When I moved to Berlin in 2013 I needed to find a flat. I used a blog entry to help with my search, and wrote up my search experiences in the blog post “How To Find a Flat In Berlin” in January 2014. That post became one of the most […]
German Politics
The Express on Germany’s Coronavirus stats – a classic of the fake news genre
“Germany’s daily coronavirus cases nearly TRIPLE – states bring back tougher measures” screamed The Express last night. Even some normally level headed friends of mine had fallen for it and shared the piece on Facebook. As I have been in Berlin throughout the lockdown, and follow the news here pretty […]
It did not work to get onto the EP list for the Greens – some lessons
This was my speech at the Grüne Bundesdelegiertenkongress yesterday in Leipzig. It was enough to get me more than 200 votes for position 14 on the list, and 299 votes for position 20. But not enough to get an electable position. Why? The structures of power in the party won […]
European Parliament selection – campaign video
As explained in this blog post, I am seeking a place on the German Grüne European Parliament election list. The decision as to who makes it onto the list will be taken at a party conference on 10th November in Leipzig. This is my first campaign video, examining whether Germany […]
Political online communication in Germany
One of my nagging worries about political communication online, and through social media, is the inequality of it. We are still stuck with the idea that social media gives everyone a voice and, to an extent, that is true. But when everyone has a voice, how do you separate the […]
Becoming German
I’ve lived in Berlin since 26 October 2013. At that time I could not have known how the politics of the UK, the country in which I was born and whose passport I hold, would change. I moved to Germany for a combination of personal and professional reasons, and – […]
German politicians’ Twitter follower numbers are not all they seem
Last week’s printed edition of Focus had a piece about how Germany’s politicians are using social media. It made the dubious claim that 61% of Green top candidate Katrin Göring-Eckardt’s Twitter followers could have been bought (JPG of that part of the Focus piece here). Let’s actually instead try to get […]
The Martin Schulz bounce
What is going on in German politics, just 7 months ahead of the 24th September Bundestag election? How can a party, the SPD – that was consistently 10 points behind the CDU in the polls – suddenly be running neck and neck with Angela Merkel’s party? This graph from Wikipedia […]
Why Germany needs to maintain dual citizenship
So often the political debate about migration and integration sees the issues at the level of the society as a whole. What can city/region/country do with X thousand new people? How will those areas change? What opportunities or burdens will all of this present to that area? How will the […]
How to Debunk European Right-Wing Populism? – Live Event 1.12.2017
This event is co-organised by the Parliamentary Group of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the State Parliament Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus), the Green Party of England and Wales and the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament – I am providing the live stream. Full details of the event here! Live Stream of the […]
Ja zu Europa – Wie weiter nach dem Brexit?
Your browser does not support iframes. Am Freitag den 14. Oktober 1830-2000 bin ich Referent auf eine Podiumsdiskussion der Grünen in Dresden zum Thema Brexit und der Zukunft Europas. Die anderen Referenten sind Terry Reintke MdEP (Website, Twitter) und Prof. Alexander Thiele (Website). Die Veranstaltung ist öffentlich – also alle […]
Notes about Brits getting German citizenship in light of Brexit
In this blog entry I am breaking about my only rule of blogging – namely that I should only blog about the things I know. Here I am going to try to blog about German law, something I do not understand or know. This prospect scares me, and I am […]