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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

Election day has arrived

There is an interesting piece in the LA Times (reg required) on the British general election from an American point of view. Is there a quantum of nastiness in an election campaign – and do we Brits outsource it to Paxman and Humphrys? Perhaps that’s why (with some exceptions, Mr

Talking therapy

There is a good article in this week’s New York Review of Books, by Alan Ryan. He’s reviewing Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity, and in the review, he writes: No doubt there are some beliefs we ought not to subscribe to without the fiercest testing,

Charlie Krishna

Is it just me, or do the hordes of supporters following Charles Kennedy with orange banners look rather like earnest Hare Krishnas?

Beyond good and evil

Chris Lightfoot has been at it again. His new slide set (link to the slides near the end of this post) tries to explain why ‘right’ and ‘left’ just don’t work any more. His split along an islander/integrationist and a free market/socialist axis feels very right, and

UKIP party political

It surprises me to say it, but the UKIP’s party political broadcast was rather good. It opened with a fun riff on War of the Worlds, before moving on to the usual extravagant promises about what could be done if only we left the EU. Much of it was

Dutch detectives

Flicking through TV in the hotel room, I found what looked like a Dutch detective series called (great Dutch name) Grijpstra & de Gier.

Audioscrobbler

I have an Audioscrobbler account, so now people can see what I’m listening to. In real time! Emergently! It’s possibly even more self-absorbed than blogging.

Et exsultavit humiles

At last, a place for Gwyneth Paltrow and Arianna Huffington to tell us what they think. Link: Uber-blog raises a celebrity voice.

Extreme democracy

This old link deserved a re-post: The minimal compact: An open-source constitution for post-national states .

Green trips on the Sussex coast

The Hiker Biker Bus has returned. The bus, which provides transport along the coast road for bicycles and walkers, is starting its summer Sunday runs again. It runs from Seaford to Eastbourne via Exceat and passes near Alfriston and Birling Gap. Link: County Council press release.