Leon Sinfield

@BenjaminFogel Got back to the UK after three months in China last year and my train from Gatwick was cancelled mid-ride due to 'problems with the onboard PA system'

I dread returning to Starmerism after three weeks experiencing civilization in China.

If I were Keir Starmer I would pledge to be a one-term Prime Minister, I would do all the electoral suicide neccessities for my country to survive and prosper (like scrapping the triple lock) and would resign at the end of my term - a hero.

@AGhiselliChina Yes, felt very refreshing as an introductory book that didn't have the normal viewpoints/tropes. It's obviously a bit biased but he clearly understands the West very well and is very sincere in wanting to promote genuine understanding between the West and China

With all the necessary caveats, would people recommend this book?

Is it possible to split 🇷🇺 and 🇨🇳? We asked 7 experts in today's #BigAsk ✍️ @OliviaCheung_oc, @isabelhilton, @NKuhrt, Dr Timothy Less, @georgemagnus1, @LiDanieRae, @SinfieldLeon #BritainsWorld britainsworld.org.uk/p/the-big-ask-…

What the Trump administration seems to be most interested in is engineering a strategic rapprochement with Russia, not in ending the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is supposed to be just currency for that deal, which is why it causes so much anger when it shows agency of its own.

If you’re a European who cares deeply about Ukraine, as I do, and you still want to partner with the US on Ukraine I am sorry but you are not living in the real world

Our (@SinfieldLeon and I) latest piece for @WPReview on how the downing of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 underscores the high stakes for neighbors of a Russia at war. We argue the public standoff between Aliyev and Putin appears to be bad news for Azerbaijan-Russia relations.

🇨🇳 How is China expanding its security presence in Europe? #Belarus joined the SCO in July, #Serbia’s growing military ties with China, and #Türkiye shows interest in joining the SCO. Full article by our guest author @SinfieldLeon here👇 #authors" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">ceias.eu/is-chinas-role…

@bayghushistan Surely the example of countries like Estonia since independence proves that decolonisation combined with neoliberal democracy can have extremely favourable outcomes

@Scholars_Stage Haven't read tons but Black Wave by @KimGhattas was pretty amazing

Tell me the five best histories that you have ever read. most compelling, most brilliant, most engaging, or however you define “best.” If you had to choose five. What five do you choose.

Rules based order: inviting to speak at your parliament with state honours someone with an arrest warrant over his head for the “crime of extermination.” I guess Putin will be next

@AscendedYield Funny that because to me it feels like almost no one is Christian. Guess we're in opposite bubbles

@padochka It feels absurd having to decide whether to vote for them for some solid policies or vote against them for their support, albeit verbal, for genocidal crimes. I'll be moving to Starmer's constituency but in September so fortunately I'll end up avoiding that particular conundrum!

@padochka Not enthused with Labour either but at the end of the day, if they do this then they'd do some good. I didn't vote for them over Palestine in the locals however so maybe I'm contradicting myself by voting for them this time

@NCoccinella1 @alessabocchi on that graph, out of the eight countries, the four agreeing the most weren't british colonies and three of the four agreeing the least were british colonies

@fromTGA Loved your discussion this time last year in the Vaclav Havel library!

Prague. Narodni st. 17 November, 34 years on. A real sense of popular celebration. Many discussion events, some organised by a youth-based initiative with the telling name ‘Thanks That I Can’ ( ie live in freedom, travel, study & work abroad, have all these possibilities…)

@eugyppius1 Our economies are completely bound up with the rest of the world. The materials that we need for technology, civilian and military, come from there. Our lifestyles and standard of living are unavoidably connected to cheap foreign labour. It's simply impossible to disconnect

@eugyppius1 But we have pragmatic interests everywhere

Europe – in fact, the whole West – has to stop caring about the DeVelOPinG WoRLd. Where it has no active pragmatic interests, it must wash its hands of the whole mess and walk away from it. No aid, no sympathy, no human rights, nothing but profound indifference.

@NicoleGrajewski At the second hand book bazaar, apparently it's hand-painted from a 1910s textbook. I just wish I knew someone who can read Ottoman Turkish, I'm sure the main text over the world map part has an interesting geopolitical meaning

@SinfieldLeon Where did you get it in Istanbul? It’s beautiful

I got this Ottoman map in Turkey that was made around the same time