A former UKIP MEP, Ashley Mote, has been jailed for five years for defrauding the European Parliament of almost half-a-million pounds. On sentencing Mr Mote today at Southwark Crown Court, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith told him: “Your greed and dishonesty were matched only by your hypocrisy, because while this was going on you carried out a […]
Early this morning, the President of the EU Council has announced that a deal had been reached. After one referendum and a collection of ultimatums, Grexit is out of the question, for now. The details of the agreement remain unspecified as I write these lines. The Guardian reports that, this last intense weekend, the German […]
A new Eurosceptic group campaigning for radical changes to the EU wants to end ‘free movement of people’ and only to allow ‘free movement of workers’. If the group achieves its aims, it could mean an end to moving to other EU countries to retire, such as to Spain where many British pensioners now reside. […]
On Alternative(s) to Neoliberal Globalization From 17 to 19 June 2015, I attended the 14th Annual Conference of the International Social Theory Consortium (ISTC) “Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice” at the University of Cambridge, with presentation “On Alternative(s) to Neoliberal Globalization” on the 17th of June 2015. First, the ISTC conference was about reconstruction, […]
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that an Estonian news agency can be held responsible for anonymous ‘hate’ comments posted on its website. The Court decided that the agency’s ‘freedom of expression’ under the European Convention on Human Rights had not been breached as a result of an Estonian court imposing a […]
Yesterday, 15 June, Britain celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The text proclaimed some of what we now call “human rights”, related to fair trial and the rule of law. It was meant to be a peace treaty between English barons and a particularly bully monarch, King John. Magna Carta did not really apply […]
This weekend marks 30 years since the Schengen agreement was signed by European leaders marking the end of passport control across a large area of Europe. Now passports are no longer required when travelling through 21 countries of the European Union, as well as non-EU countries Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The Schengen area functions […]
The European Parliament transcended into chaos today after a key debate on the controversial US-EU trade deal (known as TTIP) was postponed at the last-minute, causing a loud and prolonged protest led by anti-EU party UKIP. President of the Parliament, Martin Schulz, announced that the debate had been postponed, “to give more time … to […]
More than 50 Conservative Members of Parliament have started a new group to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. The Telegraph reported it as, “a move that will electrify the battle for Britain’s future place in the world.” The new group, called Conservatives for Britain (CfB), has warned that unless Prime Minister, David […]
Last week, interior ministers of the 15 countries sitting at the UN Security Council met to discuss foreign fighters. They did so as part of the follow-up of Resolution 2178 (2014), which defines foreign fighters as people “who travel or attempt to travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality, and other […]