Lion & Unicorn
@lionunicorn.bsky.social
Culture | History | Politics thelionandunicorn.com
"As soon as I came in through the gate someone rushed up to me and said, ‘Oh good, you must have come to do the washing up.’ He did not ask himself why I would wear an evening dress and diamante to do so" — Diane Abbott, on going to a Cambridge May Ball thelionandunicorn.com/2016/08/29/a...
‘Danger to democracy’: A press portrait of Diane Abbott (pt 1)
ALWYN TURNER on the woman who ‘got the Labour establishment on the run’.
thelionandunicorn.com
"A fog-bound city is shown – a standard trope when introducing dramas about London – and there are shots of the old Heathrow Airport, looking about as big as a railway station serving a medium size town" Simon Matthews on Val Guest's 1954 comic caper👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/08/01/f...
Final cut: The Runaway Bus (1954)
SIMON MATTHEWS watches Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford and Petula Clark.
thelionandunicorn.com
Just realised that all six episodes of 'The Glittering Prizes' (first broadcast in January 1976) are on YouTube. That's the next few evenings sorted then.
Glittering Prizes [Complete] - YouTube
Twenty years in the lives of some Cambridge undergraduates, who all find that the real world of a changing Britain is a hard place. Starring Tom Conti, Simon...
youtube.com
"It was a path others had trodden, and the task of smoothing away the rough edges of Howerd's comic persona and adjusting it to the requirements of a 75-minute plot was entrusted to Val Guest, whose qualifications for the task were ideal"👇
Alwyn Turner@alwynturner.bsky.social · 5d ago"Puzzled, frowning, constantly guarding his crushed dignity, he falls over a lot, rather like Norman Wisdom." Simon Matthews on Frankie Howerd's first movie, The Runaway Bus. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/08/01/f...
"Puzzled, frowning, constantly guarding his crushed dignity, he falls over a lot, rather like Norman Wisdom." Simon Matthews on Frankie Howerd's first movie, The Runaway Bus. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/08/01/f...
Final cut: The Runaway Bus (1954)
SIMON MATTHEWS watches Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford and Petula Clark.
thelionandunicorn.com
"As soon as I came in through the gate someone rushed up to me and said, ‘Oh good, you must have come to do the washing up.’ He did not ask himself why I would wear an evening dress and diamante to do so" — Diane Abbott, on going to a Cambridge May Ball thelionandunicorn.com/2016/08/29/a...
‘Danger to democracy’: A press portrait of Diane Abbott (pt 1)
ALWYN TURNER on the woman who ‘got the Labour establishment on the run’.
thelionandunicorn.com
The "botched attempt at state-assisted suicide" was one of the Starmer initiatives that @alwynturner.bsky.social labelled "anti-British and anti-Labour", along with curbing trial by jury. How many more will come under Andy's Axe? thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/18/k...
"David Bowie carried my PA into a folk club...once!" In a new 'Have you Heard' I look at the bucolic charm of Heron, getting it together in the country. Read here: thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/29/h...
Have you heard… Heron
BEN FINLAY on the bucolic charm of Heron, getting it together i the country.
thelionandunicorn.com
"It sounds like Parliament on a bad day" - Bill Oddie, when I interviewed him about "The Funky Gibbon". thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/27/b...
Bill Oddie
ALWYN TURNER on Bill Oddie and The Funky Gibbon.
thelionandunicorn.com
My top ten British Folk Rock article was published on the Lion & Unicorn OTD one year ago. Today, with the intention of a new article and top ten, I'm revisiting some great British traditional folk of the fifties and sixties (without the rock in it). #musicsky #folksky @lionunicorn.bsky.social
Top 10: British folk-rock
BEN FINLAY guides you through the best of British folk rock, from Nick Drake and the Fairports to Comus.
thelionandunicorn.com
"Certainly our suggestion that Mystic Meg be entrusted with economic forecasting couldn’t have been any worse than leaving it to the Treasury" @alwynturner.bsky.social remembers his time as ghost-writer for Screaming Lord Sutch👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/25/s...
Sutch is life
ALWYN TURNER confesses to having written the Official Monster Raving Loony Party manifesto for Screaming Lord Sutch.
thelionandunicorn.com
"There is no great lesson, no grander point. This isn’t a polemic on personal liberty or a glorified public information film on the evils of drugs, nor some kind of holy moral lesson so characteristic of dramas today. Instead, there are just people & places & decisions" 🔗 below
Anyone for some fine British country rock? In a new 'Have You Heard?' piece, I look at Kidderminster's finest, the much underrated Bronco. Read here: @lionunicorn.bsky.social #musicsky
Have you heard… Bronco
BEN FINLAY celebrates Jess Roden’s great country-rock band Bronco and their early-1970s albums.
thelionandunicorn.com
"These are things that go beyond policy to philosophy. To me, they stink. They are anti-British and anti-Labour. On these grounds, I think Starmer has been a thoroughly disreputable, even disgraceful prime minister" @alwynturner.bsky.social on Keir Starmer👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/18/k...
Keir Starmer: an obituary
As another prime minister bites the dust, ALWYN TURNER bids a less than fond farewell.
thelionandunicorn.com
"Owen Smith launches his campaign to become Labour leader. Among his proposals are increased taxation, the return of wages councils, and the rewriting (again) of Clause IV of the party constitution." Ten years ago, 17 July 2016. thelionandunicorn.com/2016/07/23/a...
After the Referendum: a long month in politics
ALWYN TURNER’s instant history of the thirty days that followed the referendum vote.
thelionandunicorn.com
"It was an opportunity for MPs to set aside politics and honour a former colleague. Instead, one after another, they rose to their feet and engaged in the political classes’ standard trauma response: attacking social media" @finlay24.bsky.social on appropriating tragedy👇 unherd.com/newsroom/ann...
Ann Widdecombe’s death is being weaponised for online safety laws
Monday’s House of Commons proceedings included a debate designed to pay tribute to Ann Widdecombe, whose death last week is currently being investigated as murder. It was an opportunity for MPs to set...
unherd.com
"Irritable and impulsive. Fixated on petty grievances. Supernaturally drawn towards self-sabotage. And worst of all, seemingly incapable of resisting the urge to pick a fight" In his debut for The Critic, @finlay24.bsky.social wonders whether Farage has gate fever👇 thecritic.co.uk/reforms-gate...
Reform’s gate fever | Finlay McLaren | The Critic Magazine
As they have grown more successful, Nigel Farage and his men have lost sight of what it takes to succeed…
thecritic.co.uk
"From a British perspective, there’s something a little reassuring about it. All these years after the Empire collapsed, Britain is still seen as important enough to be denounced as imperialist aggressors" @alwynturner.bsky.social is in UnHerd today, mentioning the war👇 unherd.com/2026/07/is-b...
Is Britain still fighting the Falklands War?
unherd.com
"From a British perspective, there’s something a little reassuring about it. All these years after the Empire collapsed, Britain is still seen as important enough to be denounced as imperialist aggressors" @alwynturner.bsky.social is in UnHerd today, mentioning the war👇 unherd.com/2026/07/is-b...
Is Britain still fighting the Falklands War?
unherd.com
"‘But what about the war?’ he asks, and Gabriel hastens to reassure him. ‘That’s all right,’ he says. ‘You can suck my big cock.’" The cultural and political impact of the Falklands War. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/13/i...
‘I could whip you’
ALWYN TURNER on the political and cultural fall-out from the Falklands War, from Alan Bennett to Del-Boy.
thelionandunicorn.com
"With her dumpy stature and jet-black pudding-bowl hairdo, she resembled, thought Gyles Brandreth, ‘a death-watch beetle’." thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/10/h...
‘Hard as nails’: Ann Widdecombe
‘Short, fat and ugly’ was the late Ann Widdecombe’s self-description. ALWYN TURNER on the woman they called Doris Karloff.
thelionandunicorn.com
"Neil Kinnock declares that he’ll fight, fight and fight again to save the party he loves: ‘There will be no split. There will be no retreat. This is our party, I’ve been in it 60 years. I’m not leaving it to anybody.’" 10 years ago, 8 July 2016. thelionandunicorn.com/2016/07/23/a...
After the Referendum: a long month in politics
ALWYN TURNER’s instant history of the thirty days that followed the referendum vote.
thelionandunicorn.com
Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street, was born 90 years ago on 8 July 1936. Here's @finlay24.bsky.social writing on the first episode. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/12/26/l...
Last night on YouTube: Coronation Street
FINLAY McLAREN meets the neighbours…
thelionandunicorn.com
Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street, was born 90 years ago on 8 July 1936. Here's @finlay24.bsky.social writing on the first episode. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/12/26/l...
Last night on YouTube: Coronation Street
FINLAY McLAREN meets the neighbours…
thelionandunicorn.com
"Neil Kinnock declares that he’ll fight, fight and fight again to save the party he loves: ‘There will be no split. There will be no retreat. This is our party, I’ve been in it 60 years. I’m not leaving it to anybody.’" 10 years ago, 8 July 2016. thelionandunicorn.com/2016/07/23/a...
After the Referendum: a long month in politics
ALWYN TURNER’s instant history of the thirty days that followed the referendum vote.
thelionandunicorn.com
"With ‘Funky Gibbon’, I started off trying to get the feel of a Miles Davis track, some really choppy Miles Davis-type rhythm, again with a Sly Stone influence." A very happy 85th birthday to Bill Oddie. thelionandunicorn.com/2020/04/25/r...
Revive 45: April 1975
Running foxes, dogs that need loving, gibbons with funk… ALWYN TURNER finds the top 10 from 45 years ago teeming with wildlife.
thelionandunicorn.com
"I once asked him if he had ever been offered a bribe, ‘A bribe?!’ he retorted. ‘Anybody offering me a bribe would be very foolish. They would never be involved in football again." @paulsaffer.bsky.social on the days when FIFA was in safe, English hands. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/06/07/f...
From Rous with love
PAUL SAFFER remembers the last English president of FIFA. Sir Stanley wouldn’t have approved of the modern game.
thelionandunicorn.com
