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Many factors push the country apart but hostility to EU budget proposals and 'Brussels powers' is a powerful means of bringing us together. Especially for Labour, argues Ed Jacobs, the Guardian Northerner's political commentor Share 9 inShare3 Email Tight-lipped. Standing up to Europe appeals to voters both in the north and the south. Photograph: Afp/Getty Images As I write this post, we do not yet know what the outcome will be of negotiations in Brussels over the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, or the EU budget for mere mortals such as you and me. But while the result of the long talks is still to come, the debate in Belgium finds itself at the heart of a political storm in the UK and not just one over EU finance. Demands that the UK allow prisoner voting and the permanent misery of the Euro crisis have led to a major loss of British confidence in all things European. Just a few weeks ago I wrote in the Guardian Northerner about how

Share breaking news, leave links to interesting articles online and chat about the week's events in our weekly open thread Share 0 inShare0 Email Share news links and your thoughts on the week in politics in our Friday open thread Photograph: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA I'm not writing my usual Politics Live blog today, but, as an alternative, here's Politics Live: readers' edition. It's intended to be a place where you can catch up with the latest news and find links to good politics blogs and articles on the web. Please feel free to use this as somewhere you can comment on any of the day's political stories - just as you do when I'm writing the daily blog. It would be particularly useful for readers to flag up new material in the comments - breaking news or blogposts or tweets that are worth passing on because someone is going to find them interesting. A lot of what I do on my blog is aggregation - finding the good stuff and passing it on - and yo

Ann Czernik has been out on the streets for the Guardian Northerner with Respect and the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition candidates as the run-in starts for the vote on Thursday 29 November Share 11 inShare0 Email Ann Czernik guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 November 2012 10.00 GMT Jump to comments (17) 1 / 12 Exit gallery and go to previous page George Galloway, who won the Bradford West by-election in May, advises party supporters in Rotherham on Respect's best way to campaign. Photograph: Ann Czernik for the Guardian

s continent slips deeper into economic crisis, there are better ways to spend our money than on burgeoning rights industry Share 10 inShare1 Email Judges in the European court of human rights. Photograph: Vincent Kessler/REUTERS Future historians of the decline of Europe may ponder the events of the past week with astonishment. As the continent slipped further towards poverty – relative in some cases, absolute in others – it quarrelled over votes for British prisoners and the pension accrual rate of officials in Brussels. Closer to home a vocal minority within the Anglican church explicitly wrecked a long-sought goal of the majority to permit the ordination of women bishops – and did so, they solemnly declared, to prevent a schism within the same worldwide communion. In the background, government ministers promised an early vote on gay marriage with an explicit promise that churches which do not wish to perform them will not be forced to do so. What do all these issues have i

Rochdale retailer Paul Turner-Mitchell is struck by young people's stories of seeking work at today's Greater Manchester Youth Summit. He calls for action in a real crisis, with a quarter of under-24s in the north west jobless Share 13 inShare4 Email Young people are taking the biggest hit in the 'no growth' economy. But retailers need and want apprentices. Freezing business rates could square the circle. Photograph: Alamy Today saw the Greater Manchester Youth Summit, a call for local action and a fantastic platform for young people. Be under no illusion, there is a youth unemployment crisis here in the North West. Over 130,000 of those aged 16-24 – one in four young people active in the labour market, are unemployed, the highest level for almost 25 years. It was heart wrenching to listen to some of those young people struggling to find work, almost pleading to given a chance, trying desperately to change a stereotypical view many people have of the youth of

German chancellor rallied behind prime minister as she blocked an attempt to isolate the UK in budget negotiations Share 25 inShare1 Email Angela Merkel, pictured arriving at the EU summit on Friday morning, rallied behind David Cameron after an attempt to isolate UK at the budget summit. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/REUTERS David Cameron arrived in Brussels on Thursday with criticism ringing in his ears that he was isolated in Europe after pledging to use the eurozone crisis to repatriate EU powers. The prime minister left Brussels with a spring in his step on Friday evening after showing that – in the budget negotiations at least – he is absolutely not isolated. A clear alliance of four rich nations – Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – joined forces to make clear that Herman Van Rompuy's plans for a €973bn (£786bn) EU budget were unacceptable. Angela Merkel even signalled her dissatisfaction with what she saw as an attempt by Van Rompuy, the European counci

The Rotherham fostering row and a Tory report suggesting an electoral pact have given a boost to Nigel Farage's party Share 16 inShare0 Email Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA Gosh, Christmas has come early for Ukip's leader, Nigel Farage. Still only November and he's opened two presents already: the gift-of-a-row over the foster parents case in byelection Rotherham on Saturday, and then a Conservative party report suggesting that David Cameron sign a non-aggression pact with Farage's stop-the-world-we-want-to-get-off party before the 2015 general election. Admittedly the report was written by Michael Fabricant, the likeable MP for Lichfield, famous for his blonde wigs, whose authorship would require us to take him seriously, a word I have not previously heard attached to Fabricant in thought or deed, nice, herbivorous man though this former DJ – known as "Mickey Fab" – undoubtedly is. Cameron has an electoral problem with Uk