Recent Posts

Gordon Brown in Lisbon, Brussels
EU Politics

Brown: only 210 days late in Brussels

So Gordon Brown is finally making a trip to Brussels to meet people in the EU institutions, including Barroso. The visit will take place next week sometime (news from EUBusiness, link thanks to Kosmopolit). But then Brown has had problems regarding Eurostar before (Telegraph, last paragraph). Overall Brown’s visit is […]

Ken screenshot
UK Politics

Ken’s back in the online race

Ken Livingstone’s new website for his campaign to be re-elected as Mayor of London has been launched today, and I’m happy and relieved to see that it’s a major step forward as Boris was ahead in the online race for a while. The site is very Ken-orientated and is low […]

PES Logo
EU Politics

I’m PES blogger of the week

As part of the Yourspace online consultation prior to the European Parliament elections the PES invites social democrat bloggers to write on their site for a week – following Eric last week, it’s my turn this week. I’ve posted already about online campaigning for 2009 and common branding for European […]

UK Politics

Organising a conspiracy is damned hard

So Mohammed Al Fayed has had his say at the Diana inquest and he stands by his opinion that the car crash was organised by the UK intelligence services at the request of Prince Philip. All kinds of people are part of the stitch up: Tony Blair, Mi5, Mi6, the […]

Blog for a Cause
EU Politics

Blog for a cause (or for politics)

Thanks to Erkan I’ve come across this excellent guide about how to blog for a cause. As well as the original blog post there’s also a handy PDF to download. The guide is written from the perspective of a campaign against an injustice (human rights, imprisonment etc.) but the suggestions […]

Kosovo flag and solar panel
EU Politics

Politics of aspiration: Kosovo and the environment

It was a crisp, sunny Sunday in Brussels, with families walking in the parks and the low sun making St Josse feel less drab. When leaving home I passed a couple of cars with Kosovo flags hanging out of the open windows. I wished the driver ‘felicitations‘ for independence as […]

Harriet and Neil Kinnock
UK Politics

Labour lacks ideals and The Telegraph lacks nuance

The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield rightly criticises the Labour Party’s lack of European vision after hearing a speech by Harriet Harman yesterday. I was on a Eurostar from London while Harriet was speaking, so did not hear her exact words, but you have to have some sympathy with […]

JEF folks with Vaclav Klaus portrait
EU Politics

Czech and Slovak politics: same difference

It’s not a fun time politically in the two central European neighbours. Both are suffering a series of political travails. I blogged back in 2006 about Robert Fico’s unpleasant alliance in Slovakia – now the opposition are using the Reform Treaty as a tool against him, and making Brussels nervous […]