Vox Polis

There’s been lots of reports about the petition to stop the absolutely ridiculous monthly trips to the Strasbourg parliament. But as we all know any decision on the future of Strasbourg has to be decided at the EU Council by an absolute majority, meaning of course that France can veto the move.

According to EU Fortress it seems that no French MEPs have signed the petition (not surprising really) but neither have Luxembourg, Slovakian, Maltese or Greek MEPs. A crying shame.

But i’m yet to be convinced that a petition is going to do anything. The only way is to take direct action and to stop visiting the Strasbourg Parliament. Every MEP, researcher, hack and hangerons who agree that the “travelling circus” is absurd must take action and stop moving to Strasbourg.

We want to tell you that mycokemusic, operated by OD2 (On Demand Distribution), is closing on 31st July 2006. Please click here for further information. Thank you for using mycokemusic.

Looks like mycokemusic is closing. In 2004 it dominated the UK market. Now with competition from iTunes it’s been forced to close.

Good to see that another DRM heavy music site is forced to close. Voxpolis has made its position on DRM quite clear. As Jonny said here, we need to boycott DRM music sites. Perhaps then more will follow in mycokemusic’s lead.

Downing Street decided to get Eddie Izzard to podcast the EU summit over the weekend. Its funny that the UK voted against plans to televise the EU Council, but its ok for Izzard to podcast the EU proceedings. Perhaps its because Izzard’s commentary is anything but revealing. (football’s clearly more important than secretly filming the Council…hay Izzard!- about 9 minutes in) Or perhaps its just because you can’t see anyone on a podcast.

You’ve got to feel a little sorry for Margaret Beckett, having to defend the Government’s absolutely stupid position against televising the EU Council. She clearly can’t support the position. In 1989 she voted to allow the Commons to be televised. But how did she vote on 9 February 1988, during the original decision to allow televisions into the Commons? If anyone can tell me i’d be interested!

Now Blair’s doing it, Merkel’s had a go, Cameron does it all the time, now 10 Downing street’s done it, thanks to Eddie Izzard. Will Brown follow?

Well IPPR have been getting some flack this week from Guido, who pointed out some of the “advantages” of being so close to the present Government. Guido points out how the IPPR will lose influence under the inevitable rise of Brown as PM. But it seems that they’re influence is already wanning. The Government openly criticised their recent findings on immigration in this written question:

Immigration: Irregular Migrants

Lord Judd asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What is their response to the publication by the Institute for Public Policy Research, Irregular Migration in the United Kingdom, and, in particular, to the estimate that the forced deportation of all irregular migrants could cost the taxpayer some £4.7 billion while the regularising of work status could net some £1 billion for HM Treasury. [HL6018]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The figures provided in the Institute for Public Policy Research’s paper are questionable and must be treated with caution.

You’ve probably noticed that Baroness Scotland is a minister for the Home Office. Well the IPPR certaintly got their own back last weekend with the publication of the internal survey showing that only 6% of staff think the Home Office thought poor performance was dealth with effectively (the second worst department next to the Department of Transport)

Long live the IPPR!

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It looks like the Government is clamping down on those great servants of the community who (for below minimum wage) direct us from Oxford Street to the nearest golf sales and language courses. Vox Polis thinks we need to do the opposite and expand the scheme to traffic signs across the country as we wrote here. Think of the employment opportunities it provides!

As summer finally begins to appear and the days get hotter, people begin to flock down to the seaside or lake to enjoy it. But is the water safe? Well it seems that increasing numbers of EU states are cheating to avoid getting a bad mark for their beaches. They cheat by removing a beach from the official list, therefore improving their overall compliance. And the EU has taken legal action against 11 member states, (including the summer hot spots of France, Spain and Italy). No action against the UK - another example of gold plating perhaps or maybe a sign that we should all consider staying in the UK this summer!