I have written a lot about the European Union and its democracy and its easy to get lost so I have made this page which is meant to be a start page/index.
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A Vassal State
As part of my reading as a result of the Bastani/Hao interview, I was pointed at and found a couple of books and articles on the UK’s dependence on the USA, primarily quoting the work of Angus Hanton. These are primarily economic, although the choices made by the Starmer Government, are increasing our dependence on…
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The Democratic Odyssey 2024
In the EU Parliamentary year, 2024/25, there was an experimental citizen’s assembly incubated by the EUI. I attended their Florence assembly 22/2 & 23/2, and made some notes. These stayed in my notebook for too long but I have decided to make this page, which collects some reviews and views and may even have some…
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Copernicus & Brexit
The European Space Agency celebrated its most recent launch of a Copernicus Sentinel Satellite, which made me wonder how Brexit had impacted the UK’s participation in the EU’s space programmes. This post looks at what I found.
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Labour Conference 25
Here is my #lab 25 page. Conference is to be in Liverpool again.
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Capitalism
I recently read Ingham’s “Capitalism Divided?” which has, I believe, some important insights into the nature of the British economy. The last two days I reviewed my notes I looked for further comments and reviews. He will have written a number of books but at the moment this page looks at, “Capitalism” and “Capitalism Divided”….
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The next EU budget
The EU is preparing its next medium term budget. This is an act of legislation but they have convened a European citizens panel https://citizens.ec.europa.eu/index_en on the topic; its rercommendations are documented here. No matter the cynicism and valid criticisms aimed at these panels, this must be a good thing. The process continues and this page…
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Reset or Roadbump
On May 19th the European Union and the UK at a summit made a series of agreements. The UK government heralds this as a “Reset”. The European Commission have issued a press release, which has been agreed with the UK. The press release covers Defence, Connecting People, Trade and Economics, & internal security and judicial…
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Opensource Cloud OS’s
I have just posted a little note on linkedin on the US regulatory ownership of the Cloud OS’s, cloud providers and supporting software products, in the context of ‘security of supply’. Here’s some more reading.
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Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
After the performative racism of the other month, I report on the Labour Government’s current legislation. And in JUne, I amended it, to develop a policy proposal for Labour’s NPF and Union conferences.
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UN Human Rights and the UK benefit system
The UN’s 7th Periodic Report on the UK from the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights. It has been brought to my attention by Skwawkbox who writes, “UN says UK is discriminating against children, women, disabled and sick people, refugees, minorities and more”. I have not yet read it, but I believe the report…
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Copyright & AI, 2025
The regulation of AI has crossed swords with the copyright maximalists. Here are some notes and links.
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An EU Army?
Not yet, but the US administration’s behaviour over Ukraine is leading the rest of NATO to ask how real US defence guarantees are. The EU Commission has announced a funding route for arms and Germany is looking to exclude defence expenditure from their “debt ceiling rules”. My notes and links …
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Down the sewer!
The last couple of days have seen the Labour government sink into the sewer on immigration and racism in an attempt to “triangulate” on reform. Here my recent notes and links including a call to action …
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On the AI Action Summit
We opened considering the AI Action Summit, https://www.elysee.fr/en/sommet-pour-l-action-sur-l-ia. Here are some notes and links, …
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