I strongly suspect what Farage finds most offensive about "Making plans for Nigel" is it harks back to a time of lifelong secure employment in a nationalised British Steel.

Making things worse is a feature, not a bug, of the far right. (And nationalist populism generally). This is from Harry Shukman's 'Year of the Rat' undercover in Britain Fírst.

I think you are confusing borders with administrative regions. There's different laws and taxes between Strathclyde and East Lothian, but its not a nation state border. Look at alternatives - like the Heineken plan for Europe. Organised regions, yes. National borders... No.

Hey, can you help settle a packing argument? ...Is this too many books to take on holiday? 📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

Out of the 300,000 years biologically modern humans have lived in communities, how many had borders? How many had stable uncontested borders? They are imaginary. Invisible. Interim.

JK Rowling must think Trans Alpine Gaul is just part of France that wants to be considered part of the Roman Empire...

Hot Take: Nolan's Odyssey is just a poorly disguised reboot of O Brother, Where Art Thou?

While I appreciate where you are coming from, and this isn't your fault so is said without criticism - unfortunately that could lead to unintended discrimination against e.g. people who are neurodivergent or working in what isn't their first language, so that is a side effect to be aware of.

"I am sad and spleeny, and begin to have fears that I may not be, after all, the greatest woman alive. Isn't this a melancholy view of things? But it is a vale, you know. When will the world come to end?'

Well buy me a vowel... because Finland! Estonia! Latvia!

"The obstacle becomes the way."

📚 Books Vs. Television 📺 Having a look through my archives, and given current trends in falling functional literacy, I think eight-year-old me may have been on to something...

Yes! You should 100% read the first book in the series before watching the film of the second.

Other kids had action man... leading to boring derivative heroes-journey play. *I* had Nurse Ratchett, Flared-boilersuit HSE inspector and, um, Vincent Van Gogh - leading to complex subplots, unexpected twists and character development from an unreliable narrator! 💪💪

@politicsuk.com ...The SNP aren't even doing a good job running the SNP!

I don't need a pension, I have my cabinet of nearly unique curiosities! Exhibit 1. Possibly the last intact tub of Gentleman's Relish in existence. Exhibit 2. A vintage 1990s McDonald's coffee stirrer which they pulled from worldwide distribution due to its adoption by criminal gangs.

I wouldn't say I'm my own worst enemy, but I'm definitely under suspicion as a collaborator, having bought a duplicate of the book I'm literally currently reading. #ADHDTax

Masking? ...completed it mate. #AuDHD

How quickly and easily could an independent Scotland actually join the European Union? #ScottishIndependence #EU #Brexit open.substack.com/pub/morewret...

That's no way to talk about Mitch McConnell 😡

According to the economists that ScotGov use for their Brexit impact analysis - worse.

OK, I get you feel criticism of the party is a personal attack, but its bad faith to just repeatedly say I am wrong, while refusing to engage with the evidence that backs up my case. If you can prove any inaccuracies; let me know and I'll gladly correct them. If you can't; please reflect on why.

Again if my arguments are bad faith - then show, with evidence, where I've said something you can show is untrue or not backed up by references. You don't like the conclusions, yet can't counter the evidence.

Did you actually read the article? Because it doesn't feel like you did - you are attacking a strawman.

Thank you, I'm happy to back that claim up, not with an assumption, but with my analysis of Russian foreign policy and strategy, which shows how supporting Scottish Independence is well established as aligning with Putin's actions from Crimea to Germany open.substack.com/pub/morewret...

'Nationalist Movements' - Scottish, British, or Russian, are artefacts of the propaganda narrative structure of the Volksgeist. They are a fiction. A manipulation. They have no ethos or logos, just thin pathos. open.substack.com/pub/morewret...

To capitulate in Ukraine will soon see Russian expansionism focus on Finland, to secure Arctic access, or Poland, or Latvia to test NATO. This book outlines a plausible scenario as a thought exercise.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

"What is the American Dream? That anyone can grow up to be president? Well then. Fuck. That logic cuts both ways..." open.substack.com/pub/morewret...

I'm reading Preston on the Spanish Civil War, and essentially it can be abbreviated down to one sentence...