An old article in Helsingin Sanomat about Alexander Stubb was entitled “Alex Stubb is too smart to make trouble”. That was in 2008 when he was appointed as Finland’s Foreign Minister. Now in his guise as Minister for Europe and International Trade of Finland, Stubb presented today at the World […]
The main reason I am at WEF Istanbul is to contribute to and learn from the sessions on the future of the European Union. The first such session was at the start of Tuesday afternoon – a panel entitled “The Future of European Integration”. The programme was explained thus: What […]
Scandal! Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, pays no tax! How can this be when she’s lecturing more Greeks to pay tax!?! Story from The Guardian here. Sony Kapoor, so often the voice of reason throughout the Eurozone crisis on Twitter, stated “IMF staff don’t, period!” prompting all kinds […]
On the Guardian website today there’s a piece entitled “David Cameron to warn François Hollande against challenging EU rebate” by Nicholas Watt. At the start it’s a bit of a ramble, essentially that Cameron will need to push François Hollande on the UK’s budget rebate to try to stick to […]
Politicians do not know when to let go. Their best days might be behind them, their opportunities for future office slim. But like boxers who think that their next bout might result in a favourable result, they do not give up, calling on the old contacts to be able to […]
I was in the audience for Declan Ganley’s presentation at RUSI in London yesterday. It was one of the most interesting and civilised debates about EU matters I have attended in London in recent times. If you’re interested to hear what Ganley said the full film is here: For people […]
Due to a short Twitter debate with @huettemann I have promised to write this post. As far as I am concerned, social media will have at best a marginal effect on the 2014 European Parliament elections. Here’s why. First though I will mention the major caveat: there are some parties […]
So it turns out that this has been a significant week for me personally. Only three days after I took the decision to cease the pursuit of selection to become a MEP, a further decision taken by someone I don’t know and I’ve never met has had further important implications. My partner’s […]
Sometimes I am old fashioned. Despite all its flaws, I still see no better way of governing a country than representative democracy. Almost all of the advanced societies in the world use that system. These representative democracies of course need to evolve as times change, with periodic reassessments of the […]
I’m not sure how to write this blog entry, for it relates to something that has been on my mind for a long, long time. Yet, unlike most of the things have have been on my mind a while, it is the first time I have blogged directly about this […]
The bottom line remains this: Greece leaving the Eurozone will have catastrophic economic consequences for Greece and the rest of the EU. That is as true now as it was a year ago. Everyone from Syriza to Juncker understands this. Here then are a few bits and pieces I have […]
I was at the Progress Conference yesterday and heard the Ed Miliband speech that’s the centre piece of Andrew Rawnsley’s Observer column today. It was the best speech I’ve heard Ed give and he responded in the Q&A session with determination and some humour. It’s clear that Ed believes deeply in […]
