Author | Lightnews

Keith Burnett

@virescitvv.bsky.social

78 followers 110 following 540 posts

Escaped management consultant, runaway civil servant, quondam public health campaigner, lifetime social worker and current PhD candidate. Always armed with a fountain pen... mightier than the sword.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 4d

Yes. But it bears repetition...

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Do populists always crash the economy?

Argentina is counting the cost of its turn to Javier Milei. Politicians from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni and Nigel Farage will be closely watching what happens next

www.theguardian.com

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

The first thing any professional law enforcement officer learns is to reduce the risk of head injuries. These paramilitaries appear to be actively inflicting them.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

16.6% is a really shocking turn-out. What is the point of paying membership fees if one cares so little?

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

How should we extrapolate from a chance regional assembly vote to infer lessons for a future national parliamentary general election? Caerphilly - very.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

Modelling behaviour? 'Sounds helpful. There are lots of review points within the doctoral journey where this can happen.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

Racists & knuckleheads will never opt for a limp imitation of fascism when they can get the real thing. The Cabinet needs to have the courage of its convictions. Tax wealth. Repossess water. Build homes. Rearm. Disown Brexit. Show some backbone. Give a reason for hope.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

Performance conversations are tricky in most industries, to be fair. Suspension of ego isn't easy in practice. Helping people get used to two-way candour early in career sounds worthwhile - but is sharing information enough to achieve that?

1 1

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 5d

Depends what you call 'best'. My fumbling, ingenue MA thesis got quoted a bit, which was nice. A cod Wordsworth/Larkin mash-up made a few people smile. Some Govt publications I wrote anonymously still helped to change laws & save lives. 'Just lucky to write for any audience, quoth the dyslexic...

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 6d

It would be a simple choice for a competent politician. An even half-way adequate party leader would simply dismiss such errant nonsense and those proposing it, immediately. Lam is a fool, clearly - but Badenoch is destroying her own credibility by endorsing the folly.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 7d

So the solution to nationalism is, err, more nationalism?

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 7d

I once saw him, clad in a blazer like a stripy deckchair, leading a conga of goths around a Swedish garlic restaurant. 'Surreal' didn't quite cut it.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 8d

This one? www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-d... Yes, it's a refreshingly sane summary.

In defence of the rules-based order

The last time I saw my cousin, the former Tory MP Danny Kruger, I found myself trying to ginger him up a bit. I said, which I thought then and thought now – and which I can’t think it is betraying a c...

www.spectator.co.uk

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

At no point since the 24th of June 2016 could Brexit have got through a referendum. It has been unpopular/unworkable since Day One - and always will be. Politicians who nevertheless claim this as their greatest success are, ultimately, doomed to fail.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

All too true. We're much better at the whole integration-but-also-variety thing than she gives us credit for.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

Well obviously they're not. But race certainly was what that failed politician was referring to.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

There's a special place in Hell for hypocrites who wang on about the evils of Nazism then start karaoking the greatest hits of Ribbentrop and Goebbels.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

As most Hebrideans are white, sure you'll do just fine. Let's not over-complicate this; it's just racism.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

Rising star? In whose dodgy horoscope? 'Looks more like another sinking nonentity, desperately tootling the dog whistle. You cannot be Sirius!

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 10d

He hasn't even met the criteria for a Blue Peter badge.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 11d

Well done, America. This is more like it.

Rep. Jacob Rosecrants @jacobrosecrants.bsky.social · 11d

So this is my new Iphone wallpaper! It’s the best No Kings sign I saw, in person, and online! From the frog to the crown-chair to the message…it’s the best! I’d love to see your favorites! 🚫👑

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 12d

In an earlier age, he'd have been packed off to a monastery by now.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 13d

The video for the Orbital contribution is laugh-your-head-off funny.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 14d

Regrettably, it does often look like that is the motive.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 14d

The reductionist lens of the gutter press is, I fear, unlikely to grasp that nuance.

Keith Burnett @virescitvv.bsky.social · 14d

Unfortunately, another commentator was. Nevertheless, I agree that the English language requirements look questionable. If they're an attempt to impress illiterate Faragists, doubly so.