Alistair Caird 

Hugely refreshing to have someone with the depth of knowledge of Shashank Joshi on #bbcqt tonight. Can we have more of this and fewer 'commentators'? I think we'd all benefit

@Flp_130 @HonestFrank So, will his riding fee be tax deductible then?

@HonestFrank You don't know how terrible was this rain!! And frankie didn't ride his horse. He was replaced by antonio queiroz

@grok @jason_osb @jared_shult so it's correct to say that they all received due process

All charged January 6 defendants who did not plead guilty received trials, either by jury or bench. Over 1,000 pleaded guilty, and while some were acquitted on specific charges, no full acquittals by jury have been reported in major sources. No evidence of summary handling without due process. Sources: PBS, CBS, Wikipedia.

Your boss pardoned everyone who stormed the Capitol

@jason_osb @jared_shult Hi @grok were any of the January 6th 2021 rioters handled summarily or did all those charged, assuming they didn't plead guilty, have the benefit of a trial

@jared_shult Why? Not because of guilt or innocence. But because they were denied due process. It’s not complicated. But I know that doesn’t fit the left wing radical narrative.

@chris_bojke @arthistorynews @NileGardiner We didn't need American permission to resupply at a British Overseas Territory. And it's spelt 'Ascension'

@arthistorynews @NileGardiner And drag Russia into the conflict, probably best they just helped behind the scenes and let us refuel at Assention Island

How many European nations rushed to the defence of the Falkland Islands alongside the UK when the British Overseas Territory was invaded by Argentina? Zero. In fact some of them backed the actions of the fascist regime in Buenos Aires, including Spain and Ireland.

@pinstripedline @NavyLookout @stuartroxy @BeaverWestminst @navalhistorian @MarkPiesing @tomjmegan @Sandbagger_01 @IBallantyn @adastral_trader @geoallison @FennellJW @Franksquarerig Fascinating thread about an incident of which I was totally unaware - thank you

This thread on OP SHARPSHOOTER, the 1996 covert RN ASW operation against a Russian VICTOR SSN may interest @NavyLookout @stuartroxy @BeaverWestminst @navalhistorian @MarkPiesing @tomjmegan @Sandbagger_01 @IBallantyn @adastral_trader @geoallison @FennellJW @Franksquarerig @ColdWarPod @OnthisdayRN @Strategyforwar1 @simonharley @CorbettAndy

This is HMS MONMOUTH & HMS TRENCHANT. In Feb 1996 they were deployed on OP SHARPSHOOTER - a secret mission tracking a Russian VICTOR 3 SSN off the UK coastline, which ended with RN personnel boarding the Russian boat. Thread on a remarkable secret operation...

@dieworkwear FWIW, misbehaviour at Ascot is far worse

@dieworkwear I think that's Aintree, not Ascot

@seatsixtyone A shame. It was a lovely bar

@alistaircaird Yes, I hope Elvis is OK…

Heading home from Utrecht via Amsterdam. After the sad closure of Amsterdam Centraal’s Grand Cafe 1e Klas, I find myself of necessity in the 2nd class waiting room…. All very Xmassy here…

@tudor_lancs @RhonddaBryant спасибо за вашу службу

@RhonddaBryant Labour polling at 14%…you need to change the record.

Yet again Farage parrots Russian talking points. Just as he did over the Salisbury attack.

Fantastic performances last night @liverpoolphil and the post concert Q&A with @houghhough and @DGarciaHindoyan was absolutely fascinating. Thanks to all

@Hattusilis_III @nfergus Agree with all of this - except that Ferguson was ever an insightful or objective historian

You used to be such an insightful and objective historian. You keep saying this plan “affirms Ukrainian sovereignty” while asking Ukraine to legitimise Russia’s theft of its territory. You dress that up as realism, but it is just accepting the logic of the aggressor and calling it prudence. You also claim Ukraine has “never” been in a position to defeat Russia. Ukraine already defeated Russia’s attempt to erase it. Kyiv still stands because Ukrainians fought, not because Moscow showed restraint. That is the part your argument quietly skips. And a “US-backed security guarantee” from a Trump plan is fictional. There is no guarantee, no enforcement mechanism, no treaty, and no reason to believe Trump would risk a confrontation to defend whatever remains of Ukraine after the concessions you are recommending. Your framework also teaches a catastrophic lesson: that wars end when the aggressor tires of fighting, not when aggression is punished. That is not realism. It is an instruction manual for every revisionist power with territorial ambitions and enough stamina to outlast Western attention spans.​ What you are proposing is not consolidation. It is rewarding invasion. It tells every revisionist state that atrocities and annexation win as long as you can drag the war out long enough for Western fatigue. Ukrainians fought for their independence. That is why they reject a peace built on territorial amputations and war crime amnesties

The best is the enemy of the good. Contrary to recent press speculation, the draft 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine is in fact a reasonable basis for negotiations. Journalists can gripe about it as they griped about the 20-point Gaza plan. But wars are not ended by op-eds. 1/5

@neatprompts @poorbjorn Needs to be on some sort of list, certainly

@arthistorynews Foiled in our attempt to visit a couple of weeks ago. A disconnect between closing time in guide book and notice on church door. Notice on door prevailed

Visited San Gregorio al Celio in Rome. From here, Pope Gregory the Great sent a reluctant St Augustine to convert the English. This is supposedly Gregory’s throne (but it may also be an Imperial seat from the Colosseum).

What is the greatest character entrance into a scene?

@JChimirie66677 @BBC What ‘quiet vandalism’ is being done to the Proms? Like every year, we could enjoy every concert live on Radio 3 with most repeated, many televised and absolutely every radio broadcast free to stream up to 28 days after the Last Night. It remains an unparalleled festival of music

Another British tradition quietly taken off air. Another shrug from the @BBC. This time it's the Boat Race - first broadcast on radio in 1927, on television since 1938 - dropped after nearly a century. Why? Not low viewing figures: last year's men's and women's races pulled in more people than the Masters and Formula One. Not cost: it's cheap by sports standards and pumps millions into the London economy. The truth is uglier. Inside the BBC the word that killed the Boat Race was "elitist." The new head of sport was said to be "lukewarm." That single term - "elitist" - is now a licence to scrap anything rooted in Britain's past. It's the same quiet vandalism we've seen around the Proms, Remembrance coverage, and the monarchy. The BBC no longer sees its job as showing Britain to itself. It sees its job as remaking Britain. The Boat Race isn't a cocktail party for gilded Oxbridge types. It's free to watch, pulls two hundred thousand ordinary spectators to the Thames every year, and has always been a working-class London day out. Rowing may have its posh stereotype, but the event is about rivalry, endurance and spectacle - things any nation should be proud to show the world. Yet the BBC's cultural gatekeepers have a deeper allergy: tradition that isn't re-branded, rewritten, or apologised for. They can throw millions at "inclusive" events nobody asked for and wall-to-wall virtue TV. But a British crowd on the riverbank waving flags? That's suspect. That's "exclusive." This is what happens when institutions stop believing in the country that built them. They measure value not by what the public loves but by what fits the new ideological checklist. The numbers didn't matter; the narrative did. And we pay for it. Every household is forced to hand over a licence fee to a broadcaster embarrassed by its own culture, one that keeps hacking away at the few things still able to unite a fragmented nation. The Boat Race will survive. Channel 4 has taken it on, proof there's nothing obsolete about it. But the BBC's retreat matters. It's a signal: if something feels too British, too rooted, too recognisable, it's up for cancellation. A broadcaster that can't celebrate its country is no longer serving it. It's time to ask why we're still paying for our own cultural erasure.

@Liverpool1207 Bring Back Microzine !

I wonder what will become of the Leaf unit now? A building with a long history.

Brilliant start to the new season from @liverpoolphil this afternoon. That rehearsal at #BBCProms definitely paid dividends for the main event 😉