Graham Watson (2)

http://nhw.livejournal.com/575480.html

A terrible title, but quite a fun little collection of Graham's weekly emails to constituents in the south-west of England, giving an insight into the life of an MEP (sanitised for public consupmtion of course). Occasionally he mentions events in Brussels which I remember seeing him or even talking to him at, which is personally interesting. His observations on Silvio Berlusconi and Cyprus are particularly trenchant, and there is an interesting account show more of how one Liberal MEP got nobbled by industrial interests to the point where the rest of them effectively disowned his proposed legislation. Towards the 2004 elections he is writing longer and more EU-focused messages; predicts that the Liberal group of MEPs may increase from 52 to as many as 85 or 95 (in fact they now have over 100) and that the European Parliament will not give the new European Commission an easy ride in the second half of 2004 (as indeed they did not). Would be a fun little text for any international or European studies student. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1187059.html

This is a collection of sixty or so speeches made by Graham Watson MEP since he became leader of the Liberal group of members of the European Parliament. I know the author, and inevitably - especially given that it's a book of speeches - I hear his gentle Rothesay accent in my head as I read the words. (Although he is a Scot, he actually represents South-Western England. And Gibraltar.) The longest of these speeches can't be more than a quarter of an show more hour, the shortest are parliamentary interventions where MEPs are speaking against the clock. Some are very specific - Russia, Gibraltar, Cyprus, the poor management of his own election campaign in 1999. Others are broader. I don't think anyone could read the collection and come away from it with the feeling that they didn't know what Graham Watson stands for; he's pretty clear on his concept of liberalism, and he has obviously managed to make it appealing to large numbers of MEPs (and, hopefully, their voters); the size of the Liberal group has doubled under his leadership, without his dialling down his own rhetoric in any way, and continues to pull in recruits. show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1079593.html

A collection of 21 short essays by 23 MEPs of the Liberal group (and two credited research assistants), addressing the subject in the title of the collection. Actually the more generalist pieces tend unfortunately toward waffle, and some of them, written immediately after the French and Dutch referenda, have been overtaken by subsequent events; the ones that jumped out at me were by Jelko Kacin on Turkey and the EU, by Philippe Morillon on Bosnia and show more France, and by Emma Nicholson on international adoptions and Romania. Still, it's reassuring that the MEPs do have some however vague concept of ideology informing their thoughts. show less