So Ed Miliband today weighs into the UK debate on immigration. Others are better placed to express the overall problems with this. I am instead going to focus on one small aspect of Miliband’s comments, namely this point at the end of The Guardian piece: Impose maximum transitional controls for […]
A month ago I announced publicly that I no longer had any intention of putting my name forward for the European Parliament election list for Labour. I made the right call, and nothing that has happened since then makes me in any way question my decision. But now, a month […]
Labour’s website lists 115 MPs and Lords* in the Shadow Cabinet and shadow teams that assist them. Yet which of those people is responsible for internet politics for the party? I ask this because the SPD in Germany has such a person – Lars Klingbeil, profiled (in German) by Cicero […]
An old article in Helsingin Sanomat about Alexander Stubb was entitled “Alex Stubb is too smart to make trouble”. That was in 2008 when he was appointed as Finland’s Foreign Minister. Now in his guise as Minister for Europe and International Trade of Finland, Stubb presented today at the World […]
The main reason I am at WEF Istanbul is to contribute to and learn from the sessions on the future of the European Union. The first such session was at the start of Tuesday afternoon – a panel entitled “The Future of European Integration”. The programme was explained thus: What […]
Scandal! Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, pays no tax! How can this be when she’s lecturing more Greeks to pay tax!?! Story from The Guardian here. Sony Kapoor, so often the voice of reason throughout the Eurozone crisis on Twitter, stated “IMF staff don’t, period!” prompting all kinds […]
On the Guardian website today there’s a piece entitled “David Cameron to warn François Hollande against challenging EU rebate” by Nicholas Watt. At the start it’s a bit of a ramble, essentially that Cameron will need to push François Hollande on the UK’s budget rebate to try to stick to […]
Politicians do not know when to let go. Their best days might be behind them, their opportunities for future office slim. But like boxers who think that their next bout might result in a favourable result, they do not give up, calling on the old contacts to be able to […]
I was in the audience for Declan Ganley’s presentation at RUSI in London yesterday. It was one of the most interesting and civilised debates about EU matters I have attended in London in recent times. If you’re interested to hear what Ganley said the full film is here: For people […]
Due to a short Twitter debate with @huettemann I have promised to write this post. As far as I am concerned, social media will have at best a marginal effect on the 2014 European Parliament elections. Here’s why. First though I will mention the major caveat: there are some parties […]
Sometimes I am old fashioned. Despite all its flaws, I still see no better way of governing a country than representative democracy. Almost all of the advanced societies in the world use that system. These representative democracies of course need to evolve as times change, with periodic reassessments of the […]
I’m not sure how to write this blog entry, for it relates to something that has been on my mind for a long, long time. Yet, unlike most of the things have have been on my mind a while, it is the first time I have blogged directly about this […]
