No Bienvenue for Prescott

Worst publicity

The anger of the British delegation to the Council of Europe at the news that John Prescott’s plans to join them have spilled out into the national press.

The group are serious about human rights, the environment and social affairs. These issues dominate the Council’s agenda. It is not a retirement refuge for MPs who are slowing down. The work is difficult and exacting, seeking international agreements among 48 quarrelsome nations. Prescott’s presence would bring the worst sort of publicity. The newsrooms of the tabloids will offer big bucks for pictures of John among women with a drink in his hand in some swish reception.

The script has already been written and the council has been dubbed a ‘gravy train.’ As the present leader Tony Lloyd has said, ‘If it is, the gravy is very thin.’ Delegates give large chunks of their week-end time to attend meeting and to serve as rapporteurs on issues that offer long term benefits for the continent but no personal aggrandisement to themselves.

There is intense resentment that Prescott’s elevation to be leader of the delegation is a ‘done deal.’ No deal has been done with the delegates of all three parties. The last three leaders, Tony Lloyd, Terry Davies and Peter Hardy have all been elected. It would be an appalling start to our consulting new PM if a leader was imposed on this vital all-Party body.

Whoever thinks they have done a deal should rapidly undo it and think again. If not, they’ll be tears before bedtime.

The ‘Da Marty’ code

If President Bush is sad at losing a loyal friend in Tony Blair, he can take comfort in welcoming two new poodles.

Polish and Romanian MPs put up a stout attack on Swiss MP Dick Marty’s report on extraordinary rendition. There is a mountain of   circumstantial evidence that international standards of human rights have been broken by transferring suspected terrorists to destinations where torture has been used on them. The Swiss MP Dick Marty has a formidable reputation as a jurist and politician. He said yesterday that he was no going to put that at risk just to gain a few headlines.

But Bush’s new friends from former communist countries dubbed Dick’s report as the ‘Da Marty code.’ Unfair, exaggerated but a deadly blow that hits the report main weakness-the lack of firm evidence that would convict in a court of law. Dick convincingly argued that his masses of quoted evidence were from intelligence and other sources that can never be revealed.

The Council of Europe’s full Assembly of 48 nations voted by the necessary two thirds majority to support Marty. The horrors of terrorism are known to all of us. But that is no justification for breaching all global standards of human rights. The excesses of extraordinary rendition could give a propaganda victory that will incite new terrorism.

So British                                                                                                                                                    

Today’s main French newspaper believes that the handover from Blair to Brown was ‘tres british’. In every other European nation, a handover of power from individuals with very different philosophies would have been stormy and vicious. But we Brits are ultra civilised. That’s the French fable.

The writer does not know the angst of expectation of an internal Labour bloodbath that was avoided because there was no right-wing challenge. It is regrettable that left candidates did not get past the MPs primary.  If they had they would been crushed. But nerves were jangling that a right-wing candidate of the calibre of John Reid or Charles Clarke carrying a Blairist banner would have divided the party dangerously. Brown would still have won but only after a bitter replay of past rows.

So British? So lucky.

‘Le swirling’ and ‘le scrapbooking.’

It’s reassuring that not all Europe is exclusively fascinated with a few major sports and pastimes. French newspapers are agog with the latest news of ‘le swirling’ and the ‘le scrapbooking.’

Also known as ‘les ricochets’ it is about bouncing stones across a lake of still water. The ‘stones’, made of glass, are a standard weight and shape. George, the Belgian is the world champion bouncing the stones as far as 200 metres. The world championship this week was in the Alsatian capital. One of the aficionados from the six nations competing said, ‘As these stones fly they create an ephemeral sculpture in space.. .’ Not just a sport but a work of art.

In the same city was the reunion of ‘Scrapcopines’. Described as the Alsatian passion of  ‘scrapbooking.’ The pastime begun in Britain and America with families making scrapbooks to recorded village and family histories.  The groups used the English word and confess that ‘scrapbooking’ is hard to pronounce. The devotees are highly competitive experimenting with new materials, images and designs.

Not much chance of either of these activities catching on here. Vive le difference