James

Aptly put!😂

I like Angela Raynor, but I we seriously saying that someone who broke the rules should replace someone who didn’t?

Yeh!

I think of all the hypocrisy that should have finished off Orbán before now this will be what cuts through. At least I hope so. I think Hungarian’s can look past the those previous corruptions and shrug their shoulder but not this. Surely.

Calling for Keir Starmer to quit because the “distraction needs to end” is thin. Distraction isn’t a constitutional test. Conflicts are resolved by proper process and oversight, not by collapsing a narrow problem into a generic demand for leadership change.

I think Anas Sarwar calling for Keir Starmer to quit is shallow because it mistakes a narrow conflict-of-interest problem for a terminal leadership failure. “Resign” is the easy slogan; the real issue is executive judgement compromised on one issue, not overall authority.

What matters constitutionally is the transfer of authority. MPs are not rejecting executive power wholesale, but judging that in this case proximity creates a conflict, requiring Parliament, not government, to exercise oversight. A narrow but serious rebuke in my view.

Before they oust Starmer could they at least let me sort my mortgage out first. Then they can restart the circus they seem to crave.

He even fails at whataboutery

Watching the Hungarian election as the husband of a Hungarian feels genuinely different this time. Fidesz have faced criticism before, but this is the first moment that feels real. There’s a quiet sense that something might actually shift.

Whatever happens at the ballot box, this isn’t business as usual. Something has cracked and you can feel it more clearly inside Hungarian life than you ever can from headlines.

That’s why the recent attacks on Magyar about his conduct in his marriage to *Varga* land as the most blatant whataboutery so far. When “child protection” is your brand under fire, you try to flip the story into private scandal and mud.

Magyar has captured that anger: not abstract ideology, but a moral gut-punch “you claim family values, yet children weren’t protected, and the system shields insiders.”

Since then, child protection has stayed politically radioactive and when global stories like Epstein circulate, they only amplify public sensitivity to elite impunity and the idea that “power protects itself”.

Most explosive was the 2024 pardon affair: President Katalin Novák resigned after it emerged she had pardoned a man convicted for helping cover up child abuse at a children’s home. Judit Varga (then justice minister) countersigned it and resigned too, stepping back from public life.

But, one issue cuts across everything right now: children’s safety. Fidesz built a lot of their moral brand on “family protection”, then came scandals that shattered trust.

What Hungarians have consistently shown me is how warmth and toughness coexist. Hospitality and scepticism. Pride and self-criticism. This election cuts straight through that tension.

That’s why Péter Magyar feels different. Not because Hungary is turning liberal, it isn’t, but because he’s voicing something many already feel. You can love your country and still demand more from those in charge.

In the cities, especially among younger people, the pride (no, not that one) is still there but mixed with frustration. They don’t want Hungary to be less Hungarian. They want it better run. Less stagnant. Less captured. But also open and European.

But even in the villages, something’s changed. You hear irritation now: about arrogance, corruption, about being taken for granted. Loyalty, yes, but not blind loyalty.

In villages, I’ve experienced extraordinary warmth as an outsider; fed, teased, questioned, welcomed. Loyalty matters hugely. Fidesz earned that loyalty once, and for years it was repaid almost automatically or at least that was how it “felt”.

This is about identity, language, history, and not being told who you are by people who don’t know you. That instinct runs across generations, even when it’s expressed very differently.

Hungarians are broadly right-wing, but not in the online culture-war sense. It’s old-school conservatism; no nonsense, order matters, don’t lecture us. “Anti-woke” is an easy label, but it misses the point entirely.

Years of moving between Budapest and villages have shaped how I see this. City Hungarians and village Hungarians can sound worlds apart, but the common thread is pride; deep, instinctive, and fiercely protective.

Watching the Hungarian election as the husband of a Hungarian feels genuinely different this time. Fidesz have faced criticism before, but this is the first moment that feels real. There’s a quiet sense that something might actually shift.

It’s all so predictable!

Democracies are healthiest when voters reward results rather than rhetoric. Brexit showed what happens when that balance collapses.

Too often, appeals to “protect our children from debt” ring hollow. It’s easy to preach restraint after cashing in on cheap homes, pensions, and tax breaks while voting away shared assets. Moral authority is thin if you profit first, then warn others about the cost of clearing the wreckage.

Real concern for the future means recognising past advantages and harms, then supporting fair taxes, public investment, and international cooperation. Only by sharing today’s costs can boomers help give the next generation the stability and opportunity they once enjoyed.