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Abolishing an elected European Parliament is no way forward – a response to Jack Straw

Straw says abolish the European Parliament
Straw says abolish the European Parliament

I don’t know what annoys me more – that a high-level Labour politician can have such misguided ideas, or that the outcome of an event is reported in such a one-sided manner in the press. I am referring to The Guardian’s report on today’s IPPR event on the EU’s democratic deficit (I attended), in which former Foreign Minister Jack Straw st [...] Read more ...

via Labourlist
22 Feb 2012

Avaaz - UK: 24 hours to stop Tar Sands

In 24 hours, Europe could introduce pollution controls that could stop the flow of Canada's deadly tar sands oil into the EU. But the UK is moving to block the rules. Only a huge public outcry can save it now. Click below to send an urgent message to the Transport Minister Norman Baker: [...] Read more ...

via Avaaz
22 Feb 2012

News and debate from the progressive community

Jack says the turnout in European parliament elections is too low, but turnout is also low in local authority elections and I’ve not seen calls for councils to be abolished on this basis. He calls for ‘an assembly of national parliaments’ to replace the European parliament. MEPs need to be skilled negotiators who can broker diplomatic deals a [...] Read more ...

via Progressonline
22 Feb 2012

All Out

But traditional diplomacy has reached its limits, so now we're going to hit them where it counts to push this bill off the agenda : their po [...] Read more ...

via Allout
22 Feb 2012

Buy the Book Here

Egypt Unshackled

Egypt Unshackled by Denis G. Campbell is now available to order in print form from Amazon US and UK and in eBook form from Amazon Kindle, iBooks and other eBook formats. Denis is also personally signing books. For those that would like this please CLICK HERE [...] Read more ...

via Egyptunshackled
22 Feb 2012

Act of Desperation: Iran Halts Oil Shipments to U.K., France

Iran’s decision to halt oil shipments to the U.K. and France last weekend is a weak retaliatory measure against European actors for tougher sanctions. Despite this largely symbolic measure, Iran did manage to surprise world markets and drive up the price of oil. The U.K. imposed its hardest-hitting sanctions to date on Iran last November, but its [...] Read more ...

via Heritage
22 Feb 2012

Murphy launches Labour's defence review

It was not only a smart refinement of Labour's fiscal position, but also a preview for the defence review that they're conducting as an alternative to the government's SDSR. 2) Target: David Cameron. 3) Values, not just interests. One of the other speakers, RUSI's Malcolm Chalmers , highlighted page 23 of the consultation paper, which sets out [...] Read more ...

via Spectator
22 Feb 2012