The bike suits her as a way to get around, supporting an injured ankle and allowing her to travel independently under her own steam. “I’m really loving the travelling. I’m comfortable with the rhythm of it, the self sufficiency and transient friendships of strangers meeting.”
Europe
Reforming referendums: how can their use and conduct be improved?
‘Campaign spending categories make it almost impossible to tell what campaigners are spending on social media. The Commission recommends that these gaps in transparency be closed and that a repository of online political advertising should be created.’
Leave voters don’t want a ‘Global Britain’
‘For them (Leave voters), Brexit wasn’t about rebooting Britain as a global player, in fact it was about recognising we have limited capacities—particularly economically—and that these should be focused almost exclusively domestically.’
The future of Europe depends on democracy
‘I call them the cheerleaders of Putin – Farage, Le Pen, Wilders. They were doing only one thing. They take the money from the Kremlin. They take the intelligence of the Kremlin. Like Mr Arron Banks, for example, the friend of Mr Farage. ..’ (Guy Verhofstadt)
Rudolph von Ripper: artist eyewitness to Nazi terror
Eyewitness artists’ accounts of brutality in Nazi concentration camps are extremely rare. Sian Mackay describes her discovery of Rudolph von Ripper’s forgotten portfolio, work that deserves to stand alongside the art of his contemporaries Otto Dix, George Grosz and Käthe Kollwitz.
Forget Brexit! The EU needs to reform
‘In the continental pre-summit debate, Brexit hardly gets a mention. The June summit is seen as the great test of President Macron’s ability to deliver some form of credible reform plan. The precise details may be less important than a sense of a clear direction of travel – the impression that the EU is willing to look beyond its familiar muddle and fudge and take charge of its own destiny.’
Solidarity in a neutral Scotland
‘So perhaps Scotland can respond to world events by providing something that Ponsatí and the legions of others in the world today repressed by their own states so desperately need: a place of sanctuary for the ever greater number of persecuted that only a small neutral state can offer.’
Clara Ponsati and Scottish justice
‘By examining this application under the EAW very carefully, the Scottish courts would be protecting justice in Scotland and Europe from the arbitrary misuse of law by dark forces which threaten not just democratic politics in Spain, but also the continued survival of the EAW itself’.
More disappointment ahead for Scottish fishing fleet
‘The government should be wary of making further promises to the fishing industry which cannot be guaranteed. The terms and conditions that the UK accepts for the relationship with the EU after the transition period may represent further disappointment for the UK fishing industry’.
Curtains up for Tories and Labour
‘I hope the parties do split. This is a time when the country needs some people prepared to step out of the shadows and offer leadership, and a vision that moderates from both sides could share. It could be the best thing for Britain and Europe…’