Have soared! The Treasury statistics show that the UK’s net contribution to the EU will increase from £4.1 billion this year to £6.4 billion in 2010/11… Last night the Conservatives branded government "incompetence" for the rise in contributions. The Opposition said the increased payments were the result of the "selling […]
Mark Steyn on Budd Schulberg: As a 20-year-old Dartmouth student, Schulberg visited the Soviet Union and was shown its artistic glories. He fell in love with the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Stanislavski’s wayward disciple. Meyerhold loved the older stylized dramatic forms—commedia dell’arte, pantomime—and refused to confine himself to Socialist Realism. […]
Lordy. The BBC on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: The pact was signed by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Russian counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, in Moscow. It led to the carving-up of Poland between Nazi Germany and the USSR, as well as the annexation by the USSR of eastern Finland, […]
Ha. Fooled you. You thought you were getting BBRU at Suz Blog hosted by LibDem tough blonde ‘cookie’ Susanne Lamido. But we swapped. So you have me instead. All the best BBRUs try witty themes, or at least cogent categories. This helps those who want to skip the political […]
Jim Fitzpatrick MP has attended many Muslim weddings. He caused a fuss recently when he and his wife as far as I know politely walked out of one at which men and women were segregated; he then used the media to make some political points about radicalisation among Muslims. (Update: picking […]
At last, the man himself: I am proud of my record in combating anti-Semitism. I have used my seat in the European Parliament to highlight how it still festers in parts of Poland. I am active in the European Friends of Israel. I am equally proud of my Party’s record. […]
HM Embassy in Warsaw: The Embassy EU/Economic team maintains a regular dialogue with Polish Ministries and civil society on EU budgetary issues, to secure the best outcome for the EU. An effective EU must be equipped with a budget that enables it to respond to globalisation – and for this […]
It has come to this. I am transformed from a hoplessly progressive Guardian reader into hopelessly progressive Guardian writer. My Response to Timothy Garton Ash’s recent article about Michal Kaminski has appeared. The article as I drafted it for the paper has been tweaked by Guardian HQ in certain respects for unclear […]
Update: Welcome Iain Dale readers, although all credit or discredit for what follows goes to the author of the lively passages below, namely Jamie Stokes, "an English person with bafflingly unclear motives for living in Poland". Here is a droll account of a visit to a not very British Embassy in […]
