Jon Worth's Euroblog

04.09.2007 EU Politics

Ashley Mote given a jail sentence – excellent!

So much for the EU being corrupt. Ashley Mote, sometime UKIP MEP, but too nasty and dodgy even for them (hence his decision to sit in the EP with the Independence, Traditions and Sovereignty Group with people like the French

04.09.2007 EU Politics

Thoughts on European Parliament seat allocation

The European Parliament is trying to decide how numbers of MEPs will be allocated between different Member States in the future. News about it from EUObserver here. The Severin-Lamassoure idea is there should be 750 MEPs, with 6 per Member

03.09.2007 EU Politics

Reform Treaty – we need a better discourse on the left

The Labour Movement for Europe has today uploaded a document [PDF here] that it claims is from the FCO that aims to rebut the myths about the EU Reform Treaty as stated by the eurosceptic think tank Open Europe. The

30.08.2007 UK Politics

Thanks Gordon – tolerate the prisoners because we need to control inflation

UK prison officers staged an unofficial strike yesterday. Today came Brown’s response: keeping public sector pay rises low is essential to keep the lid on inflation. OK, that applies to the entire public sector, but will that reassure the prison

26.08.2007 UK Politics

Will Hutton and degenerate Britain: a manifesto for Brown (fat chance)

Will Hutton has penned what can only be described as an eloquent and rational rant in today’s Observer about the irrationalities of the the world’s financial markets – it’s short and well worth a read. The essence of his argument

25.08.2007 Technology

Adding Google Maps to my repertoire

Politicians go out visiting people and opening things, so why not illustrate that on a map? Harriet Harman had a visits map on her site that I made using the excellent LumoNet Google Maps plugin for Typo3, but what about

23.08.2007 EU Politics

Reform Treaty not of constitutional nature to the UK, but is for the rest?

Thanks to the ECJBlog I’ve come across this transcript of an interview Jim Murphy, Minister for Europe, commenting on why the Reform Treaty is really very different from the European Constitution. When pressed on the issue – how can the

22.08.2007 Observations

This blog is moving to Brussels

I’ve known for a while that I’ll be working as a freelance website designer and EU politics trainer from the autumn of 2007. The main question outstanding was where I would be based. I’m now quite relieved to be able

22.08.2007 UK Politics

The EU and the fraying of Britain’s democracy

So the ‘debate‘ about whether Britain should hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty rumbles on. The Tories snipe from one side that this is indeed the same as the European Constitution, a document Blair was ready to put

16.08.2007 Technology

Geni.com – cool technology

It was suggested to me by a friend in Berlin that I should join a site called verwandt.de to put together an online family tree. Not much good as that’s all for people in Germany. But the English language equivalent

15.08.2007 Observations

I’m Generation Y, so what do I think?

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture paints a rather bleak picture of a generation that is economically troubled and emotionally taut – essentially the post-Baby Boom generation. The term Generation Y applies to people coming after them – statistically

14.08.2007 EU Politics

This is what annoys me about Sweden

Sweden is a great place in so many ways – excellent social system, great on gender equality, generally happy population… Plenty of positives can be found in the Sweden & Swedish category. But this blog has today been linked by