Yesterday and today NATO Foreign Ministers have been meeting in Berlin, no doubt an important meeting in light of the problems facing the mission in Libya. I also do not deny that these ministers are important people and are a possible target for extremists. But is it really necessary to...
Here we go again. The next stage of the UK government’s effort to get more Brits into the EU institutions… is to try to skew the application system to assist Brits. Today’s FT has more on the story here. There’s more here about the government’s previous efforts. The essential gist...
A pedestrian bumps into another pedestrian who is blocking the pavement. The pedestrian gets a wet foot from a loose paving stone and clambers over bags of rubbish on the way to the Métro. The same person takes the Métro, and when leaving the train at Gare du Midi he...
In Brussels it’s reasonably easy. There I was (and indeed still am) the EU politics blogger nerd. So if there are events and conferences to attend I go to ones about EU politics on the web first and foremost. Then I will go to ones about institutional reform or centre...
Exactly what waste can be easily recycled in municipal recycling schemes? It’s a question that perplexes even the most committed recyclers. Plastics are usually the most complicated, as only certain types of plastic (normally plastic drinks bottles) can be recycled, and other types of plastic cannot be put in the...
How do you get parliamentarians and their staff to better use web tools in their everyday work? It’s a question at the heart of what I do for clients on an everyday basis… So I’m rather content that Google’s Brussels office has asked me to help out with a workshop...
Back in 2002 I was doing a poorly paid internship at Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin and my then boss (who subsequently has become a good friend) Bernd Hüttemann said to me on my very first day “Jon, there’s no point you making travel bookings for me, it’s just...
The original (53 million views at the time of writing) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZlY0Vz4-o The Newport spoof (ace, especially for me as I grew up there, 1.2 million views at the time of writing) The Brussels (half-)spoof (where I live now, 26k views, some catching up to do!) Set all of those playing...
Right, this is a blog entry that’s going to annoy a lot of people. But I’m very annoyed. So here goes. I’m totally, utterly and completely sick of dog owners. Note I am not completely and utterly sick of dogs. I’m not unfriendly towards animals. A dog is a dog....
One of my favourite political books – mentioned on this blog before – is Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. The idea behind the title is to show what happens when the wrong words are used. You read that title and of course you think of an elephant....
I’ve known for a while that I needed to move away from Brussels. I even tried to crowdsource some answers about where to move. But now my mind is made up – London it will be, from sometime later this year. I don’t know quite when yet, and I equally...
I’ve had a nightmare winter on the rails of Europe – stranded 3 days thanks to Eurostar (and missing a friend’s wedding as a result), delays with SNCF, and mess with a journey to Germany. Yet today, back home in Brussels, everything looks just a little better. Almost 2 months...