Paul Saffer

Remembering the Referendum Party The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.

"Goldsmith stared unblinking into the camera through his five-minute address, his intense demeanour and ominous message in no way resembling a Bond villain explaining an apocalyptic plan to a terrified world."
thelionandunicorn.com/2025/11/07/r...

Remembering the Referendum Party The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.

It's 30 years since Bovril tycoon James Goldsmith officially launched the Referendum Party in his usual modest fashion - and eventually changed British politics, but not in the way you think @lionunicorn.bsky.social

I once read something in Punch (don't look for it, it's not there any more) recountimg a definitely real conversation with a drunk Scotsman at King's Cross and saying "You must been looking forward to Hogmany" and being told "I don't - it's amateur".

2022 Politician of the Year (dead) He worried that he looked like a ghost, but the former 14th Earl could be a model for his slick successor Rishi Sunak.

"Can you make me look better than I do on television? I look rather scraggy, like a ghost."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you have a head like a skull."
"Does not everyone have a head like a skull?"
"No."
Alec Douglas-Home died 30 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.com/2022/12/28/2...

Parties over What a difference a decade makes. PAUL SAFFER on the extraordinary transformation in politics since 2015.

"The febrile state of Summer 2024 looks now an oasis of calm, and the late 2010s a mythical, placid political utopia..."
thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

Blowing the whistle on football PAUL SAFFER looks at the century-long gestation of the Football Governance Act.

"I should prefer to leave the affairs of the football industry to the industry itself," said home secretary Rab Butler.
But that was then - these days, politicians feel that football needs some interference.
@paulsaffer.bsky.social tells the story.
thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/b...

Sport’s winning streak It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.

⚽️"Britain did not suddenly discover sport in 2015 as a response to the twin shocks of the Tory election victory & Clarkson’s sacking from Top Gear. As far back as 2005, Tony Benn was complaining: ‘The real English nature is sport rather than politics’"⚽️

By @paulsaffer.bsky.social👇

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Sport’s winning streak It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.

As @lionunicorn.bsky.social turns 10 a look back at a decade of my articles for the site in a decade of British sporting boom - chromicled through Jimmy Hill's goldfish, Alexei Sayle and Peter Purves inventing modern football, Leicester City inspiring Brexit and sport explaining ... everything

Sport’s winning streak It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.

In the decade of Lion & Unicorn's existence, sport is the one thing that has undoubtedly thrived.
Which hasn't stopped @paulsaffer.bsky.social‬ looking backwards to Jimmy Hill, Denis Compton and the Spanish Civil War...
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2025/08/30/s...

A lost decade What’s been the big economic picture over the last ten years? It isn’t good, says DAN ATKINSON.

"To lose one decade may be misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. Well, in three years’ time we will have completed our second lost decade since the 2008 crisis.

Who’s laughing now?"

Dan Atkinson, Lion & Unicorn's first poster, on #10Years:
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2025/08/16/a...

Thank you for the Day PAUL SAFFER on Robin Day, the always-humble Grand Inquisitor who gave us BBC’s Question Time.

"I am as usual but a humble spear carrier."
Robin Day died 25 years ago today.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/t...

Denis Compton’s English magic PAUL SAFFER delves into a 1950s book for boys & finds more grit than glamour. And some imperialist football.

England cricket legend Denis Compton was born #OTD in 1918. Here's his advice for boys who take up boxing:

"Never give in. You may feel tired and a little dazed after a particularly hard round, but remember your opponent will also feel fagged."

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A Harold for all seasons DAN ATKINSON celebrates the 1970s incarnation of Harold Wilson.

"From all sides, the four-time election winner was pelted with dirt. The fact that the various groups of detractors disagreed as to why they despised him in no way lessened the impact of their attacks."

It's 30 years since the death of Harold Wilson.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/a...

Evans above PAUL SAFFER remembers David Evans: Tory MP, Luton Town chairman and self-declared ‘right-wing disciplinarian’.

"He called for the castration of rapists, questioned the innocence of the Birmingham Six, and dismissed his Labour rival as ‘a single girl who lives with her boyfriend and three bastard children, in Cambridge’."

Tory David Evans was born 90 years ago.

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Kilroy vs UKIP ALWYN TURNER remembers the clash of egos between Nigel Farage and Robert Kilroy-Silk.

"What everybody tells me they want is for the current leader to accept the inevitable and to stand down."

20 years ago, Robert Kilroy-Silk left UKIP after a clash of egos with Nigel Farage.

@alwynturner.bsky.social tells the story.👇

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When the News of the World took flight PAUL SAFFER on how darts moved from public bar to sporting arena, thanks to a now defunct newspaper.

"Are not the spectators responsible for most of the hullabaloo?" asked the papers.

Our @paulsaffer.bsky.social remembers how the News of the World made darts a spectator sport.

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The obvious factual errors in the first 15 minutes (eg Bernard Ingham working for Mrs Thatcher in opposition) were too distracting and lets you off the hook as a viewer in buying the more speculative stuff

Our top ten most clicked posts in 2024, featuring Rishi Sunak, Robert Maxwell, Labi Siffre, Diane Abbott, Stephen Milligan, an alternative universe @alwynturner.bsky.social, Michael Heseltine, Roth-Händle, Sherlock and a lot of sausages.👇

‘Incoherently eloquent’ ALWYN TURNER on the late John Prescott: never mind the politics, feel the vibes.

"The tubby, middle-aged man nursing his injured dignity is a recognisable sitcom role, and Prescott added to the gaiety of the nation. He was a character. That, above all, is what drove the expressions of nostalgic sadness when his death was announced."

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