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Anthony Zacharzewski

Anthony Zacharzewski

Working to make European democracy work. "Refreshingly free of the usual platitudes". Belge par choix, Brits door opvoeding. President of Demsoc.org but posts here are personal.

📍 Brussels

Yikes!

I’ve just been seeing what search terms led people to this blog (“Spinach Poisoning” is always popular, I should make that post more interesting). Two close together, one from the Netherlands and one from the UK, showed a new and disturbing trend (of two). The second was comparatively reasonable:

Travel notes: Strasbourg

To Strasbourg for the first time, for a conference at the Council of Europe on democracy and participation (more on which in a separate post). My trip did not begin well, with a late change of plan at the Brighton end requiring a last-minute change of travel arrangements and an

Council of Europe report on Democracy

From March. Link.

To see ourselves as others see us

In France for a conference, and reading the paper on the way, I see le Figaro has a special feature on English football in its sports section. The general tone is summed up by the headline “L’Europe du football aux pieds de l’Angleterre”, and the three-page feature has

The Helvetica Meditations

A series of photos of Helvetica, the font of the 20th century, via MetaFilter. Update: A useful web design resource on the fonts real people have available is here. Also, a list of fonts you might want to use if you’re bored of Helvetica.

Former Exeter board were indeed useless criminal bastards

Apologies for a parochial post, but the following can’t go unremarked. The former board of Exeter City Football Club (of which I am an owner, kind of) have pleaded guilty to fraud that left the club on the brink of extinction. They are also the people who brought Michael

When no means yes

Jean Quatremer at Coulisses de Bruxelles discusses an interview with Tony Blair in Le Monde, and sums up better that I could the results of those French voters who voted ‘no’ to the European constitution in the hope of something better later on: Le message envoyé par la France a

Reading papers and knowing about your governor

Wonkette reports a Pew Research survey on the political awareness of consumers of different sorts of media.

A dose of reality

Just back in England after a trip by train to Tallinn via Berlin and Warsaw. Faultless journey at every point, until now. National Rail have decided that we have no business travelling when they don’t want us to, and have shut the railway between Three Bridges and Brighton. So

Tallinn

So, a few days in Tallinn with Daryl’s stag party, and I’m not sure what to make of it really. The Old Town has lovely architecture and has been well restored. Particularly worth visiting is Toompea – the historic fortress hill at the centre of the city – with its