Tag Archives: european parliament
An answer to the democratic deficit as Ireland votes
With Ireland going to the polls today in a referendum on the European fiscal pact, the debate on the future of the Euro continues to rage. On the one side is a considerable body of opinion that believes there will have … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
Child safety online is taken up by the European Parliament
The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), an international organisation who has been working for many years now on how to make the internet a safer place for children, organised a conference earlier in the week. Held in the European Parliament, I was pleased … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
What does the EU do for us?
I often wish we in Britain had a better understanding of the European Union and what it means to every single one of us. The one-sided view of the EU prevalent throughout British politics, the media and our general view … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
The House of Lords with 792 members is in urgent need of reform
It has always been a mystery to me how Britain can claim to be a modern, twentieth-century democracy and have its parliament’s second chamber chosen by prime ministerial patronage. The only other country with an appointed second chamber is Canada, … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
The British Chambers of Commerce call for tax breaks for firms to teach foreign languauges
The notorious British inability to speak foreign languages was brought into sharp relief yesterday by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). According to a poll they undertook at 8,000 firms, reported in the Daily Mail “very few [staff] can speak … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
The cost of MEP Questions to the European Commission and Council should be quantified
It is inevitable that the most respected parts of revered institutions occasionally get their knickers in a twist. This has most certainly been the case here in the European Parliament concerning MEPs’ questions to the European Commission and Council. For … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
Nigel Farage gets too much air time (continued)
There is obviously a risk of giving Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), rather more column inches on this blog than he deserves in the wider scheme of British and European politics. However, it is important to … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
Labour MEPs lambast European Parliament funding for the BNP
To their utter shame, the committee which oversees European Parliament business recently agreed that an alliance of seven European extreme right wing political parties (including the British BNP, the French Front National and Hungary’s Jobbik) would qualify for €289,266 of EU … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
Nigel Farage gets too much air time (continued)
As shown on this blog last week, UKIP’s performance in every British election in which they have fielded candidates other than those for the European Parliament has been woeful in the extreme. Yet their problem not only lack of electoral achievement. Prominent UKIP … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
Dutch PM Rutte refuses to explain racist website run by ultra-right coalition partner
The ultra-right hardline PVV Party, led by the notorious Geert Wilders, currently maintains an appalling racist website. The defining characteristic of the said website is a portal encouraging readers to complain about anti-social and perceived bad behaviour by immigrants to … Continue reading
Filed under Labour Party
