Latest posts
All good things must come to an end
Since June, I have no longer been a resident of the British Isles. And you can easily tell that from the frequency of posts The whole raison d’être of this blog was to comment on how the EU is portrayed in the UK; it now makes little sense f...
The World Cup and holidays
I will be heading off to tour Europe tomorrow so it’s officially holiday time for cosmetic uprise. I didn’t deliberately time it with the World Cup but it is rather convenient – even though now that England didn’t qualify an...
Conservatives in Europe – from bullies to brainiacs?
Being the EU evangelist I am, I often get asked whether why is the UK so difficult in the EU to which I’m quick to point out they actually aren’t. The UK has traditionally been one of the most vocal negotiators but also one of the best t...
An unusual pairing – Clegg and Hague tour Europe
I was surprised to read through my backlog of news to find out that Clegg and Hague are now touring European countries together, trying to show what the coalition government is all about. Obviously Clegg will have it easy. He speaks fluent German so...
Money, money, money
I decided to quote an ABBA song in the title as this post will once again be about the Eurovision. But now I’m asking whether Germany’s win will be a PR disaster for the event. As you might be aware of, Eurovision isn’t a cheap thin...
Middle East and the new kids on the block
So Israel attacked a convoy of aid ships and killed at least 18 people. Seems like an unproportioned measure to take. The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus calls the incident a fully-fledged public relations calamity for Israel. Th...
Minister for Europe – what does he actually do?
As bloggingportal’s daily update hit my mailbox today, it included a link to the UK’s new Europe Minister’s blog. Now, after reading what David Lidington been doing for the past two weeks you could be forgiven for thinking he doesn&...
Eurovision takeover – part 2
I hope you all will be watching tonight’s final and voting! And I promise, from next week on I’ll be back to my normal, non-Eurovision self. In the meanwhile, however, here’s a list of songs that should be on everyone’s playli...
Eurovision takeover
I’m a huge fan of Eurovision. Probably the biggest you’ll ever meet. So it makes sense that Eurovision will also take over this space (only for a week, I promise). I’ll thought I’d spread the love and include some of my favour...
No more powers to the EU – but was the EU asking any?
Cameron is making his rounds in Europe, assuring he won’t be a troublemaker but at the same time sending a message that UK won’t agree to giving anymore powers to Brussels. What I’m wondering, was the EU asking for any? Cameron can...
Europe Day – My Europe
As part of Bloggingportal.eu’s Europe Week, I was meaning to write about my vision for Europe. I wrote several versions over the past few hours. They were all crap. So I’ll just tell you my motto in life: don’t worry, everything alw...
EU – worth the trouble?
So here we are. Elections behind us, a hung parliament ahead of us. In this interim period, only awkward guesses as to what will happen next are to be expected. What better than to add to the confusion that is already out there. Conservatives won, Li...
The Irony
I’m currently writing a daily web digest of the General Election in Wales for Media Wales. So when I’m not doing work for uni, that’s what I’m up to. Focusing on the Welsh election debate has, however, meant that I have very l...
Election spillover
Some of you might remember a little project I did back in February, where I emailed all the MEPs to see who replies to a relatively broad question about the Lisbon Treaty and the European Parliament. Today, completely out of the blue, I received an e...
The headlines that should have been
Now I could do just a regular news round-up, but where’s the fun in that? So I present to you news complete with tabloidy headlines. Just because I can. “Is it a bird? Is it superman? No, it’s a plane!” (BBC, “Europe...
Ash, Iceland and the economy
I don’t know about you, but I’ve started to resent even the word ‘ash’. Aside from stranded passengers and the plight of the aviation industry, what this will however inevitably mean is a huge blow to the economy of Europe.
Liblab and leader’s debate
Aside from the ash cloud, the biggest piece of news today was the leader’s debate. For the first time in British history, leaders of the three biggest parties battled it out on-air. As a surprise twist, Nick Clegg of the liberal democrats seems...
The elephant in the room
I’m in the business of talking about the EU so naturally I look for any coverage of it and when there is none, I complain. My darling chum at the Economist, Charlemagne, is in the same business. He points out the same thing; in talking about an...
Election time!
Tomorrow will be the big day that Gordon Brown announces the election. Rumours have been flying around for quite some time and May 6th, the now almost-confirmed date, has been everyone’s first guess for months. What makes this rumour more credi...
EU and journalism
The journalist behind Charlemagne’s column and blog is a very naughty man. He’s entering my turf and doing it too well. The piece he wrote about how Open Europe’s press releases get directly spoon-fed to British journalists is marve...
