The 'Jasmine Revolution', spreading through the Arab world in the past month like a prairie fire, has highlighted the power that the internet has to create political change. Using social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter to organise themselves and to gather support, protestors are putting pressure on autocratic ...
Tomorrow I will be addressing a regional seminar attended by all four Conservative MEPs from across the South-East on our planned work for the next year. The area I represent informally for the Conservative Party in the Thames Valley accounts for a combined population of over two million, covering over ...
How can the Thames Valley, and in particular Oxfordshire, provide the best digital infrastructure for the future? This was the question raised at the first 'Digital Summit' for the county which was hosted at the Culham Conference Centre, Abingdon, on Saturday 25 September. I suggested the idea of a digital ...
As the European Parliament moves towards summer recess, and Members move into holiday mode - its a good moment to look back over the past six months to understand why politicians feel relieved that they have survived the unexpectedly tumultuous times through which they have lived (next week's blog will ...
Readers of this blog will know that a favourite theme of mine is looking at the digital economy, which is now becoming the economy as technology permeates every aspect of our lives today. I touched on the subject of the Internet being friend or foe on 19 June last year ...
Talking about influencing the political agenda, here is a great opportunity. Among the many items Barroso talked about in his political spiel for re-election (in otherwords, his 41 page document!), he said that the European Commission would develop a European Digital Agenda, but hasn't given any details. Surprising that in ...
This week in Strasbourg José Manuel Barroso has been voted in by a large majority of MEPs in favour of his second term as Commission President. Was this a rubber stamp?
Certainly not. It was a vote by directly elected Parliamentarians on a secret ballot, expressing their view as to whether ...
This blog entry completes a cycle of twelve blog posts which I have written since 8 May 2009 and will be the last before we head into the summer break and recess. It is an ideal moment to reflect on what has passed and what is to come.
You will see ...
