Oliver's Battery & Badger Farm Councillors

I'm writing this entry from Budapest where I'm spending a few days on business. Politically, Hungary has been going through some crazy times this year. The admission by the prime minister that he lied in order to win the general election seems to have had a mixed reaction. There is now a permanent demonstration by the opposition outside the Parliament building. My Hungarian colleagues on the other hand seem to take the view that "at least he's told us the truth now!"
Despite all this it's good to come back again to a country that has made so much progress in very few years. Next week they'll be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, that doomed attempt in 1956 to free themselves from communist rule. Now, as a stable democracy (despite the PM's efforts) and a member of the EU, that 50 years seems a very long time indeed.