LondONline - Comments

Welcome to the world in London - Terre

Terre — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:34:43 +00:00

A big bonus, if you have any information regarding this murder.
Your privacy will be respected.
Somewhere somebody knows something is very important for us.
http://esfandiar-ebrahimitajadod.bl...
Many thanks

Welcome to the world in London - John Charlie

John Charlie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:56:28 +00:00

Great post, thanks for the information, I had great luck finding a New Career at http://www.careermatches.org/index....

How to organize a successful Music Event for cafebabel.com London...by Maira Fj - John Charlie

John Charlie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:56:19 +00:00

Great post, thanks for the information, I had great luck finding a New Career at http://www.careermatches.org/index....

Our newly created team - John Charlie

John Charlie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:55:21 +00:00

Great post, thanks for the information, I had great luck finding a New Career at http://www.careermatches.org/index....

Come and meet us - John Charlie

John Charlie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:51:09 +00:00

Great post, thanks for the information, I had great luck finding a New Career at http://www.careermatches.org/index....

Come and meet us - Riccardo

Riccardo — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:06:11 +01:00

Hi!

I've tried to write you, but apparentely the email isn't working. Have you got any other email?

Come and meet us - alejka

alejka — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:54:09 +01:00

Hello!

I am a fresher at UCL from this year onwards! I have been translating for cafebabel for two years almost and now I have read about you local team in London. Could I join? What are the projects you are doing at the moment? Do you organise debates or meeting with some people? Do you meet on regular basis?

Our newly created team - Vané

Vané — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:34:03 +01:00

Congratulations!!

Our newly created team - Tomas Ruta

Tomas Ruta — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:28:25 +01:00

Good luck to the new team!

How to organize a successful Music Event for cafebabel.com London...by Maira Fj - Composer

Composer — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:51:27 +01:00

"the name spitz, i have to say, really help", ;)

The Science Museum - grazvi

grazvi — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:17:35 +01:00

I've been there last summer. It is really impressing.

Does the EU's Reform Treaty Erode the UK's Sovereignty? - Martin Cole

Martin Cole — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:34:25 +01:00

Nina,

If you consider what happened after the Santer Commission resigned it is difficult to discern what if anything changed.

The Marin Commission was exactly the same as the Santer Commission and Edith Cresson who the Parliament felt should step down actually survived. The Commission resigned to protect one of their own who was demonstraby corrupt and all retained their jobs and huge perks. Hardly an advertisement for either democratic accountability or the imaginery powers of the EU Parliament. (Which actuallt solely exists to re-cycle taxpayers funds back to the political parties in the member states as rewards for selling off their citizens sovereignty).

Note especially that when later found guilty of this fraud Mme Cresson did not even suffer the loss of her EU pension:

http://www.businessupdated.com/show...

Regarding the competencies not necessarily handled by elected officials, in most democratic countries such officials are normally answerable to elected ministers. The division of power between ministers and their civil service is however a murky area especially as it went before 1997. I think the Blair Governments affected that balance and that Brown could go even further in reducing civil service powers but that remains to be seen.

The greatest danger I see in the new Reform Treaty is that it conflicts with one of the most important powers namely that no Parliament can bind its successors.

I think of sovereignty in Britain as having been taken from our various monarchs from Magna Carta and the Civil War down to the Glorious Revolution and that it rests with the people. The Constitutional Monarch then lends that sovereignty or power of the people to Parliaments for their fixed terms. That power is periodically renewed or withdrawn at General Elections and the monarch is required to bestow those powers on the peoples choice of elected representatives.

All this has been eroded by the various EU Treaties to the point where it is now proposed that Parliament will almost solely exist to support the European Union, which will have its own identity and powers to amend its working procedures without even a hint of ever being required to obtain periodic consent from the governed.

I hope the EU Reform Treaty will be rejected by one or more of the 27 parliaments involved to witness so much democracy being destroyed almost by sleight of hand would be a tragedy for the entire Continent and the outside world. I fear that further rejections in referenda will now be ignored and overcome.

Does the EU's Reform Treaty Erode the UK's Sovereignty? - Nina

Nina — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:38:13 +01:00

I see your point. You are saying, essentially, that because you cannot remove members of the European Commission or the European Central Bank from power, the EU is undemocratic. The Commission is main competencies are regulatory policy and competition policy. The ECB handles monetary policy.

Tell me, before these competencies were given to the Commission and the ECB, were elected officials ever in charge of these areas? What I'm trying to get at is that even in a democracy, there are some policies, particularly those that try to achieve efficiency rather than redistribution and where the average voter does not have enough knowledge to make an informed decision on who to elect or sack, that are better handled by less democratic standards.

You can in fact remove the Commission from power without bloodshed. Think of the Santer Commission in 1999. The ECB, however, is another story, and should be a separate post all of its own.

The Science Museum - Hans

Hans — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:12:05 +01:00

This issss progress. What next?

Does the EU's Reform Treaty Erode the UK's Sovereignty? - Martin Cole

Martin Cole — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:47:09 +01:00

Democracy is the power to periodically remove those who govern us without bloodshed according to Karl Popper.

We cannot hand sovereignty ie 'the power to rule' to a non- democratic power that we cannot remove or we will have the opposite of Popper's democracy definition - what he describes as a 'tyranny'.

Living in London is… - Nina

Nina — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:58:34 +01:00

Another offbeat thing to do is to check out the British Science Museum's exhibits on the history of medicine. It certainly gives you an appreciation for modern technology - for better or worse.

In the display you'll find old medical instruments that you would think had been used to torture prisoners, not to heal patients. Pacemakers were the size of a 4x4, a roof-shaft made for a blood-cooling device, kidney dialysis was performed with what looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

There is also a section with sculptures depicting the historical evolution of medicine. It really shows how far we've come in the last 2000 years. In the earliest days, the museum shows how the cavemen believed that sickness was caused by demons in the brain, so they'd use rocks to make holes in peoples' skulls to let the demons escape. On the Roman battlefield, soldiers would be healed in private homes. During the Medieval times, cathedrals served as hospitals. During battles at sea in the 17th to 19th centuries, some people got limbs amputated without anything but a shot of whisky and a piece of leather to bite on for comfort.

Even on land, people were not drugged before surgical operations up through the mid-1800s. The surgeon would perform operations in a suit and bare hands and other people could stand around and observe. Until the early 20th century, doctors' offices were normally just a furnished room in their house (sometimes this is still around today, but is rare).

After looking at how much things have evolved even in the last 50 years, I would rather wait another 50 years and let things evolve even more before my next doctor's appointment!

Welcome to the world in London - Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:42:47 +01:00

Hi everyone....nice to see that I got to stay in the picture of the great London team...I miss you all. Good luck with the blog and continue with all the great work Karo!!!!

Welcome to the world in London - Guillaume newropeans.eu

Guillaume newropeans.eu — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:20:24 +01:00

Hi London!
I am a chemist ... then I might enjoy the London for science enthusiast.
I am voting for the "all things European in London"! If you do it, it would be nice to mention the Newropeans in London local group!
http://blogs.newropeans.eu/london/

Good luck with the blog!

Welcome to the world in London - Tomáš Ruta

Tomáš Ruta — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:48:52 +01:00

No; I gave up with cafebabel.com. Maybe next year. The problem is that York is too small a university.

But I did found a European Society and it has been a great success so far. We are a local antenna of AEGEE, and the local section of the Young European Movement UK (JEF UK). I originally wanted to have the cafe babel dimension as well, but this year it simply wasn't feasible.

xxx

Welcome to the world in London - Karo

Karo — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:58:47 +01:00

Good to see you're still alive Tomas! Did you get anywhere with cafebabel.com York?

You're hands look perfectly fine in the pictures, it's the perspective that makes you look a but bigger than everyone else!

Hope all is well!

Karolin***