Rachael Unsworth

Well worth reading the whole LRB piece.

It includes this quotation from an essay written in 1823 by William Hazlitt:

Chilling.

Let me take the opportunity to remind you all that protestors can take part in the annual peaceful "Independence From America Day", 4th July at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, the site of the US Intelligence Gathering Service.

“Setting an immigration policy which is fair, rational, and consonant with economic and demographic needs is not 'left-wing'. Operating an efficient and humane asylum process is not 'left-wing'. Making a clear distinction between immigration and asylum policies is not, in itself, 'left-wing'.”

The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump | Simon Tisdall As the Iran disaster escalates, the US president should be seen as an enemy whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdal...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Desire for Terror And the defense of democracy

A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States. This would provide Donald Trump with a pretext to try to cancel or “federalize” the coming Congressional elections.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-desire...

DJT:
Wealth, ruthlessness & an ability to lie completely shamelessly.

Sadly, enabled to rise to & retain this dangerously powerful position by those who admire his wealth & braggadocio and are prepared to ignore his hideous bundle of foibles & acts of malfeasance.

1. Purple, stripy and white crocuses at the northern edge of 32-acre Potternewton Park. In the background: Grade II-listed Potternewton Mansion, a house built c.1817 as Harehills Grove for woollen merchant James Brown, brother of banker William Williams Brown who lived at Allerton Hall, Stainbeck Lane. 2. Jetfire daffodils - small flowers with orange trumpets; short stems. 3. White damson blossom against a blue sky on Regent St, Chapel Allerton.

💜 crocuses in Potternewton Park
💛 'Jetfire' daffodils in my curious courtyard garden
🤍 damson blossom
All in north Leeds during the first week of March.

(Sorry if 'Jetfire' isn't quite the distraction you need right now.)

Political Thinking with Nick Robinson - 'We cannot have chaos': Emily Thornberry on the law of war and Labour's struggles - BBC Sounds The Foreign Affairs Committee Chair on Iran, Trump & the grief of being dropped by Starmer

Emily Thornbury says she was wrong to call DJT "an asteroid of awfulness" because an asteroid only hits you once.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

"The planet is large enough for peace, but too small for war"
Geographer William Bunge (1928-2013)
Nuclear War Atlas, 1988, p. 1.

Quoted by geographer and cartographer James Cheshire with reference to the grave perils unleashed by fascism in the C20.
'The Library of lost maps' p.263.

Must read piece.

'The US has started a war without any legal, moral, strategic or political basis whatsoever. And yet instead of raising the alarm about it, the British press’ main question is why Britain is not more involved.' And 'Is Iraq really that long ago?'

Everything is about power and when flawed, self-obsessed men can think of nothing besides power, young girls give them their best chance of feeling superior?

Pretty difficult to refute a single thing in this perfect assessment of where the f**k we are, from @iandunt.bsky.social:

"There's Plenty of Street
Space for All the People--
But Not for All the Vehicles."

General Electric ran this ad in magazines...in 1940.
Over three-quarters of a century
later, this obvious truth still eludes too many cities.

Reform UK will be using scrapping the 20 mph limit as a key Welsh manifesto pledge.

There’s been a 11.8% fall in road casualties in the 18 months since it was brought in. The majority of 16-34 year olds support the 20 mph limit.

Another case of Reform being out of touch with future generations.

You possibly look like 'a citizen of the world', as I put it. (I'm a geographer - boringly English myself.) I personally think it's rather wonderful to defy categorisation like that, though I guess it does make for some weird moments.

Tomorrow night!

A line-up that would grace any of the top festivals in the country, except we're bringing it to you for free...!

How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail    I would rather  eat Quavers that are six weeks stale,  blow dry the man bun of Gareth Bale,  listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,  than read one page of the Daily Mail.    If I was bored  in a waiting room in Perivale,  on a twelve-hour trip on Network Rail,  halfway through a circumnavigational sail,  I would not read the Daily Mail.    I would happily read  the autobiography of Dan Quayle,  1001 Things You Can Do With Kale,  selected scripts from Emmerdale, if it meant I didn’t have to read the Daily Mail.    Far better to  stand outside in a storm of hail,  scratch a blackboard with a fingernail,  be swallowed by a humpback whale,  than have to read the Daily Mail.    If I was blind   and it was the only thing in Braille,  I still would not read the Daily Mail.    Brian Bilston 

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

Parties may support PR when NOT in power & it would help them.

Parties with an effective majority aren't in favour ... until it might help, & are then taunted.

Imperfect PR + compromise over governing seems better than:
↔️ lurching L/R
🚶‍♂️ not putting up candidates in some places
🗳️ tactical voting

Hannah Spencer: councillor, plumber, greyhound lover and the only candidate who can beat Reform in Gorton & Denton today 💚

Putin tried to freeze Ukraine. Instead, he sparked an energy Revolution. Russia is bombing fossil-fueled power plants, so the country is building solar and wind.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I've become increasingly obsessed with the fundamental principles revealed by analysis of real-world events - writing that rises above the particular instance to give broader insights of enduring relevance.

This is glorious.

Huw Dylan, historian of intelligence:
"a long history of intelligence analysts unwilling to predict that future events will create a dramatic break with the past. People could not imagine what a major European land war would look like in the 21st century, so assumed it was unlikely to happen".

Liz Oyer is a former pardon attorney who was fired by Trump! I love how she breaks down this recent SCOTUS decision and how this will have far reaching implications curtailing Trump’s excessive use of the Emergency Powers clause and hamper his entire agenda!

Watch this!⬇️⬇️

#USDemocracy
#Pinks

Yes - quite a bit of skullduggery. Our speaker covered this.
We went for drinks and supper at The Cross Keys after the event. 🙂

This is a day to note: 200 years since the death of a hugely influential Leeds innovator.
Ace at cast iron and an enabler of industrialisation.
Maker of the first commercially successful locomotive- in 1812. Predated the Stephensons and should be more famous.

Plaque erected in 1929 to commemorate engineer Matthew Murray, born c.1765, died 20 February 1826. This is on a building on the edge of Murray's Round Foundry site in Holbeck. This structure, known as Matthew Murray House, was built after Murray's lifetime. A wreath of fresh flowers in white and red hangs over the plaque.

OTD 1826, death of Matthew Murray, Father of Mechanical Engineering in Leeds.
This plaque, erected in 1929, is on the edge of the Round Foundry complex in Holbeck.

Who cleaned the plaque & added the wreath of fresh flowers?

Nearby, we had a good Leeds Phil & Lit talk about Murray last evening.

Extraordinary fluidity and completely confident tricky perspective.

Yes, the current municipal election in Paris, less than 50 days away, is a crucial choice about lifestyle.
Returning to using cars everywhere, falling into populism, mistrusting others because of their skin colour or origin? Paris must remain pioneering, innovative, open, popular, lively and proud.