During this time I attended six conferences in defence of the UK’s membership of the European Union in Munich, Brussels and Budapest. I felt it was such an important political issue to make a stand on. As a Praetorian Guard Remainer I held out to the bitter end for membership and my personal right to remain. I was hated especially by my fellow remainers. Many of the leavers felt more passionately about the issue and many of them in the reform party have now proven more compassionate. Many of my colleagues were just so selfish they didn’t care how many sleepless nights I was having. Many leavers also believe in the regionality and multiple identities that Europeans have. I too was not just a European I was a Hesse, a Kasseler, a Berliner, an NRWler, a Wuppertaler, a Berg, A Reinlander and a Cologner as well as English and Welsh and then European. I was even a Bursch which is an official student fraternity member all of which the leavers seem to be more in favour of these days. I’m not very partial to what I call cheese and wine, flat white reaminers with pockets loaded and swift to condemn me for running out of cash. They never had a European university education most of them I did that’s why Europe meant more to me that just banging someone up in a disco for the passport. That passionate patriotism for the EU was me it wasn’t love shine a light to me. It was but not like that such an exclusive club. I loved Europe for the right reasons and a lot of them didn’t they don’t even speak French that’s crime to me I speak three European languages and German to native.
Munich Conference 3-6 November 2017
Signing Up to the Organisation Online
I signed up to the organisation Stand Up for Europe 1.0 online in about May or June last year in 2017 about a year of after the referendum campaign. I was feeling very upset and depressed arguing with the victorious Brexiteers online and some of them were calling me a Nazi and a German and to get back over to Europe with my friends and I just needed bit of moral support really. They posted several things on their Facebook presence and eventually they sent me an invitation to a Conference at Munich Philosophical Faculty at Ludwig Maximillian University where I was to go down and meet them all. It turned out to be a bitter sweet moment because it was and is one of the finest young people’s institutions of its type, that was inclusive and accessible to older people as well. It turned out, as you will see from the history of Stand Up over the last half a year or so, that it proved a bitterly divided one held together with lots of sticky-back plastic. Basically, a boardroom debate about who was boss degenerated into a bitter dispute within the organisation about how to administrate it and it’s very sad because it isn’t easily solved at all. Basically, people with experience in America are some of the toughest on the planet and so are Cambridge graduates and it’s really been a bit of really difficult pistols at dawn which has now caused our movement to split in two. All in all though, my first trip to Munich city centre was a fantastic experience.
Booking Flixbus and the Journey Down
At first, I thought it was going to be too expensive to go all the way down to Munich. All the travel options were about £200 alone, the Eurostar trains being the most expensive of all. However, there was one killer option and that was to travel down there on a company called Flixbus. Flixbus is a new German company with aspirations to be the Greyhound of Europe. Offering low cost and long-distance bus travel for next to nothing but the price of a Mitfahrtzentrale. A return trip to Brussels will only set you back 38 euros and a complete 24-hour journey down to Munich via a one-and-a-half hour stop at Cologne airport will see you with change out of ninety pounds with baggage all in. So, I decided to opt for that. It’s an amazing adventure doing these long-distance coach trips. They are relatively easy to book these days, with the availability of a useful Flixbus App which actually works offline as well for ticketing quite unlike its counterpart from Eurostar as I found doing subsequent trips to Brussels that requires internet or it will log itself out. You just download your tickets onto the Flixbus App and present it to the driver who processes it with his mobile phone and show him your passport just to prove you have one for inspection.
To reach Victoria Coach Station from Colchester for the 9:30 to Cologne you have to get the 4:47 train to London, take the Circle or Metropolitan line from Liverpool Street to Kings Cross and then the Victoria line down to Victoria. With a big backpack on and early in the day it’s not easy, but you cope with a good coffee and sandwich in hand. When you get to Victoria there is a good half hour wait until the gates open & you are checked onto the bus complete with baggage. It’s then a three hour ride to the Channel Tunnel shuttle terminal where you are allowed out in order to go to the loo and grab something for lunch for 20 mins, and also have your passport checked, though the timing is particularly strict and they will go without you if you don’t make it back on time.
There is about half an hour of faffing about at various checks until the whole coach drives onto the train and you have to stay in your seat parked whilst the train makes its 35 minute journey through the tunnel. It’s rather hot and sticky because the air con is switched off at that stage. When you get to the other side and the drivers turn the engines on you get a good dose of fumes as well stuck inside the train like a sardine in a can. Normally, the large vehicles park just inside the divider and this then lifts when the tain comes to a halt at the other end.
Passing through the area where the refugees used to live and try and jump the trains to Britain at Coquelles you notice that security has been drastically improved and two or three massive fences seal the entire area off like a new age version of the Iron Curtain. It’s about another 3 hr ride to Gent where there is a short stop to buy a drink from the driver and about an hour on from that it’s Brussels North Station, around which you simply don’t want to be at night that being the red light district of Brussels. Just after nightfall there is another 3hr ride to Cologne / Bonn airport. It’s about an 11 hr ride to there with one further stop for a change of driver at a motorway garage somewhere in Limburg to grab a sandwich.
When you finally arrive totally wasted in Cologne, there is a 1.5 hr opportunity to stretch your legs and have dinner at the sandwich shop of Schnitzel in a bread roll or something and then it’s on the southern route from Essen to Munich that you have to get on half way down on and find a seat. There are then 8 stops to Munich, but the drivers are a bit nicer and like to provide you with some lovely German beer like Veltins from their chillers such as I enjoyed at Frankfurt Train Station 2 o’ clock in the morning. The last stop is Augsburg about an hour from Munich and you arrive at about quarter to nine so the entire trip is 23:15 minutes when on schedule. They are remarkably well-timed changeovers. 1.5 hrs is really sufficient time so that you don’t miss your connection. That’s German efficiency for your, very impressive all round, nice coaches and seats too. Pity that the loos aren’t always in working order.
The Hotel in the Schillerstraße
The hotel was in the Schillerstraße in Munich. It was the MK city hotel costing around 80 pounds per night. What I didn’t realise, was that it was in the middle of what consists of Munich’s red-light district. I didn’t know where I had to go so I just got a taxi there and he was very derogatory about the fact that he would never stay there because it had a night entry facility to bring your girls in and that the area was populated by what he referred to as “Turks”, which we would never say in England to refer to people of all non-white nationalities living in a working class district. Apparently, it is a very safe red-light area though as there is hardly any crime in Munich according to Reddit a woman I sat next to at dinner later.
The hotel itself was run by Jo who was surprisingly very kind indeed and her father was a real sweetheart who came up from the Bavarian countryside to help her out with running the hotel at weekends. He talked to me over breakfast and I told him I was standing up for Europe and they gave me a free upgrade on the last night. The room itself was spacious with a walk-in shower. When I arrived I couldn’t check into my room I was too early, but they did allow me to have breakfast for eight Euros and drop off my bags, but as you can imagine after a 24 hr bus ride I was pretty knackered and unimpressed. It wasn’t their fault though and when I came back from town they allowed me to wait there for my room. One of the other members of Stand Up was able to check into his room before me and felt quite guilty and asked if I wanted to use his shower.
In Town
In town I visited the area around the old town hall and had a McDonalds and had a peek in the Cathedral and even asked to join the Munich Cathedral Choir.
The University Quarter and Taxi to the Venue for the First Time
Jo, the proprietor of the hotel called a taxi for me and it arrived within five minutes. I had arrived that day and had eventually been let into my room for a shower and a long power nap and I now had lots of energy and was ready to meet everyone at the philosophical school. We arrived and talked to people to introduce ourselves for a little while and we were allowed a free welcome drink and a basic ID badge with our name and where we were from. We then sat down and had a chat about how to improve the EU in terms of transparency. We split into three groups to discuss topics relevant to communication, and transparency, and planning I believe.
Our talk was hosted by Sonia Stutchtey and it was here that I met my friend Hélène Decottingny for the first time. We had a really heated debate and I was instantly attracted to her, but Sonia was nice too. I really got into expressing the reasons why I thought the referendum result went their way. The long lines of communication, and various units that were supposed to be working together acting in an uncoordinated way and descending into chaos. Some people simply not trying were given to much leeway and space. The leafleting was not organised enough around a central theme and thus Nigel Farage with his entrepreneurial instinct and keeping his cards close to his chest was able to deceive and infiltrate our arguments with ease.
The Philosophical School of LMU
The philosophical school was a lovely building inside with a sizable lecture theatre, and downstairs area where we could stand and chat and have lunch.
The Fiasco with the Leadership Election; The Initial Email and Attempted Cover Up
On the way down to the conference I received a rather nasty legal email saying that we were not allowed to vote on a new board (which was after all the purpose of assembling) due to a legal challenge. Little did I know at the time that this dispute was of a rather nasty nature and still eventually served to dissolve our positive institution that stood up for EU rights into two halves on the 28th April 2018. Basically, they really made a silly decision to try electing one of two complete board teams based on two potential presidential candidates; Richard Laub and Pietro de Matties respectively. Richard provided most of the funding for Standup 1.0 and Pietro was a star graduate. Richard was the president. Most of his friends were on his potential board. He liked to keep it within the family. These included the person the person I’d just fallen in love with at the time Hélène and her boyfriend Balint, a Hungarian guy, as well as originally also, Alessandro the leader of the Brussels group who has become a good friend in Stand Up and former Stand Up circles.
On the other side is Pietro’s team included Stuart from the London team on his board. He was supported by my friend the head of the London team Alex Gunter who wanted me to vote for them. Pietro wanted to be my top chap and was very friendly, but because of my friendship with Bàlint and Hélène and Alessandro I have to be really careful about dismissing Richard out of hand especially as I don’t know him that well. I was trying to stay neutral, but I liked David Zülke the IT guy as well and he expressed a distaste for Richard for causing the split. Sonia is also on the other side. Anyway, this letter was a harbinger of really bad news for Stand Up. They spent hours in the cooler and very nearly split on that day.
So many people didn’t enjoy the conference because they wanted to vote and had really came to Munich to vote and couldn’t do so. The origins of the split go back to the federal nature of the institution. The idea was to ‘federalise the federalists’. That meant to amalgamate a lot of smaller independent Pro-European Groups into a conglomerate. One of which was the European Federalist Party and I think one called Stand Up for the European Union. It was the initial success of Stand Up for Europe as a model for using social media in political activism in a new way so successfully, that made us think it could work. It didn’t. The honeymoon period was glorious but it was coming to an end. It had lasted well over a year.
Indeed, with had over 8000 members then and over 100,000 likes on our Facebook presence. That’s why we had the full support of Emmanuel Macron the French President and the European Commission. The founding members had real talent. It’s just that they were their own bosses and remained bitterly divided. It’s really sad because until they tried to solve the issue of leadership. We were enjoying ourselves and just doing the job of promoting Europe efficiently. David, in particular, really missed this time back then.
Ellen’s Impromptu Speech
It all came to a head when a German lady called Ellen blew the lid off the whole thing. She told the whole conference the truth. It was shocking as a new member of the organisation having had such a great start, but I suppose it had to be done simply to vent the amount of anger surrounding the issue. They were trying to put a sticking plaster over the fact that Richard as a richer person than Pietro, had indeed paid people’s expenses to the conference in order to pack the hall with his supporters and win the vote for his team. This was not only controversial but illegal. So, the head of the organisation and the management teams were not present for the rest of the conference and had gotten together with some lawyers trying desperately to save the institution from imminent collapse. They agreed on having an interim board of four people in order to negotiate further for four months before pressing on with the agenda before the elections to the EU parliament in 2018. The problem still hasn’t been solved. The lawyers were bearing down on us. We were waiting for another six months or so for the hammer to fall and the final axes to grind.
The Plenaries with Jaques Santer, Henri Malosse and Co.
There were some really interesting plenary discussions that took place on the future of the EU with a TV presenter interviewing people like Jaques Santer and Henri Malosse and other members of the EU commission whom we also got to meet and socialise with after the talks. Jaques Santer was a very impressive leader of the EU. He was brilliant when he made his speech. He was a really good, captivating speaker and he didn’t attempt to speak in English but opted for spontaneous translation with an English version of the speech running in the background. It worked that because some of the other people’s attempts to speak in English were a problem. They sound wonderful in their native German or French, and their English is brilliant but some of the things they think of as fun being brilliant linguists most people in England find eccentric as native speakers. They are so sweet because I’m like that when I speak German. I think that might have been a problem that Nigel Farage exploited. He called them wooden and bureaucratic and they aren’t they are just trying to work in a foreign language and he was very unsympathetic.
Carrying On and Getting the Job Done Discussing the EU Constitution
The discussion continued on without the board. Sonia and a number of the others chaired a debate on the future of the organisation as a political entity. We had an initial vote on whether we should stand for elections or continue as lobbyists. A lot of people voted for standing for election in some way. The majority was for stand for election if not in 2018 then at some stage in the future when all the management issues had been sorted out. That is exactly what I voted for, but I’m possible standing for local elections in 2018 anyway because we have gone for that option as a group. Secondly, we drew up an active criticism of the new EU constitution and actually got to put new suggestions into a draft proposal to inform the debate in the EU parliament on a formal EU constitution. Some of my comments were taken seriously.
Nights out and food
We had a couple of lovely nights out. Despite the chaos and pandemonium surrounding the leadership of the organisation no one could fault the hosts. We had a lovely time in Munich socially. The choice of restaurants was exemplary. On the first night, we went walked across the Arabella park with torches at night and to a traditional German restaurant where they served about 100 of us all at once, the food came together, and it was hot, very impressive. I had a light German wheat beer and a great schnitzel with sautéed potatoes for about 20 euros. It was here that I got talking to two members of the London group and formed a friendship with Alex Gunter and also Anita Sepreyni. She was an interesting girl from Eastern Europe studying in Andalusia with family in Catalonia. So, we were discussing the breaking political upheaval in Barcelona. The food at the conference on the Saturday was a buffet lunch with some of the commissioners and all the members of Stand Up together and we had some pasta, salad and Frikadellen. That was nice. I went for a bite to eat down the road at a café where they served great wraps as well. On the Saturday we went with a woman called Reddit to a Greek restaurant. She ended up chatting to this guy form Antwerp, who was more her age and I swapped places with him because he was doing rather well with her. Reddit was a Münchener, but a bit disenfranchised with the whole fiasco she had helped in the planning of. She mentioned she might spend more time with the sister institution Pulse of Europe if they don’t sort things out. It wasn’t her fault.
The Lovelace
After dinner I went home to change and freshen up before having a night on the tiles, which is actually quite rare for me now. We reconvened at about 10 pm at the Lovelace hotel in Munich city centre. Which had one of the best bars I’ve ever been to, a classy penthouse bar with platforms you can climb and look out of over the city. There are also a number of smaller places you can talk more privately both inside and outside and a hall for dancing with some lovely rich German girls. Very classy joint that Reddit liked and arranged for us. Beer wasn’t too expensive there only 3 euros 50.
The Night Club
After that I went onto a club with some other members of the team until about four am with Munich Team Leader Thomas Zschocke. He said to me as we left Lovelace pointing at the European flag “Isn’t that the most beautiful flag you’ve ever seen!” I said “Yes, it is” and then as it was his birthday he produced a bigger flag from his mate car and we all danced in the street and sang our national anthem, “Freude schöne Götterfunken” together. I was so happy I actually attempted to pull Hélène in hard grunge club, and she was pulled out of my way by her best friend.
The Pulse of Europe Demonstration
The next day at the end of the conference Alex Gunter and I and his friend went for lunch at a café in Munich and then, we joined the Pulse of Europe demonstration for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain and sang their song with them at the end. Someone stole my Stand Up for Europe flag, I’d been given for the protest as I was attempting to sign a petition. We are supposed to have been sold the flags for five Euros each, but in the end they were simply given away. To save all the tears Alex Gunter gave me another one which I still have. It meant a lot to me.
Making It Home with No Money Whatsoever
I just about made it home with no money in my wallet whatsoever. We arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal at Coquelles at about 3 am. I was asleep when we went through the first check for illegal persons on and attached to the bus. I was woken up by the French police when the driver asked if we could skip some of the security checks. I heard a very loud “Bullshit, you can go on slip!”, what that implied was horrific at that time of the day. You drive another five miles down the road. Get off the bus have to take your baggage out of the back of the bus and have your passports checked by the French then get back on again drive 200m, get off again and go through the Mr Farage’s passport checks, go for a pee, buy a packet of crisps or a drink if you an afford it, and then get back on. After doing that for 1.5 hrs we had to wait for a whole additional hour for the train at 5:20. We just parked, and slept on the slip, having been the first in the queue missed the previous train by just five minutes.
I had just enough to get breakfast in Victoria at the Prêt à Manger across the road form the station. It was half way home that I realised I’d lost my train ticket home from Victoria to Colchester and there was no way of recovering it. I had no money to buy another one. I had to phone home and she went ballistic but transferred 30 quid an hour later at 9am for me to buy one. Standing around like a lemon on Victoria station for an hour because your mother doesn’t trust anyone to do transfers over the phone with a rucksack on your back after a 24hr coach ride is not pleasant, but that is mum.
Stand Up for Europe Brussels: European Conventions; The Path to Democracy November 24th 2017
The joy of having over 60 new Facebook friends
After the conference in Munich I was well liked and
gained over 60 new Facebook friends which was a
delight, because I’d been hovering at just over 20 for
about 10 years. For this reason and because I had
received another invitation to a Stand Up event, this
time in Brussels. I decided to make the journey to
Europe again in December 2017, Yes, just weeks after
Munich I was back on the Flixbus. This time it only cost
38 Euros to get there. I thought we might be going out
that evening so I didn’t book a hotel I just thought I’d
crash out on the first bus home in the morning. This
time I had to go on a real budget.
Controversy with Hélène
After deciding to stay up all night I realised that we
probably weren’t got to go to a club that night in
Brussels as well like we did in Munich so, rather
controversially I asked to stay in Hélène’s kitchen and
she said I could sleep there instead and I got a bit hot
under the collar and felt rather embarrassed. She gave
me mixed messages saying I was welcome to sleep
there but she was having an early night, because she
had lectures the next day which didn’t help. ‘An early
night’, just made the situation worse, but this early
night wasn’t supposed to happen until 11pm when she
was flying in from Malta where she’d been to a
graduation. What was even more confusing was her
over use of smileys in her message about sleeping round
hers. It was the smiley that was all too easy to take the
wrong way. She chose a cheeky rueful little smiley I
didn’t know what to think of.
The Piada Bar
After arriving in Brussels at 4:15 having been traveling
since 9:30 in the morning I arrived in the nastiest part of
Brussels which is the area around the North Station. It is
actually the most obvious red-light district of Brussels
but it’s not a very nice one. I entered the station which
is full to the brim of homeless asylum seekers that tout
you for capital and beg you as you go passed particularly
aggressively there.
As I found out later on the
foreigner’s office is just around the corner from there
and they need to be there on a Monday at 9am to get
seen so they all congregate and sleep in there and it’s
scary at night. I had to go into the station because the
police had corned part of the road of due to some kind
of incident. I decided to get out of there fast and I had no
clue where to go but an address. I tried to ask in the
exchange office and they looked puzzled. They tried to
explain but my broken French didn’t help. Thankfully,
someone showed me the way to a nicer area of Brussels
where I’d at least be safer. They said it’s easier to walk
to Rogier underground station and once I got over the
other side of the street from Gard du Nord it’s a lot
safer but never go in the other direction she said.
I got to Rogier and popped into a hotel who let me log
on and we found the address which we marked on a
map at the reception and he let me use their loo.
Apparently, it was in the European Quarter where the
European Parliament is. To get there I found out from
the ticket man that I had to change at Arts-
Loix and then get the other line to Schuman. When I got
out there (as my Ipad required WiFi and is not cellular) I
had to ask the way again. We found the street, I just didn’t
go far enough down it. I started wandering around
aimlessly and got into a bar and had a Leffe, but was running
a bit late. By then Hélène had responded and said I was
welcome to stay but she wants an early night and
didn’t seem that keen but it could have been I was just nervous
I thought it best to arrange to stay elsewhere if
someone else would have me.
I eventually found the Piada bar in the European
Quarter and they had set up a marquee in the back
garden with heaters for the meeting which was a small
introductory meeting for new members to the Brussels
set and a social. I changed my top in the loo and
freshened up a bit as I’d been travelling all day on the
bus and had not had an opportunity to change having
also just yomped across the city. Pietro and Anita
Bernacchia the translator were there along with a
British member of the EU parliament who was busy
gaining French citizenship and a couple of other MEPs.
The Meeting
The meeting itself was chaired by Pietro, it was very
difficult to hear what people were discussing though
because the rain was hammering down on the plastic
roof the whole time, we just decided to set up a hashtag
for our campaigning which was hashtag europespring,
this seemed like more of a big deal to some of the older
top brass than to the internet savvy generation. It
seemed like quite a big new deal to me but it was just a
simple act to a serial blogger like me. I think it was
Michael the French presidential candidate that came up
with the suggestions at the end.
Piadas all Round
It wouldn’t have been named the Piada Bar if it wasn’t
about the aforementioned Italian speciality. What is a
Piada? I didn’t know either, but it is an Italian Taco with
whatever you like and can afford in it. They were only
eaten in one small area of Italy in Emilia-Romagna.
I think initially but they’ve expanded the tradition all
over Europe. They seem to be popular. My one cost
about 14 euros with 5 further Euros being spent on
mineral water. I think it was salami, mozzarella,
mushrooms and rocket I had in mine. We had a couple
of lovely photos in there of us all eating Piadas.
The People
I met Bàlint for the first time the Hungarian manager of
the organisation and found out that he was actually
Hélène’s girlfriend and let it out of the bag what she’d
suggested. We agreed that I would stay at Alessandro’s
(the new head of Brussels operations instead). He had
plenty of room and plenty of time and energy to go on
somewhere else for a while and meet some more
people.
Drinks with Alessandro & Staying Round His
Alessandro and a couple of mates of his agreed to look
after me for the night. We headed on a bus out of the
European Quarter and into the quarter known as Louise
and passed the Palace which Alessandro mentioned was
like the Buckingham Palace indeed even modelled on it
just a little bit larger. He was a little sceptical about me
at first but I did strike up a friendship with him. He’s a
really nice guy. He and his mates went with me to a
small bar called Jupiter where we had a few beers and
Alessandro wanted to stay longer but they were booked
out and I was blocking the entire bar with my huge
rucksack. So we headed off back to Alessandro’s house
in a different part of Louise. We went up some of the
streets like Avenue Suisse that I encountered on my
second trip to Brussels as well.
When we got almost there his friend who lived nearby
parted form him and he took me up to his flat on the
top floor had a shower and he wished me goodnight and
I slept in his kitchen on the sofa bed. As a gift for him
putting me up, I gave him a £90 copy of my book My
Little Book of Berlin and left it for him when I left for the
bus at 6 am. He let me have a few glasses of mineral
water because it’s quite dry and hot in his flat, quite
stuffy. Alessandro studied history and archaeology and
now works as a teacher. Alessandro lives in three other
people in a shared accommodation and the kitchen is
their sizeable communal space and it was a really lovely
one with skylights in the roof and Alessandro loves it
and has a lot of parties there for Stand Up people.
Making it back home
Leaving Alessandro’s at 6 I headed off back down a few
of the narrow streets and found my way to avenue
Louise and the station Louise and from there I paid out
my last few Euros on a sandwich and orange juice which
turned out to be the only thing I could afford to eat all
day. I then headed back to Rogier and got on the bus to
London. We got behind at Coquelles again with the
usual faffing around described above, but we arrived
back in London more or less on time. I nearly died of
diabetes when the driver couldn’t sell me a coke at
Coquelles. I had to wait another three hours until we
got to London. I checked the bank balance and I had five
pounds I was able to spend in Pret on some lunch and
five pound coins in my pocket I got to Liverpool street
with. I then had to call through to mum yet again
because I had not got enough to get home and wait in
the waiting room for hours in Liverpool street having
rung mum and her having gone ballistic about having to
pay for me to get home from Liverpool Street as the
police suggested was the only solution possible. I got
home because I was able to pick up the ticket form the
office.
Stand Up for Europe Canada; n’EU Year’s Drink January 11th
@ Stand Up for Europe Brussels
Eurostar
When I saw half way through the week that I had been
invited to another soirée courtesy of Alessando and
Stand Up for Europe Brussels I leapt at the opportunity
to pop over again. This time I opted to go one way with
a sixty-pound ticket on Eurostar because it only takes
two hours and back the other way on the Flixbus. It just
so happened that there was a sixty-pound ticket going
on the 10:58 from St Pancreas International. As a
diabetic I was glad to know that at least one Pancreas
was functioning really well and indeed there were no
delays. I caught the train from Colchester just before
nine o’ clock and I madly checked everything and my
heart really sank. I’d forgotten to pack my debit card. I
had the Euros, the passport, my house key, the name
and address of the hotel, the E-tickets everything but
the debit card. It was mum’s fault as usual. She had
been keen that I put the debit card in a wallet and I
normally just carry it in my jacket pocket. I have done
ever since I got my wallet stolen at New Malden train
station once with all my cards in. She messes me around
and changes my planning constantly when I’m walking
out of the door and it doesn’t help. I got to Liverpool
Street about ten minutes late, and realised I also had
forgetten my Oyster Card so I had to change a tenner
back into English money to get a tube ticket to Kings
Cross. Leaving only 55 euros for the entire trip. I
couldn’t access the funds arriving the day after. I arrived
at arrived at St Pancreas and couldn’t get my E-Ticket
app to work because there was no WiFi connection for
the IPad and the app had restarted and I had to put in
all my passwords again. Thankfully, I had a booking
reference in an email which was already saved on the
Ipad HD so I bought that up and they directed me over
to some new ticket machines where I could print the
ticket out. They had only just installed them that day. I
got to the ticket barriers just as the final call message
came up and they let me through the biometric
passport checker and all the other baggage security and
manual passport checks. I had to be really careful with
money I had 50 euros and that was it. I bought myself a
soft drink and boarded the train. A very nice black
British businesswoman was placed next to me, she tried
to sit in front, but someone claimed her seat and we
didn’t know who was getting on at Ebbsfleet. I fell
asleep for most of the trip until we got to Lilli Europe
and then I moved onto the seat behind and spread
myself out for the rest of the forty minutes or so into
Bruxelles-Midi or Brussel Zuid as it is known in Flemish.
Making my way to Louise
I remembered my way around the Metro you need to
take the train passed Arts-Loix to get to Louise. When I
got there, I didn’t know where to go or where to ask.
There were no ticket booths, and there was no tourist
information on Avenue Louise or Waterloo Avenue near
the station despite it being rather a well to do area of
Brussels. I went up Avenue Louise a little way and then
noticed a side street with a few nice restaurants and
decided to have a spot of lunch and ask whom I thought
looked like a nice Belgian girl in there.
The Baked Potato Girl
The restaurant I chose was a gourmet baked potato
restaurant. It did traditional English baked potatoes with
veggie fillings for a Belgian girly girl’s taste. Since I was
diabetic and wanted to watch my weight too I thought it
would be more appropriate than going for a pizza next
door or a kebab across the street. I’ve never had baked
potato with Rose-Marie Sauce and cauliflower, broccoli
and raw carrots before but I quite liked it. It was quite a
good meal for 8 euros with a diet coke. So, I got lunch in
and was able to log on and get google maps directions
to the Hotel. It wasn’t far away. I also asked the girls in
the restaurant and they pointed me to Avenue Suisse
which was in the right direction.
Hotel Pantone (checking in without my debit card)
I was staying at the Hotel Pantone. I got a free upgrade
to a suite on the sixth floor. It was a lovely room for just
52 pounds per night. I got a whole enclosed seating area
and balcony, walk in shower, and toilet, it was very
adequate. The phone and kettle didn’t work but I got
another kettle from reception. Officially, I was not
allowed to check in without my debit card, but he was
going to be there until 11 o’ clock that night and if I
could provide photographic evidence that that card
existed at home, if mum could take a photo of it that
would be sufficient to provide ID. She did do this, and I
was able to check into the hotel. I had a lovely couple of
hours up there freshening up and getting some rest,
then pampering myself up for the evening. It was quite
a way to walk there with no obvious bus route from
Louise to the European Quarter so I just walked it. It
took a good three-quarters of an hour.
Walking to the European Quarter
I took a number of photos on the way to the European
Quarter. The area known as Louise is one of the nicer
parts of the city, everything is really posh and lovely
until you get to past the roundabout known as Stefànie.
At Sefànie I took a rest and had a look round an art
gallery and clothes shop with a café in and took some
photos. Then I headed off up the hill until I entered a
more ethnic area of the city that appeared quite run
down. I felt a little uneasy there and wanted to pass
through the area as quickly as I could. Eventually I found
my way out of it down Dublin street and onto Avenue
Arlon and it’s just a little way down there until you
reach the European Quarter with its central square
known as Place de Luxembourg next to the parliament
building where the lovely Beer Factory gastropub is
located.
Dinner and Social at The Beer Factory
We had dinner and a social it the beer factory on the
Place de Luxembourg. I walked in straight passed
Alessandro and then a waiter pointed out that he was
there. He was just putting a sign up on the door to point
out that we were on the first floor tonight. We
ascended the stairs and avoided the queue for the loo
which you get to just before the rest of the seating on
the mezzanine upper floor. We were meeting some
Canadian students on a tour of European institutions
tonight who were friendly with the EU, and I suppose
that’s why I’d been wheeled out, being a Brit. Hélène
and Balint had probably gone to another meeting for
the JEF Young European Federalists on the same night.
The other people present at first were a German lady
called Anna Lisa from the SPD whom I made friends with
instantly, she was lovely and one of her friends. Some
other people arrived later. A lot of the Canadians sat on
our table including the Lady in charge of the group. The
group were scholars who were doing some kind of
internship with the Canadian government. I think she
was called Helen the woman in charge. She was really
nice, and she liked me I hardly got to talk to Anna Lisa
again. She was really good with me. I ordered some
food which was really nice it was a Belgian version of
fish and chips. French fries and little pieces of fish in a
very thin Chinese style batter. I liked that for 15 euros it
was a little on the pricy side but lovely nevertheless. I
think I had a beer resembling Leffe as well. I also got to
talk to one or two of the Canadian guys. We put up the
Stand Up for Europe, Canadian and European flags. Just
as I turned to leave and paid, Alessandro told me we
were moving on to the Italian Café so I stayed with them
having a little chat outside afterwards. The Italian Café is
on the on Arlons street or Rue d’Arlons. It wasn’t far
away, and we exchanged some business cards.
The Italian Café
When we arrived at the Italian café it was packed out
but there was space at the back and I ended up talking
to a Canadian student doing a tour of European political
institutions who was doing an internship at the
Canadian Parliament with his girlfriend who hadn’t
come to Brussels with him but had stayed in England. I
had a diet coke and then I popped off at around 10pm.
Alessandro’s swift departure
Alessandro and his friend came outside with me, but
they ran off to find her father.
Back to Pantone via Railway and Tube
I found my way to the Gare de Luxembourg and got on a
train to Schuman and then got the tube to Arts Loix and
changed there to get back to Louise and the Hotel
Pantone. I slept rather roughly and woke up ready for
action the next day.
Breakfast
I went to a café on Avenue Lousie and had a coffee and
a croissant but didn’t have much money left. Brussels is
very expensive these days. I didn’t have much money left
and walked up avenue Louise to try and find the headquarters of
Stand Up for Europe and get advice on how to stay in Brussels. I did
make contact with someone, but they were unable to
help me stay.I was still fantastically hungry so spent my last
Euros on a sandwich from the supermarket downstairs.
The Royal Palace
I walked up Waterloo Avenue to the top and asked in a
bank where I could seek asylum due to prejudice in my
local community as to whom I was. They directed me to
the local police station at Grande Place. To get there I
needed to walk in front of the Royal Palace and park
which is supposed to have been modelled on and is
actually a tick larger than Buckingham Palace in London.
When I got to the other side of the park I descended
through the subway into the old centre of the city.
Grande Place and the Police station
I went through the nicer parts of the old city and
eventually found my way to the Grande Place the main
square at the heart of the old city with its grand
buildings. I popped into the tourist office and they put
me into the direction of the police station in a side
street. I got down to the police station and said that I
wanted to attempt to gain asylum in Beligum on the
grounds that my movements and activities were being
restricted due to Brexit. They pointed me in the
direction of the old WTC in the north of the city near the
north station called Office d’Etrangers, The Foreigner’s
Office.
Seeking Asylum
I walked from Grande Place up to Rogier and then on to
the North Station area which is a dangerous part of
Brussels. I eventually found the reception of the
foreigner’s office and talked to the lady in there about
seeking asylum. I explained to her that my movements
were being restricted and that I was being spied on by a
higher power because of being under the care in the
community team and being pro-European and anti-
Brexit. She agreed that it was sufficient grounds to claim
asylum and if I wished to do so there I should go there
at 9am on Monday morning. I said I wanted to be
Belgian citizen in order to retain a European passport
and she suggested travelling on to Germany and seeking
asylum there because my French wasn’t good enough
and my German which we were using as a lingua franca
was perfect and would mean I could make something
more of myself there probably.
Not wanting to leave on the Flixbus
I hardly slept all night and was a little disorientated. I
simply had such a great time that I didn’t want to grab
the Flixbus home, I got to the Gare du Nord with very
little money left and had to make a decision between
homelessness and going back on the bus to London. I
chose, wait for it, homelessness. I deliberately missed
the bus with only a sugary coke to keep my diabetes
from the door. I decided to seek political asylum as a
pro-European and give it a go in Brussels. Nothing was
to separate me from my beloved EU. I would survive or
die trying to make get my EU passport!
Mum paying for the Hotel Pantone again
Walking away from the horrible and terrifying North
Station area. I popped into the easy jet hotel in Brussels
central and they thankfully let me charge my Ipad which
was on 4%. I wanted to book a room there but mum
fussed around so much that by the time we’d got round
to paying the room had gone and she was so nice in
there too! I had to ask her to ring the Hotel Pantone for
me and book the room again there for me. Thankfully, I
had money in the bank to pay for it myself but as I said
before had left my card at home. I decided to make my
way there.
Witnessing a Gun Battle in the Arabic Quarter or at Least
Some Sort of Firecrackers Going Off.
I was so scared when going down a street heading over
from the Grande Place towards Lousie, upon seeing two
Arabic guys in 2 cars and a series of three to five loud
bangs and a series of shouting matches. I heard
someone shout a name and then the bangs went off. I
was just wondering where it was the remaining bomber
they never found from the terrorist attack meeting his
maker as I heard had happened in recent weeks or
whether as was said when I was legging it back in the
direction I’d just come that it was a series of
firecrackers. It did sound a bit like a shootout. It was
mentioned just recently that he did meet his maker that
way and I was wondering if it were him. It was all over
pretty quickly anyway. Brussels is scary, but beautiful.
Homeless meal provider
I quite by chance came across a woman promoting a
soup kitchen and helping people find work as asylum
seekers in Brussels. She asked me if I could do a monthly
payment at first and then I explained that I was a
homeless asylum seeker myself so she gave me the
address of the soup kitchen in case they needed to help
me.
Nothing to Eat
The hotel manager had put no tea, coffee and sugar in
my room, so I couldn’t have any sugar or dinner having
walked around all day. What kept me alive that night
was that I’d slipped a Meritene protein shake into my
hand luggage before I had gone the 2 days because they
keep my mental health on an even keel. I’d forgotten
about it and hadn’t had it the night before. So I mixed it
up with some water from the cold tap in the bathroom,
which was a swivel tap and consequently rather
revoltingly warm, but it kept me alive. When I woke up
in the morning I got mum to boot me up a ticket home
on Eurostar which left at 16:30. We couldn’t afford to go
any earlier.
Free Day After Breakfast on the Streets of Brussels
I have never been so desperately hungry as when it
came to breakfast that day. I gulped down two glasses
of OJ straight away for the sugar and then stole a
blueberry muffin for lunch (had to) although I wish I’d
risked nicking two because it was a rather long wait for
the next meal. The positive thing about being a
homeless asylum seeker on the streets of Brussels is
that you do move around a lot and see the weight fall
off as it says on the “Slim Fast” advert. I also ate some
cheese and ham sandwiches and had two cups of well
earned coffee.
Egmond Park
I love the Egmond park. It’s a little open space I found
down a side street just near Porte de Hal. In that street
there are a lot of houses from around 1900 marked with
the architect’s name Löw. I was wondering if that were
any relation to Jörgi? To the right about three-quarters
of the way down is the Egmond park. It’s a small open
space that seemed as if it had once been part of a much
larger garden belonging to the summer palace in the
French style of the eighteenth century called the
Sablonerie. It has a little café in and a number of smaller
sculptures, even quite an interesting turn of the century
bin. I liked it because it reminded me of just how much I
enjoy being in European open spaces with trees within
urban spaces. There was only one blueberry muffin, I
hadn’t dared take two the restaurant owner had been
too stoodgy and I’d been afraid of him seeing me do it,
but I enjoyed my blueberry muffin there. Having a bit of
a cry about how much I’d prefer not to go how and how
much this life had belonged to me. When I came home
it formed the basis of a piano sonata that feeling of
being alone in the park.
Sablon
I took a few photos of the Sablonerie itself and then
moved down into the area known as the Sablon which is
where the Jewish museum is located where there was a
murder and a shoot-out a few months before. It’s a
lovely renovated part of the side that aside, with some
Dutch gabled buildings like in Maastricht. There are a
number of art galleries and antique shops there. I had a
good look round the big antiques centre and furniture
showroom and took a look at some life drawings in a
gallery. There are locks on all of the doors in the Sablon
shops now you have to be asked in I think that is a sign
of the times. In the main square of the area there is a
large cathedral sized church I popped into, but there
was a service going on I didn’t want to disturb. It’s called
the church of our blessed virgin a few streets later down
the hill is a chapel with the same dedication that I had a
look round. They are catholic and of some Polish
monastic order.
Antiques quarter
If you travel towards the Gare du Midi from there you
come to a large quarter blessed with several hundred
antiques stores selling junk and brick-a-brack that are
less posh and up market than in the Sablon. I checked a
few of them out.
Killing time at the station
At the station I arrived an hour or so early for check in
to Eurostar. I printed out a ticket and sat down for a
while and then noticed I wasn’t going to make it I was so
hungry and almost dying of diabetes. I had 59 cents. I
found a supermarket at one end of the station trying to
find something to keep me alive more than anything
else. I found a baguette for 57 cents. Perfect! I devoured
that and was still hungry. Boy, did I know how it felt to
be homeless in Brussels by then. I wondered back into
the square. The army weren’t here today. There was
obviously a lower state of alert. I asked if the café over
the square took English money because I still had the
five pounds that I couldn’t change the day before but
she said she didn’t. Eventually, Eurostar let us into the
departure lounge and I had two sachets of sugar. Not
even they took Euros.
Managing to book a ticket home without my card and
collect it
On the way home I managed to purchase a sandwich
and drink on the train with my five pounds and that
kept me going as well and didn’t require my card to
book the ticket to get back to Colchester as I could do it
online. Luckily, I still had the photo of my card in my
email inbox. I said that I’d lost my card at St Pancreas
station and they printed the ticket out for me at the
booth.
ULB Conference on the 28th April 2018
The stakes couldn’t be higher
I was asked at short notice to attend an ad hoc European Convention by Stand Up for Europe at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) Brussels on 28th of April 2018 by kind permission of the two rival factions the City Teams and the Stand Up Board. Basically, the constellation was the same Laubists on one side and Zscockite’s and Dema’s on the other. My friend Hélène and Balint on one side putting in a good knock for the Laubists and my dear Thomas, the two lovely Anitas, my friend from Antwerp Uni Stefaan, David (Draco) Zülke, Alex Gunter and Alessandro who jumped ship on the other. This was to be the final showdown that would either mean galvanising the institution or splitting it permanently or both. One item on the agenda election of a new board and fundamental control of the organisation Stand Up for Europe and its internet brand.
King Laub’s email
A few days before I was sent a summons to Brussels from Richard (King) Laub to ULB Brussels for the meeting encouraging me to vote for his people Mr Benjamin Vanessay and his slimline team of four administrators as the executive with the city teams subordinate them below. From a purely structural point of view. Although old-fashioned what he was actually suggesting seemed sensible from a business point of view. They had a lot of experience to be fair to them of organising businesses and as a former owner of a business and business English teacher myself it seemed like a textbook approach of exactly what to do in how to organise something up until about five or six years ago before the technology improved. Because now they have split the City Teams seem to organise themselves extremely well anyway. Naivety and being naturally charismatic leaders cost them the split because it went against all traditions of business organisation. It’s just that David can organise everything at a moment’s notice with his laptop anyway now and it doesn’t matter.
They were just slightly more old-fashioned and they meant well.
Thomas Zschocke’s Emails
Thomas Zschocke’s group the city teams of which he was the Munich leader were basically sidelined for arguing and causing a split. So, if they didn’t win the leadership they made it very plain that they would walk because they weren’t offered anything within the current organisation of Stand Up for Europe at all. They are more spontaneous, more fun and improvisatory jazzers of political genius even if their presentation isn’t always as polished they make up with it with their talent. I can’t leave them even if there are quite a few people that would rather I left their group. Though Thomas himself is for me. They are really good fun but can be quite critical if you aren’t careful. That said I’ve got a lot of friends as well as enemies in that group like Stefaan who is one of my best friends in European politics. I’ve gone a little OTT with them I know but if you step off the gas with them a bit they come back to you. The thing is they were the life and soul workhorses of the Stand Up movement before the split and they were criticised a little too much in particular the former deputy president and leader of that set Pietro Dema. He was as clever as Richard and Richard is by no means used to that. He finds that difficult even though he’s stepped to one side at the moment Pietro. Nice guy. Such a great looking guy too. What they lacked for in experience they more than made up for in talent.
How I was to afford it?
There was only way I could afford the trip at such short notice. That was to take the Flixbus out to Brussels North Station on the Friday evening and arrive Saturday morning at 06:30 go to the meeting at 14:30 and have a beer with afterwards and then take the last Flixbus back to London at five to midnight. So that’s basically what I did. I’d take the train down to Victoria and save a few pennies by waiting or the National Express coach back to Colchester in Essex at 11am on Sunday to arrive at 13:30.
Victoria again
I took the train down to London first class because there was a special deal on where you could travel first class for just a £2 supplement. I arrived within plenty of time at Victoria and chatted to an older man of West Indian origin who was so delighted to be travelling out to Rotterdam to visit his son for the weekend.
The Bus
The bus left more or less on time with the same driver as before. He is a real character and I always enjoyed his explanations in broken English of how we “could going to ze toilet in ze backside of the bus”. This time he was trying to explain that we had to take the ferry rather than the train at Dover and we had to fill out a form with our name nationality and sex on. “Erm, You must filling form name, nationality, man / woman, yes, otherwise we not allowed on ze Fäherry!”. He stopped several times on the trip to explain this.
My travelling companion from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
I sat next to a very intelligent man on the way out there who needed a seat. He had been a student at Gonville and Caius college, Cambridge and then got a job at Tescos doing the stock. I liked him a lot. He was just popping over to Brugges for the weekend to take a look. I told him I was going to a Euro conference and he mentioned that he’d voted remain, but some of the other girly students had been more upset about Brexit than him and he’d had to give them a hug. It was him that I learned the Cambridge expression for high Church which I thought was quite witty and clever “Bells and Smells”.
The Bus Crash
He wasn’t too impressed when we came out of passport control at the ferry and the character of the century crashed the bloody bus into some bollards trying to drive around a corner. He had to get out and kick it back into shape, so we could drive on.
Getting the paperwork wrong
That driver normally gets all the paperwork wrong and the port authorities and boarder guards loath him. He also leaves people in the terminal and drives off. So we were just about the last people on in the ferry queue having argued for over P&O about the amount of people on the bus. Apparently, we were plus seven people apart from those on the list, but he just insisted we were plus two.
The Ferry from Dover
We took the ferry from Dover to Calais. It was humid and too dark to really see a thing and on the Pride of France there are no cabins available to rent for a short sleep. So, I just tried to save a bit of money. I only had sixty pounds to go with in Euros which I’d changed at Liverpool Street Station, a cooked breakfast was no less than £8 per head, so I opted eventually for the meal deal sandwich and drink for six pounds without a snack included! Extortionately expensive P+O and it was full of French school children being hyperactive and playing hide and seek all around you a 4:30 am. We arrived in Calais safely but there was a little bit a of a bundle down the central staircase with people arriving there too early. The Ferry is sometimes on late at night on Flixbus trips when they are doing engineering on the tunnel.
Brugge
My colleague sitting next to me from Gonville and Cauis college Cambridge bode me farewell and left the bus at Brugges at 5 am.
Arrival at 6:30
About an hour and a half later we arrived once again in the European capital of Brussels North Station at 6:30 am, again rather too early for my liking round there. So, I scuttled off half running half walking until I’d made it down to Rogier underground station. I decided to save money because I didn’t have a lot. So, I decided to walk up down the street adjacent to the Grande Place and then left up to the Palace through the park and up onto Waterloo Avenue and then down to Avenue Lousie, past Stefanie and all the way to the little bakery where I like to have breakfast called Le Petit Quotidien and bought myself a lovely breakfast for 10 euros with a coffee croissants, bread and a glass of OJ included. I noticed that the customers that went in there every day were served with their usual order without them even having to ask for it. Very good service in there a great bakery and coffee shop!
Walking from Avenue Louise to ULB
It was still only about half past nine in the morning when I asked the staff in the café exactly where the university was and how far away it was. All I knew was that it was in our direction. We looked it up online and the lady wrote out some tram numbers for me on a hanky, but I was so short of money I said I’d walk the whole distance. I’d already walked a decent 2 miles and it was at least another mile-and-a-half to where I was eventually going. So, I walked the rest of the way down Avenue Lousie right to the bottom and then turned to the left past the abbey and monastary. I took a good look but there was an African guy freaking out in there so I swiftly moved on. It was very beautiful to take a shot of the Abbey. I must have arrived at ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) at 11:15 or thereabouts and the meeting was at 2:30 so I tried to find out the room where it was for later on. At first, I was so tired I couldn’t find it for a long while. I tried the door to the canteen and a guy showed me to where he thought it was and some security guys pinpointed it for me.
Waiting and reading a bit of Sahra Wagenknecht with the students
I waited outside with some of Helene’s friends and started to read a page or two of Sahra Wagenknecht’s book Prosperity Without Greed again. That lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes. I felt at home with them there again, with them surrounding me and nattering about all things to do with love and relationships. After a while they went so I moved on.
Waiting in the bar. Clean out of cash
I decided to spend my last 5 euros on a beer and the lovely old fashioned bar on the corner that served good Jupiter Pils. I managed to get online there again and connect with Alessandro who had said a few of us were meeting up somewhere for a beer in a nearby street around 12 but he wouldn’t be there until later. I tried to find out where that was but the area was too big and I just ended up giving out all my loose change on a can of nice sugar coke to keep me going and heading off back to the ULB campus itself.
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Free Univeristy of Bruxelles ranks at about 168 in the world. Around the same as the Univeristy of Cologne. It has boasted a number of nobel prizewinners in the past. It has a smallish campus, very compact with one seminar block dedicated to Allende showing a quite obvious affection for the left side of politics. There is not a computer in sight. They really are all still students how God made them with pen and paper and the campus really does smells of old drains particularly in the zoology dept, but it’s a campus how it should be with pretty affectionate girls and plenty of heart as is depicted in their student song the Hymne des étudiants de ULB.
Brave semesters of dreaming
Of work, of pleasure
For us its just like waking up
To the dreams of tomorrow
Friends of knowledge,
Easy and carefree,
The foolishness of independence
It’s all in being a student
Refrain:
Brothers sing to your glasses
And sing to your merriment
The girl that we cherish
And to the fraternity
To the other greats of wisdom,
That we love, truth,
But the only one true woman of power,
Ah, that’s your Liberty!
The dreams of our age,
broadness, ambitions,
They will find fulfillment In the sheer audacity of leaving the rest behind at the station
As one dares to put
The wow into life
The liberty to defend your rights
You will get there!
The aurora
On a grand new horizon
Of immortal scientific knowledge
Explanation of reason
Rome trembles and falters
Before the truth
As we intend to write her
Against the teachings of the papacy.
Talking to the members of the board
The members of the new board were available for talking to prior to the convention starting at 2pm; I helped them mark out the way to the hall with arrows printed on paper. Benjamin, Luca and Balint were on hand to talk to. I got to really get to know and like Balint for the first time.
Meeting Alain Deneef
Alain Deneef talked to me about his plans for a four-man streamlined board to deal with the administration and then subordinate to that a group of new candidates for city teams. Having a hierarchical organisation in his opinion would strengthen it in a traditional way. Even if it meant cutting many of my friends on the existing city teams out. From a business theoretical point of view. From what I learned from my business English textbooks it seemed as if his plans for the business were viable and sensible. He had a natural charisma and was quite obviously a leader in his personality. The trouble is he was not just an advisor to the proceedings but was has since proved to be a bit of a dictator. He has been parachuted in by Richard Laub and had vast amounts of experience in Belgacom and Belgian Trains as a chief executive. The trouble is he didn’t trust me he didn’t think I was bright enough as I will detail later and he’s made an enemy of me within the organisation. Whereas at the start I had absolutely nothing to complain about. He’s a shifty little manipulator and a liar and I have the experience to know it. He miscalculated that big time. He believes secretly that Brexit means Brexit I’m certain of that and he doesn’t like the Brits being a part of the EU in any way. I have loved being a part of it since the age of three and he’s trying to bully me out of it with his Faragist style of politics blocking emails and saying I’m too old to make a difference and so on. I wanted to vote for him because he said the best way was not to vote for both the current city teams and the new board but one or the other or abstain depending on whether I slightly preferred one side or the other. He wanted an end to the arguments ad nonsense and to save the organisation which I did admit I found initially positive.
Being touted for Proxies
Unfortunately, both sides were so at loggerheads with each other that I simply wasn’t allowed to vote for Deneef. Out of politeness I’d covered up my voting intention towards City Teams and Felix Sproll cleverly asked me to take 2 proxies for him to check whether I was going to vote for them. If I refused he knew I was voting Deneef and if I took them he knew he could count on my vote. He ruined my whole day. I had to refuse to take proxies from both sides unless I took one from each and from that it was virtually obvious I was intending to vote Deneef. He was so clever Richard Laub offered him a 4 million to stay with Stand Up. He mentioned that at the meal afterwards.
City Teams Leader Felix Sproll telling me to vote for both sides
Contrary to Deneef Sproll told me to vote for both sides as is possible under the Belgian voting system because he wanted to keep Stand Up together apparently. He and his mates worked on me for the next 45 minutes until I voted against the people I liked the most because they said they loved me more and said they had my best interests at heart and I was more friendly with them than the others’ They said they knew the people on the other board and said they’d been stabbed in the back by them and they knew them better than meant unfortunately I fell for it when they claimed that the old ladies Hélène Decottigny had invited in to vote for her side didn’t even know who they were voting for or could even recognise their faces personally they just wanted to vote for Richard Laub who was no longer on the ballot paper. So there were some pretty evil electoral practices going on on both sides. I just wanted my beloved movement to survive and I was torn to shreds between my love for a sweetheart and love for my new found friends. I took a fifty fifty punt and lost big time.
Fiasco number 1: After registration the impartial police invigilator told everyone they could vote right away and go without the presentations.
The impartial Belgian police invigilator told everyone they all knew who they were voting for and they had waited so long to register that if they didn’t have time to stay for the presentations they could vote now and leave. This provoked outrage on part of the city teams and they threatened to walk immediately.
I cast my vote for City Teams on the basis of Alain’s dodgy handshake when I was going to vote for him.
After asking Hélène and her friends opinion on which way to vote, I went to shake Alain Deneef’s hand but I don’t know why with all the manipulation and touting for my vote, he was nervous shaking my hand and I thought he was going to be dishonest so I changed my mind and cast my one vote without proxies for the city teams it was the wrong decision. I was very weak, because I didn’t know Richard and Hélène’s lot well enough. My instinct was to like them more but I simply didn’t know them and Thomas and he is friends got the better of my as a result. They simply didn’t lay down their hand with me in time despite me trying to communicate with them and get to know them. In that way I had no reason to doubt the City Teams good intentions towards me and they were the one’s who ultimately betrayed me and threw me out of the movement simply using sleaze.
The real reason is that if they didn’t win Deneef would have replaced the entire city teams leaders with his own people and they already held those positions and he wasn’t prepared to work with them. They could have lost their careers and that’s the only reason why they were defending their position with hindsight. It really wasn’t in my best interests to vote against Hélène and I’d come overnight on the bus with no sleep and having not stayed in a hotel and I was knackered enough to fall for it, but in all fairness if their people had been able to turn up there would have been significantly more support Europe-wide for their side. It’s that the location favoured Deneef.
The Presentations
At first Hélène couldn’t get her presentation to work and the invigilator got all up tight with her and wanted to get them all to vote right away whilst the City Teams threatened to walk straight away if their presentation wasn’t heard despite the invigilator inciting they all knew which way they personally were going to vote. The Stand Up Board’s presentation was very slick and well presented and the City Teams was more spontaneous with a jazz like flair if a little less succinct. The City Teams claimed they wanted Stand Up to have a Europe wide equal emphasis and not just a Brussels based focus on the pool of talent at ULB and wanted to utilise video conferencing and other forms of social media to achieve it whereas the Brussels based team of four rather was to form a core administrative unit and then the new city team leaders would by in the level of management beneath that. A more traditional and potential more stable hierarchical structure.
Being torn to shreds between Helene, Balint, Luca and the others
I was torn to shreds between both sides of the debate, my political sweetheart on one side and her friends and boyfriend and my allies and friends in London and Antwerp one the other. This was more than a recipe for disaster, isolation and ultimately rejection from both sides of the debate. As I said I did vote city teams as I felt Stefaan was closer to me than Hélène despite me wanting to be involved with their set. Many of my side like Pietro especially felt rejected by them.
I felt completely raped and bullied all round.
I felt caught up in the messy business of political breakup as the European City Teams later to be allied with Alliance Europa which both factions would eventually join announced that they were leaving SuFE on the account of illegal electoral practice. In fact, they had little choice as they would have lost their jobs to Deneef’s lot. They were my friends but it was the beginning of my sticky end in the organisation being caught up in this bitter rivalry between Laub and Dema that destroyed what was a very promising organisation.
Wanting to stay with Stand Up and City Teams
I wanted to stay with stand up and felt annoyed at having been bullied into voting for what I felt was the wrong side for me to be a part of.
Now not allowed to if I want to be part of Alliance Europa
Furthermore, I was uncertain whether Alliance Europa would have me on account of their association with Volt Europa who didn’t like me at all.
Oh, Hélène how did end?
Well, it ended with us crying and walking out waving a massive EU flag and singing the anthem together reluctantly and sadly in a procession one behind the other and the others walking on by proudly in mock triumph. Only for us to smash the power of our own organisation and join under together again under the umbrella of another. I never saw Hélène again or Balint, but in principle we are still on the same side.
Having that photo as a reluctant rebel
I had this photo as a reluctant rebel at ULB together. I thought my side did it for the power and to be the best politicians and win money from the EU event though significant amounts of money, millions even were offered to key players in the revolution to stay with SUFE, but why would they when they cut me out completely and destroyed the power of their rival faction and took everything for themselves. You see it’s often the power of entrepreneurs people like Thomas Zschocke and I that get the better of these big hierarchical structures for having better lines of communication. This was down partly to the excellent It infrastructure provided by Zühlke. Who later completely double crossed them just months later by stealing the whole of the followers on their website and thus forcing SUFE into insignificance having to star from an internet fan base of zero. I decreased in significance was pushed to one side and ejected from the new organisation so have not seen many of these friends since. They really fancy themselves as being better than me too. We had a meal together anyway with all the professional activists earning a mint for their troubles with me self funding myself on the dole and not even being able to afford the tram to north station and having to beg for the money from Alex Gunter. I actually gave the barriers the slip where they had been kicked in and managed to get out the other end without presenting my ticket so was able to buy a coke to keep my sugar levels up and that was all I was to receive before I got home.
Flixbussing it back to Victoria via the Chunnel
I Fliuxbussed it back to London for 8 hrs and with a bloody Long wait at Coquelles and a double passport and baggage check it was not nice when I arrived very early in the morning at Victoria. I had a four hour wait until my National Express bus home to colchester and I couldn’t afford to go on the train. So, I wandered around Chelsea and had a dead sandwich from my bag so as not to get into trouble in a very beautiful looking Sloane Square. It was then I discovered that St John’s sMith Square was open for a holy communion at eight o clock so I killed an hour taking a very unwanted communion as a stranger with the older folk of Chelsea, who, despite me being a West Londoner were very snobby about me being their visitor from St Leonard’s, Lexden choir indeed. I prayed for the love of my life and the future of my organisation SuFE tearfully and the people in it and that we would get a positive outcome to Brexit. By this time I felt and looked and smelt like a down and out having been nearly 48 hrs with no sleep.
I arrived home gracefully after an insignificant sleepy trip back to Colchester on National Express about 2:50 in the afternoon.
Conference in political Communication in MundoB conference centre; ‘We are Europe!’
The Journey / Meeting New Friends in the Lobby
As far as I can recall the journey there was a pretty uneventful and now customary 8 hours on the Flixbus from London Victoria. This time there was a lot of traffic on the way in as we were a little late and it was the morning rush hour. I chatted to a woman from Cardiff University who’s husband worked for the EU and she was going to Brussels to see it for the first time. She was originally form Harlow but had studied European Studies in Cardiff I believe. We were so late in her boyfriend couldn’t meet her and we were only just around the corner and it took us another 20 minutes to finally pull up.
Upon arrival I walked to the European Quarter but I wasn’t allowed to check in until 1pm so I had to leave my luggage in the hotel and then pay a 40 euro deposit which took nearly all my spare money I’d got for the weekend. So I was wondering around aimlessly in Brussels trying to find a few cents in my pocket for a bottle of mineral water. I was able to have meal on the room though and a nice glass of beer.
During this time waiting for our room I met two other fellow UEFers. Ezsther Nagy the Hungarian diplomat and her room mate for this trip Atarah for the first time. That occurred in this lobby of the Leopold Hotel, Brussels, (about 500m from Lux). Ezsther was sitting next to me and eventually we plucked up courage to talk to each other. She’s is a very kind woman and we became friendly almost immediately. Atarah was a nice German lady originally from Berlin but now living in Tübingen and studying forestry. She was engaged to be married but she was a bit of a flirt.
I also checked out where the conference centre MundoB was so that I knew where to go that evening for our first set of seminars. Eventually my room mate arrived who was Alain Calmes former head of the European Social Fund and we checked in.
Alain
On the first day I arrived at MundoB at 12:45 and they old me it started at three. I had lunch in the hotel and returned. I had a little room chat with Alain and got to know him a bit.
The Conference Begins
At 3, we had registration and collected our badges from Kristine and Natascha and hung around for a while in the cafe until the first set of plenaries. I admitted to being depressed having been thrown out of the Alliance Europa group by Gerhard Pappenburg possibly for fancying Hélène too much. I felt isolated and very upset with the whole business of losing my European identity, hopeless and powerless and I entered into a barrage of hatred against the the Brexit secretary Dominic Raab online. I had all my computer equipment impounded for over one year. I didn’t even mean what I said it was just sheer frustration. I was arrested and spent the day in Colchester nick but I was released without charge. I made that confession when I first took the mic at the introductory session.
Then came the initial plenaries, the first of which was a Greenpeace man from Wuppertal doing his talk alternative energy. He was so nervous his English was coming out wrong so I helped him relax by saying he needed to focus more on the points he wanted to make. He was really good at English he was just so nervous no-one knew what he was trying to say, but when I criticised him and said I used to be an English trainer at that level it really bought it out of him. If he thinks that is nerve racking he should trying playing a little concert piano from time to time! I find that nigh on impossible in from of the landed gentry my fingers having turned to jelly but bilingual conversations are okay for me. I think it’s because I have had to teach EFL in German myself professionally and I have a lot of experience in Wilkinson Sword beginners class in Solingen for which teaching in German was written into my contract. He probably just needed experience. I need more experience at playing piano in front of people too. Nice guy! That’s why I feel I was a good EFL tutor no-one ever appreciated when I was working 10 years ago. I helped calm him down and said the right thing to him. I was criticised endlessly for things like that in Germany, but my pupils were some of the best speakers in the companies they worked for because I was effective they just found me impolite.
That was followed by a session by a very attractive Italian girl on the use of creating an activist’s profile for yourself and selling it on the web. there was a workshop session in which I got to know Anna the Dutch girl who was a very dedicated and professional activist I enjoyed working with on that project. A French lady from en Marche that was only there for the first day of our conference took command of proceedings and preferred Anna’s leadership to my own, she obviously felt she had talent was shy and needed some confidence. She gave me the impression she didn’t like charismatic English guys that much but I liked her and did get on with her over the nibbles and wine in the evening.
I didn’t try that hard with the socialising as I’d come in on the bus that day and had travelled over night to arrive at 6am in the morning and I’d been on the go all day. I think I settled for having a Pizza bought to my room and an early night.
Plenaries and Workshops
The second day of the conference was a hard working one with a full programme of I think it was three sessions maybe four plenaries followed by two workshops or seminars in the same timetable pattern, some were run by the young European Union of European Federalists the under forties the so called Jeffers (JEF) about engaging the youth, and some were run by senior political staff such as Roger Casale a leading remainer and president of his organisation based in London the NEW Europeans. I met him here for the first time. I also met Marcel who was in charge of running a federalist campaign to get elected in Belgium. Roger spoke of a catastrophic defeat in the ensuing European Elections for the federalist movement should drastic action not be taken. I’m glad that his predictions have not yet come to fruition. In Brussels itself we held our own citadel by about 70%-30% we wiped them out in everywhere wining en every single country bar the UK, Italy, and France, but even in these countries though the largest party was anti European all the other parties weren’t so we actually beat them in a majority voting situation anyway. Many of the countries don’t have first past the post and we would have voted down any attempt to remove those countries from the EU by majority. A lot of things have been said about it but all that really happened is that they gain some ground which shifted the emphasis away from socialism towards liberalism. The ALDE liberalist group was allowed not power in Brussels whereas before it was an almost permanent alliance between the EPP and the moderate socialists so what did happen has been a great victory for EU democracy anyway which might have the effect to saving our country as a project.
We must win the youth or we’re history the good sign is most of the German people under 30 are rebelling against the older people voting AfD they are more concerned with environmental issues and are voting green.
Anna and I prepared a talk on a political topic and even though we disagreed on strategy she worked very well with me professionally and added greatly to what I was saying. I think we would have made a good couple because she worked constructively with me and didn’t destroy me and she could have learned a lot about confidence form me. She was nervous and I’m good on confidence and less good at the things she’s good at but we got on professionally. She needs a guy like me and they wouldn’t let her have me as is detailed below. I hope she got one. She’s a really great policy maker of the future. If she want’s to be an MEP I would say she needs to build relationships and alliances with people who are more confident such as Hélène and Atarah and guys like me. Then she’ll do well because she’s really hard working. Atarah is the kind of woman I desire and get friendships with but who ultimately let me down, but Anna is the type of person I am as she lacks that bit of confidence to get the killer blow in to win a relationship. I wish that I could have given her that relationship to be more like them in confidence myself. We need women like that in the door. She’s useful professionally.
The Evening Meal
The evening meal took place at the little Italian restaurant just round the corner from Mundo B. I wanted to talk to Anna about her life but I was prevented from doing so by Atarah who liked me too, she made it very hard to pull Anna but she just wanted to defeat her politically in my opinion because Anna wasn’t as confident with guys as her despite her being a fantastic young professional. Atarah was a very astute possibly Turkish German politician and she turned out to be engaged. she just wanted to see me one time the next day and didn’t keep in touch. A political decision from above? Who knows, but she was very polite but I felt almost complimented out of the door. Wholly unfair because I wanted a relationship for myself and to preserve my ID. I liked Anna more because I feel she would have been a more loyal partner that really would have worked with me personally to build a life, despite Atarah being a political figurehead of some considerable talent.
Sunday Morning
We had a couple more meetings on the Sunday and ended up at lunchtime. Alain picked up the bill very generously for the minibar. He lived in Luxembourg. As I said his view was that Britain had no obligation to make sacrifices to help others in Europe in his opinion as they were not responsible for Europe’s enslaving acts or destruction in WWII like in Vichy France and Nazi Germany were. We, having done the right thing and lost our empire had no reason to hang around and pay a cost they didn’t deserve to pay. Whilst I do agree that is the case. He’s thinking from far too much of a philosophical perspective 30 years in the past. We were the British European generation. We needed the money in the 1970s yes, and our parents may well have voted for the French and Germans with their fingers pinching their nose together only to make off like a bandit when they got the chance and having been totally enriched by their experience, this certainly is not the case with me personally.
Trip to the European House of History
The next day Eszter, Atarah, a Spanish Gypsy couple and I visited the museum at LUX called the European House of History. there is a House of History in nearly every country in Europe now including Hungary and Bonn in Germany. it focusses on the dreams and ambitions of the EU how it was formed as a reaction against Colonialist and Nazi values to form a new age attitude towards communal living and solving problems together with a traditionally left of centre and centre right alliance, it shows how European consumer society and lifestyle changed relative to the societies around it during the 70s and 80s including the former Ostbloc. I noticed that more people actually went to university in Eastern Europe than in our society they valued a great education more than anything else and we had more materially. We then saw the expansion into Eastern Europe the treaty of Maastricht in 1992 and the exponential growth in wealth and population for the EU, and the devastating blow of Brexit and it’s toll on our society, sadly yes, there are vote leave shirts in our national museum such has been the impact of mutual loss. After this Atarah and I spent some time with the Spanish couple and had something to eat, a pizza from the hotel restaurant. I then broke camp and caught the last bus home through the night at 23:00. Atarah was wearing a lovely German dress the colours of the German flag Black, Red, and Gold. I enjoyed my time with her and Eszther on my own it reminded me of happier times in the 00s and of my life in Wuppertal and Cologne. I was almost in tears, in fact I was.
Affording these trips…A Tip!
One surefire way to avoid hidden costs with budget airlines is to take the long distance bus services from London, Victoria. There are several advantages to this method of travel. I find:
1, It can be cheaper, because of the lack of seat reservation charges (these are not honoured anyway on Flixbus and are included on RegioJet).
2. One big suitcase is included in the price as well as one hand luggage, This saves about 60 quid on the way there and back and allows you to take more with you.
3. The cost one way to Budapest on RegioJet including free intermittent waitress service tea and coffee for the full 29 hrs with snacks available at additional cost as of February 2019 was just £86. The return journey without the waitress cost just £45 on Flixbus 36 hrs via Paris. It takes just 8 hrs to Brussels and in 2018 London to Brussels with Flixbus cost just £16 one way with baggage if book one month in advance.
4. The pleasure is talking to the interesting characters you meet on the way. If they are women they really enjoy a chat and you can have the perfect 24 hr romance getting to know each other and then either keep in touch or just leave it and it’s a real pleasure just to have that with an Eastern European girl. The Czech and Hungarian girls are so pro-conversation and they have no fear of strangers like in the UK. It’s such fun just to feel for someone a little in a brief encounter on the way down.
Kicking Off at 10 am from the London Green Line Bus Terminus
Finding the Green Line Bus Terminus for the first time when you are used to departures from the main part of Victoria Bus Station is a very difficult and nerve racking task if you don’t have a lot of time and you are adorned wiht a big whellie suitacase even wiht a Satnav on your phone, but it’s actually behind the shopping mall directly opposite the station. It’s fairly big in size3 but tucked away under a huge canopy. Luckily I found a RegioJet ticket booth from which to ask located at the front near the bus stops on the road or I would ahve panicked and never found my big yellow bus to Prag for the first 20 hr leg of the journey in time. That said the tour guide was attracitive and friendly and you have a seat assigned to you on RegioJet at no additional cost. So, there is no scramble for the seats you want but an orderly queue at the door. The seats are also a dammed sight more padded, bigger and more bum friendly than on the German Flixbus at the moment. Once you are half way down to the Eurotunnel she serves you with your first complimentary coffee and an English Language Newspaper or Du Monde of your choice. so you feel very proud and business like when you arrive for your passport check and Costa Coffee Sandwich in the Folkstone Tunnel Terminus. I normally get out of the bus on the train and stand in the vacant carriage just before the loo or sit by the loo itself because it get so hot and stuffy on the bus and there is complete lack of air. I’ve nearly died on there in the summer month before they air by the loos is breathable if a little smelly.
The First Leg to Prague
On the first leg to Prague I had a little chat with an older Czech lady who read some of my book about my trip across America and I got a compliment from her. I tried not to chat her up too much though especially when other seating became vacant and she moved so I played a bit of Chess with the computer in the back of the seat through the night and very nearly but didn’t beat the 2500 rated computer. I tested out some weird opening moves to see what would happen like moving knight and rooks pawn to B2 and A2 repsectively. It was very nearly such an obscure move it won, but sadly he nailed me with the last rook and a bish. It does while away a bit of time but when I get tired I annoy other customer by beginning to swear at it through lack of sleep. Just past Stuttgart there was a driver’s pause in the middle of the night, just one half hour where we could get our sustinace of ‘Frikadelle mit Pommes’ and the essential four pack of Sugar Free Red Bulls.
Playing chess seemed to make the time fly and I reached Prague at 6am. Got out, don’t speak a word of Czech and realised that they don’t use Euros yet; if at all. Moreover, there seemed little point in exchanging money for one hour in Prague bus station so I had to make do so as not to receive change in Czech Florins. Luckily, it was only a 1hr wait for the next bus down to Vienna, where I could use my euros again.
Leg Two: On to Vienna
Having to forgo breakfast with diabetes is horrible but when we got going there was another fresh round of drinks for us and I got coffee and a chocolate biscuit not enough but enough to keep me alive. I was feeling rather ill with hunger until I reached a Spa town in the south just near the Austrian boarder about 2hrs from Vienna when I was joined by a lovely Anna Mullerova who kept me going with conversation and received a copy of my America Book via email. She was off to live with a bloke in Spain I think. She was a trader or worked for a British trading company with offices in the Czech Republic. Nice girl, sadly we lost contact. A little bus romance.
Lunch in Vienna and Third Leg to Budapest
Upon reaching Vienna I was cream-crackered but had to keep going. I asked for an exchange booth and managed to get some more Euros in the information centre at the station. This enabled me to buy a couple or Viennese rolls one of them Schnitzel with mustard and the other ham, egg and remoulade which is a bit like tartare sauce together with a nice sugary muffin which came as a relief. We stopped in Györ and were an hour late getting into Budapest which is a massive city having got caught up in the rush hour we arrived at 5:30 or six. Which meant I completely missed the European Union march at Kalvin Tor at the start. The bus didn’t travel all the way to the terminal at Nepliget but dumped us at a tram stop somewhere in a well to do suburb with no Florins or banks nearby and a good 1/2 hr from the centre. So I had to risk it. Schwarzfarhren for the first time in Budapest. Thankfully there were no inspectors. So, I took this lovely shot on the way in to the centre (above) and arrived in time for the start of the event at Andrassy Uni.
Arrival. The meeting and Andrassy University
I was so late arriving at Kalvin Tor in the centre of the city that I could do nothing but try and find the opening conference event, which turned out to be almost exclusively for Hungarians in Hungarian at Andrassy University. I only speak very few works of Hungarian I can order 2 beers and that’s about it. So, all I could understand were the international words they were speaking that German, French and English have in common. some of Eszther’s children spoke.
It took place in a beautiful old hall with an absolutely palatial chandelier. It was so big that it’s radius covered half the room and it was a sizeable hall too. Some members of the hard left opposition and the government spoke probably about a Hungarian future in Europe. It seemed so palatial and opulent yet at the same time perfectly shabby chic and a bit run down. It’s very charming in it’s own way. They said I could leave my luggage in an open hallway downstairs but I didn’t trust them, sexy though one of them appeared to me. I had to go out half way through to make sure I got to the exchange booth in time to convert money to Hungarian Florins. Because you never know what anything is in Hungarian Florins in either Euros or pounds you just get ripped off all the time. especially by the taxi drivers.
Dinner and the European Youth Centre
One of the people I had met the previous year at the conference in Mundo B in Brussels was the former advisor to the Deputy British PM; the American born Mark Depew. He was my room mate for this outing so we stuck together being some of the only English speakers on the conference. He lived alone in Bonn, but he was a nice guy. We decided to go to a local kebab shop to get something to eat as we weren’t invited to eat with the Hungarian diplomats.
So, we had quite a nice Kebab which cost just 270 Florins which in our money is less than a pound. There were 330 florins to the pound when we were there in Hungary. After this we proceeded to to get a taxi to our accommodation which was in the European Youth Centre located on the other side of the River Danube in Pest. Andrassy University where the inaugural event took place was in the city centre near Kalvin Tor in Buda. Budapest is, in fact, an urban area created from two municipalities.
We drove across this amazing cast iron bridge because at Budapest the river Danube is roughly twice the width that the Thames is at the OXO Tower on the South Bank in London.After crossing the bridge the European Youth Centre built in 1994 is up the hill to the right in a really nice residential area of town. We checked into our room on the second floor. It had a balcony and TV and was ensuite and because we’d had a massively long day we just slept. the conference was also at the top of the building in the conference centre with amazing views of the city including the impressive parliament building.
A Full Day’s Conferencing
I got up early and took some shots of a lovely view of the city at daybreak together with this video from the conferencing centre balcony in Pest at about twenty to six in the morning when I couldn’t sleep.
The conferencing was mainly about the Central European Countries and their role in the Brexit debate. Hungary the Czech Republic and Poland were thinking of forming their own union to rival that of the EU.
Fidez the party of power in Hungary for a long time now have almost total control of the media. A number of pro-democracy and pro-EU presses have been forcibly shut down overnight.
Nevertheless I’m sympathetic to both sides because a number of big hitters from Hungarian Politics were there and they were very polite and nice to me personally. I’m certainly not going to say too much against Fidez because it’s not my war. I’m trying to stay neutral in the debate. those people like Goerge Soros were nice to me personally and I’m not against them. Basically they are in my Quango and I have to get on with them, they are polite and well spoken and I don’t have anything against them as people.
If the Central European Countries do from a Satellite Visgard Union it could be tremendously important to us as Brits and provide an alternative to the Franco/German model of governance.
Hungary is reaping the benefit of playing the political pigmy between their old allies Russia and the EU. I’m neutral in this debate personally. I like the Germans a lot but I’ve had two Russian girlfriends from St Petersburg whose memory I am fond of. I’m a bit upset about Russia being shut out of EU politics in recent years following the gas pipeline deal with Schröder up in the Baltic.
I like Merkel for being pro-EU but I would guess she is fervently as anti-Russian as she is anti-GDR. I differ from her on this issue. I have no real personal vendetta against the Russian state as a Brit or personally as I have had Russian and Belarusian friends and girlfriends. In Germany, they were the girls that normally gave me the chance the Eastern Europeans. they were lovely to me, but I am pro German as well. Having Russian cards in the pack could improve the security issue in the nuclear arms race for example. With over 7000 nukes at Russia’s disposal no-one is likely to step on European toes. Russia’s capital is in Europe and it is a bridge with Asia.
Merkel is leaving office this year. She is a beautifully idealistically pro-Western leader. Very talented too. The trouble is the odds in the future are stacked rather against her politically. I think we need to be more Swiss about it in Europe. In exchange for them making money in Europe we could have more financial and political security ourselves. Perhaps a Visguard / British / Canadian alliance could lead on this issue. If they can get out using article 9. It could mean more power for us to provide an alternative to the Franco-German model for pan European co-operation.
It could be constructive in the sense that we could use that competition creatively to promote our vision for the world in Europe. The problem with Hungary is how to achieve it without rocking the boat with the goose that lays golden eggs which for them is the EU as well as Russia. The common agricultural policy is key to the wealth of the elite class in Hungary and it is central to Fidez holding so much power in Brussels. Many Brussels diplomats are holding their noses at the fact that Fidez is in the European Peoples Party the EPP and in permanent power with Merkel in Brussels despite its connections with Putin.
This is why the Germans want to boot them and the Polish out of the EU for being extremists under Article 9 of the EU constitution. The Poles and Hungarians work together in their own interest. One proposes and seconds the other or uses their veto to block things if needs be. It’s a bit underhand but understandable in a way. They want power over their politics and it’s very difficult to get in in the EU as 27 together rather than 15 or 20. We expanded too fast to wolf down Russian territory and we appear to have assimilated what we don’t like about Eastern influence in the process too fast. That was dumb in my opinion as it has infinitely destabilised the EU. I think that was seen across Eastern Europe but even in the former GDR. It destabilised the core of German society and it’s just about survived because of the 3 trillion marks the west poured in after reunification (about 1 trillion pounds) so that the West is now the new East. In my day as a teacher in Wuppertal I was still using a chalk board in a state run night school with not even a whiteboard in sight let alone an interactive one and that was 2005. The Ossis are now taxed to pay to rebuild the West. My flatmate in Wuppertal said of the Berlin Wall that it should be built again ten times the height for that reason.
So, as a means to an end it is my personal view that to have two effective smaller craft for now might build a better pan European state in the future. As a Northern Alliance did filter into the Prussian state naturally through the conquests and diplomacy of Bismark. We are too rough a mould as a continent to be unified yet I think having a Visgard – British and Franco German alliance might be a means to an end of sorting out our differences. This idea goes back to the very heart of governance in Europe at the time of King Charlamange in which he ceded the whole of Europe to 3 sons, one the king of France, one the King of Germany and one the King of Austria and Switzerland. The modern equivalent for stability and power in Europe for now might be the above two alliances working in close co-operation along similar ideals which can be gradually evolved into a union rather than via an all engulfing revolution of power shifting away from Russia to Brussels which isn’t in it’s best interest and which it naturally opposes. Russia is welcome in my opinion they are European too.
I want anti-Russian snobbery to end in the EU. They are corrupt but we can be a force for good if we work together as well in the interests of our civilisation combined. Controversial but that’s my view. We do want a lively, quality based democracy like we have now, but we need powerful friends.
A fifth of humanity is Chinese unless we think further in a more Pro-Western alliance everyone together 4/5 of the world we might not ensure the survival of our cultures. I think Chinese influence is good in many ways but we need to show strength or we we’ll be polishing their yachts and bullshit we’ll be their wing man and we need them to at least mature if that happens at all. Sorry China I do like you. I just want us to maintain some financial and cultural independence. We need to be equal players at a table with an equal amount of chips otherwise one will always lead the other. At the moment China seems destined to hoover up the enitre pack. I’d like to think we can show enough strength to survive against them. Much as I love and respect them and my one Chinese girlfriend. She was very kind and considerate and I like that about China as a superpower; we have just got to ask ourselves; do we want to really be a worldwide nanny state (like China) or choose our own adventures?
I do want Chinese people to lead but not to overpower. I don’t want them to be what we were. I want us to develop a world style in co-operation with them and showing strength and financial muscle is essential in that.
You wouldn’t know how out of place I felt at the big Chinese restaurant in London near old street called My Old Place. As the only Western customers I was made to feel distinctly out of place in my own capital. We don’t want to be plebs who can’t travel on our own high speed trains.
A Night Out
After a full days conferencing Eszther Nagy very kindly arranged a three course silver service meal on a Danube Barge on the pest side of the river. We travelled down there on the characteristic ex communist GDR tram system. It’s quite dangerous getting to it and crossing some pretty hair raising main roads without a crossing but we all survived.
They had a Britpop band playing cheesy 90s Westlife covers. I sat with Helene’s friend and former partner Balint and chatted to him about a few things. we drifted off into French and talking about the best place to learn French in Brussels being the Institute Française adjacent to the palace building. Apparently, there it is subsidised and quite cheap. The guy sitting opposite me at the table directly was a tutor at the French speaking university of Brussels ULB. After this Alex Gunter, Anita Sepreyani and I went on to a club to see one of us sing and then I returned to bed at the youth centre,
Sunday
On Sunday morning I talked briefly to George Soros on the veranda, he seemed like a nice guy. He was friends with the Trumps apparently, we then went into a workshop session on control mechanisms for enforcing article nine to potentially exclude Poland, Hungary and CZ from the EU. After which I bought a federalist key ring and pin from the reception.
I can’t remember whether it was at this stage that Mark Depew’s mobile was taken from our room and he thought it might have been me but it wasn’t. He was in a panic and a strop and so was I because I thought they’d tried to blame it on me. I called Eszther and she called the phone and we found it in the downstairs loo obviously or should I say too obviously stolen by a cleaner. So, I was let off the hook. Orban had sent me a message coming into town across the boarder about how he was going to discuss Europe with me I thought that was part of the deal as some of the guys in there had their free press shut down over night and liquidated by the Orban’s but they were invited to the conference by Eszther who is broadly allied with the opposition. The Hungarians got a nuclear power plant from the Russians and all the safety systems from the EU so they play the best of both worlds all the time. Orban’s Party though essentially EU critical is in the EPP faction which is the governing party and largest faction within the EU parliament. But I feel the EU are lying about economic growth in Hungary because according to them it’s growing by 4% a year they just don’t want to put it about but essentially that’s why the opposition can’t budge Fidez from power even if they want to.
Orban was quite friendly towards me and I liked him. When I signed up for my music conference in 2020 Görgy Orban’s piano works published by EMB Budapest popped up as an ad and I felt obliged to buy them which I did and I’ve played some of them I’m his book Veni Sol fantastic jazz classical fusion he plays with Roby Lakatos I think. I also discovered Holdviola which is an amazing Hungarian band and this single Erdö Erdö which I think is about the environment.
The Remainer of the Day
After the conference I went down into Pest and into one of the finest Kebab shops in the capital where I had a donner and salad for seven florins fifty about 3 or four pounds which was very reasonable he was quite friendly in there and I watched a bit of handball with them. Then I walked over the Danube bridge onto St Margaret’s Island which is a communist park of Russian design with decaying tennis facilities and swimming pools, statues of communist leaders like Stalin and a swimming pool, sculpture and carts that you can drive around. Then I went to the Hungarian House of History in the parliament building because there were no more time slots to see the building itself. Did you know? The Hungarians were Angevin part of the French empire of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine of England. So, we were actually part of the same country in the Middle Ages. The lions are Hungarian as well. They are also the second country in the world to have a manga carta in the same century.
I wondered around a bit more and then in the evening I went for a meal at a slap up bar that did Hungarian food. I chatted up the bar maid too much and someone called the boss rang up and slapped another fiver on my meal which I paid without too much complaint. After the call she wasn’t allowed to speak to me again. Two years later she appeared on Facebook she was a photographer who had a kid with a pianist and musician.
On the way to the bus terminus at Nepliget I learned the word for bus stop becuase it says it automatically at every stop Busaromage which is clearly related to arret I’m French. After two hrs I met the most amazing old man called Tibor Boros he was leaving Hungary for a better life with two bags with all his worldly possessions in. It turned out he was an ex lecturer in communist times and had studied philosophy in the USSR. He was a fascinating chap but I got cold feet when he started banging on about Oscar Wilde. He was off to work in a dog meat factory in Stuttgart.
Being a diabetic and having no breaks whatsoever for 30 hrs to Paris for food because we were running late I spent my last forty euros on a slap up meal in a cafe just outside the stadium for Paris St Germain I just about got there in time before passing out I got my steak and chips and ordered correctly remembering my GCSE French for once, then got the bus back to London overnight.
More pics and music below I also treated myself to the two Hungarian Piano School Books I used at college in Wuppertal as a result of the trip