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.
Spectator article on "Insomnistan" incoming...
Nadhim Zahawi thinks London is now unsafe, because the other day a tired-looking man walked past him during the morning rush hour.
February 14, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Spectator article on "Insomnistan" incoming...
All other issues aside, the resemblance - give or take a few medals - is bang on. No need for paternity suits here...
February 14, 2026 at 12:36 AM
All other issues aside, the resemblance - give or take a few medals - is bang on. No need for paternity suits here...
Picked up this record today. Mr, Frank Edwards, one of the last surviving blues singers to record before the US entered WW2. He died, on 22 March 2002, aged 93, shortly recording a final session and deciding to get home to Atlanta cos his studio team weren't up for a night out in NC...
February 13, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Picked up this record today. Mr, Frank Edwards, one of the last surviving blues singers to record before the US entered WW2. He died, on 22 March 2002, aged 93, shortly recording a final session and deciding to get home to Atlanta cos his studio team weren't up for a night out in NC...
Kinda funny that Britain is (on some kind of technicality) briefly ahead of Canada on the Winter Olympics medal table
February 13, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Kinda funny that Britain is (on some kind of technicality) briefly ahead of Canada on the Winter Olympics medal table
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
A handy 1939 "cut out and keep" quiz for 21st century billionaire tech bros and chemical engineering CEOs...
Trust Oswald effing Mosley to spoil the joke...
February 12, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Trust Oswald effing Mosley to spoil the joke...
#OnThisDay 1947: David Low on post-war immigration. One for Sir Jim...
February 12, 2026 at 9:14 AM
#OnThisDay 1947: David Low on post-war immigration. One for Sir Jim...
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
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.
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
Been wandering through old copies of The Spectator in the last few days. This May 1986 cartoon on the Chernobyl disaster. Wow.
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...
bsky.app/profile/news...
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Britain has been "colonised" by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the country's richest and most influential men, has told Sky News.
news.sky.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:37 PM
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...
bsky.app/profile/news...
Reposted by James Vaughan
It can't if it doesn't make one.
Labour can win political argument for closer EU ties, says Rachel Reeves
Labour can win political argument for closer EU ties, says Rachel Reeves
Chancellor says stronger alignment with Europe is ‘biggest prize’ for trade and economic growth
Rachel Reeves has insisted Labour can win the political argument for a closer relationship with the EU, calling it the “biggest prize” for UK economic growth.
Some Labour strategists have been wary of making the case for stronger alignment with the EU, believing it could alienate pro-Brexit voters. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
February 11, 2026 at 7:02 PM
It can't if it doesn't make one.
Repeatedly. Over many, many centuries. Quite often by people looking a bit like Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Britain has been "colonised" by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the country's richest and most influential men, has told Sky News.
news.sky.com
February 11, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Repeatedly. Over many, many centuries. Quite often by people looking a bit like Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
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
This lad is suddenly unexpectedly popular in my neck of the woods… youtube.com/shorts/L_KI9...
Reasons I love Ystwyth Books #3547. Random sinks.
February 10, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Reasons I love Ystwyth Books #3547. Random sinks.
🎶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)
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)
‘Melania’ is nothing more than fan service for the zealous insider, writes critic Jordan Hoffman.
‘Melania’ Is a Lousy Film but Forever Part of U.S. History
It’s less “Triumph of the Will,” more Jackie Kennedy’s landmark TV special.
foreignpolicy.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:46 AM
🎶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)
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)
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.'"
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
La date du 16 juin avait été dans un premier temps pressentie pour son entrée au Panthéon, mais la cérémonie a dû être décalée de quelques jours en raison du G7 à Evian-les-Bains.
www.lemonde.fr
February 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
"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.'"
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
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"
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
Well, England will have got Italy properly quaking in their cricket boots after that... Fantastic stuff from Nepal, mind you 👏👏👏
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
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
Reposted by James Vaughan
the perils of being a commentator
February 7, 2026 at 2:51 PM
the perils of being a commentator
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
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...
What the hell is going on here?
February 7, 2026 at 2:40 PM
What the hell is going on here?
“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
“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...
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
Outrageous
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...
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
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...
In Trump’s world…
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...