Peter Skinner MEP is backing Fairtrade Fortnight by pledging to buy a fairtrade coffee every day at the European Parliament.

27^th February – 11^th March is Fairtrade Fortnight and Euro MP Peter Skinner is backing ‘Take a Step’ for Fairtrade – this year’s campaign call to people in the UK to engage with Fairtrade.

The Fairtrade Foundation is challenging the public to take a step in the right direction by thinking about what they can do every day, every week or every month throughout 2012 to make a difference to the lives of farmers in the developing world. This could be buying a Fairtrade coffee or making sure their weekly shopping baskets contain one or two more Fairtrade products or encouraging their friends and family to switch to Fairtrade.

 
Peter Skinner MEP said:

“Each journey begins with a first step. We still have a long way Read the rest of this article »

“Should be scrapped altogether,” says MEP

“There’s no need for phone companies to have any roaming charges at all,” said Labour’s Peter Skinner as the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy committee voted in Brussels today for a lowering of telephone and data roaming charges across the EU.

The changes should see the cost of making a call drop this year from around 30p/min to 21p/min and the cost of sending a text will fall to 7p. Further changes will follow with the cost of making a call set to fall as low as 13p/min by 2014.

“Phone companies are still using international travel as a way of ripping off customers. Roaming charges should be scrapped altogether but Read the rest of this article »

The Government yesterday ducked a crucial European vote to treat tar sands as a “dirty” fuel.

Tar Sands deposits in Canada are situated beneath boreal forest and are extracted using devastating industrial processes which are estimated to be three to five times more carbon intensive than those for more traditional forms of oil.  Extracting the oil will mean destroying a wilderness area larger than the state of Florida. Despite this the EU has come under pressure to label the fuel in the same category as conventional oil.

Officials from EU Member States voted on a proposal which would label different fuels with their carbon footprint. David Cameron’s representative abstained. Read the rest of this article »

Euro MP Peter Skinner has expressed his shock at new figures which show the number of people sleeping rough in the South East of England has increased by 39% – way ahead of the national trend.

Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government show rough sleeping across England in 2011 has increased by 23% from 1,768 to 2,181. Of that total 430 of are in the South East; the second highest regional figure in the country. The North East had the lowest figure with just 32 rough sleepers.

South East MEP Peter Skinner said:
“It’s terrible that people should have to face cold nights out on the street at all. It’s a scandal that in today’s society the number facing that reality is increasing. Read the rest of this article »