So the EU is 50. It has its Berlin declaration. Plus it there’s already plenty of wrangling over what the phrase in the Declaration “We are united in our aim of placing the EU on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009” actually means. According to Mark Mardell on […]
The EU has always managed to keep a sense of perspective thanks to it history. The European Coal and Steel Community, and the Treaty of Rome that marked the founding of the EEC – 50 years ago tomorrow – were based on the need to ensure European countries never again […]
I was a little startled to read today that both the BBC and The Guardian were speculating that Gordom Brown becoming Prime Minister would mean the end of Peter Mandelson as European Commissioner for Trade. The Guardian even talks of ‘speculation in Brussels’ as being behind this. Mandelson has himself […]
I’m supposed to be on holiday, but I am after all spending a week in Åre with a very political bunch of people… So Monday, Tuesday, Thursday (today) have been devoted to the SVT television programme Ordförande Persson (Chairman Persson), a four part documentary (final part is Monday so I’ll […]
I’m away from everything for a week, skiing in Åre in Jämtland in norther Sweden. It’s the first full week of leave I have taken for ages and it’s excellent to be able to get away for a while. The skiing conditions have been close to perfect and I’ve now […]
I’ve known Erik Boman, the political secretary of the Solna Social Democrats, for a while know. He was at the Congress party last night, promoting the blog written by his 11 year old son Gustaf – entitled Babblande Boman. Erik himself writes a blog mostly comprising limericks (Lim-Erik – get […]
If you are a smug Moderate who thinks it’s remotely funny to criticise a Swede’s English and wants to link to this video, think again. It’s damned hard to conduct politics in a language other than your own, and you might like to read this about how it excludes people […]
Jonas Morian writes one of the best known Social Democrat blogs and he was one of the official congress bloggers too. I interviewed him about the use of the internet for politics. His line was that the Social Democrats were ahead of their time in using the internet a few […]
The next in the series of videos from the SAP Congress – Maryam Yazdanfar, member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) speaks about how positive she is about Mona Sahlin’s election, and how British politics needs some more women than Thatcher and the Queen.
The Special SAP Congress was supposed to be about the future. Or at least that’s what I had been led to believe. Yet all that seems to have happened has been a drawn out series of thank-yous to Göran Persson, and him talking. First it was him in the morning, […]
Johanna Graf’s Survey – Part II
Johanna Graf’s Survey – Part I
