Strasbourg
Commentary Plenary Session 21st – 24th May 2012
I try to complete my commentaries
before I leave Strasbourg on Thursday, fresh in the mind. But flight times are
such that I sometimes need to leave immediately after voting on Thursday, preventing
write-up in the afternoon. Too late by the time I get back and Friday is
catching up with the emails that have come in, hence the delay on this one.
In fact it was a rather odd week with
not much serious business. Debates on, for example, Civil Liberties, Euro
coins, Gender equality, Bluefin Tuna, EU and China Trade, The Ukraine, Youth
Opportunities, Homophobia, and, calling for quotas on permits for EU people
going to reside in Switzerland. What business of the EU is that? It makes one
wonder if the EU machine is grinding to a halt, or working up to a deluge of
intrusive measures.
Among all that were Debates/ votes
on some real issues,-
Another raid on the fisheries of
emerging nations, this time granting licences to plunder the waters of
Mozambique, was carried by 566 – 89 votes.
A report to beef up EU powers to
investigate UK affairs, like summoning witnesses, was defeated. It will come
again.
However, be alarmed at the
Podimata report, establishing the Financial Transaction Tax which will destroy
the City of London. We supported a Tory amendment to reject, lost by 112 – 557
votes. The report was then passed by 487 – 152. You may have picked up adverse
comments about Godfrey Bloom and Marta Andreason about this. Vicky Ford, Tory
MEP Eastern, speaking in the House, slated them both for being absent from
committee when this was adopted, prior to plenary. She was completely out of
order. First she said that the final vote in committee was 22 all, in which
case the report fails and it would not have come to plenary. But Marta had sent
in a substitute (commonly done) to vote for her and, in any case, the final
committee vote was 32 – 10, so our two MEPs made no difference anyway. The 22-all
vote referred to an amendment debated in an earlier meeting. Was this an error
on Ms Ford’s part, or did she think we were not listening ?
Finally, a letter of mine which
has appeared in several regional papers and quoted in the London Press
Summaries which appears in the EU emails every day, this one 20th May
Remploy
workplaces- 'Closure of Remploy will drive people
out of work'
(Letter from Derek Clark MEP
to Derby Evening Telegraph, p. 14): "I hope that many people
are as appalled as I am at the recent comments by Iain Duncan Smith as Work and
Pensions Secretary. He proposes to close a number of Remploy workplaces and thus
drive disabled people out of employment. His scathing comments about the work
ethic of these people is beneath contempt. Disabled people at Remploy have the dignity of
going to work, rather than calling on the benefits system - an example to us
all. If that was not bad enough the Foreign Secretary William Hague now tells
us we all have to work harder (...). In any case, many British people cannot
work any harder. Does the Foreign Secretary of all people not know that we are
in the EU? We are subject to the
'Working Time Directive' which limits employees to 48 hours per week. How then,
can they work harder?"
I enclose this one following our very good day in
Chesterfield, Sat 26th, to promote the UKIP candidate in a council by-election,
July 5th . Our candidate is ex-Lib-Dem Councillor, Keith Lomas, one of
four Lib-Dems in that branch to have joined us. A fine candidate, he deserves
to do well and I was very pleased to see the support of local branch members,
including the recent recruits. Just down the pavement from our stall was the
Socialist Workers Party, fixing placards to lamp posts denouncing the Remploy
closures! I tried to engage the placard-fixer-in-chief in conversation saying
how much I agreed with him over that, if on nothing else. No reply! They packed
up an hour before we did!
Derek Clark MEP Northampton,
in lieu of Strasbourg, June 3rd 2012
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