Matt Bennett

The creative industries are so important in both economic and social terms, yet are so under-valued by our dim politicians.

Tory policies guaranteed to cut the noses off their own faces. 🤨

Long-standing British anti-intellectualism transcends political boundaries, I'm afraid.

Hezzer puts his finger on it...

In work poverty is the tragedy of our times. I remember being told in the 1960s and 70s that developments in technology would leave the next generation looking for ways to manage all their leisure time. Instead of which, the extra value seems to have migrated to a millionaire class: which is wrong.

All I think about when reading this is how many jobs the money spent on that pile of brick and glass could have saved in smaller humanities departments - my own colleagues. It’s like building a monument of gold in a landscape of wrack and ruin.

Badenoch's just a braindead Tory clone spouting anti-intellectual prejudices in order to appeal (she thinks) to the 'ordinary people' of Britain. I consider that she underestimates her audience by a long chalk.

A reminder that this week the Conservatives announced they want a “British ICE”

Natty jacket n’ jumper duo, too.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.

‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’...

🔴NEW🔴

Thread 🧵

@bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12

So far, so good; but can the frog tap-dance?

The 'Battle of Cable Street', which took place on 4 October, 1936, has become a foundational myth of anti-fascism in Britain. This excerpt from my 'No Platform' book explores how 'Cable Street' was used as inspiration for student activists in the 1970s.

hatfulofhistory.com/2020/10/03/t...

A computer screen showing the blue logo of rhe UK covid inquiry with the message "please join us for one minute's silence". Leaningnagains the computer is my iPad, which displays a picture of Vince and me in happier times.

Hard to believe it was three years ago today that we had the first preliminary hearing for module 1 of the UK covid inquiry. I attended online and kept Vince with me.

Still no justice. ♥️

Indeed.

Birds of a feather…

I wish people could understand its very possible and should be the norm, that you can despise anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at the same time. It's not either/ or

Chi-town, you guard this man well, you hear?

Anything happens to him, Chicago, America, and the WORLD will be poorer for it.

Interesting title, echoing your Mongol book.

In 2014, I met *a* potential King of France at the 800-year memorial event for the battle of Bouvines: Louis de Bourbon, Comte d’Anjou. After his speech to the crowd, an elderly lady next to me cried out ‘Vive le Roi!’, but was politely ignored by the assembled, majority, Republicans.

Who put the gilded putti into St F’s austere world view, I wonder?

This is a wonderful piece of writing which captures so much of the person I knew for nigh-on 50 years.

10%

Fine.

Care to expand? Were you aware of the choice of Mullally before you wrote this?

Ra for Jinty!

I went to Civaux to see the cemetery but as I walked into the village I was startled to see this: a Carolingian church so reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon Deerhurst. It's very weird this instant recognition of spaces out of context, especially ones you've had to try to imagine. The proportions... 🧵👇 1/

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

This is so important for the health of the population in so many ways. (Cf. The appalling ‘Boris’ Johnson’s tenure in the role.)

I dunno...I think that declining to be the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force sends a pretty clear message (and it's clear to just about everyone that this most probably is NOT for "family reasons.)