PubAffairs Blog
2012 Manifesto
Lobby-Lite25 August 2008 9:06 PM
Silly season for pointless PR
Lobby-Lite12 August 2008 9:45 AM
For anyone involved in the media, August is a lost month. Apart from the middle Thursday where the papers write indignantly about dumbed down A Levels, and then fill the front pages the next day with pictures of beaut...
The trials of being Gordon Brown
The Rambler31 July 2008 12:20 PM
Normally I am concerned with all things EU and European, but given Gordon Brown's recent problems I could not resist the temptation to comment.
For a start, lets be honest, had Gordon not got too confident...
End of term
The Rambler13 July 2008 10:11 AM
Your blogger, as he walks around the corridors of power in Brussels, listening to the policy makers, has struggled to find one subject that can be written about. This could be because tired Eurocrats and MEPs are looking...
NO!
The Rambler21 June 2008 11:01 AM
The Irish have somewhat agitated the EU bubble this week. Their NO vote last week in the only referendum to be held on the Lisbon/reform/ex-constitution/end of democracy Treaty has sent shockwaves through th...
Hold the front page - something is happening in Europe
The Rambler06 June 2008 12:27 PM
Front page this morning in the Guardian "Tory EU enforcer quits over expenses". A picture of Giles Chichester lighting up the grey Brussels gloom. A red letter day as for the first time in as long as I ...
Lets hold a hearing!
The Rambler25 May 2008 12:29 PM
Your blogger has not blogged for a while. Whilst I don't want to claim that all I have been doing is attending hearings, it has dawned on me that a hearing serves little purpose and is an idea that ...
Of summits and Sarko
The Rambler17 March 2008 9:58 AM
Some of you may have noticed that last week there was a European Council. A European Council should not be confused witht the Council of Europe nor the Council of Ministers. It is the meeting of EU leaders that set th...
A few points if I may
The Rambler10 March 2008 5:37 PM
Your blogger has been quiet of late. I have been unable to find one big topic to write about (as you are all probably bored of the EU Treaty debate in the UK). So I thought I would write about a few things instead.
Low Carbon, High Politics
The Rambler10 February 2008 12:02 PM
For a few weeks now your blogger has been trying to understand, disect and generally get to the bottom of what the Commission's package of proposals on climate change really mean. Therefore, after some thought I must...
Survival of the fittest…
Lobby-Lite24 January 2008 6:18 PM
The Times this morning reports a story guaranteed to make gym bunnies’ blood boil. The government’s considering paying fat people to lose weight. As part of a strategy to fix the bad eating habits and sede...
Gordon says...get skilled
Lobby-Lite20 January 2008 11:11 AM
Having seen those adverts with the hands telling us that we need to take control of our futures and get skilled, I signed up for an evening course.
I was a little concerned when I called to register to find th...
Brown, Blair, Lisbon, the Treaty and the EU
The Rambler20 January 2008 11:09 AM
Given the recent antics of Gordon Brown it has become hard for the rambler to avoid writing a blog entry on that most hackneyed and overwritten subjects: Britain and the EU.
Before Christmas Gordon decide...
Gordon says...get fit
Lobby-Lite12 January 2008 11:06 AM
So new year, new body! The regular January proclamation of the unhealthy, mince-pied up and newly tee-total. And, as Gordon says, we should do thirty minutes of exercise a day. As a result I, along with many thousands...
Gordon says...get recycling
Lobby-Lite06 January 2008 11:21 AM
As an (occasionally) dedicated public affairs consultant I’m constantly advising clients and colleagues on the latest directives and ‘suggestions’ from Government. With the New Year coming round and ...
An empty diary
Lobby-Lite05 January 2008 11:19 AM
On the desk lies a pristine looking diary, not yet stained with coffee, not yet featuring the scruffy, ripped pages indicating a forgotten notebook on far too many occasions. 2008 stares up blankly. The 2008 comms pla...
We are all Belgian now
The Rambler03 January 2008 9:51 PM
Many things happened in 2007. Some big, others small. Belgium, for once, got some attention in the UK press. Some of you may have read that the country has been without a Government for more thansix months. Even ...
If a week is a long time in politics - where did the whole year go...
Lobby-Lite30 December 2007 9:34 PM
As my first ever post I figured it was worth a look back over 2007.
This was the year of elections real ones, non-existent ones and controversial ones. There was a ...
Freshly Laundered, Please
Blade06 December 2007 4:38 PM
It's always slightly depressing that everything has to come down to money. We all know it, accept it and have to live with it in our daily lives. We pay our taxes, or at least try to become as 'tax-e...
Show me the money
The Rambler26 November 2007 7:30 PM
Last week the European Commission began to muse on how companies and Governments should change how they measure success. In order to switch policy making into another gear, they went back to a tried and tested formula...
I'm British, get me out of here
The Rambler20 November 2007 12:16 PM
An interesting story was running last week. It seems that 400,000 Brits have left the country and "around" (cause nobody seems to know) 519,000 people have arrived in Britain seemingly to either sponge off t...
Surely the Football can't also be Brown's fault?
Blade19 November 2007 5:21 PM
Some often speculate that Gordon Brown isn't quite the good luck charm that Britain really needs. The PM was very much the odd-one-out on the podium after witnessing England'...
Rumble in the Political Jungle
Blade09 November 2007 12:49 PM
Those of you with perceptive hearing will have picked up Eye of the Tiger in the House this week as our elected representatives returned to debate the Queen's Speech. As supportive cries of 'Hea...
MPs bulk buying power
Blade29 October 2007 5:06 PM
Close your eyes. Imagine a massively huge pile of cash. Now triple it and you might be forgiven if your imagination reaches anything like the £87million in allowances claimed by MPs. Anyone worki...
Ming gone in a Flash
Blade19 October 2007 1:05 PM
Ming the Merciless ruled through fear and terror. Fortunately for the mortals, Ming-iss was a much more genteel soul, leading the party only to poor sets of opinion-polls.
After weeks...
The Tories taking you to the Movies
Blade13 October 2007 12:20 PM
The blogging blade would certainly have liked a few days in California hanging out with the likes of Arnie Schwarzenegger to banish those mid-October Blighty Blues - or should that be keeping the Blighted Blues out of...
Darlek Robbin' Osborne's Hoods
Blade10 October 2007 7:08 PM
Who ever would have thought that the Government would swipe out the ideas rug from the Tories? Oh no they didn't? Like a proper political pantomime - 'oh yes they did'. The electioneering machi...