Over the years I’ve continually argued that the European Union needs to improve its representative democracy – it needs to develop federal institutions, and give citizens a genuine voice at elections. Yet while, in essence, I still believe in that, I nevertheless have to admit that representative democracy is struggling […]
The political geek in me is always so impressed by elections in the United States. Look no further than the combination of marketing and psychological insight used in voter targeting, the glitz of the speeches and roadshows, or the graphic design and imagery of the campaign websites. But beyond that […]
“If anyone in the Labour Party should know how the European Union works it’s Peter Hain. A member of the Convention of the Future of Europe in the early 2000s, Hain will have seen how sensible proposals, compellingly argued, can lead to results at EU level – the permanent President […]
At the start of last week I was a guest lecturer at Roskilde University, presenting about blogging and the EU. You can find the slides I used on Slideshare here. In the discussion following the presentation I was posed a question by Angela Bourne, one of the academics that had […]
I’m going to start this blog entry with the assertion of my basic views, for these remain unchanged. For it is the circumstances that have altered, as I will explain. Now, as before, I am strongly of the view that the UK should remain a Member State of the European […]
There have been two lines of attack from UK EU-phobes to the news that the EU has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One has been to point to the current economic travails of the EU, and the political strife that has caused, and to criticise the award as a […]
The EU has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But who should collect it? Have a go at the quick poll below, and if you have other suggestions leave them in the comments!
This is not a post about the politics of David Cameron. It is instead an analysis of what the Tories did wrong – in communications and web tech terms – with the launch of the @David_Cameron Twitter account that finally saw the light of day yesterday. Let’s not forget – […]
The Foreign Minister of the EU’s 6th largest country (Radek Sikorski, Poland) arrives in the UK and gives a speech on 21st September lambasting Britain’s policy towards the European Union and the reaction is… almost non-existent. Isn’t that a bit odd? Let me explain a little more. At the time I read […]
If you’re observant then you will notice a new icon above the menu in the top right of the screen – the one with the tick on it. That’s a link to my profile at App.net, a new social network that is trying to break the mould of the ad-financed […]
At one level all looks fine for Labour and Ed Miliband as the party kicks off conference in Manchester this week. The party is 10 points ahead in the polls, is facing an unpopular and weak government. Roll on 2015. But I am not so sure, and I am not […]
I was one of the people interviewed for Javier Ruiz Soler‘s European Studies Masters Thesis “Who blogs what? A qualitative study on the role of the Euroblogosphere in a context of a European Public Sphere.” The PDF of the thesis is here (Javier has given the interviewed bloggers permission to […]
