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John Rowan

@jrowanbxl.bsky.social

1.2K followers 1.5K following 2.8K posts

Artisanal bureaucrat. Faceless and unelected during office hours. Does health emergency stuff for the European Commission. Posts likely to be about EU and UK politics, movies, history, Brussels, rugby (Leicester Tigers fan), food.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 11h

One of the best live bands I've had the good fortune to see.

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 12h

Eh, I reckon we could let the first "the" go, if we felt so inclined

Reposted by John Rowan

Tom Jamieson @tomjam.bsky.social · 19h

Proper British values. 3kg of Haribos, a carvery, then death

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

The guillotine

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

Me to people who put bedside reading lights into hotel rooms or Airbnbs that are not bright enough to actually read a book by

a man talking on a cell phone with the words i will find you below him

ALT: a man talking on a cell phone with the words i will find you below him

media.tenor.com

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

Me to people who design sinks you can't fill a water bottle from.

a man talking on a cell phone with the words i will find you below him

ALT: a man talking on a cell phone with the words i will find you below him

media.tenor.com

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

Which nunchuk does he lead with though?

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

Found some more

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 1d

Found some antifa this morning

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Reposted by John Rowan

Simon Pegg @simonpegg.bsky.social · 2d

"... in 1975 no one died. In 1976, no one died. In 1977, no one died. In 1978, no one died. In 1979, no-one died. In 1980... someone died. In 1981, no one died. In 1982 there was the incident with the pigeon. In 1983, no one died. In 1984, no one died. In 1985, no one died. In 1986..."

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 2d

Is that Avenue du Parc Royal? I stopped using the bike lane at the other end (i.e. coming from the A12) with my kids when I saw how frequently the small concrete blocks separating it from the road got knocked out of place by traffic straying out of lane into the bike path.

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 2d

I am increasingly convinced that the only route to salvation lies in a nationwide Campaign For Better Epistemology.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

One of the great character entrances (and impact on the dynamic of the drama) of all time.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

Giving pubs more choice about when they open and thereby patrons more choice about when they drink is...fine? But linking it to growth is mad (the link to public health is probably not that clear either).
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth

Exclusive: Plans for England and Wales would help the ailing hospitality sector but have attracted criticism from health experts

www.theguardian.com

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

Fashworth-Hayes (coinage of @cjayanetti.bsky.social, I think) has been heading down that path for a long time now.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

Hang on, Charles Amos is the UKIP kid who is pro-incest and was presumably Reform, has he defected to the Tories now?

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

I always enjoyed the (presumably apocryphal, sadly) local story of the Australian pronouncing Loughborough as "Looga Barooga"

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

I was thinking about this last night, and I think the basic problem here is that understanding this requires people to hold two ideas in their head at the same time.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 3d

So we had members of extended family working in the Gulf back in the 80s, and the attraction was pretty clearly a quasi-colonial lifestyle - G and Ts at the club at 5; servants; and a certain level of privilege, rank and deference just for existing

William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 3d

The subtext of ‘we should be more like Dubai’, beyond the obvious racism, is ‘I should have a servant’.

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Reposted by John Rowan

Frédéric Moreau @goodclimate.bsky.social · 4d

This lurid headline is about British tourists no longer getting away with overstaying in Schengen. Or being 'illegals', as it's often called in the UK.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 4d

Oh God, that brings back memories. Was definitely believed by kids in Leicester in the late 8os / early 90s as well.

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 4d

WW2 is both the apotheosis and the sudden death of Empire. It's a moment when more Brits experienced the Empire directly than ever before: in Malta, North and East Africa, the Middle East, India, and Burma.

John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 4d

By that definition, there are plenty of people around whose grandparents were alive during the imperial period, though. I'm 49, my maternal grandfather was born and brought up an Army kid in India.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 4d

Perhaps this is reflective of society, but it strikes me that a lot of disillusion that I hear is couched in terms of "politicians always lie about everything" and I always want to point out that they really didn't until about five minutes ago and now they do because they get away with it.

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 4d

And yes, of course, there were politicians who occasionally did and got away with it, but I think the strong shared convention that it was not acceptable to lie mattered, and we can now repent at leisure that it's been chucked out of the window.

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