Because hiding prices in obscure surcharges is deliberately misleading customers. Given that they are surely having a special menu for the occasion they can easily print the true prices instead of fake prices. I would avoid shady places doing that. If they fool customers when it comes to paying who knows how the fool them in the kitchen.

I’d hope flat x % surcharges are a violation of price transperancy rules in the EU but it could be that it is possible like in the UK. But it shouldn’t.

It is not just prioritising car commuters from outside vs locals, it is simply an extremely wasteful use of limited traffic capacity. The bus, not clogged down in traffic, has a way higher capacity than probably even two full car lanes at the highest performance. A bus lane is the only rational thing there. If that makes the highway off ramp redundant because there is no capacity for cars left to justify it, simply tear it down. It is fake capacity anyway if the traffic cannot be supported further down the road and it would even benefit car drivers, as it would remove a clogging point and free up capacity on the highway.

You always need a majority in Plenum but the people specialised on the topic arealso advising party colleagues. It is impossible to get into the details of every proposal. Therefore it depends a lot on how controversial a topic is. For high profile legislation MEPs in the plenum might have a closer look themselves and make up their own mind but on low profile stuff they might simply follow the recommendation of their own guy(s) in the comittee.

PS: Lobbying is not always bad and if it is bad depends also on what political views you have. NGOs and Unions are lobbyists as well. But in many cases lobbying is indeed bad, especially when lobbyists are trying to hide their true nature and their traces.

In any parliament that does more than just rubber stamping whatever the executive does, you have committees that focus on specific topics. Members of Parliament specialise on some of those. There they actually draft stuff that then the full assembly is voting on. That is the only way it can work as you need people with some understanding on the topic to draft stuff. No person can be specialist in everything.

So you might have a few to maybe a few dozen people sitting in a committee. A few from each party and usually you also have at least obe person per party in charge of the topic for respective party. The Committee can not control the vote in the assembly (so it needs to keep in mind what the plenum will find acceptable) but it controls what the Plenum will vote on.

This is of course a great target for lobbying. However it dies not help on controversial issues where the Plenum will is ready to vote everything down.

If you are asking specifically about the EU, there lobbying rules in place for Parliament, Commission and Council. Lobbyists who want to enter their premise are required to register in a public list where among others the purpose of their lobbying, who they are lobbying for etc has to be recorded. Reputable big lobbying firms do that. But of course one can also do lobbying outside of those buildings.

Also, there is ar least some law enforcement happening. See the Quatar scandal in the European Parliament. While Quatar is openly bribing US authorities, without consequences, Quatar’s secret bribing of MPEs has led to MEPs losing their office and facing prosecution for corruption. The EU has also strengthened its own means for prosecution by establishing the European Public Prossecutor Office which is fully independent from the Commission unlike OLAF from which it took over this job.

All in all, control of lobbying is vastly insufficient but the EU is still doing more than many nonetheless.

Budapest is great, Fidesz has lost control over the city government also already a good while ago.

In a way it is a mix of Prague (Buda) and Vienna (Pest).Unlike in Prague the castle district was heavily damaged in WW2 though. Budapest is probably the edgiest city of the triade Prague-Vienna-Budapest. Unlike Vienna it does feature a beautiful river front at the Danube and of course its spectacular Parliament building and of course its famous historic baths. Nightlife is probably the best of the three.

Magyar? No.

All three of them are controlled by US tech oligarchs that are closely aligned with the US regime which was heavily interfering in favour of Orban as well. As far as I know you were flooded in all three with Fidesz propaganda and disinformation. Never mind that Russian propaganda is strong in all three of those as well and it was doing the same.

Budapest shouts “Russians out”, in memory of the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and against the Putin asset they ousted today.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7bwbxhjiqyq34u6w4m35blcr/post/3mjdb74xwhc2s?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.derstandard.at%252Fjetzt%252Flivebericht%252F3000000316029%252F1000408664%252Fliveticker-zu-den-wahlen-in-ungarn-immer-wieder-orban-oder-neubeginn

Bonnet height for private vehicles should be tightly regulated, they are a key contributer to lethality in car accidents yet increasing every year. I could imagine some steep increase in taxes (at least at purchase if nothing else) the further you deviate from a defined reasonable height. People do care about money, make lethal asocial choices more expensive.

Destroying is possibly exaggerated but this harsh restructuring program, together with large scale firings of competent researchers, will likely lead to an amputation of the research program. This halfway to complete destruction, in the best of cases and much closer to it if incompetence and malign administration get their way.

Doesn’t look exactly like UK or Ireland though (or Malta for that matter), does it?

Prague has certainly one of the most beautiful old towns and that image captures it well. That said, it is always a not so stellar sign if a restaurant has its specialties plastered in English on its exterior… only in English, in a country where English isn’t the native tongue.

Sure and don’t get me wrong, this pro reckless driving action is nothing I support either.

Sure. But if roads are built for the speed, the road enforces the speed. If driving faster will shake you so badly that it feels like an accident, most people won’t do it. Also making streets narrow, with tight road crossings and curves, and subjectively more dangerous to the car drivers, actually makes streets safer, especially for people outside of cars.

Of course that is not possible everywhere and then speeding controls, including cameras are the next best thing.

I was considering the 30 min as brutto times. So 30 mins are 30 mins. The only thing to consider then are frequencies, if they are bad (which they are in most of the US admittedly).

Anyhow. This whole scenario sounds bemusing and absurd to my European ears. Do you only have one supermarket in town or why do you have to do a small world travel like that to get there? Is that what splendid car only urban planning turns cities into?

It all boils down to the fact that if you build cities primarily or exclusively for cars, transit sucks. It is like getting around in Venice by car. Of course it sucks (you are basically limited to drive in circles in the parking garage). I take neither car nor transit to make most groceries. I either do that at a transit exchange, on my way, spending practically zero travel time for it or walk 3 min to the store. I rarely feel the need to go to a hypermarket but if I do, it is a 5 min bus ride add a few min more for total travel time. That is only possible because my city is not primarily built for cars. Of course that’s nothing that can be achieved over night. However consider that it took the US also many decades to bulldoze its cities for the car. After all, they used to be built for transit as well before.

PS: What might blow the minds of many US Americans is also the option to combine, simply having a nice walk, with going to the store. You know, a bit of relaxed physical activity, seeing the the hood and doing the chores all at once.

And how does that relate to my post? Aljazeera is not left-wing.

In all seriousness, paint doesn’t enforce speed. What you need is to rebuild streets for that speed. Have a look at the Netherlands for reference. You need pretty little enforcement when streets are built for 30 km/h. Narrow, priority pumps at crossings for pedestrians, where your car seat is punch through your pelvis if you go anything faster than 30 km/h …)

That’s a crazy mentality.