Trouble comes to the EU from three directions
“The EU is a divided house”, writes John Keiger at the Spectator: A 2019 German think tank report, entitled ‘20 Years of the Euro; Winners and Losers’, costed the single currency’s impact on individual...
View ArticleA land battle and a sea battle – in a book about Beethoven
I’ve been reading a three-volume fictionalised life of Beethoven, by, of all people, John Suchet, whom most people probably know only as a television newsreader. The way Suchet tells the story,...
View ArticleUrsula von der Leyen speaks about creating a “truly global common good”
When a politician says the words “common good” it is usually with a very specific meaning, and this use of the phrase by Ms von der Leyen is no exception: “The EU vows to force firms to declare what...
View ArticlePortugal has a socialist education policy
“Portugal blocks remote lessons at private schools to help state pupils”, the Times reports. Portugal has blocked private schools from offering remote learning for at least a fortnight amid fears that...
View ArticleHealth is the war of the state
The Telegraph reports, EU threatens war-time occupation of vaccine makers as AstraZeneca crisis spirals “The EU sledgehammer is coming down. The European Council is preparing to invoke emergency powers...
View ArticleLet us remember their sacrifice a century ago
Because if we don’t, who will? I consider myself quite well versed in history, and I am certainly disposed to honour those killed while fighting Communism, yet even I had barely heard of the...
View ArticleSpread the word
“Second translator of Amanda Gorman’s Joe Biden inauguration poem dumped”, reports the Times. A fresh controversy over translations of the poem read out at President Biden’s inauguration has erupted...
View ArticleThree cheers for the European Super League!
Nothing official yet but it would appear that there are plans for a European Super League. Yes, I know you’re thinking, “Don’t we already have one of those?” Sort of, except that the Champions League...
View ArticleI predicted this, it didn’t happen. I predicted this, it didn’t happen. I...
European MPs targeted by deepfake video calls imitating Russian opposition
View ArticleBrexitalgia
Posted to Samizdata by me on 23rd June 2016: “Well, I dunno”. The link to an image of the Daily Mirror‘s cover for that day showing a deep dark well with the slogan “Don’t take a leap into the dark –...
View ArticleTo call it “Project Cassandra” was hubris
As soon as I saw it I thought of psychohistory. I was not alone, judging from the most recommended comment to this fascinating Guardian article: ‘At first I thought, this is crazy’: the real-life plan...
View Article“The background and motive of yesterday’s attacks were unclear”
The above is a quote from a Times article with the title “Three dead after knifeman goes on rampage in Bavarian city of Würzburg”. At least three people were killed and several more injured in an...
View ArticleAn axe age, a sword age, an age when the Beeb admits rent control doesn’t work
“Why rent control isn’t working in Sweden.” Surely Ragnarok is upon us.
View ArticleBerlin dreams big
“Berlin’s vote to take properties from big landlords could be a watershed moment”, writes Alexander Vasudevan in the Guardian. Judging by the history of such schemes it could be. But not in the way he...
View ArticleMeanwhile back in the EU
Old rules die, new ones are born. Belarus border crisis: EU suspends asylum rules to speed up deportations Omicron variant: EU should encourage compulsory vaccines, says Ursula von der Leyen Both Times...
View ArticleTurkey – circling the drain with a gold grab
Little noticed in the UK media, reports from a financial vlogger Joe Blogs (that is his handle) on Turkey tells us that the government is ‘asking’ citizens to hand over their gold and foreign currency,...
View Article“Xi Jinping is *a***i** himself dry”
That’s Konstantin on Triggernometry’s YouTube on Ukraine. Lots of good, thoughtful stuff on Putin, Western weakness and everything in between. Well, not so much on that country in between, you know,...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“Mr. Putin finds himself in a struggle now because of the bravery of 41 million Ukrainians, not the strength of Europe or the United States.” – Wall Street Journal
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“Young men are also a production resource – a productive resource that is used to wage war, but Russia’s youth have had it with Putin’s regime and the collapse of the economy and the prospect for going...
View ArticleWhen dangerous fantasies come true
Famously, while Nigel Farage was debating Nick Clegg in April 2014, the latter said that the idea of an EU army was a “dangerous fantasy”. Ed Miliband repeated the line a year later. Three days ago,...
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