A UK general election is on the horizon and my name is on the electoral register in the Leyton & Wanstead constituency in East London. As I’m a Labour Party member resident there for more than 2 years it means I have a vote in the selection procedure to see […]
It’s one of Tony Blair’s best known phrases, a promise to put Britain at the heart of Europe. Leaving the big issues (Euro, Iraq) to one side, any relationship with the European Union needs people to make the relationship work, and that’s the focus of this blog entry – where […]
I’ve managed to cause quite a fuss after my previous post about the main players in the EU-Twittersphere. So much so that some more reflection is needed, something that, due to the lack of nuance of 140 characters, I’ve been thus far unable to provide to (among others) @mathewlowry and […]
Edelman have cooked up a little tool called TweetLevel that gives a number that judges an individual’s influence on Twitter. 0 is the minimum score and 100 the maximum. Left Foot Forward has had a go at working out which Labour people have most influence on Twitter in the UK, […]
I had an hour between meetings today so called for the first time at Blomqvist’s, a Swedish espresso bar on Place St Boniface in Brussels (no website yet, but FB page is here). It was a cold January morning and the place was rather empty, so while munching my Kanellebulle […]
I’ve had some brand loyalty to EPSON printers over the years. The Stylus 740 did good service with my old 1998 iMac, and a Stylus 760 served my parents well for many years. But since then the picture has been far from sharp. A Stylus Photo R220 I bought for […]
“The UK is one of the developed world’s most unequal societies – how do we address that absolute inequality into the next decade? One means is the classical way via the taxation system (a redistribution from rich to poor) and the other is to aim to create more equal economic […]
A friend from the Belgian SP.A said to me yesterday that she was going to a protest outside the Opel plant (that’s closing) in Antwerp this weekend, and did I want to join the protest in solidarity with the workers. No was my immediate answer – I’m glad it’s closing! […]
“Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle” screamed the headline of The Guardian’s online version this morning. The sub header was a more measured “Labour deputy leader to make inequality a key dividing line with the Conservatives“. One of the quotes from Harman’s speech about the issue is: […]
OK, here we go again. I’ve lost track of the number of times that there have been weak and weedy attempts to ditch Gordon Brown over the last 9 months or so. This time things are perhaps a little bit different – the Hoon-Hewitt plot is open and on the […]
The British are used to star ratings for all kinds of stuff, and I don’t mean just on Amazon or TripAdvisor. Local councils are awarded star ratings for their performance, stats are given about doctors’ surgeries, and schools are rated in all kinds of ways. The population behaves according to […]
I had to chuckle when, via a Facebook Friend, I came across the Frequently Asked Question on the Campaign for European democracy (aka Strasbourg defenders) website entitled ‘Why should the European Parliament in Strasbourg be reinforced?’ Perhaps the campaign is unaware that FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions and that […]
