News from
David Sumberg MEP
January
2002
Conservative Member of the European Parliament for the North West of England
GERMANY UNDERMINES EURO LAUNCH
The big news from Europe since the beginning of the year has undoubtedly been the arrival of the euro and the abolition of such famous currencies as the franc, the mark and the peseta.
As readers may remember, I am not a supporter of British membership of the single currency and events since the launch of the euro have not persuaded me to change my mind.
Whilst it is quite true that any shopping trips on my parliamentary visits to Brussels and Strasbourg have gone smoothly, there is a world of difference between learning how to calculate in euros and joining the currency. By signing up we would surrender control of our interest and exchange rates, and ultimately I believe, our national levels of taxation.
But the fundamental principle behind the euro was that there would be no financial backsliding and countries would be being forbidden from running up high budget deficits which would undermine its stability. So what happens when Germany, formerly a model of financial rectitude, does just that?
Instead of taking action European bankers look away do nothing and as a result damage the credibility of a strict counter-inflationary policy. It’s not a good omen for the future and I remain convinced that Britain is better off staying out.
NORTH WEST NHS HORROR STORY
One of the disadvantages of the European Parliament is that the work does not involve the same personal contact with constituents I was used to as Bury South’s MP.
But I was recently called on for assistance by a Stockport lady who had been waiting for more than two years for an operation. It was a shocking tale of delays and postponements borne with great courage in the face of mental and physical pain. The saga culminated in the operation being cancelled twice on the same day in mid January.
I wrote to the Health Secretary Alan Milburn MP and the hospital to express my horror at the situation and the operation was performed later that week. I have now received an apology from the hospital to my constituent. But really this was too little too late. The reality is that this case is yet another example of the NHS failing to deliver the level of care we expect. Tony Blair, who coined that ghastly soundbite ’24 hours to save the NHS’ in 1997, must now be held to account for his bogus rhetoric – and take full responsibility for the Government’s abject failure to get a grip on the NHS.
MOORS MURDERER’S BOOK
I have been campaigning for months against Moors Murderer Ian Brady publishing a book about serial killers called ‘The Gate’s of Janus’.
I wrote to the Government to point out that the law makes no provision to stop criminals writing books whilst incarcerated – as Brady has done at Merseyside’s Ashworth Hospital - effectively cashing in on their notoriety. He stands to make around 15,000 pounds from his 10% stake in all sales.
The issue was brought to me by a constituent asking if the European Parliament could stop the publication of ‘The Gate’s of Janus’. I had to tell him that this was not a responsibility of the European authorities in Brussels but with Westminster.
So I contacted North West MP and Home Office Minister Keith Bradley, explaining my disgust that someone as evil and unrepentant at Brady should be allowed to profit from his infamy. I was particularly concerned as Victim Support charities, such as the Merseyside based ‘Support After Murder and Manslaughter’, had said it was upsetting Brady’s victims’ families and disrupting their recovery.
I’m
glad to say Keith has responded to my plea, agreeing that the law on criminals
publishing books is ‘limited in its scope’.
He wrote: ‘Where criminal memoirs are concerned we are looking at ways
in which we can prevent both profiting directly from criminal activities but
also the more complex situation when the gain is not from the criminal
activities themselves but from the notoriety of the crime itself and the
perpetrator.’ Fine words - now
let’s see some action.
LABOUR’S
FRIDGE FIASCO
The New Year saw the introduction of a European directive making it compulsory to strip out ozone depleting CFC foam from all unwanted fridges.
The Environment Minister and Oldham MP Michael Meacher signed up to this directive in 1998 thinking that it would only apply to industrial fridges not realizing it covered domestic fridges as well.
Because of this howling blunder the Government has done nothing to prepare for these new regulations. As a result there is complete chaos. There are no processing plants in the UK capable of taking CFC foam out of fridges, an estimated 6500 fridges are being stockpiled each week with nowhere to treat them and each local authority is faced with a massive bill to collect and store unwanted fridges. Ironically one of the biggest fridge mountains is in Mr Meacher’s own constituency!
Moreover with electrical retailers now refusing to take old fridges in exchange for new appliances there is a greater temptation for unscrupulous people to resort to fly tipping.
We have already seen how the high cost of disposing vehicles can lead to the menace of abandoned cars. There is now a serious concern we will see the same pattern with fridges. As well as being unsightly and environmentally unsafe dumped fridges pose a danger to the public particularly children. And this has all been caused by a ludicrous error betraying the increasingly familiar incompetence at the heart of New Labour. more