“Now I’ve freed myself from the nightmare of participating in the process personally, I’m at my liberty to examine the absurdities of the system for the next important selections in the Labour Party, namely for candidates for the European Parliament elections in 2014. If the NEC adopts a similar schedule […]
By 26th May 2012 all websites in the UK are supposed to comply with the 2009 changes to the EU Privacy and Communications Directive, and this means paying attention to how any website deals with cookies. This website – just as almost any other website – uses cookies to improve the […]
One of the things that has, over the years, helped me maintain some faith in the functioning of the European Union was that – if push came to shove – you could find out what was going on within the walls of the institutions, and find out what the EU […]
You don’t mess with Monica Macovei. I’ve met her, and she strikes me as one of the most strident and outspoken politicians to be found in the European Parliament, building upon a two year stint as Romania’s Minister of Justice during the period prior to accession. So when Macovei says […]
On Tuesday this week I was on Eurostar 9161, the 1952 departure from Bruxelles Midi to London St Pancras, with stops in Lille Europe, Calais Fréthun and Ebbsfleet. Shortly after departure from Lille the train manager made an announcement, telling us that a control of tickets and identity papers would […]
“Mark Ferguson was quick off the mark with his post profiling candidates who could be in the running to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor in 2016. The problem is that before we ask who the candidate should be, we need to ask how to position such an individual between now […]
There are all kinds of legitimate positions about reform of the House of Lords. All elected, all appointed, some combination of both, even the abolishment of the house altogether. But saying that the issue is not important is not a legitimate position. The composition and format of one of the […]
A few weeks ago at a meeting in London, one of the Labour Party’s best known bloggers literally snorted at me when I said that Labour had much to learn from the Pirate Party. But I’m undeterred by that, and having spent the last week in Germany, I’ve been looking […]
“The Queen’s Speech is closest the UK has to some kind of State of the Union address. In the speech, delivered by the Queen in all her archaic royal splendor, the government of the day sets out its legislative agenda for the coming year. Press and politicians alike analyze every […]
I’m at re-publica in Berlin, appearing at 1315 on a panel about the European public sphere online. You can follow the panel here (Stage 5). This morning we started debating these issues with a speech from Euroblogger Ronny Patz, whose ideas are summarized (in German) on Spiegel Online. Ron’s approach […]
My presence on various social networks was getting rather out of hand, so I’ve had to work out a rule of thumb as to who to add on each network. Here are my conclusions – comments most welcome! Facebook – I’ll accept friend requests from anyone I’ve met and – if […]
Here we go again. Today Steven Hill has laid out his institutional vision for the European Union on Social Europe journal. His plan – with a bicameral European Parliament – is not too distant from ideas raised by Denis MacShane in the past. Binding national MPs into EU decision making […]
