"Goldsmith stared unblinking into the camera through his five-minute address, his intense demeanour and ominous message in no way resembling a Bond villain explaining an apocalyptic plan to a terrified world." thelionandunicorn.com/2025/11/07/r...
Remembering the Referendum Party
The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.
thelionandunicorn.com
It's 30 years since Bovril tycoon James Goldsmith officially launched the Referendum Party in his usual modest fashion - and eventually changed British politics, but not in the way you think @lionunicorn.bsky.social
Remembering the Referendum Party
The most important article on James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party you will ever read – by PAUL SAFFER.
thelionandunicorn.com
"Can you make me look better than I do on television? I look rather scraggy, like a ghost." "No." "Why not?" "Because you have a head like a skull." "Does not everyone have a head like a skull?" "No." Alec Douglas-Home died 30 years ago today. thelionandunicorn.com/2022/12/28/2...
2022 Politician of the Year (dead)
He worried that he looked like a ghost, but the former 14th Earl could be a model for his slick successor Rishi Sunak.
thelionandunicorn.com
"The febrile state of Summer 2024 looks now an oasis of calm, and the late 2010s a mythical, placid political utopia..." thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...
Parties over
What a difference a decade makes. PAUL SAFFER on the extraordinary transformation in politics since 2015.
thelionandunicorn.com
"I should prefer to leave the affairs of the football industry to the industry itself," said home secretary Rab Butler. But that was then - these days, politicians feel that football needs some interference. @paulsaffer.bsky.social tells the story. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/b...
Blowing the whistle on football
PAUL SAFFER looks at the century-long gestation of the Football Governance Act.
thelionandunicorn.com
⚽️"Britain did not suddenly discover sport in 2015 as a response to the twin shocks of the Tory election victory & Clarkson’s sacking from Top Gear. As far back as 2005, Tony Benn was complaining: ‘The real English nature is sport rather than politics’"⚽️ By @paulsaffer.bsky.social👇 wp.me/p6lzJb-7CH
Sport’s winning streak
It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.
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As @lionunicorn.bsky.social turns 10 a look back at a decade of my articles for the site in a decade of British sporting boom - chromicled through Jimmy Hill's goldfish, Alexei Sayle and Peter Purves inventing modern football, Leicester City inspiring Brexit and sport explaining ... everything
Sport’s winning streak
It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com
In the decade of Lion & Unicorn's existence, sport is the one thing that has undoubtedly thrived. Which hasn't stopped @paulsaffer.bsky.social looking backwards to Jimmy Hill, Denis Compton and the Spanish Civil War... thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2025/08/30/s...
Sport’s winning streak
It’s been a turbulent ten years, but PAUL SAFFER has found much to cheer in British sport – past and present.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com
"To lose one decade may be misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. Well, in three years’ time we will have completed our second lost decade since the 2008 crisis. Who’s laughing now?" Dan Atkinson, Lion & Unicorn's first poster, on #10Years: thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2025/08/16/a...
A lost decade
What’s been the big economic picture over the last ten years? It isn’t good, says DAN ATKINSON.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com
"I am as usual but a humble spear carrier." Robin Day died 25 years ago today. thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/t...
Thank you for the Day
PAUL SAFFER on Robin Day, the always-humble Grand Inquisitor who gave us BBC’s Question Time.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com
England cricket legend Denis Compton was born #OTD in 1918. Here's his advice for boys who take up boxing: "Never give in. You may feel tired and a little dazed after a particularly hard round, but remember your opponent will also feel fagged." wp.me/p6lzJb-5su
Denis Compton’s English magic
PAUL SAFFER delves into a 1950s book for boys & finds more grit than glamour. And some imperialist football.
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"From all sides, the four-time election winner was pelted with dirt. The fact that the various groups of detractors disagreed as to why they despised him in no way lessened the impact of their attacks." It's 30 years since the death of Harold Wilson. thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/a...
A Harold for all seasons
DAN ATKINSON celebrates the 1970s incarnation of Harold Wilson.
thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com
"He called for the castration of rapists, questioned the innocence of the Birmingham Six, and dismissed his Labour rival as ‘a single girl who lives with her boyfriend and three bastard children, in Cambridge’." Tory David Evans was born 90 years ago. wp.me/p6lzJb-72m
Evans above
PAUL SAFFER remembers David Evans: Tory MP, Luton Town chairman and self-declared ‘right-wing disciplinarian’.
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"What everybody tells me they want is for the current leader to accept the inevitable and to stand down." 20 years ago, Robert Kilroy-Silk left UKIP after a clash of egos with Nigel Farage. @alwynturner.bsky.social tells the story.👇 wp.me/p6lzJb-7n8
Kilroy vs UKIP
ALWYN TURNER remembers the clash of egos between Nigel Farage and Robert Kilroy-Silk.
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"Are not the spectators responsible for most of the hullabaloo?" asked the papers. Our @paulsaffer.bsky.social remembers how the News of the World made darts a spectator sport. wp.me/p6lzJb-7mJ
When the News of the World took flight
PAUL SAFFER on how darts moved from public bar to sporting arena, thanks to a now defunct newspaper.
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Our top ten most clicked posts in 2024, featuring Rishi Sunak, Robert Maxwell, Labi Siffre, Diane Abbott, Stephen Milligan, an alternative universe @alwynturner.bsky.social, Michael Heseltine, Roth-Händle, Sherlock and a lot of sausages.👇
Lion & Unicorn@lionunicorn.bsky.social · 2y ago"Well, that was a funny old premiership. It was hard to work out quite why Rishi Sunak was actually at Westminster. Lord knows he didn’t need the money." L&U's 10th-most-read post in 2024 is @alwynturner.bsky.social's verdict on the prime minister before Keir Starmer. wp.me/p6lzJb-7aP
"The tubby, middle-aged man nursing his injured dignity is a recognisable sitcom role, and Prescott added to the gaiety of the nation. He was a character. That, above all, is what drove the expressions of nostalgic sadness when his death was announced." wp.me/p6lzJb-7j8
‘Incoherently eloquent’
ALWYN TURNER on the late John Prescott: never mind the politics, feel the vibes.
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