In my typical environmentally-friendly way, I usually travel into the parliament in Strasbourg, from my hotel, on the tram (carriages built in Derby), so I have plenty of time at the tram stop to observe the street, which is showing signs of urban decay. Some of the shops are very shabby. “URBAN STREET; Vêtements Hip-Hop” looks very passé. “Apiculture Fend” actually appears to have shut, perhaps another victim of the mystery malaise which is affecting bees across Europe. Only the pâtisserie/boulangerie seems to be doing good business. It has a bright interior, a warm smell of baking, and a pleasing young lady who serves excellent coffee and croissants around 7:00 a.m.
I was drinking my coffee today and thumbing through a copy of DNA (not a new genetic code, but Dernière Nouvelles d’Alsace), when I found news that Marco Cappato, a hyper-active Italian Liberal MEP, has prepared a list scoring all MEPs on their activity levels, covering attendance, voting records, the number of reports they have authored, amendments they have tabled, and so on. The list (in a rather indigestible format) is available on www.parlorama.eu.
Listed in descending order, and in blocks of twenty per page, I found that I appeared on Page 14, so ranking around 270 out of 785 — rather better than I expected. Of course I would score well on attendance and voting record, but very poorly on reports, and tabling amendments. I share the view of my good colleague Dan Hannan, that we have quite enough EU regulation already, and that the people who voted for me don’t want me to make any more. On the contrary, I take a pride in opposing much of the legislation going through the parliament, and in supporting amendments that blunt the impact of over-regulation.
Much of my work is directed to delivering the conservative message as widely as possible, through my work in the region, through the media and through my blog and web-site, through my Chairmanship of the Freedom Association. I see my job not as building the European project, but as taking the lid off Brussels and telling my constituency, and the world, what damage the EU is really doing to our prosperity and our democracy. That doesn’t rank in Mr. Cappato’s table.
Search the blog
Calendar of posts
Blogroll
Pages
-
Recent Posts
- My final speech in Strasbourg – Two-seat parliament a perfect metaphor for the hubris and futility of EU project
- The European parliament: an apology
- COP21 climate agreement: An eye-watering amount of money for virtually no return
- £100,000 mis-spent?
- EU energy labelling: confusing consumers and creating problems for industry
Recent Comments
Jane Davies on The European parliament: an… catweazle666 on The European parliament: an… Sheila White on The European parliament: an… charles wardrop on The European parliament: an… Mike Maunder on The European parliament: an… Top Posts
- An Open Letter to Professor Michael Merrifield of Nottingham University
- Sorry, Tony Blair. But you’re wrong. Again.
- Little Englander, little European?
- Is David Cameron making a fool of himself?
- Speaking at the Employment Committee - 26 January 2012
- Why is Nissan so pro-EU?
- The 12th International Conference on Climate Change
- The predictive power of a 1934 cartoon!
- The physics of a boiling kettle - my question to the commission!
- The thoughts of George Osborne
Blog Stats
- 943,593 hits
- Add new tag
- Air fares
- Alan Johnson
- Al Gore
- Animal Welfare
- banking
- BBC
- betrayal
- Broughton Astley
- Brussels
- C02
- Cameron
- campaign
- CAP
- capitalism
- Carbon
- Climate Change
- CO2
- Constitution
- Copenhagan
- Credit Crunch
- Croatia
- David Cameron
- David Davis
- Education
- Elections
- emissions trading
- Energy
- Energy Security
- Environment
- EPP
- EU
- EU Presidency
- Europe
- Freedom Zone
- Free Speech
- Galileo
- Georgia
- Global Warming
- GM Food
- gordon brown
- Greenpeace
- Gurkhas
- Lib Dems
- Liberal Democrats
- Lisbon
- McCain
- Monetary Union
- No Campaign
- Obama
- OfCom
- Oil
- Peer reviewed papers
- pesticides
- Philip Lardner
- Politics Show
- Refereendum
- Referendum
- Renewables
- resignation
- roger helmer
- Russia
- Sarah Palin
- Sarkozy
- smoking
- Stem Cell Research
- St George's Day
- Tax
- The Freedom Zone
- Tobacco
- UKIP
- USA
- Vice President
- windfall tax
Roger, I like your ideas very much indeed. You are right, as far as I can see on everything you say!
For those of us who want to copy Norway and Switzerland and be associate members of the EU, please could you write something on Libertas?
While I hugely admire the work that Conservative MEPs are doing, I still suspect that Libertas is more my thing.
Can you help here?
Thanks Mike. I’ve done a blog piece on Libertas which should be posted soon.
Clicking on this site reveals: “Due to the overwhelming volume of complaints, the site is closed”!
Dear Sally,
Which site is that?
http://www.parlorama.eu.
However, it has now been restored. Regards,
Sally