You might have heard about the dominoes that will be toppled this evening in Berlin, which have been painted by schools. You may NOT know that one of them is from a UK school, Chosen Hill in Gloucestershire, and photos are showing that their domino is right by the Brandenburg Gate. If you click here,Continue reading “Domino dancing”
Category Archives: Euonym
Sarkozy’s shower
There are various media reports today that EU taxpayers have paid £160m for the French Presidency, including £250,000 for a shower. EU presidencies are paid for by the country that runs them, with the exception of *some* of the costs of the summit(s) held in Brussels. So while I understand there has been considerable criticismContinue reading “Sarkozy’s shower”
Ben
Was at a great event last night – a debate between Science Minister Lord Drayson and Ben Goldacre, of Bad Science fame, at the Royal Institution. The Times Higher carried it as a webcast and it should be online for a while. It was great for several reasons: Firstly, it was about the quality ofContinue reading “Ben”
The Tweety Song
I’m a big fan of Twitter. As you’ll have seen from the feed alongside, while I wasn’t writing the blog very often, I was still Tweeting. There’s been a lot of introspection about it recently, with blogposts like this one. My gut feeling is that asking if the Commission should Twitter is as daft asContinue reading “The Tweety Song”
Beast of burden
There was a lot of nonsense in the EP election campaign about the EU being responsible for 80% of UK legislation, which I have already dealt with elsewhere on this blog. Even there, I suggested that if we were getting up into big numbers, it would only be in certain areas, such as business andContinue reading “Beast of burden”
Have you ever been away
Sorry about the extended silence, but it’s my mid-year resolution to write more often (until I go on holiday in 3 weeks time that is…) We start with the story doing the rounds on EU rules reducing your pensions, which started in the FT and then moved to the Express. This reminds me of theContinue reading “Have you ever been away”
Statement of European Commission and Czech Presidency on WHO pandemic alert
Today the WHO raised the pandemic alert for Influenza AH1N1 from phase 5 to phase 6. This reflects the application of the agreed WHO definition of phase 6. It only covers the epidemiological distribution and pattern of spread but not the severity of clinical symptoms. To date, the influenza AH1N1 virus has presented mild toContinue reading “Statement of European Commission and Czech Presidency on WHO pandemic alert”
Lazy
It’s perhaps a little lazy on my part, but here are links to a few interesting articles from the weekend, as we head into election week: The Independent on why next week’s elections should be about Europe and not MPs’ expenses Peter Preston in the Guardian gets all futuristic about a referendum on the LisbonContinue reading “Lazy”
Economist on Cameron on the EU
Interesting piece this week from Charlemagne in the Economist. Just shows how difficult it is to get a reasoned discussion on these issues, when basic facts (like, the British people have a direct stake in EU institutions) are ignored.
Relight my fire
If you hear/read somewhere that the EU is contemplating a ban on barbecues, please don’t believe it. The Commission is not planning a ban on barbecues, we’re not going to propose bringing them within carbon emissions trading, and we’re not suggesting Member States instigate a barbecue tax. If an individual member state wanted to, thatContinue reading “Relight my fire”