President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell, when talking about the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament, last week stated that the “historic dimension [of Strasbourg] cannot be perceived in the same way in ‘some Nordic country’ which did not
Continue reading
Mixed messages from the Tories
What is going on at Tory party conference? I can understand the electoral appeal of trying to move a party to the middle ground, but the Tories seem to be trying to be greener than Labour, all nice and cuddly,
Continue reading
Confused, and not very effective
I’m in a state of complete confusion at the moment. I seem to be spending far too many hours each day doing something but not with any plan or with any discernable results. I pottered off to an Italian lesson
Continue reading
Political views challenge
Via Claes and Helena, I’ve been asked to answer a bunch of questions about what my political views are and how I come to believe in what I believe in presently. So here goes… 1. Your political ideology? Socialism (or
Continue reading
More on Sweden, and political trust
Mats Engström has written a good piece at Opendemocracy about the Swedish election result, and highlights some of the tensions that will appear for the Alliance when trying to manage to govern. In the meantime, European Commissioner Margot Wallström has
Continue reading
EU banana regime – sometimes a native speaker (or a political mind?) might help
Thanks to this post from DJ Nozem, I’ve come across this amusing press release from DG Agriculture of the European Commission entitled ‘CAP Reform: Commission proposes new banana regime’. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! With all the
Continue reading
Jag heter Jon och jag talar lite svenska
OK, I’ve made a start – I’ve been to my first Swedish class. It was run by a very camp Croat – Casper – who learnt Swedish from peacekeeping troops in the Balkans before moving to Sweden to study… Oh,
Continue reading
A very cold welcome to Romania and Bulgaria
As has been widely trailed [see EUObserver here], the European Commission is today due to give the go-ahead for the EU membership of Romania and Bulgaria. It’s not all good news though; for Bulgaria there are still areas of concern
Continue reading
Hot air from De Villepin on energy policy
While Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy has been in the limelight all summer, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has resurfaced to give a speech about – among other things – EU energy policy [story from EUObserver here]. De Villepin is
Continue reading
Commission Concours support forum
I must admit that I have been astounded by the amount of people that have found this blog thanks to searches for matters relating to the European Commission concours. My original post about the issue has – by 25th September
Continue reading
Southwark’s shoddy recycling
One of the things I have to get to grips with in my new flat is the change of borough – I’m now in Southwark having previously been in Lambeth. It’s hard to tell in London where one borough ends
Continue reading
Getting all memorial – but should we?
I was walking along Horse Guards Parade beside St James’s Park in London today and happened to notice some men chipping away at a new stone wall (pictured). It turns out that this is the construction of a memorial for
Continue reading