Don’t worry, this is not going to turn into a blog about sport. But cricket is a great British institution, especially when you’re listening to Test Match Special on Radio 4 or 5 Live. With 6 weeks of cricket ahead for the World Cup there are going to be plenty […]
Sometimes strange things happen in party politics. This coming weekend will be one of those odd occasions. I am going to be one of the official bloggers at the party congress of the Socialdemokraterna (SAP) in Sweden. Why me? OK, I know plenty of people in the SAP (Helena, Maryam, […]
So the Tories are in favour of Open Source software. Open Source Whitehall is the headline on BBC News, reporting a speech that Tory Treasury spokesman George Osborne made today at the Royal Society of Arts. Even Demos are trumpeting the speech, and Guido has a typically cynical take on […]
I’m happy to be able to announce the launch of the new site I’ve just completed for the child protection charity the Victoria Climbié Foundation UK. The site has been made in very quick time on a shoestring budget, using the Joomla CMS. Mor and Salimata in the VCF office […]
The EU has been doing some interesting research into gender and pay in the labour market across the EU, and the statistics in the report make startling reading in general – and especially from the UK perspective. Euractiv has a summary of the issues here, and the main report is […]
I’m a bit slow on the uptake – I had not until today really noticed the inaugural speech that was made by new European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering. See the EP’s News Service about it here. That’s probably because his speech was notable for the things he did say, rather […]
Chatting with my Italian teacher recently, he mentioned that the Italians are scared that next year Spain is projected to overtake Italy in terms of GDP per head. I’ve today been reading Le Monde, and the stats they present tell a remarkable story about the Spanish labour market. A summary […]
In Europe, not run by Europe. That’s what William Hague once said as leader of the Conservative Party. I happened to hear him on the Today Programme this morning advocating a similar sort of line in his current role as the Tories’ spokesperson on foreign affairs [BBC News story here]. […]
Today I was accosted on Villiers Street, close to Embankment station. No, it wasn’t those annoying people from London Lite and The London Paper trying to thrust a nasty rag in my face, but instead it was a guy trying to get me to give money to MENCAP, the UK […]
I was contacted by Myra von Ondarza, a Masters student at Hamburg University, about an academic survey of ‘Euroblogs’. As my own blog has the title Euroblog that’s why she came across me. I’ve been asked a number of questions about my motivation to write this blog, and how I […]
Was it a good idea? Not sure. I’ve just returned home after 2 hours of arguing with Tories on the internet TV station 18 Doughty Street, brainchild of Iain Dale. It really felt like walking into the lair of the enemy, but no centre-left organisation has managed to come up […]
The main news story today in the UK is contaminated petrol in UK filling stations operated by Tesco and Morrisons – see the reports from BBC and The Guardian. Initial investigations seem to show that problems might be related to a firm Greenergy that is supposed to supply greener fuels […]
