Is Kosovo moving towards ‘functional partition’ (or more likely dysfunctional partition)? The nub of the international problem in Kosovo is that on the one hand the EU/US claim to rule out on principle partition on ‘ethnic’ lines, while on the other they claim that the independence of Kosovo is not in […]
Crack open the Guinness! Behind all the lamentations about the end of European civilisation as brought about by a selfish micro-number of Irish voters, there will be lots of secret smiles. One of the key issues in the whole Treaty saga has been reweighting the voting as between EU member states. […]
The EP Culture Committee blogging menace nonsense (below) points up a factor in the Lisbon Treaty which is not really discussed. Namely that as more and more ‘areas’ become subject to voting rather than consensus at the EU level, member states lose two things: the right to block at the […]
Imagine you are the Foreign Office in London. A bit of a wildcat in your youth. Yet still squeaky keen to show Relevance and Cleverness. Egad! An idea dawns. Let London lead the praise for the sybaritic delights of latter-day Western personal freedom! British Embassies should all fly the LGBT […]
This is indeed a bad security breach by a senior official. What on earth was he doing taking Top Secret STRAP material of this sort out of the building? One of my first Blogoir posts described a grisly experience I had with FCO Security twenty years ago after a I […]
Some noteworthy statistics from Iraq, compiled by AP: OIL PRODUCTION: Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day. May 25, 2008: 2.52 million barrels per day. TELEPHONES: Prewar land lines: 833,000. April 4, 2008: 1,360,000. Prewar cell phones: 80,000. April 30, 2008: More than 12 million. WATER: Prewar: 12.9 million people had […]
Let’s hear it for the EU’s success in promoting high-level Diversity Targets in the foreign policy area.
Today I listened to a good BBC Radio Five discussion on the vexed issue of MEPs allowances/salaries, possible abuses thereof (see eg Guido). A commendable airing of some basic facts, plus sensible discussion between various experts/pundits and two MEPs. The subject ended up with a ‘what if’ exchange on the […]
A typically splenetic piece from Simon Jenkins today rails against the Western world’s failure to stand by previously championed ideals of ‘humanitarian intervention’. His argument runs that the USA has had its fingers badly burnt by Iraq/Afghanistan and will withdraw from those places in due course. Without American leadership there can be […]
You may well be wondering how many countries have formally recognised the independence of Kosova (or Kosovo as HMG call it). Here is what looks like a pretty comprehensive list. Thus as of the end of May 2008 Kosovo’s independence has been recognised by (only?) 42 out of 192 UN member […]
