Seven days - a week in the life of Andrew Brons
by Andrew Brons
08 November 2011
The controversial British National Party MEP takes his family along to Strasbourg, for a session of the European Parliament, and explains how much research goes into making a single one minute speech
Saturday
Most weeks are busy but some are busier than others. It should not be presumed that the activities of MEPs are confined to their work for the European Parliament and for living what is left of a life. We are party political animals too and party politics is also a demand on our time. That is what Saturdays were invented for. Today had long been earmarked as the day of my website's conference. "Do websites have conferences?" I hear you ask.
Sunday
This morning involved last minute ironing of shirts, packing of cases and squeezing people and cases into the vehicle. Brussels was on Sunday's menu and Strasbourg was our destination the following day – a mere 650 miles away. We were travelling by road and taking the family, as well as two local assistants, with us. We set off with a half full tank of diesel and a tankful of plans, expectations and enthusiasm.
Monday
The journey down to Strasbourg, on Monday, seemed to pass quickly. I knew that I had speaking time, one minute to be precise, on the Small Business Act, so I needed to read thoroughly the material that my assistants had researched on Thursday and Friday on the internet. Research for a one minute speech? Yes, you cannot afford to make even one embarrassing error, in a speech of a mere sixty seconds. How much can you say in one minute? If you prepare it carefully, rehearse it and time yourself, you can make about three or four distinct points. This means reading rather than speaking spontaneously but that is the price that you pay for avoiding your speech being cut short. I heard another MEP spend a quarter of his allotted minute saying that he had only one minute and another fifteen seconds saying what a splendid chap the rapporteur was. During his third quarter minute he announced that he had three points to make and in his last quarter minute found that he had time only to make the first of these.
We eventually arrived at the European Parliament at about 3.30 in the afternoon: the session started at 5pm. I typed up my one minute speech. Could I now repair to the parliament and wait to deliver my finely honed piece on the Small Business Act? No. I had an AFCO – constitutional affairs committee – meeting to attend, at which there would be votes. I had three sets of votes. Two were entrusted to my two local assistants and our parliamentary assistant and I persisted with the third. I managed to arrive fully prepared at AFCO for 6pm. The meeting started 10 minutes late, as they all do. Why do they not schedule them for ten minutes later? Simply because then they would then start ten minutes later than the re-scheduled time. I left at the conclusion of the votes, returning to my office, to discover that my one minute piece had been scheduled for 7.21pm. I hurried to the parliament to find that all of the speeches were running late and that mine would be given just after pm. In the event it was given at 8.21pm.
Tuesday
I was told that I had been entrusted with yet another precious minute's speaking time this morning on the European semester. The word semester might sound to a casual observer as though it had some connection with education but it involves states and not pupils at an unreformed boarding school, having their sweet rations micro-managed. Two scheduled speeches in a week for a member of the non-attached group of MEPs – surely a record?
Wednesday
We invariably have votes in the parliament at the end of the morning sittings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We receive briefings from four other local assistants, apart from the two accompanying us, on how we should vote. The Wednesday votes on this occasion were rather different: they were to approve the budget. This required my local assistants reading through nearly a thousand pages of material on the votes and the proposed amendments, with only 39 hours' notice before the vote. By the time of the votes on Wednesday, they looked as though they had completed 15 rounds with Alexander Povetkin, when in fact they had completed rather more than fifteen rounds with José Manuel Barroso. I usually have to rely on 'catch the eye' speeches and these did not elude me completely. A one minute speech on the re-settlement of asylum seekers came my way. Any criticism of asylum policy is seen by some as a step too far. However, I always try to manage a few steps beyond a step too far and I usually succeed.
Thursday
If two scheduled speeches had been a record, it was to be a record that would be broken within two days. I was granted yet another one minute this morning: on the 2010 report of the European Ombudsman. Whatever can one say on the European Ombudsman even for one minute? After the first fairly complimentary 15 seconds, my words had little to do with the ombudsman or his report and much more to do with grievances about our membership of the European Union. I warned the Greek ombudsman to beware eurosceptics bearing compliments. We managed to set off from parliament at about 2pm and made for Calais, adults tired and children restive after four late nights. We dropped one local assistant at Dartford and another at Melton Mowbray, to arrive home in Yorkshire, at about 2am.
Friday
Friday is a day for catching up: on telephone calls; e-mails; letters; sleep; and with friends at the pub. Good night and then a taxi home.
Andrew Brons is a British National Party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber in the UK
Saturday
Most weeks are busy but some are busier than others. It should not be presumed that the activities of MEPs are confined to their work for the European Parliament and for living what is left of a life. We are party political animals too and party politics is also a demand on our time. That is what Saturdays were invented for. Today had long been earmarked as the day of my website's conference. "Do websites have conferences?" I hear you ask.
This morning involved last minute ironing of shirts, packing of cases and squeezing people and cases into the vehicle. Brussels was on Sunday's menu and Strasbourg was our destination the following day – a mere 650 miles away. We were travelling by road and taking the family, as well as two local assistants, with us. We set off with a half full tank of diesel and a tankful of plans, expectations and enthusiasm.
The journey down to Strasbourg, on Monday, seemed to pass quickly. I knew that I had speaking time, one minute to be precise, on the Small Business Act, so I needed to read thoroughly the material that my assistants had researched on Thursday and Friday on the internet. Research for a one minute speech? Yes, you cannot afford to make even one embarrassing error, in a speech of a mere sixty seconds. How much can you say in one minute? If you prepare it carefully, rehearse it and time yourself, you can make about three or four distinct points. This means reading rather than speaking spontaneously but that is the price that you pay for avoiding your speech being cut short. I heard another MEP spend a quarter of his allotted minute saying that he had only one minute and another fifteen seconds saying what a splendid chap the rapporteur was. During his third quarter minute he announced that he had three points to make and in his last quarter minute found that he had time only to make the first of these.
We eventually arrived at the European Parliament at about 3.30 in the afternoon: the session started at 5pm. I typed up my one minute speech. Could I now repair to the parliament and wait to deliver my finely honed piece on the Small Business Act? No. I had an AFCO – constitutional affairs committee – meeting to attend, at which there would be votes. I had three sets of votes. Two were entrusted to my two local assistants and our parliamentary assistant and I persisted with the third. I managed to arrive fully prepared at AFCO for 6pm. The meeting started 10 minutes late, as they all do. Why do they not schedule them for ten minutes later? Simply because then they would then start ten minutes later than the re-scheduled time. I left at the conclusion of the votes, returning to my office, to discover that my one minute piece had been scheduled for 7.21pm. I hurried to the parliament to find that all of the speeches were running late and that mine would be given just after pm. In the event it was given at 8.21pm.
I was told that I had been entrusted with yet another precious minute's speaking time this morning on the European semester. The word semester might sound to a casual observer as though it had some connection with education but it involves states and not pupils at an unreformed boarding school, having their sweet rations micro-managed. Two scheduled speeches in a week for a member of the non-attached group of MEPs – surely a record?
We invariably have votes in the parliament at the end of the morning sittings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We receive briefings from four other local assistants, apart from the two accompanying us, on how we should vote. The Wednesday votes on this occasion were rather different: they were to approve the budget. This required my local assistants reading through nearly a thousand pages of material on the votes and the proposed amendments, with only 39 hours' notice before the vote. By the time of the votes on Wednesday, they looked as though they had completed 15 rounds with Alexander Povetkin, when in fact they had completed rather more than fifteen rounds with José Manuel Barroso. I usually have to rely on 'catch the eye' speeches and these did not elude me completely. A one minute speech on the re-settlement of asylum seekers came my way. Any criticism of asylum policy is seen by some as a step too far. However, I always try to manage a few steps beyond a step too far and I usually succeed.
If two scheduled speeches had been a record, it was to be a record that would be broken within two days. I was granted yet another one minute this morning: on the 2010 report of the European Ombudsman. Whatever can one say on the European Ombudsman even for one minute? After the first fairly complimentary 15 seconds, my words had little to do with the ombudsman or his report and much more to do with grievances about our membership of the European Union. I warned the Greek ombudsman to beware eurosceptics bearing compliments. We managed to set off from parliament at about 2pm and made for Calais, adults tired and children restive after four late nights. We dropped one local assistant at Dartford and another at Melton Mowbray, to arrive home in Yorkshire, at about 2am.
Friday is a day for catching up: on telephone calls; e-mails; letters; sleep; and with friends at the pub. Good night and then a taxi home.
Andrew Brons is a British National Party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber in the UK
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