URL: Latest posts
Making Europe work better - 3
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European Commission impact assessments look at the overall cost impact of proposals but not how those proposals are to be financed. Legislation in the environmental field, such as the Landfill Directive, often fails to include this assessment. So Ref...
Making Europe work better - 2
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European Commission impact assessments look at the overall impact across the EU but not the impact on individual EU Member States.So Reform 2 is to require the Commission to include in their impact assessment an assessment of whether or not a proposa...
Making Europe work better - 1
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There are many specific reforms which could make Europe work better. What they need is the political will to advance them. This mini-series will highlight some of the ways we can make Europe work better for Britain, starting with better impact a...
Gibraltar - A reminder of the desire to be British
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Good to see Channel 5 launching a six part series on Gibraltar, though the title is a bit misleading. Gibraltar is a mix of nationalities thrown together by history and not a haven for British expatriates. http://www.channel5.com/shows/gibraltar-brit...
Life and death at the Tudor court
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A fascinating and excellent BBC series, including reappraisals of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VII and an insight to the lives of different social classes in Elizabethan England.I particularly enjoyed the assessment of Thomas Cromwell - fixer and social...
My birthday wish - A kinder gentler Europe
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It's my birthday today - so no blogging except, to paraphrase the elder George Bush, to extend my wishes in the coming year for a "kinder gentler Europe".Necessary in view of the crises we face and the tensions which they have provoked.
Beyond a boundary (with apologies to CLR James)
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What do they know of cricketWho live beyond its reachThe ties that bound an empireThe skills of life to teach? What do they know of cricketWho never played the gameThe grit of resolutionThe power that knows no bounds?What do they know of cricket...
UKIP - Britain's protest party
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The United Kingdom Independence Party won 25% of the vote in the UK's county council elections two weeks ago. This level of vote share means that many voters, unhappy with how the EU now works, have listened to them and the motivation of these voters...
The Rhine at Bonn – Symbol of German democracy and the European Single Market
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The Rhine, where traffic moves in parallel by rail, road and water, felt like a symbol of the European Single Market on a warm early May weekend when a boat trip to see the “Rhine in Flames” festival ended in a spectacul...
The Netherlands – The return of the king
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Queen’s Day earlier this week in the Netherlands marked the occasion when the Netherlands crowned its first king for nearly 125 years. Queen’s Day will become King’s Day and may move to the new king’s actual birthday (27 April...
Croatia - On the brink of EU membership
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Just back from my fourth visit to Croatia in the last eighteen months. Rain for the first time in six visits and mist on the hills was very atmospheric before a ferocious storm.Croatia today is a different world from the Balkan wars of the 1990...
Signs from Paris of a new realism about Public-Private Partnerships
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Haven’t really spent much time in Paris for a long time. Had forgotten about how magnetic the Eiffel Tower is, how crowded the Champs Elysée and the Jardin des Tuileries can be on a warm weekend day and that walking is the best way...
Barcelona - A microcosm of Europe's challenges?
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Just back from a conference on regional policy priorities in the age of austerity in Barcelona. The underemphasised role of public procurement in promoting value for money was very much on the agenda, though - surprisingly, given the pressures on pub...
Ireland and NATO – Still beyond the Pale?
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Just back from a second visit this spring to the Republic of Ireland, including discussions with senior government officials of EU bailouts, the current politics of austerity (Croke Park II and what the Fianna Fail opposition might have done) and - w...
Leveson and press freedom - Time for a moment of reflection?
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In this European Reform blog I don’t usually comment on primarily UK issues.But current developments in the debate about media regulation (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823) for the background) have international resonances.And I have a...
Family illness and bereavement
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There will be a short interruption to my European Reform blog posting due to family illness and bereavement...
A Europe without borders - Can it survive? (Part 1)
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Thought-provoking piece from Roger Scruton recently about free movement of peoples within the EU, though written from a UK perspective and in the context of the opening of labour markets to Romanians and Bulgarians. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/...
David Cameron, Britain and the EU - What he said
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And here's what he actually did say... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/23/david-cameron-eu-speech-referendumA theme of "good for Europe/good for Britain", a positive and forward looking tone, raising issues such as competitiveness, lack o...
Britain and the EU - What David Cameron should say in Amsterdam on Friday
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“Europe is in a great crisis and period of change. It is time for all leaders in the EU to open their minds to new thinking and new solutions, and not to remain wedded to the ideas developed in a very different environment of the mid 20...
Britain and the EU - David Cameron's keynote speech
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David Cameron's coming speech on Britain and the EU really matters.You only have to look at what the different lobbies in the UK are saying to know that. And the influential centre-right web site Conservative Home have invited their visitors to sugge...
