It’s been sunny and 13 degrees in Brussels today, so time to think of spring and my favourite sporting pastime (well, it rivals cricket!) – inline skating. A friend asked me for some ideas of good skate routes today and apart from the suggestions at Rouliroula I wondered how best […]
A few lines from a typical conversation when I’m asked what I do in Brussels: “I work as a website designer and write a blog about EU politics.” Response from whoever I’m talking to: “Oh, I don’t read blogs.” Rather than the rather simple answer – well, yes you should […]
Sometimes you come across something that sets all of what you’ve been writing in stark relief. I regularly lament the standard of the UK’s representation in the EP. So my jaw dropped when I came across the website of Finnish EPP MEP Alexander Stubb – how the hell does he […]
Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell drew a whole series of images of John Major during the 1990s with underpants over his other clothes. In one particular cartoon Major – presumably after recycling some dead policy – puts the pants in the dirty washing only for him to don the same pair […]
As ever Tony Blair is a character who manages to anger and inspire in equal measure. For some reason over the last few days, a good fortnight after his appearance at the UMP Congress, there has been more press coverage of whether or not Blair will be a candidate for […]
Plenty of EU leaders breathed a sigh of relief when José MarÃa Aznar was ousted as Prime Minister of Spain in April 2004. The Blair-Berlusconi-Aznar triumvirate was broken and as Spanish troops left Iraq by June 2004 it looked like a new era of Spain-EU relations would be ushered in. […]
Eurosceptic Tory-boy Daniel Hannan caused uproar in the European Parliament this week by comparing the procedural powers granted to the EP’s President to the way powers had been granted to Hitler (FT, PA). According to Euractiv his words were “It is only my affection for you that prevents me from […]
2009 marks 10 years of the Eurozone – it’s time for a bit of a celebration. So the European Commission has come up with the idea of minting some celebratory coins. So how should the design be chosen? Commission DG for Economic & Financial Affairs has launched an online poll […]
I received a kind e-mail from the folks running the European Young Journalist Award asking me whether I might mention the award on this site, and indeed whether I would like to enter. Clearly the folks there have not really had a look at the rants I’ve been writing about […]
I stumbled across this story in The Local story that charts a rise of obesity among young men in Sweden – as high as 1 in 20, or 5%. Apparently it’s putting pressure on Swedish healthcare. Well, compare that to the NHS stats – see this link, and then look […]
Facebook, Linked In, Xing, Ecademy… I’m starting to get swamped by different social networking systems. What, if any, is the point of adding people as friends / contacts in more than one of these systems? Plus for Linked In, Xing and Ecademy you have to even pay cash to get […]
Switzerland faces a shortage of Cervelat sausages for Euro 2008 and who is to blame? The EU! Despite Switzerland not being a member state!! For a European football tournament!!! The fans must have their sausages… So what’s going on? “Although Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, it […]
