A difference of ideology I can tolerate. Even willful distortion from political opponents I have come to understand. But low quality journalism by those who should know better continues to really rankle. So I was hopping mad earlier today when reading this piece by Gary Younge in The Guardian, a […]
“The sleepy Luxembourg village of Schengen, the place where the European Union’s border-free zone bearing the village’s name was agreed in 1985, is a symbol of how joyous a borderless Europe can be. It is 1km from the centre of the village, across the bridge over the Mosel, to Germany, […]
When Blair was rumoured to want the job, the President of the European Council position was branded President of the EU by the British Press. Now Donald Tusk has been appointed to the position The Guardian went the other way, running a story on Saturday entitled “EU leaders pick new […]
Alan Rusbridger has this evening written a most extraordinary column on The Guardian’s website about the pressure exerted on the paper by British security services. We are now about 27 hours on from when the initial revelations about David Miranda’s detention first broke. So how, at 0030 CET / 2330 […]
“A very particular type of politician thrives in the House of Commons. One that can deal with the yah boo of prime minister’s questions, the everyday heckling and intimidation. It makes for amusing theatre, but probably not for good politics.” Read the whole piece at Guardian Comment
“Over the last week, many on the left have been crowing at the sight of the Tories going into self-destruct mode over Europe. Cameron has brought this upon himself, they say, playing up to the Eurosceptic gallery and surrounding himself with rightwingers for whom EU membership was the overriding reason […]
Martin Kettle has penned a piece in today’s Guardian entitled “Greece, Schengen, Nato – it’s time to admit the European dream is over“. It’s the latest in a series of pieces that are appearing a lot in the UK press at the moment – whatever the UK’s own headaches about […]
“You have to understand: you are the enemy.” Those were the words I heard uttered by a researcher in the European parliament to civil servants from the EU’s member states a couple of years ago. What – with aghast looks on their faces – did the researcher mean, the civil […]
“Black male headteachers in Britain’s state schools number just 30” is the startling headline on The Guardian’s website, and on the side of the front page of today’s printed paper. There are 127 female heads too, meaning that – in total – 0.7% of headteachers in the UK are black, […]
“The reactions to the election gains of Timo Soini’s True Finns (Perussuomalaiset) in Sunday’s general election in Finland have been full of earthquake metaphors. “A tremor hit the EU” is the way the BBC’s Gavin Hewitt describes it. If that is so, then this was only the latest in a […]
“Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle” screamed the headline of The Guardian’s online version this morning. The sub header was a more measured “Labour deputy leader to make inequality a key dividing line with the Conservatives“. One of the quotes from Harman’s speech about the issue is: […]
Over the last 48 hours there has been much searching for the root of the problems Eurostar has been facing. There has been plenty of human incompetence for sure, but at the start the trains were at fault. I’ve consistently been tweeting that the problems are not unprecedented and have […]