Author Archives: Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP

Sarah Ludford MEP writes… Deal on transfer of passenger data to the US was least worst option

By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP | 30th April 2012 - 2:54 pm

The transfer to the US of EU travellers’ Passenger Name Record (PNR) data – the information we give the airline for booking purposes – has been happening for over a decade. MEPs including me have been battling since then to control the terms on which that transfer takes place in order to build in adequate data protection, and we have secured considerable improvements.

It is important to recall that the US has a sovereign right to impose whatever conditions it wishes on airlines and …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged air passengers | 5 Comments

Sarah Ludford MEP writes: Passengers should be able to opt out of body scanning

By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP | 4th May 2011 - 9:38 am

The EU is considering whether to enlarge the list of techniques approved under its aviation security regulations beyond physical searches or metal detectors, and if so with what safeguard provisions.

In the meantime, individual Member States can trial security scanners known as ‘whole body’ scanners – or more popularly as ‘naked’ bodyscanners – and apply their own rules. They are currently in use at many European as well as American airports.

In the UK, they are being trialled at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports, governed by the 1982 Aviation Security Act and an interim Code of Practice issued last year. A permanent …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged european union | 6 Comments

Lord Pearson as a Tory party whip and Griffin v. Maloney

By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP | 9th December 2009 - 4:13 pm

UKIP have got themselves into a right pickle recently, poor things! It emerged last week that their new leader Lord Pearson a number of months ago made a somewhat controversial offer to the Conservative party. Pearson allegedly (The Times, 30 November, UKIP’s planned deal with Tories causes outrage in anti-Europe party) approached Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Tories in the House of Lords, with an offer to disband the party and withdraw all UKIP candidates if the Tories agreed to hold a referendum on EU membership. Lord Strathclyde himself has confirmed that the meeting with Pearson, who is in fact a former Tory, took place.

Although Nigel Farage has since changed the story slightly saying that the offer only included withdrawing all candidates, this is still a pretty hefty political gamble.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged barking, bnp, buckingham, glenys kinnock, lord pearson, lord strathclyde, nick griffin, nigel farage, paul wiffen, ukip and winston mckenzie | 15 Comments

Sarah Ludford: my first party conference memories

By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP | 16th September 2007 - 12:50 pm

My first conference was 25 years ago, in Bournemouth, and coincided with my husband Steve Hitchins and I moving to Islington. Steve was a few months behind me in joining the party, so I was on my own in Bournemouth 1982. It remains my favourite location and the repository of my fondest memories, partly because I had such a good time but also because it represents the beginning of my journey as an activist in the Liberal Democrats.

I was in fact only part-based in the UK at the time as I worked for the European Commission in Brussels and …

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