Mark Kirby

Rebuild the Tuileries now! 😀

It would have been for "supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation", ridiculous though that seems.

and do what it can to strengthen our safeguards against the risk of future abuse.

We only have to look across the Atlantic at the dismantling of the rule of law by Donald Trump (Farage’s hero) to see how fragile many of our own constitutional safeguards are. This is deeply concerning and the government needs to bear this in mind in all that does in day to day affairs ...

but she did not even do that, nor was she even legally required to do so. She should be.
This is an extremely worrying situation for us to be in. ...

that neither Parliament nor the public is not entitled to know why the decision has been made. I would take some reassurance if the Home Secretary had at least shared the analysis with the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament ...

without any accountability on the part of the people who are advising ministers. In a scenario which is far from inconceivable, we have to ask ourselves whether we are prepared to accept a Farage government having that same power and being able to say, apparently legally, ...

There is a massive and dangerous constitutional point at issue here which goes beyond PA. While I appreciate that there may be confidential intelligence which has fed in to the Home Secretary's decision to classify PA as a terrorist organisation, we are being asked to take it entirely on trust ...

I repeat, I do not approve of the arrest of Palestine Action protesters. He was arrested for that - wrongly in my view. The police did not say to themselves, "People who have a copy of The New World must be arrested."

More generally, since you ask:

That's not a fair representation of what happened though, is it. I don't approve of arresting Palestine Action protesters, but the man wasn't arrested for having a copy of The New World. It is SO important that we on the Left are rigorously honest and that we don't behave like so many on the Right.

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

I'd recommend @anneapplebaum.bsky.social who writes for The Atlantic among other journals.

Do try to get in to the Lord Mayor's Chapel. Not always open, unfortunately.

This was a tremendous speech. All our politicians should read it.

Wow. Italians bringing Renaissance architecture to London in 1553. Must have seemed like something from outer-space in half-timbered London.

Highlight for me was @mcculloughp.bsky.social talking about the book of romantic poetry which Rector Fitzherbert Adams inscribed to an anonymous lady (just her initials) but seemingly never had the courage to give to her. Heart-breaking. The stuff of novels & movies.

Superb

A great man.

Hang on. I said I supported open access & information tailored to the general reader. All I'm saying is that we need science journals where researchers speak to each other at the cutting edge of technicality which lay-readers won't understand. Cochrane looks great but serves a different purpose.

Today I have become a pensioner! 😳

e.g. I have zero idea how this laptop I'm using works but I can benefit from the expertise of the many decades of technological advances which have made it possible.

Completely agree that the academics should find ways to communicate to the public. But scientific journals are not the right vehicle for that. I don't expect to be able to understand them because I have not spent decades studying the subject, but I celebrate those who have & am glad for what they do

So exhausting..

I'm completely in favour of open access journals but most scientific journals are (perfectly reasonably) incomprehensible to the lay-reader. Surely their function is not to disseminate information to the general public but to fellow scientists. A different vehicle is needed for public education.

Might be Richard III, whose badge was a white boar.

Even into the C19, European borders were primarily dynastic rather than those of the nation state. The concept of the nation state is indeed very very modern.

This entire thread is really superb. Not only have trade and colonialism contributed to this, but even in Europe mass migration of entire tribes and what we now think of as nations was common until at least 1000AD.

This is why we need digital ID cards. We can't have llamas going around like this, impersonating alapacas while clearly seeking benefits.

"Nigel Farage has refused to rule out a link between paracetamol and autism" is the lead item on LBC News.

Why?

Why?

He's not a doctor, he's not an expert, he's not a Minister, he's not the PM, he's not the opposition. Why is his bullshit the most important item on the news?

Why?