Bury Industrial Society

On Friday evening Sue and I attended a dinner organised by the Bury Industrial Society held at Greenmount Golf Club. The main Speaker was Robert Goodwill MP the Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby. I have known Robert for many years and we worked together in the 1999 European Election campaign when we were both on the Yorkshire and Humber list of Candidates. Robert was at Number 3 on the list and therefore in the uncertain position of knowing that if the Conservatives did well he would be elected and he would not be elected if we did not do well. It was the first time that proportional representation had been used in a national election and there was great uncertainty about how it would affect the turnout and the result. As it was the turnout was not improved; the Conservatives did relatively well and Robert was elected. He served five years in the European Parliament standing down in 2004. Then in 2005 he was elected to Westminster. He was therefore able to speak from personal experience about the difference between the two Parliaments. Robert is now Shadow Transport Minister and explained some of the new policy initiatives they were working on.