It doesn’t come easily to me to ask so bluntly, but I need your vote – I’m standing for the Executive of the Labour Movement for Europe. I’ve been writing about UK-EU relations on this blog for 6 years, have been working in EU affairs for 10 years, and have...
For someone as active as I am in social media, perhaps the title of this blog entry is a little extreme. But bear with me. Or, to be more precise, bear with me those of you in the ever dwindling band of people who are going to read this. This...
One of the responses to the Tory rebellion yesterday on the EU referendum vote has – rather predictably – been a call for ‘pro-Europeans’ to be more assertive. Clegg has said Britain should lead and not leave the EU, and over at LabourList Luke Akehurst has a piece entitled “We...
“Over the last week, many on the left have been crowing at the sight of the Tories going into self-destruct mode over Europe. Cameron has brought this upon himself, they say, playing up to the Eurosceptic gallery and surrounding himself with rightwingers for whom EU membership was the overriding reason...
This is a mythical speech that could be delivered tomorrow in the House of Commons by a MP opposing the resolution for a referendum. In my view it’s both realistic and honest, and hence there’s not a hope in hell anyone’s going to say anything like this… but anyway, here’s...
There are some things party politics and representative democracy struggle to solve – those few issues that divide parties, that cross left-right divides. Britain’s relationship with the European Union is one such issue and, as a result, prompts calls from the right and, to a lesser extent, from the left,...
Britain’s relationship with the EU is absolutely vital to the economic and political future of the country, and even to the political and economic future of the EU. The structure of British democracy, the way the country is governed, is a matter of first order political importance – Britain’s membership...
The Atheist Bus Campaign is the biggest thing I’ve ever done, and may prove to be the biggest thing I ever will do. It was more than three years ago that the original campaign started, and it still lives on. In recent days a new controversy has been brewing in...
Today’s good news: Roger Helmer is standing down as a Member of the European Parliament. He says its because he disagrees with nine-tenths of Tory policy, and his statements have become more and more shrill and reactionary over the years. In the list-based election system used in the UK, it’s...
A quite incredible failure of journalism overnight from Nick Pisa, journalist of the Daily Mail, writing a piece saying Amanda Knox was guilty of murder when she was actually innocent. More on the issue from Malcolm Coles and Anna Raccoon. Seeing the error is especially sweet for me as I’ve...
I’m no fan of First Past the Post. It distorts the UK election system in so many ways. But much as I dislike the system, it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future. So what can be done to improve it, even if just marginally?
(Thanks for @spignal for pointing out the film) Extraordinary ‘debate’ on Newsnight last night between Amadeu Altafaj Tardio (Ollie Rehn’s spokesperson) and Peter Oborne. Oborne repeatedly calls Altafaj Tardio ‘the idiot in Brussels’, a phrase that Paxman also uses, and Oborne is equally vile towards Richard Lambert, giving him a copy...