Dear Reader, 

First I must apologise to Somerset Trading Standards, whom I accused last month of being indifferent to my request to follow up a scam where consumers in South Africa have been receiving e-mails as from Shepton Mallet telling them they have won a lottery prize. Those who reply are invited to pay various administration costs – and a surprising number of people do. I have now been told by Somerset TS that they are on the case. They have visited the Shepton Mallet address given, and found it derelict. They are still following various lines of enquiry to try to find the scam operators.

 

Secondly I have a few points to report on Iran because I went there this month – not in any official capacity but over Easter. The Jackson household was somewhat divided over the advisability of such a visit. We flew in as the HMS Cornwall crewmembers were flown out and reached Tehran just as the flames from burning British flags were dying down. We travelled from there to Shiraz, Yazd, Isfahan and back to Tehran. The highlights of the visit were the ruins at Persepolis and Pasargadae and the beautiful mosques of Isfahan. We also passed the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz where we saw new anti-aircraft gun emplacements being built. Our most dangerous moments were passed in taxis in the traffic of Tehran.

 

We encountered absolutely no hostility at all from the people we met but, on the contrary, a desire to make contact and be treated as a normal, not isolated, nation. Dialogues with locals generally went as follows: Iranian: “Hullo, how are you, where are you from?” We said we were from England. Iranian: “From England? You are very welcome in our country – please enjoy your stay with us”. The towns were very clean and everything seemed orderly. Everywhere there are large placards displaying the features of Ayatollah Khomeini (now dead) and Ayatollah Khamenei, the current supreme leader. This determination to be a state where the religious dimension really matters could only be paralleled in Britain if we put up placards with the portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in all our public places – it’s a strange thought. Pictures of President Ahmadinejad are slightly less ubiquitous.

 

And yet one has to be aware that dissent is harshly dealt with and that aid from Iran is prolonging the agony of Iraq. I had to wear a headscarf (and dress modestly – not difficult as it wasn’t hot). A lot of Iranian women opt for the jet-black “chador,” an all-enveloping long sheet-like garment that they clutch round them. The effect is surreal as such women look like moving inkblots against the background of the colourful bazaars and mosques. When we finally got to meet Iranians in their homes we asked the women why they did not rebel against the imposition of such clothing rules, which effectively make them second class citizens. They shrugged their shoulders and said they knew they would be arrested and perhaps beaten or imprisoned for failing to cover themselves: resistance was not worth it.  Although there are apparently free elections they are rigged because the government decides which opposition candidates can stand, eliminating popular candidates before the vote. Our hosts said they found President Ahmadinejad embarrassing (“we hide behind the sofa when he comes on TV”) but were resigned to having him as President.

 

Our non-expert conclusion from the visit was that the west, perhaps through the EU if the Americans have hang ups about it, should keep talking to the Iranians. Keeping open the chance for Iranians to study here is important: many have happy student memories of Britain.

 

Meanwhile back in the European Parliament probably the most important thing we did this month was to give fast-track approval to a new proposal on advanced therapy medicinal products. These involve revolutionary medical techniques such as gene therapy, cell therapy and tissue engineering, and offer hope to thousands of patients suffering from cancer, heart disease and neuro-degenerative diseases. The new law sets up a compulsory centralised procedure to authorise the marketing of these innovative products and for the post-authorisation monitoring of patients and products. The donation of cells and tissues must be voluntary and unpaid and the anonymity of donors and recipients guaranteed.

 

The controversial part of our debates on this concerned stem cell therapy since there exists a faction in the parliament that will oppose such therapy on ethical grounds whenever the issue comes up. In fact, under this law, member states remain free to accept or forbid such therapies on their territory but the anti-stem cell therapy group basically wants the EU to outlaw it everywhere. This seems to me a cruel and inhumane misuse of the “ethical” argument and I am glad to say that they were defeated by 360 votes to 260. It was an issue that split the European Peoples Party group, where there are a lot of anti-stem cell therapy Catholics, but as always on such issues we Conservatives had a free vote on the matter.

 

MEPs voted this month to set up a new temporary committee to consider the issue of climate change. I am not sure it will do much good (and its meetings will certainly involve extra carbon emissions) because MEPs’ main role on this issue is to consider, amend and vote on whatever measures the European Commission will soon bring forward. The temporary committee will aim to make recommendations on additional measures. The move has however given extra opportunities for those of us opposed to the monthly displacement of the Parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg and back to call for an official “carbon audit” of this absurd trek.

 

Operators of small boat services on British canals and elsewhere have reason to be grateful to Conservative MEPs. We led a coalition against an increase in insurance cover per passenger, which would have resulted in premiums going up four-fold. We noted that the Liberal Democrats voted for the increase, which demonstrated how out of touch they were on this issue. In another cost-saving exercise my colleague Giles Chichester MEP is fighting hard for new mobile phone rules which will place limits on the price of making and receiving international phone calls, and for automatic text warnings to be shown informing people of the cost of phoning abroad.