Welcome To The EU Canada

It is the pure bad luck of geography that Canada finds itself a neighbour of the United States while the nutty right wing facists are in control and unless the tectonic plates are going into overdrive soon, there is nothing they can do about it but they have been making eyes at the EU recently and the EU have been winking and playing footsie straight back at them.
With the sex pest (probable) pedophile in the White House handing out tariffs and generally treating Canada the same way as he does Moscow Hotel mattresses, last month, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot floated the idea that Canada could one day join the European Union, with Finnish president Alexander Stubb likewise suggesting to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney that he should think about joining the EU.
In a February 2026 poll conducted by Abacus Data it found that 48% of Canadians support Canada becoming a member of the EU and that the feeling is reciprocated on our side of the Atlantic with the five largest EU member states, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, all saying that they would support admitting Canada to the European Union.
The most obvious obstacle to Canadian accession to the EU is geography and Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union limits membership to 'European states' which is a problem for a North American country.
That said Canada does have partnerships with the EU such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which lowers tariffs, expands market access and created mechanisms for regulatory cooperation and investment protection and there are nations outside of the EU (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and to some degree the UK) who have treaties signed with the EU so things are possible outside of actual membership.
Another option could be to expand the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between Canada and the EU which was signed in 2016, and was designed to 'deepen and broaden bilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues such as international peace and security, counter-terrorism, human rights and nuclear non-proliferation, clean energy and climate change, migration and peaceful pluralism, sustainable development, and innovation'.
Obviously opening the EU up to nations outside of Europe could be a sore point and bring all sorts of problems but i'd be open to it, just as long as it doesn't give them a free pass to the Eurovision Song Contest, that would be a step too far for the nation that gave us Bryan Adams and Justin Bieber. 

Why Nuclear Power At All?

When it comes to Nuclear Power, i am very much undecided as on the one hand it is clean energy compared to fossil fuels but then it does create waste which remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years and if their is an accident at the plants...all out disaster, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 spread radiation across Europe and substantial parts of Belarus and Ukraine are still cordoned off today.
A poll by YouGov 40 years on from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, shows that i am not the only one with Britons divided on whether nuclear energy is safe.
The Government have recently given the green light to a new power station in Anglesey but around half of Brits (51%) generally support the use of nuclear power with 37% saying we should actively be getting more of its energy from nuclear with 23% believing the UK should reduce the amount of electricity it gets from nuclear energy.
The big take away is that nuclear has fewer enthusiasts than renewable energy sources with 55% wanting the UK to get more of its energy from onshore wind, 63% favouring more energy from bio-fuel and geothermal sources, 67% wanting more offshore wind or hydro-electric power, and 73% backing more electricity being generated through tidal and solar power.
As the Chernobyl disaster demonstrated, nuclear power stations do have the potential to go very badly wrong and 45% believe that today's nuclear energy is typically safe and it may well be but the highly toxic waste, currently we have 4.58 million cubic meters, enough to fill Wembley, which we are struggling to deal with (currently it is in storage while trying to develop a long-term solution to bury it) which has a half life ranging between decades and 100,000 years so until that problem is sorted, generating even more seems we are merely switching a problem of polluting the air to polluting the ground.
Why we are not putting as much money and resources into renewable sources as we do nuclear is a question for the politicians but it does seem madness to be looking at a nuclear answer when ramping up the much cleaner and safer wind, solar and tidal power is the obvious solution.

Special Guest Blogger: Marcus Junius Brutus

Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed followers of Roman scandal, i'm the man history remembers as the guy who stabbed his best friend for the greater good.
My life was a tragicomic romp through power, betrayal, and the eternal struggle to outwit a man who clearly needed to learn the meaning of the word moderation.
My family name was as esteemed as a boiled asparagus as in it was rare, revered, and occasionally stabbed with a fork. The Brutus's were Rome’s answer to a well-tailored toga as we were conservative, respectable, and slightly stiff at dinner parties. My ancestors could have founded a bank, but instead, they opted for the more dramatic career of assassination conspiracy starters. (My great-uncle once poisoned a rival by hiding poison in a fig).
Growing up, I was drilled with the virtues of libertas or freedom and the necessity of looking very solemn in public portraits. I mastered the art of the deadpan stare by age 12 which set the stage for my most esteemed career choice: political theater.
Now, let’s talk about the man I’ll forever be linked to, Julius Caesar. A brilliant general? Undoubtedly. A master of self-promotion? Beyond reproach but by the time Caesar returned to Rome, he was as popular as a chariot salesman at a gladiator’s birthday party.
My problem with Caesar was he had the ego of a man who’d just been anointed by Zeus himself and he was exhausting. In hindsight, maybe I should’ve sent him a strongly worded letter but instead, I joined a stabbing circle.
Assassinating a leader is never a decision to make lightly or, you know, at all. But there we were, a ragtag group of senators with more spears than sense, plotting in the shadow of Caesar’s growing tyranny.
The day of the assassination was a masterclass in chaos. I arrived at the Senate with a heart full of conviction and a sleeve full of daggers. Caesar, ever the drama queen, walked in looking suspiciously unimpressed by the 40-something men lurking in togas. When I finally plunged my blade into his back, he muttered, 'Et tu, Brute?' which is a line that would later be overquoted by Shakespearean actors.
So was I the good guy who did it for Rome or the bad guy who betrayed his best mate but in my defence Caesar was a terrible leader although after Caesar’s death, things unraveled. Antony, our friend’s rival, turned the people against me with a speech that made me sound like the villain and i fled to Greece, raised an army, and faced Antony at the Battle of Philippi.
Spoiler: I lost. Spectacularly and my final moments were a mix of dignity, bad swordsmanship, and a truly dreadful last speech. I’d scripted something inspiring about liberty and legacy, but I died with my head held high, especially when it was cut off and held up for the baying crowd to see.

Europe Celebrating

Donald Trump: Those European countries are absolutely horrible to refuse to support our war in Iran so I'm going to withdraw US troops from Europe.
Europe: Woo Hoo.
Donald Trump: I mean it, no more US Troops in Europe.
Europe: We heard. Very sad, boo hoo, so do you need a hand packing?
Donald Trump: Do you understand what that means?
Europe: Yep, hey Macron, got the Champagne?
Donald Trump: I'm not joking.
Europe: Are you still here?
Donald Trump: If you won't help me in my war why should we have Troops there?
Europe: Good point, so you promise not to come back? No crossed fingers or anything?
Donald Trump: No, gone forever.
Europe: And you are promising that? You don't have a great reputation for telling the truth you know.
Donald Trump:  I swear it.
Europe: Result!! So long, farewell Auf Wiederseh'n, adieu
Donald Trump: <silence>
Europe: Has he gone or just fallen asleep again?  
Donald Trump: <silence>
Europe: Frederiksen, Macron, Merz, Meloni, Sánchez, grab a bottle and head to Downing Street. Its Party Time!!!!

Antidisestablishmentarianism

The Church of England is the established state church, with King Charles III as its Supreme Governor and 26 bishops sitting in the House of Lords so there is a close relationship with the state which means that as an establishment, the state can withdrawal it's recognition known as disestablishment which will annoy some churchy types who will try to oppose it which is called antidisestablishmentarianism.
Yep, i had to Google all that but the serious point is that as Church numbers fall to unsustainable levels, why is the Church of England still holding such sway over matters when only a small percentage of us actually pay any attention to it?
So to some antidisestablishmentarianisers (made up word?), they don't believe that establishments such as the CoE should be disestablished but if many of us had our way, we would remove all traces of religion from having any representation with the State which makes them supporting  prosestablishmentarianism i guess but whatever, it isn't going to happen so it's all actually floccinaucinihilipilification but at least having  a word like antidisestablishmentarianism bandied around annoys the people with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, and that's worth something.