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Rick Falkvinge and the Pirates
A few weeks ago at a meeting in London, one of the Labour Party’s best known bloggers literally snorted at me when I said that Labour had much to learn from the Pirate Party. But I’m undeterred by...
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Cameron tantric speech won’t keep his backbenchers and Angela Merkel happy....
So David Cameron’s long-trailed EU speech is due to be held on 15th January. I cannot remember any speech by a UK Prime Minister being trailed so far in advance, prompting Cameron himself to say “This...
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Berlin. From 26th October.
At 1747 on Saturday October 26th my train will pull into Berlin Hbf and I will be arriving at the place I hope I will be able to call home. Since a short period living in the German capital between...
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Moving to Berlin: I need a place to live (a little social media experiment)
The days when it was easy to find a flat to rent in Berlin are long gone. While rent, in comparison to other EU capitals, remains reasonable, trying to find an adequate place is complicated. An...
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Could I survive without a mobile phone call plan?
I’m moving to Germany at the end of this month, and – as ever with this sort of move – I need to work out how to get the best deal on mobile phones and home internet. But before looking at the...
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So why this affinity for Germany?
I’m back. Today is my first full day back living in Berlin since leaving here in March 2002. Then I had spent 6 months living in the city as a 21-year old recent graduate from the UK, trying to scrape...
View ArticleI follow the Moskva. Down to… the #EUtweetup (at Gorki Park, Berlin, 19...
So we’ve organised a whole bunch of EU Tweetups in Brussels. But two of the three of us that started it in Brussels, Anne Laumen and I, now live in Berlin. So why not bring #EUtweetup to Berlin too?...
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Why I’m leaving the Labour Party, and joining the Grüne in Germany
I’m an intensely political person and it has been that way for a long time. I joined the Labour Party in the UK as a 16 year old, before I was even old enough to vote. This means I have spent more than...
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New year, new #EUtweetup – 9th Jan in Berlin, 15th Jan in Brussels
2014 is going to be quite a year for the EU. It’s election time! And will we all toast the end of José Manuel Barroso’s political career? And Ashton too? And might election turnout increase to a level...
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Why I’m in favour of building on parts of Tempelhofer Feld / Tempelhof Flughafen
The former Tempelhof Airport is one of Berlin’s extraordinary places. The former airport is a huge open space in the city, and is larger even than Tiergarten (the park / forest further north in the...
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How to find a flat in Berlin
I moved to Berlin on 26th October 2013, and now, less than 3 months later, I am already living in my second flat. I’ve gathered an enormous amount of knowledge through the two flat searches, and this...
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EU freedom of movement. This actually matters.
Here I sit writing this blog entry on a Sunday night in Berlin. The Kreuzberg streets outside my window are quiet now; earlier today they were thronged with people in the January sun. I do not know...
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The future of #EUtweetup – I need your help
First the simple bit: the very short term future of #EUtweetup is that the next tweetups will be on Monday 17th February in Brussels, and Wednesday 19th February in Berlin. The Berlin tweetup will be...
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The power of a title to make a picture go viral: “Politicians discussing...
For the last 5 days the picture shown above has been shared far and wide on Twitter (link to the tweet), and to a certain extent on Facebook too. The title “Politicians discussing global warming”...
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Volksentscheid Tempelhofer Feld – what’s happening?
A concise summary of what is happening with the Volksentscheid Tempelhofer Feld (Tempelhof Field Referendum) was hard to find in English. So this is my effort to write one, to help explain this rather...
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Why I am not going back to the UK to campaign in the EU referendum
David Cameron’s victory in the UK election presents me with a personal problem: he promises to hold an in-or-out of the EU referendum. If the UK leaves the EU I have a major headache – I live in...
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This blog will soon be 10 years old, and if you’re reading this you’re...
Back in 2005 I was coming towards the end of my term as President of JEF-Europe but I still had ideas. No one will ever invite me to speak at conferences again I thought, so I better try writing...
View ArticleRadweg Skalitzer Straße, Kreuzberg
Berlin has cycle lanes on most of its main streets, but many of these lanes are poorly designed or in bad condition. One of the worst is along Skalitzer Straße through Kreuzberg – it is an important...
View ArticleRadweg Bergmannstraße to Jannowitzbrücke (Kreuzberg and Mitte)
My first cycle path film documented the dangers of Skalitzer Straße. Now here is the second episode – going north through Kreuzberg from Bergmannstraße, via Baerwaldstraße, Prinzenstraße, Moritzplatz...
View ArticleBerlin: startup city, technological backwater
Today I sent a fax. Yes, on 17th August 2015 this is still necessary. Because I had received a letter on paper from the administration of the city of Berlin and my reply had to be sent either on paper...
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