Monthly Archives: October 2015

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And for the Tories – Vicky Ford gets it wrong On Tuesday, the European Parliament voted through EU proposals on mobile phone roaming charges.  This would have gone through without debate had I not tabled an amendment to reject, which … Continue reading →

<> “Then we come to the question of roaming which has been presented as a wonderful benefit for consumers. Of course, it is no such thing, it is profoundly regressive. It will benefit well-heeled executives and business executives and it … Continue reading →

On Friday Oct 23rd, I appeared in a TV debate organised by Notts TV  along with Ken Clarke, North Nottingham Labour MP Graham Allen , and a psychologist from Nottingham Trent University. Of course Europe came up, and Ken trotted … Continue reading →

Green MEP Molly Scott Cato This morning I was scheduled to attend a breakfast debate on “Controlling Carbon: COP21 and beyond”.  I had failed to do my homework, and I discovered on arrival that it was a Green Party benefit … Continue reading →

Merkel with Turkish PM Erdogan The evolution of the immigration crisis, and Europe’s response to it, becomes increasingly bizarre.  If it weren’t so tragic and serious, you could call it farcical.  Yet in a way it’s a metaphor and an … Continue reading →

<> Mr. President, Here we go again. Another UN Climate Conference. As ever, high hopes disappointed. Commitments below expectation. Implementation below commitments. We should remember that there is still huge uncertainty around the climate issue. It is not clear that … Continue reading →

Former Lib-Dem MEP Chris Davies On Tuesday morning (Oct 13th) I attended a breakfast briefing on emissions trading (“Streamlined Market Provisions for the Paris 2015 Climate Agreement”) organised by IETA, the International Emissions Trading Association (no, I hadn’t previously heard … Continue reading →

Michaela Koller of Insurance Europe I have just received an e-mail from Michaela Koller of “Insurance Europe” asking me to sign up to a petition ahead of the Paris Climate Conference demanding that climate change be kept within a 2oC … Continue reading →

A rather bad photograph, taken from my seat, of Merkel and Hollande Wednesday October 7th was quite a day in the Strasbourg parliament, even by the normal standards of a Strasbourg week.  At noon we had an address from King … Continue reading →

<> “Mr. President, It is clear that Volkswagen has deliberately broken the law, and deliberately misled both regulators and customers.  It was wrong to do so.  It should rightly face appropriate and proportionate penalties. But we must understand the regulatory … Continue reading →

                                   By an extraordinary coincidence, I came across two cartoons today that despite decades between them seemed joined at the hip.  The first (I’m … Continue reading →