June 2014

Monthly Archives

  • Photo by Leila via Wikimedia Commons

    Why I won’t vote for Sajj Karim

    Ahead of tomorrow’s vote in the European Parliament to elect its new president (speaker), Sajjad Karim MEP, the Conservative candidate, is asking for support from MEPs from other parties. I have also been getting emails from Conservatives in Yorkshire asking me to support him. I have respect for him as an individual MEP. He fights his […]

  • Photo by Sebastian Zwez courtesy of Munich Security Conference

    Observer interview

    I was quoted today in The Observer: Richard Corbett, elected in May as a Labour MEP after being an adviser to Herman van Rompuy, the president of the European council, said Cameron had set too much store by Merkel as an ally, believing that if he had her on side he was home and dry. “He […]

  • Courtesy of E!Sharp

    Observing the media scene

    Before taking my seat next week in the European Parliament, I was yesterday in the press room at the European Council meeting in Brussels on behalf of E!Sharp magazine, a respected journal on European affairs. It’s always instructive to witness how the media scene operates at such ‘summits’. Apart from the BBC, which has its own […]

  • Photo by Zinneke from Wikimedia Commons

    Will British media fall for Cameron’s spin?

    Downing Street spin doctors have always had an easy time creating their own version of what happens at European summits. A combination of lobby journalists with little understanding of the EU, some compliant allies in the press, and not wanting facts to get in the way of a good story, usually combine to ensure that a […]

  • via Wikimedia Commons

    Never again

    This week is the hundredth anniversary of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Vienna which triggered the start of the First World War. Two highly symbolic events to mark it stand out: one by governments in Ypres and one by civil society organisations in Sarajevo. Herman van Rompuy’s initiative to convene the heads of state […]

  • Recruiting staff

    I was delighted, if slightly overwhelmed, to receive more than 200 applications for the posts I advertised to work in my parliamentary and constituency offices. Because I knew some of the applicants, and not wanting this to bias the process, I established a set of criteria for scoring the initial applications. The actual evaluations on […]

  • Photo courtesy of the White House

    Cameron’s serial miscalculations

    The current spat over choosing the next president of the European Commission is not the first time that David Cameron has picked the wrong battle to fight on Europe — and in the process damaged Britain’s influence and his own. Worse still, these serial miscalculations are a frightening foreshadowing of how things are likely to go if […]

  • courtesy EPP via Wikimedia

    Juncker for Europe?

    Some people have expressed surprise about Labour’s reluctance to endorse Juncker as the new president of the European Commission, not least given my criticisms of how Cameron has handled the issue. But Labour MEPs are hardly likely to rush to support the candidate of the centre-right. The candidate of Merkel, Rajoy and other conservative Prime […]

  • via Wikimedia

    World Cup woes

    As excitement builds for the 2014 World Cup that’s starting in a few days, it’s a real shame that the preparations have been marred by increasing rumours that something went seriously amiss in the process for awarding the 2022 tournament to Qatar. If it turns out the vote, or preparations for it, were fraudulent, of […]

  • Cameron & Juncker

    Cameron and Juncker

    Is Cameron yet again picking the wrong battle to fight in Europe? The Commission President is important, but at the end of the day the Commission only proposes new EU rules — it doesn’t decide on them, or shape the general direction of the union. Given that there appears to be a qualified majority among […]

  • Photo courtesy of the European Parliament

    This is not neutrality

    The BBC is supposed to be unbiased. But its patently biased coverage of the European and local elections of May this year was more like Fox News. It gave a huge and undeserved boost to Nigel Farage, providing a prominent figurehead and rallying-point for his supporters, extending his apparent credibility way beyond what it deserved, and constantly providing […]