Jon Worth's Euroblog

02.11.2006 Observations

USA: sling a bit of mud

The US mid terms are around the corner, and the UK media has been working itself into a bit of a frenzy about all of it – well, it’s one of the few elections elsewhere conducted in English and there’s

02.11.2006 UK Politics

Rising anger at rising damp (and the rubbish Housing Association)

OK, I’ve had a joke here in the past about the frustrations of the damp in the kitchen in my flat – we were growing mushrooms there a few weeks ago, thanks to a dripping pipe from the washing machine

01.11.2006 UK Politics

Livingstone on climate change – too right, and I’m guilty

I’ve always admired Ken Livingstone. He’s clearly a very tricky and divisive character, but he does have a commitment and drive that so few politicians do. There’s a brilliant article in today’s Guardian about his take on climate change. This

31.10.2006 Observations

Fat people in bins

I could not help laughing out loud when I discovered that today someone typed ‘fat people in bins‘ into Google and found my blog as the 5th ranked result! It’s actually a link to this post that I wrote when

31.10.2006 EU Politics

An ageing population is good, according to the Commission

Euractiv reports on speeches made at a forum on demography, including one from Social Affairs Commissioner VladimÃƒÂr Ã…Â pidla, who claimed that demographic change was an opportunity just as much as it was a challenge. It would strike me that demographic

31.10.2006 UK Politics

The Stern report – the return of politics?

There have been plenty of reports about the damage that Climate Change will cause, but few have put a price on the damage in the way yesterday’s Stern Report did (article from The Guardian here). The Government’s response has been

30.10.2006 Technology

Launch of peterskinnermep.eu

After many months of technical difficulties, today I finally managed to launch a new website for Peter Skinner MEP – www.peterskinnermep.eu. Running using the Joomla content management system, the site is a big step forward, both in terms of design

30.10.2006 EU Politics

Midsommar på Betsö – my first Swedish literary masterpiece

I’m half way through my first term of Swedish courses, and that means the first homework assignment to complete – 150 words about something you’ve done in your life. So I decided to write a little account of Midsommar in

30.10.2006 EU Politics

What it takes to be a leader

It’s damned hard to describe what qualities you need to be a leader – it depends on the person, it depends on the circumstances. Yet you always tend to know very well when people in an organisation you work in

25.10.2006 EU Politics

Off to the city of European Union

I’m leaving London for a few days and am off to Maastricht, the city most famous for the Treaty on European Union signed there in 1992. It started off what might be argued was the heyday-period of European integration –

24.10.2006 UK Politics

Why I joined the Labour Party

An interesting debate has started at Bloggers4Labour about why individuals have chosen to join political parties, and the Labour Party in particular. The debate has kicked off in part as a result of some Rowntree Foundation / New Politics work

24.10.2006 UK Politics

ASBO the preacher

Every Tuesday evening I get 2 hours of Swedish at Westminster University, and then a horrid blast of evangelical megaphone preaching while waiting on my bike at the traffic lights at Piccadilly Circus. Each and every Tuesday evening there is