In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."
Nick Clegg set out his view of the revisions to the government's NHS proposals today in his speech at Guy's Hospital. Responding to the report of the Future Forum on the reforms, he said "We've listened, we've learned, and we're improving our plans for the NHS"
Commenting further the Deputy Prime Minister summarised the changes as "Yes to patient choice. No to privatisation. Yes to giving nurses, hospital doctors and family doctors more say in your care. But no to heavy-handed, top-down restructuring of the NHS. Evolution, not revolution."
Swindon Liberal Democrats would like to thank all the voters of Swindon who supported our candidates on 5th May 2011.
The closest election in Eastcott in 17 years saw local resident and campaigner Nicky Sewell elected for the Lib Dem FOCUS Team with 1213 votes. She replaced retiring councillor Martin Wiltshire.
Chairman, thank you for your kind words about my knighthood. I will never forget Robert Burns' poem 'A man's a man for all that', in which he mocks those with titles but little merit: 'The rank is but the guinea's stamp/ The man's the gold for all that'.
Some of you know I am not a fan of the institution of monarchy and the honours list system. I hold it to be an anachronism in a 21st century democracy. But every country has its way of honouring achievement and this is Britain's. I consider this honour to be not mine but ours; what I have done we have done together, through our joint efforts and commitment.
It is now almost ten years since I piloted through parliament the legislation creating the European Arrest Warrant, much vilified by the UK's anti-Europeans but the one really effective tool the EU has for tackling cross border crime. It was the subject of parliamentary debate this week with many praising its usefulness but calling for greater safeguards against poor implementation or frivolous use of the procedure by member states and improvement of unacceptable detention conditions in some countries. These are all things Parliament sought ten years ago, but member states have been slow in reacting. To learn more about the issue, see the BBC TV programme The Record Europe [http://tinyurl.com/3brkvzg ] or follow the parliamentary debate here.
Lib Dem Councillor Andy Harrison has received the reports that council officers have agreed to the Y outh Centre being included within the Uplands redevelopment in Sevenfields. It has been agreed that evening youth facilities will be part of the facilities at the newly named 'The Meadow' centre.
Andy says "I am extremely happy that we've been able to deliver on one of my 2010 election promises. Fighting for the locality centre was always a stepping-stone towards getting local evening youth facilities for our children and I'm proud this is now going to happen."
Graham Watson is backing plans for changes toEurope's fisheries policy.
The MEP wants to ensure that there are more fish in the sea and more secure jobs for fishermen.
Up to 80% of fisheries are being managed unsustainably according to the European Commission, and major policy reforms are to be proposed later this year.
South West MEP Graham Watson has today signed a written declaration in the European Parliament calling on the Commission to act on corruption in European sport.
Following the signing, Watson commented, 'from match fixing in tennis right up to allegations within the hierarchy of FIFA, corruption continues to blight some of our most prized sports and competitions which can only distract from some of the enjoyment so many people receive from participating and viewing sporting events.'
This time last year my teenage son was with me in Brussels for a half term holiday which was involuntarily extended by a week due to a cloud of volcanic ash closing down air traffic and causing awful disruption as more than 8000 flights were cancelled on the first day alone. So the news last Sunday morning of an even bigger cloud was as welcome in my household as a rat in a bedroom. But thanks to the EU we now have a European Aviation Crisis Communication Cell, set up after last year's experience, which sprang into action. Only 252 flights were cancelled on the first day and not many thereafter. Without the EU it would have taken years to agree on such a level of co-ordination, which allowed me to fly back from Brussels to discuss with members of the South Somerset Peace Group the extent of the threat posed by China. That I was late for my meetings in Parliament the following morning was due to Brussels' ground traffic rather than air traffic.
Brussels hosted this week not only meetings of the EU's foreign, defence, overseas aid and telecoms ministers but also the events of its annual 'green week' and a major jazz festival. Ministers signed off the final details of an agreement to set up a European Defence Agency; voted another €200 million in aid for South Sudan, due to become independent in six weeks' time but still plagued by fighting in Abyei, which is occupied by Northern Sudanese forces; and agreed to extend sanctions against Syria to ten more of its leaders, including President Assad, and to give a further €20 million in humanitarian aid to Libya.
Energy Commissioner Gunter Oettinger (Germany, EPP) - who I found most unimpressive when we were involved in a panel debate together last week - lost his battle on the stringency of stress tests for the EU's nuclear power installations. He wanted to include vulnerability to plane crashes and terrorist attacks but was outmanoeuvred by the member states' representatives in the EU Nuclear Safety Regulators Group.
I hosted in Brussels a conference of the Climate Parliament, which I chair, to which some 50 MPs from 20 countries, including India and Japan, came to discuss with industry experts and financiers how we finance the switch to green energy. Mercifully the Parliament's committee examining the EU's next 5 year budget plan had approved the previous day my amendments to devote 5% of the EU's budget to renewables, so I had what the bookies call 'form'. But the BBC's news website, reporting on a call from the committee for an overall 5% budget increase, showed a picture of MEPs voting in our Strasbourg chamber on a totally different issue which included me - guilt by association!
'Green Week' included a joint conference of MPs and MEPs on Tuesday, which discussed energy safety; a conference hosted by three think tanks on Wednesday, which I chaired, to discuss energy generation options, and an assessment on Thursday of the LIFE programme for funding environmental projects hosted by my colleague Chris Davies. That the Climate Parliament met on Thursday and Friday was totally coincidental, since our reach is global rather than simply EU-wide.
The EP's transport committee adopted a report permitting body scanners, since new technology has satisfied our concerns on protecting travellers' modesty. MEPs welcomed the announcement that the first two of eighteen operational satellites in the EU's Galileo GPS system will be launched in October. And news of the arrest of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic in Serbia capped a busy but productive week.
I will take a break next week so will write again from Strasbourg on 10 June.
This time last year my teenage son was with me in Brussels for a half term holiday which was involuntarily extended by a week due to a cloud of volcanic ash closing down air traffic and causing awful disruption as more than 8000 flights were cancelled on the first day alone. So the news last Sunday morning of an even bigger cloud was as welcome in my household as a rat in a bedroom. But thanks to the EU we now have a European Aviation Crisis Communication Cell, set up after last year's experience, which sprang into action. Only 252 flights were cancelled on the first day and not many thereafter. Without the EU it would have taken years to agree on such a level of co-ordination, which allowed me to fly back from Brussels to discuss with members of the South Somerset Peace Group the extent of the threat posed by China. That I was late for my meetings in Parliament the following morning was due to Brussels' ground traffic rather than air traffic.
Brussels hosted this week not only meetings of the EU's foreign, defence, overseas aid and telecoms ministers but also the events of its annual 'green week' and a major jazz festival. Ministers signed off the final details of an agreement to set up a European Defence Agency; voted another €200 million in aid for South Sudan, due to become independent in six weeks' time but still plagued by fighting in Abyei, which is occupied by Northern Sudanese forces; and agreed to extend sanctions against Syria to ten more of its leaders, including President Assad, and to give a further €20 million in humanitarian aid to Libya.
Energy Commissioner Gunter Oettinger (Germany, EPP) - who I found most unimpressive when we were involved in a panel debate together last week - lost his battle on the stringency of stress tests for the EU's nuclear power installations. He wanted to include vulnerability to plane crashes and terrorist attacks but was outmanoeuvred by the member states' representatives in the EU Nuclear Safety Regulators Group.
I hosted in Brussels a conference of the Climate Parliament, which I chair, to which some 50 MPs from 20 countries, including India and Japan, came to discuss with industry experts and financiers how we finance the switch to green energy. Mercifully the Parliament's committee examining the EU's next 5 year budget plan had approved the previous day my amendments to devote 5% of the EU's budget to renewables, so I had what the bookies call 'form'. But the BBC's news website, reporting on a call from the committee for an overall 5% budget increase, showed a picture of MEPs voting in our Strasbourg chamber on a totally different issue which included me - guilt by association!
'Green Week' included a joint conference of MPs and MEPs on Tuesday, which discussed energy safety; a conference hosted by three think tanks on Wednesday, which I chaired, to discuss energy generation options, and an assessment on Thursday of the LIFE programme for funding environmental projects hosted by my colleague Chris Davies. That the Climate Parliament met on Thursday and Friday was totally coincidental, since our reach is global rather than simply EU-wide.
The EP's transport committee adopted a report permitting body scanners, since new technology has satisfied our concerns on protecting travellers' modesty. MEPs welcomed the announcement that the first two of eighteen operational satellites in the EU's Galileo GPS system will be launched in October. And news of the arrest of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic in Serbia capped a busy but productive week.
I will take a break next week so will write again from Strasbourg on 10 June.
