The final Full Plenary Session for UK MEPs, where parliament was to pass the Withdrawal Act into EU law was, as I said in my last Post, an emotionally charged event; characterised by regret and sober reflection. But it meant that the UK would be starting its rapid home run to the EXIT that has dominated political debate in this country for the last few years.

I had decided to locate myself in a very significant city – Berlin. I wanted to be somewhere that would focus my thoughts, a city that has witness so much that is relevant to European history, in a country that is now its dominant economic force.

My ever reliable Frommer’s Europe on ten dollars a day (1978 edition) tells me, ‘The city lives on the brink of danger; its citizens live from day to day.’ My copy of this guide goes on to inform me that they have a, ‘… drink-and-be merry-for-tomorrow-we-die’, mood. I notice it’s not we-may-die! I’m guessing that the monumental shifts in geopolitics, that took place after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, since then, will enhance my chances of survival. My Frommer suggests that the situation back in the late seventies had ‘… frightened some Americans …’ and resulted in it being much cheaper than West Germany.

My first challenge was getting there – more of that story in the CaneYetAble Blog (dated 28th February 2020). Having survived a difficult day on the Belgian and German railway systems I picked up a taxi at Berlin Hauptbahnhof and learned that their taxi drivers are as obsessed by Uber as Edinburgh taxi drivers. However, after the standard rant (I wondered if there was a fare category that excluded the Uber rap!) the driver told me he was a socialist, he liked Angela Merkel (Chancellor at that time) but thought it was time for a change. The massive cost of reunification came up – ‘The roads are better in the old GDR now!’. He was Jewish and told me his grandfather was 97 years old and had survived Auschwitz. I wondered to myself at the changes his family had witnessed, after all my old guidebook had witnessed a fairly head spinning set of changes and it was less than half the age of his grandfather. However, he did say Berlin was cheap and as such very popular with young tourists from all over the world – obviously they expected to return to their homes in one piece, so I relaxed and checked into my hotel with confidence.

The hotel was, I later read, just round the corner from Kürfurstendamm, where, in the chaos of the last days of April 1945, the SS had , ‘ …entered houses flying the white flag of surrender … shooting everyone in them’. Hitler was in his Führerbunker dictating his last will and testament, Russian soldiers were roaming the streets causing mayhem, panicked civilians and German soldiers were trying to make their final escape as Soviet artillery rained down on the city. I dropped off my stuff in the nice spacious room and went down to the bar.

What, I wondered, would Berlin feel like after reading all those horror stories. How did they manage to rebuild the place after the destruction of the later days of the second world war and the turmoil of the Cold War?

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Back in early April 2019 I speculated that, having been denied access to the EU parliament due to its being closed on the 29th of March, my next visit to Brussels might include an actual visit to the debating chamber – the famous Hemicycle.

Well, as luck would have it, I managed to gate-crash the final Full Plenary Session for UK MEPs, where parliament was to pass the Withdrawal Act into EU law. It was an emotionally charged event, characterised by regret and sober reflection.

However, not only did I manage to gain access to the visitors area, and was allowed to sit for as long as I wished (the usual allocation is one hour), but I had the great good fortune, and privilege, to hear Liliana Segre talk to the room. Liliana is an Auschwitz survivors, and an eloquent witness to the horrors of that place.

Because, no doubt, I presented the Visitor centre with an extra challenge (no, not because I am Scottish!), and because I had turned up nearly two hours early, I was whooshed through various security hurdles and lead to a comfortable perch (with access to English translation) well before my agreed time.

I was expecting it to be quiet as, surely, these things only attract ‘anoraks’ like me. However, the place was buzzing, and very crowded,

There is a delegation from Estonia, said Nathalie (one of the people charged with getting me through security), and many family members of the UK MSPs as it will be their last time here.

Having written in advance to the European Parliament Visitors Team I had been allocated a slot between 17:00-18:00. I was a little concerned that they might not let me in as the reply had been addressed to a Mr Vitobello! But my UK passport (and a copy of the letter they sent me) seemed to establish my bona fides, and I had made a stately progression from the entrance at the Paul Henri-Spaak building, next to Park Leopold, where the taxi driver had deposited me (having insisted he find someone to hand me over to). I was in my seat by just after three pm.

The order of the day was expressed thusly:

FINAL DRAFT AGENDA
Sittings of 29/01/2020 30/01/2020 session Brussels.

Wednesday’s agenda read:

15:00
• Resumption of session
• International Holocaust Remembrance Day – 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
• Order of business
• **(23/01) VERHOSTADT
Withdrawal Agreement of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community

The rest of the evening’s debate (it was to go on to 23:00) was to be related to other business (issues like, the ‘Rights of Indigenous peoples’, the ‘Urgent humanitarian situation on Greek islands, especially of children – ensuring protection, relocation and family reunification’, and ‘EU strategy for mobility and transport: measures need until 2030 and beyond’) … clearly issues that, from now on, the UK cared not a jot about!!!

As you can imagine, I sat transfixed as the momentous events unfolded before my very ears. I will talk a bit more about the session in my next Post.

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I feel the need to grace this latest trip with some context. It looks like it will be the trip that sees me out of the EU whilst in the E!

Article 50 is done, the Queen has given her ‘approval’; the Withdrawal years have started. Mr Johnson has promised it will all be done and dusted by the end of the year (the end of 2020). But what, exactly, will this mean? Will we have everything signed sealed and delivered? Will there be a reaction from our European chums? Will I be allowed back into the UK?

I seem to have spent the entirety (20k+ words so far) of the last eleven months asking stupid questions. I’m still not sure why we wanted out of the EU. I’ve talked to quite a few reasonable people and they all have their frustrations, but no one can tell me why leaving a club full of friends with benefits will make my life any better.

I understand that it may go deeper than the economic arguments, or a nostalgia for the ‘good old days’, it may be more about identity and patriotism, or distrust of foreigners. Brexit may just be a terrible mistake. We’ve made mistakes before.

Europe had a turbulent time of it in the twentieth century. After centuries of belligerence; as one empire replaced another; as religious differences turned the continent upside down; as technological innovations and new ideas about human nature swept aside ancient ways of doing things. We stumbled from one conflict to the next.

Was the 1st World War a mistake? Winston Churchill suggested that Keiser Wilhelm II started the conflagration by mistake – when he threw his cigarette down and went sailing in his big yacht, only to find on his return, ‘… the building impenetrable with smoke.’

I still can’t find a definitive cause for The Great War (1914-1918) that forced my grand father to fight people he had no argument with. The second world war (1939-1945), which took my father to the far east seems a bit more black-and-white; if one sees it as a straightforward fight against fascism (but, of course, it was anything but a straight shot out between good and evil). And, on this 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (27th January 1945), I will never understand how people could do the things they did in that place.

Much has been written about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Was this also a mistake; a horror created out of a confluence of resentment (fed by the consequences of WWI), of ignorance and a search for identity (stoked by propaganda designed to prove an international Jewish conspiracy), an inevitable by-product of what the historian Peter Hall described as ‘the world’s first modern military-industrial state’, the blind actions of a new country whose citizens were famously disciplined and obedient. The Dutch writer Geert Mak (in his wonderful book, In Europe: travels through the twentieth century) suggests that, ‘The roots of … anti-Semitism ran deep’. But he goes on to develop a deeper, more complicated, argument that reflects financial gain, conflicts between neighbours, an absence of a ‘mentality of resistance’, bureaucratic excess and technocrat zeal.

Could we be making a terrible mistake again. The consequences of which will only be apparent to the historians of the future; many of them probably currently benefiting from a sound university education and a place on the Erasmus program? One thing is for certain – I need to do more research, talk to more Europeans, and visit more EU member states.

*Sorry about the terrible pun – Jacques Delors (President of the European Commission 1985-1995) will be spinning!

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At the risk of creating the , less successful, follow up to Bill Bryson’s famous travel book (Neither Here nor There) I had it in mind to just trip over to Brussels (easy), attend one of the upcoming plenary sessions in the main chamber, then trot over a border or two to see out Brexit day in the capital of Poland. Whence I would nip up to the two Baltic state countries I’ve yet to visit. I would achieve all this in a few train journeys and a short, week long, break. Well Europe is a bit bigger than I had remembered, and train timetables aren’t designed with my unique needs in mind.

So, a new plan has emerged and I will be setting off on 28th February still with the hope of catching one of the last two plenary sessions the UK will be involved in. From there I hope to get to Berlin for the actual Brexit moment (23:00 hours 31st January 2020) and thence head to Warsaw, Poland.

Berlin, of course, is central to the European project. Kaiser Wilhelm II had created an imperial city (from 1888 to 1918) to rival London or Paris: unfortunately Winston Churchill had characterised him as a, ‘careless tourist [who] had flung down his burning cigarette in the ante-room of the magazine Europe had become …’. The city has seen some remarkable changes since its days as a small provincial centre of the nineteenth century; from that imperial city to the roaring Berlin of the mid-1920s, through the Nazi Berlin, and the rubble of 1945, through the divided and reconstructed East German capital. It is capital once more; returning to its pre-eminent position on 3rd October 1990.

This fascinating city with its rich, and troubled, recent history, a city that has suffered much, a city that was the front line during the Cold War, as city that is now the powerhouse of the EU. It seemed only fair that I fell out of the Europe here.

I ma looking forward to seeing how this place has grown out of the destruction and suffering of the first half of the twentieth century. I feel inadequate to the task of summing up such a euro monster in the few hundred words I allow myself here. I will report back from this central city in a few days time. And I will continue to research its past for clues as to its future.

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I remember enjoying a lunchtime drink in Buddy Guy’s Blues club, in Chicago, a few years ago. We were spinning our wheels as our Amtrak to New Orleans didn’t leave until later that day. Eddie Taylor Jnr, the son of Jimmy Reed’s guitar player, was playing a great set to an almost empty club. As we were the main audience – there were a few punters sat at the bar, but few were paying attention to the artist on stage – we attracted the attention of Bobby O who had joined Taylor to sing and play harmonica. During a break he wandered over to our table and started to chat (recommending some New Orleans venues and generally filling us in on the scene down South); he was just about to travel to Memphis for the annual Blues Music Awards. His real name was Polish and difficult to pronounce (hence his nickname) and he explained how he was related to Lech Walesa (the Polish statesman, union leader and dissident). Anyway, he came to mind as I was planning my next trip to the EU; I need to go to Poland I thought, what better place was there to see out the UK’s exit than a country that resonated with the raison d’etre of the European project.

Poland plays a central role in European history. Solidarity (lead by Walesa) was the first trade union in any communist country; the historian Timothy Garton-Ash identifies this as, ‘the beginning of the end of communism in Europe’. The first shots of the second world war were fired , on the 1st of September 1939, as a small garrison of Polish soldiers defended an area of the western headland of the Bay of Gdansk. It is also geographically significant as vital trade routes from the bread basket of central Poland gave access to the Baltic ports of the Hanseatic League. So, there are many reasons for identifying this land as central to European history (these are just small illustrative selection).

However, I move around constrained by rail timetables and the usual limits of cash and other resources. I have found it difficult to arrange to be where I want to be on the 28th of January and the Brexit moment of twenty three hundred hours on the 31st of January …

See how I resolve this dilemma, and why it is important, as the story unfolds over the next few weeks.

Do widzenia …

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It’s over. Well, the General Election 2019 is over, but democracy doesn’t end there. Obviously, everyone reading this will have cast their vote; but then what? Do we just sit back and either, complain because our party didn’t get in, or complain because our party did get in! No, we keep reading … we check they are doing what they said they would do in their manifestos, we write to our elected representatives to make our views known to them, we watch and listen (even if it is sometimes difficult to sift the wheat from the media chafe).

It was a remarkable election by any standards. The Conservative government managed to secure a good majority in The House of Commons, thus clearing the way for the Withdrawal Act and our exiting the EU in 2020. As predicted here, the Tories (and Boris Johnson won). But it was a general election marked by Labour’s indecisions over Brexit, by Jeremy Corbyn’s apparently toxic brand and by tactical voting (with the Brexit party and the Lib Dems ensuring the Tories got a clear path back to Downing Street).

In terms of this Blog, I now need to reassess my purpose. Whilst I set out to inform a broad readership of the issues at hand, perhaps hoping for some clarity, the pace has picked up somewhat. The numbers in the Palce of Westminster are now strongly in favour of the government, and the government want to, ‘Get Brexit Done’ – so, it will be done, and done as quickly as they can. The Withdrawal Act got its second reading almost immediately, and was voted through with a thumping majority just four working days after the election. On the same sitting, the House passed an Amendment to the Act revealing the government’s intention to push their advantage as ‘Hard Brexit’ (or even No Deal Brexit) as is possible – removing sections in their deal relating to Workers Rights, Refugee Children, and the sort of compressed timescale that could yet see us crashing out of the EU late this year.

It’s all very frustrating, and very rushed. From my point of view it means going away and thinking about what I want to do now – should I continue to visit all the EU Member States (and to what end)? Should I change the brief and focus on wandering around the world as a disabled traveller? or, should I just give up and read about something else/write something else?

who knows, maybe I can crash another deadline on 31st January 2020.

Stay tuned …

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Sometimes it is difficult to sift the wheat of truth from the chafe of disinformation.

I‘ve looked through the various leaflets that have dropped through my letter box. I noticed that the Conservatives didn’t even bother!

The Scottish Greens make the claim that a vote for them is the, ‘ … clearest … way [to] demand urgent action on the climate emergency’. They are calling out the others political parties, ‘ … eye catching targets’. Fair enough.

The Liberal Democrats bombarded us with negative messages about the other three main parties – they say Labour have ‘No idea’, that there will be ‘ More chaos’ with the SNP and a ‘Bad deal’ with the Conservatives. They claim to be, ‘On the up’ and that they will, ‘Stop Brexit’ – bold claims. However, they also sent me a letter claiming to be from a ‘Polling and Elections expert’ – aye right.

The Scottish Nationalist Party, apparently, have a creditable and coherent plan to address the main issues of the day – Brexit, the NHS, Climate Change and Austerity. On Brexit they suggest that they are the only ones with, ‘ … unambiguous commitment to stopping Brexit’. They also say they are the only party that can beat the Tories.

The Labour Party are very strong in my constituency, they have won the last few elections here. The candidate is pro EU, pro UK and a very active local presence during the year. His leaflets are full of examples of his hard work and accessibility.

So, will I vote for the man or the party? Will I vote tactically? Do I vote on the issues – Brexit, the NHS, austerity, the climate emergency, the integrity of the UK?

I Posted this, state of the nation guidance on Facebook:

Graham Tennyson
1 hr ·
Well, I, for one, will be glad when the politically motivated Posts on here slow down. I couldn’t possibly guide you in how to vote though. My tuppence worth would be along the lines of:
1) You defo should vote.
2) if you are happy to continue with a government that is following a US style capitalist system, where everything is run for the benefit of the profit margin and shareholder value (and the rich give as little as possible to governments) then vote Tory.
3) Remember, it’s a UK election so if you want a change in the Westminster numbers you need to vote tactically – in Scotland that means (unless you are in safe Labour seat) vote SNP.
4) This is a strongly ideological election. Meek, fence sitting, soft centre positions wouldn’t do you any good – the parties chasing this voter are mainly political opportunists.
5) Be gentle. Take the bus that’s going in your general direction (no party will be perfect for you as an individual). Find a seat and be willing to share that seat with others that hold slightly different views.
6) Democracy is an living thing. Your vote is just part of it, it didn’t stop after you’ve cast your vote at a General Election.
Anyway, my grandfather always used to say, ‘The man at the bar, buying the drinks, gets to keep the receipt’. Mind you, he told me Tobermory was a real place!

I’m not sure if that helps. However, for the purposes of this Blog, Brexit is the big issue and that means you need to understand that particularly tricky issue, as the BBCs Political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has said, ‘The main reason we are having this election is because of Brexit’.

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It’s Election time and the media has gone, well its sort of gone all contrary. It almost feels like they don’t want to commit themselves, content to endlessly resubmit questions that few politicians will give a straight answer to.

However, I’m not concerned with the UK General Election here – that’s for others to comment on – but I am interested to record how it is affecting my European project, and it is undoubtedly affecting this election. For example, up here in the frozen north, on the extremes of Europe, Scottish voters are being presented with the idea that , if they are Leavers AND against a second Independence referendum then they will need to vote Tory.

This is all a bit weird. What if they are pro Europe but don’t want Scottish independence, or are Brexitears (?) and want Independence for Scotland? Well. The LibDems have gone all hard Remain, but they wont back a second independence referendum (although they will be okay with a second Brexit vote), and Labour won’t give you an independence referendum but might just let you have a second Brexit referendum. The SNP, of course, are pro Europe and defo want a second independence referendum – I think that about covers it, for now!

Anyhoo, back to my project (seeking clarity on all things EU); whilst reviewing progress made I have to conclude that I am well behind schedule (and non the wiser). 2020 will need to see a more focused effort. I managed to visit 8 of the 28 member states (Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, England (sic), France, Germany, Malta and Spain) although I might have to revisit some of these to get a better picture!

So, that leaves twenty EU Member States to visit (plus some revisits). It’s a jolly good thing that the political classes are dragging their feet. Even if the UK does leave the EU on 31st January 2020 it will require quite a long Withdrawal period (Boris Johnson is promising to have sorted it all out by the end of 2020).

I will take to my post, outside the UK, for the promised Exit day – I will revisit Brussels and the EU parliament and take it from there. So far I’ve stopped two deadline dates by being out of the UK on those dates (29th March in Belgium and 31st October in Denmark) – who knows, maybe I can crash another deadline on 31st January 2020.

Stay tuned …

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It has come to pass, that we now find ourselves slogging along the Election trail. The date is set (12th December 2019) and parliament is stood down whilst the main parties board their battle buses and venture into parts seldom seen in the normal course of events. Yes, the manifestos are being hastily cobbled together, cash is being promised (at extraordinary levels), and the great British public is being visited out in the shires and byways – on high streets and on door steps.

From my perspective – i.e. from the Brexit point of view – there is little hope of clarity. Many experts are calling this a Brexit election, but there is little sign (yet) of any significant progress on the European front. We shall just have to see how this plays out and resume ‘normal’ service once the Conservative government secure the majority they need – for it is, in my humble opinion, an election guaranteed to give Boris Johnson the green light he needs to wreak the UK.

I will be listening closely and will report any progress that relates to my little Euro scheme. However, I don’t anticipate much in the way of progress towards a clearer understanding of the Brexit project until after Christmas.

Stay tuned my little euro elves. I will spend the time planning my next trip to a European capital (or two) and continue background research into this vexatious issue de jour.

Hasta pronto!

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As the drama continues, and we enter another crucial period of intense debate, I start to speculate on the long term damage that is being inflicted on the British psyche.

The current prime minister (Boris Johnson) has secured a New Deal from the EU and is about to present it to the House of Commons for approval. It has come down to My deal, or No Deal again – this tactic cost the last prime minister (Theresa May) her job.

The current calculus of the House is so tight that few are willing to call the vote – and the vote will, no doubt, be complicated by amendments. The government has lost its majority and will need to overcome this disadvantage. The DUP are not willing to back a Deal that threatens their hold over Northern Irish politics, the PLP are worried that whatever position they take they will loose seats to the Lib Dems, the Brexit party has no seat in Westminster but remain a factor in Tory thinking, and the SNP seem unwilling to back a Deal that appears ruinous to the Scottish economy (an economy that gets no mention in the new document). Many of the Independents are still sulking after having the Tory whip withdrawn, and the government (the Conservatives) are being driven into a hard right Deal or No Deal binary that is difficult for some of them – except for a few hard-line Brexiteers.

There is talk of a General Election – the government want it soon (while they can still claim the high ground of giving the people what they want – even though no one knows quite what that is). However, they know that if they fail to deliver then the Brexit party will pick them off in Leave constituencies. The Labour party fear an election will wipe them out – not only do they worry that they can’t win an election just now, but they feel their position as the second force in UK politics is threatened by a drift to the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems have positioned themselves as the Remain option – in binary opposite to the Tory Leave position – whilst Labour are floating (indecisively in some peoples view) between Leave seats and Remain seats and can’t risk tipping one way or the other. The SNP would welcome an election because they feel they can reduce the number of Tories in Scotland, forcing them to hold their meetings in the back seat of someone’s Mini, whilst increasing the chance of a second Independence Referendum.

But … in amongst all this posturing … we have failed to address some fundamental questions: how do we reconcile the tension between those that want a direct democracy verses those who vote for a representative democracy? how do we overcome the stasis created by a divide country, where major issues split the country approximatly50/50? how do we put the angry genie back in the bottle as these issues release strong forces that manifest their anger in racist behaviour/frustration at environmentalists/voter fatigue?

Phew, it is enough to keep teams of geeky political editors spinning in their newsrooms.

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