Goodbye and good riddance to far-right group in Euro Parliament

The anti-immigrant, far-right 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' political group in the European Parliament collapsed today following internal fighting over comments made by an Italian member about Romanians and criminality. The self-removal of five members from the Greater Romanian Party means that the far-right grouping no longer has the 20 Euro-MPs from at least 6 member states needed for a formal group.

Jean says:

"Hooray! The very existence of this group in the European Parliament, while it may have represented some citizen's views, was a blot on democracy.

"It came into being with the agreement of just one UK MEP, Ashley Mote*, who was also the final member necessary to meet the Parliament's rules. It claimed to stand for family and European Christian values, but its break-up, as a result of prejudice against national and minority groups, shows it stood for nothing of the kind. I hope that there will be no support for such groups, which preach bigotry and hatred, in the next European elections in 2009."

*Ashley Mote is now serving a prison sentence for benefit fraud.

Jean loves the NHS

Jean voiced her support today's “I Love NHS” demonstration as thousands of people marched through Westminster against the financial cuts and creeping privatisation of the NHS which will have a threaten good patient care. Jean says,

“We should treasure the fact that our NHS is universally accessible and must be vigilant about the threat from the Government to privatise. I do not believe that handing over the provision of services to private providers is in the best interests of the NHS or the people who rely on it.”

“Whilst we have an enviable health service there is much that can be done to improve it. The NHS performs poorly in comparison to other European countries on issues such as MRSA infection rates and waiting times. We needto invest more to ensure that all support staff receive appropriate trainingand are paid at least the living wage, currently £7.20 per hour in London.If we fail essential staff like cleaners we inevitably fail patients.”