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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

Haven't they suffered enough?

The BBC reports: A man bidding to buy Mansfield Town is planning to rename the club Harchester United after the former Sky series The Dream Team Which just goes to show that the ‘fit and proper person‘ test needs to be extended to cover coin-eyed publicity-seeking nobodies without the sense

Come to Blackpool. Please.

The BBC news is reporting a desperate publicity stunt (sorry, but it is) by the leader of Blackpool Council. According to the report, the Council, whose watch committee banned the group from the town in 1964, are going to write to Mick et al and invite them back. The BBC’

Gordon Brown in le Monde

Gordon Brown has given his first foreign press interview, to Le Monde. It’s here.

Credulous Bayesians

I posted this – a paper on extremism and online debate, among other things – over at the Demsoc blog.

Café Pascucci, Clapham Junction

Grabbed breakfast this morning at Café Pascucci on St John’s Road near Clapham Junction. Great little Italian cafe with comfortable modern surroundings and fantastic espresso. Their English breakfast was also very good.

How journalism works

New from the Daily Hate: make up a story about how immigrants are all lying thieving bastards. We won’t check the facts, and we’ll pay you one hundred pounds! (Greenslade)

The need for the war on Terror

I don’t always agree with Glenn Greenwald, a political blogger at Salon, but his piece today, on how the supporters of the GWOT are motivated in part by a desire to be seen as soldiers in a great cause, really hits some good points. Bonus credit, too, for referencing

A Solar Grand Plan

One of the benefits of closer relations between the EU and North Africa may be greater energy security. Not Libyan oil, but the enormous wastes of the north Sahara, and the possibilities there for solar power. Scientific American looks at a grand plan for solar in the South West of

Public and private sector perks

The Observer is reporting a Mirror story on a new MP expenses row, this time about the Speaker himself. Read the piece to see the not-particularly-gory details, but it centres around the use of air miles gained on official business for family trips to London. Perhaps I’m wrong, but

Let's hear it for the Staffie

BBC News reports that the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is falling out of fashion, as it gets an – entirely unwarranted – reputation for aggression and violence. Speaking as someone who was once very fond of my aunt’s Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Sally, I can say that the Kennel Club are absolutely right