Richard Awkward

Quintuple Agent. It's a biography of an Englishwoman who lived through it.

Overcoming the urge to include it all, to prove that you really did the legwork, and thus render the whole thing unreadable, is super tough. Too tough for me, so far, in fact.

I guess that's what second (and third, and...) drafts are for.

Ah, man. I needed a laugh, so thank you.

Right. Well since I made it clear *at the very start* that I was talking about 1948, I think we can leave this pointless exercise here.

You may be listening, but you're not reading. Go back to the top and try again.

In what way was fascism viable in Romania in 1948?

Stalinism and fascism weren't the only two things on the menu, you know.

You are as wrong as you are patronising.

You are the sort of person who fatally undermines the causes you claim to support.

Oh, God. Not for ages. Years. It's a big subject and a part-time project.

How about the death toll of the Holodomor and the purges? Whose fault were they?

They didn't hang him, they shot him.

That's complicated. They were the only Axis-aligned state to build their own death camps, but they reserved the worst of their treatment for Bessarabian Jews. Those from 'The Old Kingdom' had a higher survival rate than anywhere else, although their suffering was still terrible.

You seem not to be aware that there was more than one war crimes trial.

You are the Dunning-Kruger effect in full effect and I am not wasting any more of my time on you.

Clearly you know a great deal about the Communist takeover of Romania.

Different oppressors, same tactics.

Maybe you should be reading a few more books, my friend.

I'm writing a book about the Communist takeover in Romania in the 1940s and 1950s.

What's going on in Chicago in 2025 is indistinguishable from what was happening in Bucharest in 1948.

I was actually predicting it before the '24 election, but at the time I thought that he would have already done it by now.

Yeah, but when it happens I want to be able to prove it when I say "I told you so" rather than just claiming to be wise after the event.

Prediction: within the next 12 months Trump will declare a State of Emergency in the USA. The Constitution will be suspended and the 2026 November mid-term elections will not go ahead.

This is the state of affairs that led to Chernobyl.

More to the point, why was Boys of Summer ever out of the charts?

Starmer's approach to communication is the same as Boris Johnson's: tell the people who are present with you what you think they want to hear, regardless of truth, practicality or consistency. I've reluctantly concluded that he's entirely devious.

Kemi Badenoch mistakenly says NI voted in favour of Brexit In a BBC NI interview, the Tory leader said the

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

She is so incredibly stupid.

And she just won't stop talking.

Pete Hegseth has strong "embittered former Corporal" energy.

I wonder if he ever dabbled in watercolours.

I've been thinking that Hegseth has strong "embittered former Corporal" energy.

I wonder if he ever dabbled in watercolours.

How weird that this should have disappeared from the Telegraph archive...

Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

These utter bastards.

Just for once could the Labour Party not be an absolute fucking disgrace. You know; just once.

They only got elected because everybody was sick of utter bastards being in charge.

These are no longer steps towards authoritarianism.

They are manifestations of the authoritarianism already arrived at.

Can supermarkets please stop making their posh mince pies with all-butter pastry. It may sound more luxurious and high-end but it is not better. Shortcrust pastry should be 50/50 butter and marge. All-butter pastry has no structural integrity and it just falls to pieces.

#TheBigIssueOfTheDay