22 Comments
User's avatar
Neil C's avatar

"sustainable funding for black-led, black-focused and black-serving organizations." Whenever I hear something like this, I think about Berry Gordy setting up Motown Records because he was fed up with black artists being exploited by white record label executives. With Motown, this changed. They were now exploited by a black record label executive.

CynthiaW's avatar

I like this format.

Miss Haversham's avatar

"I would probably be standing by the side of a road somewhere, holding a bottle of meths and screaming at traffic"

This is basically my Saturday night, Ed.

Aidan Barrett's avatar

Regarding the Greenland obsession, this year is the USA's quarter-millennial anniversary and what better way to mark it than to have a Caesaristic head of state plant the flag on fresh territory!

Aidan Barrett's avatar

"Every time a monarchy is restored, an angel gets his wings."

It could be a key reason why regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya failed. The monarchies of those respective countries never returned.

I sense that a Pahlavi Restoration won't quite have the vibe of the Bourbon Restoration of 1815 but there will be similar controversy.

A Catholic Pilgrim's avatar

What a great selection of subjects!

I always thought the idea that the authorities focussed on right wing "extremists" rather than islamists was a myth, until I had to read government guidance for schools on various subjects for my work. It's absolutely the case that radical religion gets no mention at all but "right wing" is specifically targeted.

As for small beer, I love this and drink it regularly. I advocate a return to this level of beer consumption. I've also rediscovered what Romans did - watering down wine makes a different but equally pleasurable drink. Maybe we should encourage these kinds of things.

Dan Lucraft's avatar

Is it possible to play the game?? I would love to see my score

The Dilettante Polymath's avatar

Any video games designed to discourage young Muslims from adopting Muslim ‘superiority’ and anti-Semitic beliefs/behaviours?

So let’s get this straight, Starmer believes that 16yr olds can vote, but can’t drink ‘0’ beers/ciders?

Ed West's avatar

correct

Frankenheimer Graff's avatar

"Inexplicably mad Greenland policy"? Please read Kimball in the Spectator 6 Jan, Pippa Malmgren, Unherd 8 Jan, Scott Greer on his Substack Highly Respected on15 Jan, Whitehouse in the Spectator 15 Jan. Maybe methods could have been more diplomatic with an ally like Denmark, but remember he and earlier administrations have tried everything short of annexation over many years.

ChrisC's avatar

As someone wrote recently, "if he had just asked the Danes nicely, they probably would have given it to him"

Ed West's avatar

they have as much military access as they want as it is. the downsides - alienating all their European allies - seem far worse than any potential mineral extraction. it will also feature the added pain in the backside of dealing with native affairs. it's a burden.

Frankenheimer Graff's avatar

You clearly haven't read the articles; it's not about the minerals but about ballistic missile defence and space militarisation.

Ed West's avatar

The Americans could easily stop the Danes allowing the Chinese to take Greenland. Trump could have blocked the Chagos Island deal easily - we were desperate for him to do so. The Europeans are happy for the Americans to have de facto military rule of Greenland - alienating them like this is so unneccessary.

David Pinder's avatar

An absolutely excellent compendium of the madness - and the Sam Ashworth-Hayes quote that you include ... ‘The principle problem of the sensitive middle aged right winger is that reality is so absurd and the actions of the state so malign that you sound like a conspiratorial lunatic when you set out a straightforward factual description of events.’ ... sums the situation up perfectly.

John's avatar

If only we could go back to the pre Trump right of David Cameron.

Aidan Barrett's avatar

"I mean, it’s what equity (race communism) looks like, for sure."

Race communists are just following Martin Luther King's dream of a world where if a city has a 30% Negro population, Negroes should have 30% of the jobs in a particular company and jobs in all categories not just menial ones...

Ed West's avatar

'woke more accurate than liberals' etc etc

Aidan Barrett's avatar

In the event that I become more high-profile and make my own blog, I was seriously thinking about making a post entitled "How Martin Luther King Taught Elites To Embrace Extremism" debunking the common myth that he was the "moderate" leader who wanted nothing more than freedom and equal rights by, among other things , listing quotes that taken out of context look indistinguishable from a woke ideologue today.

Sjk's avatar

The voice of that 1980s documentary about the Iranian revolution is Ian McDiarmid a wonderful voice and great actor (I remember him in a Radio 4 version of the Jew of Malta) unfortunately typecast as a villain from a silly series of sci-fi movies.

Ed West's avatar

yes, he has a wonderful voice and TBF perfect for space villains/