The original blog: commentary about everything except transport
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
Continue reading
“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
Continue reading “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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading “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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading UK online politics seems to be in a period of transition this summer, and it’s not (yet?) due to the News of the World fallout. It is instead because of the launch of two new large scale blogs – Huffington
Continue reading “Earlier this week, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier prompted stinging headlines in UK broadsheets for his comments about agencies such as Moody’s that have downgraded their ratings on Irish, Portuguese and Greek sovereign debt. “EU attacked for
Continue reading
Martin Kettle has penned a piece in today’s Guardian entitled “Greece, Schengen, Nato – it’s time to admit the European dream is over“. It’s the latest in a series of pieces that are appearing a lot in the UK press
Continue reading
“You have to understand: you are the enemy.” Those were the words I heard uttered by a researcher in the European parliament to civil servants from the EU’s member states a couple of years ago. What – with aghast looks
Continue reading
“You were the future once.” So said David Cameron to Tony Blair in a notable exchange during the latter’s final years in office. As I sit today drinking a blanche at a pub on Place Luxembourg, Brussels, so the phrase
Continue reading
There are two main issues at stake with the so-called ‘Six Pack’ of EU legislation designed to prevent eurozone countries overspending in future. The first is the amount of wriggle room to be given to states that break the rules,
Continue reading