http://www.bearder.eu/articlearchive.php Recent Press Articles from Catherine Bearder MEP en-GB Catherine Bearder MEP http://www.bearder.eu/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Catherine Bearder MEP 2010-03-11T22:58+00:00 United Kingdom http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000008/coffee_and_croissants_with_barroso_wont_solve_tory_trouble_in_europe.html Ken Clarke's legendary hush puppies made no sound this week as they padded their way to EU Commission President Barroso's office. True, the Daily Telegraph got wind of the story last Monday, but between then and the Shadow Business Secretary's return home there was no further media comment, no photographic evidence and not so much as a press release to mark the occasion. For the Tories, this silence qualifies as a result. Their only pro-European big gun, Clarke's mission was to build bridges in advance of a General Election which, if the Tories were to win it, would usher in the most destructive, anti-European government in British history. This task was not an easy one. The last thing David Cameron wanted is to carry it out in public. Either his emissary went to Barroso with all eurosceptic guns blazing and annoyed those who matter most or else he makes cooing noises that would set off spasms of fury from the Tories' euro-hostile majority. You can understand why this meeting was not for public consumption. 2010-03-03T11:46+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000009/farage_behaves_like_school_bully.html This week Nigel Farage sunk to a new low. His personal attack against Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, was more akin to the school yard tyrant than an elected Parliamentarian. 2010-03-01T08:15+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000007/a_new_era_for_europe.html This is a period of great change in the European Union, but also one of great uncertainty. With the final accession of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December much has changed to the structure and workings of the Union, but if we work carefully the threatened turmoil will be avoided. I remember Paddy Ashdown saying after the 2004 accessions (when 10 countries joined the EU) that what was needed was a period of deepening the Union rather than widening, and it seems as if the last decade has been consumed by institutional wrangling, but that time is now over. We must now walk together into a new era of European cooperation, one where the principle focus is on working to improve the life of our citizens. 2010-01-27T12:00+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000006/mep_takes_institute_of_advanced_motorists_assessment.html I first heard of the IAM after entering a Woman Driver of the Year competition arranged by the IAM and the Women's Institute in the 1993. I won the Western region heat and came thirteenth in the national finals. If I was able to do that, I thought, why not take the official test? I went on to have four observation runs in my Volvo estate with a local police officer, Dave Cherrington of Thames Valley police. It is very important to me to keep up my driving skills. Since I was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for South East England last year, I've had less time to drive, so I work hard to guard against bad habits creeping in! 2010-01-25T12:00+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000005/a_final_chance_to_act.html So it has finally arrived, the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change summit. We have been led to believe that it's going to fail, then it's going to succeed and then it will fail again, it's been quite a rollercoaster. This has really tested the participating countries' resolve to tackle this issue. This is made tougher because of the economic crisis which has caused hardships for so many people and so it's understandable that the economy is at the front of people's minds. 2009-12-07T12:00+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000004/brussels_bulletin.html As I write this column I am in Angola attending a summit between the EU and some of the world's poorest countries. People joked that as an MEP I would end up travelling to beautiful countries for a bit of a jolly, but I assure you this trip has been a lot of hard work and some very important achievements have been made. 2009-11-30T12:00+00:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000002/green_or_a_deeper_shade_of_blue.html Slowly but surely the Conservatives are starting to reveal their true colours and it's increasingly clear that green is not the new blue. David Cameron's PR gurus may have been working hard to make memories of the last Tory government seem distant, but people don't forget. More and more the Conservatives look like they are ready to carry forward the policies of Thatcher and Major. They are still divided on Europe, making tax polices that favour the rich rather than the poor, and are refusing to definitively sort out the financial scandals and the way Westminster is run. They arrogantly assume that they are destined for the corridors of power as if it is theirs to inherit rather than earn. 2009-10-23T12:19+01:00 http://www.bearder.eu/articles/000003/human_trafficking_has_to_be_stopped.html In the early 1800s the abolitionist movement recognised that all men, women and children have the right to live their lives free from bondage. They ensured that slavery in the UK would be outlawed indefinitely. However, 200 years after their success, we live in a world with a greater number of slaves than there were during the time of William Wilberforce. This fact is a stain on our society and one many people are working very hard to reverse. 2009-10-15T17:30+01:00