Ellee Seymour

Today I shall be in Cambridge participating in human rights debates, including ‘honour’ based violence against women, secret detention, children’s rights and the Israel-Palestine conflict. What better time to raise the mysterious disappearance of BBC reporter Alan Johstone which is causing increasing concern.

Expert speakers will include activists and policy experts from Amnesty, (which I used to belong to), Human Rights Watch, Liberty, and the Southall Black Sisters, along with academics and lawyers specialising in human rights issues.

A bonus is the venue, the glorious St John’s College, where many brilliant brains have sought, and continue to seek, academic excellence; it is a truly awe-inspiring place.

Update: This conference was well timed to coincide with the Libyan terror suspects winning their appeal against deportation from the UK fearing they would be tortured if sent home. Under international human rights law, the UK does not deport people to regimes where they may face persecution or torture.

Ben Ward, from Human Rights Watch, spoke about this, but insisted that it was wrong to return anyone to a country where this could happen, that we cannot trust any promises given by a government known to torture prisoners. He does not believe our national security is any worse today than after WW2. He believes the way forward is to work with the governments in countries known to abuse human rights, something he knows will take a very long time.

Does anyone have any ideas how this can work?

If saving £200 million a year is not good enough reason to stop the ridiculous European Parliament’s travelling circus sitting in Strasbourg to simply appease the French, then how about on grounds of saving carbon emissions.

A green study of the European Parliament’s two-seat operation, including environmental costs, transport and energy’, has shown this wasteful journey produces an extra 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Green MEPs have grabbed this moment to urge the EU to “show environmental leadership” and “close the Strasbourg building immediately in order to put its own house in order’”.

Conservatives have a strong voice on this too, with Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Conservative Leader in the European Parliament, saying:

“Having a second Parliamentary seat effectively means pouring millions of pounds paid by British taxpayers down the plughole and such nonsense destroys voters’ trust in the EU. To be voting on environmental issues when we continue to have to uproot every month with thousands of extra road, rail and plane journeys is nothing short of ridiculous.”

If the EU is as committed as it claims to tackling climate change, then how can it ignore this study? It is the equivalent of our MPs and their staff packing their bags and travelling from Westminster to say Edinburgh once a month in order to vote on parliamentary issues, something that is inconceivable.

*I am going to hear climate change denier Nigel Calder speak in Cambridge tomorrow at the city’s annual literary event, Wordfest. I’m interested to see what kind of support he gets.

Update: 3 May, Robert Sturdy’s letter in The Independent on this subject.