100 posts
We can expect Salmond’s apology soon, right?
A few weeks ago the SNP attacked Tom Harris over the creation of a “Downfall” parody that mocked Alex Salmond and senior Nat Joan McAlpine. He was later forced to resign. At the time I said that the reaction to Harris’s video had be...
Eurozone’s Problem Isn’t Greece or Italy: It’s Germany
Article by Geroge Friedman, published on Firstpost.com, 6 February 2012 The German government proposed last fortnight that a European commissioner be appointed to supplant the Greek government. While phrasing the German proposal this way might seem e...
Claude Gueant is an arse hole but its ok in May he will have no power
Claude Gueant on the left and the runt on the rightClaude Gueant is an arse hole but as his boss Nicolas Sarkozy will not be president of Francein May we dont have toi worry about his courting the far right in an attempt to woe the ignorant follower...
German official ‘simply doesn’t understand’ rest of world
Gideon Rachman of the FT has great run-down of his recent conversations with German officials and diplomats. There is considerable impatience with the Davos-led, Lagarde-Cameron-Geithner line that Germany has to throw more money at the problem, by bu...
Your Scotland, Your Referendum
On 25th January 2012, First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond presented the Scottish parliament's consultation document for a referendum on Scottish independence. The document, called Your Scotland Your Referendum, describes itself as “an important...
The readers' editor on… a story of prejudice that hit a raw nerve in Hungary
Our report on discrimination against Roma families caused a furore, but none of the complaints I received addressed any points of fact in the articleFor a newspaper, there are few more difficult subjects to tackle than race. When a story itself revol...
What if…Ireland had joined the Allies in World War ll?
They buried Eamonn De Valera on the 1st October 1943, nearly two weeks after the car crash on the Rock road, Blackrock, which had claimed the life of both the Taoiseach and his Garda driver. Given his iconic status in the political pantheon of the Fr...
Taxing times for Sarkozy
France's planned introduction of a "Tobin tax" has broken a practical taboo, but will it help or hamper economic growth, asks Jason Walsh. Speaking on television on Sunday night, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to introduce...
An Occasional Guide to Irish Life: The Affair.
It wasn’t like they had planned it. He was single, out of a messy relationship. She was married with two young kids and a husband who was not by any accounts a bad guy. It just happened. They met at a work related social event, and their eyes,...
Danish minister: Green growth without prophesying
By Timothy Spence Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken has an ambitious agenda for her country's EU presidency, in...
Greece will not exit the Euro - Groundless threats and speculation
Greece will never exit the euro nor will it ever be forced out. Image source: Herald Sun The negotiations between Greece and its private creditors for the restructuring of the sovereign debt are continuing and are expected to be successful within th...
If you're going to quote Shakespeare, make sure you get the right one | Observer editorial
François Hollande got a little confused between two ShakespearesBe not afear'd. For those of us whose competitive spirit will ignite, and probably expire, in a tussle over the TV remote from the comfort of an armchair, it's a relief to read that the...
If the left wins in France, a critical battle of ideologies must surely follow | Jonathan Fenby
Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande's high-spending manifesto could rock the rest of EuropeThree decades after its greatest postwar political triumph, the French left is shaping up for an epic battle with the economic orthodoxy that h...
The Troika letter strangling Greece
FROM THE RADICAL PRESS / IL MANIFESTO The Troika is demanding two huge privatisations immediately, massive sackings in the public sector, enormous employment ‘flexibility’ in the private sector, a new cut to pensions and wages and ano...
German proposal for Greece’s compliance: accelerating eurozone exit
At the top of my list of to do’s for the past few weeks has been to update the post on Greek PSI that I wrote just before Christmas to include some more recent developments, such as the prospect of ECB participation. Last night, Peter Spiegel from...
The Danish Crown Prince and Princess come to the EESC
This evening, in what has been something of a royal week, we were delighted to welcome the Danish Crown Prince and Princess to the European Economic and Social Committee. They are instinctively shy of the limelight and their aides had insisted on a...
All Rousseau’s Fault !
On Rousseau, Sarkozy and the People – read more in l’Humanité...
David Cameron stands firm on Gibraltar’s right to self determination during speech before the Council of Europe
British Prime Minister David Cameron was in Strasbourg this week to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (note: entirely different to the EU) of which the UK has now assumed the presidency.Following his speech delivered on Wedn...
Romania's winter of discontent
The protestors aren't ready to go home yet...
France’s Left Front on the Presidential campaign trail
L’Humanite newspaper on a workplace meeting demonstrating the deepening ties between the radical Left Front and the French labour movement More...
More on Scotland and devo max
I propose the following basic elements in a new constructive policy on Scotland for the Labour Party: 1. Scottish independence, just as much as devo max, will (or would) require the collaboration of the Westminster government, with whom its terms and...
DPP issues warrants for arrest of millions of foreigners who wrecked Irish economy.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has issued millions of warrants for as yet unnamed non-Irish nationals in connection with the reckless borrowing of money and purchasing of property in Ireland which created the massive collapse in the Irish econom...
Farewell then Greece
The FT has an extraordinary leak of German plans for the future of Greece. Essentially if they come to pass we will no longer be able to describe Greece as a country. A nation yes, a culture most definitely, but a country. No longer.The strictures ar...
The French Cultural Exception Explained
It’s an exemption from the shackles of reason and truth-telling. It’s purpose is to fit whatever uninformed view of reality that you have – because there is simply no way you can’t be right.What’s all that about? You ask... An Elle blogger...
The multi-million euro gorilla
Leaked wiretaps implicate Slovakia's political elite in a bribery scandal...
Danish Presidency priorities: presented in EP Committees
The priorities of Denmark's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has been presented to European Parliament committees by Danish ministers this week. According to Trade and Investment Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr, the EU's international trade policy...
Spain’s jobless top five million, highest in nearly 17 years
Spain’s jobless queues stretched to over five million in the last quarter of 2011, underlining once again the failure of austerity policies in the country. The National Statistics Institute (INE) figures showed 5.3 million people were unemploye...
The Greece of Theo Angelopoulos | Costas Douzinas
Forget deficits, debt and corruption. Theo Angelopoulos, the film-maker who died this week, captured the true Greek soulThe sudden death of Theo Angelopoulos, the greatest Greek film-maker, while shooting his latest film on the current troubles, has...
Blogging from Davos – I meet Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe
On Wednesday I promised to keep you updated on my meeting today in Davos with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. As I expected, it was a very fruitful meeting. We discussed the developments regarding media freedom...
The Tories would be right not to underestimate Labour
Recently Tim Montgomerie launched a campaign to encourage Tories not to underestimate Labour. Despite our recent difficulties, he’s right to do so. At the last election we picked up just 29% of the vote and just weeks from election day it looke...
Belgium: Against blind Austerity, For an Alternative
Ahead of Belgium’s general strike on Monday, here’s some alternative ideas to austerity, courtesey of the main trade union confederation, FGTB Belgium is bracing for a general strike on Monday. It will be led by Belgium’s FGTB trade...
Even children are taught Salmond “Do you agree” question is biased
After Scrapbook parodied Alex Salmond’s leading referendum question on Wednesday, Left Foot Forward’s Alex Hern has put the academic smackdown on the SNP’s dodgy wording: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent...
Will a Remake of 2002 See a Le Pen Become One of the Two Winners in the First Round of France's Presidential Election?
April 22 is the first round of France's 2012 presidential elections, which will thus take place exactly 10 years to the day after the first round of the 2002 presidential elections put a Le Pen in the runoff for the second round, writes Le Monde's om...
The BBC's next director-general should be a Tory
I've been thinking about who should be the next director-general of the BBC, now that Mark Thompson has announced he'll step down after the Olympics, and one thing is clear: he or she should be a Tory. Not necessarily an "out" Tory – that would pla...
Morning Briefing: Polish Economic Data Watched for Slowdown
The region's first full-year 2011 data is due Friday via a first reading of Poland's gross domestic product.
"Viktor Orban’s David Act is a sad Joke" by Gabor Gyori
The government under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is seeking to frame the debate between itself and Hungary’s international partners, the EU and the IMF as the struggle between a valiant and...
Merkel is correct about Eurozone reforms – But which reforms?
The policies of Merkel do not align with her rhetoric. Image Source: Flickr In her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said among others the following (from euronews): Do we want coherence without ambit...
Poland Signs Copyright Treaty That Drew Protests
Poland signed an international copyright agreement that has sparked days of protests by Internet users who fear it will lead to online censorship.
Italians poorer, wealth gap widens
Poverty is on the increase among Italians and so is inequality of wealth, according to the Bank of Italy. Figures from the country’s central bank show that in 2010 14.4% of Italians were poor – defined as having an income lower than half...
Latest developments on media freedom in Hungary
I am on my way to the World Economic Forum in Davos where I will present my plans for setting up the European Cloud Partnership – but more on that in the coming days. I first wanted to share the latest news with you regarding the situation of media...
Never waste a good (media) crisis
OR How I learned to start reading every George, Nick’s and Harry’s blog and stopped worrying about the closure of …Continue reading »...
Polish Minister Telling Lies to Get ACTA Signed
Poland will sign ACTA despite massive protests, Global Voices Online reports, citing Polish Minister of Administration and Digitisation Michal Boni. Unfortunately, it appears that the Polish minister does not shy away from telling his citizens blatan...
Tusk Attacks his Base (and then some!)
Donald Tusk has managed to do something truly amazing. He has riled his own political base and brought them out onto the streets to demonstrate with his opponents. He has managed to cause such social anger over his decision to sign the Anti-Counterfe...
The Polish government stubbornly insists on ACTA
The Polish government stubbornly insists on ACTA. The Prime Minister has already tasted strong words during the football war, smart drugs war, etc., and he wants to play in a similar style in the case of ACTA. Each day brings a new embarrassment. Tod...
"Kanzleramtology" by Hans Kundnani
The euro crisis has made Germany so important that anyone interested in the future of Europe – or even in economies outside the eurozone like the UK – now has to spend a lot of time trying to...
Free Speech in Europe: Criminalizing Denials of Genocides
While the world continued to look on, as if an impotent rich man who cannot afford Viagra, as what could be called a genocide was taking place in Syria (i.e., the systemic killing of a group—in this case, of pro-democracy demonstrators), France’s...
Steelie Neelie takes on the Hungarians
Viktor Orban is in Brussels today on the second part of a charm offensive designed to cool tensions between Budapest and the European Union. Last week he flattered the European parliament by dropping in on its second home in Strasbourg …Contin...
anti France imagery after the genocide bill in Turkish twittersphere
homophobic, sexist, revanchist in principle…… View the story “anti France imagery after the genocide bill in Turkish twittersphere” on Storify Storified by Erkan Saka Tue, Jan 24 2012 08:27:29 · 101 views 30 anti...
Harsh
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg - whose country is currently grappling with whether to sign up to the euro fiscal pact - is not impressed by Greece's implementation of its EU-led austerity programme.This is what he reportendly told journalists i...
Turkey vs. France. They don’t look like allies anymore after the genocide bill as Turkey takes this as a feud…
Turkish rage at ‘Yes’ from French Senate from Hurriyet Daily News French senators debate a bill yesterday to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, despite a furious Turkey vowing to punish Paris with “permanent” sanctions if it is passed in...
Priorities to be presented to EP committees
Danish ministers present this week the priorities of Denmark's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers to European Parliament committees. Notably, economic and interior affairs minister Margrethe Vestager underlines the role of the European Parl...
Kanzleramtology
The euro crisis has made Germany so important that anyone interested in the future of Europe – or even of economies outside the eurozone like the UK – now has to spend a lot of time trying toRead more…...
Hackers Hit Polish Government Websites
Internet hackers attacked a number of Polish public-administration websites, including that of the prime minister, protesting against Poland’s plan to sign up for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which they said threatens to introduce onlin...
Constitutional change in Hungary: what can the EU do?
Sophie Duxson* & Greg Weeks** An earlier version of the below article appeared in the UK Constitutional Law blog on 17 January. On 18 January of this year, in the face of EU pressure, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán agreed … Continue...
