Surrey in Europe

Newsletter of the Surrey Branch of the European Movement:  

March 2012 - with updates on meetings since

CONTENTS

Branch AGM - March 30 2012                                            CLICK HERE

Resolution                                                                    CLICK HERE

John Wastnage speech                                              CLICK HERE

Luncheon Meeting - April 17 2012

with minister from Danish Embassy                    CLICK HERE

Is austerity or stimulus right for Europe? - a Federal Trust

Meeting.                                                                                                 CLICK HERE

What we can learn from Eurosceptics - analysis by

Simon Usherwood.                                                                         CLICK HERE

Views on the News - Italian heroes, Irish democracy, Obama v.

Europe, cheap loans, the UK - Czech team, battery hens,

Nirj Deva, A380, feta cheese, prison stats., inflation,

John Smith’s ale.                                                                              CLICK HERE

Ode to the Euro                                                                                            CLICK HERE

Contributions and comments please to keith.tunstall99@gmail.com

Date for your diary

Thursday, May 24th: Annual Dinner - Ship Hotel, Weybridge.  7 p.m.

Speaker: The Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill.

£28.50.  Please book with Beryl Rodell - beryl@jrodell.com.  Guests welcome.

NEXT ISSUE

In the next issue of the Newsletter I suggest we concentrate on the European Convention on Human Rights, which has recently been the subject of some controversy. The Charter of Fundamental Rights was given legal status in the Lisbon Treaty, but the Tory 2010 election manifesto promised a full opt-out and a British Charter of Rights instead.  This was watered down in the coalition agreement; the issue would now be reviewed.

The subject is back on the table as the media and politicians have challenged findings of the Court of Human Rights.  “UK fights to wrestle power back from human rights court” was a recent heading in the Guardian, referring to a draft paper written for debate at a conference in Brighton in April at the end of Britain’s six-month chairmanship of the Council of Europe.

One of the new MPs in Surrey, Dominic Raab, is a leading light in the Tory Party on human rights.  We are asking him if he will contribute a paper on his views for our next issue of the Newsletter.

It will be interesting to see how a British Charter of Human Rights could differ from a European Charter.  Will we have more rights or fewer rights?   Views of members are of course welcome.  It seems to me this is a subject of enormous importance in a European context, given its history.  And surely it also gets to the heart of what we mean by being British and what we mean by British values.