Category Archives: Elsewhere

EU referenda and reform

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A couple of new posts from me over at dLiberation:

Jens-Peter Bonde and EU referenda, looking at the reformist take of the leading EU-sceptic Member of the European Parliament

and

Giuliano Amato and democratic EU reform, giving a handy overview of the unusual approach of the Italian Interior Minister (and former Vice-President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, which drafted the controversial constitution)

Margot Wallström and citizen engagement

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A new post from me at dLiberation, reporting on Monday’s launch of the Tomorrow’s Europe deliberative poll.

You may also want to check out the introductory post by Professor James Fishkin, Director of the Deliberative Democracy Center at Stanford University, explaining the background to his development of Deliberative Polling as a workable technique, and the thinking behind it all.

Back from Brussels – and a new Nosemonkey blog

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The Grand Place, Brussels

A delightful time was had by all at last night’s launch debate/party for Tomorrow’s Europe in Brussels – except my feet, which got pounded by the picturesque Brussels cobbles (thanks to be being too cheap to get a taxi) and then soaked by the decidedly less picturesque Brussels rain (for the self-same reason).

An array of intriguing people also met, from high-profile politicos through to the chap behind tip-top French superblog Euros du Village, and in my absence the new project that took me to Belgium has gone live, so go have a look-see:

dLiberation – a Nosemonkey-edited look at deliberative democracy, EU participation, and the future of the European Union, brought to you by openDemocracy.

I’ve got two vaguely introductory posts up so far, which should give you an idea of what we’re hoping to achieve, with many more to follow – from me and a range of experts from academics to MEPs through a few choice Brussels bureaucrats, bloggers and more. Go have a gander:


Introduction to dLiberation

Cloudy skies over tomorrow’s Europe

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Fancy writing for the Washington Post / Newsweek?

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Well I just have (sort of), and you can too (sort of).

A couple of weeks ago I had an email from a chap from the Post who’s currently chugging around the world investigating how the world sees America, and whether there really is any truth to that anti-Americanism nonsense we’re always told exists (my take on that little business here, albeit from a couple of years back).

I ended up meeting him for a few beers as he happened to be in London at the time, and ended up suggesting that – as he’s reporting in blog format – it might be an idea to get a few guest bloggers from around the world to chuck in their two cents.

So here’s his call for entries (which may or may not receive some cash, depending on what the powers that be at the Post / Newsweek decide), along with my inaugural guest post – a (relatively simplistic, for Brits) little introduction to Gordon Brown’s likely attitude towards the US.

Go on, give it a bash – any aspect of your own country’s relationship with the US, how you personally feel about the land of the free, whether it really is the home of the brave, whatever. Hate Bush? Love Hollywood? Blame America for everything that’s bad in the world? Praise America for preventing the USSR from conquering the world? Write about it, send it off, and you can brag about being in one of America’s best newspapers (sort of).

Euroblog roundup 3

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Is up now at Siberian Light (ta Andy!) – loads of good stuff, from Moldovan web awards (yes, really) to the French elections.

Speaking of which, it’s the long-expected Sarko/Sego runoff (my prediction of an additional last-minute surge for Bayrou proving, one again, that political predictions are for poltroons). What happens next? Yet more invective and yet more guesswork, as the two candidates are bang on 50/50 in the polls at present, and the remaining votes are likewise split pretty evenly between left and right.

In other words, the second round of 6th May could go either way – and the next couple of weeks should prove very interesting indeed, not least the impact that Bayrou and his centrist supporters might have. His endorsement could, potentially, shift the entire thing. Or not. Because no one really knows what the hell’s going to happen – and Bayrou’s lot also have the parliamentary elections in June to think about, so can’t risk pissing too many people off…

Shameless movie-related self-promotion

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This week’s latest film news gubbins is up at the Pocket Films Blog, with news and reviews about the rather impressive Curse of the Golden Flower (plus its director Zhang Yimou and star Chow-Yun Fat), as well as a bunch more news and reviews on this week’s new releases – Shooter, Perfect Stranger and Wild Hogs – covering Mark Wahlberg, Bruce Willis, Halle Berry, John Travolta, William H Macy, Ray Liotta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence.

And if that’s not enough, my book on Tim Burton (with a foreword by the mighty Martin Landau and afterword by the decidedly talented Rick Heinrichs – both lovely chaps) is being reissued this summer, and is now available to pre-order on Amazon (at the very reasonable price of £6.59).

Ten (or so) bits of weekend reading

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1) A handy short explanation of why I’ve been writing about the EU constitution here a lot recently.

2) A new bilingual blog aggregator type thing from new(ish) French news channel France 24, designed to provide an insight into the increasingly fascinating French elections. Ignore the fact that they asked to republish some recent posts of mine (oddly dropping all the links in the process), it could be handy over the next couple of months.

3) The funniest news story of the week – Slobbo the Vampire.

4) A triple bill from the Economist: Europe is united only by its contradictions ; How much does the European Union really encourage competition? ; and a handy overview of the economies of Eastern Europe

5) Talking economics, an introduction to economics even I can understand

6) Talking things I don’t understand being helpfully explained, a guide to Finnish politics in three parts (one, two, three), with more on the aftermath of the recent elections (and, elsewhere, a similar analysis of the results of Estonia’s elections a week ago)

7) Newsweek on the future of Europe – “Europe, it seems, is increasingly split—not along class or racial lines, but between its young and its old” (counter with an hysterical and hyperbolic Christopher Hitchens reviewing a seemingly even more hysterical Mark Steyn – assuming you like a bit of borderline racist froth)

8) Speaking of highly contentious (generally) right-wing assertions, a review I’d missed on a book exploring “Europe’s anti-Americanism” (and another take)

9) Being a journalist in Russia is a dangerous game – so much so, the only way to cope is to laugh in despair. And two recent examples of dead Russian journalists…

10) Finally, evidence is increasingly beginning to build that Britain is not quite so separate from the rest of Europe as many would like to believe – thanks to the beauty of science, the evidence is apparently building that we may have more DNA in common with Basques than with Saxons…

Blog survey

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Some lass from the University of Hamburg has asked nicely, so here’s a link to her survey about continent-wide participation in “Euroblogs”, which apparently should only take about 15 minutes or so to fill out (I’m going to give it a bash in a mo). Go on – it’s for science. Or anthropology. Or sociology. Or politics. Or, considering the department that’s hosting the thing, social psychology. Might be interesting though, you never know…

I may have something more substantive later, but am feeling a bit meh… In terms of proper content, check out GlobaLab’s latest weekly roundup – they’re always rather good.