“It’s in Britain’s national interest to be in the EU” – it pains me how often we hear that phrase (or words that that effect) in speeches made by UK politicians about the EU. Yet we very seldom question its use. The need to start to question it, for me […]
It doesn’t come easily to me to ask so bluntly, but I need your vote – I’m standing for the Executive of the Labour Movement for Europe. I’ve been writing about UK-EU relations on this blog for 6 years, have been working in EU affairs for 10 years, and have […]
I’ve had the good luck to happen to be in Copenhagen today and hence to be able to attend “What Professional Journalism Means for Democracy”, run by Berlingske Media – the mainstream media group behind broadsheet Berlingske and tabloid B.T. A few of the people here – Astrid Haug and […]
Presentation for Svanen, Stockholm
For someone as active as I am in social media, perhaps the title of this blog entry is a little extreme. But bear with me. Or, to be more precise, bear with me those of you in the ever dwindling band of people who are going to read this. This […]
When he’s not getting turfed out of Dale Farm, Labour MEP Richard Howitt seems to also be the most active of Labour’s MEPs in the European Parliament, at least thanks to one measure discovered using open data from Ron Patz. The image below shows MEPs according to how many Intergroups in […]
For the first time in ages, Facebook has me hooked on a new feature – the ‘Cover’ image (the large image at the top) in the new profile timeline. If you don’t know what I am on about, see this and this for how to enable it. OK, this ‘Cover’ […]
The EU institutions are in the middle of their annual budget ping-pong. The European Commission proposes the annual budget, and then the European Parliament and Council of the European Union (where Member States are represented) decide on the budget. The Commission’s opening shot for the 2012 budget, published in April […]
One of the responses to the Tory rebellion yesterday on the EU referendum vote has – rather predictably – been a call for ‘pro-Europeans’ to be more assertive. Clegg has said Britain should lead and not leave the EU, and over at LabourList Luke Akehurst has a piece entitled “We […]
“Over the last week, many on the left have been crowing at the sight of the Tories going into self-destruct mode over Europe. Cameron has brought this upon himself, they say, playing up to the Eurosceptic gallery and surrounding himself with rightwingers for whom EU membership was the overriding reason […]
This is a mythical speech that could be delivered tomorrow in the House of Commons by a MP opposing the resolution for a referendum. In my view it’s both realistic and honest, and hence there’s not a hope in hell anyone’s going to say anything like this… but anyway, here’s […]
There are some things party politics and representative democracy struggle to solve – those few issues that divide parties, that cross left-right divides. Britain’s relationship with the European Union is one such issue and, as a result, prompts calls from the right and, to a lesser extent, from the left, […]
