March 2009

Published on Mon 30th Mar 2009

When I wrote my piece for February, I promised that I would explain why I had to do so early. Actually, the last week turned out not to be as hectic as expected, since an event in Inverness was cancelled. But I did still have meetings with farmers in Ayrshire and in Perth and accompany the Commissioner for multilingualism on his visit to Scotland, taking in Edinburgh, Dundee, Stirling and Glasgow and looking at language education (including in Gaelic at primary level) and the provision for people from the newer member states coming to work in Scotland.

There has been a similar momentum throughout the month of March, especially as we have had to fit in two sessions down in Strasbourg, where we have dealt with matters as diverse as standards for tyres, pollution control, cohesion policy, food prices and internet security.

Education has figured largely, too. Variously in Brussels and Strasbourg we have had visitors from the Scottish Agricultural College, Aberdeen and Motherwell Colleges and a grammar school in Glasgow. Then I have managed myself to take in four different primary schools - located in Bearsden, Erskine, Hamilton and Glasgow, the last, at Garnetbank, for a fundraising event on behalf of the Marie Curie foundation.

In between there has been our Party conference in Perth and an annual fundraising dinner in Glasgow. Both involved an element of nostalgia, as these were the last times I would be attending such events as an MEP. There is still a long way to go, though, before the election on 4 June and my diary remains full up to (and beyond) that date. Amongst other things, my report on the governance of the Common Fisheries Policy, now through committee, still has to come up for the full Parliament vote.

One of my last trips in March shall be up to Inverness, which I hope to include a meeting with the UK winners of the EU sponsored Charlemagne Youth Prize. I hope to be telling you about that the next time around. But there are some weeks in Brussels, with some more major fisheries votes, an event on volunteering and our April session to come before then.