Recent Posts

Miranda
UK Politics

Councillor Grell!

More excellent news is that a good friend Miranda Grell has managed to win her seat to be a Councillor in Leyton, in the borough of Waltham Forest. I’m not sure how much it contributed to the victory, but I did at least make this website for her campaign. Again, […]

Lambeth Town Hall
UK Politics

Lambeth bucks the trend. So the leafleting worked!

There was some good news in the local elections yesterday: Labour managed to reclaim control of Lambeth Council. In Ferndale ward where I live – and where I delivered so many rounds of leaflets we managed to boost the percentage of Labour support and held on to the 3 seats. […]

EP Strasbourg
EU Politics

Socialist Group leader wants an end to Strasbourg?

It’s every MEP’s nightmare. It’s every MEP’s assistant’s worst nightmare. It makes the European Parliament horribly inefficient, and it costs European taxpayers a load of cash. Oh, and it keeps the hotel and restaurant business in a certain part of France very happy. I am of course talking of Strasbourg, […]

Me with a flag
EU Politics

Marching for the socialist cause (sort of)

1st of May. Workers’ Day. Tends to be a day in the UK for a bunch of anti-globalisers to cause a fuss in central London, and not much else in the UK. The Labour Party has tended to steer clear of the day in recent years, wishing to avoid being […]

Observations

Barclays Bank asks ME for an exchange rate

I went to a branch of Barclays Bank in central London yesterday in order to make an international bank transfer. Should be fine you would have thought? London, international banking centre etc., etc. Firstly, you have to fill out an enormous form in the bank – it takes ages. But […]

Observations

Anything that sells: Lidl

The local Lidl supermarket puts flyers through doors in Clapham, letting the locals know about its latest offers. Some things are quite amusing – they were promoting care products for your horse (yes, indeed, in Clapham!?!) a few weeks ago. Anyway, this weeks promotion tops all the previous ones. The […]

John Prescott Sex God
UK Politics

Now it’s 2 shags

He gained the nickname 2 jags for driving 200 yards in a Jaguar, then 2 jabs for lashing out at a protestor who threw and egg at him. Now the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been labelled ‘2 shags’ by the Daily Mirror, having admitted to having an affair. […]

Wind Turbines
EU Politics

Making the green mud stick: EU renewables directive

David Cameron and the Tories are trying to portray themselves as green. They have been heavily criticising Labour’s record on protecting the environment, and on greenhouse gases. I reckon they have a decent case – Labour has not done as much as it should have done – but then again […]

Nikiforos Diamondouros
EU Politics

Diamandouros’s comments strike a chord

European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamondouros yesterday delivered his report about complaints to the EU in 2005. The press release from his office about it can be found here, plus additional reporting from EUObserver and MaltaMedia. Best of all was his quote about the overall structure of the EU institutions’ administration: The […]