James Hawes

„Wir sind hier in Deutschland. Ich rede gerade, bitte Maul halten.“

Hätte Cem Özdemir das als Wahlkampfslogan verwendet, hätte er bestimmt noch mehr Stimmen geholt.

monocle.com/affairs/plan...

Just remarkable how easy it is to build a career as a thought leader on the right if you're capable of speaking in full sentences while smirking.

In den letzten zehn Jahren (Abschied Merkel, COVID, Ukraine-Krieg, Wärmepumpe, Trump+Musk) hat die CDU in B-W volle 0,4% eingebüßt, während die AfD knapp 3,7% gepunktet hat.

Ende.

Just a reminder it’s been two days since reports came out, later acknowledged by Trump and his Administration, that Russia has been helping Iran to try and kill US military personnel.

And the Trump response so far has been...drum roll please...to reduce sanctions on Russia!

Cor, sure would feel great right now if we were self-sufficient in renewable energy, and laughing at all the rubes reliant on global oil supplies. We'd have a bit of a swagger in our step today.

Natürlich gibt es AfD-Wähler auch im Westen.

In keinem westlichen Staat aber hat die AfD auch die geringste Aussicht, je in die Regierung einzutreten.

Das ist und bleibt der große Unterschied.

D.h., ihr Ergebnis 2021

Verglichen aber mit dem Ergebnis 2016 ist die AfD nur um 3.7 % gestiegen.

Nice of Trump to provide more material for Democratic campaign ads in Hispanic districts

If you’ve ever excavated human remains from any period from the bronze age to the 19th century, you will have been stunned by the number of hideous dental abscesses which must’ve destroyed peoples faces (or indeed killed them)

I awake with a slight hangover after the Dublin launch yesterday to find…

Never mind congestion charging, the cheapest, most effective means of curbing car traffic and improving the quality of towns and cities is to remove parking.

“Brittish” (sic) as an address to a supposed ethno-national group was first used in James I’s instructions to Ulster “undertakers”.

Since there was no such country then, and nobody called themselves that, this “identity” meant only “settlers in Ulster loyal to (and paying to) the Crown”. See:

Stunning images of Edinburgh in 1700s recreated by AI give peek back in time The stunning technology shows Auld Reekie in the 1700s when the city was surrounded by open fields and had a loch in its centre.

History in the age of ai: "F*ck it, we're just gonna make it all up from now on."

All relief flights from Dubai should be met at arrivals with signs saying "HM Revenue & Customs welcomes you back to the UK"

Honestly the collective national level of disdain for Brits living in Dubai on all my social media platforms today really is bringing the UK together as one in a way that's hard to achieve in the modern era.

Stokesay Castle

Probably my favourite view of Stokesay Castle, I like how it sits among the fields. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word stoches, meaning cattle farm. You can start a walk from the Discovery Centre taking in the castle, Stoke Wood and Sallow Coppice. A good way to spend the day. #Shropshire

Blaues Plakat + buntes Gegenplakat: dein Auto würde uns wählen ... Es hat ja auch kein Hirn

Wunderbare Gegenplakatierungen, eben zugesandt bekommen:

Moving house so clearing out stuff

Stumbled across David Goodhart’s last issue as editor of Prospect.

This jumped out:

‘Britain is a better place in 2010 than 1997 and market-friendly social democracy remains the best big, albeit baggy, idea’

Hard to imagine Goodhart writing this today….

Let me guess, wealthy people who moved to Dubai to avoid paying taxes now want the countries they moved from to protect them?

Imagine devoting your entire career to selling the idea that the British public hates wokery and is clamouring for radical right wing populism, only to then be defeated in an actual election by the most left wing possible coalition of politicians and activists in the country.

It's got to hurt

She saw off Reform's sneering elitist academic.

Follow the money

“the beginning of the end for our liberal democracy” is straight out of the Peter Thiel’s Little Red Book

The bookies, however, got it spot on

You are on the guest list.

If you’d like to come to the London launch on 9 March, do let me know and I’ll put you on the guest list. We should meet at last!

Damn, I wish I’d known that George V quote before I finished my book!

Very proud to be quoted in this excellent article. I had no idea that George V said that England should’ve accepted Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill!