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Labour blog ostrich
EU Politics

Labour bloggers like ostriches on EU issues

Gordon Brown manages to make the matter of signing the EU Reform Treaty a national disgrace, so what are the reactions? The eurosceptic papers unsurprisingly whine about signing away sovereignty (good piece from Political Betting). William Hague has a field day, accusing Brown of being rude and at the same […]

Britain and Europe
EU Politics

Britain at the heart of Europe – not

It makes me so sad, so disappointed. The UK cannot even be a diligent enough European country to manage to get its Prime Minister to Lisbon to sign the EU Reform Treaty on time. It’s a matter of such elementary organisation, respect and kindness – a clear two fingers in […]

Grumpy Brown
EU Politics

Brown: better not make it 2 no-shows in a week

So Gordon Brown boycotted the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon because Robert Mugabe was there. Yes, he’s gruesome and evil (Mugabe I mean), but a whole host of other African leaders were there too – it wasn’t an EU-Zimbabwe summit after all. Plus Angela Merkel has been very critical of Mugabe […]

Shower
Observations

Stupid neighbours

So the door to your shower cubicle falls off. What do you do? The answer from our neighbours upstairs: keep showering anyway! Spraying water all over the floor, causing mould, damage to the wooden floor outside their bathroom, and now damp and mould in our bathroom on the floor below. […]

UK European Commissioner 2009 candidates
EU Politics

UK European Commissioner 2009

If you’ve reached this page via Google looking for the allocation of the portfolios for the 2009 European Commission then see the latest information from European Voice here. The Barroso Commission is well past the half way point in its term – on 1st November 2009 a new European Commission […]

CDs
UK Politics

Accountability, Whitehall and IT

I haven’t written anything here about the HMRC missing discs scandal as yet, but a post by Never Trust a Hippy (one of the most thoughtful Labour bloggers) and some conversations with social democrats from other European countries here in Brussels has brought me to write something. First of all, […]

Westminster Tornado
UK Politics

The Westminster Tornado

Can it get any worse? Labour’s General Secretary Peter Watt has had to resign over donations from David Abrahams via 3 associates. It looks like the planning process might have been compromised as a result (Evening Standard link, so take it with a pinch of salt), and Abrahams also made […]