Younger kid in revision mode just asked me to explain the Belgian electoral system.
Joblessgarrett: This Is My Moment Everybody!
ALT: Joblessgarrett: This Is My Moment Everybody!
static.klipy.com
Anthony Zacharzewski
@anthonyzach.be
Working to make European democracy work. "Refreshingly free of the usual platitudes". Belge par choix, Brits door opvoeding, Polish roots. President of Demsoc.org
Haha! Dutch partners: always there for you for a bit of constructive feedback. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
If you work in or around the field of political reform and the ongoing crisis of democracy in America, you may have noticed a new consensus emerging amidst the current wreckage. It rests on a few shared beliefs: substack.com/home/post/p-...
An Emerging New Consensus?
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
substack.com
This is the core of the X-brained right in the UK but also in the US and other parts of Europe. Only culture wars matter and they are driven from the centre. People’s public services and local communities do not matter unless we can exploit them as a talking point.
Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 8h agoIt's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.
Flipping through a 2025 Suske en Wiske (Flemish kids comic series) and pleased to see the right attitudes being inculcated.
Is it too much to ask of politicians that they actually go down to Brussels and ask what kind of relationship the EU would be interested in and that the subsequent analysis is based on this reality rather than a delusional dream world where the UK get to eat the cake and keep it too. /5
🚨🚨Apologies to say this but this plan is extremely detached from realities of #EU politics and completely fails to understand the political dynamics of #Brussels.
Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social · 10h agoNick Boles on his plan for a European confederation. Paper with Demos coming later www.thetimes.com/article/8459...
44% reduction in illegal crossings to the UK, funny how that doesn't seem to be all over the headlines in Britain.
Frontex@frontex.bsky.social · 4w ago📉 Irregular border crossings into the EU: down 37% in the first half of 2026 🔹 Just over 49 000 detections 🔹 Steepest drop: Western African route (-67%) 🔹 Only increase: Western Mediterranean (+17%) More info on our website.
Brits will demand any sort of European constitutional structure as long as it doesn't involve them having to acknowledge that they too are Europeans.
Jack Bailey@jack-bailey.co.uk · 9h agoOnce again we’re in the Arrested Development meme. Did trying to get single market access without free movement of people work in the past? God no … but it might work for us.
All Tomorrow’s Policies is a card deck that equips teams with methods to design both now-state and longer-term, more systemic policy solutions simultaneously www.publicpolicylab.org/resources/pu...
Public Service Design Kit: All Tomorrow's Policies | Public Policy Lab
All Tomorrow’s Policies is a methods deck that introduces how to design now-state policy solutions, while simultaneously developing and testing longer-term systems change.
publicpolicylab.org
Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.
The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed
The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.
bloomberg.com
Anyone who refuses care from a non-white member of NHS staff should be told to pay to go private.
Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · yesterdaynews.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest
I enormously enjoyed recording this PPF episode on Major Douglas’s Social Credit - a crank economic theory of the interwar period that caused immense frustration to mainstream intellectuals (including Keynes, Cole, Hobson and Gaitskell) but whose followers ended up taking power in Western Canada.
Past Present Future Podcast@ppfideas.bsky.social · 2d agoBONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In this PPF+ bonus David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about an idea of the 1920s & 30s: social credit, meant to usher in an age of abundance & freedom, producing conspiracy theories & crypto-fascism instead. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus
Like Loebs? Every fall semester, I like to remind people that while Perseus has many free Loebs sectioned up into book and chapter, if you want to download and read the public domain Loebs (277 of them) as PDFs or txt files, Duke U's very own Ryan Baumann created _Loebolus 📗📕_. ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/
Loebolus
ryanfb.xyz
In case you missed it yesterday, I talked about why I founded @demsoc.org, the problem with democratic agency and the future of political parties (and a lot of other things) on @democracyinnovator.bsky.social with Alessandro Oppo.
Anthony Zacharzewski@anthonyzach.be · 4w agoThanks to @democracyinnovator.bsky.social for a great conversation the other week. Now in your podcast feed: open.spotify.com/episode/6BCz...
#TIL that the Schelde / Escaut cannot have the same problem of low water as the Rhine as it is fed tidally, so even if its headwaters were dry, there would still be water as far as Gent (it would just be saltier).
On 4 August 1265, Simon de Monfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham during the Second Barons' War, ending his year-long ascendancy as the de facto ruler of England. Find out more about his greatest victory against Henry III at the Battle of Lewes below.
Simon de Montfort and the Battle of Lewes - The History of Parliament
On the anniversary of the battle of Lewes, news of a new play that explores the causes of the battle and we launch our 2015 conference website…
historyofparliament.com
More analysis on what happened in Ceuta and how many leaders in EU are caught by blowing up migration No good comes from it [not solution orientated] Something that can not be won against farright as for them facts matter little thriving on emotions and racism they have fed for years
The right’s exploitation of the Ceuta migrant ‘crisis’ almost guarantees that it will happen again | Ruben Andersson
The EU’s panic and the lack of solidarity emboldens smugglers and the far right – and makes Spain even more vulnerable, says Ruben Andersson, professor of social anthropology
theguardian.com
Anthony Zacharzewski@anthonyzach.be · yesterdayMany EU leaders are collapsing under a moment’s pressure on Ceuta but the hypocrisy of Meloni is particularly sickening. All those demands that Europe help Italy out on Lampedusa, and no-one asked for Italy to be excluded from Schengen. But as soon as a Social Democrat faces problems….
Many EU leaders are collapsing under a moment’s pressure on Ceuta but the hypocrisy of Meloni is particularly sickening. All those demands that Europe help Italy out on Lampedusa, and no-one asked for Italy to be excluded from Schengen. But as soon as a Social Democrat faces problems….
A lot of people today talking about an awful person who died but i want to make everyone aware of a good person who died: Northern Irish comedian Jimmy Cricket, who you should all look up if you don’t know. 10/10 all around wife guy, dad, granddad, and just a generally solid person
Vlaanderen & Wallonië… Je kan kiezen voor een polariserende aanpak zoals Jan Segers in Het Laatste Nieuws. Of je kan kiezen voor een verbindende aanpak zoals onderstaande serie van Jacques Hermans en Vincent Rocour in La Libre. Geef mij maar het tweede! bsky.app/profile/piet...
Piet Vervaecke@pietvervaecke.bsky.social · last wk.Ce que pensent les Flamands des Wallons et de la Wallonie via @lalibre.be (1/6): Anne Provoost www.lalibre.be/belgique/soc...
Lenin perverted Marxism, invented a new form of despotism, and permanently split the international socialist movement. Without his disastrous intervention, social democracy would likely have triumphed across Europe and forestalled the Second World War.
Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 2d agoI think I might hate Lenin too much to finish my Russian revolution book, every single one of his interventions is so loathsome it actively puts me in a bad mood
Well quite. I'm reading @harryshukman.bsky.social's excellent "Year of the Rat" at the moment and it was surprising/depressingly not surprising that in his dealings with the fringe racist far right in Britain, the AfD were present, and admired. More than even VB, VVD and RN, they are deeply racist.
DER SPIEGEL@spiegel.de · 2d agoZu den Unterzeichnern gehören Anwälte, Richter und Fachleute aus Verwaltung und Wirtschaft: Zahlreiche Juristen fordern die Einleitung eines AfD-Verbotsverfahrens. Sie fürchten einen »ernsthaften Schaden« für die Demokratie.
I'm sure that there are some (even on here) who will say "serves her right", but the human cost of the hybrid warfare in Ceuta is people like Faten, drowned at 20, and tens of others.
Rob Heirbaut@robheirbaut.bsky.social · 2d agoLatest reading: Eric Corijn's "The United Cities of Europe, to the rescue of democracy". A strong argument with one big missing element: the countryside and suburbs.
Reading: United Cities of Europe
Reading: Eric Corijn's "De Verenigde Steden van Europa : ter verdediging van de democratie" (The United Cities of Europe to the rescue of democracy). Overall, an argument that I like. Cities are spaces where national stories are quieter and local needs predominate. They are more multicultural than the average of the countries they are situated in. In an era where nationalism and division is rising again, cities can be the foundation of an effort to bring people and cultures together, and create a post-national democracy.
anthony.zacharzewski.eu
I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but I can make an exception.
German economy minister Reiche's answer to Chinese EV competition is to weaken vehicle emissions rules. What decade does she live in? Reiche: "It is important that Brussels now delivers on making fleet regulation flexible enough to ensure that no fines are imposed"
The far-right reactions are not the real problem. They do what they believe in. The big problem is the similar reactions from liberal democratic parties from left to right. And thát, more than anything, is the problem of the 21st century!
Nathalie Tocci@nathalietocci.bsky.social · 3d agoWhen an EU member is in trouble, esp if instigated from outside, as for Spain in Ceuta, solidarity should be the only EU response. Far-right reactions is yet more proof there’s no “moderate” far-right, only different ways far right forces seek to dismantle European integration