Aneurin Glyndwr

The Party's Not For Turning

It's the last thing Toff Dave wanted to have on the agenda during conference - Europe. He wanted to concentrate on his favourite hobby - making cuts. Cuts to services, cuts to benefits, and the list could go on and on. Instead the "Yes" vote in Ireland has put pressure on Toff Dave to say what he would do if the Lisbon Treaty was in force before the next election. The Eurosceptic Tory-right want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty yet they ignore the reality pointed out by their pin-up Matriarch Maggie that it would be impossible for Britain to renege on a European Treaty which it had previously ratified and which had come into force as it is highly likely for the Lisbon Treaty.  

"I know of no country in the Western World in which a referendum has been used to override a treaty obligation which had been through all its parliamentary stages and had been in operation for two years. Such a step would have a damaging effect on Britain's standing in the world." (House of Commons, 11th March 1975) 

Toff Dave has done his usual sound bite to get a headline but continues not to make a decision. Instead he chooses to hide behind the idea that he doesn't want to prejudice decisions in other countries that have yet to ratify the treaty. In reality he doesn't want to make a decision which is going to split his party in the run-up to an election. All spin no substance.

What's Europe ever done for us? Part 6

Signed the Social Chapter and introduced measures including:

four weeks’ paid holiday;
a right to parental leave;
extended maternity leave;
a new right to request flexible working;
and the same protection for part-time workers as full-time workers.

Cameron says that his "top priority" is to pull out of the Social Chapter - by voting Labour at the European elections can you safeguard your holiday entitlement and other rights at work.

What's Europe ever done for us? Part 5

Labour helped win valuable reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly farming within Europe.

British business can't afford Tories European policy

With the European elections just around the corner, let's remind ourselves exactly what a victory for the Tories would mean.

David Cameron's policy of isolation in Europe and promise to abolish Regional Development Agencies would be a double blow to British business.

RDAs drive their regional economies forward, pulling together European investment and identifying local priorities to deliver for business. Independent auditors recently found that, overall, every pound invested by Regional Development Agencies grows the local economy by four times that.

As Glenis Willmott MEP, Labour's leader in the European Parliament, wrote in an article for Progress online: "As the European Parliament closed last week, Tory MEPs lined up to criticise David Cameron's policy on Europe. The Tories' own Shadow Business Secretary, Ken Clarke, thinks their attitude to the EU is 'absurd' and 'crackpot'. The Tories' incoherent European policy is an approach that British businesses can't afford."

What's Europe ever done for us? Part 4

More and better jobs through agreement of the Lisbon Agenda for economic reform – millions of new jobs have been created across Europe since 2000.

What has Europe done for us? Part 3

We know many people are worried about the impact that the recession will
have on them and their families – which is why the EU has invested £1.5
billion in Wales as a whole, creating 40,000 jobs and getting 85,000
back to work. A further £1.5 billion will be invested again over the
next seven years.

Labour MEPs have brought in measures to give part-time and temporary
agency workers the same rights as full time workers as regards pay,
terms and conditions, pensions, leave, working time, vocational
training, health and safety, and maternity leave.

Labour MEPs have brought in a raft of tough new legislation to give
consumers a better deal, including: a two-year guarantee for electrical
goods, a 14-day cooling off period for people buying timeshare
accommodation, new Europe-wide rules which
protect consumers from rogue traders, dodgy property share schemes and
bogus prize scams and a ban on pharmaceutical companies from promoting
their products directly to patients over the heads of doctors.

Labour MEPs have banned tobacco advertising across Europe and required
all tobacco products in Europe to carry illustrated health warnings.

Labour MEPs have worked to ensure that the EU remains the global leader
on donor financing for the Millennium Development Goals and secured
reforms to make EU development aid better targeted, more coordinated and
more effective.

Labour MEPs have made Wales a safer place, by creating a Europe-wide
arrest warrant, adopting legislation to prevent money-laundering and
introducing a new law to crack down on the supply of illegal weapons
from other European countries into the UK.

What's Europe ever done for us? Part 2

Strengthened minimum environmental standards across Europe. Our rivers, beaches and water are now the cleanest they have ever been.

What's Europe ever done for us? Part 1

A better deal for British consumers, including halving the cost of domestic phone calls and air travel in the EU, and proper compensation for air passengers ‘bumped’ from flights.

Quel Dommage! Le Pen is not mightier than the sword

Socialists and Greens have won an historic victory in the European Parliament. MEPs have changed the rules to prevent the French far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from presiding over the assembly. 

Rules meant that the oldest member chairs the inaugural session of the new parliament after a European election. That would have been Le Pen but not anymore. 

The new European Parliament is to have its first ceremonial session on 14 July, which just happens to be Bastille Day.

As recently as March Le Pen reiterated his statements that the gas chambers were a mere detail in history. Le Pen was convicted in 1999 for "minimising the Holocaust" after telling a German far-right meeting that Nazi concentration camps and the gas chambers are "what one calls a detail". He has had a string of other convictions for racism or inciting racial hatred and was banned from being an MEP in 2003 following a physical attack on a French Socialist MEP. He's also good friends with the BNP.

Ble Mae Cymru?

First it was Cheryl Gillan, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, who required an assistant but knowledge of Wales was not essential. Now comes the Tory European candidates -only one lives in Wales and placed bottom of the list with no chance of winning. The other three live in Ledbury, London and Staffordshire.

How can you represent somewhere when you live hours away from it? Do the Tories have no capable candidates in Wales and therefore have to parachute in replacements?

But what do you expect from a party led by Toff Dave. You can only imagine the job ad he answered:

"Looking for young enthusiastic leader, requires communication and interpersonal skills, a keen interest in politics and current affairs and an attention to detail, ability to answer a question honestly not necessary, knowledge of who you represent not required. "

No wonder the Tories are so out of touch with the Welsh people.