James Vaughan
banner
equusonthebuses.bsky.social
James Vaughan
@equusonthebuses.bsky.social
Historian of UK-Israel relations, British decline, and propaganda. Hittites. Blues harmonica. Aberystwyth Cricket Club. Just posting stuff that interests me really.
A handy 1939 "cut out and keep" quiz for 21st century billionaire tech bros and chemical engineering CEOs...
February 12, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Trust Oswald effing Mosley to spoil the joke...
February 12, 2026 at 1:07 PM
#OnThisDay 1947: David Low on post-war immigration. One for Sir Jim...
February 12, 2026 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by James Vaughan
Radcliffe should remember we immigrants and children of immigrants are here because of British colonisation and make a huge contribution. He moved to Monaco to avoid £4bn tax. His club Man U owes everything to migrant players and migrant supporters. He’s an embarrassment to the club and game.
February 11, 2026 at 10:41 PM
Been wandering through old copies of The Spectator in the last few days. This May 1986 cartoon on the Chernobyl disaster. Wow.
February 11, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by James Vaughan
Exhibit 12,239 for this theory that the stochastic radicalisation engines we've built have this revolutionary feature that they give the same exact brainworms to the genius billionaire as they do to the drunk uncle at the pub

bsky.app/profile/news...
February 11, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Repeatedly. Over many, many centuries. Quite often by people looking a bit like Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
February 11, 2026 at 6:13 PM
This lad is suddenly unexpectedly popular in my neck of the woods… youtube.com/shorts/L_KI9...
Ben Earl reveals his parents connections to Aberystwyth live on S4C! #rugby #6Nations
YouTube video by S4C Chwaraeon
youtube.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Reasons I love Ystwyth Books #3547. Random sinks.
February 10, 2026 at 7:18 PM
🎶Yes, and if the world goes wacky,
We'll get John to send out Jackie! (you mean Jackie Robinson?)
No man, I mean the First Lady!🎶
("Cultural Exchange", The Real Ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dave and Iola Brubeck, 1962)
February 10, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by James Vaughan
"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"
February 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Had a recollection that there was a cracking paragraph on Mandelson in Andrew Rawnsley's Servants of the People (published over a quarter of a century ago). It is as good as I remember, especially the Murdoch line about him being "easy... because he was a star-fucker"
February 8, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Well, England will have got Italy properly quaking in their cricket boots after that... Fantastic stuff from Nepal, mind you 👏👏👏
February 8, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Beginning to wonder if this thing at Twickenham is actually part of a WRU project to create a psychologically disturbing piece of performance art and get a Turner Prize win #EngvWal
February 7, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by James Vaughan
the perils of being a commentator
February 7, 2026 at 2:51 PM
An early appearance in the archival record from one Peter Mandelson, then Vice-Chair of the British Youth Council. From the FCO's Near East and North Africa Department file series, October 1975...
February 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
What the hell is going on here?
February 7, 2026 at 2:40 PM
“I just looked at the first part. I didn’t see the whole thing; I guess during the end of it there was some kind of a picture that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either. But I didn’t see it, I just, I looked at the first part…" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump says he 'didn't see' part of video with racist clip depicting Obamas as apes
The US president says he
www.bbc.co.uk
February 7, 2026 at 8:43 AM
Outrageous
Every time someone says or does something virulently bigoted against an ascriptively defined population group, people start calling them a racist.
February 6, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by James Vaughan
In a remotely sane universe, this would be disqualifying and career-ending. The political world would recoil, and the fundamental decency of the America people would be outraged. The raw rancid racism is neither a joke nor a close call.
In Trump’s world…

open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
Let us Prey
Trump does the Prayer Breakfast
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:46 PM
"He scored 24 off his first 24 balls, meaning his last 151 runs came off just 56 deliveries." 🤯
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
Vaibhav Suryavanshi: India teenager, 14, makes 175 from 80 balls in Under-19 World Cup final against England
India teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi makes a stunning 175 from just 80 balls in the Under-19 World Cup final against England.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 6, 2026 at 11:21 AM
#OnThisDay 1953: David Low, preemptively channelling the spirit of @aiannucci.bsky.social, on Stalin and the "doctors' plot"
February 6, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Late night BlueSky Blues. The amazing Flora Molton, recorded in the early 1980s. 'Your Enemy Can't Harm You.' youtu.be/jAeWxY4ic4U?...
Flora Molton - Your enemy can't harm you
YouTube video by flovialau
youtu.be
February 6, 2026 at 1:03 AM
The martial plan...
FT exclusive:

“The US state department is set to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities across Europe to disseminate Washington’s policy positions and challenge perceived threats to free speech.”

via @annasophiegross.bsky.social and colleagues
February 5, 2026 at 11:42 PM