Author Archives: Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott writes…Postscript: The Tory Conference – more Euro-sceptic than ever

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Wed 1st October 2014 - 6:52 pm

Edward McMillan ScottIt was a poignant watching the Tory Conference at Birmingham’s ICC on TV. After all, it was there at our Spring Conference in March 2010 that I became a Liberal Democrat, only to find my new party in coalition with the Tories two months later!

I described that as the happiest day in my political life: ‘the Lib Dems have tamed the Tory extremists’ I wrote as the Coalition Agreement was published, especially on the EU and human rights.

My impression is that the Conservative Party has made absolutely no progress …

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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott writes … an open letter to the Leader of the Conservatives in Europe

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Tue 20th May 2014 - 4:56 pm

European Parliament chamber, StrasbourgMr Syed Kamall MEP (London, Conservative)

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament

Dear Syed,

As the former leader of the Conservative MEPs, I have followed with interest the current speculation over your potential future bedfellows in Europe. It appears likely that the number of Conservative MEPs will fall from 26 to around 15, your Czech allies will all but vanish, and the Polish Law and Justice Party will be the dominant force in the ECR group. To survive, there are informed reports that Tory MEPs with the backing of David Cameron are trawling the wilder shores of European politics for new allies.

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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes… 100 years on from World War I, let’s remember the EU’s role in spreading peace and democracy

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Fri 25th April 2014 - 8:00 pm

Anzac day License Some rights reserved by Ian McKenzieToday is Anzac Day, when we remember those Australians and New Zealanders who fell fighting during the First World War side by side with British soldiers, and the senseless sacrifices of millions of men and women who died across Europe and the rest of the world.

This year will see the one hundredth year anniversary of the First World War and it should give us time to pause and reflect on the tragedies of the first half of the twentieth-century.

As we do …

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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes…Brussels Conference on Food and Climate Change

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Wed 9th April 2014 - 11:45 am

VärtaverketTHERE is justified concern over the growing reliance on food banks in the UK and across the European Union. We should consider it as a symptom of a broken food system which requires a complete overhaul. We need a sustainable food policy across the EU, where often prosperous farmers will get €350bn over the next seven years, while the most deprived get a meagre €3.5bn.

On March 30, a further report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that the impacts of global warming are likely to be “severe, pervasive and irreversible”.

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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes… In Europe 40 years on: what next?

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Wed 16th January 2013 - 12:30 pm

On Friday David Cameron will make his big speech on Europe. There is only one thing now which will satisfy the Eurosceptics: a firm promise – and not just a ‘cast-iron guarantee’ – for a referendum on Europe.

The speech – which must address the challenge of UKIP, mainly to the Tories – comes as the UK marks 40 years’ of membership of what is now the European Union. Lord Ashcroft’s recent polling of 20,000 Britons suggests that it is not Europe, but immigration which is encouraging Conservatives to switch to UKIP. However, the next national electoral challenge will be the European …

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Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes… Our voice on human rights is amplified by the EU

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Thu 5th July 2012 - 11:54 am

The Coalition pledge to put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy is bearing fruit. Thanks especially to pressure from the European Parliament – where as Vice-President for democracy and human rights I have lobbied hard – and the Foreign Office, civil society, the EU’s 27 governments recently adopted a comprehensive new approach. Jeremy Browne, our excellent minister for human rights, and I co-authored a recent article published by the Independent explaining the background of the ambitious new EU Human Rights package.

Although the EU’s foreign ministers gave the green light to a new Strategy with an  associated …

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