"These cities may change, but there always remains my obsession." It's Bryan Ferry's birthday today, and - bloody hell! - he's 80. He's one of @alwynturner.bsky.social's glam heroes. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"A Kent policeman has compiled a report in which he blames local papers for inflaming tension between asylum seekers and the locals." The People, February 2000. thelionandunicorn.com/2022/11/01/a...

"The Lib Dems do not feel like the old third force, providing a home for voters tired of the Tory-Labour duopoly; rather they find themselves bracketed with their two old rivals as one of the legacy parties, dreaming of an old, safe world now faded away"👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

"The febrile state of Summer 2024 looks now an oasis of calm, and the late 2010s a mythical, placid political utopia..." thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

From the relatively familiar calm of August 2015, though the chaos of December 2019 to the ominous and provisional present - @paulsaffer.bsky.social reflects on a decade of political disruption. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

Ed Miliband was elected leader of the Labour Party fifteen years ago today. What a catastrophic mistake that was. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/05/07/e...

"Farage may hate many things, but he at least does not seem to hate himself – no wonder his self-confident Reform has proved more attractive to those who would usually look to the Tories when dissatisfied with a Labour government" From @paulsaffer.bsky.social👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

"A Kent policeman has compiled a report in which he blames local papers for inflaming tension between asylum seekers and the locals." The People, February 2000. thelionandunicorn.com/2022/11/01/a...

"What’s my favourite Marc Bolan album? I’d have to say the Best of T Rex" @alwynturner.bsky.social courts controversy in his pick of the ten best Glam albums👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"The Lib Dems do not feel like the old third force, providing a home for voters tired of the Tory-Labour duopoly; rather they find themselves bracketed with their two old rivals as one of the legacy parties, dreaming of an old, safe world now faded away"👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

"The febrile state of Summer 2024 looks now an oasis of calm, and the late 2010s a mythical, placid political utopia..." thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

"‘But, Lady Blakeney,’ said the young man, touched by the gentle earnestness of this exquisitely beautiful woman, ‘do you know that what you propose doing is man’s work?’" Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, was born 160 years ago today in 1865. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/09/23/i...

"What’s my favourite Marc Bolan album? I’d have to say the Best of T Rex" @alwynturner.bsky.social courts controversy in his pick of the ten best Glam albums👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"‘But, Lady Blakeney,’ said the young man, touched by the gentle earnestness of this exquisitely beautiful woman, ‘do you know that what you propose doing is man’s work?’" Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, was born 160 years ago today in 1865. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/09/23/i...

'A focus group described her as “passionate”, “genuine”, “sincere” and “very smart”, although some saw her as “aggressive” and “rough”.’ Happy birthday to Rebecca Long-Bailey. She was Labour's future once. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/12/17/t...

"A fifteen-minute epic, it’s a portrait of youth in a suburban dystopia of Wimpy bars and Woolworth’s..." Glam rock wasn't just for Christmas, you know. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

'A focus group described her as “passionate”, “genuine”, “sincere” and “very smart”, although some saw her as “aggressive” and “rough”.’ Happy birthday to Rebecca Long-Bailey. She was Labour's future once. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/12/17/t...

"‘When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease’, one of Harper’s best-known songs, features the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and is a hymn to mortality which DJ John Peel insisted should be played in the event of his death" @benfinlay74.bsky.social on Roy Harper's HQ👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

"‘Showgirl’ was the first single & was a fine statement of intent; the pristine production couldn’t conceal the grubbiness of the glamour – he may be dreaming of stardom, but he’s still hanging around public libraries" @alwynturner.bsky.social on The Auteurs👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"‘I think cathedrals are cathedrals,’ he’d declare, or he’d make reference to ‘Bordeaux – as in the tapestry’." thelionandunicorn.com/2024/07/14/c...

"A fifteen-minute epic, it’s a portrait of youth in a suburban dystopia of Wimpy bars and Woolworth’s..." Glam rock wasn't just for Christmas, you know. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"It was an attempt to recreate the innocent enthusiasm of the first generation of rock ’n’ roll, but blown up to a grand scale. And at its best, it was very grand indeed" @alwynturner.bsky.social on his top ten Glam albums👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"We should defend the gains and achievements of the Cuban revolution." Can it really be true that today is Richard Burgon's 45th birthday already? How soon the bloom of youth fades. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/03/16/a...

Happy 60th birthday to DJ, producer and actor Goldie. He co-starred with David Bowie in Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999). thelionandunicorn.com/2023/06/06/f...

"Rising is a fantastic album, with plenty of great songwriting and musicianship. So, I urge you to dust off your copy, wait for sundown and put it on; begin the rising of the moon" @benfinlay74.bsky.social on Fairport Convention, from his top ten of 1975👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

"It might well be an exemplar of Yes, Prime Minister’s Politician’s Syllogism, where the desire to do something has resulted in the doing of anything. Football may or may not be the winner, but lawyers look set for promotion" @paulsaffer.bsky.social👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/b...

"The Left could wish for a better figurehead as it returns to the political fringes, but it made its bed in 2015 and then proceeded to plump the pillows in 2016... It was always all about Corbyn. It remains all about Corbyn" Apropos of Your Party 👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2020/12/29/2...

"‘Showgirl’ was the first single & was a fine statement of intent; the pristine production couldn’t conceal the grubbiness of the glamour – he may be dreaming of stardom, but he’s still hanging around public libraries" @alwynturner.bsky.social on The Auteurs👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"‘When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease’, one of Harper’s best-known songs, features the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and is a hymn to mortality which DJ John Peel insisted should be played in the event of his death" @benfinlay74.bsky.social on Roy Harper's HQ👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

"We should defend the gains and achievements of the Cuban revolution." Can it really be true that today is Richard Burgon's 45th birthday already? How soon the bloom of youth fades. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/03/16/a...

Happy 60th birthday to DJ, producer and actor Goldie. He co-starred with David Bowie in Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999). thelionandunicorn.com/2023/06/06/f...

'The Thunder Speaks' an illustration of a story by the great Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) Not sure of the artist although it resembles the work of Virgil Finlay.

"It was an attempt to recreate the innocent enthusiasm of the first generation of rock ’n’ roll, but blown up to a grand scale. And at its best, it was very grand indeed" @alwynturner.bsky.social on his top ten Glam albums👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"Music suffused with solipsistic gloom, made by stars obsessing over the nature of stardom..." For your pleasure, the ten best glam rock albums, as selected by @alwynturner.bsky.social. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"The Left could wish for a better figurehead as it returns to the political fringes, but it made its bed in 2015 and then proceeded to plump the pillows in 2016... It was always all about Corbyn. It remains all about Corbyn" Apropos of Your Party 👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2020/12/29/2...

Excellent top ten of Glam albums by @alwynturner.bsky.social for @lionunicorn.bsky.social. I've enjoyed reading it and listening to the track choices today; I've discovered some stuff new to me, which at my stage of the game is most welcome. #glam #musicsky

"Rising is a fantastic album, with plenty of great songwriting and musicianship. So, I urge you to dust off your copy, wait for sundown and put it on; begin the rising of the moon" @benfinlay74.bsky.social on Fairport Convention, from his top ten of 1975👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

"Music suffused with solipsistic gloom, made by stars obsessing over the nature of stardom..." For your pleasure, the ten best glam rock albums, as selected by @alwynturner.bsky.social. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"I should prefer to leave the affairs of the football industry to the industry itself," said home secretary Rab Butler. But that was then - these days, politicians feel that football needs some interference. @paulsaffer.bsky.social tells the story. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/b...

'“Literally, even in my dreams, I find myself talking to Dominic now” Our @finlay24.bsky.social would point out that Dom & Tom didn't 'need' a podcast. Still, what they share with the best indies is believable friendship and genuine delight in their subject 👇 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

My first new post on Substack; we spend too much time moralizing and not enough thinking about socio-economic failure: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/systems-no...

Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves To Death and Technopoly makes the point that: It is actively damaging to your mental health to be constantly exposed to/engaged with terrible events that you can take no actions over. It erodes your sense of capacity and your ability to act.

"Labour has been slow to condemn out-and-out racism this past year for the same reason that it uncritically accepted any number of wacky proposals about anti-racism in 2020" is a striking sentence from this @stephenkb.bsky.social column www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

Happy birthday to Prince Harry. Here's how his birth was greeted in Class War... thelionandunicorn.com/2023/01/30/y...

"We are democratic in England – truly democratic. We can grumble and say what we think and laugh at our politicians. We’re free." Agatha Christie was born 135 years ago today. thelionandunicorn.com/2023/08/15/i...

I’m not saying Keir Starmer is in trouble, but Labour members are pretending to be aware who Lucy Powell is, something not even most of the Powell family bother to do.

This is good news. The TV Times is now included in the British Newspaper Archive. www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/tv-ti...

'Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told analysts that people without smart glasses may one day be at a "significant cognitive disadvantage" compared to those who do use the tech'

"The UK is still one of the world’s most tolerant countries not just because of the left, but because of the right. It was Ted Heath, then the Conservative leader of the opposition, who sacked Enoch Powell in 1968 — at a time when 74 per cent of the public agreed with Powell’s sentiments"👇

"The smaller pods – the indies, the up-and-comers, the weirdos with a dream – are all drowned out. They’ve got no real chance of competing with the ‘Rest Is’ industrial complex and its glossy PR machine" @finlay24.bsky.social on state of British podcasting👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/10/d...