I’ve long been fascinated by Nordic politics and societies. There have been numerous posts about these countries on this blog over the years. These countries top the tables for quality of life, low levels of corruption, levels of broadband access etc. But how are these countries doing when it comes to […]
“This week I was in the audience at a Young Fabians* event about Britain and the EU with Mary Honeyball MEP as the speaker. The event was part of one of the Young Fabians Policy Commissions, with the aim of putting together ideas for the future EU policy of the […]
I saw this tweet from @Bruce_Schneier, retweeted by @EvgenyMorozov: [blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/Bruce_Schneier/status/99450840410112000″] This led me to Schneier’s piece about a Welt am Sonntag article about ineffectiveness of full body scanners in airport tests in Germany. One piece in particular caught my eye: The European parliament backed on July 6 the deployment […]
As late as 4th February, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was still praising Hosni Mubarak, saying the latter should remain in place for Egypt’s transition to democracy. On 11th February Mubarak resigned. So isn’t it therefore rather odd that Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil is using a Berlusconi quote for its […]
As covered by England Expects (in French, e-mail now removed) and Guido Fawkes (in English), the European Parliament has been full of gossip this week as a result of a remarkable resignation e-mail from a member of staff that was copied to all 5000 or so people on the European […]
Summer is silly season in politics, and I’m doing my best to prove this blog isn’t immune to that, with the second odd David Miliband story in two days. Yesterday’s was about Syria and politics and today’s is about… falafel. I was in Amman, Jordan last week, and one of […]
This is a bit of an odd one, but the source is an interesting (and controversial) Danish politician – Naser Khader. Khader has represented three different parties in the Danish Parliament, and now represents the Conservative People’s Party, the party of Denmark’s foreign minister Lene Espersen. On his blog on […]
“I’ve spent three weeks in July in Cairo, Alexandria and Dahab, one of the very few tourists in Egypt these days. According to the New York Times tourism – previously 10% of Egypt’s GDP – has plunged by 40%. That seems to be an underestimation judging by the deserted tourist […]
“We’re on track for a multispeed EU and the UK government is OK with it. That is the main conclusion for the UK from a week from a week when the Euro was, at least temporarily, brought back from the brink with a 15 point plan for its rescue. Oh, […]
I’m starting to write this blog entry at 2123 CET on 22nd July 2011. We have known for a few hours that twin attacks have taken place in Norway – an explosion in central Oslo and a series of shootings at Utøya, an island in Tyrifjorden to the north east […]
“Scandal! The European Union wants to increase its budget by 5% for the period from 2014 onwards. Prompt critical statements from Downing Street, the leader of the Tory MEPs in the European Parliament and even Tony McNulty. How dare those bureaucrats in Brussels propose such a thing? Unsurprisingly the whole […]
I was posed what sounded like a simple enough question by an old friend in Brussels at the end of last week: I was wondering […] whether you knew of a good English-language newsletter, or feed, or whatever, summing up legislative developments at EU level. The Law Societies do send […]
