Kuba isn’t kidding btw. Fully a third of the word count of Starmer’s email to members is about getting rid of the two-child cap. One would hope that this might prompt some reassessment of why they pursued a strategy so centred around *not* removing it for so long…

It is… notable, that the greatest achievement the Labour Party leader in Government talks about in the new year message is the one they spent all year briefing they opposed and were dragged to kicking and screaming

Sadiq Khan, Keeper of the Flame

My first lecture from “Introduction to Ancient History” (an excellent course!) was on the Behistun inscription and… how much of it was just entirely, transparently to contemporaries made up

Warcraft 3! Those were the days!

THEN: Rome: Total War probably edged it in how many hours I spent playing it, over KOTOR II NOW: KOTOR 2 given there were later, better TW games and KOTOR remains an unbeaten sci-fi RPG

Shamima Begum was the beginning of something in so many ways, one of which was 'the last government's inability to just do its job properly (in this case by passing legislation that would have allowed it to prosecute her here at home) and instead going 'no option but to undermine all our rights'.

calling a military tech company Anduril: honestly, solid name, vibes of Aragorn's sword positive calling a data company Palantir: sinister, but at least in a way that makes sense calling your home security company *Sauron*, a cartoonishly evil villain famously undone by poor threat monitoring: ???

Child me lived strategy games and the AoE series was a favourite, even if AoE3 didn’t live up to hype with its story. But kept playing Civ4 for years after, so THEN: AoE3 NOW: Civ4

This is a really positive intervention from the TUC

European leaders, especially Britain, seem to struggle with the idea that defence against Russia needs to be a collective effort and not a top-down "Defend the country or you're a traitor" approach. Publicly advocating for European independence from the US is an essential part in this.

this is the simple answer to people who keep saying NATO expansion matters. Sure, it matters because it presented an obstacle to Russian imperial ambitions. Putin didn't invade because he hated NATO expansion, he hated NATO expansion because he wanted to invade

Running in -6? After Wigilia? That was a good start to the day

Ok so it was ok, badly in need of an editor, the piece where a character breaks the fourth wall to explain what type of communist they are was genuinely quite poor and some of the writing was objectively bad but there were good scenes in it (the Ivan-Naomi meeting in Kildare). 3.5/5 book imo

At the time, Mass Effect 2, now, StarCraft 2 (the last Great RTS). I know I’m supposed to say New Vegas but I refuse

My Classical Greek teacher, during prose composition lessons:

We are all Guelphs now

Basic choice but it’s Skyrim, it was Skyrim and it will be Skyrim until TES6 actually comes out sometime in the next couple of decades

Moving out of Walthamstow soon enough, but couldn’t leave without doing a leaflet run for our hardworking Labour councillors, Miriam, Ahsan and Andy. The People’s Republic in the home of William Morris stands 🚩

Labour does so badly in this poll mainly because, as the tables show, they lose 29% of their 2024 vote to the Lib Dems and Greens. Only 8% goes to Reform, just ahead of the 6% to the Cons. Those Lab–Con switchers push the Tories over 20%, despite them losing a quarter of their 2024 vote to Reform.

„I misjudged the country I live in and campaigned for a project that has been an economic catastrophe on that basis” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... The Brexit implementation fiasco

In the apocalyptic rain, we executed a reallocation of our joint portfolio from cash towards real estate (bought a house!) 🏠

The Black Death led to a significant shift in power from feudal lords to Labour and yet on balance most would probably forgo that if it didn’t kill 50% of the population

To be very wife guy It Takes Two was an amazing co-op experience that led to us trying out more (like BG3 a year later!)

Giving Sally Rooney another go. I *hated* Normal People, so genuinely curious to see if Intermezzo changes my mind

Permit me to disagree with my friend Dov and say „some tanks, more attack helicopters and self-propelled artillery”, get a grip, buy („some tanks, also lots of attack helicopters and self propelled artillery”)

Every person using this line also used the “You just want to fight to the last Ukrainian” lie & is telling you they’re happy for Poles to die so they don’t have to think about how they’re not actually some cool kid at uni with the Che poster up anymore

If Russia can't steamroll into Riga or Tallinn, a big part of that is because the cream of it's army lies dead on the road to Kyiv

Not well understood really, that Ukrainians are dying for Europe's security. Enormous Russian casualties weren't an accident, it was unexpected (remarkable) Ukrainian resolve

“You are being ableist by making me obey the speed limit” this is the greatest website in the world.

This is what links, for instance, the Mail being upset about Poles leaving the country. Poland isn't 'supposed' to be a place you might legitimately prefer to live than Britain.

Few thoughts on the "Polish exodus" from the UK. 1. It's not an 'exodus', it's a slow drip. We're fine, thanks. 2. Migration is really complicated. 3. The absolute cheek of the very same media attacking Poles for years lamenting their departure. 4. What you can do? THREAD 🧵

the americanisation of the british right wing is just pathetic, like you can’t even be your own kind of wanker any more war on christmas (lol), bathroom bans (we don’t call them bathrooms here), DEI (we didn’t used to put those letters that way round), even 15-minute cities (what the actual fuck)

Harry Cole of Sun interviews Connor Tomlinson - who advocates banning ethnic minority MPs from parliament Tomlinson regrets sacrificing Suella Braverman but feels sure (on no evidence) she would sacrifice herself to remove the risk of Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel & Shabana Mahmood!

“You don’t owe anyone anything” has done apocalyptic damage to society

60,000 is the *low end* estimate.

But the good news is, by doing this, we defeated racism in the UK.

This is just insane and why Shamima Begum was such a bad precedent. It's possible to be a bad person and to be British in Britain! We need to stop offloading our responsibilities on other countries which these people often have nothing to do with, all for the sake of a cheap public-baiting headline.

Now, I know the point of change was the Hartlepool by-election but it is astonishing how much the PM’s team want to constantly signal they dislike their own supporters, mostly fuzzy pro-EU progressive liberals

"House of Commons Jerk Seasoning" is 1) an extremely funny concept and more importantly 2) a sign of a complete and total victory for cultural pluralism in a way that is kind of difficult to concieve

One of the best-sketched characters in an incredibly character-rich show: a fascist whose (potentially real!) redeeming qualities are continually undercut by his monumental pride, bigotry, entitlement and pettiness

I’m on balance pro decrim. My oldest friend died last year after inadequate methadrone provision in Poland because of strict criminalisation. I… struggle with the allies in this argument

No that’s toilet paper silly

Fashworth-Hayes now leading the charge in trying to convert the talking point from "people shouldn't have kids they can't afford" to "removing the two-child benefit cap is funding the great replacement" is a sign of things to come

One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. "Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay, A mortal thing so to immortalize;

Also known as "World War 2".

One of the things we need to actually RETVRN is a small c catholic Synodicon of Orthodoxy