I like the European Parliament elections. It makes EU stuff interesting and now is one of the few times that the mainstream media is interested in EU matters. At short notice I was contacted by BBC Radio 5 Live this morning and asked to appear on the Victoria Derbyshire show […]
Bente and I have just given a presentation at the Norwegian Mission to the EU about the use of technology for politics. The slides we used are below, and here are a few links to some other things we mentioned – there are more in the slides: Fix My Street […]
Today is a bank holiday in Belgium. But for me that means little – I have projects to complete, so I need to work. In addition I urgently need to post a letter to the UK, but I’m out of stamps. Can I manage to find a postage stamp for […]
As the initial anger about MPs expenses starts to subside a little, so proposals for more radical changes to British politics emerge as means to restore public confidence in the system. Alan Johnson has backed calls for a referendum on proportional representation, and Ed Miliband has spoken of ‘major reforms’ […]
I’m rather conscious that I have a tendency to rant and complain on this blog. So after some interesting questions posed by the audience at an event organised by le Cercle québécois des affaires internationales where I was the speaker earlier today, here are a few strange and radical ideas […]
I knew Marta Andreasen was UKIP Treasurer, yet until yesterday I had been unaware she is number 2 on UKIP’s election list in the South East. I’m not normally in the business of scutinising election lists for a party that mainly consists of batty 60 year old men, but Andreasen […]
Today’s Libertas e-mail states “we rolled out a video that’s flying around the blogosphere” – well 324 views is not exactly flying, and that’s how many people have seen the video as I write. You can view it below. My own anti-UKIP effort is doing better at the moment, with […]
As the drip-drip of expenses allegations continue to emerge in Westminster, is there any implication for Brussels, the EU of course not being well known for its standards of propriety among its politicians…? The specific point relates to the European Commission – what impact will all of the goings-on in […]
The European Parliament has had to make one formal adjustment for June’s elections – as opposed to the 750 MEPs foreseen in the Treaty of Lisbon (rejected by the Irish), 732 MEPs will instead be elected. A few countries get a few less MEPs. Easy. Well, perhaps not… The first […]
The picture is from lap 8 of Sunday’s Montréal Roller Marathon. Ouch, what a race. First of all, the weather – 6 degrees at the start, and very windy. The race is around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – on an island in the St Lawrence river. Hence little protection from […]
The European Commission today announced a record €1.06 billion fine for Intel for anti-competitive behaviour – essentially for striking deals with PC manufacturers to prevent them buying chips from rival AMD. More details from European Voice here. €1.06 billion is a hefty fine, and even on its own would equate […]
OK, I am putting 2+2 together and making 10, but if I get this one right then you heard it here first! 😉 Andy Carling, a regular commenter on this blog, stated that he had heard Poul Nyrup Rasmussen say at a press conference that the PES does have a […]
