Another day in the Universe
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38707997Owen Paterson, a former minister and Conservative MP, and John Longworth, co-chair of Leave Means Leave, came to Berlin on Saturday with a clear mission - to persuade German business leaders to lobby Chancellor Angela Merkel to give Britain a good trade deal.
[...]
The laughter from the audience quickly turned to sniggers as they heard the UK described as "a beacon of open, free trade around the world".
Westminster's decision to leave the world's largest free trade area does not look like that to Germany.
When Europe was blamed for spending cuts and a lack of British health care provision, there were audible mutters of irritation from the audience.
The occasional light-hearted attempts at EU-bashing - usually guaranteed to get a cheap laugh with some British audiences - was met with stony silence.
A suspected German Islamist, arrested last week for planning a terrorist attack, reportedly used to post hate-speech online against Muslims.
Evidently, surfing the web does increase one's open mindedness........noddy wrote:http://www.dw.com/en/suspected-german-i ... a-37739074
A suspected German Islamist, arrested last week for planning a terrorist attack, reportedly used to post hate-speech online against Muslims.
the chattering classes get all worked up about the words, the reasons, the logic behind wanting to kick people in the head.Simple Minded wrote:Evidently, surfing the web does increase one's open mindedness........noddy wrote:http://www.dw.com/en/suspected-german-i ... a-37739074
A suspected German Islamist, arrested last week for planning a terrorist attack, reportedly used to post hate-speech online against Muslims.
That's a nice way to put it!Simple Minded wrote:Evidently, surfing the web does increase one's open mindedness........
Now, in the first study of its kind, researchers have analyzed more than 150,000 previously classified documents from the former East German Ministry for State Security (also known as the Stasi) to reach a surprising conclusion: Stealing can boost economic productivity in the short-term, but it cannibalizes long-term investment in research and development.
good article. Makes perfect sense, parasites need the host body to be healthy and productive.Typhoon wrote:Science Mag | Cold War espionage paid off—until it backfired, East German spy records reveal
Now, in the first study of its kind, researchers have analyzed more than 150,000 previously classified documents from the former East German Ministry for State Security (also known as the Stasi) to reach a surprising conclusion: Stealing can boost economic productivity in the short-term, but it cannibalizes long-term investment in research and development.
A bit of background.The negotiations, which turned increasingly acrimonious, had stumbled on a series of issues including immigration policy.
Merkel's liberal refugee policy that let in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015 had also pushed some voters to the far-right AfD, which in September campaigned on an Islamophobic and anti-immigration platform.
The parties also differed on environmental issues, with the ecologists wanting to phase out dirty coal and combustion-engine cars, while the conservatives and FDP emphasised the need to protect industry and jobs.
The migrant issue is the elephant in Merkel's parlor. The Christian Democrat-Social Democrat coalition was Germany's equivalent of Washington's Swamp Fusion Party and tolerated no criticism of Merkel's decision to let almost a million and a half migrants (some of whom actually were Syrian war refugees) into Germany during 2016 and 2017. A protest vote brought smaller parties into the Bundestag on an anti-migrant platform; in Germany's eastern half, the Alternative für Deutschland swept the ballots, and in the West, the small Free Democrats won votes on a platform of tax cuts, reducing immigration, and skepticism about Euro bailouts of Greece and Spain. The Social Democrats imploded while the Christian Democrats lost ground.
These days, anything not to the left of Lenin, is apparently labelled "far right".She has deleted most of her party’s conservative tradition – and AfD has been quick to fill the gap
Nope. The AfD's stronghold is East Germany, which doesn't have "her party's conservative tradition" anymore, with some hotspots in the traditionally right-wing South. And to be more specific, the AfD's stronghold is the eastern side of East Germany, the countryside around Dresden. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the refugees are not in East Germany.She has deleted most of her party’s conservative tradition – and AfD has been quick to fill the gap
You do have a point. A breakdown of how Germany voted in their last federal electionYMix wrote:Nope. The AfD's stronghold is East Germany, which doesn't have "her party's conservative tradition" anymore, with some hotspots in the traditionally right-wing South. And to be more specific, the AfD's stronghold is the eastern side of East Germany, the countryside around Dresden. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the refugees are not in East Germany.She has deleted most of her party’s conservative tradition – and AfD has been quick to fill the gap
Scroll down for some old, but revealing infographics: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... l-divided/
Germany Wants to Train Migrants to Become Truck Drivers
.Every 20 to 50 years in Germany, things start unraveling. Germans feel aggrieved. Ideas and movements gyrate wildly between far left and far right extremes. And the Germans finally find consensus in a sense of victimhood paradoxically expressed as national chauvinism. Germany’s neighbors in 1870, 1914, 1939—and increasingly in the present—usually bear the brunt of this national meltdown.
Germany is supposed to be the economic powerhouse of Europe, its financial leader, and its trusted and responsible political center. Often it plays those roles superbly. But recently, it’s been cracking up—in a way that is hauntingly familiar to its European neighbors. On mass immigration, it is beginning to terrify the nearby nations of Eastern Europe. On Brexit, it bullies the British. On finance, it alienates the southern Europeans. On Russia, it irks the Baltic States and makes the Scandinavians uneasy by doing business with the Russian energy interests. And on all matters American, it increasingly seems incensed
Whatever government fills the vacuum in Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel will be tinged with green.
After nearly 16 years in office, Ms. Merkel’s conservative party, the Christian Democrats, is slipping and stagnant, critics say — short of ideas on how to keep Germany vibrant and rich in a world where its industrial and export model is outdated; where faith in the United States has been damaged; and where China is more self-sufficient and Russia more aggressive.
The other traditional mainstay, the left-center Social Democrats, currently junior partners with Ms. Merkel, is in even worse shape, both electorally and ideologically.
The German Greens are filling the vacuum. Five months before elections in September, the party is running a close second in the opinion polls to the struggling Christian Democrats, and some think it might even lead the next government.
“They will be part of the next government,’’ said Norbert Röttgen, a prominent Christian Democrat, in a forecast widely shared in Germany. “Either a big part or even the leading part.’’
Ever nation get the government that it deserves.