After years of reporting on Brexit in Brussels, returning to the UK election has been a culture shock

I’m normally the Independent’s Brussels correspondent, but I’ve been seconded back to the UK to cover the general election campaign – a sort of “all-hands-on-deck” order.

A lot of outlets have done this: in fact, it’s so common that I’ve actually been bumping into my Brussels colleagues in the UK while covering the contest.

I covered Westminster before moving to Brussels, so it’s not all a shock to me, but some things have taken some time readjusting to.

There are the obvious superficial differences: parliament itself is a Victorian mock-gothic palace, compared to the EU’s preference for plate glass and steel modernism. Like the UK’s democracy, it feels a bit creaky.

You might think that language is one big difference between the UK and Brussels. But it actually isn’t: Belgium may have three official languages (French, Dutch, and German) but practically everything in the EU bubble is done in English.

But there are differences in reporting on the election compared to my usual beat. Covering Brexit for the last few years has been all about back channels – chatting to officials and diplomats and trying to predict the future, basically.

With the election, on the other hand, such predictions are pretty much left to the pollsters. And we don’t even know whether to trust them! So the reporting is firmly rooted in the present, and my job is more just about reporting what’s happening on any given day.

One thing that I didn’t realise I had missed in Belgium was having colleagues nearby. Correspondents posted abroad tend to mostly work alone, and in Brussels, we just have our counterparts from other publications to keep us company. I mostly have to keep in touch with my editor and Indy colleagues over the phone, email, and messages.

But in Westminster, the Indy has a big team: so it’s been genuinely nice to have colleagues again – I’ve really appreciated it. And hopefully, they’ve appreciated the stash of Belgian biscuits I’ve brought over for them.

Yours

Jon Stone

Europe correspondent