Due to hating the party system, today I shall take great pleasure in not voting based on the colour of the rosettes - not least because the Lib Dems have inexplicably adopted UKIP’s colour scheme of yellow and purple, making things both aesthetically repulsive and slightly confusing - but on individual candidates’ policies, personalities and potential.

This entertainingly means that I will end up voting for the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems all on the same day.

Huzzah for elections where I get four votes! (Boo, however, for party list systems, which means my fourth vote is going to be very difficult to allocate - hence not having voted yet… I may even say sod it and go for the Greens, just so I can vote for four parties at once…)

In other news: Congrats to the BBC’s Alan Little, who won last night’s UACES-Reuters Reporting Europe Award, like wot I was up for. I ended up with a shiny award anyway, though, with a Jury’s Commendation, which was nice. I can also report that Reuters lay on very drinkable wine, and that Mark Mardell makes for good company at the dinner table. Ta to all involved, etc.

Edit: Oh, and sorry for the lack of posts recently. Still very busy - but there’s still a rather fun discussion going on in the comments to that democratic deficit post, though. One to which I will return soon. I hope.

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Busy, sorry - in the meantime, why not check out last year’s St George’s Day post (still all nice and relevant and stuff, just like George himself), as the self-same moron that inspired that one left a comment yesterday to the same effect. (It seems that I’ve become part of his St George’s Day tradition - bless!)

Also have a gander at the comments to that democratic deficit post - some interesting stuff’s appeared there, albeit along with a number of fresh points being missed on both sides (why is it that in discussions about the EU everyone always seems to misunderstand each other all the time?) so it looks like I will have to return to that soon to explain myself at more length.

Bugger…

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• The Lisbon Treaty - 6 questions
  “My confusion exists on a whole bunch of levels. So bear with me as I try to disentangle them and lay them before you in a discrete manner, as opposed to the Escher-designed gordian knot made entirely of pan-dimensional moebius strips in which they curren
  (tags: EU Ireland)
• Interesting interview with a pro-multi-tier Barroso
  Spun to make it sound nasty and capture attention from the Eurosceptics whose eyes are now all on Ireland (”Irish veto could be ignored!” etc.), but it’s more interesting for confirmation that the EU is heading towards a multi-speed system
  (tags: EU Ireland)
• Cherie Blair’s firm hired to stop EU treaty
  Yawn… Maybe I should hire a lawyer to take the government to court for not implementing any number of other manifesto pledges? A pointless waste of time with no chance of success. Why do rich people waste taxpayers money on such things?
  (tags: EU Euroscepticism)
• Putin’s affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter: the newspaper that broke the story is shut down
  Well THERE’s a surprise.
  (tags: Russia)
• Brown deal bars Blair from top EU job
  Ah! Petty personal rivalries between grown men! Don’t you just love ‘em?
  (tags: Britain EU)
• Breaking the grip of Gazprom
  Nicely balanced, short and snappy overview of the single biggest challenge currently facing the European Union - Russia’s ever-growing dominance of European gas supplies. Read. Now.
  (tags: Russia EU energy)
• Serbia’s Tadic says he would choose Kosovo over EU membership
  Why are people such idiots? A tiny region with no economic worth vs. access to one of the world’s most successful markets. Can someone please explain?
  (tags: Serbia Kosovo idiocy)

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It’s official:

The Met Office’s Sarah Holland said: “Basically, over the last few days, we’ve had fresh, strong winds from an easterly direction. As a result some of our air is coming from continental Europe.”

…Helen Chivers of the Met Office said the origin of the smell had been narrowed down to the area of Europe roughly bordered by Holland, Germany and Belgium.

Ah, centuries of English xenophobia confirmed through one slightly pongy morning. London smells of manure? It’s those smelly Johnny Foreigners over the Channel! they never wash, you know. They sleep with their livestock, and use manure as perfume. And look like monkeys.

I shall be writing to my MP demanding that we leave the EU forthwith.

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• Coolest thing ever
  Not least because one of the engineers has the gloriously Pynchonian name Wayco Scroggin… (Yes US army prototype-Gundam robosuits have nothing to do with the EU, but I want one.)
  (tags: Random)
• EU parliament under fire for lack of transparency
  “If the two largest political groups oppose enhanced transparency arrangements it must be because they have something to hide”. Nice one, MEPs. Way to inspire confidence.
  (tags: EU)
• National positions on EU budget reform
  It’s up there with the CAP (largely because of the CAP) as one of the most difficult areas of the EU to reform, so what’s the current thinking on the way forward, and is there any chance of agreement?
  (tags: EU)
• Council of Europe Declares Unlimited Abortion an Unconditional Right for all of Europe
  At least, so claims an anti-abortion Christian group. Doubtless not quite that simple - but would be an important and overdue step in the right direction, towards overturning the outmoded dominance of medievalist Catholic doctrine
  (tags: Religion Civil_Liberties)
• Russia Expands Support for Breakaway Regions in Georgia
  Ah.. The Kosovo precedent! Looks like politics is being played in the Caucasus with South Ossetia and Abkhazia gaining support from Moscow - but Russian eyes are firmly on the Balkans and the planned new gas pipeline through Serbia
  (tags: Russia Georgia Serbia Kosovo Energy)
• How Will Berlusconi’s Return Affect EU, NATO, Trans-Atlantic Relations?
  Is Silvio planning to cozy up to Russia? It rather looks like it, what with Putin being the first foreign leader Berlusconi’s meeting with (today) since regaining the office of Prime Minister. A potentially very interesting development…
  (tags: Italy Russia)

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• Irish MEP assaulted after Lisbon Treaty meeting
  It seems tempers are starting to flare in Ireland ahead of their referendum on the treaty. It seems I should look westwards for a change - especially as I’ve got a book review to do on the thing for the TLS by the end of the month…
  (tags: Ireland EU)
• Welcome to Berlusconi’s Italy
  “Let’s set up camps for jobless foreigners. You know, to concentrate them in one place so we can keep tabs on them. What would be a snappy name for such camps for concentration, I wonder?”
  (tags: Italy)
• And so the Barroso Commission starts to disband
  Yep - Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, former Italian Foreign Minister during Berlusconi’s last government, looks set to head home as the Commission enters its final 18 months and they all start giving up on the thing.
  (tags: Italy EU)
• An appeal to slow down on biofuel
  I neither know nor care much about this, but it does strike me as silly to be burning food and encouraging deforestation in an effort to save the environment.
  (tags: EU environment)
• Even pro-EU federalists hate the CAP
  You know why? Because it’s the single most God-awful, indefensible part of the European Union, with so few redeeming features as to make it worthy of little beyond wholesale abolition.
  (tags: EU CAP)
• Russia: The New And Improved Single-Party State
  “Unified Russia is more than just a ruling party. It is the single reservoir of the country’s political, business, and bureaucratic elite.”
  (tags: Russia)
• More on the official confirmation of Putin’s new job, yesterday
  “Putin, 55, is set to become Russia’s most powerful prime minister ever, undercutting the presidency three weeks before he hands over”
  (tags: Russia)
• Deal to ease EU reliance on Russian gas
  Ah - now this is a promising first step. Even if it does mean having to rely on Turkmenistan. And even if we don’t yet have the pipelines to get the gas to us…
  (tags: EU energy Central_Asia)

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