So there’s a rolling crisis with Russia going on. A few weeks back I responded to this thread from the good doctor Leo Strauss with this tweet. What I think is necessary to understand here is the model of Putin-era Russia Tony Wood asserts in this podcast from 2018: Novara Media · #NovaraFM: Russia Without…
Read More Russia, Ukraine, and HighgateSo Matt Hancock is doing the rounds of the sundays, dropping hints that will be briefed out in more detail without attribution later. Perhaps this time’s the charm and the virus will be defeated by the sheer might of talking points distribution. Hell, it worked on us to the extent of getting this shower elected…
Read More A big conversation on seagulls, and afterThis raises the question of why it’s always “grade inflation” we hear about and never “grade growth” or “educational productivity improvement”. A while ago I responded to this Chris Cook piece about The One Where They Decided To Downgrade Everyone To Match Their Class Except For Subjects Only Rich Kids Do – remember that? it’s…
Read More looking back on an omnishamblesWe keep getting news stories about contact tracing call-handlers with nothing to do. The Guardian is especially keen on these and seems to either think they are just idle and need scolding, or else they should be laid off for reasons of economy, as there’ll be no problem bringing them back in future. Strangely, it…
Read More How bad is the contact tracing – really?This is fantastic and it reminded me of a book: Every single #BorisJohnson speech – so you never have to listen to him again. #extendlockdown pic.twitter.com/UiJ2EIu7df — James (@seebsouq) May 7, 2020 Heinrich Böll’s 1955 novella Doktor Murkes Gesammelte Schweigen/The Collected Silences of Dr. Murke, a classic of postwar German literature, was written and is…
Read More ErmSo we’re having a moment about John Boyd: The really interesting thing about the Dom Cummings appointment is that we now have someone in charge of No10 who is a devotee of Col. John Boyd, whose central thesis was to confuse your enemy and do the opposite of what they expect (1/4). — Damian McBride…
Read More Round and Round the OODA Loop: Folk Boyd and the BrexitersI originally drafted this post as the second on Tim Shipman’s book last autumn. Having found and re-read it I have revised it, among other things to go with Jonathan Portes’ appreciation for Sir Jeremy Heywood, the signing of a Brexit agreement, and the outing of the American Friends of the IEA An interesting thought…
Read More #AllOutWar On the InstitutionsA quick thought on the famous Tory letters. If you want to spill the Tory leader, you need a set percentage of the Tory MPs to write to the 1922 Committee chairman. The current trigger level is 48, and the current chairman is Graham Brady MP. There is a lot of mystery about the process,…
Read More How many letters?Stephen Bush in the New Statesman makes an argument I’ve heard from a few people. The young’uns are furious and therefore Corbyn, but they’re also “Thatcher’s children”. So the Tories can solve all their problems by offering something about “getting on the housing ladder”. It looks like they’re going to implement this. I am not…
Read More Weak sauceThat Tory after-action report (one, two, three) is quite the thing. Something that sticks out for me is that the 2017 election might have been the moment when the shrinking Tory membership finally caught up with them. This is something that has been promised for getting on for decades, but if it can’t go on…
Read More 2017: The ultimate development of the modern British campaign