Christopher Silver

Can all the folk who just got reminded that they’ve listened to a tonne of music on streaming this year, have a look at the music they heard and buy some on bandcamp today? 🫡🙏🏼

Lepanto LEPANTO

I'm not really starting a substack, I don't think. But 1 of the best things that happened to me this year was being shortlisted for the Anne Brown essay prize. The essay was on my great aunt, her house & her remarkable siblings. You can read it here, if you like. danigaravelli.substack.com/p/lepanto

Chamber and committees Question reference: S60-05245 Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour Date lodged: 26 November 2025 Current status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2025 Question To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Centre for Cities' recent report, which recommended having a directly elected Metro Mayor for the Greater Glasgow region.

“asking for a friend”

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

Sad to hear that Perth & Kinross Council has decided not to retain the William Soutar House. Family don't want it and so it is being sold. This is where the bed-bound Soutar wrote much of his poetry and his diaries. A blow to Scotland's cultural heritage.

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We can forget about Thatcher by just looking around us.

‘Nousferatu’: the notorious consultancy advising Edinburgh uni amid 'huge' cuts Scotland’s largest university has turned to Nous Group at the same time as it is making savings that could lead to nearly 2,000 job losses. Staff say they were misled about the extent of its work.

No matter how tough you say times are, there’s always enough money in the banana stand to pay an external consultant to scope ‘academic efficiency opportunities’ www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

Like we’re all clear this is as dangerous as it is farcical right

Civilisations: Rise and Fall review – TV that will make you despair for our own plummeting society The mightily stressful and incredibly close-to-the-bone BBC show traces the demise of four ancient worlds – and it’s wildly prescient stuff. Will we never learn?

They sure missed a trick not having any twinks in the Kenneth Clark version

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC Radio 4 - Currently, If at First You Don’t Secede If at first you don’t secede, should you really try, try, try again?

If At First You Don't Secede, a Radio 4 documentary by @danigaravelli.bsky.social, offers a useful catch-up on where the Scottish independence movement is at, how it got there, and considers where – if anywhere – it might go in future.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Tweet from Homeland Security (@DHSgov) 20th November 2025: “Rent is too high!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “Groceries cost too much!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “There aren’t enough jobs!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “Women don’t feel safe walking down the street!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “Traffic is terrible!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “Healthcare is too expensive!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “Welfare spending is through the roof!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “I can’t afford a car!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. “I can’t afford a house!” There are tens of millions of criminal illegals in our country. Many problems. A simple answer.

When people in power are telling you there's a simple answer to all your problems and it involves attacking a specific group of people, that's fascism.

*Fash grifter points at immaculate new conservatory that obscures original building*

“Well done lads, we’ve really shifted the Overton window here”

We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.

‘I never wanted to sing into a vacuum’: Scottish folk pioneer Dick Gaughan’s fight for his lost music A skilled interpreter and social justice champion, Gaughan is a hero to the likes of Richard Hawley and Billy Bragg. Yet much of his work has been stuck in limbo for decades – until a determined fan s...

Please read, listen, and share widely. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

The BBC Scotland commentary for Kenny McLean’s halfway line goal is glorious. Stuff of dreams. 🔥

Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.

Everything in the end comes back to 'there is no vision for what they want to achieve', because when you have a vision, you can form tactical alliances with Chris Mullin or Dennis Skinner or Clare Short or Peter Kilfoyle or Kate Hoey. But when you don't, you can't.

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

Thinking about my own father, who arrived in 1946 with the Free Polish Army - when would Labour have sent him back to communist Poland? How could he have done anything to build a life and have children in the UK if he had had to beg to stay every two years? Disgusting. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Yesterday in Parliament I said that the government should leave X.

The value of reading history is you know that in 1860 there were abolitionists who were so demoralized that they thought chattel slavery would be permanent. 5 years later those still alive had lived to see its end.

Abolish the BBC? The real crisis for the broadcaster is the rise of US-based digital media and the growing need for a democratic media

"As is traditional, the current scandal is not being driven by public indignation or concern… If you want to kick off a scandal at the BBC you still really need to own a newspaper, or a television channel."

Dan Hind:

abolishwestminster.substack.com/p/abolish-th...

A striking black, red, and white poster for the event, featuring a black-and-white portrait photograph of John Maclean, aged around 40. He looks directly at us, a clean-shaven man wearing a jacket, shirt and tie, with a Homburg-style hat on his head. His right arm is raised, one finger extended, to make an emphatic point. JOHN MACLEAN: ALL THAT LIFE CAN GIVE US. A TALK BY HENRY BELL Archives and Special Collections and the Creative Histories Research Group present a talk and poetry reading with award-winning author Henry Bell on Scottish socialist John Maclean WEDNESDAY 19th NOVEMBER UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SYMPOSIUM JISC HUB LEVEL 3, 3-4PM POETRY READING LEVEL 2, 4-5PM REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED

John Maclean: All that life can give us
19 Nov, University of Stirling – free

Author & poet Henry Bell will discuss his creative & historical work around Scottish socialist John Maclean (1879–1923), followed by an open archive & poetry reading

One way of telling the political story of the last ten years is of three wasted overall majorities.

A substantive majority in the Commons for a full term is the greatest prize the UK constitution can bestow on a PM, and three times in a row, it has been wasted by those prize-winners.

Ha! Knew it was one of the two!

Is that Leith on the cover?

Reform and their enablers aren’t simply out to destroy public institutions like the BBC. They truly seek an entirely transformed, far narrower, definition of the British public. We need to create decentralised institutional structures that can resist this.

‘Enforced veganism’: Ofcom lets GB News flout accuracy rules, say climate campaigners Exclusive: Regulator has received 1,221 complaints about UK broadcasters since 2020 but found no breaches of its code

Incredible that Robbie Gibb - most influential person on BBC board by many accounts and from journalists I speak in BBC - was involved in setting up GB News.

GB News of course has breached Ofcom rules on *multiple* occasions - no sign of resignations though

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Without a reigning liberal consensus there can be no public service media.
bsky.app/profile/thei...