It is with immense sadness that I learned of the death of my friend and colleague Phillip Whitehead MEP on New Year's Eve.

At 68, Phillip was the oldest Labour MEP, but seemed young for his age, remaining extraordinarily active both in Parliament (where he chaired the Committee on Internal Market & Consumer Protection) and outside (where he still found time for the occasional TV production, such as the recent BBC series on Catherine the Great, which he co-produced).

In a long career, he had been an MP for 13 years (and even captained the House of Commons cricket team, if my memory serves me well), a writer, a TV producer (winning an Emmy award), Chair of the Fabian Society (Britain's oldest think-tank) and an MEP for 12 years, including a stint as chair of the EPLP (the Labour MEPs).

He was a respected intellectual with a fine analytical mind. This, combined with his vast experience in politics and the media, made him a formidable parliamentarian. His devotion to public service, his sagacity, open-mindedness and sense of fair play won him the respect of all sides of the political spectrum.

Phillip was a committed European who believed that Europe's nations should work together for the prosperity, stability and peace of the continent.

He was above all a good friend with much sound advice to offer and a wonderful companion. He will be sorely missed.

The following is his last article, published on his website on 23 December, at the start of what would be his last Christmas break. It is a witty but pertinent analysis of Tony Blair's achievements in his 6 months as President of the European Council.

Blair's presidency

"It was the fourth coming: Tony Blair back in Brussels once again to wrap up the 6 month UK Presidency of the European Union. No one in his position has been so often, nor brought tardy parliamentarians back to their duties in Christmas week. It's a job for six months, but the first two get lost in the summer break, if you have the second half of the year. And this is not little Luxembourg where all the public jobs are swapped around and the prime minister's duties are part Rutland, part Ruritania.

"Let us remind ourselves. July began with the Olympic triumph and that extraordinary dash across the world to snatch the prize from Chirac. Within hours the Gleneagles G7 summit (which Blair has also chaired) was stupefied by the worst terrorist attack on our shores and its consequences. He has had Iraq as a running wound. He has had to take his government through the climate change negotiations in Montreal, the world trade talks in Hong Kong, and keep the EU show on the road. And this was no ordinary show. Enlargement meant more costs. The rejection of the constitution meant more confusion. All this came bang on the button when the EU budget perspective for the next seven years had to be agreed among twenty five member states who are only just learning to work together. That too came down to the Brits.

"So when Tony Blair walked into the overcooked atmosphere of the European Parliament last week his opponents were voluble. Never has there been such a turnout of the massed ranks of the United Kingdom Independence Party. UKIP (or 'we speak, you-kip', as it's often called) was wide awake now. A semi-circle of snowy-haired Rotarians, weighed down by their pound signs, sat behind their toy flags. These turkeys thought Christmas was for them. Surely here they could get across the message that Johnny Foreigner, the 'cheese-eating surrender monkey', had cheated we honest patriots. Enlargement, to them, is all cost, no opportunity. 'Spending money on the sewers of Budapest', their leader called it. UKIP's fellow travellers pitch in. One, whom I vaguely recognise, waved a copy of the Sun, and talked of treason. I reach for my moral scruples. This sort of hooligan talk is no more typical of our politics than the skinheads on the terraces are representative of the great game they demean. Most of our colleagues know that, but some must have doubts when this uniquely British phalanx of misty-eyed, deerstalker-wearing loons hits town.

"Blair must have seen them as a godsend. Every politician prays for a heckler persistent enough and brash enough to be the perfect foil. These, after all, are the clowns who solemnly held demonstrations in favour of the French winning the 2012 Olympics. These are the prodigies of paranoia, who claim that Britain is, like Chechnya, due to fight its way out of the evil empire. Some of them inveigh against corruption, accounts not signed off and the like, without much evidence that they can read an expenses form themselves.

"So I confess to a great surge of Christian spirit, of the rightness of things, when Blair hit back. Here is a man beset, not just on policies, but by new, younger rivals (poor dozy Charlie Kennedy will be collecting his P45 any day now) and fractious rebels. He has upset many of the complaisant traditions of the EU 'pledge now, pay later' culture. Federalists and habitual big spenders dislike him with a Ukippian fervour. Yet he was, on his feet in the last round, the consummate politician. Travelling back to the airport in a van with a whole platoon of the grumpy old men I found he had stirred UKIP too. "Class act",…"not a word wrong", the super patriots were mumbling, happy that he had eaten them alive on TV.

"How well did he do over these six months? The best audit thus far comes from Chatham House, which calculates that the UK achieved about 80% of its objectives for the Presidency. It has made a better budget deal possible, which reduces the amount spent on agricultural support, raises that for research and development, and fields a proportion of the British rebate to help pay the cost of enlargement and world development. A tenner a year for that, if you believe in diminishing the gap between rich and poor, doesn't look like treason to me. If you don't want safer chemicals, or data retention to combat international terrorism, or action on climate change - and many people don't - this presidency is not for you. The budget doesn't begin to do enough for consumer protection, or culture and education. The Parliament still has to have its say on that. The big review of the CAP, so long obstructed by the French, will be in the massive hands of Gordon Brown by 2007: no surrender monkey he! There is more work on that front. Others may seem less of a success with time. The Brits launched entry talks with Turkey, and rightly. But the sight of our former Europe Minister Denis McShane being duffed up in a Turkish court, where he was a courageous witness for free speech, reminds us that enlargement is bumping up against its own frontiers.

"So I feel a sense of festive cheer. The mince pies will taste better on Sunday, with the sweet sense that our country played fair and played hard. Even the massed ranks of UKIP could scarce forbear to cheer."

Phillip Whitehead MEP
23 December 2005