EU politics: what is the point? Richard North, 28/01/2013 Follow @eureferendum Thorbjørn Jagland, former prime minister of Norway, is the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee – which recently awarded of the prize to the EU. He is also the Secretary General for...
EU politics: the irrelevance of the EU
We can add to that number Wolfgang Münchau, the doyen's doyen who, today in the Financial Times, adds to the sum of human ignorance by declaring that, "If you are outside the EU, but inside the EEA, you have no vote on single-market policies. Norway and Iceland have...
EU politics: a picture of ignorance
From the same wellspring as Mr Cameron telling us that we have to be in the EU to be part of the Single Market, we now have Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, telling us that we've got to be in the EU to "win" EU science funding.Notwithstanding the fact...
Fisheries policy: Mackerel Wars – part II
Continuing on from Part I, where we wrote of the complexities of the dispute that has been dubbed the "Mackerel Wars", we find a muddled piece in today's Observer which demonstrates the difficulty in getting to grips with this subject.What is marginally helpful,...
Fisheries policy: Mackerel Wars – part I
An illustration of just how complicated international relations can become is emerging in real time, as a long-standing dispute over North-east Atlantic mackerel (NEAM) stocks comes to a head, with British ministers meeting fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki...
Booker: in Europe and “ruled” by Geneva
It is an unfortunate headline for the Booker column this week, as it could never be said that we are "ruled" from Geneva in the same way that we are ruled from Brussels.However insidious "global governance" might be, it is largely undertaken on an intergovernmental...
Climate change: more global warning
Climate change: more global warning Richard North, 26/01/2013 Follow @eureferendum A little jaunt round the neighbourhood, after a wild night. No sign of that rain, and while we saw some thawing, it's getting crunchy as darkness falls. As a pedestrian, you are...
EU referendum: crucially different from 1975
If we take Mr Cameron's Wednesday speech as "Day One" of a four-year referendum campaign, then we are now on day four. And already the legacy media are running out of steam, finding it hard to offer anything of very great interest or originality.That is not to say...
EU politics: seriously serious
We've had seriously serious global warming here, coming in near horizontal at times, dumping about four inches in just a few hours after tea time yesterday (pictured above), keeping on into the wee small hours of this morning to about a foot overall. We haven't had it...
EU politics: Article 50
This, of course, only relates to the times when discussions on the negotiations are being held. Otherwise, UK representation continues unchanged, with voting powers unchanged.To understand Article 50 properly, though, we must go to Altiero Spinelli, father of the...
