Jon Worth's Euroblog

05.01.2008 EU Politics

Joined up government lightbulb thinking

Today on BBC News there’s an article about how the Environment Agency has issued new guidance about how low-energy lightbulbs should be disposed of. OK, fair enough, these bulbs need some care. But how the hell do you actually get

30.12.2007 UK Politics

2008 in Britain: a land of dour unity and economic uncertainty?

In today’s Observer, Andrew Rawnsley offers Gordon Brown these words of advice: “It would be an added bonus if he and his ministers could articulate a sense of purpose and an air of dynamism.” Spot on, as far as I’m

30.12.2007 EU Politics

2007: record year for the EU’s anti-cartel work

Good news as 2007 draws to a close – the year was the most successful on record for the European Commission’s work fining companies for behaving anti-competitively – 3.3 billion Euro in total, so more than 2% of the EU’s

27.12.2007 EU Politics

Reform Treaty: a little more honesty and less smoke and mirrors please

So the Reform Treaty (we’re supposed to call in the Lisbon Treaty now, just so citizens can confuse it with the Lisbon Strategy) has been agreed. But what have the Heads of State and Government actually signed? All of the

27.12.2007 Technology

AirPort Express is cool, but Time Machine more questionable

NOTE: since this blog post has been written Apple has updated Time Machine and its Airport Extreme Firmware. Please see this post for details of how to create the ultimate home network. Computer in one room, sound system in the

22.12.2007 UK Politics

Atheistic fundamentalism – sorry, but I haven’t seen much of it

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, claims that Britain is suffering from atheistic fundamentalism – schools referring to a ‘Winterval’ rather than Christmas holidays is cited as an example in this BBC article. This announcement comes on the same

22.12.2007 Observations

For whom am I writing?

So 2007 draws to a close, my second full year of blogging (Euroblog launched in July 2005 – this is the 666th post since then), and it’s time to reflect a little about where this blog is going and what

21.12.2007 EU Politics

Schengen: it’s bad both ways according to the UK media

As I argued in my previous post, the British media is getting into a bit of a lather about the enlargement of the Schengen border free zone. Can the media not get to grips with the benefits of something, instead

20.12.2007 EU Politics

Schengen enlargement – let’s start the debate in the UK too

BBC News Online has a good piece about the implications for tourism of the enlargement of the Schengen border free area in Europe, only one thing is missing: any discussion about Britain eventually joining the parts of Schengen that are

Margot WallstrÃ¶m Â© European Commission Audiovisual Library

19.12.2007 EU Politics / Technology

Government blogs: the person behind the political face

Just a few lines, but they say a lot about the person: By Friday I had to get up to prepare for a dinner at home with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden as one of the guests

14.12.2007 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

13.12.2007 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