100 posts
Coalition Goverment says no to EU Anti-Trafficking Measures
As regular readers of my blog will be aware, I have written before about the EU’s new human trafficking directive and also ran a campaign against the Metropolitan Police Authorities proposed closure of their specialised unit dealing with...
From Paint It Black to Moses? UK public opinion on EU
Yesterday’s blog post, UK Eurobarometer score: Euromyths 68 - Trust 20, discussed the media climate and public opinion in the United Kingdom with regard to the European Union. The Eurobarometer findings are in line with what we have reported many t...
Spin, Damn Spin, and Statistics*
The latest Eurobarometer is out (PDF), charting the changes in public opinion in the EU (plus a few non-member states) over the last six months. (For some reason I imagine it delivered phone-directory-like, in a plastic coated bundle across Brussels...
Summer of euro-scares
What do eggs, flags, cornish pasties and nurses have in common? They are all stories we have been dealing with this summer that have to a greater or lesser extent been misrepresented in some quarters of the British press. At the same time we are clea...
UK Eurobarometer score: Euromyths 68 - Trust 20
About three months from the conclusion of the fieldwork, the first results of the regular Eurobarometer poll are out. Yesterday, many Twitter comments about the findings were like shells fired in an artillery battle between entrenched frontlines, but...
Population dense
Yet again, the Daily Mail runs a story about an increase in immigration rates. Yet again, they bring up the fact that England has a high population density. (Edit: The part about population has been split into its own article now.) I’ll leave i...
My MEP Prefers Folk of his own Blood
I KEEP going on about Daniel Hannan (I’ve written about him here and here) but I think the attention I’ve paid him is justified. The man is my MEP and represents me in the European parliament – I think I should … Continue rea...
EU does something involving motorists, Daily Express explodes
Perhaps I should just rename this blog “Lies the Daily Express tells every fucking day about the EU” and be done with it. “Now EU plans to make our roads pay as you go” they tell us today, which is a shame because you get unli...
Daniel Hannan’s quaint love of Europe
Languages other than English may be better suited, if you want to gain a deeper understanding of European integration, I argued yesterday. Daniel Hannan MEP, while professing a love for Europe, misses few opportunities to punish a good word about the...
Reading room: taxpayer fury, the Anglosphere and some Plato
Follow this simple recipe to stir up outrage in middle England. Start with an intro including the phrase ‘greedy eurocrats’. Add a generous helping of Nigel Farage. When he boils over, it’s time for the most important ingredient of...
Reading room: August 19th
A neat little graphic from the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Brussels blog. It shows per capita contributions to the EU by each member state. Luxembourg comes top of the list, Bulgaria bottom and the UK somewhere in the middle. It only charts...
This sceptred isle or Sallust? The British are Europeans – but unaware for how long?
In an earlier post we discussed the absence of a (modern) codified Constitution and the notion of citizenship (instead, subjects of the Crown) in the United Kingdom. Many of the sources, features and procedures of the British constitutional and polit...
Tory-led UK coalition fails to ruffle EU feathers 100 days in
"Total and abject surrender" are the words Nigel Farage uses to describe the EU policy of the UK's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government...
Daily Express: Brussels attacks MOTs!
Yet another invented myth from the europhobic British media! This time its the MOT which is supposedly under threat from the Brussels bureaucratic monster. Not a word of it true. See: Express EU scare story is bullshit shocker « Atomic Spin.
UKIP Leader Quits
As they say, all good things come to and end. Today Lord Pearson of Rannoch, leader of UKIP, has announced his resignation. This is perhaps the first politically competent thing he has done since becoming leader less than a year ago in November 20...
Lord Pearson stands down as UKIP leader
A formal statement has gone out from both the Party Chairman and Lord Pearson himself,Paul Nuttall,It has been announced today that Lord Pearson of Rannoch is to stand down as Leader of the UK Independence Party.The Party would like to thank Lord Pea...
UK versus USA and EU: Oceans apart on fundamental rights
After yesterday’s blog posts on a new pocket-sized version of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and basic information about the Council of Europe and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, it is time to turn to the odd man out among civ...
Express EU scare story is bullshit shocker
NOW the Express warns readers “Now Brussels wants MOTs every two years“. ANNUAL MOTs for cars could be scrapped under Brussels-led proposals to harmonise safety checks across Europe. Bureaucrats want Britain to adopt a system in which MOT...
Charlemagne Lives!
DESPITE SWAPPING the title of “Charlemagne” for the more obscure “Bagehot,” The Economist‘s David Rennie is still worth reading if you follow European politics. Many of his posts still make extensive reference to Brussel...
Blogging among the Euro-Taliban: Talking about the EU (Twitter tag #bkaeb)
It is like campaigning in Helmand province or other parts of Afghanistan with a heavy Taliban presence. There is still a considerable groundswell of traditionalist support for fundamentalist media “madrassa teachers” and insurgent political “wa...
The void
As many in British politics seek to marginalise Britain within the European Union supporting either outright or just partial Churchillian isolationism it has emerged over the past decade that supporters of the EU and British membership of it are ve...
The EU's WTD is a spectacular failure - what will the Coalition do about it?
We have looked extensively at the EU's draconian Working Time Directive in the past (see here, here, here, here, here, and here for example) warning that it just won't go away. It is back in the headlines again, after a new survey has highlighted th...
A transcript of a speech given by Prime Minister David Cameron in Ankara, Turkey, on 27 July 2010
Thank you, Mr President, and thank you for that very warm welcome. I can tell from your enthusiasm and the enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs that I met outside this incredible building that there is an enormous spirit of enterprise and entrepreneuri...
Coalition on Europe
It’s amazing what you find if you read everything in your inbox! An e-mail with the coalition’s reponse to comments on its programme has languished in there all day, and I just got round to reading it. Pretty interesting stuff! Of course...
Home sweet home
Those of you who religiously follow my Twitter feed will know that I spent last weekend on Greek island celebrating my younger brother’s wedding. Helluva long way to go for a weekend (+20hrs each way) but worth it. As for Greece, they’ve...
News just in
Home Secretary Theresa May has just announced to the House of Commons that the UK has decided to opt in to negotiations on the European Investigation Order (EIO). It will give foreign police forces the right to request UK police to seek and share evi...
There’s Nothing Right About Daniel Hannan
DANIEL HANNAN, YOU ARSE! DON’T GET me wrong, Hannan’s probably a thoroughly decent chap in real life… but he can be infuriating in blog form. Today’s post, for example, bangs on about how the far-Right, sorry, racist British N...
TaxPayers Alliance slips up again
A recent posting on the Your Freedom website shows that self-styled public spending watchdog TaxPayers’ Alliance is in fact less interested in getting value for money from the public purse than it is in opposing the EU. The Your Freedom website...
Britain has spent 50 years hunting in vain for its role. Change the question | Timothy Garton Ash
As global power shifts and public spending is slashed, we do need to debate our foreign policy – but on the right termsFoxhunting may have been curbed, but some Brits are back at another of their traditional pastimes: role-hunting. It's nearly 50 y...
Further EU Action against Trafficking
A new EU Directive on human trafficking will oblige the UK to prosecute British nationals who have committed trafficking crimes in another country. The legislation allows for a higher standard of assistance to victims, including free legal...
The unbearable lightness of being… a British tabloid paper
It is of course no secret that the tabloid press in the UK applies a very relaxed definition of the word truth. But that fact is taken to another level when it comes to their reporting of the EU and one of the free London morning papers offered me a...
A History Lesson for Mr Hannan
EUROSCEPTIC BRITISH Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan fancies himself something of a classicist. Mr Hannan is well-known for ending his speeches with the words Pactio Olisipiensis Censenda Est (“the Lisbon Treaty must be put to the vote”). T...
“More Trouble for Tory Euro Grouping as Kirkhope Launches Takeover Bid” says Iain Dale
I have never before reprinted one of Iain Dale’s posts in its entirety. However, this story is so good, I thought you may like to see it here. “EXCLUSIVE: More Trouble for Tory Euro Grouping as Kirkhope Launches Takeover Bid Iain Dale...
Best anti-EU comment ever?
More egg nonsense, I’m afraid, but this was too good not to share. From the comments to inexplicably popular UK political blogger Iain Dale’s “you couldn’t make it up” post about the made-up story about the EU banning th...
The Brussels Lost Generation
There’s something striking about the British Foreign Secretary’s speech today. While the idea that this is one of a series of “repositioning” speeches is interesting, and the wider world politics are interesting, for EU geek...
The Food Standards Agency responds over their EU banning selling eggs by number quote
Following the nonsense over the EU banning selling eggs by number, many have seized on the anonymous Food Standards Agency spokeswoman quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying “This proposal would disallow selling by numbers. Retailers would not...
Who is in charge?
Yes I know, we will get a referendum if a new Treaty hands over extra powers to Brussels, yes yes.But what if more powers are handed over to Brussels without the need fort a new Treaty? What if enough power was handed over to Brussels by the Lisbon T...
On increasing the number of MEPs
The European Parliament is getting bigger – 18 new MEPs joining (thanks to the Lisbon Treaty), taking the total to 754. Cue the predictable outrage from the usual suspects about the “cost” of these new MEPs, rent-a-quote eurosceptic...
What a Difference a Day Makes
When I served as a young diplomat in Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, there was a local Amharic phrase (shum shir) which encompassed what disillusioned Ethiopians saw as the musical chairs of their political system: there were different bums on different...
Euroscepticism at its saddest.
This from Tory website ConservativeHome. I don’t want to use the word pathetic, because I don’t mean to offend either the writer or the site, both of which I usually enjoy, but Jesus, it’s pretty sad to regard something like this...
How to set the national budget
I was on the radio this morning discussing with eurosceptic Tory MP Bill Cash the proposal that there should be some kind of common discussion among the member state governments and the European Commission about the national budgets of the member sta...
UK Coalition Ministers face stringent pre-European Council behaviour rules
The UK new coalition government is taking Europe much more seriously than most political analysts would ever have dared predict: a secret note was leaked this morning, in which Downing street sets out extremely stringent rules of preparation and part...
Pipo briton
Pipo briton Happy B-day ? Ainsi cinq ans se sont déjà écoulés depuis le « non » français lors du référendum sur le Traité de Lisbonne. Pour Globaldashboard, ce &...
Daniel Hannan & Douglas Carswell: The Ainsley Hayes of Euroscepticism.
Some of the best episodes of the much missed “The West Wing” featured the delectable Emily Proctor as Ainsley Hayes, a smart and sassy Republican who was willing to challenge the liberal orthodoxies of the Bartlet White House without beco...
Low profile on Europe for UK coalition
Against the backdrop of a European economic crisis of monumental proportions, the creation of the UK’s coalition government must seem like “noises off” to other European theatre-goers. But at least the deal reached between Conservative leader D...
Queen's Speech confirms ruling UK Tory party's Eurosceptic intentions
As expected and as previously revealed by both Prime Minister David Cameron and his Foreign Secretary William Hague, the Conservative Party’s eurosceptic plans to make any future transfer of powers to the European Union subject to a full referendum...
Low profile on Europe for UK coalition
Against the backdrop of a European economic crisis of monumental proportions, the creation of the UK’s coalition government must seem like “noises off” to the rest of the European audience. But at least the deal reached between Conservative lea...
UK euro entry: Sour grapes?
The Liberal Democrats seem to have easily agreed to the demand by the Conservative Party to exclude the introduction of the euro currency, as stated in the coalition programme: We will ensure that Britain does not join or prepare to join the Euro in...
Improving EU economic governance: Impressive Herman Van Rompuy
Winston Churchill is said to have quipped that the Labour leader Clement Attlee was a man who had much to be modest about. At (s)election time British tabloids, which pray at the shrine of John Bull, were more derisory in their outpourings about the...
Eurozone governance: Cameron nixes treaty change
According to the BBC, UK prime minister David Cameron has politely told chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin that he wants to play a positive role in Europe and that a strong eurozone is in the UK’s own interest. However, Cameron excludes any treaty...
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...
Are the British press egging on a euro crash?
A bit, but mostly because they like a good crash...
UK Conservatives take a pragmatic tack toward the EU
Victory for the British Tories came with a price. Several of Cameron’s front bench candidates for ministerial positions learned this the hard way, when they were informed they missed out on a cabinet position, in order to make room for their Libera...
UK minister sees EU allies in CAP reform debate
The European Union's economic crisis will create allies for a British government seeking to streamline the bloc's farm policy in upcoming reform talks, the new UK agriculture minister said on Monday (17 May).
Are Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats really so Europhile? Are the Tories so Eurosceptic?
The British consensus on Europe that trumps party lines...
Cameron's "euro-realist" first moves
Brussels received some encouraging news from across the channel today when we learned newly-elected UK Prime Minister David Cameron has dropped Mark Francois, the fiery eurosceptic who served as his shadow Europe Minister in opposition, in favour of...
Scaring the horses
Is it possible that the EU's latest attempt to activate the Doctrine of Beneficial Crisis?Merkle and her friends have been using the economic crisis, particularly the parlous state of Greece to argue for a centralised Eropean Economic Government. One...
Euro roundup: British elections aftermath, Project Europe 2030, €500 bill,European financial stabilisation mechanism and more
Project Europe 2030: reflection and revival (part one), Kalypso Nicolaïdis from open Democracy News Analysis – by Kalypso Nicolaïdis It seems ironic that a report on the future of the European Union – Project Europe 2030: Challenges...
EU officials expect pragmatism on Europe from new British government
European leaders have congratulated Conservative Party leader David Cameron on taking office as British prime minister, saying they don't fear a more euroskeptic course from the new leadership. READ MORE...
Those individualist, market-minded English
No wonder they have trouble fitting into the EU...
Con/LibDem coalition: A new role for Britain in the EU?
Probably not. To get an idea what the new Conservative/ LibDem coalition is thinking about the EU you just have to read two short documents: Last week an interesting memo leaked from William Hague who is now the new British Foreign Secretary: The Tor...
UK coalition agreement on EU set out.
The Conservatives won the most seats in last week’s general election, but not enough to secure an overall Commons majority, resulting in a hung Parliament. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have formed a Coalition Government, the first in...
The Cameron government and the EU
OK, I was wrong – Prime Minister Cameron it is. I just hope I’m also wrong in my dread of our new Foreign Secretary, William Hague – the most strongly eurosceptic person ever to hold that position, the mastermind behind the Conserva...
Brussels holds breath as leaked Tory memo shows plan of attack
It’s safe to say that EU leaders have bigger things to worry about today than the UK general election. But a leaked memo about the Conservatives’ Europe strategy is likely causing extra heartburn throughout Brussels today. And it’s likely also...
Whoever forms the next British government may face a huge Euro-row
Britain says it owes nothing to the euro zone. How long will that be tolerated?
Brown, Cameron and Clegg clash over Europe
David Cameron came to Bristol to insist that too many powers have gone from Westminster to Brussels. His two opponents, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, were determined to portray the Conservatives as isolated in Europe and allied with "extremists&q...
Europe and the UK election
Europe matters hugely to a minority of voters but the majority rarely rate it as a decisive influence on how they vote. So far most of the main parties have been avoiding the issue. They do not see votes in...
A Tory return to the EPP?
Election time in the UK. The country exercises an almost hypnotic fascination over diplomats and officials in Brussels. And the prospect of a Conservative government sends all sorts of people into a tailspin. MEPs involved in the negotiations on the...
Charlemagne got it wrong
Get conservative British journalists to write about European Union matters and you can mostly count on a biased rant that disregards most of the relevant facts. The latest article in the Economist’s Charlemagne Blog is another great example of...
Tories’ marriage policy
Well if this is right, and it is the Telegraph, the policy is as expected, it’s not a support to marriage but a subsidy to not working. And it will be paid for by a tax on successful banks. What’s not to like? I’d say Lord Carey has...
Margins of error
The election of 2010 really came to life towards the end of the campaign, most observers noted as Labour closed the gap, ‘winning the campaign’. However it was said the whole month was a fascinating battle, with with each party winning on...
Vince gets it right
Businessmen on inflated salaries lecturing the rest of Britain on how to run the country are "utterly nauseating" and "being used" by the Conservative party, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, says today. via. No...
Go on, admit it: It would be very, very funny if First Past The Post F**ked over the Tories.
Bizarrely, going against their own stated values, the Tories really don’t like proportional representation. I have never understood their logic. After all, they have railed against the state being too powerful, and if there is one thing PR does...
Open Europe: the Eurosceptic group that controls British coverage of the EU
Shoot the messenger: the fault lies with lazy journalists...
With the marginalised Brits in Brussels
From Gideon Rachman’s blog When the euro was launched in 1999, the British were constantly being warned that if they refused to join the European single currency, they would eventually find themselves marginalised within the European Union. Th...
