Not if people like single market commissioner Frits Bolkestein gets his way they aren’t. According to the FT the European Commission is expected to say on October 6 that Turkey has reformed enough for membership negotiations to begin. If this happens EU leaders will then decide in December whether to endorse those conclusions [...]

Just got back from a week in Russia, which was interesting timing indeed. A bomb at the Riga train station the day I arrived. The battle and massacre in Beslan just days before I left.
I’ll have more to say tomorrow, but I wanted to ask if anyone among our readers can find a link to [...]

Well, no, it looks as if it’s for real, and for once it’s European. But whatever it is, or isn’t, Skype (the most popular of the Voice Over Internet - VOIP - applications) is certainly getting a lot of press coverage at the moment. James Fallows of the NYT has been kind enough to test [...]

Perhaps the most damaging effect of 9/11 and all that has followed will be its role in making divided loyalties one of the most dangerous things a person can have. From the beginning, while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still burning, any effort to hold non-trivial positions about terrorism and Islam [...]

In a state election (Landtagswahl) in the Saarland that was widely considered another benchmark for the approval of the German federal government’s reform efforts, particularly of the labour market deregulation programme known as “Hartz IV” - these elections are, often to a significant extent, second order national contests - the Social Democrats have been dealt [...]

About an hour and a half ago from the look of it.
The assault did not appear to be planned, but rather began with scattered fire that quickly erupted to a crescendo, punctuated by more blasts. Dozens of hostages — many barely dressed, their faces strained with fear and exhaustion - survived the assault, but [...]

It’s sometimes interesting to give some thought to the things we believe, and don’t believe, about people. For some George W Bush is one of the most ruthless US Presidents we have seen in years, for others he is apparently the perfect gentleman, playing exactly by the rule book:
Financial markets may be all ears on [...]

As appropriate for every one year old, afoe is currently experiencing some children’s disease. As you might have noticed, due to some still obscure reason, our MT installation has ceased accepting comments at some point on Wednesday.
Sorry for the inconvenience. Please bear with us as you would with your own toddler ;).
UPDATE: It seems the [...]

While most people are still banging their heads against their respective walls trying to figure out how to make a penny and a half with their blogs, Crooked Timber’s Daniel Davies comes up with an interesting and appropriately unusual leveraging solution: Buying the UK - or at least some chunks of it. Here’s the plan…

Today is the first anniversary of this weblog.
I have to say things worked out pretty well.
Happy birthday to us.