Author: Magdalena Williams
Magdalena Williams came to the U.K. from Vienna in 1970 to attend her mother’s wedding and chose to make the U.K. her home. She undertook several career changes until her retirement in 2016 from the then Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She started as a teacher of Hungarian and German to diplomats and finished in the Nigeria Team which was inter alia looking at how to defeat Boko Haram. Before joining the FCO, she worked as a psychologist in hospitals and ran creative therapy workshops in prisons and clinics. Her interest in writing was first raised when she decided to research her family history and leave a record of how her mother, the daughter of a landed gentry family in Hungary fleeing Communism, first to Vienna then Germany, ended up in rural Kent. Magdalena is an ardent Remain campaigner, a Green Party member and she will proudly be forever European.
Ukrainian refugees seek abortion in Poland
In October 2020, about 100 000 people took to the streets of Warsaw in a protest against the authorities over the ruling on abortion rights. After protests had been met with heavy-handed police action, sanctioned by the Prime Minister, the UN experts also called on the Polish authorities to respect the rights of men and women protesting against the abortion ruling.
EU conditionality mechanism to penalise Hungary
For years Orbán and the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS) have been challenged in the courts by the EU over reforms they brought in. Both the Hungarian and Polish governments cast themselves as the protectors of traditional Christian values.
Thank EU For The Music
Brexit has done so much damage to the music Industry and has frustrated efforts by musicians to travel freely around Europe playing their music. There were no borders before Brexit.
Can Ukraine soon become an EU country?
Flags flying outside European Parliament showing EU support for Ukraine
The Hungarian Election: A Rude Awakening
The Hungarian election results of 3 April made me feel as distraught as the 2016 EU Referendum results in the UK. I stayed up most of the night on both occasions. Both were a rude awakening.
The War In Ukraine And The Future Of The World
Review Of A TED Panel The War in Ukraine and the Future of the World, a TED talk on YouTube with Anna Applebaum, Timothy Snyder and Yuval Noah Harari inspired me to write this article. Timothy starts by looking at Ukraine as a European country with a mediaeval history from the Vikings to Christian conversion, a […]
Memories of another war
When I see families fleeing into cellars to escape from the bombing of their houses, memories of my childhood experiences flood back. As an eight year old, I was very confused and often scared. All I knew was that I had to go to the dark cellar when a siren was heard.
Missing Government Health Warning
At least 20 million people and even more animals’ lives are affected by it, but you might not know about some of the effects of leaving the EU. There should have been a health warning. The pandemic has hidden some of the impact of Brexit.