European Political News

Are we redundant as an Electorate? Its the economy, stupid. Is this the most truthful and accurate summary of politics ever captured in four words? The Labour government is on the ropes right now, they are by no means down, but they are on the ropes. We have had unpopular wars, repeated stories [...]

Is the unthinkable about to happen in London? Is the unthinkable about to happen in London politics? Can that wild haired buffoon who made his name by fluffing his lines on a comedy panel quiz show really be the bookies favourite to become the next Mayor of London? Until just a few weeks ago [...]

Garbo is back and senses a change in the wind direction… Regular readers of this column will know that I have been away for a couple of weeks or so on, what I saw as, a long deserved break. While away I tried to keep as far away from politics as possible, as politics is not only my hobby but also my day job. I think I did a fairly good job, though the temptation to sneak a peek at the BBC website and the odd blog did become too much on a couple of occasions. Anyway, they say a week is a long time in politics, and I have been out of touch with all the goings on at Westminster for nearly three - so what has changed? Things have got serious On the surface not a lot " the same things are still there, only they seem to have got a lot more serious. The credit crunch is no longer something that is talked about " it really does look like it is going to crunch hard. Alastair Darling is no longer the unlucky Chancellor presiding over civil servant gaffs and a down turning world economy; after his dreadfully poor delivery of the budget, he is now seen as a bad chancellor with no ideas and no inspiration. But the most worrying sign of all for the government, something I did not think would occur, is that the Tories may well be entering phase two of their resurrection… (more…) Previous in series

This is Dave Cole’s second “Politics Decoded” Guest Column. As we all know, America is the home of the free market. Right? Wrong. A story little-noticed outside the trade and financial press is an exception that proves, by the shock and anger it has caused, the general rule for US procurement to be a good distance away from the free market. Air to Air Refuelling Tankers The United States Air Force wanted to buy some new air-to-air refuelling tankers and have awarded the contract to EADS, who own Airbus, over Boeing; a European company over an American. Boeing were expected to win the US$4bn contract and, it seems, Boeing expected Boeing to win the contract. However, the EADS bid was technically superior, outscoring on just about every area on an evaluation. The deal was also conducted to the letter so that it would be hard to challenge on grounds of impropriety. Here is where the tale starts to become a little twisted. The Back Story Back in 2003, the USAF decided to lease some Boeing tanker aircraft as a stop-gap to replace its ageing fleet with an option to purchase after ten years. It turned out that a Pentagon staffer had been passing information to Boeing about the opposing EADS bid; said staffer had started working for Boeing by the time this was discovered. None of this is new, but it suggests that Boeing weren’t playing by the rules. One of the charges made against EADS is that it is receiving illegal subsidies, which seems pretty rich given Boeing’s actions. The Front Story Now, various congresspersons are mightily annoyed by the decision because, unsurprisingly, a contract for four billion dollars carries a lot of jobs with it. Senator John McCain was the driving force behind the investigation of Boeing over the lease-purchase deal. Moreover, he would want to see both best value for money and best equipment for troops and so would want to step on corruption in general and, in this case, get the better piece of kit. On the other side, Democrats are wanting jobs to stay in their areas rather than move overseas or to Arkansas, as will happen with EADS. Both Senators Clinton and Obama have criticised the deal and there is now to be a congressional inquiry. (more…)

Back in early December I posted a run-down of the list of weekly columns on the Wardman Wire, using the excuse that the site “has been a bit of a building site recently with a lot of changes”. I’m pleased to say that the move from a personal political blog to a site with a wider team of writers is nearly complete - so there may be a bit more stability round here for the next few months (at least in terms of who is writing). This is an extra Blog Platform column to map out where we are and where we may be going. What Happens each Week I’m doing a rundown by day this time. There’s more to say, but I’ll keep this post as short as I can manage. Now that the rate of change on the blog is slowing down (at least in terms of new and guest writers), I’ll see if I can be more reliable at making sure that things appear on the right day. Our practice is - with one or two exceptions - to publish the column each day at 11:00am, to give time for the article to hit the RSS feed in time for the lunch break. Then nothing else appears until perhaps 4pm. As ever, the best way not to miss anything is to subscribe to our RSS feed. Nearly Every day “The Daily Roundup” is currently a roundup of 10 or a dozen newspaper stories designed to provide “blog fodder” for our readers. It focuses on interesting and occasionally unusual stories. On good days it is published around 1am; on not quite so good days with breakfast or a little later. As you can see from the podcast player in the sidebar, we experimented with a daily podcast - I hope to take that forward, but I’m thinking about a practical approach. The “Morning Funny” (which needs a better name) is a cartoon or joke which appears at the start of the day - usually at around 9:00am. There are agreements in place with 5 or 6 different cartoonists to reproduce their work, and I sometimes re-recycle a joke from the Adam Smith Institute Jokester; make that “used to re-recycle” - he has retired. Monday “The Day Job” is about what bloggers do when they are not blogging. I have only done one of these, and intend to increase the frequency. Tuesday “Politics Decoded” is Garbos weekly political comment column - running for 6 months now. Garbo publishes his “bon mots” before lunch on a Tuesday with the reliability of Mr Gordon asking Mr Cameron questions at PMQs instead of answering them. (more…)

Garbo is away for a fortnight and Dave Cole is writing the Politics Decoded column as a Guest Author for these two weeks. Dave blogs at davecole.org. In this first column Dave puts forward some ideas about the situation in Kosovo and Serbia. What to do in Kosovo and Serbia? An unusual alignment is taking place in the Balkans at the moment; it is one that means that we must support Kosovo and Serbia going forward. Serbia’s opposition to Kosovo’s independence is based on the idea that Kosovo is the birthplace of Serbs and an integral part of the Serbian state. The latter part is dubious - it was a unit of federation in the former Yugoslavia - and the former idea would make either central Germany or Troy the birthplace of Londoners. However, as we well know, mythologies have a surprising strength. European identity The undertone in Serbia’s assertion of suzerainty over Kosovo is similar to one being played out here, in the UK. This undertone follows on from the comments made by Dr Rowan Williams about sharia in the UK and ultimately comes down to a simple question: is Europe Christian? History has tripped over Serbia from both sides The Battle of Kosovo - way back in 1389 - saw an alliance of Serb lords being thumped by the Ottomans. The key point is that it was an alliance of Serb lords against a common enemy, and it was the first time that had happened. Serbia became a bastion of resistance to the Ottomans and, by implication, of Christian Europe against the Muslim East. Albanians, however, can make a similar claim; Skenderbeg, the national hero, successfully held the Ottomans at bay for a couple of decades. We now see a reversal, of sorts. Serbia is being supported most strongly by Russia. While Christian, Russia seems increasingly distant from modern, liberal, democratic Europe. (more…)