WHEN the time comes I will be encouraging people in Blackpool to vote for a constitutional treaty that will simplify the way in which Europe is run, strengthen the role of national parliaments, and make future reform of the common agricultural policy much less difficult.

That task started to look easier at the first post-election meeting of the European Parliament when one MEP from the UK Independence Party made a fool of himself ("women should clean behind the fridge more often") and it emerged that another UKIP man was facing fraud allegations in a British court. Then Tony Blair nominated Peter Mandelson as a European Commissioner.

Mandelson may have many abilities but he is a master of spin not trust. His appointment plays into the hand of the europhobes. It is a shame that the announcement came in the same week that MEPs voted to have as the next president of the European Commission the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Manuel Barroso; a man who has impressed me as being head and shoulders in calibre above the ranks of many politicians here.

If only Tony Blair had taken the opportunity to nominate a woman. After thirty years of EU membership there has still yet to be a woman commissioner from Britain. It's a glass ceiling that should long since have been shattered, and for the prime minister to have nominated a woman of child-bearing age would have sent a useful message to UKIP about the need for EU policies that prevent discrimination!

Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP North West