Stuart M. John
13.1K posts
Stuart M. John
@stuartmjohn
European citizen taking part in the public debate. Isn't that what democracy is about? Gentleman-Rider. Liberal. Humanist.
At large across Europe & Earth Katılım Mart 2016
1.2K Takip Edilen136 Takipçiler
@georgebernhard @stuartmjohn There’s plenty these days. It’s holidays’ season
English
The complete Brexiteer travel experience: enjoy everything the EU built, then find one mildly annoying thing and write a column about it!
Tom Harwood@tomhfh
Stupid EU bottle cap just spilt orange juice on me. Lots of OJ in the lid, gets you before you can even rip the bastard thing off.
English
Stuart M. John retweetledi
@bursche_lauf X ist in dieser irren Zeit - bei aller ber. Kritik - die wichtigste Informationsquelle überhaupt.
Aaaaaber: Wer sich hier informiert, kann praktisch nicht mehr CDUSPDGRÜNE wählen - kein Wunder also, dass SPD, Grüne & Linke uns hier nicht weiter "bespielen" wollen... Smiley!
Deutsch
Stuart M. John retweetledi
"Angesichts der hohen Kosten wäre das betriebswirtschaftlicher Unsinn, auch volkswirtschaftlich gibt es dafür keine ausreichenden Gründe." - die Wahrheit: es rechnet sich nicht, weil systematisch falsche Annahmen getroffen werden, vor allem wird der Nachteil der EE - die fehlende sichere Verfügbarkeit - den AKW als Kosten angerechnet.
WELT@welt
Ökonom hält Reaktivierung abgeschalteter Atommeiler für „betriebswirtschaftlichen Unsinn“ to.welt.de/tPC9Fk9
Deutsch
Stuart M. John retweetledi
La gauche a son programme commun.
Du RN à LFI.
franceinfo@franceinfo
🔴🗣 Taxation des superprofits : "Nous irons les chercher pour les redistribuer", affirme Thomas Ménagé, député RN du Loiret. #canal16
Français
Stuart M. John retweetledi
At The Sunday Times I inherited a journalist training course for graduates. I kept that. And added a journalist training course for non-graduates. They became just as good journalists. We’re not a profession. We’re a trade. The best learning is by doing under experienced supervision.
Alan Duncan@AlanDuncan2016
@afneil These days journalists with degrees tend to be activists not journalists anyway. You put most so-called journalists to shame Andrew. I'm no journalist but got some belter exclusives Without any bloody degrees.
English
Stuart M. John retweetledi
It couldn't have been democracy, because the fact that Orban was elected four times in a row in a free and fair vote proves nothing. And the fact that he left office without protest ALSO proves nothing.
Do these people even hear themselves? Their beliefs are unfalsifiable.
Tymofiy Mylovanov@Mylovanov
Applebaum: Of course Orban was authoritarian. The fact that he gave up power peacefully proves nothing by itself. What matters is what it took to beat him: 16 years in power, panic before the vote, and a campaign that felt to Hungarians like regime change. 1/
English
Stuart M. John retweetledi
.@BritishVogue and the glamorization of antisemitism. Let’s talk about what they chose not to tell you.
Albanese is the UN Special Rapporteur who claimed America is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” told the BBC “the Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins,” and- the day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre - shared an Iranian state media article claiming the CIA and Mossad carried it out.
She is the official who, when Macron called October 7 “the largest antisemitic massacre of our century,” replied that the victims were not killed because of their Judaism but “in response to Israel’s oppression” - earning her the distinction of being the first UN rapporteur in history condemned for antisemitism by both France and Germany simultaneously.
She is the official who told a press conference that 380,000 children under five had been killed in Gaza - a figure that exceeds the entire population of children under five in Gaza, according to Palestinian Authority census data.
She is the official who, at an Al Jazeera Forum in Doha where Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Iran’s foreign minister were also speaking, delivered remarks that the French Foreign Minister subsequently condemned in parliament, saying she “targets not the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but Israel as a people and as a nation.” He added that she “presents herself as a UN independent expert, yet she is neither an expert nor independent - she is a political activist who stirs up hate speech.”
She has been condemned by France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. She is the first UN expert in history condemned by all four of those governments.
Vogue gave her a shoot. No mention of any of this. The same editorial erasure happened at the Guardian, which ran a fawning profile portraying her as a “rock star” and never once asked why so many governments of such different political persuasions have sought to have her removed.
This is what the glamorization of antisemitism looks like in 2026. It arrives in a fashion magazine, dressed in the language of human rights, with a photographer and a stylist.
English
@alexdelvalle3 Non seulement on ne respecte plus les morts, mais on en vient à nouveau à considérer les citoyens comme chair à canon...
Français
🔴 SCANDALEUX. Si un Général comme #Yakovleff en vient à banaliser, ou pire, mépriser la mort de soldats français, on ne parle plus de polémique médiatique mais de rupture du pacte militaire... Dans toute armée digne de ce nom, le respect des morts est non négociable !
🇫🇷Pierre MARTINET🇫🇷@pmartinet1
Français
Stuart M. John retweetledi
Wäre ich Merz, würde ich jetzt die Koalition mit der SPD aufkündigen und bis Ende der Legislaturperiode eine Minderheitsregierung führen, die sich wechselnde Mehrheiten sucht.
Mein erstes Vorhaben wäre ein Grabenwahlrecht, das kommenden Bundesregierungen stabile Mehrheiten zum Durchregieren ermöglichte. Ich bin mir sicher, dass man die Mehrheit der MdB dafür begeistern könnte. Und allein das wäre eine der größten und wichtigsten Reformen in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik.
Als zweites stünde der Umbau der Grundsicherung für Menschen an, die nie in die deutschen Sozialsysteme eingezahlt haben, es würde nur noch einfache Sachleistungen geben. Das löste eine Welle freiwilliger Remigration aus. Auch hierfür ließe sich eine Mehrheit im Bundestag finden.
Als drittes stünde eine Krankenkassenreform nach niederländischem Vorbild, aber mit mehr Markt, an. Private Anbieter bieten eine einfache Basissicherung an, die alle abschließen müssen, auch Beamte. Zusätzlich können weitere Leistungspakete angeboten werden. Ob dieses Vorhaben für eine Minderheitsregierung wirklich umsetzbar ist? Schwierig, aber der Plan muss zumindest auf den Tisch.
Der Energiemarkt muss wieder ein echter Markt werden, CO2 Besteuerung gehört nicht dazu. In einer ersten Stufe wird sie auf das aktuelle nach EU Recht zulässige Minimum gesenkt. Perspektivisch gehört sie ganz weg. Auch wenn es sinnvoll ist, möglichst wenig fossile Energieträger zu verbrennen, muss es dafür andere Anreize geben. Die ganze Energiewende zu reformieren, wird eine Minderheitsregierung nicht schaffen, aber mit dem Ausstieg aus der Steuer auf Luft wäre ein erster Schritt getan.
Parallel dazu stünde ein Entbürokratisierungsprozess , der insbesondere beim Baurecht und anderen Vorschriften, die Investitionen hemmen, startet.
Als letztes würde das Strafrecht im Bereich der Äußerungsdelikte stark entschlackt, zB durch eine Abschaffung des Paragraphen 188.
Das alles ist in der Summe schon deutlich mehr, als man von einer Minderheitsregierung erwarten könnte. Gerade ob sie den Umbau der Krankenversicherung durchzuziehen könnte, ist schon fraglich.
Aber wenn sie nur die Reform des Wahlrechts schaffte, um künftige stabile Regierungen zu schaffen, die dann die wirklich dicken Bretter bohren können, zB den Komplettumbau der Altersvorsorge- und Sozialsysteme, Gesundheitswesen, Verteidigung, Energie (sic!), wäre sehr viel gewonnen.
Leider bleibt all dies ein Traum.
Deutsch
Stuart M. John retweetledi
Pour fêter le travail, laissons travailler les gens qui le veulent.
Je propose aussi : que le 1er mai soit un jour pleinement chômé pour les inspecteurs du travail !
Sinon, pour toute la société et sortir de l’absurdité actuelle du 1er mai, la solution est simple : laisser la liberté. Ceux qui veulent travailler travaillent et sont mieux payés.
Français
Stuart M. John retweetledi
“In my youth I made it a rule not to drink a drop of alcohol before lunch. Now that I am no longer young, I keep to the rule of not drinking a drop before breakfast.”
Winston Churchill was the only British Prime Minister ever awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Reading him, you realize that to be a brilliant writer you don’t need to write long books — and to be a true philosopher, you don’t either.
Here are some of his quotes:
One. If you’re going through hell — keep going.
Two. You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.
Three. Every crisis is a new opportunity.
Four. A smart person doesn’t make all the mistakes himself — he gives others a chance too.
Five. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Six. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.
Seven. A kite rises highest against the wind, not with it.
Eight. A man who never changes his mind is a fool.
Nine. When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.
Ten. Power is a drug. Anyone who has tried it even once is poisoned by it forever.
Eleven. Do not wish for health and wealth — wish for luck. On the Titanic, everyone was rich and healthy, but only a few were lucky.
Twelve. A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
Thirteen. Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war, you can only be killed once — in politics, many times.
Fourteen. My tastes are simple. I am easily satisfied with the best.
Fifteen. If you want to have the last word in an argument, tell your opponent: “You may be right.”
Sixteen. The greatest advantage comes to those who make their mistakes early enough to learn from them.
Seventeen. People are very good at keeping secrets they do not know.
Eighteen. War is when innocent people die for the interests of others.
Nineteen. The greatest lesson in life is that even fools are sometimes right.
Twenty. It is far better to bribe a person than to kill him — and far better to be bribed than killed.
Twenty-one. It is easier to rule a nation than to raise four children.
Twenty-two. We live in an age of great events and small men.
Twenty-three. Nothing earns authority like calmness.
Twenty-four. The best way to ruin a relationship is to start trying to “sort it out.”
Twenty-five. When two people fight, the third one wins.
Twenty-six. If you kill a murderer, the number of murderers does not change.
Twenty-seven. A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.
Twenty-eight. You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every barking dog.
Twenty-nine. A nation that forgets its past loses its future.
Once, during a speech, Churchill was asked:
— Isn’t it pleasing to know that every time you give a speech, the hall is packed?
He replied:
— It is, very much so. But every time I see a full hall, I cannot help thinking that if I were not giving a speech but being led to the gallows, the crowd would be twice as large.
English
Si l'UE se souciait véritablement de faire fonctionner son Marché Intérieur (si doutes, voir Draghi), elle n'aurait assurément pas besoin de machins comme le 'Centre Européen de la Consommation Transfrontalière'... à Kehl.... @EUCssrMcGrath @@cec_zev @fabienne_keller
Fabienne Keller@fabienne_keller
Le Commissaire européen @EUCssrMcGrath était hier à Kehl pour visiter le Centre Européen de la Consommation @cec_zev 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇪🇺 Le CEC, soutenu par la Commission européenne, mène une action indispensable d’accompagnement et de conseil juridique pour les citoyens européens sur les enjeux de consommation transfrontalière. La visite du Commissaire a été l’occasion de saluer les équipes mobilisées tout au long de l’année. Le CEC illustre très concrètement l’action de l’Europe dans les territoires, au service des citoyens européens.
Français
Stuart M. John retweetledi
Stuart M. John retweetledi
Wait a second…
So the EU just gave Zelenskyy €90 billion, two-thirds of which will go to subsidising his arms industry, and now those same companies are going to sell weapons back to the EU for a profit?
I’m in the wrong damned business.
English
@SlawomirDebski Interesting new version. But you gave away your real agenda with the first... Hard-nosed polish nationalism at the expense of the rest of the EU. Is that the line of the @collegeofeurope these days?
English
Since 2018, I’ve been making a fairly simple argument: if the United States adjusts its force posture in Europe, Poland’s objective should be to shift capability eastward - from Germany to Poland - not to watch it quietly disappear across the Atlantic.
What is required here is not public hand-wringing or performative doubt, but disciplined strategic advocacy. If you want forces to stay, you make the case - consistently, credibly, and behind the scenes - that their forward presence serves both allied and American interests. Broadcasting uncertainty about their utility in Europe only makes it easier for others in Washington to argue that they are no longer needed.
Thomas C. Theiner@noclador
If the 2nd Cavalry Regiment leaves Germany for Poland and exchanges its Strykers for Bradley IFVs and Abrams MBTs... that would be excellent. If the 2nd Cavalry Regiment returns to CONUS... that would be very bad. So let's wait and see where they move the units based in Germany.
English
Stuart M. John retweetledi
L’Etat belge et ENGIE entrent officiellement en négociations en vue de la reprise par la #Belgique de l’ensemble des activités nucléaires d’ENGIE et de sa filiale Electrabel.
Toutes les opérations de démantèlement sont dès lors suspendues.
Moins d’un an après l’entrée en vigueur de la loi ouvrant la voie au retour du #nucléaire dans notre pays, la dynamique se concrétise à travers notre volonté de reprendre la main sur nos actifs et nos capacités.
Cette démarche s’inscrit dans une vision politique cohérente : garantir une énergie abordable, pilotable et décarbonée, tout en renforçant l’autonomie stratégique et la souveraineté de la Belgique.
@Bart_DeWever @ENGIEgroup
Français
Stuart M. John retweetledi
EU’s top trade official is leaving her job after clashing w/ her superiors over a hastily agreed trade deal with President Trump. Sabine Weyand publicly contradicted her bosses’ view that the agreement struck last year in Scotland was compatible w/ WTO global trade rules. Weyand’s expression in this pic, a bureaucrat not going along to get along w/ her boss, foreshadowed her fate.
English
Stuart M. John retweetledi
I am initiating consultations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early June in Transcarpathia.
I received Zoltán Babják, Mayor of Berehove, in my office, who briefed me on the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and the horrors of the war.
We agreed that it is in the interest of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia to place Hungarian–Ukrainian relations on new foundations.
Based on the above, I am initiating a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early June, symbolically in Berehove, a Hungarian-majority town.
The aim of the meeting is to improve the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and to support their ability to remain in their homeland.
The time has come for Ukraine to put an end to the restrictions that have been in place for more than a decade, and to ensure that Hungarians in Transcarpathia regain all their cultural, linguistic, administrative, and higher education rights, so that they can once again become equal and respected citizens of Ukraine. This would also help ensure that, once the war has ended, as many Hungarians from Transcarpathia as possible can return to their homeland.
If we can resolve these issues, we can certainly open a new chapter in Hungarian–Ukrainian bilateral relations.
The concessions announced by the Ukrainian government in 2025 in the field of education are a step in the right direction, but they are not sufficient.
Higher education in Ukraine remains monolingual, final examinations are conducted in Ukrainian, and there has been no meaningful change in other areas of official language use. It remains the case that official language use in Ukraine is strictly limited to a single language. In public administration, in the courts, and in official procedures, only Ukrainian may be used. The Hungarian minority cannot request official administration in their mother tongue, not even in settlements with a Hungarian majority.
Restrictions also remain in public life and culture: Hungarian-language events and media outlets are allowed to operate, but under quotas and burdensome registration and formal requirements. In public appearances, officials — such as school principals or mayors — are still not free to use their mother tongue.
From here, I encourage the Ukrainian leadership to take bold steps in these areas as well, in the direction of European values and genuine freedom and equality.
I assured the Mayor that our compatriots in Transcarpathia can count on the full support of the mother country and of a TISZA government.
I hope to soon be able to accept his kind invitation to Berehove. I am ready.
English