Fitch O'Connell

1. Many here seem bemused by the anger and disappointment this government attracts. Please bear with me while I try to explain it.
Let’s begin with Gaza. Starmer’s complicity is one of the major reasons so many people are disillusioned.
rethinkingsecurityorguk.wpcomstaging.com/2025/10/07/i...
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The Fires of Hell The talk at the barber's this morning was all about the rain last night.

The things that go through your head in a barber's chair.

fitchinho.substack.com/p/the-fires-...

Public ownership of England’s water companies could cost close to zero, says thinktank Exclusive: Common Wealth report argues debt, pollution and underinvestment justify process known as special administration

And will people on this platform please stop reciting the research *funded by the water industry* which claims that renationalisation would be "too expensive"? We should learn to recognise corporate propaganda when we see it.
In reality ... www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Among yesterday's arrestees is Deborah Hinton, an 81-year old retired magistrate with an OBE.
That's Yvette Cooper's idea of a terrorist.
Language has been turned on its head.
The law has been turned on its head.
Murdering children is righteous.
Trying to stop it is terrorism.

Free ebooks to celebrate escaping from Amazon (free for the next week only!) Get my Back to Back trilogy now.
www.lulu.com/search?page=...

The U.S. contributes one-sixth of NATO’s annual budget, not two-thirds, as claimed in social media posts.
Washington finances 15.8% of the military alliance’s yearly expenditure of around $3.5 billion. Germany pays the same amount as the US - 15.8813% of the budget.
www.nato.int/cps/en/natoh...

Home | Substack Discover and discuss great writing with the world’s smartest readers on Substack.

Over the Yellow Mountains now on substack.

fitchinho.substack.com/p/over-the-y...

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed At this time of the year, I am reminded of a myth still perpetrated even by some who should know better – a myth about Portuguese winters. 

This week's TPN piece by yours truly.
www.theportugalnews.com/news/2025-02...

The Wizard of Uz
now on substack

fitchinho.substack.com/p/the-wizard...

How the British Council Made a Soft Power Superpower The British Council was founded to help the world better understand Britain and to fight fascism. As times changed, so did its remit.

The chief executive of the British Council is in the press warning that the organisation may disappear in five years. Here’s my @historytoday.com piece from 2023 on the role it played in fighting fascism: www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...

Steps like a goose, honks like a goose…

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Is Trump mad or bad Or could it be both

Richard J. Murphy is refreshingly coherent.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ET...

Home | Substack Discover and discuss great writing with the world’s smartest readers on Substack.

I'm in the process of transferring some of the things I've written to substack. There will be lots of new stuff too. I'd be delighted if you'd join me.

fitchinho.substack.com/p/bedlam-and...

Very important for everyone in the British politics to understand what we are dealing with here, and the stakes involved. Not politics as normal.

YouTube video by Jonathan Pie Trump 2 .0: A New World Order

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XO...

H.L. Mencken, 100 years ago
As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Tsk tsk . . . we all know it only works one way. Whatever next will you be demanding - worker ownership?

I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going down the tubes quite fast. And not fun tubes, like at…

I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw

I reckon I'm getting too old to be digging holes in the ground in the woods, but how else can I plant some new trees?

Interview with Louise Bourgeois

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Trump wants a crash to benefit the ultra wealthy

Trump's economic plan? Professor Murphy analyses what he believes underpins it and why we should all be worried.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRAf...

How do you see what others have commented on posts of peple you are following? If you click where the responses are numbered all you get is a chance to reply yourself but not a clue as to who has written what.

YouTube video by LBC 'Small farmers deserve support but not tax-dodging landowners' | LBC analysis

"One percent of the population owns over half of England."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-kR...

Autumnal ramble Verão de São Martinho was in full swing so we decided to explore the new Tâmega riverside walk, the Trilho Nossa Senhora do Vau. 

Hurrah! TPN have been foolish enough to publish another one.
www.theportugalnews.com/news/2024-11...

Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is a far-right, Christian Zionist, "Temple on Temple Mount" evangelical. This belief system is strongly associated with end times theology: a yearning for Apocalypse triggered by a final war in Israel.
Reassuring to know we'll be in safe hands. 😦

I wonder who you can be talking about . . . ?