Concrete Achievements

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  • Links from the week of 27 December 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 13 December 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Reminded (by a conversation) of this piece of classic British satire from *cough* 35…

    Reminded (by a conversation) of this piece of classic British satire from *cough* 35 years ago. One for the more mature politics geek. dailymotion.com/video/x2ohhib

    And I don’t think it’s me being a stereotypical “better in my day” type to say that I don’t think modern political satire really does the job this well.

    I had remembered Ted Heath as the old man who refuses to join in, but had forgotten James Goldsmith joining in with “the morning will come when the world is mine”. Which, as founder of the Referendum Party, it rather did.

  • I wasn’t in Florence for #cofoe #TheFutureIsYours, though @demsoc colleagues were.

    I wasn’t in Florence for #cofoe #TheFutureIsYours, though @demsoc colleagues were. I see a lot of people here talking about one recommendation (on more European citizen assemblies) but it’s worth saying there were almost 40 others, on a much wider range of issues.

    For me the most interesting recommendations were those on rule of law and media freedom, confirming that these aren’t just elite/Brussels bubble concerns but the concerns of citizens from around Europe.

    Also worth noting is how much citizens overall saw Europe as a level of government that needed direct accountability to them – not surprising in some ways but a big change from the state-based proto-confederalism that is the structural logic of today’s EU.

    This came out most clearly in the recommendation on (what are known in Brussels as) transnational lists for the European Parliament – a voting system that would force candidates to appeal across national boundaries.

    So read the whole list to see a lot of interesting ideas, beyond more CAs, delivered in a very short time. Over to the citizen ambassadors and the others at the conference plenary to see what they can do with this raw material.

  • Links from the week of 6 December 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • “American-style governors” is the British political pathology in a phrase.

    “American-style governors” is the British political pathology in a phrase. They won’t be constitutionally established elected leaders, but they will be *named* after something American because this generation of Tories have a teen crush on the US. thetimes.co.uk/article/americ…

    “American-style governors” will – whatever the promises – inevitably be dependent on the Treasury and Whitehall so will be more elected regional managers than political figures in their own right.

    And, of course, there are better examples closer to home that are better adapted to the UK system but are invisible because they don’t happen in English and politically unacceptable because they are European.

    If someone wants me to write a piece on “German style Minister-Presidents could level up England”, my rates are reasonable.

  • Links from the week of 29 November 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Mmm a rail replacement bus from the Dutch border towards Berlin.

    Mmm a rail replacement bus from the Dutch border towards Berlin. Not *to* Berlin, oh no.

    Do I get the rail replacement bus where I won’t be able to do any work and will almost certainly miss my connection or the regional train where I can work and will definitely miss my connection?

    Video on Twitter

    I went with the bus because 50 minutes on the cold platform didn’t appeal. And I have a book.

    Pretty station though.

    Osnabrück station also pretty

    And a mini Christmas market outside while I wait for the next connection so it’s not all bad.

  • Links from the week of 22 November 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 15 November 2021

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.