Germany
Grandiose Coalitions
Far from being democratically sound, grand coalitions foster short-termism and reinforce more extreme parties’ power of veto.
Capitalist Capital
Now that London is driving a revival in the UK’s economy there will no longer be any mileage in anti-capitalist rhetoric
Germany’s Surprising Scepticism
‘Germany is seeing a definite increase in Euroscepticism—and now it’s coming from the Left too’
Confessions of a Bourgeois Comrade
‘I’ve come to the conclusion that revolution is something you can’t make It’s a happening rather than a planned operation and attempts to force it don’t quite work out’
ECB IOUs
‘What happens if Greece can’t pay its enormous debts back to the ECB? Inevitably, the banks from Germany, the netherlands and Finland will have to pay’
Mediterranean Metamorphosis
For the sake of the euro, the peoples of southern Europe have turned their backs on the sea that once gave them prosperity
Still Not Equal
‘A friend asked her editor for a pay rise. Surely, he replied, her husband was earning enough to support them both’
An Open Letter to Günter Grass
The attempt by Gunter Grass, who has died at the age of 87, to hide his past as a member of the Waffen SS was a shameful betrayal of his countrymen, and invalidates his life’s work
Jihad Central
As Robert S. Leiken argues in his brilliant new book, Britain’s lost confidence in nationhood has made it the centre of European jihadism
Mighty Kleist
‘German intellectuals are fascinated by outsiders, especially tortured rebels like Heinrich von Kleist’
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal