I have been sent an advance copy of the publication “Democracy, Populism and Minority Rights”, published today by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, on the basis of a common seminar with the Renner Institute in Austria. The book is edited by Socialist Group MEPs Hannes Swoboda and Jan […]
The new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras is great, and indeed I’m a big fan of Eurostar overall. But what about the old terminal at Waterloo, vacated by Eurostar in November 2007? I passed it for the first time today (en route to Sunningdale with South West Trains) and things […]
Denis MacShane is an unusual character. Rather a loose cannon as Europe Minister, he’s undoubtedly one of the most pro-EU MPs in the Labour Party. But his article on Comment is Free about European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson is wide of the mark, although the main gist of the […]
Preachers on street corners, ads in the underground and on the sides of buses – you can’t spend a day in central London without being confronted by some sign that religion should be your only salvation. In frustration I’ve had a rather sporadic go at this in the past – […]
Mark Mardell has a list of the Irish population’s 8 concerns about the EU as perceived by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and presumably each of these is a factor in the No vote in the referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. These 8 issues are: World trade talks. Suggestions of tax […]
Ireland voted No to the Treaty of Nice in 2001, and was made to vote again in 2002 – with clarifications guaranteeing Irish neutrality. So if you vote No, you extract concessions, and hence you can manage to get what you want. 2008 – repeat performance. Or that’s at least […]
Jean Quatremer (original French, Google translation) has a strongly worded critique of José Manuel Barroso’s role in the process of drafting the European Constitution, and his (lack of) reaction as Commission President during the 2005 No votes in France and Netherlands, and then the Commission’s flat reaction to the goings-on […]
The new version of the Firefox browser is now available. If, like me, you’ve been using version 2.0.x then you’ll know it’s a good browser, but version 3.0 will be even better. Plus there are a whole load of other reasons to download it today (in the 24 hours between […]
In London yesterday morning an eerie calm fell over Whitehall. No traffic, not even pedestrians. George Bush, leader of the free world, was in town. So, ordinary people, get out of the way. Returning to Brussels yesterday evening I find razor wire barricades already set up at Rue Joseph II […]
OK, so the Treaty of Lisbon is not going to be ratified this year, and perhaps not at all. So what happens to all the top positions in the EU that need to be decided upon? First and foremost there will be no permanent President of the European Council – […]
I hope I’m premature writing this – final results in the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon have not yet been released but all the tallies so far point towards a No vote. That’s also the impression conveyed to me via people in Dublin. No vote has been confirmed […]
EU Referendum has had a whinge at some lines in a European Parliament resolution by Estonian Socialist MEP Marianne Mikko that mentions blogs. Bruno Waterfield has also jumped on the bandwagon. Get a grip folks. What’s the first thing to do when someone in the EP sounds off? Look at […]
