Thread by @Usherwood

I'm going to put this into an infographic later, but thought I'd share some data on what UK MEPs are focusing on in their (brief?) time in the new @Europarl_EN

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Earlier this week, the EP fixed memberships of its committees, which are the heart of its work. MEPs sign up to these on the basis of their interests/expertise and their party's priorities

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To make a bit more sense of this, I've worked what the mean distribution of a party's MEPs should look like, assuming all parties in the EP spread their members evenly.

Obviously, that's never the case, esp. w smaller parties, but it's a helpful 1st cut

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You'll note from the table that there are quite a lot more cte members in the EP as a whole than MEPs, because you can sit on more than one at a time (as well as being a substitute for others, which is for another day).

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Any how, some more data.

If you look at the overall UK distribution, you can see @EPInstitutional is the major focus, because of its Brexit work.

Also disproportionate interest in @EP_Fisheries @EP_Regional @EP_Economics & @EPCulture

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Regional parties play a key role in this, but it's also useful to look at the two big groups: @brexitparty_uk and @LibDems

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Let's start w the easier one: LDs have focused on AFCO, PECH, CULT and the CROI sub-cte. These all relate to key areas of Brexit and post-Brexit policy

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By contrast, BXP have a v.different profile, latching onto ECON, DEVE and BUDG, all of which are more tangential to Brexit (but are possibly more useful for critiquing the EU). Note no full members at all in PECH, despite the rhetoric on fisheries

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Also worth noting that of the 73 UK MEPs, the only two with no ctes at all are in BXP: @Nigel_Farage and @zatzi

The flip is that they also have the most loaded MEP: @Fox_Claire with 2 full and 3 substitutes

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More to follow in more digestible form, but if you've queries/requests, do ask.

/end

@UKandEU @Sime0nStylites @nogbad @simonjhix @AndrewDuffEU

And now in infographic form