“There’s an election going on in Denmark? Really? As a resident of the UK you could be forgiven for not knowing, given that both BBC News Online and The Guardian seem to have neglected to cover the announcement this week. In the meantime Comment is Free and Labour Uncut are...
“A moralising article from Tony Blair is enough to make anyone choke over their Sunday morning cornflakes, and his opinion piece in today’s Observer is no exception. It’s here if you feel like a browse. One line from Blair’s piece, even quoted in the front page article about it, struck...
“Sometime around the turn of the century I was a reluctant economics student and posed an essay question by my cantankerous macroeconomics professor as to whether the Euro is an optimum currency area. The idea comes from Candian economist Robert Mundell and seeks to define an area in which economic...
“This week I was in the audience at a Young Fabians* event about Britain and the EU with Mary Honeyball MEP as the speaker. The event was part of one of the Young Fabians Policy Commissions, with the aim of putting together ideas for the future EU policy of the...
“I’ve spent three weeks in July in Cairo, Alexandria and Dahab, one of the very few tourists in Egypt these days. According to the New York Times tourism – previously 10% of Egypt’s GDP – has plunged by 40%. That seems to be an underestimation judging by the deserted tourist...
“We’re on track for a multispeed EU and the UK government is OK with it. That is the main conclusion for the UK from a week from a week when the Euro was, at least temporarily, brought back from the brink with a 15 point plan for its rescue. Oh,...
“Scandal! The European Union wants to increase its budget by 5% for the period from 2014 onwards. Prompt critical statements from Downing Street, the leader of the Tory MEPs in the European Parliament and even Tony McNulty. How dare those bureaucrats in Brussels propose such a thing? Unsurprisingly the whole...
UK online politics seems to be in a period of transition this summer, and it’s not (yet?) due to the News of the World fallout. It is instead because of the launch of two new large scale blogs – Huffington Post UK, and Dale & Co. The reputation of Huffington...
“Earlier this week, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier prompted stinging headlines in UK broadsheets for his comments about agencies such as Moody’s that have downgraded their ratings on Irish, Portuguese and Greek sovereign debt. “EU attacked for plan to gag rating agencies” screamed the Indy, while The...
The whole Wikileaks saga has left me torn and confused. My automatic reaction is to welcome the leaks, to welcome the fact that we know much more now about how the wool has been pulled over our eyes as citizens about matters ranging from the hopelessness of the war in...
“As Glenis Willmott rightly points out on Labourlist today the European Parliament elections should be the short term priority for Labour. With the Tories set to leave the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament it’s vital that Cameron’s right wing lunatic pals are brought to the attention of the British...