“The President of the European People’s Party (EPP) Party, Wilfried Martens, has just upped the pressure on David Cameron by asking for a clear decision by April from the Tory leader as to whether the United Kingdom’s Conservatives will sit in the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament after the...
President of the EPP Party Wilfried Martens has just upped the pressure on David Cameron by asking for a clear decision by April from the Tory leader as to whether the UK Conservatives will sit in the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament after the elections in June. This is...
I happened to catch a few moments of PMQs today, and Alan Beith asked a question about how EU funds were being denied to the North East, while Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were still eligible for the same funds, essentially unused cash from the European Commission £178bn economic stimulus...
I sat listening to Obama’s inauguration speech thinking: oh for a European politician capable of something similar! Of course the systems and characters are very different… But Britain, one way or another, is going to get a new Prime Minister sometime in the not too distant future. So I took...
A post at the Fabians’ Next Left blog caught my eye, flagging up a new Labour Party website initiative called Labourspace.com. Next Left compares the site to Change.org in the USA. But there’s a vital difference: branding and design. While the Labour site is all red and yellow and very...
A post at Dizzy Thinks caught my eye. Gordon Prentice MP, never one to beat about the bush – has said stated this in a Commons motion: That this House believes that individuals who are given peerages to enable them to serve as Ministers in the House of Lords should...
So here we go again. The EU has a multitude of problems on its hands: Russia turning off the gas, the Gaza conflict brewing, and no-one really knowing what to do about the economic downturn, least of all the Commission. The Czech Presidency has already made a few gaffes, and...
In response to the Harry is racist scandal David Cameron said this: I think it’s important that in the great institutions… we root out attitudes like that. That has to go right across the institutions. I’m not sure whether Cameron reckons the army or the royal family is the great...
As covered by Iain, Bob, Guido, ConHome and the Spectator the new Derek Draper blogging initiative Labour List has now seen the light of day with a soft launch. So what should be made of all of this? The list of people contributing to Labour List is impressive. There are...
OK, it’s not my sole ambition to be on TV! But I remember as a 16 year old thinking: some day I would like to be interviewed on television or radio speaking a language that’s not my mother tongue. To appear in such an interview would mean I was doing...
So the UK carrot crop is going to be wiped out, according to Martin Evans, Chairman of the British Carrot Growers’ Association quoted in The Observer today. The EU wants to tighten rules on what pesticides can be used on crops, the UK government doesn’t agree, can be outvoted under...
I have a simple rule for my own blog: I don’t write about things I don’t know something about. So there’s no US politics here, and nothing about the credit crunch – others are much better qualified to write about those sorts of things. Oh how I wish print journalists...