What a week!

Our Give Up The Bonus campaign is really building momentum now.

We've just had our 30,000th signature at the online petition - and we only launched it on Monday - and almost have 10,000 members of our Facebook group.

I've been reading through your comments so thanks for leaving them. There's a strong sense of misjustice at the proposed plan to reward failure with £1 billion of our money. 

But I'd also like to hear from branch staff at RBS to get their thoughts on bonuses. I'm really conscious that these are the people who will lose out the most if the bonuses are stopped because their basic pay is relatively low.

So please email me in confidence at jp@giveupthebonus.co.uk

Finally, I've just written a diary for the House Magazine detailing a week in my political life.

Hope it give you an insight into that else I do (outside bashing bankers.)

Sunday

As the leader of the British delegation to the 47 nation Council of Europe (COE), I am on my way to Strasbourg to attend a full week session of the Parliamentary Assembly. I was a member of this Assembly 35 years ago and on my return in 2007, they presented me with a report I had written in 1974 on the growth of multinational companies in a global economy. The conclusions were as relevant today as they were then, if not more so!

Before boarding the Eurostar en route to Strasbourg, I appear on the BBC Politics Show to talk about the new ‘Go Fourth’ campaign I’m involved in. It aims to defend the Labour Party’s record and campaign for a fourth term of a Labour Government.

The Politics Show are interested in talking to me about the new campaign techniques that I am using to engage with the younger generation and to encourage them to get actively involved in politics. With my own website, fast growing Facebook group with over 2,600 members, use of You-Tube, Twitter and of course a Blackberry, I am well on my way to becoming a cyber warrior! All of these techniques were utilised very successfully by Barack Obama in his recent election campaign for the US Presidency, and it is important that we learn from his example. I call it traditional campaigning in a modern setting!

I am pleased to note during my journey to Paris that the train is full. One of my first acts in Government was to rescue the High Speed Rail Link project after it collapsed in 1997, when the armchair critics said that it would never work. These criticisms frequently appeared on the front page of the national newspapers. However, contrary to many people’s expectations, it was built with the refurbished St Pancras Station, on budget, on time and to great acclaim.

I played a similar role in the decisions concerning the Millennium Dome which received similar criticism, yet is now the most successful music arena in the world and has resulted in a fantastic redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula. Unsurprisingly, this is a fact that is rarely mentioned in our national press, unless it is as an afterthought on page 25!


Monday

At 8.30am, I arrive at the COE building for a meeting of the Bureau, which acts as a kind of ‘cabinet’ for the Assembly. One of the big issues of the week involves Armenia, a member state of the Council that I have got to know very well recently.

The Assembly had asked me to lead its observation of the Presidential elections there in February last year – I thought it would be a one-off visit. After the elections, though, the Government reacted violently to a protest: 10 people were killed, 120 were put in jail and 3 MPs had their amnesties revoked and were charged with ‘usurping the state’.

This was completely unacceptable and I was sent to investigate potential breaches of Armenia’s obligations under the ECHR. I have now travelled to Yerevan five times!

Backed up by the Assembly, I demanded amnesties and pardons, a change in the criminal laws and a fully independent inquiry. The response during the rest of the year was slow and the recommendations of my initial report accused them of holding political prisoners with insufficient evidence.

Finally, I felt forced to propose that sanctions be made against the Armenian delegation if they did not make more effort to meet the demands of the Assembly. This produced results, and on my last trip to Armenia I was able to secure a proper independent inquiry involving all political parties.

Thirty people have been pardoned so far and an agreement has been reached with the Armenian Parliament and the President to establish a taskforce, including representatives of the Council of Europe, to amend the articles of the law that had been used against the protestors.

My report was welcomed by all sides in the main debate and we have agreed to withdraw the threat of sanctions. I now have to report back to the Assembly at its next meeting in April. My sixth trip to Yerevan!


Tuesday

The defence of human rights is at the very heart of the Council of Europe’s work. So it is appropriate that the debate I am chairing this afternoon, as a Vice-President of the Assembly, is on the appointment of new judges to the European Court of Human Rights.

This is an important, and unique, responsibility for our Assembly. The debate includes the demand by the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee that more female judges be appointed. Malta has taken the view that they do not have any female judges with sufficient experience. As I am sure you can imagine, this causes quite a reaction from the ‘sisters’, fully supported by Assembly members!


Wednesday

Today the delegation received the demand for all Commons Members to return to the UK for a vote this evening. The Leader of the Opposition has decided to call a vote against the Government on the proposed third runway at Heathrow.

It is designed to expose divisions within the Labour ranks, although it is quite clear from our delegation that there are divisions on this issue amongst the Tories too.

So, at the cost of many thousands of pounds to the taxpayer most of us are being dragged back to the UK. Some Members will have to return to Strasbourg tomorrow for committees and debates. However, this means that only a few members of the British delegation are able to take part in an important debate to be held today on the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

This seems strange considering Mr Cameron flew to Georgia during the conflict to express his support for Georgia and ban Russians from Selfridges. Yet he is now preventing his Tory colleagues from voting on the fallout from that conflict.

However, I’m glad to say that his plan has failed and it is just an added example of Mr Cameron jumping on another bandwagon.


Thursday

This is an unexpected day in the office, allowing me to catch up with my Facebook group and website and all the other work that has piled up in the office. It also means that I can get the train back home to Hull to finalise the preparations for my wife’s 70th birthday.


Friday

This morning I have a meeting in Hull to complete my report on The Pride of East Hull. I am producing this document as the Director of Hull Kingston Rovers, the Super League rugby team.

It aims to show how the community can play a greater part with sport to make people in East Hull healthier and fitter. The report is due to be launched in March.

I am travelling back down to London this afternoon to prepare to receive the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, on his official visit to the UK. I developed a good relationship with Wen when he was Prime Minister and I was the Chair of the China Task Force that had been set up by him and Tony Blair.


Saturday

This morning I arrive at Heathrow airport and receive Premier Wen at the foot of the plane’s steps, with both the Chinese and British Ambassadors. We then make our way into the VIP suite for his first bilateral talks. We discuss environmental issues and sustainable cities, which I developed under the Task Force and led to an agreement between China and the UK on the twinning of Chongqing and the Yorkshire and Humber region.

I then have to leave to attend my wife’s 70th birthday party in Hull. It is a great evening which is held, rather appropriately, in my favourite Chinese restaurant. Premier Wen is kind enough to present me with a beautiful silk shawl for Pauline (the Armenian Delegation from the COE also send a large bouquet).


P.S And people ask me what I’m doing now I’m retired!