Unfortunately I shall not be in Strasbourg at all that week which is very unusual for me. I never miss votes on the Thursday I always wait until it is completed before going home. My absence is entirely due to arrangements I made quite a long time ago when the Schedule did not show a Plenary session that week. The Schedule has since been altered and I cannot change my arrangements, which is very unfortunate because I would have wished to support you.
Extraordinary! You can vote for a whole change in national government by post, but you can't vote in a parliamentary vote. If there are too many of these fellows then the vote could go, not the way of majority thinking, but the way of a zealous few; who perhaps are having their brown envelopes stuffed a little extra by vested interests. In a real democracy the will of the voting members should count for something, but if the rules say you have to be present in person, and that is clearly not always possible, then the democratic will is denied its truth.