March 25, 2006
Petition for free access to European geographical data
The Public Geo Data site is organizing a petition to the European Parliament asking for state-collected geographic data to be made freely available to the public.
Geographic data is of considerable economic, social and political importance. It’s vital that the public have free access to information that has already been funded from taxation.
Please sign!
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:21 PM | TrackBack
August 29, 2005
Chirac's air tax for Africa
France, Belgium and Germany are promoting the idea of a compulsory tax on air travel to benefit Africa via the International Finance Facility for Immunisation.
I don’t know what the British position is on this. It seems to be a good idea, except that I don’t see the logic of asking air passengers in particular (rather than drinkers, drivers, golfers or whatever) to pay for medicines for Africa. Perhaps it should be more broadly based?
Chirac announces air tax for aid - BBC - France, Belgium and Germany have said they will introduce a compulsory tax, while Malta, Cyprus and Ireland will give passengers a choice as to whether or not they pay it.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4194386.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:39 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
English to be European official language
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. French and Spanish were rejected earlier. The report explains:
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.
In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. his will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
[Anonymous via Useful Sounds, Nicole Simon’s German-English podcast]
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:12 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 05, 2005
Jacques Chirac insults Finland
Speaking in Kaliningrad to Gerhard Schroeder and Vladimir Putin, Jacques Chirac made the outrageous statement that “After Finland, [Britain] is the country with the worst food.”
This is completely untrue. Helsinki has great restaurants (we dined at the historic old Kämp Hotel a few years ago), better Russian food than in St Petersburg or Moscow, and coffeee shops rivalling those in Vienna, with wonderful pastries etc.
Bravo Finland!
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4649007.stm
thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=737612005
rr.ravintolaopas.net/est/index_e.asp
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 06, 2005
EU referendum put on hold
Jack Straw’s actual statement in the House of Commons seemed to be more neutral and non-committal than news reports suggest. Britain was always going to be at the end of the ratification queue, so postponement isn’t necessarily all that significant.
Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland and Portugal are scheduled to make decisions this year and it will be interesting to see if these votes proceed as part of a new momentum towards some kind of resolution of the crisis.
Liam Fox’s comments for the opposition were entirely rhetorical and lacking in substance. The Tories have yet to grasp the fact that the majority of ‘No’ voters in France and the Netherlands want to see a Europe that emphasizes human rather than economic values. They have nothing in common with ‘Little Englander’ Tory Eurosceptics.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4612021.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:59 PM | TrackBack
June 03, 2005
After the Dutch 'Nee'
Most politicians have little use for forethought. They prefer to let events unfold, see reactions (particularly those in trashy newspapers) and posture accordingly. (This is especially true of the British variety who are adept at speaking rather than listening, reading or writing.) Followship rather than leadership. So it is with our politicians who now suddenly declare that the European constitution is dead, after the French and Dutch rejection of the treaty.
In fact national governments are obligated to proceed to ratification (whether by legislature or referendum), knowing full well that the process, may be incomplete. It’s implicit that the process can only be abandoned if more than five countries turn it down (article IV-443). This hasn’t happened yet.
British government policy towards Europe has been a series of mistakes and provocations from the decision to hold a referendum on a complicated document that nobody was going to read (thereby turning it into a vote about something else), to Iraq, the failure to adopt the euro, and the numerous red lines and opt outs (from the more enlightened European policies) all the way to the various subterfuges to retain the rebate. With friends like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Europe hardly needs enemies.
There is an interesting comparison here between the EU treaty and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Some people claimed that the latter was dead, ‘meaningless’ etc. after American rejection, but in the end ratification by other countries did go ahead because, as with the EU treaty, there was no ‘Plan B’ that could be put in its place.
Regretfully, I assume what happens now is that the government arrange for the European Union bill to be waylayed and tripped up somewhere in the corridors of Westminster. Perfidious Albion indeed!
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4601439.stm
UPDATE 4 June 2005
In retrospect I seem to have staked out the Barroso/Schroeder position. I should also acknwledge Bill Cameron’s careful piece, although his conclusions differ from mine.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4602515.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4606879.stm
billcameron.blogspot.com/2005/06/netherlands-delivers-its-no-verdict.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 09:39 AM | TrackBack
May 30, 2005
The French 'Non'
It is difficult to see the French result in anything but negative terms. The French were voting against a lot of things, not just the new constitution, but where does that leave them? Where does that leave us?
In one sense the French have created their own problem, which they have to solve through their own politics. Assuming they don’t want to reject Europe outright, they will have to explain to the other countries what kind of Europe they want to be part of.
The treaty was not an ambitious document. It was the product of past agreements and lengthily, tortuously, negotiated compromises. It is hard to see how it could be renegotiated. Impossible to see how the document could be re-thought to appeal more to popular opinion in different countries, when it is being rejected for such contradictory reasons.
Europe now has 25 members and is no longer ‘unthinkable’ without French participation. So the process of ratification by other countries has to continue - with the implicit assumption that France will re-engage in the process at some point.
It is unfortunate that in Britain’s case, the ratification is not a parliamentary one. Referendums - the form of democracy most favoured by Hitler and Mussolini - are rarely performed in a clear-cut, straight-forward and objective manner. The government in power, other political groups, and the local mainstream media all attempt to use the vote for their own ends.
In this case I can’t imagine a more discredited advocate for the treaty than Blair, but since the prime minister, in his moment of weakness, agreed to hold a referendum, then the government should ‘bring it on’. Who knows British Eurosceptics may be so flattered by the French rejecting the treaty for being too ‘Anglo-Saxon’ that they are persuaded to vote ‘Yes’!
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:59 PM | TrackBack
March 19, 2005
Against EU software patents
The introduction of American-style software patents, which benefit large companies (read Microsoft) and prevent the development of open source programmes, is being discussed by the European Parliament.
At present software patents are allowed in Britain but not in most other European countries, except as part of a physical device. If they are approved all European governments will have to introduce legislation in line with the decision.
The ‘No Software Patents’ organization is campaigning vigorously against this. Please support them. This issue matters. Europe matters!
www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,66938,00.html
europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/indprop/comp/index.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:28 AM | TrackBack
January 31, 2005
EU Constitution
We have a long way to go before Britain votes for the European Constitution. Less than half the population has heard of it. Of the rest, some 30 percent are against ratification, 20 percent for. (The figures come from a Eurobarometer survey of 1,300 voters.)
Unfortunately Blair/Iraq is a negative factor here. Many people may vote against the Constitution to protest against government policies. Even if Blair resigns at some point, the vote is likely to be a reflection of British domestic politics rather than the product of an informed debate.
www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,1401326,00.html?gusrc=rss
www.gesis.org/en/data%5Fservice/eurobarometer/guide/index.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:17 AM | TrackBack
EU funding II
It now seems possible that the Highlands and Islands will not lose all their EU development funding after all (see 14 January). The European Parliament’s regional policy committee will visit Scotland in March.
According to the article by John Ross in the Scotsman, the region has received 450 million pounds for infrastructure projects since 1994.
thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=108962005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:09 AM | TrackBack
January 21, 2005
Ireland leads again
Nothing symbolizes Britain’s half baked approach to reform better than our semi-metrication, a legacy of the Thatcher period dating back to the 1970s.
In the words of Lord Howe: “We must surely be about the only country where the motorist sees the roadsign ‘Birmingham 51 miles’ and, a moment or two later, ‘Roadworks 500 metres’, where he buys petrol by the litre and yet compares fuel consumption in miles per gallon.”
All the more credit to progressive Ireland - land of the euro, the smoking ban and high growth rates - for leading the way again and changing over from miles to kilometers, and from mph to km/h.
www.ukma.org.uk/press/ar010210.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:47 AM | TrackBack
January 14, 2005
EU funding I
Scotland will probably lose several hundred million pounds of annual European Union development aid from 2007. This will be diverted to aid the poorer, new members of the EU. Alex Neil of the SNP calls this “very, very bad news for Scotland”, and urges the executive to fight the issue.
We also need to see the big economic picture here. Scotland should behave as a responsible (future/potential) partner in Europe. We will benefit in various ways from the enlargement of the EU, and we need to support the new member states. We may need to look elsewhere for more appropriate sources of funding for regional infrastructure projects.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=47972005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:08 PM | TrackBack
September 26, 2004
Robin Cook on avoiding Texanization
Robin Cook has been talking some basic geopolitics on the fringes of the Labour Conference:
“The Bush administration is showing a missionary zeal to remake the world in the mould of Texas: if Europe wants to avoid that fate, it’s got to be strong. The lesson of the last four years is that when Europe is divided its views can be ignored and when Europe is weak its values can be undermined. The world needs a strong Europe arguing with one clear voice for respect for international law.”
Cook also warned of the dangers of putting off joining the single currency. This is something the SNP need to pick up on. The more the British economy diverges from Europe, the more difficult Scottish independence will become, the more convergence there is, the easier it will be.
politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2004/story/0,14991,1312914,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:31 PM
September 04, 2004
The euro on 1 January 2005?
Speculating … what if we adopted the euro on 1 January 2005?
What would be the advantages? It would benefit tourism and the banking and financial sectors. Office blocks currently empty in Edinburgh would be filled by companies relocating from London to take advantage of being in euroland. Some manufacturing and service jobs would also come here. There would be closer economic relations with the continent, and Ireland. Scotland would be no longer be subject to Bank of England interest rates, and Whitehall financial policies.
And the disadvantages? A bit of a headache certainly for Gordon Brown and the Treasury - but then they’re not in Scotland, and our large property owners might not be in favour if they thought it would affect land values. Anything else?
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:04 PM