Jon Worth's Euroblog

24.01.2007 EU Politics

EP talks tough about the CIA flights, but I doubt anything will happen

The European Parliament’s special committee to look into CIA rendition flights has now reported its findings and the MEPs don’t mince their words (see news from EUObserver, and comments from Human Rights Watch) – the report is hard hitting, accuses

22.01.2007 UK Politics

Deputy Leader – what are Compass playing at?

Pressure group in the Labour Party – Compass – has today announced that it is polling all its members about which candidate for the Labour Party deputy leadership the organisation should support. While this strikes me as a bit odd

19.01.2007 Technology

Looking for design inspiration

I have been doing a lot of heavy programming work recently but stumbled across Agenturblog and suddenly started thinking a bit more creatively. My own blog is – after all – quite dour, and is far from being the most

18.01.2007 UK Politics

PR is the only solution to the key seats issue

An interesting debate is brewing over at Bloggers4Labour about a Guardian column by Bill Rammell and Liam Byrne, and a response to that column by Jon Cruddas. The essence of the debate is that Byrne and Rammell state that Labour

17.01.2007 Technology

Harriet Harman comes storming into the online race for the deputy leadership

Harriet Harman’s blog and new website went live this morning. I’ve done the work to design and implement the site from scratch (all on a voluntary basis), with considerable help from Helena. The blog will hopefully generate plenty of discussion,

14.01.2007 Observations

The only other federalist in my family is not doing well – my thoughts are with him

There are not too many readers of this blog that will know Stanley Handcock, my great uncle. Some of the people who attended the Strasbourg Congress of JEF in October 2005 might recall that he was the unknown federalist I

11.01.2007 Technology

Freakybook – thanks, Jeremy

I’ve resisted a long time, but at Jeremy’s insistence I am now a member of Facebook, and what a strange kind of a system it is. I don’t think that even John Reid could have managed to muster up a

10.01.2007 UK Politics

Pride in one’s surroundings

I’ve written before about the useless housing association – Pathmeads – that is my landlord here in Walworth. It has taken until today for them to ‘repair’ the problem of damp in the corner of the bedroom due to a

09.01.2007 UK Politics

What can Labour learn from Ségolène Royal? Find out on 23rd January

It’s a new year, and it’s time for another EUROPA-Soirée in the LME-LSE series (details here). This month we are talking about what Labour can learn from Ségolène Royal and her bid to become French President. Beyond that, the PS

08.01.2007 Technology

Top quality hi-fi for £72

OK, so you have a computer (well, you would not be reading this if you didn’t), and you want an excellent and cheap hi-fi setup. How do you do it? My answer was to purchase some JBL Creature speakers in

08.01.2007 Observations

Most Café Bar – nice bar, very odd cocktails

Well, it looked pleasant – the Most Café Bar is a new bar located in one of the stone arches under the southern end of Tower Bridge. Helena and I (and two others) were wandering there on Saturday, and decided

04.01.2007 EU Politics

Shy flower Verheugen is at it again

He’s had a rant at Commission officials, and then been caught naked on a beach with his chef de cabinet, and yesterday European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen was at it again – this time stating that: “A small member