“I don’t want anything to do with the European Movement. They are federalists!” Those were the words a British friend of a friend in Brussels said to me this week as we were discussing what sort of organisations would be
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Category: UK Politics
What I would have written for CiF… Being pro-EU in the UK must not just be a proxy for British business in the EU
[I wrote this piece, unsolicited, for Comment is Free of The Guardian today. They did not want it, so I publish it here instead] Last week on these pages the CBI’s John Cridland set out why leaving the EU would
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Swivel eyed loons, party membership and post democracy
So Tory Andrew Feldman may or may not have said that some of the party’s members are “swivel-eyed loons”. I am not especially bothered whether he said it or not, because as far as I am concerned it is right.
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UKIP, the Lernaean Hydra of British politics
In Greek mythology the Lernaean Hydra is a monster with many heads, and every time one head is removed two more grow in its place. So too, it seems, is the case for the UK Independence Party just now. Yesterday
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An open letter to Gordon Pattison, Regional Director of East Midlands Labour
Dear Gordon, I am writing to you to ask some questions about the European Parliament selection process conducted in your region. I have been accused by Jonathan Ashworth MP of making ‘cheap accusations‘ as a result of my blog entry
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Online networking: we can shine the light on their malevolence, but we cannot be them
It has been an interesting week. My posts about Labour’s MEP selections, and the panel member in the East Midlands, Nicki Brooks, who seems to have selected herself, have prompted all sorts of debate, comments, and e-mails sent to me.
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Right then, Nicki Brooks, Labour candidate for MEP in the East Midlands: what did you do?
09:05 on 9th April, this comment appeared in response to my blog post about Labour MEP selections, by a chap called Joseph who also did not leave a valid e-mail address and is hence untraceable: Hi Jon, Interesting selections from
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Progress | What is happening with the Euro selections?
“Ed Miliband says the right things when it comes to engagement of Labour party members in selection processes. ‘You’ve got to leave it to party members to make their decisions. And that’s the way it should be’ he said in
Continue reading Labour’s MEP lists. I’m angry and disappointed.
So, as reported on LabourList earlier, Labour’s MEP lists are now out, and I am angry and disappointed by the outcome. The full list of names, together with one line bios, website links, and Twitter usernames can be found at
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So Cameron starts a charm offensive across the EU
Realising his speech in January did not go down too well in EU capitals, David Cameron is this week embarking on a charm offensive across Europe. He’s visiting Madrid, Paris and Berlin, among others, basically trying to sell to others
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Some thoughts on PPE and its role in UK politics and society
“What I’ve never really understood,” a philosophy lecturer at Merton College who hadn’t taught me asked me at a leaving reception upon graduating in 2001, “was why you actually wanted to study PPE?” My answer then, and as true for
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Anne Fairweather is not a Labour MEP candidate for London. What is going on?
I suppose I should have had my suspicious that all would not be right with the selection process for Labour’s new MEP candidates when the initial information about the process was so thin. So it’s with considerable sadness and annoyance
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