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		What's Old - Archived stories from the "What's New" section [  July - December 2009  |  January - June 2009  |  July - December 2008  |  January - June 2008  ] [  July - December 2007  |  January - June 2007  |  July - December 2006  |  January - June 2006  ] [  July - December 2005  |  January - June 2005  |  July - December 2004  |  January - June 2004  ] [  July - December 2003  |  January - June 2003  |  July - December 2002  |  April - June 2002  ] MEP backs hunting exhibition - Thursday, 16 December 2004 The European Parliament's Hunting & Conservation "Inter-Group" (cross-party single-issue group) re-launched itself in December for the new 2004/09 parliament, with an exhibition in the Strasbourg Parliament building. East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, who was on the "bureau" (management committee) of the intergroup in the 99/04 parliament, has given firm backing to the initiative. Labour fail to support animal welfare improvements - Thursday, 25 November 2004 This week Agricultural Ministers from across Europe met in Brussels to discuss stricter animal welfare rules for the transportation of live animals. However, the UK Government failed to improve conditions further, arguing that proposed rules to improve condition for animals should be watered down. Letter to the Editor - Friday, 19 November 2004 Lib-Dem MEP Bill Newton Dunn has tabled a "Written Declaration" in the European parliament, pointing out that on the island of Manhattan, 83% of voters supported loser John Kerry in the recent Presidential election, and calling on New York to apply for membership of the European Union. New Website explains EU Constitution - Wednesday, 17 November 2004 A new web-site, www.euabc.com, offers a user-friendly version of the EU Constitution, with marginal notes explaining the point of each paragraph, and key words underlined for easy reference. The site is in English, but German and Danish versions are available and other languages will be added. EU Accounts - A Decade of Failure - Tuesday, 16 November 2004 The European Union's Court of Auditors has been unable, for the tenth consecutive year, to give the EU's accounts the all-clear. The Court has been unable to offer a 'Statement of Assurance'. Letter to the Editor - Derby Evening Telegraph - Monday, 15 November 2004 Some months ago the Bombardier business in Derby was under threat, partly as a result of the habit of major continental countries ordering rolling-stock from their own domestic suppliers, while a number of UK operators bought abroad. East Midlands MEP welcomes North East referendum result - Friday, 5 November 2004 East Midlands Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer, has given his reaction to the result of the referendum held in the North East of England on regional devolution. The result, a massive blow to John Prescott's ambitions for the carving up of England, saw over 78% of the North East's residents vote 'no'. East Midlands MEPs slam signing of EU Constitution - Friday, 29 October 2004 East Midlands Conservative MEPs, Chris Heaton-Harris and Roger Helmer today hit out at the signing by Prime Minister Tony Blair of the new EU constitution. Letter to the Editor - Jack Straw strays from the truth - Friday, 29 October 2004 On the BBC's Today programme on Friday, speaking about the EU Constitution being signed in Rome that day, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw repeated two of the key falsehoods of the Yes campaign. He said that the Constitution gives more power to national parliaments, and to member states. It does neither. It centralises power in Brussels East Midlands MEPs react to Kilroy UKIP exit - Wednesday, 27 October 2004 East Midlands Conservative MEPs have responded to the decision by Robert Kilroy-Silk to withdraw himself from the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament. East Midlands MEPs slam Strasbourg farce - Wednesday, 27 October 2004 Conservative East Midlands MEPs Roger Helmer and Chris Heaton-Harris have today slammed recent developments at the Strasbourg session of the European Parliament. They were speaking out as the incoming EC president, Jose Manuel Barroso, pulled out of a vote aimed at either ratifying him and his new team or throwing them all out. Letter to the Editor - Nottingham Evening Post - Tuesday, 26 October 2004 John Gretton has really tied himself in knots (letters, 25/10). He argues that the Conservative Party will be unable to deliver on its commitments to repatriate powers from Brussels, including fisheries policy, and to support his point he reminds us of the French ban on British beef, maintained for years in defiance of EU law. MEP to support classic aircraft - Friday, 22 October 2004 Local East Midlands MEP, Roger Helmer, is in Bruntingthorpe, near Lutterworth, on Sunday 24th October to help support the fundraising activities of the ‘Vulcan To The Sky’ campaign and their members. The group has been established to help raise money to get the last remaining operational AVRO Vulcan XH558 bomber back in the air. UK Government in the dock over booze cruises - Wednesday, 20 October 2004 The European Commission has today announced that it will take the UK Government to court over its handling of booze cruises. The Commission has ruled that UK Customs measures such as seizing goods and vehicles are out of proportion to the actual number of offences committed. Letter to the Editor - Northamptonshire Chronicle - Tuesday, 12 October 2004 I see that no fewer than three of your correspondents attacked my position on hunting on September 30th. I wonder if this is a record? Kilroy Silk on an ego-trip, say Tory MEPs - Tuesday, 12 October 2004 East Midlands Conservative MEPs Roger Helmer and Chris Heaton-Harris have attacked the extraordinary outbursts from UKIP MEP Robert Kilroy Silk in recent days. Letter to the Editor - The Sunday Telegraph - Sunday, 10 October 2004 I am a great fan of Roger Bootle, whose articles appear in your Business Section. But I must take issue with his piece on the 10th, where he urged the accession of Turkey to the EU. Letter to the Editor - Northamptonshire Chronicle - Wednesday, 30 September 2004 Mr. S.J. Church writes (29.09) that he doesn't know whether I'm in favour of fox-hunting. I should have thought that the fact I apologised to hunt supporters for failing to join them in Parliament Square might have given him a hint, but let me spell it out. Yes, I'm in favour of fox-hunting. MEP to sample a taste of the East Midlands - Thursday, 30 September 2004 Local Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer, is to attend the East Midlands Regional Food and Drink Festival 2004, to be held at Melton Mowbray. The event, which will be attended by several media celebrities including Antony Worral-Thompson and Clarissa Dickson Wright, is to be held at the Exhibition Halls at the Melton Mowbray Cattle Market on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th October. Local MEP expresses "disgust" at Straw/Mugabe handshake - Tuesday, 28 September 2004 East Midlands MEP, Roger Helmer, has expressed his disgust at Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's warm greeting for Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, at a recent UN reception in New York. Filmed as part of a Newsnight documentary on the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was seen chatting cordially to other world leaders, before spotting tyrant Mugabe and walking up to him, shaking his hand and expressing his regards. Helmer criticises Brussels Zimbabwe minister visit - Friday, 24 September 2004 A banned Zimbabwean Minister, Kumbirai Kangai, has been allowed into Belgium to attend a meeting of the EU-ACP Political Committee. Members of the European Parliament are protesting at this deliberate act of contempt by the regime of Robert Mugabe, which makes a nonsense of the EU's 'targeted sanctions'. Letter to the Editor - Thursday 16 September 2004 I have been horrified by the scenes of brutality in Parliament Square yesterday. This was not a rampaging mob of left wing anarchists throwing chairs through McDonalds' windows or vandalising historical statues. It was a group of peaceful country folk desperately concerned about their very future. The attacks by the police on largely peaceful protesters against a hunting ban were a disgrace both to the police themselves and to the British tradition of peaceful protest. Letter to the Editor - Wednesday, 15 September 2004 Two cheers for Gordon Brown. He has pointed out, quite rightly, that the EU's poor economic performance, its self-inflicted stagnation, have now reached a point where they threaten to destabilise the global economy. High taxes, unaffordable levels of welfare spending and massively rigid labour markets are stifling competitiveness. MEP raps hunt ban in Strasbourg Parliament - Tuesday, 14 September 2004 Following the government's announcement of its plan for a hunting bill, East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer took the first opportunity in the European parliament in Strasbourg on Monday to speak out against Labour's proposals. Letter to the Editor - Derby Evening Telegraph - Wednesday, 8 September 2004 Edward Spalton (letters, 2nd Sept) is a robust critic of the European Union, and I frequently agree with him. His latest letter blames "the demise of the Royal Mail" on EU Directive 97/67/EC, and he has a point. But it's a bit more complicated than that. Letter to the Editor - Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday, 8 September 2004 Nick Palmer MP shows extraordinary complacency and ignorance about the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), (letters August 24th). The CFP which he commends has been a disaster for the environment and for North Sea Fish stocks. It has been a disaster for the fishing industry, as well as the on-shore processing industry, with thousands of jobs lost. Letter to the Editor - Lincolnshire Echo - Wednesday, 8 September 2004 John Sharpe (letters, 6/9) has strong views -- but they are wrong views. He refers to my article on August 31st, in which I said that EU Single Market policy was a key reason why our coal industry had declined. I realised at the time that I had not set out the case in any detail, but space prevented me from doing so. Letter to the Editor - Northamptonshire Chronicle - Wednesday, 8 September 2004 John Clarke (letters, 6/9) tries to imply that during the Cold War, both the former USSR and the USA sought to maintain "imperialist" control in their respective spheres of influence in Europe. If he really cannot see the difference between the free democracies of Western Europe, and the pitiful subjection of the Eastern European countires under the Soviet yoke, he must be blind indeed. Letter to the Editor - Wednesday, 8 September 2004 With only a few weeks to go to the US elections, anyone reading the British press could be forgiven for thinking that the leader of the free world is a simpleton, unable to string a few words together (though if they had seen his acceptance speech at the recent Republican Convention in New York, they would have got a very different impression). Commission proposals on Stability Pact a cop-out - Tuesday, 7 September 2004 Following the publication of European Commission proposals concerning the future of the Stability and Growth Pact, which are to grant concessions loosening the effects of the European Union's economic framework, East Midlands MEP, Chris Heaton-Harris, said: Open letter to Denis McShane - Minister for Europe - Sunday, 8 August 2004 I was very disappointed to read your remarks on euro-sceptics, whom you said were xenophobes and isolationists, hated the French and Germans, and were replaying the Second World War. It is not so much that your remarks are gratuitously insulting to a large number of decent and fair-minded people. We have all been in politics long enough to accept gratuitous insults as par for the course. East Midlands Tory MEP addresses American conference - Monday, 2 August 2004 East Midlands MEP, Roger Helmer, spoke on Saturday to an influential conference in Seattle, USA. He was joined by over 2,000 state legislators, policy makers, and private sector members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) at the groups' 31st Annual Meeting. All Change For East Midlands Tory MEPs - Tuesday, 27 July 2004 The new session of the European Parliament has heralded a reshuffle of responsibilities from the British Conservative delegation. Consequently, newly re-elected East Midlands MEPs Chris Heaton-Harris and Roger Helmer are to serve on different committees than the last parliament.