About

On this Ghost site (mirrored to Substack) I’ll mostly be writing about Europe, democracy and government (and often about Belgium and Brussels). 

There are three inspirations for the name. 

First, Jean Monnet.

“l’Europe ne se fera pas d’un coup , ni dans une construction d’ensemble, elle se fera par des réalisations concrètes créant d’abord une solidarité de fait” 

(Europe will not be made at once, or by a single plan, but by concrete achievements that first create a real solidarity). 

A lot has been achieved in Europe since those words were written, but we are at a turning point. Europe’s security is in question, action on climate change is attracting resistance, and the far right is on the march. In particular, we are all challenged to create and preserve that sense of “real solidarity” in the European public, who are looking to Europe to solve the biggest problems while being sceptical or even cynical about what democratic action can achieve. 

Second, “concrete achievements” reminds me of the importance of doing rather than commenting. As Chor Pharn says: 

There is no substitute for doing the real work. No story, currency, or code can by itself leapfrog the necessity of building turbines, training scientists, or caring for workers. We [should choose] to value doers over mere narrators. 

I was a civil servant for 14 years. The rest of my working life, I have led an international NGO called Democratic Society, supporting positive democratic change from local to global level. (Though views expressed on this site are personal). 

I know how hard it is to make things happen, particularly at national or global scale, so I will try to focus on how we do “the real work”, not just commenting from the side lines.

Third, a personal sense of urgency to get things done. 

I’ve been working on democracy for twenty years and it doesn’t feel like politics is moving in the right direction, even though there are more positive social changes happening under the surface. I am not despairing, I believe like Mario Soares, that only those who stop fighting have lost. But I am definitely in need of some wins. 

So the title is also about trying to move things into the right direction, one step at a time.