The 48-hour-work-trip-with-only-an-iPhone-17-because-I-left-my-laptop-on-the-sofa Challenge starts now!

Ah, it’s not the Member States who have spent the last few decades blocking all meaningful progress on a range of reforms who need to get serious, but the Commission, which doesn’t even have a vote on these issues. Right.

Kind of gives away the whole game that all the crypto ads this year have been replaced with gambling and AI ads.

Welcome to Blue Labour who fantasise about a working class that hasn’t existed for decades and long for an economic policy that was divorced from reality when Benn first suggested it, never mind now.

The Downing Street chief of staff's job just can't be 'winning the election'. That's someone else's job! It would be like if someone went 'he was ruthlessly focussed on cost control in Whitehall's canteens'....okay, but that's *someone else's job*!

🇭🇺🇪🇺 "Hungary's opposition Tisza party plans to introduce a wealth tax for the rich, adopt the euro currency and firmly anchor Hungary in the European Union and NATO, its 240-page election programme published on Saturday said." @reuters.com

Serious people abroad taking PET (Putin-Epstein-Trump) seriously. www.reuters.com/world/poland...

"Bernard-Henri Lévy, celui que ma concierge prend pour un journaliste, les journalistes pour un philosophe et les philosophes pour ma concierge." Pierre Bourdieu, Recueil Interventions, 1961-2001

I guess Blue Labour will never have been really tried…

Early start for Liège to drop in on a work event but the reward of an hour reading in a sunny café waiting for @dzyrl.bsky.social. Then an afternoon at the Grand Curtius museum which is as extensive as its name suggests.

Singapore as a model has faded away in the U.K. Not doable in Belgium either. Politicians have to craft some visions. De Wever argues for scale and proposes to reconstitute the Spanish Netherlands, sans Espagnole, with LU as a single state. Catnip for the base!

The outlets so far, as far as I can see, are reporting this as a single event. It is not. It's the Third time at least Reform have run this. Patricia Clegg is a real person, but what they did with her letter, is Reforms work. They blamed the Printer, the Printer has apologised. THREE TIMES?

I haven’t read the book yet but this “Singapore model” nonsense is 🙄 Dans un essai, Bart De Wever propose le modèle de Singapour pour remettre la Belgique sur les rails www.dhnet.be/actu/belgiqu...

Good public services are good politics, and good for democracy. “Cost recovery” of this sort is spoiling the ship for a pennyworth of tar.

to me this is one of the craziest things in these texts. Epstein set up meetings with board members of Open Society Foundation, the Soros group, dangling his money but using the meetings as intelligence gathering opportunities. He would then pass on strategy tips to Bannon, to help him destroy OSF.

Every Winter Olympian‘s bio during this opening ceremony is “The child of diplomats, he learned short track skating during his parents UN posting in Geneva. He switched to luge after excelling on the internal JP Morgan track during his internship.” #openingceremomy #winterolympics

"Voter suppression is one of the core tools of authoritarianism. It is how you shift from democracy to autocracy. And for millions of Americans, it’s about to become the norm" www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

Eeek!

this is the crux of my argument: the House of Commons just wasn't built with "over 600 pretty normal and reasonably clever professionals who love being in Parliament" in mind, and that's why everything's broken now youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/politics-i...

Remember the controversy when Obama was accused of intervening in UK politics? This is the current US government openly seeking to undermine liberal democracy in Europe.

Good work, everyone. Let’s keep it up.

Interesting podcast on the far right in Belgium, why it barely exists in Wallonie and why it nearly fell apart in Flanders - I learned a lot. overcast.fm/+AABkOEQEgxo

This is what makes democracy work

This quote from a Reform UK councillor sums it up beautifully. Cross-boundary moral outrages, exported online and sold (especially, but not exclusively) to generations that grew up before the internet, are such a central feature of radicalisation today. www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/ne...

Having seen "Playboy of the Western World" in London a couple of weeks ago, I will be displacing myself again to see "The Plough and the Stars" at the Abbey Theatre for its 100th anniversary. Riotous.

Rare actual work post on Bluesky but at least this photo is acceptable. Lovely to be on a panel with @sofiemarien.bsky.social too, after many years of nearly crossing paths.

After a short break, the first panel of the #ActEU Final Conference will begin 👉 Sofie Marien, @anthonyzach.be, @valeriefrey.bsky.social & @alexhartland.bsky.social will discuss political trust in democracy. Keep following the conference on our YouTube channel 👉 youtube.com/live/YVOClu1...

"Participatory approaches can help restore trust in democracy, but they are too small-scale. We have a greater job to do than organising multiple citizen assemblies, we need to reclaim the social conversation & re-build trustworthy networks among citizens," states @anthonyzach.be (@demsoc.org). /9

Important indeed to remember that for all the political positioning about the Le Pen appeal her conviction is for stealing public money. And it's not a technicality.

Francophone centre right leader following the populist playbook - undermine institutions, attack the media www.demorgen.be/politiek/dit...

Not surprising that the European far right were being pushed to support CrimeCoin by the American far right. Strange to have such a clear set of receipts.

The MFRR partners strongly condemn the proposals of the Georgian Dream ruling party to implement a series of legislative amendments that would impose additional restrictions and penalties on recipients of grants and foreign funding. https://ow.ly/KClm50Y7rtm

I've got an instant eye glaze now (and a swift resolution that we won't be working together in any professional capacity) when I see the proudly-posted phrase "I asked ChatGPT..." Kids, I literally hire for judgement first and foremost

I call on Member States: join forces to develop AI together for our defence. Because we need now to become a European giant in defence, a European giant in AI. Full speech at the aidefencesummit.eu ⬇️ 🔗 ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

He should give the FIFA 2026 Peace Prize to Putin

Who leaked this Number 10 discussion to Jeffrey Epstein? And are there consequences for the leaker? It’s an internal discussion re. getting markets moving in the aftermath of the financial crisis. No doubt of great interest to Epstein and his financial market clients.

New Tricks and AI Tools in Hungary’s High-Stakes Election (In Carnegie Europe; by Zsuzsanna Szelényi) Viktór Orbán "will use unprecedented methods of electoral manipulation to secure victory and maintain power". carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...

Also evidence that essentially eliminating irregular immigration - as Australia has - doesn't, by itself, stop the radical right.

I hear the new Dutch coalition agreement includes this (translation): “We are also investigating the introduction of an electoral threshold and a new electoral system for the House of Representatives, in which preferential votes are given more weight.” Fascinating to see how this plays out.

The US-Ireland Alliance has removed the name of Former Senator George Mitchell from their scholarship programme due to his links with the late disgraced financier and convicted child sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein

5 classes you took in university 1. Food and Famine in the Roman World 2. Athenian Democracy 3. Christianity before the Edict of Milan (=early Christianity) 4. Greek Comedy 5. Introduction to Comparative Linguistics I think about something to do with one of these pretty much every day.

Truly the classic far right campaign - “vote for me because you hate the other guy. Neither you nor I care what my party policies are”

I could well have sent this postcard myself in 1982 or thereabouts.

if Musk is doing this for London crime, what do you think he is doing for content about American politics, an issue that affects him much more directly?

Op 1 februari 1953 veroorzaakte een zware noordwesterstorm in combinatie met springtij grootschalige overstromingen in Zeeland, West-Brabant en de Zuid-Hollandse eilanden. Deze Watersnoodramp geldt als de grootste Nederlandse natuurramp van de 20ste eeuw. 1/3

2026 is going to be a great year to run for office. Filing deadlines are coming up fast -- in most places, it's not too late to get on the ballot. We'll help you get started. runforwhat.net

Getting strong Clegg vibes. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think Jetten may find out that D66 voters are more anti-right than he imagines.

One more plug for my Substack piece on the by-election everyone's talking about, which is taking place right down the road from me... open.substack.com/pub/swingome...

Planning a football weekend in Nederland with the kid and PSV require a security check that is only available to people with accounts at Dutch banks, presumably to drive you to the "package" tickets that don't require a PSV account, are four times the price and include vouchers I don't want.

Very good piece by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com.... The US under Trump 2.0 has shifted towards authoritarianism as record speed but unlike other examples (e.g. Putin, Orban) it's happened by bypassing institutions rather than permanently corrupting them... www.ft.com/content/b474...