'We look on past ages with condescension, as a mere preparation for us... but what if we’re only an after-glow of them?' - JG Farrell. I block anti-Semites.

Joined October 2020
West End Girl retweeted
Watching the penny very slowly drop at The Economist is always a pleasure.
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West End Girl retweeted
Halloween artificial cobweb material: It may be a bit of fake fun for you, but it's a very real and terrifying death for them. And it's not only birds. Last year I had my first call of the season of a hedgehog trapped in this horrific fake 'cobweb', made especially for gullible halloweeners to spread over their greenery, trapping all unsuspecting birds, insects and mammals, including hedgehogs. The fine synthetic fibers are difficult for animals to see and can quickly wrap around their legs, spines, and neck, leading to severe injuries. When a hedgehog struggles to free herself the web tightens, cutting off circulation and causing deep wounds. These constriction injuries often lead to permanent damage or death. Unfortunately the call was from Manchester, so all I could do was talk them through getting the poor creature to a rescue. Clearly she had been trapped there for at least one night, and her struggles had pulled the strong nylon strands so tightly that one of her toes had been amputated. Can you imagine the pain and the sheer terror? And then seeing dawn approach, while hanging there, tightly bound and helpless. Aside from being stressed, dehydrated, starving and exhausted to the point of near death, she also had horrific bite/peck wounds to her face, where she had been held there, helpless, unable to curl and defend herself, while a predator tried to eat her alive. If you have used this deadly cruel trap to 'decorate' your garden, please take it down now. Please don't be conned by the greedy makers and sellers of this rubbish into hurting defenceless animals.
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West End Girl retweeted
A superb interview by @RolandOliphant of @Telegraph of the most impressive, impactful, authentic and respected Director Special Forces of my time.
One of the greatest officers ever to serve in the @BritishArmy. His approach to #leadership was unorthodox but highly successful. The stories about him are the stuff of legend. Interview courtesy of @Telegraph
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Good night with Annie Girardot in Vivre pour vivre 1967 Directed by Claude Lellouch With Yves Montand
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West End Girl retweeted
I'd love to ask whoever wrote this article, how many additional sex crimes that otherwise wouldn't have happened in Britain, how many additional victims, are a fair or worthwhile trade off for whatever benefit it is we're supposed to get by accepting people from these countries?
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West End Girl retweeted
Just what is the point? What is the point of being law abiding, maintaining our part of the social contract?
EXC: by @Mollie_Malone1 🥶Sky News has revealed the Metropolitan Police is reducing enforcement of offenders who breach their tag conditions amid resourcing pressures and following early prisoner release. Under a pilot scheme that we disclose details of today, and running until the spring, officers will not act on breaches of police curfews or tag batteries of under an hour, unless the person wearing the tag is considered to be of particular risk to the public. The country's largest police force has been clear in its instruction to officers that these types of breach notifications are still to be reviewed, *but will only progress to potential arrest in cases where there are risk or safeguarding concerns.* Read Mollie’s story in full: Police to reduce enforcement of minor tag breaches, Sky News understands news.sky.com/share/13603365
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West End Girl retweeted
Laura Knight mentions this portrait of her from 1897 in her memoirs. Her husband Harold, had returned from Paris after weeks away. 'My hair was done in a new French style that Harold fancied and I posed for a portrait of head and shoulders. How mystical I look.'
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She doesn't have a plummy accent. She's a well-to-do middle class girl, for sure. But she's a pretty standard issue of the professional classes. The way Palestinianism - and commie politics - has become socially high status for girls like this is really incredible.
British pro-Pal Chloe says that the Palestinian flag represents “freedom from capitalism, imperialism and colonialism” from her nice house in London. In her plummy accent she claims to be like the “workers” in Palestine. I honestly don’t get these people.
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Looking back on my youth, I realise a very healthy part of mixing with young men is that that would make fun of you. Cruelly, sometimes, the ways boys do. But a useful corrective when you were talking bollocks. I guess that doesn't happen anymore because they'd be shamed/arrested
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A lost part of British culture - but it was a very valuable one, I realise now - was being told to shut up.
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Two things I recommend reading/listening to on the French situation are an article by Julian Jackson and the podcast with @murielzagha. Interesting and informed perspectives on France. You can find both here engelsbergideas.com/
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West End Girl retweeted
A wander through Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Only joking; it’s London. Formerly London, England.
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West End Girl retweeted
Reactionary colonels in the Home Counties who wrote to the newspapers half a century ago warning that the Labour Party were a bunch of lunatic Communists who would ruin the country are some of the most vindicated people in history.
🚨NEW: HMRC's letter to wealthy Britons demanding detailed information about their financial arrangements has been revealed
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West End Girl retweeted
It certainly comes across as a 'exploitative' relationship to me. Nobody wants a 'relationship' with any of these people. Pay what is due under the tax law no more and no less and get out of our lives. It reads like a scam letter to engage in an open ended fishing exercise. Really intrusive, passive-aggressive wording with an air of the presumption that you've automatically done something wrong by virtue of being rich..
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It's a certain type of person clutching at straws - or false idols - as the tsunami becomes visible on the horizon.
Stupid or malign. I am not sure.
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West End Girl retweeted
I'll say it again and again: the system isn't breaking. It's broken. This is potemkin criminal justice.
EXC: by @Mollie_Malone1 🥶Sky News has revealed the Metropolitan Police is reducing enforcement of offenders who breach their tag conditions amid resourcing pressures and following early prisoner release. Under a pilot scheme that we disclose details of today, and running until the spring, officers will not act on breaches of police curfews or tag batteries of under an hour, unless the person wearing the tag is considered to be of particular risk to the public. The country's largest police force has been clear in its instruction to officers that these types of breach notifications are still to be reviewed, *but will only progress to potential arrest in cases where there are risk or safeguarding concerns.* Read Mollie’s story in full: Police to reduce enforcement of minor tag breaches, Sky News understands news.sky.com/share/13603365
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I think AI is going to make our exposure to news a lot, lot worse. I think it's going to ruin proper newsgathering, which has already taken such a hit with the loss of local newsrooms. Of course, I don't know what I'm talking about. But these are my early impressions.
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West End Girl retweeted
They are preparing us for the grid collapse they themselves caused, while blaming it on the Russians and the weather
The UK government has advised every citizen to keep emergency supplies of water and long-life food, in order to improve the country's resilience in the face of increasing threats. Ministers said households should aim to have enough basic supplies to last 72 hours - in case of extreme weather, technological breakdown - or the possibility of "state-sponsored terrorism" by Russia or other hostile powers targeting the UK's infrastructure.
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Polling in France on the riots and looting taking place across the country. 61% of French people believe that they will have to protect themselves by their own means, because the police are no longer able to protect the population Elabe polling. elabe.fr/manifestations-17-o…
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You can count the ways this could go badly wrong. (It’s taken me four years to finally get the council to recognise that it owed me money due to errors on its billing, not the other way round. A billion emails, complaints and legal threats (from them) later. So much time, worry
🚨 BREAKING: John Healey will announce at the Budget that HMRC will be given powers to seize money directly from the bank accounts of people who fail to pay their tax
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AI will make this worse, not better ( in short term) , I predict, because people have a religious faith in it. Given other economic threats coming down line, other half and I often discuss the prudence of spending spare cash now on useful things.
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