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At Labour Conference, I helped launch a new and thought-provoking pamphlet Reversing Labour Retreat. The pamphlet examines connections between electoral strategy and the health of the Labour Party on the ground. It aims to contribute to a much needed debate about measures to boost political engagement and strengthen party activism. We need to campaign across the whole of the country not just in target marginal seats. By concentrating on a relatively few swing voters, political parties fail to address the concerns of electors who do not fit a particular narrow profile. I am concerned that the targeting strategy necessitated by our First-Past-the-Post voting system was - and is continuing to be - harmful to Labour's interests in terms of party organisation, standing candidates in every seat, winning councils and councillors, and holding on to our current MPs.

The latest Culture, Youth and Education Committee meeting was held on 11th September 2007 and the next meeting, in Brussels, will be on 3rd October 2007. The latest topics of interest are as follows:

Multilingualism

A new portfolio for multilingualism was created within the Commission in 2007. Multilingualism is a daily reality for the European Union. The large number of languages spoken within the EU presents practical challenges but also significant benefits.

I recently met with the Commissioner for Multilingualism to discuss how we can make the most of Europe's linguistic diversity. Multilingualism contributes greatly to the competitiveness of European business and enables firms to function better in a global environment. It is also an industry in its own right which creates many jobs.

Learning languages leads to more intercultural discussion and understanding and is an important means of increasing tolerance and cultural awareness. Translation and interpretation are essential for communication between citizens of Europe and to permit a European political dialogue.

Football

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on the future of professional football in Europe. This aims to tackle concerns about financial transparency and to ensure football is not over commercialised and remains accessible to all.

This resolution promotes the European Football Model in which amateur clubs and grassroot support form the base for the top professional clubs. It supports the efforts of the governing bodies to introduce greater transparency in the ownership structures of clubs and to fight against criminal activities such as money laundering and illegal match fixing. Requirements for each squad to have a minimum number of home-gown players will prevent the richest clubs dominating the game. The resolution will also increase its efforts to fight human trafficking and take additional initiatives against racism and the use of doping.

Roaming

During the past few months I involved in the European Parliament's campaign to reduce mobile phone charges across the EU. I have met with Ofcom, the industry regulator, Government Ministers and various consumer groups.

A regulation recently agreed on by the European Union means that mobile phone users will see substantial benefits when they travel outside the UK. This Regulation introduces a common approach to ensuring that users of public mobile telephone networks when travelling within the Community do not pay excessive charges. It thereby contributes to the smooth functioning of the internal market while maintaining a high level of consumer protection.

The new regulation, which came into immediate effect in all EU countries, establishes a cap on all mobile phone roaming charges across the European Union.

I know from personal experience just how punishing mobile roaming charges can be. You may be interested to know of a journalist sent by his newspaper to cover the Tour de France who came home to find that his mobile operator had billed him ? 9000 in roaming charges. This new regulation will stop kind of abuse dead in its tracks.

Capital of culture

Preparations are well underway for Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008. So far seventy major events have been planned to showcase Liverpool's arts, architecture, dance, film, literature, music, and theatre, including a concert broadcast from the city's waterfront and 'The People's Festival', a celebration of working class heroes and culture.

Liverpool 2008 is set to be an exciting time for Britain and will confirm Liverpool's place as an important centre of culture in Europe.

The Bologna Process

The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental initiative which aims to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010, in which students can choose from a wide and transparent range of courses and benefit from Europe-wide recognition of their qualifications through the use of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Making higher education systems
comparable and compatible, while also maintaining their diversity and autonomy, benefits students by allowing greater student mobility and enabling recognition for time spent studying abroad.

Ministers from the participating states met in London in July to discuss the progress of the Bologna Process and what still is hoped to be achieved by 2010. The next three years will focus in particular on increasing the employability of students and thus making Europe more competitive in the global market.

Further information on any of these topics can be found on the European Parliament website. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions that you may have.

Commenting on news that Boris Johnson MP was being considered as a Tory candidate for Mayor of London, London Euro MP Mary Honeyball commented: London is a world-class city, the last thing we need is a world-class buffoon as a Tory candidate for Mayor. Boris can't even commit to being a full-time MP.  London has enough serious issues to demand a fulltime politician. The Tories have already approached a number of people outside their Party to be their candidate. That they have had to resort to Boris shows the lack of talent in Tory Party.

For more on this story go to www.24dash.com/localgovernment/23670.htm

I was interviewed on LBC Radio on 5th July."

Over 300 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in London alone. Cervical cancer screening has helped to dramatically cut the number of women in London dying from this cancer. However recent figures show more than 30% of women in the Capital are now ignoring invitations to take part in the national screening programme.

Speaking on 23rd January at the launch of the European Cervical Cancer Association's Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, I said that nearly one woman a day is diagnosed with cervical cancer in London alone.

Screening has played a massive part reducing the death toll of this terrible cancer. I urge women in London to take part in the NHS national screening programme.

Cervical Cancer Prevention week aims to raise awareness of this cancer and to encourage women to attend screening.

There is a wide difference in cancer screening across Europe. Some countries like Spain and Slovakia have no nationwide cervical cancer screening programme at all.

Research going on in London - and across Europe - into a vaccine against Human Papilloma Virus could help to virtually eliminate cervical cancer, but until then screening remains vital.

I am a founding member of the European Parliament Cervical Cancer Intergroup (CCIG) and Member of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

Last year in the UK there were an average of 1300 fewer smear tests among 25 to 29 year olds each week than 10 years earlier.

Screening was introduced in the UK in 1988 and brought deaths from cervical cancer down from around 6000 to less than 1000.

Attendance of 30-34 year olds has also dropped from 84.3% to 78%

On 13th December I spoke in the European Parliament on the exposure of children to video games.

This was my speech. Mr President, I would like to thank the Commission for raising this important issue. With the Christmas holiday nearly upon us, the market is flooded with violent video games. Often the true nature and content of a video game is not discovered until after purchase. We should seek to provide young people and parents with accurate information about these products so that they can make informed decisions about whether to purchase games or not.

I am aware that parts of the games industry favour keeping the current Pan-European Information System, a self-certification scheme. I would be interested in hearing much more on the effectiveness of this system, because I question if it is protecting young people enough. We are not simply talking about minor violence, the violence in some of the games on the market is extremely excessive, and certainly unnecessary.

I would particularly like to see the Commission consider the negative image of women that is often portrayed in violent video games. The attitudes that young people develop towards women and the role of women, may be affected by these games. The extreme cases of gender stereotyping that are seen in these video games do not have to be tolerated.

If we can protect children and young people from viewing unsuitable and violent films, then I think that we can equally justify protecting them from immersing themselves in violence whilst playing video games.

Anti-social behaviour is a problem for the UK, as I'm sure it is for other member states. We should be stopping to think about why young people are behaving in this way. The impact of violent video games is undoubtedly an avenue to be explored.