Fred Maynard

I think a lot about the example of the 1949 CDU in West Germany, because it shows you can re-establish a party of the centre right that, while it will probably have an objectionable number of fascists from the former regime, will at least be a responsible player in a democracy

mfw Liz Truss has been round for tea

I can't hear the people sing I will ignore the burning car I have just spent thirteen euros On this glass of pinot noir

As with Little Britain, I often wonder what the mix was between kids liking Ali G for the racism and kids just loving a catchphrase

Could someone tell Ezra Klein there are subjects other than AI

I don’t think I previously grasped just how much some people hate writing in the same way I used to hate maths at school. This is a genuinely useful insight the rise of AI has provided!

“If the wife is fit, you must acquit”

leftfootforward.org/2026/10/will... It is probably a good idea for more people to read this interview with the proposers of that Green Party motion, which makes clear that they have no idea what they're doing (or more worryingly that they do)

Re the global right wing surge, occasionally people will try to explain it by saying something along the lines of "the world is getting more unsettled / violent / poor" and just empirically the opposite is the case on just about every measure

All the magic bullet explanations of the global right wing surge, from "austerity" to "immigration" to "woke", fail to cope with the fact this is happening in Japan, Brazil, South Korea, and India. "It's The Phones" remains, alas, undefeated.

Shakespeare's Iago is all very well but Verdi gives him a proper villain song where he gets to explain why he's bad: God made us in His image, and God is a Bastard

*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan!

Just Because We've Spent The Last Hundred Years Saying It Is A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism Doesn't Mean This Time It Might Not Actually Be A Choice Between Socialism Or Barbarism

Bin Laden was not an evil mastermind nor Inevitable Blowback from the War on the Global South, he was just another guy with too much money who doesn't understand how anything works

Not an original thought but loads of great works have plots that are absolute bobbins, the Ring Cycle is an incomprehensible mess but it will never detract from Wotan saying farewell to his daughter hitting like a ton of bricks

My underlying belief about US presidential elections is you can't win unless you have a solid theory of why unengaged idiots would vote for you, (eg idiots voted for Obama because he was like an inspiring character from the movies) and I don't think Harris had that theory

In most adaptations the priest and the Levite are presented as bad and then the Samaritan is this kind of good person. It was our goal to make sure there's much more of a grey area so you can see the logic of passing by on the other side.

Has anyone just *enjoyed* performing as much as Tim Curry did? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzq...

The great thing about Jolene is that it might well be the only country song you had ever heard, but it beckoned to a genre beyond full of sadness and longing and despair and hope. Truly one of the all time great ambassadorial songs.

If engaging online with people who disagree made for a better, more enlightened public sphere the last 20 years should have led to the bestest most enlightened public sphere we've ever had

Universities should regain sight of their original purpose: training up priests for the Church of England

That the moon and sun are the same size from our perspective is so mind-bogglingly unlikely as to make a good case for the existence of God. Except why would a monotheistic God actively encourage worship of the sun and moon?

A weapons system with one confirmed kill in 800 years? With a record like that it's a wonder MoD procurement haven't come knocking

This is a very funny example to use given that just objectively Beyonce is from a higher social class than Jay-Z

My take is that James Bond is in fact a machine for churning out clickbait whose relentless effectiveness is mysteriously out of proportion with the actual popularity of James Bond

Distressing how much of using Microsoft Office these days involves googling "how to disable feature x" first

The thing I hate about the argument that "things were better in the old days" is... sure ok. What do you want me to do with that information. What policies do you favour that would change Things.

Of all the prominent socialists of the time (Gramsci, Kautsky, Jaures etc) it was extremely bad luck for the left that they wound up with the most personally unlikeable one to try and build a cult of personality around

Right wing parties could face the nightmare squeeze where just enough Tories lend their votes to a "stop Reform" candidate while just enough Reform voters get the ick at the last minute, leading to extremely inefficient voting

Something I found very annoying in the social media of the Corbyn years was when criticism was met with with "👉👈 🥺 he just wants orphans not to starve"

"My lord, the throne itself is within your grasp if you would but heed my strategem"

Reviewing Hollywood movies when you don't like Hollywood