Jon Worth's Euroblog

06.02.2008 EU Politics

Italian politics: pants, udeur and bandanas

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

05.02.2008 UK Politics

Let’s all have a whinge at Blair

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

04.02.2008 EU Politics

Spain and the EU: what’s missing?

Plenty of EU leaders breathed a sigh of relief when JosÃ© 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

01.02.2008 EU Politics

Hannan’s words: the seeds of further division?

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

01.02.2008 EU Politics

Citizen Coin

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

31.01.2008 EU Politics

Could a blogger win the European Young Journalist award?

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

23.01.2008 UK Politics

Obesity in Sweden and the UK

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

16.01.2008 Technology

Social networks profilerate – where do I start?

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

15.01.2008 EU Politics

British press and the EU: yesterday numberplates, today sausages

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

14.01.2008 EU Politics

Time to sort out the separation of powers in Sweden

Thomas BodstrÃ¶m was Justice Minister in the Swedish government of the Social Democrats until 2006, and was well known for his high profile efforts to tighten rape laws in Sweden. So who is it now, still a MP, who is

14.01.2008 Technology

MPs, MEPs, candidates… A quick plug

Another day, another political website – today the website for David Hanson MP went live. Of particular note is the fact that this site is the first I’ve launched on a Green Web Host server powered by green electricity –

14.01.2008 EU Politics

Tony Blair as President of the European Council – I’m torn

He’s been quiet for a while, but Tony Blair is coming back into the public limelight. First he joined the Catholic Church (bad), then he joined JP Morgan (probably bad), he’s aiming for peace in the Middle East (good, but