When it comes to the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament it’s silly season all year round (not just in August). This time it’s news that 80m2 of the roof inside the plenary chamber of the Strasbourg building has fallen in – although no-one was inside at the time. Have […]
On the northern side of the dual carriageway leading from Brussels towards Zaventem Airport there’s an enormous no-mans land. A billboard resplendent with an artist’s impression dotted with light, glass and smiling people announces this is to be the site of the new NATO Headquarters, due to be opening in […]
I’m awaiting the delivery of a package from the courier firm UPS and it’s such a damned effort to manage to get it. It seems that even international corporations are infected by the Belgian lack of customer service (that I’ve recently enjoyed). Just like everything in Belgium there are loads […]
I’ve been skating on and off all summer and when skating marathon distance in Québec recently I thought to myself – why not? I’ll sign up for a competitive marathon on inline skates. So on 27th September I’ll be joining thousands of others skating 42km around the streets of Berlin. […]
Thousands of words have been written about the conflict in South Ossetia in the last few days and the answer tends to depend on whose side you’re on – do you reckon Vladimir Putin is an evil land-grabbing neo-tsar, or do you think Mikheil Saakashvili is an unpredictable and unreliable […]
As the Olympics get underway in Beijing today I’m happy to announce the launch of my latest website project – the campaign to get Twenty20 Cricket to be an Olympic sport at the London Olympics in 2012. I’ve been asked to work on the campaign by Murad Qureshi, a member […]
I’ve been going back and forth between the UK and Belgium for the last 10 months, and due to a change in circumstances I’m finally getting all the bureaucracy in order so as to stay in Belgium on a more permanent basis. First of all the flat. Sign the papers […]
The Assembly of European Regions reckons no-one takes the concept of subsidiarity seriously enough in Europe and so they have embarked on a campaign to do something about it. So they decided to get one of their staff to jump off the old bridge in Mostar while at the same […]
If putting up your relationship status on Facebook is a bit much for you, then how about making a marriage proposal via Google Street View? This must be the most unusual thing I’ve seen on the website entitled Google Sightseeing (an amusing site for wasting time online) that lists oddities […]
So the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. So too it seems does the rather large cloud hanging over the EU as a result of the Irish No vote on the Treaty of Lisbon; the silver lining in this case is an Irish writer called Jason O’Mahony. […]
I always get worried when British politicians cite Sweden in their analysis of anything. It’s excellent to look to a country that’s a model of Social Democracy as an example, but the lessons learnt are often wide of the mark. It was Michael Gove that twisted Sweden’s ‘state schools run […]
This is the view at 0725 EDT at Ottawa International Airport. The plane pictured is the Thomas Cook Airlines Boeing 757 I was supposed to be flying on from Montréal Trudeau to London Gatwick at 1800 yesterday but almost 14 hours on we’re still not moving. OK, things go wrong […]
