Nikki Sinclaire Starts Royal Air Force Training

Nikki today the 25th of February 2010 started The Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme with an intense day of training at RAF Base Halton in Buckinghamshire. The objective of the Armed forces Parliamentary Scheme is to provide MPs with a broad view of military life and a real knowledge of the role and functions of the armed forces.

Nikki will spend time with service men and women throughout the intensive programme. The course will cover basic training and duties for both junior officers and for other ranks, concluding with a period in Afghanistan. When so many of our servicemen and women are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect our national interests, it has never been more important that those in Parliament truly understand the vital work they do

"As a politician, it is very important to be able to relate to the lives of the military along with the lives of the many people who make this nation great" said Nikki.

Continuing "The opportunity to speak with our brave service men and women and to see them in their military surroundings will be an immense building of my character, as a politician and as an individual.""I think I am very lucky to be given this opportunity"

Nikki Sinclaire stands up for UK citizens privacy

West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire voted this week against the EU Commission, the European Peoples Party and the Conservative European Parliamentary Group, the ECR in their attempt to postpone the vote on the interim SWIFT agreement with the United States.

Nikki said “The EU’s poor agreement with the US gives a lack of data protection and legal redress in the provisional agreement on bank data transfers to the United-States via the SWIFT network. This has far reaching implications for UK citizens including their privacy. This information should be gathered only for the purposes of fighting terrorism and the right balance must be struck between security measures and the protection of civil liberties.”

Nikki reiterated that this should be a matter for the UK government to negotiate and not the EU. The vote to postpone was narrowly defeated and the subsequent vote threw out the agreement. Nikki said “This was a real slap in the face for the EU establishment and I am delighted to put my bit of force behind it!”

UKIP MEP attends Holocaust Memorial

West Midlands UKIP MEP, Nikki Sinclaire, as an invited guest of the European Jewish Congress, took part in events to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz yesterday. The day also marked the annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

Prior to the visit, which took place in temperatures of - 20 degrees, a service was held in Krakow, entitled "Let my people live". This was addressed by Polish President Lech Kacznski, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament. US President Barak Obama addressed delegates via a personal video message. Those present included Holocaust survivors, religious leaders and students. The theme of the day's was "Remembering the past - Confronting Today's Challenges".

Nikki, the only UK MEP attending the event, said "I was honoured to have been invited to this humbling occasion; to see at first hand the horrors of intolerance, hatred and violence. The lesson we must all learn is that standing by while evil is perpetrated can never be right. And if "Never Again" is to be more than a mere slogan or empty phrase, we must accept that just marking a date is not enough - The best way to honour the victims of the Holocaust is to be vigilant to new atrocities, however small, and bear witness to them".

MEP attacks Commission

In Brussels earlier this week, the Women's Rights Committee launched a scathing attack on the Commission over its gender policies, when it was asked to approve the discharge of the EU General Budget for 2008.

"Gender budgeting has still not been implemented" the committee stated in a report, demanding that the Commission take further steps towards ensuring that gender mainstreaming becomes a reality in budgetary planning. The committee also pointed out that in 2008 a large number of reimbursements to the Cohesion projects, (which cover gender equality), were affected by "errors".

At the Luxembourg summit of 1997, it was agreed that gender equality, and equal employment opportunities for men and women, should be the fourth pillar of EU employment guidelines. However, according to the Commission's own figures employment rates amongst women are lower than for men, with women continuing to earn an average of 17.4% less than men for each hour worked.

UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire told us "Throughout the world, it is women who bear the brunt of economic and social problems. I suspect that millions of women in Europe would have had higher expectations of the Commission, which has again failed to deliver on its commitments".

NFU Visit the EU!

Nikki Sinclaire MEP and her team hosted an NFU visit to the European Parliament on Monday 11th January in Brussels.The group of Farmers from the surrounding countryside of Shropshire were due to meet at Telford on Sunday night to fly to Brussels from Birmingham Airport. We were concerned they wouldn't make it through the ice and the snow, but as the organiser Ruth said "if farmers can't drive though the treacherous conditions no one can!"

Nikki's team met the NFU group of 25 at 2.30pm the next day on Monday afternoon inside the entrance of the EU visitors centre were photos were taken in front of the national flags. Then we were all lead into the visitors room where the workings of the EU Parliament were explained by John Fordham who has many years of experience working for the EU. We then viewed the impressive circular Parliament Chamber where there was a chance to ask questions.

After David finished, Nikki spoke about her perspective of the European Parliament and the reasons why the UK would benefit from leaving the EU, this was followed by a lively informative debate. Nikki was delighted to attend the NFU dinner later that evening with her colleague Stuart Agnew MEP this was a great opportunity for a discussion with him on technical agricultural issues - Stuart was with a determined few until around 1.00am the next morning, providing ample time for quite a thorough discussion!

Nikki will be making fact finding visits to farms in the future to support our agriculture community in the West Midlands. She said “I have found this visit very informative especially about the growing amount of paperwork farmers need to comply with – Farmers need to farm, not to become bureaucrats.”