Phillip Whitehead (1937-2005)

Citation

(2006), "Phillip Whitehead (1937-2005)", Managerial Law, Vol. 48 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ml.2006.01048daf.001

Phillip Whitehead (1937-2005)

MEP for the East Midlands (Labour), (1994-2005)

Phillip Whitehead, MEP, died suddenly following a heart attack on 31 December 2005. He was due to present the final research paper in the seminar series from which the articles in this edition are drawn. He was supremely qualified to speak and write on the issues of Law, Justice and Democracy in Europe. He had served as an MEP from 1994 until his death, having previously held the seat for Derby North in the House of Commons. He had been a Member of the Council of Europe for four years and maintained his interest in working for human rights throughout his life. Amongst the many tributes paid to him was that of Gary Titley, a fellow Labour MEP, who said of him that "He was a passionate European who believed that Europe's nations should work together for the prosperity, stability and peace of the continent."

Phillip Whitehead's life-long commitment to unity in Europe was recognised in 2005 when he was honoured by the Polish government for his support to the Solidarity Movement in the 1980s. At the time of receiving this award he commented that 25 years after the events of the 1980s in Poland he found now himself sitting with Polish colleagues representing a free country in a free Parliament, something which in 1980 had been beyond his dreams.

He was a man of immense interest in people – his work in the European Parliament on issues such as human rights, environmental protection, consumer affairs clearly reflected this. His camera was never far from his hand to record events and meetings with people, a habit from his professional career in journalism and television documentary making. He firmly believed in the importance of dialogue so that there is a sharing and communicating of ideas and experiences to help people's understanding and acceptance of one another.