Enfield Liberal Democrats

Sarah Ludford's bulletin: 21 May 2010

Dear friends,

Hague announces enquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture

I was very pleased to hear Foreign Secretary William Hague announce last night that the government is going to launch an inquiry into allegations that British security services were complicit in torture in the CIA's post-9/11 extraordinary rendition program.

I have spent 8 years campaigning on this topic. As you may recall, I was vice-chair of the European parliament's temporary committee on extraordinary rendition back in 2006-07 and earlier this year joined a number of leading human rights NGOs in calling on the government to hold such an independent, judge-led inquiry, and setting out the precise terms of reference it would have to follow in order to have any chance of uncovering the truth (you can read the terms at the link above). I urge William Hague, Jeremy Brown and their colleagues to follow this recipe that 'we made earlier'. If such a full, independent and judge-led inquiry does go ahead, it will be an emotional day for me indeed after so many years spent trying to bring British authorities to account on this!

Meat glue comes unstuck

Do you remember my mention of meat glue and my last bulletin? Well, in an incredibly closely fought battle, MEPs on Wednesday rejected the meat glue proposal by just one vote! Thrombin, a sticky substance made from cow or pig blood, can be used to stick scraps of meat together so that they look like one single piece of meat. You can apparently even make fake fillet steak or pork tenderloin like this! Even if it is not a health risk (some say it is), it is in my opinion wrong because it misleads consumers into thinking that they are buying one thing when in fact they are buying another. Anyway, it's disgusting! Let's have real food!

Betty Knight receives special Mayor's award for contribution to Clerkenwell in Islington

Betty Knight from Spa Green estate in Clerkenwell was awarded a Special Mayor's Award from the Mayor of Islington this Monday. I got to know Betty well when I was councillor for Clerkenwell in Islington in the 1990s and worked with her on housing and other local issues. She is a true bastion of the Clerkenwell community, and particularly, as chair of the tenants' organisation on Spa Green. Sadly I could not be there when the award was presented to her, as I had to be in Strasbourg for the EP plenary, but I want to highlight how well-deserved this award is, and wish Betty all the best.

See my press release here.

EU to join European Convention on Human Rights

As a Liberal, and a staunch defender of human rights, I was very happy indeed to see the European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorse the decision to negotiate the European Union's entry into the European Convention on Human Rights. This has been a long time coming and is a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty since earlier the EU did not have the 'legal personality' to accede. Some will doubtless try to paint it as a conspiracy to increase the EU's powers, but this could not be further from the truth. If anything, it is a check on Brussels' power, as it allows groups and individuals to take the EU to court for wrong actions which violate human rights, something that was shockingly not available before. You can read more here.

Special Liberal Democrat Conference to approve coalition agreement

Last Sunday Lib Dems gathered again in Birmingham to fully approve the coalition agreement with the Conservative party. In doing this, the party was again showing its democratic instinct, as such a conference was not in fact necessary according to our party constitution. But liberals being liberals, we debated it nonetheless, and passed the motion almost unanimously.

I was also glad to see my former colleagues Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne reaffirm their commitment to the Human Rights Act. I know that this is one of the more difficult points of the coalition, and hope that sense will prevail on this one.

International Day against homophobia

As vice-chair of the Liberal Democrat LGBT group (DELGA), and an active member of the European lesbian and gay rights intergroup, I took the opportunity of International Day against homophobia this Monday to remind people that homophobia is unfortunately still widespread in many walks of life, and is sadly - informally - still considered acceptable in some social groups.

Just last Saturday, police in Minsk, Belarus broke up a Slavic gay pride event where protesters had bravely decided to go ahead with the march despite authorities' efforts to ban it, arresting a number of the marchers and tearing away their flags. And if you're thinking "Ah, but that's just Belarus -- these things don't happen in the EU", think again: just recently a court in Vilnius in EU state Lithuania almost prevented a Baltic gay pride march with trumped up 'security' concerns. The Lib Dems and ALDE have always led the way in LGBT rights (some of our MEPs went to the Vilnius event out of solidarity - and a recent Pink News poll gave the Lib Dems 58% of the LGBT vote in the UK!). I am sure our new Conservative partners will follow our lead on this one…

Meanwhile, there is the shocking case in Malawi of 2 men being sentenced to 14 years (in a hellhole prison) for celebrating their partnership in their own version of a gay wedding. Homophobia in Africa and the Muslim world is a major problem; we must support campaigners who are trying to get change in horrendously difficult circumstances.

Edward McMillan-Scott joins ALDE

You may remember that Edward McMillan-Scott, a well-respected MEP and former leader of the Tories in the European Parliament, left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats in March of this year, an act of great foresight given the ensuing coalition! Well, this week he went one step further and formally joined the ALDE group in the European Parliament as well as the LibDem party in the UK. You can read his gracious statement here. I wish him a very warm welcome!

The European Parliament's budget for 2011

The Parliament this week -- wrongly in my view -- voted to increase its budget in 2011 by 6%. I was proud however to say that my own group take a principled stand against this. The increase in the Parliament's budget for 2010 had some basis due to the extra workload created by the Lisbon Treaty (though I did not support that either) but this justification cannot be used again. Families, businesses and governments all over the EU are having to tighten their belts, MEPs must do the same.

You may have seen that in Nick Clegg and David Cameron's coalition agreement, there is a commitment to try and end the European Parliament's travelling circus to Strasbourg once and for all -- hurrah! We 'anti-Strasbourg' MEPs celebrated a modest victory in getting one step closer to this by securing a commitment in the budget to examine the (extremely high) carbon footprint of travelling to Strasbourg once a month (unbelievably the centre-right EPP voted even against this). We failed to amend the calendar to compress our two sessions in September into one, but every little helps...

The European Parliament reaffirms the EU's commitment to the International Criminal Court

The European Parliament this week passed a resolution reaffirming our support for the International Criminal Court. I was disappointed to hear some MEPs call for a reassessment of our relationship with the Court, as I believe that it plays an incredibly important role in making sure that crimes against humanity such as mass murder, mass rape and genocide never, ever go unpunished.

The extradition of Gary and Garry

I am delighted that the Home Secretary, reflecting Conservative and Liberal Democrat calls in opposition, has agreed to look again at the medical reasons why computer hacker Gary McKinnon, who has Asperger's, should not be extradited to the US. This is great news (along with all the other prezzies streaming out this past week…).

The other Garry (Mann), whose extradition to Portugal under a European Arrest Warrant I have long opposed, unfortunately lost his battle. His original trial was a travesty and a great miscarriage of justice, as recognised by British judges. I will continue to fight both to get him released soon and to push for the courts (UK and European) to use the powers they do in fact have to block an extradition (within the EU or outside) when someone's fundamental human rights have been breached.

Cyprus: what next?

If you can, do read this International Crisis Group analysis of the situation in Cyprus, it seems to me to be a very good one. It suggests that at least part of the way forward since the election of Eroglu has to be an international conference consisting of Turkish Cyprus, Greek Cyprus, Turkey and Greece, led by the UN and with representation from the EU. It's worth a try.

The ICG also calls on the EU to deliver on an old promise and pass a regulation supporting direct trade with Northern Cyprus. They judge that this could, with luck, trigger "a virtuous circle in which Turkey would then fulfil its existing obligation to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic, and the European Union would then lift the Cyprus-related blocks on eight of Turkey's EU negotiating chapters". I fully agree with this and have long campaigned for the EU to keep its 2004 promise to Turkish Cypriots to end their isolation.

Diabetes: growing action

Diabetes is now firmly on the global agenda as the United Nations General Assembly voted this week for a UN summit in September 2011 on non-communicable diseases, of which diabetes is one. There is hope that the Danish EU Presidency will push for an EU strategy in the first half of 2012. With the prospect of 1 in 10 Europeans suffering from the disease within 15 years - a veritable epidemic - this is not a moment too soon. As one of the 4 MEP co-chairs of the EU diabetes working group, I am determined to do what I can to raise the visibility and prospect of action on diabetes, such as coordinated research (about which more in a few weeks).

Stubborn Commission does EU no favours

A small group of Scottish fishermen from Clyde landed a huge victory over the European Commission this week after a three-year campaign to rectify a simple administrative error. A mistake comprising the switching of two columns in a table back in 2007 meant that the cod quotas for Clyde were 10% lower than what they should have been.

Luckily this had little economic consequence as the local fishermen tend not to use their full quota of days at sea anyway. But what shocks me is how the Commission point-blank refused to admit its mistake for three whole years, even in the teeth of strong rulings by the EU Ombudsman; it was like the Soviet Union! It's not as if they had to admit to a mistaken policy, just a simple though regrettably negligent cock-up. They could easily just have corrected it and apologised profusely 3 years ago, saving a lot of time, money and frustration. Honestly, I thought that even Brussels had renounced an organisational culture of 'we are always right'…...

Best regards,

Sarah Ludford