“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” (Groucho Marx)

Art

Peter Cook on “those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War,” notwithstanding, fascists hate artists because empathy highlights their hatefulness & renders them ridiculous.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Thank you!

Sad to learn of the death of former BBC foreign correspondent Sir Mark Tully. For so many years he was known as the ‘Voice of India.’ As a tribute I play one of the pieces Sir Mark selected on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs: Danny Boy.

This.

Well played, Channel 4.

On Thursday, 8 January: www.parliament.uk/business/new...

#Traitors ‘I don’t want to dominate this’ says Hugo. mansplaining his way to banishment.

'I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.' (C.S. Lewis)

'Trump has dominated everything for the last goddamn decade, and last year was no different. But guess what — He was an asshole yesterday, he was an asshole today and he’ll be an asshole tomorrow.' www.thealtmedia.com/p/morally-ex...

These are unsettling times.

Really good

‘Ben Stokes's side love a chase and the way things are going they're going to have a big one.’

"The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages urges the University of Leicester to declare an immediate pause in the current proposals for the closure of degrees in modern languages and cultures"

The game is far too easy for batters. We seek to revolutionise cricket through these new cricket stumps. Boasting four poles rather than three and made of volcanic ash instead of wood, they are perfect for events such as The Ashes.

Why are the entire cast of #Strictly incapable of pronouncing 'La Voix'? How difficult is it to say 'la', not 'le'?

Siegfried Sassoon (1917)

Let's have Alan Carr and Alison Hammond as the next #Strictly hosts please!

Je souhaite bonne chance à Sarkozy-Dantès dans ses projets d'évasion.

Could we please put an immediate and universal ban on the phrase 'Back in my day'.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Except it doesn’t bend on its own—it bends because we pull it in the direction of justice. What keeps me hopeful during times like these is being surrounded by people who are doing just that.

History repeats.

perfect

The world we live in.

A very useful word.

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” Groucho Marx

'You just can't underestimate the magnitude of this achievement.' Sorry?

Spot on.

Happy 24th birthday to the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes, formed on this day in 2001 in Dublin, and thriving almost a quarter of a century later. En avant! @uksdn.bsky.social

A Cartoon from The New Yorker buff.ly/CPA8BSH

Sting slams Brexit as an ‘act of folly’ during French TV appearance 'We're only just beginning to understand how stupid it was” www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/sting-t...

'If you want to control a people, create an imaginary enemy that appears more dangerous than you, then present yourself as their saviour.' Nobody says it better than Chomsky.

The good old days.

Perfect!

Here’s a poem about the time I went online to buy an Easter egg and spent an absolute fortune.

Frightening.

@uksdn.bsky.social Here’s wishing a wonderful couple of days to all delegates at the SDN annual conference.

🇪🇺🇬🇧 Westminster MPs debated a petition to rejoin the EU, with many backing closer ties. Labour’s red lines remain, but momentum for change is growing. 🙌

Just a reminder: having a functional moral compass right now is going to make you feel bad all the time; don’t mistakenly hate yourself for that.

‘Okay which one of you accidentally added Robert Cecil to the chat?’