Dr Seth Thévoz
@seththevoz
Historian, writer, immigrant, FRHistS, podcaster, right eyebrow raiser; UK political finance & global private members’ clubs; Latest book: ‘London Clubland: A Companion for the Curious'. clubland.substack.com
Why are these right-wing headbangers invariably against all migration, except their own?
"Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park."
Your trusty correspondent, live from tonight's premiere of Jay Scheib's production of 'Parsifal', at the Bayreuth Festival. The music was exquisite, the production...a bit more complicated. A sort of psychedelic 'Mad Max', with Grail knights replaced with post-apocalyptic cults.
Well worth a read. This is literally how Putin began governing Russia in the 2000s, step by step from the same playbook.
Now we’re talking. The first original ‘Avengers’ novel in over 30 years.
Wes Streeting’s appointment as Defence Secretary seems to have elicited a visible response from the armed forces.
A foul plot by the Establishment to endanger the God-given right of every free-born Englishman to have The Times run a gushing magazine lifestyle supplement feature on them and their spouse.
George Cottrell’s book, ‘How to Launder Money’ (no, really - that’s the actual title) is well worth a read.
The Clubland Substack: where else would you find out that in the Frasier episode 'The Club', the prop bottle used for the 1896 vintage port is actually an 1896 Bual from Blandy's - which is a Madeira, not a port? clubland.substack.com/p/clubs-in-p...
Ironically, Farage started out in a party whose logo told us what it stood for.
A few of the significant UK elections over the last seven years where Sky News’ Chief Political Correspondent doesn’t seem to have been paying very close attention.
25 years ago, he was convicted of bribing then-Congressman Jim Traficant - the only person with an even worse wig than him.
wesforleader.com, which looks suspiciously like Wes Streeting’s leadership campaign website, has yet to launch.
At least the Miliband campaign now has a slogan: "Strong and stable leadership with Ed Miliband, not a coalition of chaos led by Wes Streeting."
I’ve now number-crunched the votes cast in the Hornsey & Friern Barnet constituency, during Thursday’s council elections. Much tighter (FPTP distorts…), though still a Labour-leaning marginal: -Lab 33.6% -Grn 31.5% -Lib Dem 22.1% -Con 7.0% -Ref 4.8% -Ind 0.8% -CPA 0.2% -Spoilt ballots 0.1%
The latest remake of Smith & Jones's head-to-head talks looks...questionable.
If you want a practical illustration, look at this by-election in Salford 2 weeks ago. The Green candidate (an old school friend) put everything into it, pounding the pavements, delivering everywhere. The result? A once-safe Labour ward (62% in 2024) won by Reform (who got just 34%), by 27 votes.
It never ceases to amaze me how many election pundits don’t understand the dynamics of First Past the Post, and how vote-splitting works under the UK’s electoral system. John Curtice does. Listen to John Curtice.
I spoke to Ros Taylor, for her profile of Nigel Farage in 'The New World'. It's always worth taking the long view on Farage-mania, and its limits and cycles. www.thenewworld.co.uk/ros-taylor-n...
This is the government’s “line to take.” Number 3 is that no official in No. 10 knew until last week about Mandelson failing vetting. And this is a screenshot of the Independent’s political editor putting that to a No. 10 press official 7 months ago - and their response at the time.
There is a parallel universe out there, in which Theresa May bowed to pressure from the newly-elected Donald Trump in 2016, to have Nigel Farage appointed as the UK’s Ambassador to Washington; and everybody in that universe has been arguing about what came up in Farage’s Developed Vetting.
“Siri, show me how Just For Men can make those grey hairs just magically disappear.”