Sarah's bulletin: 14 May 2010

Published on Fri 14th May 2010

Dear friends,

A new era in British politics: Liberal-Conservative coalition government

The last two weeks in politics have seen change like never before: the most closely fought election in memory, a hung parliament, and a Liberal-Conservative coalition government. The perverse disproportionality of our voting system proved yet again a disappointment for the Liberal Democrats: we returned with a higher share of the vote (23%) and yet lost 5 seats in the House of Commons. But the fact that no party was awarded an outright majority meant that, after 4 days of negotiations, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats entered into the UK's first coalition government since 1945.

I fully support the decision of the parliamentary party and federal executive to enter into this coalition. At this time of economic and fiscal uncertainty Britain needs a strong and stable government, and the arithmetic was such that only a Lib-Con 'change coalition' could do this. Provided the Conservatives are willing to stick to the compromises we have struck on the key issues, we have a duty to give this government all we've got. And thanks to this coalition, finally we have a government that as well as having a majority of seats (56% - 363 of 649), also has the support of an impressive 59% of the electorate. I will be attending a special Lib Dem conference in Birmingham this weekend called to discuss the coalition agreement.

The joint Lib Dem and Conservative programme is in many ways more progressive than Labour's record for the last 13 years. We have secured a PR-elected House of Lords, a substantial raise in the tax threshold with £10,000 as our long-term objective, a breaking up of the banks, a referendum on AV and a programme, which includes scrapping ID cards, to reverse Labour's erosion of civil liberties.

Of course this is entirely uncharted territory for the UK, and we will have to see how this Clegg-Cameron partnership will pan out. One sensitive issue is Europe, including how it will affect the Tory/LibDem relationship in the European Parliament. Another is the nuclear issue, both power and Trident. A third is the Human Rights Act, which the Tories wanted to repeal and we staunchly defend - no mention of it in the coalition agreement! But Tuesday marked the beginning of a new era in British politics, and I hold high hopes for what it will achieve.

Europe Day - and the 60th anniversary of the Schuman declaration

Last Sunday was Europe Day, and exactly 60 years since the French foreign secretary Robert Schuman released his call for European unity - an attempt to prevent future warfare between European states by bringing them politically and economically closer together. I have great admiration for the vision of the 'founding fathers' of the European Union such as Schuman, Monnet and others 6 decades ago, and anniversaries such as last Sunday's are a great reminder - hopefully to the Tories as well as everyone else! - of how effective their plan was at banishing the thought of conflict from our continent and building common purpose.

European Parliament adopts positions on SWIFT and Passenger Name Records

While Britain was all fired up with election fever, work in the European Parliament continued as per usual and among other things we adopted resolutions on the transfer of airline passenger name record data to the US and Australia and the sending of bank transfer data to the US for counter-terrorism purposes (SWIFT). On the latter we insisted that any future agreement should not include bulk transfers of data. Regarding passenger name records, the European Parliament has decided to postpone its approval of the agreements until the Commission comes up with a more coherent approach on their legal status and the key issues of proportionality, privacy and redress.

Both reports were drafted by the ALDE group - our group can always be trusted when it comes to data protection and civil liberties. I have been very active on both issues not only as member of the Civil Liberties committee but also as vice-chair of the delegation to the United States. My approach to the US has always been one of close legislative cooperation (see a Euractiv piece here where I discuss how converging EU and US regulatory standards on everything from toxic substances, financial services and intellectual property will be beneficial to both sides of the Atlantic) while always ensuring that European rule of law is maintained in our transatlantic relationship.

Compensating the victims of Labour's counter-terrorism tactics

Last week top judges in the Court of Appeal ruled that the government is not allowed to use secret evidence in the high profile court case where a number of former Guantanamo detainees - including Binyam Mohamed - are claiming damages from the government for alleged complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition. I am heartened to see our legal system uphold this principle of open justice.

And indeed although a very different case, Mohamed and the other claimants may be encouraged by another ruling. Lofti Raissi, an Algerian-born British resident, has finally been deemed 'eligible' for compensation after British authorities arrested him shortly after 9/11, mistakenly believing that he was one of the key plotters when in fact he had no link to terrorism whatsoever. Raissi was a victim of the panic that reigned post-9/11 (a climate that has also led us to put too much emphasis on Islamist as opposed to ethno-nationalist or separatist terrorism, which is actually much more prevalent in the EU - see here). I understand that our intelligence services unfortunately sometimes get things wrong but this is a perfect reminder of why we need the courts and the rule of law to protect us when they do. It is outrageous that Mr Raissi had to wait so long for the justice that the Labour government fought tenaciously to deny him.

The 'policy aftermath' of the volcano ash travel crisis

You may remember my comment in my last bulletin about the volcano-induced travel chaos and how it showed the need for a pan-European authority to coordinate our response to such disasters. Well, either great minds think alike or European transport ministers have been reading my weekly bulletin(!), as that is exactly what they agreed to push for last week - the creation of a crisis coordination group and the unification of the European air traffic control system. I do hope something comes of it and we learn our lessons from the crisis.

Garry Mann extradited to Portugal

I was dismayed to hear on Wednesday that Garry Mann has been extradited to Portugal under the European Arrest Warrant to serve the jail sentence he received there in 2004 for football hooliganism after a spectacularly unfair trial. I was angry that UK and European courts failed to use their powers to block this extradition. The European Arrest Warrant is a valuable tool, but should not be used when justice has not been done as is the case with Garry - if Garry had been offered the translation and interpretation that I am fighting for at the moment, this would not have happened. See my comment here, watch my television interview for Meridian here and you can download my radio interview here.

Meat glue?!

If you are ate a 'meat product' that was purporting to be one type of meat, but was actually many different types of meat - say from pigs and chickens - stuck together with meat glue, would you want to know? I should think so! The Council and Commission recently tried to authorise the use of this meat glue in misleadingly pre-packed meat products, but luckily my colleagues on the Environment committee have used their new Lisbon treaty powers to intervene and hopefully stop this from happening. I am fond of sausages, but this is enough to put you off them forever! Not only is it a health issue, but a civil rights one since of course people of different religions are happy to eat some meats but not others, so it is essential that consumers can know exactly what is in a product.

Best regards,

Sarah Ludford