Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? Wherein villainous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?
Joined July 2017
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Masterfully retaining his rank as the world’s most tiresome pedant, if he’s going to correct others on Simon Heffer’s peerage, @oliverkamm might like to note that he was in fact ennobled as Lord Blackwater.
Another 30 second passage through Heathrow immigration - for UK, US, EU, Swiss, CANZAUS, Japanese and S Korean citizens alike. I will never understand why the militant rejoiners blame our Government for the chaos at many Continental airports rather than theirs.
Despite being a peaceable soul, every time I pass the dynamited remains of Didcot power station (about 3 times a week), I have the fairly strong feeling we should hang the politicians who authorised it. Mad.
Brilliant piece by @afneil. Like @EdConwaySky’s recent article for the New Statesman, it gets to the heart of Britain’s growing strategic vulnerability.
The truth is that ministers are reluctant to promote the Be Ready campaign because doing so means confronting the consequences of decades of terrible political decisions based on wildly optimistic assumptions about international stability.
Nowhere is this failure of statecraft more apparent than in energy and defence policy. Prematurely phasing out coal, restricting domestic oil and gas production (onshore and offshore), placing too much faith in weather-dependent renewables, and increasing our reliance on China.
We are a maritime nation that has hollowed out its navy and forgotten the basic principles of British strategy that served the basis of our prosperity and security.
This is not just a Labour problem. It impacts all parties, including Reform. Successive governments have made Britain more vulnerable to the very disruptions they are now asking households to prepare for.
I would very much suggest listening to Gates on this. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a visionary who, unlike the owner of this site, saves lives. He is also calm and clear thinking. The fact he sounds genuinely scared about the impact of AI on public safety in the immediate future tells you why HMG is asking us to stockpile.
AI is the most profound technology I’ve seen, both in its ability to help people and to disrupt their lives. I’m optimistic about the good it can do, but we need to take its risks seriously. b-gat.es/4zLk2T3
Just been to the lovely Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens. The most lavish hotels in many other cities are named after places or people connected to the UK - the Bristols of Paris and Vienna for example. Let’s hope that to future generations (if there are any) these aren’t essentially “Hotel Carthage”.
Food for Crow
Court of Appeal “astonished” by £2m brief fee for four-day case zurl.co/3uEPw
I think the ethics of displaying dead humans are far more challenging than many people grant. But, all the same, stories like this do show that museums are far too important a business to be left to curators.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum has removed Egyptian mummies from display because there was no 'informed consent from the deceased individual'👇
mol.im/a/16227743
#Exclusive #Scotland #Glasgow #Museums #EgyptianMummies #Woke @MailOnlineScot
Herakleidon Museum of ancient technology, Athens.
Facsimile of an ancient water clock made to time the permissible length of speeches in court.
Further comment superfluous.
Kerameikos cemetery, Athens. Man boobs of the ancient world. (Absurd flippancy at a lovely - and uncrowded - little museum. Plus archaeological park with an excellent wild tortoise population.)
“You should ask me whether I have any message for the British public. I have. It is this: Might must find a way. Not ‘Force’ remember; other nations use ‘force’; we Britons alone use ‘Might’…”
Those were the days.
My favourite thing is that the poor EU doesn’t even get to have a savage animal. Presumably they couldn’t agree which to adopt. Nominations?
Assuming the Supreme Court appeal doesn’t change things, it will be good when the inevitable retrial in R v Benjamin Field puts this to bed. If a brilliant TV drama depicting you as one of the most wicked men in history doesn’t prevent a fair trial, then endless policing of journalism and public discussion can surely stop.
Another closet leaver. We all know the correct figure is £90 *quintillion* in lost tax revenue thanks to Brexit. And that’s not annually. Every single day.
Brexit cost an estimated £90 billion in lost tax revenue in 2025 alone. That money could have eased the tax burden on working people and funded our NHS and public services.
I welcome the Prime Minister’s opening to Europe, but he must go further. Rejoining the single market and a customs union would bring growth and prosperity back to Britain.
With war in Europe and an unpredictable White House, our security also depends on standing with our closest neighbours - cross-border problems need cross-border solutions.
This is why I have regarded Geoffrey Vos as a villain since seeing his absurd, martinetish bulllying of a court transcriber.
Judge celebrated people on how they treat those who have no power over them. From a @thetimes reader.
