December 2006

Romania and Bulgaria: transitional labour market restrictions

December 31, 2006

I notice that on her excellent EU Blawg (Bleuwg?) Bondwoman(towards the end of her post) had earlier this month made a similar point to the one I made in my last post, about the UK’s right to impose transitional national measures restricting new EU citizens’ access to our labour market. It is not a right [...]

Read the full piece →

Enlargement: Romania and Bulgaria

December 31, 2006

You’ve been on another continent if you don’t know these countries are joining the EU tomorrow. Most of the media’s emphasis will be on the national measures the UK is entitled to take restricting the access of Bulgarians and Romanians to its labour market. Annexes VI and VII of the Act concerning the conditions of [...]

Read the full piece →

Stephen Wright charged with Suffolk murders

December 22, 2006

And Tom Stephens has been released on bail. Well, then, assuming Tom Stephens isn’t charged, there’s no harm done from all that risky coverage I was concerned about in earlier posts. No harm to the doing of justice, I mean; I expect it’s harmed Tom Stephens. Anyway, let’s hope the fact this other man’s been [...]

Read the full piece →

De Villepin interviewed

December 22, 2006

For 17 hours, so Le Monde says. Astonishing. I know the French police have a somewhat tougher approach than their counterparts this side of the channel, but nothing illustrates it better than the difference between their treatment of their Prime Minister, and our police’s treatment of ours. Funny that both heads of government should be [...]

Read the full piece →

Irving, again

December 21, 2006

The Austrian authorities now say they will deport David Irving “schnellstmöglichst”, which means very, very, very quickly indeed. It may not be quite as a quick as that, but I dare say he’ll be here well before Christmas. And no doubt calling, laughably, for an academic boycott of Austria. Michael Simoner, writing in Der Standard, [...]

Read the full piece →

"Johnny" loses appeal in Cour de Cassation

December 21, 2006

It’s not a good time to be a grand old man of pop. Sir Cliff and Sir Paul have hardly got over the bad news from Gowers, and now in Paris, Le Monde reports that Johnny Hallyday has lost his appeal in a contract dispute with his old record label, Universal. He broke from them [...]

Read the full piece →

Ryanair, Aer Lingus and the European Commission

December 21, 2006

Ryanair is expressing disappointment about the Commission’s decision to launch a detailed investigation into its proposed takeover of Aer Lingus – but surely it can’t be surprised. The two airlines are each other’s major competitor on routes from Ireland to the rest of Europe – so unless you see the whole of Europe as the [...]

Read the full piece →

Irving, again

December 21, 2006

The Austrian authorities now say they will deport David Irving “schnellstmöglichst”, which means very, very, very quickly indeed. It may not be quite as a quick as that, but I dare say he’ll be here well before Christmas. And no doubt calling, laughably, for an academic boycott of Austria. Michael Simoner, writing in Der Standard, [...]

Read the full piece →

David Irving: holocaust denial and free speech

December 20, 2006

Given my attitude to David Irving, his conviction and sentence in Austria and his questionable release, as shown in my earlier posts, I thought I’d better explain my position since many people who are far from supportive of holocaust denial nonetheless feel Austrian law goes too far in criminalising it. I disagree. I think freedom [...]

Read the full piece →

Irving coming back

December 20, 2006

ORF is now reporting (in German) that Gerhard Jarosch of the Vienna State Prosecutor’s Office doesn’t think the evidence for the March 2006 offences justifies Irving’s pre-trial detention – so there’ll be no application for his arrest. I guess that means he’ll be in England in a day or two. I wonder what he’ll say [...]

Read the full piece →

← Previous Entries