Up to now it has been a harsh year for European politics. For the UK, Brexit has resulted in Westminster losing its grip on a political process and, if it is not careful, will also lose control over its representative democracy. Elsewhere in Europe, the populist AfD is progressing in Germany, the Italian coalition is […]
Europe
Why Ann Widdecombe Got Her French “Leave” Terribly Wrong
A trilogy of posts on Ann Widdecombe! I cannot believe that I’m wasting my time on an old lady who is well past her “sell-by” date. I promise that you will not see another post on her from this particular IP address. Promise that, I do. But it sprang to my attention that no one […]
Internal Affairs – How Marine Le Pen And Emmanuel Macron Misused The European Elections
I cannot deny the truth. Marine Le Pen won the European Parliament elections in France, with a whopping 23% after just over half the electorate had decided to go out and vote. Her new party, the Rassemblement National, has performed just as well as her old party, the Front National, did in the European elections […]
European Parliament – 50 Shades Of Green
If the newly elected Green MEP’s can convince the others to bike it between Brussels and Strasbourg, voting Green will not have been a waste of time. Not that I voted Green, of course. Shame on me. Has my subscription to an electronic version of Nature Climate Change (no dead trees for me) tought me […]
Bye-Bye Mrs May And Take Your Brexit With You!
Theresa May has finally realised that nobody actually likes her and many more even hate her – as a politician, that is, not as a person. I am not to judge what sort of person she is. If I’m honest, there’s a part of me that feels sorry for Mrs M. She reminds me of […]
Auschwitz – Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives
No one wanted to know. No one wanted to listen to what I had to say. But I made a commitment that people don’t want to hear but I’m going to make sure that they will. Not in the history of mankind has there been industrial killing on this scale. If something happened once, there […]
If Jeremy Corbyn’s The Answer To Brexit, What The Hell Was The Question?
The Labour priority is to negotiate a trading relationship with the European Union to protect jobs and to defend the living standards that we have through regulation, but also to make sure that the jobs in the manufacturing industry and in food supply chains are protected. – Jeremy Corbyn For a man who […]
Brexit Has Become A European War Of Religion
The latest ramblings in the House of Commons just serve to emphasize what we already knew. Brexit has become a European war of religion. Like the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots, the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and the 80 years war in the Netherlands, Brexit is a religious war where dialogue is just not possible. […]
2016 And All That: The Rise And Fall Of “Homo brexitus”
In 2016, the UK witnessed the appearance of a new “species” of citizen – Homo brexitus. I certainly do not use this description in a pejorative way. It’s just a term that I found useful – before the Guardian did – to describe the citizens of my motherland who “fell out of love” with the […]
The Importance Of Reasoned Criticism
The freedom to express reasoned criticism that is shocking for some, and disturbing for others, is a prerequisite for a free life. The point of a personal blog is to give the chance for little people like me to air their views and comment on matters or events they find important. I do […]