“As Glenis Willmott rightly points out on Labourlist today the European Parliament elections should be the short term priority for Labour. With the Tories set to leave the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament it’s vital that Cameron’s right wing lunatic pals are brought to the attention of the British […]
If the number of web based initiatives was anything to go by then June’s European Elections are gearing up to be rather interesting. What impact all of these initiatives will have on turnout, interest in the elections etc. remains to be seen. But for now here’s a summary of the […]
The PES was kind enough to e-mail me a copy of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen’s open letter to the European Liberals (whose campaign launched today) where Rasmussen calls into question the Liberals’ statement that “The single market should be reinforced and extended in energy, postal services, railways and health care”. The […]
The 2004-2009 Barroso Commission is starting to wind down. Brussels has its eye on the European Elections in June, and the selection of a new Commission due to take office from 1st November. One of the Commissioners for whom I have developed quite some respect since 2004 is Margot Wallström; […]
Jean Quatremer has today penned a rather depressing post (in French) about how abstention from voting is likely to reach a new high in the European Parliament elections 4-7 June this year. How, he bemoans, can this be the case for the EP alors même que ses pouvoirs n’ont cessé […]
If you’ve come across this blog entry while searching Google for Damian McBride I suggest you take a look at this from Sunny at Liberal Conspiracy or this from Tom Harris MP – they delve more into the depths of the McBride issue than I do. If you want analysis […]
There is something really incomprehensible about Britain’s approach to terrorism. It seems that the government wants to use every technological, physical and PR tactic they can to make people feel more scared safer. The most recent is a billboard campaign from the British Transport Police urging you to snoop on […]
I lived in Berlin for 6 months in late 2001 / early 2002; since then I feel I have been playing catch up, trying to understand a city that I was too young to fully appreciate when I lived there. Perhaps I should rephrase: I reasons I enjoyed my time […]
A friend working for a Swedish NGO asked me whether it would be possible to keep an eye on Facebook Groups from within a Netvibes Universe. Seems like a good idea as going to each group in turn to see what’s being discussed is a bit of a headache. But […]
OK, so the first race of the season is behind me – the Berlin Inline Half Marathon took place this morning. My result is here. I managed the 21km in 46 mins 9 seconds, giving an average speed for the race of 27.82km/h. Overall I finished in 175th place of […]
The seating order at the pre-summit dinner is vital (Indonesia and South Korea should be especially happy apparently), the UK is gripped by Michelle Obama’s dresses and the fact she towers over the queen and Barack gave the queen an iPod. In the meantime all the sherpas are beavering away […]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHqpzjMTD Oh, you can just imagine them chortling away in the TaxPayers’ Alliance producing the above video about the Common Agricultural Policy. It contains a heady mix of fact and prejudice and there’s even a report to go with it. The ‘stats’ in the TaxPayers’ Alliance report are correct in […]
