sorry everyone, Your Party was a skit I organized on leftist factionalism that got out of hand. I honestly thought the name was a big enough clue.

Der ganze Ethno-Faschismus basiert sich auf die Überzeugung, dass „wir“ instinktiv mit „uns“ leben wollen. Ich habe viele deutsche Freunde, von denen keiner meines Wissens sich gerne mit diesen Typen befinden würde.

Remind me why Rachel Reeves couldn’t put up fuel duty?

How do the spads of @uklabour.bsky.social not see that with them apparently stuck consistently on under 20%, there is a huge issue very strongly supported/supported by a large majority of voters, including almost all their own surviving core? For a party facing catastrophe, it’s a no-lose bet.

Yes! A broad majority of the Parliament agrees: the EU must take more action against Orbán! My report on the rule of law in Hungary was adopted with a majority of 415 votes, urging to take away Orbán's voting rights and to freeze EU funds. We must stop his breakdown of democracy and human rights.

Brexit has cost the country between 6% and 8% of GDP per person over the last decade, a hit of £180 billion ($235 billion) to £240 billion, according to new research for the UK government. Read more: bloom.bg/4rvdLb9 📷️: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg

I love the way that suddenly, a phrase in Danish will pop up which you can 100% understand, 1000 years after the Danes ruled England!

Interesting to see so many great British patriots right now begging an American president to bankrupt one of Britain’s last remaining truly national institutions.

Unlike Wales and Scotland, England has no civic nationalist party to benefit from the bankruptcy of Labour. The only way to stop Reform now is for Labour to rediscover its roots as the Northern English arm of a pan-British anti-Southern English league (plus 5th column in the London city-state).

Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam! #Trump #Bubba

Brexit didn’t just close borders, it closed doors for Wales' artists and cultural voices. Touring and collaboration are now tangled in red tape, silencing Welsh voices across the world 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @walesforeurope.bsky.social

This is the fundamental problem of the glorious Anglosphere democracies 🇬🇧 & 🇺🇸. #Brexit & #USexit are the Janus heads of the same coin. Totally agree with kresten2.bsky.social.

I want to thank a generation for bringing the expression “cringe” into the mainstream

This is a question I've been asking a lot of the BBC political coverage in recent months. I love the BBC and would pay the licence fee for Radio 4 alone, but I do appreciate balance and fairness too please.

The catastrophic state of modern languages in this country! When I was doing my PhD in the 1980s, Nottingham was a real powerhouse for #German studies.

Time for this again. #NewYork #Democrats #Trump #Virginia

lol

That's certainly not borne out by my experience. My own knowledge of the workings of the EU comes solely from freelancing as a translator for its institutions for 40 years. Rarely do I have a conversation with anyone in the UK who understands the bare minimum of its history, purpose and functions.

Well said. The EU is, in fact, “the rule of law“ made flesh: not since the mediaeval church has any institution had such influence over national executives without possessing the slightest physical means to impose its will. it’s called civilisation: that’s why all dictators and demagogue hate it.

In 1903 (sorry) Jack London writes:

zB: der damals weltberühmter Schriftsteller Jack London schrieb in seinem Buch „People of the Abyss“ („Volk des Abgrunds“) 1906 über eine „völlig fremde Rasse“ die er, als mutige Sozialforscher, im Osten von London kennen lernte. Damit meinte er die armen Engländer der Riesenstadt London.

Under FPTP, this requires vital tactical decisions from “centre left” voters. Winners will be parties with a strong regional identity, where they are perceived as most likely winners vs Farage Great for #SNP and #Plaid. But it helps #Labour only if they re-identify their historic regional base.

The moment he gets tired and can’t cary off his ridiculous “fags and pints” shtick for hoi polloi any more, he reveals himself for what he really is: just another hardline 90s Thatcherite who dreams of the UK being wingman to a Republican USA (which was always the secret narrative of #Brexit)

I am celebrating #ReformationDay with this sticker I spotted recently in the lovely city of Heidelberg.

As I’ve been saying else elsewhere, the collapse of #Labour is going to be a huge boost to #SNP and #Plaid because unlike England, Wales and Scotland have explicitly civic-nationalist (not ethno-nationalist), vaguely left-leaning alternatives to #Reform

The Conservatives plans to deport hundreds of thousands of legal residents of the UK are far more extreme than anything Donald Trump is proposing Piece from me on the horror show of the right morphing into the far right open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

Please not. I mean, unless you actually want Vance.

Starmer making catastrophic error. It is not the far right taking his votes, it is the pro-European parties (Grn+LD+SNP+PC). Voting intention of GE2024 Labour voters (YG 19-20 October) Lab 51% Grn* 16% LD* 14% Ref 9% Con 5% SNP* 2% PC* 1% oth 3% Loss to pro-EU* = 33 pp Loss to far right = 14 pp

Siehe: monocle.com/affairs/plan...

Glad you found it interesting. At heart, we are mainly “valence voters“: the decisive question is whether we believe a candidate is somehow “like us”. Skilful populists are masters at deceiving people in this sense. But any politician has got to make a firm offer to voters. KS just doesn’t.

James Hawes - @jameshawes.bsky.social - says something telling here. No one has a clear idea of what it would be like to have a drink with Keir Starmer. He has failed to project any sort of personality, so it's little wonder he's doing badly in the polls. Who are we being asked to vote for?

Delighted you found it interesting. Thanks for saying so here.

Great interview of Charlie Sykes by @nickcohen.bsky.social on The Lowdown Podcast. Definitely worth a listen if you live in Great Britain and want to avoid having a despot for a PM. nickcohen.substack.com/p/a-warning-...

Listen to AI! It implies that every student in Britain should consider becoming fluent in German as part of their university studies!

In 1989, on this day, I was in my office in Maynooth 🇮🇪 - in my first job as a Germanist. This calendar was on my wall. None of my colleagues anywhere in the world had any idea that within a week, the #DDR would be finished.

Hooray!

It is!

It’s long-wave history time again as polling in #Wales - now a two horse-race between the civic/cultural nationalism of #Plaid and the toxic “Empire 2.0” fantasies of #Farage - looks extremely familiar…

Da die AfD nur in gewissen Staaten die Aufsicht hat, an die Macht zu kommen, ist est ganz einfach, was Sie in dem Fall tun - gerade das, was Millionen schon vor dem ersten Weltkrieg taten: Sie begehen Ostflucht.

What he said. As discussed by myself and @nickcohen.bsky.social on his podcast a couple of months ago.

Es ist mir völlig unbegreiflich, dass ich dieses kleine Meisterwerk erst jetzt richtig lese.

Important stuff here by @jeremycliffe.bsky.social on the regional elections in NRW, Germany. You’ll see a lot of stories about a “far right surge” (the FT has one this morning). But that happened a couple of years ago. These results record voter shifts that already happened. 1/

Excellent point. And in Germany’s multiparty system the vital point is this: over 70% of all voters still back parties which are absolutely explicit in their support for NATO and EU. @zeit.de @helenebismarck.bsky.social @annettedittert.bsky.social

Richtig! Und vor allem wichtig ist: über 70 % aller Stimmen sind für Parteien, die ausgesprochen für NATO und für die EU abgegeben worden.

Was aber vor allem in NRW wichtig ist: 70% aller Stimmen sind für Parteien abgegeben, die ausgesprochen pro-NATO und pro-EU sind.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... Including the first ever visit by a film crew to Dr Kafka’s asylum for mentally damaged folk-comrades, in Frankenstein. Really.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... #Kafka

France's arsonist-in-chief thinks there's something in it for her.

Attention #AcademicSky Everyone is talking about books, but thousands of academic journals were also pirated and are entitled to up to $3,000 *per pirated volume!!!* if editors submit titles to join the suit. Incredible opportunity for underfunded journals to get some $$! #SkyStorians #MedievalSky

Dear colleagues and friends, A quarter of a century after its last major refurbishment, the GHIL is embarking on a new project to renovate and modernise its building. In a few weeks the builders will move in to make the public facing rooms of the Institute ready for the coming decades. 🧱🔨