Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
I am very pleased that during this week’s Fisheries Committee, the European Commission announced emergency measures to alleviate the threat to the conservation of ‘poisson d’avril’ in Europe. What this means in practice is that during the key spawning period for the species this year, starting on 1st April, it will be prohibited to exploit […]
A sword of Damocles is hanging over the British economy. It arises from the unique combination of our accumulated debt levels and our massive trade deficit. This leaves us more vulnerable to the consequences of an external shock, even one far smaller than the 2008 financial crisis. And if anything nearing that scale were to […]
The VAT-MOSS issue was raised today in a debate in the European Parliament by a number of MEPs. Encouragingly, European Commission Vice-President Timmermans, responding to the debate, confirmed that the Commission was taking these concerns very seriously, and that they had started to work on it even before David Cameron raised the issue at last […]
Another day, another UKIP MEP is suspended from the party following an expenses scandal. Last week, Janice Atkinson — UKIP MEP for the South East and general election candidate for Folkestone and Hythe — was suspended from UKIP following allegations of a serious financial nature. Time and time again, Farage has tried to distance himself […]
Sir Bill Cash MP is one of Westminster’s most prominent old-school anti-Europeans. Last week, he once again led the European Scrutiny Committee in one of his favourite activities: accusing the BBC of institutional pro-European bias. To be fair, the BBC’s director-general acquitted himself well under cross-examination: Lord Hall said the duty to ensure balanced, impartial […]
It’s no secret that the preparations for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 have been appalling for those working to build the stadiums. The conditions for migrant workers from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are working on building projects for the event, are dramatic to say the least. Many international organisations, […]
Back in January, I welcomed emergency measures taken to protect sea bass during the crucial spawning season. But the fact that we had to resort to reactive emergency measures also served as a reminder that we need real, long-term, preemptive, evidence-based policy-making for sea bass fishing. That’s why, this week, the European Parliament voted in […]
I wrote a detailed blog post in January on the issue of VAT changes and how they affect small and micro-businesses, and I promised to follow up with details of further developments as Labour MEPs kept up the pressure. In recent weeks, Labour MEPs — including myself and Anneliese Dodds, who leads for us on […]
I had the opportunity a week ago to hear views on TTIP on the other side of the Atlantic, when I was invited to speak at Harvard University and took the opportunity to meet various stakeholders there and in Washington. Interestingly, many of the concerns raised by people I spoke to were very similar to […]
Earlier this week I spent two days in the US, taking up a long-standing invitation to give a lecture on the European Union at Harvard. While I was on the other side of the Atlantic, I also took the opportunity to talk to various stakeholders — politicians, academics, diplomats, trade union representatives — and discuss […]
There’s a local ‘business’ in my constituency, the first of its kind, which was created just 18 months ago but has spawned more than 80 offshoots across the UK since it first opened its doors. This ‘business’ makes no profit, sets no prices for its services, and has no paid staff — yet its turnover […]
Almost every democratic system has aspects which are questionable. The unelected House of Lords in Britain. The role of money in elections in the USA. The pros and cons of different electoral systems. And, of course, the EU. EU institutions certainly suffer from the problem of distance. They are inevitably and unavoidably more remote from […]
I was interested to see that a new local TV station, Made In Leeds, has set up shop not too far from my constituency office. Any media outlet that can offer a genuinely independent, local perspective is very welcome. But when local TV stations have popped up in Yorkshire at various times over the past […]
The total amount lost to national exchequers through tax evasion and tax avoidance is greater than all the public deficits of national governments in Europe added together. Dodging tax, whether illegally or via legal loopholes, is immoral not only in itself but also because of the damage it does to our economy. So Labour MEPs […]
As the old adage goes: decisions are made by those who show up. Sadly though, many people in the UK are unaware that in order to show up to vote on the big day, you first must be entered into the electoral register. National Voter Registration Day (5 February) has thus been created as a […]