Watercolour of the eruption of Vesuvius by Pater Fabris for Sir William Hamilton’s Campi phlegræi: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies (1776) from the collection of @antiquaries.bsky.social #c18 #c18th #18thc

‘Reform UK remains almost entirely a party of grievance. Rather than a offering a vision of a more prosperous, productive or communitarian Britain, it doubles down on punitive proposals, like deploying the Royal Navy to intercept and forcibly return small boats’

It's the end of Reform as we know it

A bad few months for Nigel Farage's insurgent party has shown their true colours

national.thelead.uk

Boris - form a square around the Prittster Kemi - man the barricades for a neo nazi

Maybe Kemi can put him in the House of Lords. That would *really* own the libs.

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 8h ago

Joshua Bonehill-Paine steps back from being a Conservative council candidate following backlash

I don't actually see any evidence of this? As far as I can tell most academics response to the Wilson piece (those who have seen it at all) was "huh, fair enough - I liked the film tho". I'm guessing this isn't registering because low key calm responses aren't flashy or memorable.

Robert Borden Stan Account@bordenstan.bsky.social · yesterday

If the academy gets pulled into coming out swinging against the biggest adaptation of Homer in probably a couple generations off the back of one prominent scholar deciding to be Reviewer 2 to Nolan's work, it will say, IMO, pretty damning things about academia's ability to foster public engagement.

Not so much the ruins of Toryism, as an empty lot where the party of Churchill and Wellington once stood.

James Ball@jamesrball.com · yesterday

You are also, fundamentally, just *not* the Conservative Party any more. You're just a new party wearing its clothes. Yes, the tory party evolves over time but...evolution not revolution, and all that.

Decomposing and a bit whiffy now.

Malcolm Quinn@malrog.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Since Boris Johnson, the Tories have been nailed to their perch. Now they have fallen off.

I don't feel they need advice on this.

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 8h ago

In a post on X he says he’ll instead be advising the Conservative Party on how young men become radicalised

Good on depiction as a means for humans to confront everything that isn’t human.

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2d ago

‘Perhaps the most precious aspect of the caves is that they preserve a picture in which hierarchy and human-centredness don’t look to have been the organising assumptions.’ T.J. Clark on the Chauvet cave paintings, published online early from our summer issue. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

'a sober institutional arrangement with good mores allow disorder to become information. This is central to the Machiavellian art of government.'

Rousseau's significance to the Liberal Art of Government (with shout outs to Foucault, Smith, and @aoprea.bsky.social ) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

Not so much the ruins of Toryism, as an empty lot where the party of Churchill and Wellington once stood.

James Ball@jamesrball.com · yesterday

You are also, fundamentally, just *not* the Conservative Party any more. You're just a new party wearing its clothes. Yes, the tory party evolves over time but...evolution not revolution, and all that.

Badenoch represents double-down conservatism. Never apologise or moderate. Insult your opponents. Patronise journalists when challenged. Contradict yourself, lie, whatever it takes, but never back down. And that's how you end up creating an extremely avoidable Tory antisemitism scandal overnight

Good on depiction as a means for humans to confront everything that isn’t human.

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2d ago

‘Perhaps the most precious aspect of the caves is that they preserve a picture in which hierarchy and human-centredness don’t look to have been the organising assumptions.’ T.J. Clark on the Chauvet cave paintings, published online early from our summer issue. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

A day after "second chances for neo-Nazis but not for One Nation," too. Truly we are living through peak Keminaissance.

Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 15h ago

It's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.

'Ben Johnson, co-director of...Science Works and a former government science adviser, told Research Professional News the government must understand how and where the sector is contracting or risk losing pockets of research capability.' That horse is already exiting the stable. 1/3

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 17h ago

Government ‘doesn’t know where research capability lies’. Contractions in the university sector need to be understood, former government science adviser says. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

10/10, no notes

Back in France and a bike ride down to the Nantes-Brest canal. A deer ran ahead of me on the cycle path and a heron took flight on the canal. These are good reasons to be here.

View of Amsterdam, Oude Kerk from South, c. 1670, by Jan van der Heyden, Dutch Golden Age artist, engineer & inventor (1637-1712); painted detailed cityscapes, pioneered practical innovations in urban lighting, drainage & firefighting. Mauritshaus den Haag

I wrote about the Trojan horse, and what we can learn from her mouth about different cultural attitudes towards deception and violence. As someone comments below, the phrase GIFT ARTICLE is pretty scary in this context.

Chris Suellentrop@suellentrop.bsky.social · yesterday

Turns out @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social knows a lot about ancient epics www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Over at LinkedIn (sorry) I have posted this for those of you that partake: www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-tr...

Why Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC is not going well for him

One point which was emphasised in the litigation department of what was then (and still should be) Herbert Smith was to always prepare for trial. Each step of the litigation process, from pre-action c...

linkedin.com

Ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin accuses Trump's pick for AG, Todd Blanche, of lying under oath during his confirmation hearing. WATCH LIVE HERE: youtube.com/live/NOoruvp...

You are also, fundamentally, just *not* the Conservative Party any more. You're just a new party wearing its clothes. Yes, the tory party evolves over time but...evolution not revolution, and all that.

Chairman Moët@chairmanmoet.bsky.social · yesterday

you can't build a big enough coalition if Gavin Barwell is too radical for you but an ex-Neo Nazi who broke into a police station isn't

Let me explain what leverage is…because two United States senators appear to have forgotten. Leverage is what you have when the other guy needs something from you…and you don’t need anything from him.

Good editorial from the FT saying our new PM must take a strategic approach to universities www.ft.com/content/1419...

Finding beauty in everyday life: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), French painter of tranquil, luminous still-life & genre scenes, admired by Manet, Cézanne, Matisse and Proust. La Fille de Cuisine 1738, NGADC | Panier de Pêches, avec noix, couteau, verre de vin 1768, Musée du Louvre

Terry Eagleton on James Joyce in @lrb.co.uk 23 July ‘He grew up steeped in the nationalist culture of his country, during the first rumblings of the only political revolution the British Isles witnessed in the modern era.’

to keep functioning a society must discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities

Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 2d ago

CBS reports US officials telling them there are no new negotiations planned with Iran despite what Trump is publicly claiming. We seem to be reaching the point where some in the administration are considering throwing Trump under the bus.

Hiring manager : "Can you explain this gap in your resume?" Odysseus: "Calypso, Lotus Flowers"

This morning’s crop of London figs.

Stories about life, death and taxes (plus some original photos) www.londoncentric.media/p/londons-fi...

London's first month without rain

Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?

londoncentric.media