A short post today, since in all my cleverness I left my power adapter on the other side of the Atlantic and I can’t face the thought of typing all I want to say on a phone.

Last night, I took part in a roundtable discussion on the European elections, at the Centre of Excellence in Montreal. The evening kicked off with a speech from former parliament president, Klaus Hänsch, and we all had a great debate amongst the participants.

There is a lot I want to talk about, but I’ll save that for my return to the UK. Suffice to say that one of the key lessons I took from the evening was that just because sceptics do not have a credible alternative to the European Union, it doesn’t mean the EU model is without problems. If we don’t recognise the failings, we can’t address them.

While I think on that (and watch the movies on the plane) I’ll recommend a couple of things for you.

Firstly, the newly established EPERN blog offers some useful insights into eurosceptic parties and activities. It’s a new element of EPERN’s work and one that that I see becoming a valuable addition to academic debate on the subject.

Secondly, I would share the results of the latest Guardian league tables, which place Surrey 6th, both as a whole and for Politics.

It is a constant pleasure to work with my colleagues and it’s great to see that all their hard work has been rewarded this way. Likewise, given the amount of student input into the creation of these rankings, it is deeply pleasing to feel that we have been able to create such a positive space for them. Congratulations to all of you!