Gordon Brown nominated Baroness Ashton to be European Commissioner after Peter Mandelson returned to UK government. The reason is clear enough – Brown did not want a by-election that Labour might loose after the Crewe and Glasgow East debacles. After the first reaction (who is Baroness Ashton), thoughts turned to […]
Has Brown made a monumental error in putting forward Baroness Ashton to replace Peter Mandelson as the UK’s European Commissioner? That’s the interesting issue raised in a comment by Giacomo Benedetto (more on his blog) on my previous post about the UK’s new nominee. The issue has also been covered […]
I was very wide of the mark with my previous post so now, with some more time to write and a couple of hours mulling over the implications of the reshuffle, here are my thoughts. First of all Mandelson from the UK point of view. He’s probably respected and loathed […]
Shock news: Peter Mandelson is back in ther UK Cabinet today in Gordon Brown’s reshuffle. So he’ll be resigning as a member of the European Commission. Geoff Hoon is to be Transport Secretary. So who will go to Brussels as European Commissioner? Patricia Hewitt is my bet, as I’ve previously […]
36 flights a day between Heathrow and Manchester! Madness! That was for me the most stocking part of an article in today’s Guardian about Tory Party transport plans. Factor in the other London airports and the total is much higher (Manchester Airport flight search here – type ‘LON’ as the […]
It’s not often you get me defending UKIP on this blog, but this is one of those times. I second Nosemonkey in his disgust at the situation facing UKIP’s press officer in the EP Gawain Towler, author of the England Expects blog. Where Nosemonkey is wrong is assuming he disagrees […]
The European Commissioner every telecoms executive loves to hate is at it again – Viviane Reding will today propose further legislation to cap mobile phone prices: further reductions to call prices and also this time for SMS and mobile internet data charges. These proposals follow rules put in place in […]
So we need new rules for international financial markets according to Alistair Darling in his Labour Party Conference speech today. All very well. The actual passage of his speech, as quoted by The Telegraph is thus: “Just as one government alone cannot combat global terrorism, just as one government alone […]
I’ve been having a look at Europarl TV, launched yesterday with a bit of fanfare in Brussels. I was not at the launch so I didn’t profit from a few glasses of wine to temper my views on the project. I instead watched a bit of the news show this […]
A Labour Deputy Leadership website for Harriet Harman. 12 websites for Labour politicians, with plenty more in the pipeline. Online campaigns for One President of the EU (finalist in the 2008 New Media Awards), cricket as an Olympic sport, and atheist bus adverts. A forthcoming site to map the EU […]
I’m confused. I’m completely supportive of the idea that at least one of the top positions in the EU should be held by a woman – it’s about time it happened! And as Females in Front, the petition I’ve signed, pointedly asks: with 250 million women in Europe surely one […]
Former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has spoken out about the UK’s relationship with the EU, and has said that Britain should simply not participate in some policy areas if doing so would be to the detriment of further EU integration. Should be music to David Cameron’s ears because I […]
