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Garvan Walshe

@garvanwalshe.org

3.4K followers 440 following 2.3K posts

Civic entrepreneur building tech for democrats of all parties and none at Article7.eu. I also chair Unhack Democracy and write on foreign affairs, defence and democracy.

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Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · Jun 30

Unhack Democracy, the pro-democracy civil society incubator I chair is raising money.

We fight against elected autocrats including Viktor Orban.

We support civil society innovation in Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria

🧵 On our story

Please share widely

whydonate.com/fundraising/...

Fundraiser by Unhack Democracy | Unhack Democracy

Unhack Democracy Needs Your Help | 💡 Bold . Hopeful. Creative. Building a new vision for democracy in Europe. Since we started Unhack Democracy in 2018 to show voters and the internatio...

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1h

They do change the rules from time to time…

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1h

4/ Despite this being new to her, she accepted it and he was granted citizenship.

ENDS

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1h

3/ But the immigration officer said she’d never seen one of those before…

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1h

2/ Fortunately he had some: a degree in English, from Cambridge, UK

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1h

Reminds me of my friend applying for citizenship, an American. He was required to present proof of his English competence 🧵

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 2h

We’re going to make migrants read Ian McEwan? Now that’s a hostile environment.

András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 3h

Well this will certainly do it www.gov.uk/government/n...

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 7h

Good luck to him but he has his work cut out. What was it like before Verhofstat started reforming in the 90s/2000s?

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 7h

The interesting question about Belgium is how Flanders works - low unemployment, decent growth, reasonable public services despite doing the opposite. Does it for example do large scale capital intensive incremental innovation well?

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 8h

The place is full of cartels and corruption, and its economic system is a stitch up by the owners of capital and people employed by large companies and the state against entrepreneurship. It’s social liberalism is great but in the economic sphere it does everything these three economists oppose

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 8h

No Belgium is the complete opposite, even if BDW would like to move Flanders in a better direction. Belgium taxes the wrong things, and non-deterministically. Labour market regulation is perverse. Its capital fails on law and order and basic things like bin collection. And it has notaries…

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 8h

If it’s opposed to anything schumpeterian economics seems opposed to corporatism. It’s no accident in my view that Schumpeter and Hayek were both Austrian

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 8h

I think many of these elements are separate from how much egalitarian redistribution is done. It’s more about openness, adapablloty and in Aghion’s most recent work about letting old firms that have lost their innovative habits fail

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 8h

Norway has too much oil so the laws of economics don’t apply 😂The danish part that seemed most relevant was its labour market flexicurity model- immigration policy certainly not. Sweden has very high private investment in the stock market but the Wallenbergs do own everything

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 9h

Oh look another tech billionaire is a creep…

Marietje Schaake @marietjeschaake.bsky.social · 9h

Not good for the procreation agenda: Elon Musk Gambles on Sexy A.I. Companions ↘️ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/t...

Elon Musk Gambles on Sexy A.I. Companions

www.nytimes.com

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 9h

These attitudes seem to struggle in FPTP systems and/or where there’s a strong social democratic movement. In E Eur it’s much more common to be socially liberal and economically free market than in W Eur.

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 9h

I’d say there are elements of it in the Nordics, Baltics and in Eastern Europe. Perhaps Taiwan (but I don’t know enough about them), the Dutch might end up back there after the next elections (or end up with statist economic interventionism if Timmermans wins)

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 10h

(FYI: yesterday’s point I was referring to: bsky.app/profile/garv...)

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1d

The challenge is to revive a centre right (or its separate liberal, conservative, and patriotic elements, when you’re not cursed by FPTP) without which democracy can’t survive.

(Also, in east europe left-coded parties are usually sociologically conservative and nostalgic)

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 10h

I realise this only captures the “liberal right” I’d mentioned earlier not the conservative or patriotic parts, but it is a start…

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 10h

You can start with yesterday’s Nobel winners: all present a dynamic model of progress producing greater welfare through innovation that comes from people gathering and doing new and better things. To do that they need freedom, cities and tolerably flexible immigration regimes.

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 10h

Delian-league era Athens wants royalties for this

Abe Newman @abenewman.bsky.social · 1d

7/ For a longer analysis of how this has played out and the ways in which the nationalist international is now seeking to drive their agenda through weaponized interdependence check out this piece w/ @himself.bsky.social.
legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...

«Enshittification» : la nouvelle doctrine de l'Empire américain | Le Grand Continent

Le plan de l’administration Trump pour faire du reste du monde un vassal d’extrême droite — et les moyens pour le déjouer. Une pièce de doctrine signée Henry Farrell et Abraham Newman.

legrandcontinent.eu

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 20h

would you restrict it to citizens or allow - or rather require- long term residents to vote too?

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 21h

And next year’s going to be better because this stuff is cumulative and the equipment lasts decades

Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 22h

Solar and wind are growing so quickly that they outpaced all the growth in electricity demand this year. Which means they started eating into fossil fuelled power, leading to a modest drop in fossil generation. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/13/o...

Our friendly neighbourhood fireball

Solar and wind are growing so quickly that they outpaced all the growth in electricity demand this year. Which means they started eating into fossil fuelled power, leading to a modest but significant ...

www.nationalobserver.com

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 21h

I love this *LLM developer* saying LLM doesn’t help him coding!

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 22h

Mitsotakis behind thinking “we invented democracy ….and now look what you’ve done with it”

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1d

The challenge is to revive a centre right (or its separate liberal, conservative, and patriotic elements, when you’re not cursed by FPTP) without which democracy can’t survive.

(Also, in east europe left-coded parties are usually sociologically conservative and nostalgic)

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1d

@ricsilvestre.bsky.social - that’s my other thread on the centre right