Chris Davies, a Liberal Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North-West of the UK, is a member of the Budget Control Committee of the European Parliament. As he told BBC’s Today Programme (listen here), he discovered, quite by chance, that Parliament’s auditors had made a report detailing abuses on a vast scale, abuses that suggest some MEPs are simply plundering the system to enrich themselves.

A quote from The Daily Telegraph, 21 February 2008

Britain is experiencing the worst "brain drain" of any country as highly qualified professionals settle abroad, an authoritative international study showed yesterday. […] There are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly-skilled university graduates, […] according to the study by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

A quote from Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker, 25 February 2008

Like neoclassical economics, much democratic theory rests on the assumption that people are rational. Here, too, empirical evidence suggests otherwise. Voters, it has been demonstrated, are influenced by factors ranging from how names are placed on a ballot to the jut of a politician’s jaw. A 2004 study of New York City primary-election results put the advantage of being listed first on the ballot for a local office at more than three per cent – enough of a boost to turn many races. (For statewide office, the advantage was around two per cent.) A 2005 study, conducted by psychologists at Princeton, showed that it was possible to predict the results of congressional contests by using photographs. Researchers presented subjects with fleeting images of candidates’ faces. Those candidates who, in the subjects’ opinion, looked more “competent” won about seventy per cent of the time.

A quote from Daniel Hannan MEP at his blog, 20 February 2008

I and a handful of MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] marked the passage of the [Lisbon] Bill by wearing tee-shirts with the word “referendum”. A group of UKIP members had an amusing variant on the theme. They wore bright yellow tops with a picture of a hen, and the caption Too chicken for a referendum?

Today the European Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty. It did so by a large majority of its 785 members but 115 voted against and 160 failed to register a vote at all.

As a demonstration against the Treaty some of the UKIP staff were dressed as chickens to point out the cowardice of the European Elite. They want to foist the Constitution upon the people, but they do not dare to ask the people whether they want it.

The Head of Security and a pack of security guards chased us around the building until there was a stalemate. He informed me that "costumes are against the rules of the Parliament". I demanded to see the rule where this was stated. He could not provide any proof of his claims.

On Tuesday morning, 19th February, a man called the Foreign Office in London to express his opposition to London’s decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. He was surprised to be put through immediately to the Kosova desk, where an official took the call – just hours after the British envoy in Pristina had been to the government of the newly independent province to present his credentials. He delivered his protest but in vain. The official already had the official arguments well rehearsed, and indeed they were presented to the public on the radio on Monday morning, the day after the proclamation of independence, by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

Are there any women on this picture?

A quote from Prof. Stephen Bainbridge at his blog, 18 February 2008

[I]f Russia decided to oppose Kosovan independence with armed force, could it? A look at a map shows that the demise of the Warsaw Pact and the breakup of the Soviet Union leaves Russia with no obvious land route by which its troops could intervene. With the Russian Air Force’s sizeable inventory of AN-124s, however, one may assume that Russia could airlift some forces into Serbia. […]

A quote from John Zmirak at Takimag, 19 February 2008

The battle for Kosovo was lost not in 2007 or in 1999, but a century ago, when the birthrate among its Albanian population vastly outpaced that of its Christians. The “revenge of the cradle” has ridden to power in Kosovo on the inexorable logic of one-man, one-vote. Or should we say, one womb, seven votes? […]

Today, President Bush said that the United States will soon “establish full diplomatic relations with the new nation of Kosovo.” There is, however, no ‘nation of Kosovo.’ The new so-called independent and sovereign country of Kosovo is a postmodern fantasy. Like Belgium (and the future European superstate) Kosovo is a state without a nation.

Look at the flag most Kosovars were waving when they declared their independence. It was not the flag of the new state (a blue flag with white stars and a yellow map of Kosovo), but the Albanian national flag: the black double-headed eagle on a field of red. The Albanians, who constitute 90% of Kosovo’s population, have been pushing for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia since Yugoslavia began to unravel in the late 1980s. The Albanians, or Skipetars as they call themselves, are one of the oldest peoples inhabiting the Western parts of the Balkans. They trace their descent from the Illyrians who lived in the area before Roman times – long before Slavic tribes arrived in the Balkans.