William Arthurs MA(Oxon) FRSA 🇮🇪

@holysmoke Mathew is buried at South Mimms. I always say a silent prayer for him when I take the slip road from M25 onto the A1 North.

A scene that would have delighted Arnold Harris Mathew, Metropolitan of the Western Orthodox Church, Anglo-Catholic Archbishop of London, Primate of the Ancient Catholic Church, founder of the Old Roman Catholic Church etc etc. his archiepiscopal curia was based in the tastefully furnished lounge of a house called ‘The Brambles’.

@2D0XPS @Dr_W_E_Bulmer I think Tring is the place which is furthest from the sea -- which is a different kind of "centre".

@Dr_W_E_Bulmer Lindley Hall Farm, Leicestershire is the centre of England

It isn't clever to post a map like this as if it were a 'gotcha'. We all know 'The North' is not defined by an arbitrary mid-point in the British isles. The North is a distinct socio-cultural part of England (England, not Britain; Scotland is another country, not in The North).

@YesterdaysBrit1 J B Page, Chief Cashier

The new version is worth f*ck all! But with one of these in the early eighties, you could have bought a few pints and a packet of cigarettes, and still have change left over for a taxi ride home 👊

@Peter88902568 My wife just noticed that I have a copy of Monsignor Andrew Burnham's "Heaven & Earth in Little Space". I had to explain, this is a different person.

New: Pope Burnham shows off his throne at Avignon.

@harderthanfire @krxsctr Correct me if I am wrong but MPs used to be paid in line with the civil service grade that is the £47k job advertised. Time was when we looked over to the continent and felt proud that we didn't have unemployable wasters who, attracted by money, went into politics as a career.

MP salaries are more of a joke, they get £98k p.a and £14k more if they are on a select committee + expenses on top of both of those. Massive wage increases basically year on year, the IPSA is meant to be using data like "Earnings data and labour market trends, including official data on average earnings and average household income." to come up with these increases. Like excuse me but in what world is the average household income increasing by these rates (it's a 0.8% year on year average increase according to the ONS)? Maybe they should give some of that money to the people actually the jobs that matter xD

UK Civil Service salaries never cease to confuse me, you can either help manage the UK’s nuclear defence for £47k or you can make TikToks for Andy Burnham for £57k

The 12th century Mole. This amazing Norman doorway is at Kilham, Yorkshire East Riding. It has six orders with plenty of zig-zag as well as decoration in the gable. On one capital is a roundel featuring a mole, as often depicted in medieval bestiaries. bestiary.ca/beasts/beast21…

@JoyousCivic @GBPolitcs Manifesto and general election please

@GBPolitcs No mandate.

🚨NEW: Andy Burnham is considering replacing inheritance tax with a flat 10% levy on all estates at death to fund a National Care Service offering free social care

You have to understand: “the other side” is not arguing in good faith. They are using the conversation operationally to impose their frame, redirect you, force you onto the defensive, manufacture concessions, and shape your perception. You are presenting evidence. They are managing you. That is the asymmetry. Your “correct argument” cannot defeat a person or tactic whose purpose is not to answer you, but to manipulate you.

@hellothisisivan Chatted to some Americans when I stayed at the Broadmoor (Resort Hotel) in Colorado Springs 20 years ago. Even they were aware of the sinister connotations.

‘Broadmoor’ has always been a byword for somewhere dark, sinister and terrifying, I don’t know how some people have got the idea it’s a cross between a luxury hotel and a community centre

@passienus pius Aeneas

My comment on Nolan’s Odyssey is that it makes a lot more sense if you accept that the character played my Matt Damon is not Odysseus but Aeneas trapped in the wrong epic. Hence the humourlessness, the sense of loss, and general lack of tricksiness.

@Jonteinspain Last Psychiatrist's "Hipsters on Food Stamps" (2012) still holds up as an analysis.

Americans are only now discovering what many in Britain have known for years: a large number of people on the left hold impressive university degrees, yet they earn well below average. Meanwhile their old school friends who went straight into work instead of university often earn far more and enjoy a noticeably higher standard of living. Rather than accept that they chose the wrong path, these graduates complain, protest and demand that those who have more money than them should be taxed more heavily so the proceeds can be given to them — because, in their view, they “deserve” it. Being articulate and educated, they are good at persuading others, which is why the left grows more resentful and more dangerous by the day. The constant demand to tax the rich — or even just the comfortably off — is misguided. People who work hard, take risks and build successful lives do not do so in order to subsidise those who chose poorly and then refuse to change course.

@Peter88902568 The late James Mosley wrote an interesting (to font enthusiasts) blog post in 2010 about the numbers on the door of no 10., asking for example, why is the zero slanted? typefoundry.blogspot.com/2010/10/number…

Groundbreaking.

@Rekt57v @TheCinesthetic The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

@TheCinesthetic So he organised for staff to continuously hear the wogword?

Tom Holland arranged a 70mm screening of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) for the cast of THE ODYSSEY during filming after calling Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman. “Because he’s Spider-Man and everybody’s favourite at that studio, he arranged for us to screen it on a Sunday, the full four hours.”

@KathyConWom POETS Day

So he’s bunking off on a Friday, “#WFH”

@PriceLaurence @WeirdMedieval I remember the Grade II* listed Florey Building, regarded as a masterpiece in the world of modern architecture, posing a challenge to student climbers.

@WeirdMedieval The architectural bait and switch Queen's College Oxford used to play on its first years: you come for the front quad on the left, you get accommodation in the er, masterpiece on the right

they lure you in with the beautiful neogothic buildings and then when you actually get your timetable it turns out you’re gonna be seeing a lot more of this guy

@WilyTrout @LOVillaJavea Blue Sky is currently flecked with spittle as those folks are going into a complete meltdown over Elon Musk's off-the-cuff remarks about tomatoes.

@WilyTrout @LOVillaJavea The "Be Kind" brigade !

Do you have friends who are not on X and are completely clueless?

@chrisbizarre2 @DreyfusJames By the time I was studying politics at university, the content of this "vegetables" sketch had mutated, in my tutor's mind, into something that had happened at an actual cabinet dinner.

@DreyfusJames "And what about the vegetables?" "They'll have the same as me."

Say what you like about the politicians of yesteryear, they certainly had rhino-like hides & most understood their unique positions automatically made them ripe targets for satire. Anyone who remembers the original ‘Spitting Image’ will recall just how savage it could be. If you were powerful, rich or famous, you were a bona fide target for mirth at your expense. Many of this new breed seem to believe they should not only be immune from mockery, but that it now equates to ‘abuse’ or the ubiquitous ‘hate’. If only these people understood that having a sense of humour & a self-deprecating demeanour is infinitely more endearing to the public, than a moralising, vainglorious, po-faced public conniption… Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 😁

@cptndemocracy64 @ClimateWarrior7 I had a friend, an evangelical Christian who was an amateur radio enthusiast, who was delighted to receive a message in Morse code over shortwave, from "Jesus".

@ClimateWarrior7 I have loads of Mexican friends called Jesus.

I think the problem with Islam is there's really only one important character in the Quran and he's called Mohammad. In the Bible we have many characters, with Jesus as the most important. Thus there are many names to choose from when naming children. Imagine how confusing it must be if you're called Mohammad and all your friends are called Mohammad.

Trump was voted in to stop forever wars, gut the deep state, end inflation, and bring back Constitutional freedom after the biggest assault ever. Now he has a forever war on his hands, the deep state is subverting appointees at every turn, inflation is still double targets, and Constitutional freedom is under assault by a new generation of technocrats. Without denying that some good has come, and without suggesting that the country would have been better off had he not won, this bait-and-switch has done as much as the Covid period to undermine trust in core American institutional functioning.