Jim Murphy

Royal Assent

I spent this afternoon helping my old school, St Louise's Primary, in Glasgow, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.  Just beforehand I received the welcome news that the Bill for the UK to approve the Lisbon Treaty had received Royal Assent.  This marks the end of the Parliamentary process, during which the Bill has won support from majorities of both Houses of Parliament.   

Having spent much of my time since I became Minister for Europe reading the Treaty, discussing it with officials and explaining it to public, Parliament and press alike, it feels a little strange having it done and dusted (and now an Act of Parliament).  With the Irish people having voted 'no' to the Treaty in a referendum I'll still have plenty of work to do as we discuss with the Irish Government and our other European partners where we go from here. ( I discussed this with the Economist in an interview for their Certain Ideas of Europe podcast, yesterday. ) But I am also looking forward to having a bit more time to attend to the rest of my ministerial portfolio - there are a lot of pressing issues including relations with Russia, developments in the Balkans and what I hope will be significant progress in the Cyprus process.

The other recent welcome piece of news was that I won the "Minister of the Year" award last night at a ceremony organised by House magazine (the Parliamentary magazine).  The awards are voted on by all MPs and members of the House of Lords from all of the political parties in a secret ballot.  I was really pleased even to be nominated to the shortlist.  But to win is really lovely.  I also "wound up" (summarised) a debate on European Affairs yesterday in the House of Commons and it was a bit of a flashback to the many days spent debating the Treaty.  I think my award is also a testament to one of the fine qualities of Parliament - that even when we are debating issues that divide us and generate quite a bit of passion (like the EU) we can still  respect each others views.

Posted at 18:24 19 June 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[7]