The EU has come up with a number of proposals for a new directive to protect animals used for scientific purposes - and I have submitted my official response to the consultation on this crucial animal welfare legislation.

I’m happy to say that these proposals do represent some degree of progress on the regulation of animal testing, but in my view, the scope of the directive needs to be significantly widened. There must be full protection for those animals which are bred and killed for their tissues and organs to be used in experiments. This must also include appropriate reporting and publishing of data. Project applications, ethical evaluation reports and retrospect assessment reports should be made publically available.

For many years, the Green MEPs have been calling for a well-funded, well-coordinated and executed EU-wide programme directed at simplifying the replacement of animal tests with non-animal methods. An EU Centre for Alternative Methods should be established to create strategies to replace the use of animals in procedures - and specific national centres could perform a similiar role.

A recent opinion poll found that 81 per cent of the public across Europe believes ‘that the new law should prohibit all experiments causing pain or suffering to primates’. I believe that the EU must introduce provisions to eliminate the use of primates in procedures, and prohibit their use in experiments that have no direct medical application (as proposed by the European Commission). The use of endangered species, animals taken from the wild, or feral or stray domestic animals should also be prohibited without exemptions.

I fully support the proposals to rehome or set free tested animals, to enforce unannounced national inspections at least twice each year, and to create a national animal welfare and ethics committee.

You can read my consultation response in full here.

I was sad to hear today that the only national newspaper for the lesbian and gay community is to close. The Pink Paper has been around since 1987, providing quality news and comment, as well as in-depth features and lifestyle information aimed at LGBT readers. It seems that as businesses and organisations have cut their spending on advertising to cope with the recession, so the paper’s revenue has fallen and it’s been unable to continue. We’ve already seen the economic downturn having similar consequences for local media outlets across the UK. It would be a real shame if the only papers which could afford to stay standing are those owned by the huge media corporations. The UK needs to keep its lively and diverse press more than ever.

Some Pink Paper content will still be available online here.

Great news that the Oxford campaigner and press officer for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade has won the right to have photos taken of him leaving a shareholders meeting destroyed. Andrew Wood purchased a share in Reed Elsevier PLC, parent company of Spearhead Exhibitions Ltd which runs trade fairs for the arms industry and went to a meeting to question the company about their activities. Police images of him were retained on file despite Wood never facing any kind of charges. This ruling is a victory for campaigners struggling to defend the right to peaceful protest and anyone opposing the increasingly worrying levels of police surveillance and attacks on civil liberties in our country.

Today, May 8th, sees the Ministry of Defence launch a range of armed forces action figures in an attempt to sell war to a whole new generation of children. The toys includes an RAF pilot, as well as an infantry solider carrying an SA-80A2 rifle and wearing the kind of combat clothing used by British troops in Afghanistan.

Today is also the 2nd anniversary of the US bombing of Sarwan Qala in Afghanisatn, killing over 50 civilians.

20 year old British citizen Samantha Orabator is being held in prison in Laos for allegedly possessing heroin. Her trial is due to take place next week and, if found guilty, she and the child she is carrying will face death by firing squad. Samantha is being denied access to a lawyer and there is growing concern about the fairness of any trial.The BBC reports that since 2003 at least 39 people have been sentenced to death in Laos, although Amnesty International confirm none have been executed. The Laos authorities have provided assurances that a pregnant woman will not be put to death but, as the charity Reprieve warns, Samantha will not be pregnant forever. This case highlghts just how much more progress is needed to end the use of the death penalty, which I oppose under any circumstances. As the British government negotiates on Samantha’s behalf, I call once again for the UK and EU to take a lead in promoting the UN’s 2007 moratorium on the death penatly, as a step towards eventually abolishing it entirely.

Despite a massive campaign from local people and the international community, Shell is forging ahead with plans for a gas pipe line off the coast of County Mayo in Ireland. Work recommenced last week and Willie Corduff, one of 5 men jailed in 2005 for refusing to allow Shell to access his land for installation of the high pressure pipe, was on site. He took non-violent direct action when contractors were unable to prove they had clearance to undertake the planned work and was consequently brutally attacked by 6 men in balaclavas and dark clothing. 55 year old grandfather Willie is now recovering in County Mayo hospital - yet another reminder, weere one needed, that our government, our police force and multinational corporations seem hell bent on eroding the right to protest and the right to local democracy.

Read more about the campaign against the pipeline at www.shelltosea.com

Protesters gathered today outside the Home Office to draw attention to the discrimination and oppression still faced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Iraq. According to campaigners, in the past 4 months alone the bodies of as many as 65 people ’suspected of being homosexual’ have turned up, with notes attached bearing the word ‘pervert’ in Arabic. LGBT people cannot seek assistance from the police because homosexuality is illegal and the government has given tacit support to death squads by staying silent about the killings. The British government’s track record of promoting LGBT rights in places such as Eastern Europe is very good. It must now open its eyes to the situation in Iraq and offer better support, as well as urgently review asylum claims for those that have escaped the nightmare facing LGBT people there.