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 or by fax. No e-mail address, or indeed telephone number […]
There ought to be a single aim for a city’s cycle policy: get more people to cycle. A number of factors can have an impact on this – the actual (statistically provable) safety of cycling, the perceived safety of cycling, the ready availability of places to park bicycles, and the […]
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 and Heinrich-Heine-Straße to Jannowitzbrücke. This one is characterised by narrow and very bumpy paths (caused mostly by tree roots and poor repairs). […]
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 east-west route between Kottbusser Tor and the Oberbaumbrücke. As the first in an […]
The video above shows extracts of German Christian Democrat politicians talking about Greece. The statements are as follows: “Der Grieche hat jetzt lang genug genervt” (“The Greeks have annoyed us long enough“) – Thomas Strobl “Es gibt in Europa andere Staaten, denen es wahrscheinlich noch schlechter geht und die nicht […]
I’ve long been fascinated by the German politics, and how German politics is perceived beyond Germany. One aspect of this is how Merkel is described as the strong leader, internationally – a picture that is generally not reflected within Germany itself. For all their fascinating insight, pieces like the long […]
I’m the moderator of the European Alternatives debate in Berlin on Saturday between the MEPs Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (SPD), Alexandra Thein (FDP) (yes, her of the posters fame), Helmut Scholz (Die LINKE) and Michael Cramer (Grüne). The debate is at the end of the Transeuropa Caravans tour that has been running over the last couple […]
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 complicated issue. At the end I’ll give my personal view. What’s happening? On 25th May 2014 a Volksentscheid […]
From its headquarters at the southern end of Stresemanstrasse as far as Potsdamer Platz, the SPD has filled the street with huge election posters for the European Parliament election campaign… and they are awful. The five main posters are shown below. For me the main test for an election slogan […]
Back in my days as a civil servant one phrase dominated UK government-speak: evidence-based policy-making. The essential idea was to gather adequate evidence about a problem, and how various solutions could work, and determine a policy choice based on that. Now of course this was constrained by the ideology of […]
Perhaps I’m overdoing it, but I’m not a fan of the way Mark Leonard’s recent ECFR column is titled. “The revenge of the German elite” he writes, documenting concerted efforts by Bundespräsident Gauck, and ministers Steinmeier and von der Leyen. The basic gist of the piece is that the German […]
🚨 This guide is now over 6 years old. And I am now looking for a new flat in Berlin. You can read about that here. And a whole new guide will be written at the end of the process as well! 🚨 I moved to Berlin on 26th October […]