100 days of Donald Tusk’s government has passed and it is going worse than expected for everyone. But especially for PiS of course. When former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro was mocking the new government from the parliament’s rostrum shouting at them “I hope you won’t be such a bunch of ninnies this time”, he probably […]
Author: Tomasz Oryński
Courts are for real Britons. For brown girls – life as stateless person in a refugee camp.
Shamima Begum is a London-born girl, who some years ago, aged 15, ran away from her parents to join ISIS. She wanted to be a mother to the children of martyrs. Today, the British court decided that striping her of British citizenship is a rightful decision. I believe this is a day of great shame […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 240: Mood in Poland now.
In recent weeks the Polish politics sped up so much, that I am failing to keep track. After initial hiccups with new government trying to take over of the public TV, which was not without issues, everyone expected them to get stuck and to spin the wheels, but no. The pace of the less spectacular, […]
The saga of so called “political prisoners” in Poland explained:
This piece was published in Britske Listy as a part of Meanwhile in Cuckooland series. Regular chapters of the series can be found here For the most recent chapter, click here You might have seen in the news headlines like “Polish lawmakers arrested by the new government” and wonder what is that all about. I […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 238
Donald Tusk’s government is slowly gaining momentum. Squeaks coming from PiS side as they are being gradually pulled away from the through are getting louder too. As Donald Tusk wrote on his twitter, it won’t be light, easy and pleasant work. How hard, difficult and unpleasant it might get we saw when TVP had been […]
What is the kerfuffle about the Polish public broadcaster about?
Media all over the world are writing about the stand-off in the headquarters of TVP, Polish public broadcaster. As some voices try to frame it as an assault on democracy and freedom of speech, I thought I might need to write a small explainer. You can read it on the sites of West Country Voices […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 237
The time of Mateusz Morawiecki’s two weeks government came quite uneventful on the political front. As it was obvious to everyone, his appointment served only one purpose: to delay Donald Tusk’s appointment. Related posts: Meanwhile in Cuckooland 212 Good News from Cuckooland! (Meanwhile in Cuckooland 211) Meanwhile in Cuckooland 154 Meanwhile in Cuckooland 78
Why are protestors in Poland and Slovakia blocking border crossings to Ukraine?
The issue of a blockade of the border crossings into Ukraine carried out by Polish haulage companies made mainstream news. The disagreement between Poland and Ukraine has been going on for nearly a year now, but Ukraine is winning the PR war, so the reports in both mainstream and social media are very unfavourable for […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 236
The elections went as predicted. While PiS came out with the highest result as a single party, they have only secured 194 seats in the parliament, which will not allow them to rule even if they teamed up with right-wing Konfederacja which secured 18 places, as the majority required is 231. Click HERE to read the previous […]
Meanwhile in Cuckooland 235 – election special
This Sunday Poles go to the polls. A cartoon by Bartosz Minkiewicz, depicting a drowning man desperately trying to carst a vote to the ballot box floating nearby accurately depicts the situation. The stakes are height: either Poland will turn back and slowly start crawling back to the light side – the world of european, […]