Lord D Stafford

✈️ On This Day – May 21, 1927
Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, landing in Paris after a 33.5-hour journey from New York in the Spirit of St. Louis.
#OnThisDay #AviationHistory #Lindbergh #SpiritOfStLouis

On February 7, 1812, renowned English novelist Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. His works, including Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver Twist, have left an indelible mark on literature. Today, we celebrate his 213th birthday 🎂

Dictatorship doesn’t happen overnight. It slips in during crises, disguised as “temporary” emergency measures that never go away. Little by little, institutions weaken, critics are silenced, and power tightens its grip. The real danger to democracy isn’t force it’s people looking the other way.

The oldest pub in England built in to the Nottingham Caves ‘Ye olde trip to Jerusalem 1189AD’ Cheers 🍻

On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump pardoned 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, including leaders of extremist groups. On Jan. 21, 1977, Carter pardoned Vietnam draft evaders to heal a nation divided by war. Carter sought reconciliation - Trump’s seeks legitimisation of attacks on democracy.

Germany’s spent decades trying to reconcile its atrocities… sieg heiling is against the law there. But here in America, Elon musk does it & the crowd goes wild. The ADL openly calls it an accident…is he stupid or a nazi? James O’brien urges those who may be confused to try this salute at work/school

On January 17, 1773, Captain James Cook and his crew aboard the HMS Resolution became the first recorded explorers to cross the Antarctic Circle, marking a significant milestone in the history of exploration. 

The year 1276 🤯

Sunday evening pint - The sheer depth and extent of our history in this country never ceases to amaze me. Cheers 🍻 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇬🇧

Brexit’s hit hard, especially for small businesses stuck following EU rules we can’t influence anymore. Rejoining isn’t just about trade—it’s about having a say in decisions that still affect us. Rejoining means shaping policies we follow anyway. Let’s talk—our silence only deepens our isolation.

Queen Victoria, the “Grandmother of Europe,” used royal marriages as tools of diplomacy. Her 9 children married into monarchies across Europe, by WWI, her grandchildren ruled Britain, Germany, and Russia, showcasing the power of royal diplomacy.

On this day, January 12th, 1662, King Charles II granted a royal charter to the Royal Society, the world’s oldest national science institution. For centuries, it’s brought together brilliant minds to push the boundaries of knowledge, shaping science and understanding around the globe.🧠🌍

I’m worried that the exodus from Meta and Twitter is what they want. To isolate us from each other.

Isolation is a big part of autocracy. It makes people easier to lie to and abuse.

I don’t have a global answer, but I am working on building a social media space for our podcast listeners.

What happens if a NATO country annexes another? A U.S. move on Canada could fracture NATO, testing its principles of mutual defense. With a smaller population (40M vs. 335M) and military (70K vs. 1.39M), Canada would have to lean on allies 🤷‍♂️…The world gets crazier by the day! 🤯

On March 3, 1960, Elvis Presley made a brief stop at Prestwick Airport in Scotland while returning to the U.S. after his military service in Germany. His plane refueled there, marking the only time Elvis ever set foot on British soil.

😂😂

King Henry VIII had six wives:
1. Catherine of Aragon
2. Anne Boleyn
3. Jane Seymour
4. Anne of Cleves
5. Catherine Howard
6. Catherine Parr

This sequence is often remembered with the rhyme: “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.”

On January 6, 1540, Henry VIII married Anne of Cleves in a political alliance with Germany. Displeased with her appearance, Henry sought an annulment after six months. Anne accepted the split, gaining wealth & status as the “King’s Sister.”

We’re talking about Bitcoin—where did FarmVille crops come into it? I actually agree with you on that and the whole meta virtual real estate nonsense. But Bitcoin is a completely different conversation.

I’d recommend you do some research on the statements you’ve just made 📖🔑. The world is changing, everyone just has to be ready for it.

Let’s be honest the reason left - leaning people (myself included) are so anti-crypto and Bitcoin is because figures like Trump and Musk promote it. Their association with these ideas creates a knee-jerk reaction, but we should focus on the technology itself, not just the personalities behind it.

Having governments and central banks control your fiat currency, devaluing it at rates never seen before, is acceptable to you? But alternative systems like Bitcoin, which offer transparency and decentralisation, aren’t? Seems like a strange kind of trust imbalance to me.

My point was more about all of our public services being reclaimed and brought back into public hands, not just buses.

If you claim to be woke, embracing social justice, equality, and individual freedoms, your beliefs should be entirely at odds with the faith-based oppression inherent in both Puritanism & Sharia. Systems that impose rigid moral codes restrict personal liberty & contradict woke ideals. 📖 Education 🔑

Do you know what Puritan laws are?

I was merely agreeing with your statement that Cromwell was “godawful” and backing your point about his actions and legacy.

?? 🤷‍♂️

Hopefully, the rest of the country follows Greater Manchester’s lead and starts reclaiming all of our public services from private ownership. It’s time to put the public back at the heart of services and ensure they serve communities, not just profit margins.

The Constitution has always struck me as a document written by the Founding Fathers who, perhaps naively, assumed the president would possess a basic level of decency and a moral code. They failed to account for the potential dangers of unchecked power in the ✋ of someone lacking those qualities.

Cromwell’s religious intolerance, especially toward Catholics, & his Puritan laws, banning entertainment, enforcing strict moral codes, & regulating personal behaviour, bear a striking resemblance to Sharia law. Both sought to enforce rigid, faith-based rules on society.

The American presidency often mirrors the unchecked powers of a monarch. The ability to pardon, commute sentences, or carry out policies without meaningful oversight resembles the authority of kings, not a modern republic. Concentrating so much power in one individual undermines democracy.