Within a couple of days of each other The Economist and the FT have written pieces about how tensions in the governing coalition in Berlin are having an impact on EU policymaking. The central topic is Germany’s decision to oppose the phase out of internal combustion engine powered cars at...
I’ve realised that now I am no longer using Twitter, there is no systematic overview of all the flow diagrams I have made over the years. So this is a post looking back over all the things I have diagrammed, and why! Please click on any image below to load...
High resolution PDF and PNG files, the draw.io XML and the .ods files of the workings are all available here! Hochauflösende PDF- und PNG-Dateien, draw.io-XML und die .ods-Dateien sind hier verfügbar! Version 1.0.0 EN – 05.09.2021, 18:00 The first version of the new series! Based on the polling and...
Germany’s proportional election system (Mixed-member system), six parties represented in the Bundestag (CDU/CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Die Linke, Grüne) of which five could possibly participate in a government (only AfD would not), and no party likely to receive more than a third of the votes at the 26th September Bundestag...
Early Saturday morning, 16th January 2021. Across Germany 1001 people look into their bathroom mirrors, wipe their eyes. And Armin Laschet stares back. And then, suitably refreshed, they each settle down in front of their laptops, and vote for Laschet as the new party leader of the CDU. Or, to...
Anyone’s encountered one of my Brexit diagrams knows the score: I find the process of mapping out complicated political decisions as flow diagrams useful, in that it helps us better understand those processes. And Germany just now is confronted with a very complicated party political conundrum: who is going to...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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 –...