade, elections in Belarus, elections in Georgia.

Of the rest of voting two items stand out. On Thursday we voted on the Bauer report. This was adopted by 596 - 56 and so paves the way for the compulsory giving of aid in other countries to those who require it. That's always been the case, but by the British consulate aiding a British passport holder, ditto French consulate helping French people as son on. This report makes it compulsory for the UK embassy or consulate to help EU citizens, whether UK or not. The same will apply across the EU range of member states. Think about it.

The other report of note was to vote on the budget. There were 113 budget lines to vote on, although some were taken out as superfluous, when the previous one was adopted. Among these there were16 lines showing a decrease, 6 were adopted and 5 were overtaken by the previous vote, noted above, the rest were outvoted.

Cue David Cameron. Remember, he is in favour of our continued membership of the EU, he keeps on saying so. That means, as a democrat, that he holds the EU to be democratic. Well, we all have our own views on that but there is one certain aspect of this. The European Parliament is composed exclusively of elected members, including your humble servant. But D. Cameron is to try to reduce the budget, with increases, which has just been voted in by the European Parliament, the only democratic element of the EU!

Derek Clark    MEP                                     Strasbourg  26thOct 2012.

  

Strasbourg Commentary Employment Committee 8th/9th October 2012

Monday In order to cope with growing anti- EU feeling, I suppose, the
president of the committee suggested that the EU should use a "Green
Card". In this National governments would be invited to ask the Commission
to propose Regulations and Directives of their choice, to turn it all on
its head. What would D. Cameron make of that?

At least we might get something original. I have remarked before that the
same old plans keep on getting trotted out, especially on coping with the
financial crisis. Well, this week we had a debate on "Erasmus for All".
This is a long standing program and it is now suggested that several other
similar programs be rolled into it, at a cost of 19.1 billion Euros!
Comments for its content included,-

adult learning, apprenticeships, like-long learning, adult learners, youth
employment schemes, adult citizenship, youth forums, youth work, training
at all levels, sport, vocational education, visits.  Anything new there?

In a debate on the financial situation it emerged that members were very
worried, -there is s serious social situation developing! Nothing is being
done, could have told them that, but better that they say it for
themselves. Likewise the remark by a senior member that 80% of people say
we are wrong, we must do something about it!

At the end of the day the debate was on, "...exposure of workers to risks
from physics agents". By which they mean electromagnetic fields, why they
can not say so is beyond me. This includes MRI scanning but at first
attempt, in 2005, they set exposure limits so low that MRI scanning would
stop. Fortunately, they invited experts from two London Hospitals, St
Thomas and Barts, to address the committee. These two managed to convince
the committee to revise their ideas. It was debated again a few months ago
when all seemed well, but I still contacted the London experts. As a
result Dr Keevil of Kings College, a St Thomas consultant, kindly made
time to see me, when in Brussels with other experts. He gave a guarded OK
to the revised document.  I'm glad of that because more amendments have
now appeared which foul it up again. Hence my contribution of today, on my
web site soonest. If that appears rushed it is because this was the last
item of the day, we were well over time, the translators were beyond their
hours of duty, so we all had to be very brief.

Tuesday A long voting session, scheduled for 2 hours, completed with half
an hour to spare. Included no less than 8 awards of money under the
Globalisation Adjustment Fund, all nodded through without comment. The GAF
is used to help displaced workers to re-train and find new work when a
company closes. Never anything for a UK situation, but then, its up to the
government of the country concerned to claim.

The Erasmus project was voted in, of course, 40 votes to 1.

The vote on the "Economic and Monetary Union" report, commented on above,
came out at 27 - 16, a very unconvincing "yes", given the usual majorities
recorded.

If anyone queries the length of time to vote on these reports please
realise that after the GAF awards there were 6 more reports each
containing multiple amendments, up to 170 or more, all of which require a
vote.

Finally, you will see my letters to the papers on my web site. One of my
recent letters was quoted in part by the Derby Telegraph, extract below.
It all helps.


Derek Clark   MEP                               Brussels 9th Oct 2012

MEPs locally  6th Oct 2012

RAILWAYS - Euro MP calls for review of rail contract decision (Derby
Evening Telegraph, 6/10/2012, p.6): "A EURO MP has become the latest to
demand the Government looks again at its decision not to award Derby
train-maker Bombardier a lucrative contract following the recent furore
over its handling of the bidding process for the West Coast Main Line rail
franchise. (...) Derek Clark, UK Independence Party MEP, said: "This is a
public procurement situation echoing the mismanagement of Thameslink.
"That contract should have gone to Bombardier of Derby not Siemens of
Germany. (...) "Once again, straightforward British bidding has lost out
to EU smoke and mirrors so our operators or manufacturers don't get a look
in."

EMF Directive Amendments Render MRI Scanners Useless - Derek Clark

http://www.derekclarkmep.org.uk/my-videos/

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session 10 - 13 Sept 2012

Strasbourg Commentary               Plenary Session          10 - 13 Sept 2012

Barroso you will have seen comments in the press about his speech of Weds morning. They  are not exaggerated, he is on a mission, they all are. Nothing will stop them making this a Single European State in one form or another. They will go on towards this aim. Dismiss any thoughts of, "changing the EU from within". This never was an option, now that should be clear to all and we must convince people of this. I, for one, have heard enough of the apologists saying that we must be in it to change it. We must tell the truth, again, that this is an unstoppable steamroller and that the only way is out.

From my notes of Barroso's 42 minute speech of Weds morning.

*(justifying the last 50 years) "It took the UK 150 years to double its GDP"

*The Commission takes the lead in sustainability/equality/ fairness/ growth

*Greece is a turning point

* the ECB will not finance Governments

* the Commission rules, with European Parliament oversight

* the FTT will cover banks and financial institutions need to be brought together

* there must be a Banking Union.

*There will be  Federation of nation States, guide for years to come, NOT a superstate!

* Sovereignty must be shared

*It must be a Union WITH the member states, not OF the member States.

*It needs a new treaty!

* needs a new EMU

* All nationalists and populists are bad!

*Especially, the Commission has today adopted EPP, European Political Parties, (which our party voted against last conference against the advice of those who actually take part in this European Parliament. It looks like we were right, if it means we will not be able to take part in the next European Parliament Elections unless we are in an EPP. Rather than join one we should start one, to preserve our main claim to electoral success)

This was followed by a round from all group leaders. Unusually, after Barosso Had summed up there was another round from group leaders and another Barosso summing up, 3 hours altogether. We wonder if this was a one off, or the shape of things to come.  

For the S & D Swaboda remarked that the EU was to be an emerging state, not a submerging one!

Verhofstadt, (leader of the Lib-Dems and former Belgian Premier) said it is not yet a federation and it must be a political entity, not an economic one.

**At this point the President interrupted proceedings to inform us of the decision of the German Constitutional Court, that the complaint had been rejected and so the ECB will go on. Some UK newspapers recorded that this was greeted by a standing ovation; no it was not.. The leftie side of the house gave it very good (seated) applause, our side of the house remained quiet.

Voting.  Thursday, the vote, "Proposal for a European Banking Union" passed with a large majority. Once implemented it will be the end of the Bank of England.

Wednesday. Votes on 4 Fishing reports to which I spoke on Tuesday evening, text and video on website, my speech being a catch-all because the 4 reports were lumped together as a Joint Debate (not uncommon). Of interest was that I was "blue carded" ie a blue card was waved to ask me a question. This was from Chris Davies (.Lib-Dem, North West) a leader, of sorts in the fishing debacle. He was trying to drive a wedge between UKIP MEPs  by asking about which UKIP MEPs supported him (ie wanted to preserve UK fishing) and who did not. I gave him no satisfaction in my reply so he crossed the floor of the house to sit beside me and bend my ear for 5 mins or so! All of which is because I, and the rest of us, want the CFP abolished, he wants to reform it.

Lastly a bit of humour. Today Lamberts, rapporteur of the "European Venture Capital Funds" report asked for a postponement of the final vote, adoption, of his report. That was, he said, because he had failed to get agreement with the Council on his report. He was going to ask, he said, if Council would agree today, in the chamber, but there was no one of the Council there! I counted up. There were just 12 Council Assistants present, no one in the front 3 rows where the actual Council members sit. So after Barosso's strident comments about a Federal Europe not one minister of any EU country could be bothered to attend Parliament, which is supposed to work in harmony with the Council.

Ís that a sign of Federal things to come?

Just to round of, a cutting from the press summary we get every day.-

Immigration - Law change could mean exodus of Russians to UK (Derby Evening Telegraph, p.14): "THE news that we could see a large exodus of Russian citizens coming into the UK is worrying. A law change in Latvia would see the right to citizenship handed to the children and grandchildren of all Latvians sent by Stalin and his Soviet successors into exile in Siberia. Many could end up in this country, as Latvians are entitled to live and work in the UK. (...). This law change could see the Latvian population in our towns and cities swell even more - we must regain control of our borders and getting out of the EU is the only way to do that. (Derek Clark UKIP MEP for the East Midlands)

Derek Clark MEP                                                       Strasbourg 13th Sept 2012

Joint Debate,- Fisheries

Speech to Parliament                             Tuesday 11th Sept 2012

Joint Debate,-  Fisheries

With fish stocks in serious decline in Europe's rich fishing grounds the CFP is a failure. And yet these reports are laced with the same old Euro-speak,- regulation, restrictions, prohibit.

Before the CFP most European fishermen, unhampered by bureaucratic interference, had been fishing responsibly, looking after their own waters and therefore handing on viable fisheries down the generations.

But the EU destroyed this culture of care and so now we have rules about Total Permissible Catch and the wretched discard policy which has decimated stocks.

If you don't like lessons from the past then try the present. Norway and Iceland still record good catches and find many species spawning well. But then, they ban discards and other destructive EU measures which, as noted in these reports, have reduced EU fishing fleets.

The UK fishing fleet is barely half its former size and so much of the fish sold in the UK now comes from Iceland. What an indictment of the CFP

Derek Clark   MEP                                                     Strasbourg 11th Sept 2012

Listen to me on the BBC Politics Show

Northampton Commentary                                                  19th July 2012

My commentary from the Employment Committee Meeting of 10th and 11th July
2012, last before the summer break, did not appear; it was a complete
mess.  This was scheduled for Tuesday 10th July 2012 starting in the
morning, going on all day and then for the morning of Wednesday 11th July
2012.  Voting in our committee usually takes place on the morning of the
second day, in this case, Wednesday11th July, but they brought that
forward to the Tuesday morning.

I had already arranged to travel on the Tuesday morning to get there at
midday and so to Committee in the afternoon.  I was not prepared to alter
travel arrangements to get there on the Monday, which I had set aside to
produce my latest column for the Lincolnshire Echo, due in that day.

So I missed the Voting and attended the afternoon.  Cyprus having just
taken over the Presidency their Minister for Labour addressed the
Committee.  For an hour, including questions from the floor, she went on
with all the usual platitudes.  “We must introduce programmes to boost
Employment, to help the Economy, we need growth....”, but without any
specific plan to resolve any of it.

I needed to take a break after that, I had other business to attend to and
went back in good time for the last Debate on the list, “Public
Procurement”.  I envisaged making another comment or two about Bombardier.
 Imagine my feelings when I got to the Committee Room with an hour to
spare before close of business to find that they had finished, all desks
were being cleared.  I then discovered that the Wednesday morning session
was cancelled.

I was rather annoyed about that.  After all, if you have read my previous
Commentary from Strasbourg you will know that this Committee had a Voting
Session of two hours during Plenary Session (on Thursday morning) taking
us out of attending the Plenary.  That was only four days before Committee
and they could have done all those votes on the Wednesday morning instead
of cancelling that session.

As a result of that shambles I have otherwise nothing to tell you about
the last Committee before the Summer recess.   I therefore offer you some
light Summer viewing.  Please see below two links, the first of which is
from the Politics Show of last Sunday with me and Bill Newton Dunn.  I’m
not particularly happy with my effort but you can make your own mind up.
The second link is from the EFD Group with a very great number of videos
and other material.  Enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ks047/Sunday_Politics_East_Midlands_15_07_2012
(View this at 31.30 along on the scroll bar on the video)

Link to videos/commentaries/news etc for UKIP MEPS
http://www.efdgroup.eu/in-your-country/united-kingdom-ukip.html