online diary of Richard Corbett MEP

October 2003

Wednesday 1 October

Lengthy interview with Bradford Community Radio, coffee with an old friend and then to a Charter 88 meeting with Gisela Stewart MP and Denis McShane MP on the “F” word. Should we rehabilitate federalism? It all depends what you mean by the term.

And so to Brussels.

Thursday 2 October

To BBC studio in the European Parliament for debate on the new European constitution with Lord Stockton (Tory), Sjoested (Swedish Green) and Antall (a Hungarian Christian Democrat).

Catch up with paperwork and have dinner with Julian Priestley, the British Secretary General of the European Parliament who I have known since I was a student.

Friday 3 October

Memo to my office:

When typing letters, documents etc., cosiderable time is used ensuring thqt the speling is corect.

New research from Cambridge Universirty indicicates   that peolpe don't read wrods the way we thort they ddid. It seems the eye deosn't need the whol word. It notes mainly the frist and last lettres and fills in the rest by inrefence. you can even add or dorp lettres. The jumumble in btweeen is irrveralent. Cogintion hapnens vrey fast and quite misteriollusly.

Form now onn, yuo shldn't spnd waht wld be wastedd time chekcing and corecting wordds or lagnuage, as raeders can prefectly well make sens of wot your saying even if itt issnt slepped crorectly.

Richrd

Monday 6 October

Visit to eye doctor and then to Brussels for a series of meetings with staff, academics and journalists. Mountain of paperwork and several hundred emails.

Tuesday 7 October

EPLP meeting with David Triesman , the Secretary General of the Labour Party. Not only a charming chap but very knowledgeable about European affairs.

Afternoon is the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Socialist Group. Speeches from John Hume, Jacques Delors, the Romanian Prime Minister and my colleague Catherine Stihler as the youngest Socialist MEP. John Hume repeats the story he used in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

“On my first visit to Strasbourg in 1979 as a Member of the European Parliament, I went for a walk cross the bridge from Strasbourg to Kehl. Strasbourg is in France. Kehl is in Germany. They are very close. I stopped in the middle of the bridge and I meditated. There is Germany – there is France. If I had stood on this bridge 30 years before at the end of the Second World War when 25 million people lay dead across our continent and if I had said: ‘Don't worry. In 30 years time we will all be together in a new Europe, our conflicts and wars will be ended and we will be working together in our common parliament', I would have been sent to a psychiatrist. But it has happened and it is now clear that the European Union is the best example in the history of the world of conflict resolution.”

The event was followed by a reception at Brussels Town Hall hosted by the Mayor, former MEP Freddy Thielemans.

He was named “Freddy” because he was born the day British troops liberated Brussels in 1944. His parents resolved to name him after the first British soldier they came across, which happened to be a certain Freddy. They stayed inHome | Photos | Links | Contact, with little Freddy visiting England and learning perfect English. When he was invested as mayor of Brussels , the English family came over (though sadly without the original Freddy who had died a couple of years before) for the ceremony.

Freddy speaks a rather colloquial style French and Dutch but when he switches to English it is to a remarkably plummy Oxford accent which never ceases to amaze. He also learnt to play rugby during his childhood visits to England and joined the British rugby team in Brussels – most of whom thought he was English until the day he became, to their utter disbelief, the Mayor of Brussels.

Wednesday 8 October

Give a talk to the constitutional committee of the Swedish Parliament, who were visiting Brussels . Then on to a meeting of the GMB MEPs.

Lunch with the Head of the Conciliation Committee Secretariat then a meeting with Socialist members of the Committee of Regions. Both the Swedes and the Regional ministers and councillors broadly agree with my views on the draft new constitution.

Eventually escape from Parliament just before midnight after speaking in evening debate.

Thursday 9 October

Lunch with Hedley Salt of Yorkshire Water before catching the flight back to Leeds-Bradford Airport.

Dinner with Lol who has brought the most urgent office correspondence with her, as I am off early the next morning to Hull.

Friday 10 October

Up at 6.30am to get to Hull for meeting with the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Hull University and Professor Burgess at 9.00am on some of their European Research projects. 10.00am meeting in Hull Guildhall with the Labour Council Leaders from Yorkshire and Humber local Councils. The meeting largely focuses on the prospects for regional devolution and next year's referendum on the subject.

The eurosceptics are putting about the preposterous idea that regional devolution is somehow being imposed by “ Brussels” in order to split up the UK!

Lunchtime meeting in Wakefield with the Wakefield 50+ group (for people over 50 years of age) and on to the launch of Wakefield Regeneration Strategy – in a tent outside the Town Hall.

To the office where I congratulate Hilary Benn on becoming the latest Cabinet Minister, just four years after his election to the House of Commons.

Quick meeting with Tom Riordon of Yorkshire Forward – he is their chief economic guru but a very nice guy despite that.

In the evening off to speak in Bradford at the “Intercultural Leadership School” – a group that brings together young Muslims, Christians and others to have a dialogue of civilizations and establish mutual understanding. My speech well received.

Saturday 11 October

Labour Party regional policy forum in Leeds focusing on “ Britain in the World”. Good introductory speech by Hilary Benn who handles difficult questions on Iraq with great tact and skill.

Iraq does not completely dominate the proceedings. There are questions on Europe as well. The draft new EU constitution fully supported, despite the nonsense people have read about it in the tabloids.

Move on to a meeting later in the afternoon in an adjacent room on “Ways Ahead for the Labour Movement” with Alan Simpson MP. Alan bemoans the lack of opportunities for policy discussion in the Labour party – ironic as some seventy people had been doing just that in the next room for most of the day!

Sunday 12 October

A MEMO FROM BOSSES on the Sunday Express which was leaked in the summer provides an insight into the demented state of the media class:

"We do not have many sex stories or scandals, but that will change. We are aiming to have six sex stories a week. In an ideal world we should have a ‘Cabinet Minister affair' story…sex and scandal in the highest level of society always sells well, but these stories are notoriously difficult to get. We need to be constantly stirring things up…We must make the readers cross…the appalling state of the railways, the neglect of the health service, the problem of teenage pregnancies, the inability of bureaucrats to get enough done properly, etc etc.” (Quoted in The Observer, 12th Oct. '03, p. 31)

… and they wonder why politicians get paranoid about the media!

Monday 13 October

Virtually no meetings - the piles of letters, emails and reading material shrink by half. Dinner to discuss how to get the European Commission to take on one of the world's multinational monopolies: DeBeers.

Tuesday 14 October

Series of meetings in Brussels: EPLP Bureau, Socialist Group Bureau,Home | Photos | Links | Contact group for the intergovernmental conference (where I represent the Socialist Group) and I give a talk to the new Labour candidates for next year's European elections who were out on training. In the evening, full EPLP meeting and then dinner with Chris Naylor (new candidate in Yorkshire) and my fellow Labour MEPs in Yorkshire , Linda McAvan and David Bowe (plus Kay and Toby from my office).

Drop in at fundraiser for my two colleagues who are running the New York marathon to raise money for charity – good luck to them!

Wednesday 15 October

Working groups, committees in the morning, Socialist Group in the afternoon. Lunch with European Business Network (largely UK).

Meeting of the EPLP with Jackie Smith , Minister for Industry and the Regions, on the future of EU Regional Funding. Treasury/DTI position challenged by every MEP who spoke. The likely outcome of negotiations on the new structural funding 2006-2013 is that there will still be some money available for the less prosperous regions in the current Member States: it won't all go to central & eastern Europe. So why does the UK Treasury want to scrap it for the UK and have a smaller fund for Eastern Europe only? Yorkshire, for one, still needs regeneration funding.

Evening meeting with the Association of UK Colleges, including Dawn Carter from Wakefield college. Then the Solidar Awards Ceremony for social and environmental NGOs active at European level.

Thursday 16 October

Fly back to Yorkshire.

Meeting with the Trade Unions and later Management of Federal Mogul in Bradford, who have just announced the factory's closure with the loss of nearly 400 jobs. Under European legislation, before any such closure can take place, there must be a consultation period when management and workers work together to discuss possible alternatives. I am puzzled about the sudden announcement that the plant had suddenly become ‘uncompetitive'. A year ago, the business was doing well and staff were given increased salaries. Why didn't the company see this coming? There have been further productivity improvements since then. Meanwhile, sterling has fallen by over 12% against the euro in the last year – so they can't blame a strong pound either.

Do some campaigning in the Mixenden and Great Horton by-elections voting today. Late evening, join the count for the Great Horton by election. Our excellent candidate Liz Devlin won, taking the seat off the Tories and making Labour the largest group on the Council. Celebrations back at the Home | Photos | Links | Contactof the agent, Paul Flowers.

Friday 17 October

Morning dealing with constituents' cases in office. Then off to Grimsby to participate in a Council meeting. They have also invited Tim Kirkhope and Diana Wallis , Tory and LibDem MEPs. Although the meeting is on the future of EU regional funding for the area, Kirkhope talks about the draft EU Constitution, obliging me to respond (I'm Labour's spokesman on the subject).

On the way there and on the way back, I do a detour near Selby to pick up Pat Sutcliffe, who is on Labour's team of candidates for next year's European elections. She will be shadowing me at various events over the next few months. She will be an asset to our team.

Monday 20 October

Strasbourg week again, with all the usual travel hassles. The air segment involved getting up at 5.00 a.m. for a flight at 7.00 to London , where I then spend 4 hours in the lounge waiting for the connecting flight. And some people think flying is jet-setting glamour!

Strasbourg is beautiful: cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, gothic spires and riverbank restaurants. Great for tourists. But beauty is not a criterion for the location of a Parliament – if it were we'd be in Venice (spoiling it in the process!) and the House of Commons would be in York.

It is, in fact, a grubby deal brokered by John Major at the Edinburgh summit in 1992 that forces us, for four days a month, to abandon our perfectly adequate buildings in Brussels, and traipse across Europe to a town remote from the other EU institutions and exceedingly difficult to get to from most places in Europe. Going to Strasbourg is not a treat, but an exercise in enforced drudgery.

What's more, the British tabloid press – when it deigns to refer to the European Parliament - insists that this terrible waste is all the fault of the MEPs. In fact, given the choice, most MEPs would scrap Strasbourg tomorrow.

Tuesday 21 October

EPLP meeting with John Grant, new UK Permanent Representative (Ambassador) to the EU. He has the courage to admit his mistakes when we lambast him about sundry briefings from his office.

I represent Socialist Group in long negotiations with other Groups to agree a Parliament position on the IGC talks, on which we will vote on Thursday.

Six more meetings in the afternoon, one of which with visiting UK animal rights campaigners.

Evening, committee meeting with Frattini, the Italian Foreign Affairs minister currently chairing the EU Council. Then on, appropriately enough, to an Italian dinner.

Wednesday 22 October

Debate with Berlusconi (the Italian Prime Minister currently chairing the European Council) thankfully fails to produce the same fireworks as last time.

Miss the evening's European football on TV, as I work in the office until midnight , as does Linda McAvan , my fellow Yorkshire & Humber MEP in the next office.

Thursday 23 October

Rotten night's sleep, but up as always at 7.00 to have a quiet hour in the Parliament before things get too hectic.

Receive a visiting Icelandic politician who turns out to have read both my books from which he proceeds to produce quotes from years ago!

Then two solid hours of voting, largely on the EU budget.

Learn that Tory MEP Bushill- Matthews has written a book about the Parliament called "The Gravy Train" He is reputed to be a pro-European Tory and the book, I am told, is largely positive of the European Parliament, but the press coverage has seized on the title only. No doubt it will boost his reputation among Tory eurosceptics!

Time to pack up and start the long trek back to Yorkshire.

Friday 24 October

Children from Brigshaw School in Allerton Bywater come to my Leeds office to present me with a petition on the transport of horses for slaughter in Europe. Radio Leeds comes too. As it happens, the European Commission has just proposed new regulations on animal transport tightening up existing provisions – but insufficiently in my view. I promise that we will try to amend it when it comes before Parliament.

vening to Halifax where I address the CLP with Alice Mahon MP.

Sunday 26 October

Antwerp. Half an hour from Brussels. Europe's second largest port. Hosted Olympic games in 1920. Lovely historic town with manyHome | Photos | Links | Contactto England, the latest of which is architect Richard Rogers who is building the new law courts. I wonder what will happen to the cafés near the old courts with their delightfully appropriate names such as “The innocent lamb” and “The guilty conscience”.

Monday 27 October

Parliament's building in Brussels echoes to the sound of hammers as I show Leeds Councillor James Lewis around. New interpreters booths are being added to the main meeting rooms to cater for Polish, Hungarian, Czech and the other five new languages that will be neede as of next May when the EU enlarges.

Interpretation is what makes European Parliament debates somewhat dull compared to the cut and thrust of Westminster. Trying to tell a joke is always risky in plenary: some (if you're lucky) will laugh immediately, others may laugh ten seconds later and by the time you've moved on to make a serious point, the last interpretation of your previous remarks is coming through and you find a group of people the other side of the room suddenly laughing at you. It is quite perplexing.

But many jokes are entirely unintentional. One classic story is about a debate in which a member from Normandy came up a suggestion that met with universal acclaim. One of the French MEPs, using an old French expression, said that this was thanks to " la sagesse normande" [ the wisdom of the people from Normandy ]. The English interpretation rendered this as “all being thanks to Norman Wisdom ”. No one of any other nationality could quite understand why the British and Irish members were in stitches!

Interpreters cannot be expected to know all the latest fad expressions in all the languages. That is why a German MEP never quite understood why Michael Cashman seemed to call him “a waterproof coat” (he had called him an “anorak”).

I myself was once going up in the lift with a young French woman who, I knew, had just started working as an assistant to four German MEPs. I asked her " comment ca va avec tes allemends?" [How is it going with your Germans?]. However, she though I said "comment ca va avec tes amants?[ how is it going with your lovers?] . She replied "what you mean? I don't have any! " I said" I thought you had four ". Looking shocked, she asked where I had got that idea. I replied "that you told me - you said you had four of them. You were looking forward to the challenge. Two of them you didn't know before, but you had heard they were quite nice ..."

Linguistic confusion can arise even without translation between languages, not least thanks to jargon. The EU is no worse than most in the acronyms it generates, but sometimes, in legal texts that have been translated back and forth a few times, simple terms can reappear as quite a mouthful. Thus, the EU doesn't call a spade a spade: it is a “single-bladed mono-handled digging instrument”! Digging further, a rear view mirror is rendered as a “supplementary instrument for indirect vision”!

Tuesday 28 October

Back to Yorkshire already as this is "constituency week" - one of three weeks in the year when there are (almost) no parliamentary meetings so that we have an opportunity to be available in our constituencies on days other than Thursday afternoon, Friday, and weekends.

Of course, we also have the parliamentary recess, but this is far shorter for the European Parliament than for the House of Commons. While both break mid-July for the summer, they resume in early October while we go back for the last week of August.

Wednesday 29 October

To my local library in Shipley for a photo of me signing an on-line petition on the transport of horses, at the request of local animal welfare organisations. It is interesting how activist groups very quickly become aware of developments at EU level in their field. Rest of day in office.

Thursday 30 October

So, the Tories really have dumped Duncan Smith after just two years. Hague was the first Tory leader since 1922 (at least!) not to have become Prime Minister, and the record has promptly been equalised by his successor! Let's hope they haven't learned the lesson and go for Clarke or Portillo, which would give us a real challenge.