I have no idea whether it’s viable, or whether he would consider it, but I think I have – from a personal point of view – come up with a candidate I would actually like to see as President of the European Commission: Pascal Lamy. He has a background as […]
When something is a fresh project you’re always willing to try the latest, brightest, most shiny new software for it. Problem is that this blog is no longer that! With 780 posts in 3 years, 110000 individual visitors in the last 12 months, 3Gb monthly data transfer, and a number […]
Problems at Sizewell B nuclear power plant were partly to blame for blackouts in the UK yesterday. Costs of nuclear decommissioning are due to soar above the £73bn already calculated, announced on Tuesday this week. So Gordon Brown states yesterday how keen he is for the UK to build new […]
OK, there are 142.2 million people in Russia, Europe’s largest country voting in Eurovision. San Marino, the smallest, has a mere 20000. But when it comes to the votes allocated in Eurovision each county’s votes count equally. If you think the EU’s Qualified Majority Voting system for legislation is bad, […]
5th September 1998 – the first day the very first iMac was available in the UK. I’m not sure anyone then would have imagined iMac would be a machine that would help save Apple’s fortunes (more on recent Mac successes, the original iMac launch keynote), but the £999 machine with […]
MEPs are having a whinge that a French rail strike is going to make it hard for them to get from Strasbourg when this week’s European Parliament plenary session ends. Struan Stevenson, a UK Tory, has complained that France doesn’t exactly make it easy for European Parliamentarians to get to […]
‘Well, he would say that wouldn’t he’ will surely be the reaction (if anyone does bother reacting) to Nick Clegg’s article in today’s Independent about the state of British democracy. But just read it. British politics is archaic, out of touch, and badly in need of reform (as I’ve previously […]
“We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.” So said Aneurin Bevan. Presumably that quote is behind Labour’s current by-election campaign in Crewe & Nantwich. In response to the death of a tough and principled left winger, the party’s final […]
Welt am Sonntag reported yesterday that David Miliband might be a candidate for the EU Foreign Minister High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the foreign affairs position created by the Treaty of Lisbon. A FCO spokesperson has made a very bland statement that Miliband is […]
Things have moved on a bit in the argument about EU money to the UK to help regions hit by floods last summer, the subject of this post. NEW – Helga Truepel MEP is now on the warpath on this one, having written a press release on the issue (EN […]
When any part of Europe is hit by a natural disaster, the country where the disaster strikes can appeal to the EU for assistance – these solidarity arrangements were put in place after the 2002 central European floods. So when parts of the UK were flooded last year it seemed […]
Apparently the rules for what ingredients you’re allowed in bread are more precisely determined in French law than European law. As a result, a bakery in Barnsley is managing to sell baguettes to that very French institution – SNCF. I’ve tried to look into this is more depth, and via […]
