As it became apparent today that Irish voters had rejected the Lisbon treaty, France mobilised its army preparatory to invading the recalcitrant island.
In a straight news article it can sometimes be difficult to figure out where the reporter’s sympathies lie but for the careful observer there are a few clues. Take the article in today’s Dziennik about the decision to fund private third level colleges from public funds. The headline reads “Government to finance private colleges” (“Rząd […]
“Poles can pay less” is the cheering headline in April 4th’s Gazeta Wyborcza. This storyette, tucked away in the boring old business section, is about how a Polish building company operating in Germany has won the right to pay its workers less than the existing, collectively bargained industry rate in Germany. The European Court decided […]
Jacek Żakowski is what passes for a left winger here in Poland. In fact he’s regarded as practically a Bolshevik, while the organ he writes for, Polityka, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, is considered almost socialist. Despite his undeniably communistic credentials the final few sentences of a recent article about the politics of doing […]
The health service was in such a jock here that they decided to have a so-called “white summit” of various interest groups – doctors, economists and so on. I can’t recall off hand the name of my representative there but anyway, they’ve come up with a plan to get the health service out of the […]
“Don’t worry, trade unionists. The government is not going to change the law to emasculate you.” “What? The government is going to change the law to emasculate us?” “No, no. You misunderstand. The government is not going to change the law to emasculate you.” “But why would the government want to change the law to […]
A lorry driver died in the 20-mile queue at the Ukrainian-Polish border crossing at Dorohusk. Warsaw sat up and noticed: Poland has an eastern border. To be sure, Poland’s joining the Schengen pact has meant its virtual closure to Ukrainians, but the emphasis in the national press had been more on the feel-good opening of […]
Poland’s public health service is still in a jock. Doctors out, nurses out, patients being evacuated—I’ve lost track to be honest. But here comes Agata Nowakowska of Gazeta Wyborcza to take me by the hand and patiently explain that “Raising Health Insurance Contributions Only Puts Out Fires,” (the title of her opinion piece in today’s […]
We have America to thank for what must be or should be or maybe already is a popular new adjective: subprime. Northern Rock crumbled but Poland is safe because as any neophyte knows the market never falls. A brief survey of the advertising of bank loans here: 1. We will not check your credit rating. […]
According to the latest Polityka Rafał Antczak has a new job. Antczak was one of the three authors of an article in Gazeta Wzborcza about how we can’t afford to be so rich. I was later able to reveal (i.e. I read the paper) that the think tank Antczak worked for (CASE) received funding from […]
