Polly Toynbee is on about Sweden again in her column in The Guardian today – read it here. The column is not her best argued effort, but this did make me smile: No, Brown will not turn Swedish in one spasm. It took the Social Democrats nearly 70 unbroken years […]
I went along to the 2nd annual UACES lecture this evening, with Lord Chris Haskins, Chair of the European Movement. The title of the lecture was “CAP Reform: A Watershed for the European Union?” and details of the lecture can be found here.
No, despite the title I have not suddenly become a eurosceptic wanting to walk over the EU. This is far more literal. On the way to Stockwell underground station today – the first time I have walked that way for more than a week – I came across the most […]
I don’t want to write much about the death of Milosevic here as plenty of valuable analysis has taken place elsewhere – it is clear to me that the man was evil, and sadly he will not face justice. I do however want to comment on the rumours that have […]
I have today come across this excellent multi-author blog about demography – Demography Matters. For anyone that is concerned about the ageing populations in Europe, what to do about birth rates, family stuctures etc., this should be a worthwhile read. After having studied demography with Prof. David Coleman at Oxford […]
I normally dislike The Local, the only news service on the internet in English about Sweden. It tends to have a highly cynical, Daily Mail style take on Sweden and the social model – plenty of ex-pats who don’t like Systembolaget having a rant. However, this week they have really […]
So there it is in the picture: the Berlaymont building of the European Commission. Grand headquarters of the supranational executive, fledgling European government… Ah, well, seems I am dreaming in more ways than one. I spent all of yesterday afternoon at a seminar that was supposed to equip me with […]
The Party of European Socialists are running a decent online petition against human trafficking during the World Cup. They are urging EU member states, and specifically Barroso to lead the initiative, to do something to stop the problems with football fans’ vulgar need to buy women. So spent a few […]
We hear the phrase all the time “We need to bring Europe closer to its citizens” – or variations of it. I’ve had quite a guts full of those trite words in the last couple of days as I have been typing up the verbatim minutes of the Sound of […]
The European Parliament has today finally voted Evelyne Gebhardt’s report on the Services Directive, otherwise known as the Bolkenstein / Frankenstein Directive if you are one of those people scared of it. As one of the people who has read the original Directive, I am not one of the people […]
There has been a lot in the news this week about birds, especially bird flu. Maybe it’s a bit bad taste, but I have been meaning to upload this alternative, animated version of the UK’s EU Presidency logo for a while. The UK Presidency logo had also run into problems […]
Shows how much of an EU-geek I am that the only time I have been to the theatre recently was this weekend to watch The Schuman Plan at Hampstead Theatre. Details of the show from the theatre’s website here. Yet while the idea of putting the history of the European […]
