online diary of Richard Corbett MEP

May 2004

Monday 3 May

Strasbourg : the ceremony for the entry of the 10 new member states into the Parliament. Presidents of the ten Parliaments of the new member states hand over their national flag to the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox. They are then raised up the flagpoles to the tune of the ‘Ode to Joy', the European Anthem.

Pat Cox is accompanied by Lech Walesa: nothing could symbolise more pertinently the transition that has happened in Eastern Europe over the last few years. When Walesa led the Gdansk ship builders on strike against the Polish communist dictatorship, few would have dreamt that, within a generation, they and the other Central and Eastern European countries would be pluralist democracies joining together with Western Europe in an enlarged European Union.

Nonetheless, I am surprised that some of the younger parliamentary assistants didn't know Lech Walesa was! It made me feel very old.

In the afternoon, I do my first ever debate on Polish television along with leaders of the Christian Democrat Liberal groups in the European Parliament and a Green MEP. The Polish TV moderator was more nervous than us, as it was his first ever broadcast from Strasbourg .

In the evening, dinner with Neil Kinnock. He continues to be somebody who can coin prosaic phrases at the drop of a hat. Referring to the British press's treatment of enlargement, he said ‘Never has such a triumph been so sullied by prejudice'. He is positively relishing the prospect, once unleashed from his role as Vice-President of the European Commission in November, to go campaigning in Britain on the issue of Europe and to win a referendum on the constitution.

Tuesday 4 May

I have an early breakfast with Paavo Lipponen, former Prime Minister of Finland and potential candidate for President of the European Commission, whom I've known for several years. He is an ardent Liverpool supporter, but confesses to a subsidiary interest in Bolton Wanderers, who currently have a Finnish goalkeeper. Lipponen is solid and sensible on all current European issues, and a perfect gentleman. In terms of delivery of message, however, he has a somewhat more plodding and cumbersome style than, say, Vitorino, who is also a potential candidate. That being said, one can only admire people who can hold forth in several different languages on complex issues, as both of them can. Pat Cox, the President of the European Parliament, who is also emerging as a potential candidate for President of the Commission, is probably the most articulate of all – but only in English.

In the Parliament, there is a short debate to commemorate the 25 th Anniversary of the death of Jean Monnet and the 20 th Anniversary of Parliament adopting its proposed treaty on the European Union – the first draft of a constitutional treaty – commonly referred to as the Spinelli draft treaty after the name of Parliament's rapporteur.

I am the sole speaker for the Socialist Group in this commemoration and I refer to the work of Spinelli, who I knew and worked with closely at that time. He was a remarkable man, having spent 17 years in Mussolini's prisons as a political prisoner. Indeed, many years later, before speaking in the Parliament, he would often pace up and down outside the Chamber, four steps in each direction, the size of his prison cell.

In the Parliament, Spinelli fashioned a draft constitution by patiently thrashing out a compromise among all the main political groups. It eventually secured the support of 88% - including even 79% of the British Conservatives, who had their own political group in the Parliament at the time. (Joining the Christian Democrat Group seems not to have made them any more pro-European!)

This draft treaty created enough political momentum to generate successive revisions of the EU treaties: the Single European Act, Maastricht , Amsterdam and Nice treaties, each of which, incrementally, took up many of the ideas in the Spinelli draft. It transformed the European Community of the 1980s into the European Union we have today.

In the afternoon, Parliament decisively rejects a motion of no confidence in the Commission tabled by the eurosceptic EDD group (which includes the UK Independence Party) and a handful of Tories who persisted in signing it despite instructions from their leadership not to. Predictably, this is seen as a publicity ploy prior to the elections, and was supported by none of the mainstream political groups in the Parliament. Ostensibly over the ‘Eurostat' affair – an agency in which dubious methods of financing their studies and publications had taken place – it's hard to see how this would justify sending home the whole Commission, including the new members from Central and Eastern Europe who would have just joined it. To the extent that any Commissioner can be held responsible for an agency, it would have been Commissioner Solbes, who has in any case resigned from the Commission since these events of several years ago took place.

The main effect of the motion of censure seems to have been to cause major rifts among the Conservatives, but predictably the British press have hardly picked this up at all.

Talking of the press, the campaign by Hans-Peter Martin (an Austrian member) comes unstuck. He had tried to discredit the Parliament by alleging that MEPs were falsely claiming their attendance allowances. First, the President of Parliament announces that, having looked into the allegations, there was no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing. Second, a German court has given an injunction against him repeating some of his false claims on pain of a massive fine or imprisonment. Third, the President announces that Hans-Peter Martin himself had been caught trying to falsify his voting record: members are entitled to correct their voting record if they made a mistake (pressing the wrong button), but Hans-Peter Martin had attempted to change the record to show that he had actually participated in votes which he had in fact missed. As these votes concerned a reform of the parliamentary allowances system which he was so keen to criticise, this failure smacks of rank hypocrisy.

In the evening to a final goodbye party (beer, wine and sandwiches buffet, with live music) for the Socialist Group – an opportunity for tearful goodbyes to all those members who are not standing again. I had a long chat with Commissioner Vitorino and I am all the more convinced that he is the best candidate for the next President of the Commission.

Wednesday 5 May

Early morning meeting with Parliament's two representatives to the intergovernmental conference negotiating the new constitution, Klaus Hänsch and Elmar Brok. We go through the current issues. It seems that one of the drafts removed Parliament's powers in the field of regional policy entirely, but this was explained away as having been a typing error! Of course, such mistakes can happen, but I can't help wondering how often they have happened in Parliament's favour rather than to its detriment!

We have the final votes of this Parliament, approving the enlarged Commission and approving most (but not all) nominees from the new member states to the Court of Auditors. Two were not approved by Parliament and will not be appointed.

Pat Cox, the President of Parliament, makes a final speech highlighting Parliament's record over the last two and half years under his presidency and, surprisingly, announces that he himself will not be a candidate in the European elections. One newspaper reports that he is facing anything from long term unemployment to being the next Pope. More likely is that he will be a member, and possibly even President, of the next Commission.

And so I leave Strasbourg for the last time this Parliament. Will I return after the elections?

Thursday 6 May

I go to the osteopath, the results of my scan having come through and showing that I have a disc hernia in my back which is pressing against the sciatic nerve. This more precise information enables to osteopath to focus her attentions on the appropriate part of my body. She assures me that my back should improve, but not for a few days yet.

The office also gets the email of the month: a student writes in saying he's got an exam in two days time where there will be a question on the European Union and could we send him a detailed breakdown of the EU's current aims and objectives, the impact of enlargement and how each of the EU institutions functions!

Friday 7 May

I visit the Christian Salveson distribution company employing some 420 people at its site in Sheffield (along with 16,000 other workers in their 200 sites in 8 European countries). I am the guest of the GMB trade union and have meetings with the management and workforce.

It is an impressive operation which distributes Marks & Spencer textiles and furniture items to the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber and beyond – a technologically highly advanced warehouse.

Interestingly, the management says that it has no difficulty whatsoever with any of the European employment legislation (which the Institute of Directors claims sometimes stifles companies with red tape).

Then back to the office. The Guardian has asked whether they can publish my daily blog on their website every three days. The intervening days will be for MEPs from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. It will not be quite the same version as on this blog, as we'll be invited to “have a go at each other” on the key issues of the campaign.

Saturday 8 May

Off on the 7am train to London where I'm speaking at a conference organised by Citizens for Europe on the draft constitution (in the morning) and a debate with candidates of other parties on the European elections (in the afternoon).

The debate between candidates involved myself, a Conservative, a Liberal and a Green. Apparently UKIP were invited as well, but declined the offer. I expect they only accept offers where they know they can bring along a large number of supporters to try to pack the audience. That would have been difficult in this case as there were well over 100 people attending this conference.

I noted with pleasure that my LME/Fabian pamphlet responding to Gisela Stewart's criticisms of the draft constitution had been copied by the organisers and made available on the publications desk.

Co-incidentally, after the conference I bumped into Gisela quite by chance: she was on her way to Afghanistan .

Monday 10 May

So we're off! Today is the launch of Labour's European election campaign. As candidates, we can all look forward to non-stop campaigning over the next month.

What is at stake? Well, some very real issues actually depend on who gains the upper hand in the European Parliament.

The Parliament shapes our laws on those few but important subjects where we have Europe-wide legislation: the environment, common rules for the common market in fields such as consumer protection, competition policy, basic employment rights and aid to less prosperous regions.

Do we want our market to be a free-for-all, unregulated and without rules of the game? Or do we want it to be a level playing field, with regulations to protect the weak and vulnerable, and to help the less prosperous catch up? That is what is at stake in these elections.

Labour stands for high standards of environmental and consumer protection, proper work place rights and fair trade – while Liberals want a simple free-for-all market> As for the Tories, some want the same, while others advocate complete withdrawal.

Labour MEPs have worked hard to ensure that we get good European legislation in those matters where there is a real advantage in having Europe-wide rules - but only in those matters where it is in the common good to work together with our neighbours.

The Parliament is an essential democratic safeguard for checking on the quality and acceptability of European legislation. Since the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, its approval has necessary for the adoption of important European legislation.

But I suspect the other parties will try to turn this into the red herring election. The Liberals are already saying this will be a referendum on Iraq – though what on earth the European Parliament has to do with decision-taking on Iraq is hard to discern. In fact, it's rank hypocrisy for an allegedly pro-European party – keen to enhance the proper role of the European Parliament and develop it into a true democratic instrument in the European Union – to fight the election on a purely national issue, over which those elected to the European Parliament will have no influence.

As for the Tories, they're up to their old tricks of playing to the euro-sceptic media. They will be making loud complaints that the EU is on its way to the mythical ‘super-state'. No end of stories will be reeled out about how we are approaching the end of a thousand years of British history and how all powers are to be handed over to ‘bureaucrats' in Brussels.

The Tory strategy is really rather sad when one considers that just a week ago we were welcoming 10 new countries into the European Union: two from the Commonwealth (Malta and Cyprus) and eight former communist countries in Eastern Europe. On Monday we welcomed 162 members into the European Parliament from the new countries.

And there was a moving ceremony at which Lech Walesa spoke. Nothing could symbolise more pertinently the transition that has happened in Eastern Europe over the last few years. When Walesa led the Gdansk ship builders on strike against the Polish communist dictatorship, few would have dreamed that, within a generation, they and the other Central and Eastern European countries would be pluralist democracies joining together with Western Europe in an enlarged European Union.

Sadly, the way that this historic event has been treated in much of the British press has been depressing, with their fanciful scare stories about uncontrollable immigration. In the words of Neil Kinnock, “never has such a triumph been so sullied by prejudice”. Unfortunately, we will be facing much more prejudice of this sort in the European elections, and our principal opponents will be doing little to rebut it.

Evening go leafleting in Eccleshill with some of the local candidates; Jim O'Neil, Anne-Marie Benson and Bob Sowman. It's lovely weather and the view from the top of Eccleshill is spectacular. By chance we do the street where my colleague Linda McAvan's sister lives and we pop in to say hello.

As dusk falls, escape to the Cow and Calf pub above Ilkley, where we bump into Geoff Druett from YTV.

Tuesday 11 May

To Harrogate to debate with other candidates at the Royal College of Nursing conference. The nurses are well info rmed and have their own proposals for the next Parliament.

Then to a fundraising evening organised by a Bradford Labour party activist, Steve Banbrook, who will climb Mount Everest to raise money for the Royal Institute for the Blind. Maria Eagle, Minster for Disabled People, is there and speaks about the work of the RNIB and the problems faced by disabled people, which encourages us all to dig a little deeper for the collection tins. A chat with Steve reveals that he had originally planned to take part in the Great North Run and then fly straight out to climb Everest, but discovered that there were no connecting flights, so was no going to settle for just climbing Everest!

Wednesday 12 May

My daughter's birthday. She is thirteen years old which means I now have two teenage daughters in the household! She opens her presents in the evening when we have family and friends round.

Campaign wise, it's a day devoted mainly to radio interviews.

Thursday 13 May

Off to Hull for the local launch of the European election campaign on Queen Victoria Square in the city centre. Balloons, banners, flags and the usual paraphinaelia, but no journalist present has a camera. Had a cup of tea with my fellow MEP, Linda McAvan: apparently the Sun, with its usual hyperbole, has described me as “the mastermind behind the European Constitution” – though they don't mean it as a compliment!

Then off to Morley South to do some canvassing with Colin Challen MP, and local candidates Dave Langham, Debra Cooper and Sherry Bradley. The response is excellent and gives the lie to those newspaper pundits who are claiming that Labour is on its last legs.

Evening meeting with John Prescott at Cardinal Heenen High School in North Leeds. Ian MacCartney, the Party Chair is there too and they put on a double act, which is both entertaining and motivating at the same time. The warm-up act is by John Middleton (better known as the vicar on Emmerdale!).

Friday 14 May

Sheffield. Local launch of the campaign with the usual stand of balloons, leaflets and press photos. We also spend an hour leafleting in the city centre with a highly positive response. I am impressed by how one of the local MPs deals with a constituent who has a complaint about her neighbour's dog. He immediately asks “is it biting, barking or shitting?”.

Following a meeting in Sheffield City Hall, I rush back to Leeds to go to Elland Road to visit Leeds United's impressive literacy programme. The programme has gained recognition as one of the foremost schemes of its type in the country: young people who struggle with conventional education systems are paired with Premiership stars and encouraged to develop literacy skills through their enthusiasm for football.

We can be proud that Leeds United has attained national recognition for their work with these Yorkshire young people – providing opportunities to develop their reading which their circumstances might not traditionally offer.

I phone up the UKIP hotline. If any reader wants to try this and have half an hour of futile discussion leaving one equally amused by the absurdity of their comments and alarmed by the fact that they really mean it, then do go ahead: the number is 0800 587 6587.

They really believe that anything with the word “Europe” in it is evil. Their spokesman actually says that “God created the English Channel for a reason”! Britain, he says, is not a European country at all (presumably we are Latin American!). He proudly tells me that the 3 UKIP MEPs were the only British MEPs to vote against allowing 10 new countries to join the EU – he explains that the countries were “forced” to join against their will. When I point out that they'd actually delivered a endorsements of membership in referenda, he faltered, and then came out with “Well you obviously know more about it than me”.

Most worrying of all, when I ask why he objects to us agreeing common rules with our neighbouring countries in Europe, but not at world level through the far less democratic WTO system, he doesn't know what the WTO is!

Yet these are the people who hope to win, they say, 10 seats in the European elections on a platform not dissimilar from that of the BNP.

Saturday 15 May

Go canvassing in Shipley with Chris Leslie MP and several local party stalwarts and candidates in the local elections. We get a good response and even come across a constituent, who lives two streets away from me in Saltaire, who has a copy of the European Constitution. Chris Leslie has just got engaged, and - according to press reports - actually proposed on his knee in a top London restaurant!

Took a few minutes out from doorstep campaigning to watch a few minutes of the Eurovision song contest – as heart-warming as ever (!). I was surprised to learn this morning that France has awarded more points to the UK in the history of the contest than to any other country. The entente cordiale is alive and well!

Sunday 16 May

Join Colin Burgon MP and a large number of party volunteers and candidates to go out leafleting in Whinmoor and Swarcliffe. There is brilliant sunshine and the mood is good. We treat ourselves afterwards to drinks in the garden of the Sidings pub in Scholes.

Tuesday 18 May

Early start to get from Saltaire to Allerton Bywater, where I address the assembled sixth formers at Brigshaw School . The school buildings are brand new, the old ones having fallen victim to a fire four years ago. There's a real buzz about the school. It's applying for specialist language school status and the sixth formers are interested in the language regime of the European Parliament. When I ask how many of them are interested in being an interpreter, a few hands go up. Then one of them asks how much interpreters earn, and following my reply a whole forest of hands shoot up!

Back to the office, where messages have come in congratulating me on my article in today's Yorkshire Post, explaining what the draft EU constitution is all about. Some people, at least, are glad to have an explanation rather than scare stories.

In the evening I drive up to Ripon to address the Rotary Club of Ripon Rowels. In fact, it is just north of Ripon at the lovely Staveley Arms pub in North Staveley.

Wednesday 19 May

The day starts visiting old people's homes, sheltered accommodation and community centres in Bradford with formidable local candidates Rita Goulden, Mohammed Yaqoob and Suzanne Rooney – Terry Rooney MP's wife.

Are owners of Staffordshire bull terriers entitled to a Labour Party election leaflet? That's the question confronting me as I leaflet in Wakefield. Party members try to persuade me not to go up the garden path where one such dog is baring its teeth. However, I make friends with the dog and these constituents don't miss out on their leaflet. I only hope we can persuade them to be friendly to Labour as easily as I persuaded their dog!

In the afternoon, leafleting in Wakefield Rural (with Maureen Cummings, Hazel Chowcat and Matthew Morley) and Horbury and Ossett (with Brian Holmes and others). One of the others is a lady whose husband is actually standing as a Lib Dem candidate in that ward, so it's with particular relish that she goes leafleting for Labour!

Thursday 20 May

In this election, ballot boxes are red, gleaming and erect. They can be found in their thousands on street corners and squares in every town and village. 'The post box is your ballot box' is the catchphrase of the public information campaign.

To help get the message across, we set off today in a people carrier to do a whistle-stop tour of the region. Pat Sutcliffe, Jo Coles and myself (three of Labour's six Euro candidates) go to Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Batley, Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, Huddersfield and Kirkheaton. In each place, we meet with local election candidates and the local press photograph us with a huge inflatable postbox. It gives us an opportunity to get our political message across as well as talk to shoppers and passers-by. Fortunately, the weather is brilliant.

In Huddersfield, we take our photo next to the statue of Harold Wilson. A silly Tory student watching us rang 999 to tell the police that a group of people were vandalising Harold Wilson's statue. The police were not very amused when they arrived only to find it was us - but the student had run off well beforehand, realising he could be charged with wasting police time.

Friday 21 May

Second day of our minibus tour - this time to Morley, Pudsey, Otley and Little London, all in Leeds. Each time we are joined by local candidates for a photo opportunity, usually followed by campaigning activities (street stalls, canvassing or leafleting).

In the evening to Holmfirth for the launch of the local branch's campaign, with Kali Mountford MP and local candidates, combined with a fundraising social. I do one of my standard comedy act speeches combined with a few serious bits about Europe.

Saturday 22 May

The tour continues. For Grimbsy, Austin Mitchell MP comes out to do his bit for Europe (!) along with Muriel Barker, Yorkshire's representative on the EU's consultative Committee of Regions. In Scunthorpe, we're joined by Elliot Morley and Labour leader Nic Dakin. Then to Epworth and Goole where we are joined by Ian Cawsey MP.

In all locations, we have stalls, balloons, leaflets etc - and a good response from the public - or at least those members of the public we managed to talk to. It's noticeable that some carefully keep their distance. Not interested in politics? Not interested in Labour? Or do we simply look like washing powder salesmen?

Linda hears the most original excuse from someone not to be voting Labour: they object to the Queen's choice for the new Poet Laureate!

Sunday 23 May

In the morning, campaigning in Wakefield with Janet Deighton, local candidate and Mary Creagh, the recently selected Labour candidate to succeed retiring MP David Hinchcliffe. I've known Mary for many years and she will be a first-class MP for Wakefield.

Afternoon and evening meetings in Bradford and Halifax with the Kashmiri community. Each meeting had between two and three hundred people present. The main focus of criticism towards the Labour government is Iraq, but this is tempered with appreciation for many of the government's other policies and an understanding of the EU's potential as a valuable counterbalance to US foreign policy. In Halifax, the other speakers included Alice Mahon MP and Lord Ahmed, who made a superb speech switching continually between English and Punjabi.

Monday 24 May

Brilliant sunshine, beautiful scenery. We continue our magical mystery tour around North Yorkshire starting in York and proceeding to Ripon, Richmond, Northallerton, Thirsk, Malton and back to York.

Much discussion of the Daily Telegraph headline claiming that UKIP would overtake the Liberal Democrats as the fourth party in Britain in the European elections. Upon closer inspection, the Daily Telegraph has based these figures on a particular slice of the electorate only: those who say they are "very likely" to vote in the European elections, which inevitably includes virtually all UKIP supporters, being highly motivated opponents of the EU. The figures in the same opinion poll based on all voters, as normal opinion polls are, show Labour and the Conservatives neck-and-neck and UKIP well back in fourth place.

Yet the deliberate distortion by the Daily Telegraph, giving it front page headline status, will inevitably be a boost to UKIP's xenophobic campaign. They presumably hope it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Shame on the Telegraph for seeking to boost the far right!

Tuesday 25 May

Final day of the bus tour: Barnsley, Conisborough, Rotherham, Sheffield, each time meeting with local leaders and candidates for our photo opportunity and some leafleting in the market place of Barnsley, with an excellent response.

In Conisborough, we do our photo at the castle, recently restored with European money. As one of our colleagues points out, it was also originally constructed with 'European' money (notably French) - as it is a Norman keep!

It's a useful reminder of the diverse and notably European origins of Britain's population: Celts, Romans, Germans (Angles and Saxons), Danes, French (Normans and Huguenots) and several centuries of refugees from across Europe have, in successive waves, contributed to our melting pot. A sprinkling of people from more diverse origins, from Kashmir to the Caribbean, has more recently added to this rich diversity. Of course, these simple facts give the lie to the BNP's bizarre anti-immigrant policies - which are not only monstrous but utterly illogical.

Wednesday 26 May

The 'freepost' has gone out: the electoral address leaflet that each party is able to send through the Post Office to every household. Unfortunately, the Post Office has sent our West Yorkshire ones to North East Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire ones to East Yorkshire! Mind you, the Conservatives apparently only gave their leaflets to the Post Office yesterday - too late for all of them to arrive on people's doorsteps before they receive their ballot papers. Good to see that the Tories are as incompetent as ever!

I visit the Rowntree factory in York where I met trade union members (who make up 70% of the workforce) and factory managers, and have a tour of the factory. Since it was founded, the Rowntree factory has upheld a proud tradition of looking after its workers, and 19th century Rowntree employees enjoyed rights not available to others until many years later.

I witnessed the machine which makes virtually every four finger Kit-Kat in the country, including packaging them at an incredible speed through fully automated systems!

It seems that this company uses a lot of agency workers to reach seasonal peaks in demand. They are employed under exactly the same terms and conditions as full-time members of staff. So this company, at least, should welcome the proposed European Temporary Agency Workers Directive, which would make such equal treatment mandatory.

Watch the European Cup Final. Another great European institution which we only joined late, the FA having boycotted the first tournament won by Real Madrid in 1956. For some people the European Cup is the most significant form of European integration yet achieved, and it is indeed a great tournament. Personally, I haven't missed seeing a final live (either on TV or in the stadium) since the Inter Milan versus Benfica final of 1965.

Tonight's match saw Porto crush Monaco 3-0, a result that will be welcomed by everyone who is concerned about the increasing domination of a few rich clubs in football.

Thursday 27 May

Up early to get to Whitby, picking up candidate Jo Coles on the way in York. In Scarborough we meet up with Lawrie Quinn MP and do some photos and interviews on the beach before going to a day care centre for the elderly where we serve the food, clear up the dishes and do the washing up as a way of promoting National Volunteer Week: a campaign to get more people volunteering for community work.

Then down to Scarborough with another interview and photo on the beach with local press, focused on European legislation and the benefits it brings to Scarborough, not least cleaner beaches.

Then in the evening off to Todmorden for an all-party debate organised by the Council of Churches. They've invited every single party and list of candidates and even the solitary independent candidate (who I discover is standing on a single issue platform related to vitamin supplements!), except the BNP. The decision not to invite the BNP is widely welcomed, although there are naturally some misgivings that they have invited UKIP which appears to be working in alliance with the BNP. With so many candidates the debate is lengthy and, as a speaker, one never really gets the satisfactory feeling of having dealt adequately with each issue given the limited time available. Some of the fringe party candidates have rather unusual debating styles! The Green Party, alone, does not show up.

After the meeting, a Lib Dem voter comes up to me and says that she regrets having already sent off her postal vote as she would now change and vote for me!

Friday 28 May

Catch up with the mountain of messages, letters and so on that have arrived in the office. The higher profile given to the European Parliament during the election campaign actually means an increase in ordinary constituency work at the same time as you are trying to increase your campaigning activities!

All the Labour candidates touch base with the Regional Director in a telephone conference. The campaign appears to be going very well. People who have written back on the response sheet on our leaflets have been overwhelmingly positive, which was not always the case five years ago!

Saturday 29 May

What disgraceful nonsense in The Sun newspaper today! In a diatribe against the restrictions on smoking in public places, The Sun argues that it was German scientists who first discovered the link between smoking and cancer, that Nazi governments then prohibited smoking on public transport, and that our soldiers died to overthrow this sort of interfering state in the Second World War! The Sun regularly descends to levels that even other tabloids wouldn't ever dream of and they have yet again excelled themselves in their despicable form of journalism.

In the early morning, I join Paul Flowers (sorry, 'Councillor the Reverend Paul Flowers'!) in the Lidget Green area of Bradford, where there is a lot of tension in the local election campaign, with allegations of intimidation. Paul himself has been listed on a far-right website which gives his name and address, and police have warned him that he is under threat and done a security audit on his house.

Meanwhile, in that ward, one of the Tory candidates seems to be causing consternation even among traditional Tory supporters - some of whom are saying they will vote Labour rather than vote for him.

I then go to Wyke to join Gerry Sutcliffe MP, local candidates Max Cummins and David Robinson and spend three hours knocking on the doors of Labour supporters with generally good feedback.

In the afternoon I leaflet my home village of Saltaire with a personal letter from me to my fellow Saltaire residents.

Sunday 30 May

In the morning, to a christening in a Moravian Church, which I must confess I knew little about before this event. The particular Christian denomination was founded in Bohemia before Martin Luther's Reformation, and has adherents notably in eastern Germany, the Czech Republic and Britain.

Back to finish a bit of work in Saltaire and then go to a post-baptism do at Beeties restaurant.

Monday 31 May

Bank holiday - and a sort of pause in the campaign. The ballot papers have all gone out (well, almost all!) but we do not yet have any feedback on how many people are voting, where or who. That will come in a couple of days time. So it's a chance to spend a few hours with the family. I beat all my three children at mini-golf (though the eldest, Tom, claims that he would come out on top if the scoring was on the basis of matchplay, i.e. number of holes won rather than the overall total!).