Thames House Books @ThamesBooks

I’m a firm supporter of public broadcasting and so I have welcomed the adverts the BBC has produced to show the range of quality television it produces on the basis of its funding via the license fee. I have to say though that the best way of securing an increase in the license fee would be to send Natalie Haynes out on tour. Her “Stand Up for the Classic” series is uniquely fascinating, informative, witty and seriously funny. This programne is one from an earlier series and I’ve chosen it because I am an admirer of Cicero. When I was Shadow Chancellor I gave each one of my ministerial team a copy of the writings of Cicero on how to win an argument. We might not have won every argument as a result but it at least made the speeches more entertaining. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0…

@100Northern And try to persuade @elonmusk to allow use of the flag in X bios etc! It is unacceptable for X to have an institutionalised bias against Northern Ireland.

Five Days of Europe - Sign the Petition! c.org/XTbWR6Vv7W via @UKChange

Russian tyranny is not welcome on British soil, and the British people won't stand for it. We have stood united with Ukraine and their fight for their sovereignty and our security. Allowing Russian war criminals into Britain for the G20 would be an insult to all those who have fought and died in Ukraine. Burnham should finally stand up for the British people: Moscow is not welcome until they end their barbaric and illegal invasion of Ukraine. dailymail.com/news/article-1…

It’s really hard for someone like Mélenchon, Le Pen, or Weidel to understand that Ukrainians will not die in silence without fighting back. These traitors will do mental gymnastics to explain any Russian move as retaliation, yet they never apply that same logic to Ukraine

French Aid to Europe 🇨🇵 🇪🇺 @aidefranceukr

4 weeks ago

Jean-Luc Mélenchon blames Ukraine for the continued escalation of the war by attacking Moscow.

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What particularly amuses me sometimes is how often Putin is portrayed as some dark genius of the old Soviet KGB school, with people trying to analyze and second-guess his elaborate, multilayered plans, tactics, and strategies, as though he were some grandmaster of international espionage who has never lost his touch. When, in reality, Putin was just a faceless Soviet bureaucrat stationed in Dresden who, in the early 1990s, soon became a functionary of the mafia running St. Petersburg City Hall, responsible for feeding bullshit to foreign businessmen looking to invest in their city.

Happy 52nd Birthday to Ceefax. We’ll never forget that feeling of running home from school, then furiously tapping in p302 on the remote for your latest football news. Simpler times.

You could say Mark Wood should have slowed down. Maybe he should have. Three ankle operations before he was 27 would have convinced most bowlers to settle for 85 mph. He went looking for more. You could say the longer run-up was madness. Every fast bowler past 30 is told to shorten it. Fair enough. But he added yards instead, and at 34 he bowled 97.1 mph at Trent Bridge, the fastest Test over any Englishman has bowled at home. You could say he was never fit enough to matter. Maybe. But in 2023 England were 2-0 down in the Ashes when he arrived, and 14 wickets at 20.21 later it was 2-2. You could say he would have lasted longer at a gentler pace. He probably would have. But then he would not have been Mark Wood. Elbow stress. Knee surgery. Fifteen months out. Eleven overs at Perth, and that was the end. It all came at a cost. He paid it every time, and never once bowled a ball slower. Thank you, Woody.

Three greats ... Jack Hobbs, Lord Harris and Herbert Sutcliffe at Scarborough, September 9th 1931. Hobbs and Sutcliffe both scored hundreds for HDG Leveson-Gower's XI v New Zealanders. Harris died the following March aged 81

The feed is now almost entirely made up of the dumbest Russia-bootlicking bad takes imaginable, each with about 12 likes, but Elmo’s wonderful algorithm somehow feels the need to shove them all down our throats.

Says the MP living in a fictional world.

this is such an awful take. Patronising. Defeatist (referring to CEE pols as "war-mongering minions". Incredible Hulk. But Russia is not the Hulk. It's so much weaker than us

UnHerd @unherd

2 months ago

The case for de-escalation with Russia, by Wolfgang Munchau (@EuroBriefing) The reason why a war with Russia is so dangerous is the presence of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Russia has an estimated total inventory of over 5,400 nuclear warheads. France has 290 and

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❗️Jeden Hansel, der mir mit „Wer hat damit angefangen?“ oder „Die Ukraine hat zuerst zivile Objekte attackiert“ kommt, blockiere ich umgehend. 🚨Russland verwüstet seit fast fünf Jahren systematisch zivile Objekte in der Ukraine und macht ganze Städte dem Erdboden gleich. Mariinka⤵️. Drei Jahre vor dem ersten ukrainischen Deep Strike. Lasst euch ein Hirn wachsen, ihr Leuchten.🤦‍♂️

"Die AfD hat ein Personalproblem. Vielen ihrer Spitzenleute mangelt es an Erfahrung, Charisma und Redlichkeit. Das zieht sich durch – von Tillschneider bis ganz oben. So fiel der Parteichefin Alice Weidel im ZDF-Sommerinterview nichts Besseres ein, als deutsche Regierungspolitiker mit dem Begriff «Flachzangen» zu verunglimpfen. Stattdessen hätte sie sich einfach als vernünftige bürgerliche Alternative präsentieren können; zur vermurksten Zwangsheirat von CDU, CSU und SPD. Schwerer ins Gewicht fällt der Russland-Irrweg der AfD. Auch nach dem russischen Überfall auf die Ukraine ebbte ihre Putin-Sympathie nicht ab. Die Ukraine führt einen heroischen Abwehrkampf gegen einen verrückt gewordenen Feind. Das Feuer für diesen Kampf zieht sie aus einem glühenden Patriotismus. Die AfD sieht sich als patriotische Kraft. Es bleibt ein Rätsel, warum sie nicht auf der Seite derer steht, die einfach nur ihr Land schützen wollen."

The danger to batsmen before helmets came in cannot be understated, nor can the courage needed to face fast bowling ... Dennis Amiss just avoids a bouncer during the 3rd Prudential ODI between England and West Indies, Birmingham, August 31st 1976 (Patrick Eagar)

AfD-Heinis, wenn russisches Eigentum in der Ostsee, weit jenseits der deutschen AWZ, attackiert wird: „Das ist ein Angriff auf uns, da müssen wir sofort zurückschlagen!“ AfD-Heinis, wenn ukrainisches Eigentum in Leipzig, im Herzen Deutschlands, angegriffen wird: „Das ist ein Angriff auf die Ukraine, da müssen wir doch nicht reagieren.“ Es gibt nicht genug 🤡 Smileys für diese Leute …

Let me recommend a test for every time someone says they know what will make Russia stop the war. Is it bullshit or not? This test works flawlessly, 100% of the time. Ask yourself: “Do I like this because it seems like an easy, simple solution to an immensely difficult problem -- a silver bullet, a free and convenient "black swan," a deliverance from above?” If the answer is yes, it is bullshit. It will stop neither Putin nor fascist Russia and its aggressive war to destroy Ukraine and crush the free world. This applies to all the rubbish about "Russians will rise up against Putin," "the elites will revolt," "a good Russian oligarch will change Russia," "Putin will be frightened by the prospect of a long confrontation with the West," "life in Moscow will become uncomfortable and Russians will want peace," or "Trump will pressure him and offer him a lucrative business deal." And at the opposite end of the moral spectrum, it will not help to buy Putin off by betraying Ukraine and feeding it to him. Very soon, his tirades about "fake countries run by Nazis" will be directed at the next victims, along with the familiar cries: "Yes, it’s bad, but that country has historically been in Moscow’s sphere of influence, we can’t start World War III," and "They provoked Putin simply by existing." Because the only real way to stop the war is to fully deprive the Kremlin of the ability to wage it --economically, financially, technologically, and militarily. There are no other ways. Like it or not, the majority of Russia’s population, poisoned by decades of chauvinistic great-power propaganda, in one way or another, actively or passively, silently or openly, supports this insane war to destroy Ukraine. And the threshold of what the Kremlin can do to its own population, and how much hardship it can impose on it in the name of war, is far, far higher than many Russophile experts imagine (whose knowledge of Russia begins and ends with Moscow inside the Garden Ring).

100% true by @sikorskiradek: When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the West did a lot to support Russia. Unlike Germany after Versailles, Russia wnas't paying anything - instead, it received a huge amount of help, directly and indirectly. It was Russia that choose not to cooperate.

The Economist @TheEconomist

2 months ago

Fear of Vladimir Putin going fully rogue has paralysed the West for long enough, writes Radek Sikorski economist.com/by-invitation/…

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Sooner or later, we will have to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. Russia is unwilling to end its aggression. As the war becomes for Ukraine increasingly costly (more than 150 billion euros per year), we need to act if we genuinely want to restore a just and lasting peace in Europe. Let’s make that decision sooner rather than later.

NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @NOELreports

2 months ago

❗️Belgium is refusing to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine despite a renewed push from Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain. "This is non-negotiable, the door is closed," Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said. Most of the roughly €200 billion in immobilized

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I love it that in January 1794, the Jacobin Club spent 3 weeks debating a most congenial theme proposed by Robespierre: "The crimes of the English government & the vices of the British constitution." x.com/Marikacobbold/…

Marika Cobbold @Marikacobbold

2 months ago

Some very funny comments from French accounts on an article in Le Figaro (see previous tweet) about Putin stating that England is Russia's eternal and no 1 enemy. "How very dare he? The filthy English are our filthy English and don't you dare to muscle in ... " etc. etc.

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