According to the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning Stavros Dimas is the “EU’s Environment Chief“. Well, sort of. He’s actually European Commissioner for the Environment. Now would the same programme dream of calling John Hutton “Britain’s Industry Chief” or Hillary Benn “Britain’s Environment Chief“. No, of course […]
Poland is the latest EU Member State to look like it might put a spanner in the works of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon (DJ Nozem has a good list of the other silly requests currently known). BBC has a lousy article about it, and EU Business has a […]
My connection with politics is like some kind of bad addiction. It hurts a hell of a lot most of the time, but you get some highs out of it from time to time. The last week has been one of those highs, and it’s even better as it’s an […]
Realising that its international reputation is not, ahem, what it once was, Belgium has launched a PR campaign called “Only in Belgium” to try to attract investment. Apparently this initiative goes across the language divide in the country – so much so that the map on the homepage prominently displays […]
Now the Daily Telegraph in its gruesome eurosceptic tone is speculating about Patricia Hewitt as Britain’s next nominee to be a European Commissioner. Now I reckon I got there first with this one – I posted about it first on 29th November 2007. Not bad, eh? Devil’s Kitchen commented on […]
I always enjoy watching ZDF Heute, the news programme of one of Germany’s state owned Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen. Not only is the manner of delivery of the presenters so refreshingly staid and old-fashioned, but the way stories are covered is amusingly dead-pan. This lunchtime there was a report on how […]
Yesterday afternoon I was sat in the 10ºC sunshine at 1200m above sea level sipping a beer in Châtel (Haute Savoie) after 3 days of skiing, with no sign of snow in the village. Yet climate change and energy efficiency were on my mind – it was more interesting to […]
It’s probably the most famous quote about European politics – Henry Kissinger’s “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” From today there’s a new campaign website that might just start to give an answer to that historic question… whodoicall.eu calls for One President of the EU – […]
It was with a wry smile that I read Daniel Hannan’s blog post about how he feels he has been harshly treated by the Financial Times. I’m not sure about the pros and cons of the case itself, but welcome to the club Daniel – you’ve just faced a newspaper […]
How can a newspaper that is supposed to have a serious and sensible reputation write such complete such a rubbish leader? Well, of course it’s one about the EU – a topic that is clearly too complex for the dim-wits to understand. The article in question is a leader from […]
You don’t care too much about emergency telephone numbers until, well, you’re in an emergency situation (or, as was the case for me today, you’re helping someone who is). As this emergency was taking place in Belgium I needed to call the Belgian emergency services and didn’t have the number […]
So apparently MEPs are on the make. Well, that’s according to Chris Davies, Lib Dem MEP for the North West. Some bloggers follow up in a similar vein: Matt Wardman, Norfolk Blogger, and there’s a less pro-Davies line from The Yorkshire Guidon. What should be made of all of this? […]
