Category Archives: Nosemonkey News

A brief explanation of absence and (re)statement of principles

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I’ve come to a conclusion over the last couple of weeks. It’s something I’ve known for a while, but never quite expressed so succinctly as I’m about to:

I’m interested in politics, but I don’t CARE about politics.

Unlike most political bloggers (at least, it seems like this much of the time), politics is not my life. There are countless things that I’m more interested in and that I actually care about. Film, art, literature, history, beer, whisky. I could have started a blog on any of these, but I happened to pick EU politics because it would present a challenge. An academic challenge.

Yes, I’ve had political jobs in both Westminster and Brussels. Yes, I think the EU is more good than bad, and that European political/economic integration is a nice idea.

But if the EU were to end tomorrow, would I care? No.

If I were to be allowed no more beer, whisky, history books or films from tomorrow, however? Damn straight – I’d be distraught.

The longer, rather more coherently-argued version of this summary of my political outlook, for those who missed it a couple of years back, can be found here. It all still applies (bar parts of point 8, written before the current recession), and it remains the most coherent statement of my political outlook I’ve come up with. If you haven’t, I’d urge you to have a read.

And no, this isn’t an “I’m quitting blogging” post, in case you were wondering – I’ve done several of those before. It’s just that this blog’s approaching its 6th anniversary, and I’m starting to think about priorities and possible changes of direction again.

With so many new EU blogs recently arisen, the need for me to comment on everything (not that I ever did) is diminishing rapidly – if there was ever a need in the first place. With the EU entering a pre-election period in which party politics is set to dominate (something in which I have no interest), the question is where to direct my limited time, effort and interest to put it to its best use.

Suggestions welcome.

I’m off for a couple of weeks

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I picked a bad time to be insanely busy, what with the traffic leap brought by the Weblog Awards shortlisting coinciding with the latest round in the Russia/Ukraine gas dispute (something I’ve been keeping an eye on for a few years now), a rumpus over a silly bit of “art”, and now the uproar over the EU’s ban on (some) pesticides (which according to many hysterical parts of the British eurosceptic press is as good as a death warrant for the carrot, giving them another handy load of fruit’n'veg-based nonsense to go on about now that the straight bananas and curvy cucumbers myth’s finally been killed off).

And now I’m buggering off to Japan for two weeks (a trip that will see the number of times I’ve been to Tokyo overtake the number of times I’ve been to Paris, which doesn’t seem right at all).

While I’m gone, the EUtopia Netvibes Universe and EU Blog Directory should keep you entertained – and I’m planning a long-overdue update of these when I get back, so please leave any suggestions for new entries in the comments. I’ve spotted quite a few new EU-centred blogs since the start of the year, but have probably forgotten to take a note of most of them – and there’s about to be a bunch of new ones on the scene courtesy of the Think About It EU blogging competition.

Oh, and after an absence of a few years, it looks like the UK’s got a new pro-Euro campaign. For reasons best known to themselves their report is only available as a (256 page, 4.5 meg) PDF at the moment, and their website is nothing more than a very basic WordPress job that looks like it was knocked up in 5 minutes, but the list of contributors includes some good names. Should be worth a read – I haven’t had the chance yet, but plan to have a look through on the plane. (If that doesn’t send me to sleep, nothing will…)

Back February. Keep an eye on things for me, eh?

Vote for me (if you like, that is…)

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The 2008 Weblog Awards

Update: Actually, scrap that. Vote for Created in Birmingham instead. Never heard of them before, but they seem to have the best chance of preventing mad borderline racist Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips from winning. Last year the Best UK category was taken by the barking Stalinist Commie Neil Clark (him of “Iraqis who work for the British deserve to be raped and tortured to death and so do their families”* fame) – let’s not have a repeat of the most idiotic maniacs ruling the roost. There’s enough of that on this here internet already, thanks very much.

While you’re there, check out the Best European Blog poll – where this place is arguably a better fit, and consider chucking a vote to Kosmopolito or Siberian Light. And then lend your support to uber-Euroblog A Fistful of Euros, inexplicably shortlisted in the Business Blog category.

Update 2: At the request of Mr Clark, this post has been amended. He claims not to be a Stalinist and asks me to provide evidence that he has ever said nice things about Uncle Joe. Not being of a McCarthyite mindset – and not having the inclination to read any more of his dross than is necessary – I’ll take him at his word, having merely referred to him as one having seen him described as such on numerous other blogs whose opinions I respect rather more than I do his.

* Mr Clark also seems incapable of grasping the concept of the satirical paraphrase, so to be clear, he has never written the statement “Iraqis who work for the British deserve to be raped and tortured to death and so do their families”. That was instead my own short summary of this horrifically callous and smug article that he wrote in August 2007, in which he strongly hinted that he felt that reprisals against Iraqi “quislings” (that is a direct quote) were justified, and stated explicitly that “The true heroes in Iraq are those who have resisted the invasion of their country” (another direct quote), thereby explicitly giving his support to bomb-throwing murderers of women and children along with those Iraqi nationalists who have used more traditional and less abhorrent methods of armed resistance to the occupying Coalition (and subsequently UN) forces.

It is perhaps worth noting that Mr Clark did not take exception to me calling him barking or referring to him as an idiotic maniac. I think we can now see why…

I’m a 2008 Weblog Awards finalist

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How exciting. Last time was 2005, when I did singularly poorly in the face of tough competition.

This time I’m up against the usual suspects of Dale and Guido (each with a daily readership that this blog would struggle to get in half a year, by their own accounts), mentalist lefty Neil Clark (who won last year by getting out the Socialist Workers/Respect/We hate Chimpy Bushitler vote), barking right-wing Islamophobic harridan Melanie Phillips, and a bunch of others I’m not familiar with, and which aren’t linked, making checking them out tricky.

In the Best European Blog (non UK) category, good to see Kosmopolito and Siberian Light get nods (though how is a Russia-focussed blog European, and how is it non-UK when the guy who runs it is London-based, like me?).

More details, no doubt, when the proper voting pages are up. And more posts from me at some point soon – it’s been a rather busy couple of weeks…

Can I sue Iain Dale?

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Being labelled a left-wing blogger in Iain Dale’s latest unscientific guide to the world of British blogging is one thing (though something I was not alone in thinking was somewhat odd – check the comments below that list). Sometimes I do go a bit lefty – just as sometimes I go a bit right-wing (mostly economically, but still). A casual reader could be forgiven for getting the wrong impression.

But I’ve just had a gander at the full version (warning – PDF) – and he’s got me down as a Labour blogger.

I’ve been doing this blogging business for long enough not to take these things too seriously, as – like busses – there’ll be another one along in a minute. (Only 155th best political blog in the UK according to that list? Meh – last month I was named blog of the month by the UK Good Web Guide, whatever that is. Best blog lists are ten a penny.)

But still. Me? A LABOUR blogger? That’s one insult too far.

I am not, nor ever have been, a member of ANY political party. Indeed, I hate the very concept of political parties. At the London elections back in May I voted for four different parties in the end, allocating those votes largely on the basis of the individual politicians concerned. That post, please note, has been (for reasons that escape me) in the “Most Popular Posts” section to the right there for the last couple of months. Anyone confused as to my political leanings could have found out in just a couple of seconds that I am not a party beast.

I rarely get too riled by online insults – but this isn’t just an insult, it’s a slander. A libel. I’ve long prided myself on my lack of party affiliation – to the extent that, on principle, I refused to join the party of the MP I worked for at the House of Commons. Especially in the current climate, with Labour ever more embarrassing in its ineptitude, I am not at all pleased.

Nosemonkey interviewed: On EU blogs and Russia

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Believe it or not, from time to time people actually ask me for my opinion on things, rather than me just spouting out unsolicited words into the electronic ether and hoping that someone may spot them and correct my mistakes.

As such, this evening I’ll be doing the talking head thing on the BBC World Service’s World Have Your Say, trying to come up with a coherent theory about Russia’s current plans and how the rest of the world should respond. (Likely argument? Russia’s being childish and throwing a tantrum, and there’s usually two responses to tantrums: smack them or ignore them. Unfortunately, neither option’s really possible in this case.) Any suggestions much appreciated.

Oh, and some content from this place may soon start appearing in syndicated form on the website of a new PBS world news show – about which more details when I have them. (Check me out – I’m a regular media whore…)

Meanwhile, last week the chap behind L’Europe en blogs got in touch to ask my take on all things Euroblog. The write-up can be found here and is, I believe, the first in a series of interviews they’re doing with leading EU bloggers. Below the fold is a longer version of my somewhat pessimistic take on the state of the EU blogosphere – a taster:

the EU continues to work largely unscrutinised by the public – because us bloggers ARE the public, and if we’re not doing it, who the hell is?

Continue reading →

Bit of travel advice needed…

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Hopefully some of my dear European readers may be able to help with this…

I’m going to a wedding being held just outside Lausanne in Switzerland on 14th September. Anyone got any experience of travelling there from London?

I’m trying to work out whether to go by plane or train, y’see, and can’t work out which will be most pleasant / cheapest. Lack of hassle is a major concern, plus I rather like the idea of watching the vineyards of Burgundy passing by from the comfort of a TGV. But is this overly practical? Hotel suggestions also much appreciated.

Ta!

Sorry for lack of posting (again)

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Real world work busy. Combined with GTA IV in the limited downtime. No time for anything else, for the last few weeks I’m afraid.

(Strange discovery yesterday – when I see New York in films or on the telly now, I don’t think “New York”, I think “Oh, Liberty City – I ran over a bunch of people there after stealing that bus. Happy times!” Does this make me odd?)

I shall try to post a bit more over the next few weeks – the Irish referendum is starting to look genuinely interesting, and will be swiftly followed by the French presidency of the EU. Could prove to be an interesting few months. (Which is more than can be said for the last few…)

Nosemonkey is not dead, honest

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In lieu of anything original from me (far too busy and knackered at the moment, so lengthy pieces on the latest round of repetitive and doubtless unproductive CAP reform discussions, likely Russia-EU relations under Medvedev, the ongoing tensions in EU-Serbian relations and all the rest must wait, I’m afraid…), have a book review like wot I done for this week’s TLS ahead of the imminent Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

We the Peoples of Europe
by Susan George
(Pluto Press, £11.99)

Originally written in the run-up to the 2005 French and Dutch referenda on the (then) EU Constitution, and revised ahead of the Irish referendum on the (now) Lisbon Treaty, We the Peoples of Europe is a political polemic of the old school. Nonetheless, it is a refreshing and mostly well-written read for anyone used to the standard British brand of centre-right euroscepticism, for Susan George is of the unreconstructed, 1968-era, Marxian variety of eurosceptic, whose thought has become such a rarity in the UK as to have been all but forgotten.

Packed with emotional assertions (officials promoting the Lisbon Treaty are “despicable”, the Bolkestein Directive, designed to liberalize the EU’s service industries, aims to “annihilate all social progress made in Europe since the Second World War”) and repeated references to class warfare and the supposed evils of “neo-liberalism”, the result is occasionally – unintentionally – hilarious. Indeed, by this interpretation of the new Lisbon Treaty, Britain’s eurosceptics appear to have got every concession they wanted,for in George’s analysis this is the latest step in a vast capitalist conspiracy of shadowy political elites and big business interests to promote precisely the kind of free trade association that has long been the dream of the British right.

The end result therefore ironically shows what a successful compromise the EU Constitution-cum-Lisbon Treaty must be (George, like many commentators, never quite makes the distinction between the two), inspiring as it does opposition from both extremes of the political spectrum. But this also helps to prove George’s main contention, because underneath all the Marxian rhetoric lies the major point that the various EU treaties, laws and bodies are so complex and impenetrable as to have locked out the ordinary citizen from a European Union whose purpose and direction is increasingly unclear. What George advocates, at its heart, is something all Europeans should be able to support – a genuine, thorough reassessment of what the European Union is for, taking into account the views of the people for the first time in the project’s history. Only that way, she argues, will a lasting, viable union be constructed – whatever its political slant.

Oh, and while I’m at it, here’s a report on that UACES-Reuters award thing I got shortlisted for, and a lovely piccie of the shiny trophy itself:

UACES-Reuters award

Finally, in other news – remember The Sharpener, like wot I used to help run and write for? Well, it’s back. Huzzah! Have a gander – lots of good stuff in the archives, plus a vague possibility that we all might get off our arses and start adding new content sometime soon… (And yes, the same does go for this place. Promise…)

London elections – my vote, for those interested

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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.

Blogging about blogging

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Someone got in touch to ask some questions about citizen journalism and the July 2005 London terrorist attacks. My response ended up getting rather lengthy as I went off on one, so I reckoned I may as well post it. Could prove interesting to some, even if it is another of those blogging about blogging things I thought I’d stopped doing. Continue reading →