Bill’s "Firsts"

- 2006
Launched the first website to illustrate the alarming growth and extent of international organised crime which is attacking Europe and of the hundreds of uncoordinated law enforcement agencies which are ill-equipped to fight and beat the criminals. www.organisedcrime.info

- October 2004
Formed the first all-party group of MEPs to monitor the problem of Organised Crime across Europe and the urgent need for better law enforcement and cooperation.

- May 2004
Published pamphlet ‘Europe needs an FBI’ describing how organised crime is flourishing across Europe's open frontiers but is only combated by national police forces who cannot cross borders and which fail to work effectively together – the first call for a European FBI since Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany

- 1999-2004
Placed first place among all the UK's 87 MEPs in record of attendance during the European Parliament's five-year term

- 2001
Elected as Chairman of the Liberal Democrat MEPs, so becoming the first MEP to chair two different parliamentary parties, having previously been Chairman and Joint-Leader of the Conservative MEPs 1993-4

- November 2000
Crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats, on the matter of principle that the UK should act in a pro-European way in order to maximise benefits to Britain from the EU and in despair against the endless drift of the Conservative party towards negative Euro-scepticism

- 1998
Wrote and published the first novel to be set in the European Parliament, called The Devil Knew Not (still in print)- 1986 Coined the phrase in English “the democratic deficit”. First used in a pamphlet which criticised the secret decision-making by national governments in the EEC’s Council of Ministers and insufficient power given to the EEC’s lower legislative house, the European Parliament which represents the public and meets in public

- 1986 Wrote and published first book about the EEC by an MEP, called Greater In Europe

-1983
During the Falklands War, tabled an amendment in the European Parliament which successfully called for the British veto to be overruled by a majority vote in the EU Council of Ministers. This was because Mrs Thatcher was blindly demanding EEC support for trade sanctions against Argentina while simultaneously vetoing support prices for continental small farmers in the EEC : in this way, EEC sanctions against Argentina may have been saved

- 1981
In an article the Times newspaper, called for majority voting in the EU Council of Ministers in order to get round national vetoes. Article greeted with horror and an inquest by the Conservative establishment, but idea now accepted as routine and advantageous to Britain

- 1979 Elected in the first European Parliament elections as MEP for Lincolnshire

- 1973 Organised the first primary election in Britain for selection of a parliamentary candidate, for the Conservatives in Lambeth Vauxhall constituency, which was disowned by Conservative Central Office but which earned an approving Second Leader in the Times newspaper