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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 29m

Going to the pub, for most people, is not primarily about getting drunk. It is about company and a bit of serendipitous intergenerational social contact and feeling part of a community (however self-selecting). And we don't have enough of that in our lives since we stopped going to church.

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 2d

Tom Waits or possibly Patti Smith

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 3d

I'm wondering if we could invent a (not very) new term to describe the problem you are confronting which would be "Authoritarian-Populist". I'm beginning to find "populist" a bit unhelpful.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 3d

If that's the dog's dinner heaven only knows what the rest of the family will be getting!

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 3d

Sorry to be pedantic, but I think she was an anarchist *and* paediatrician. I'm sure she would have treated children who weren't anarchists.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 3d

Man after my own heart, but I have to confess to having owned a VHS player and seen Pan's Labyrinth. In compensation, I also have never seen Dirty Dancing nor have I listened to a note of Taylor Swift. (I think that last one is a bit of a clincher, personally. I win.)

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 4d

Strategic thinker. Classics is not competitive for entry these days.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 5d

2. The relevant total is 650 minus 4 Speakers and Deputies, minus 5 chairs of the committee who are disbarred from voting, minus 4 tellers, minus 7 Sinn Fein who do not take their seats and minus 9 SNP who as a matter of principle do not vote on E&W law. Total remaining 621. Half = 311.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 5d

This is a slightly daft article. The claim that the Lords has a constitutional duty to pass the Assisted Dying Bill is no more "constitutionally illiterate" than the counter claim. But the claim that 315 votes in favour on 3rd reading in the Commons was not a majority of the House is just wrong./2

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 5d

thecritic.co.uk/peers-have-n...

Peers have no duty to vote for assisted dying | Fleur Elizabeth Meston | The Critic Magazine

Ellie Ball, Director of Communications at Dignity in Dying and Compassion in Dying, posted on X recently that “The Lords has an important duty to scrutinise, but it also has a constitutional duty to…

thecritic.co.uk

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 12d

Or subtitles. Or a suitably ponderous bit of dialogue in which someone says "My source has just texted me to say that the prime suspect has just visited the lost luggage office at Edinburgh Waverley station".

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 13d

Jacques Delors got it right.

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 16d

"Men You Can Do Business With". (Obviously depends to an extent on the gender make-up of the band.)

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 17d

He should be excommunicated.

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 18d

I'm intrigued that you're addressing this to the Political Studies Association. I've gone off Hugh Bonneville a bit since he chose to do another effing sport-related follow-up to W1A rather than take up my suggestion of SW1A - in which Ian Fletcher becomes Director of Parliament's R&R programme.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 18d

It seems entirely consistent with a movement more interested in rhetoric than effect.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 21d

I don't know if repeal was in the Labour manifesto, but the Lords definitely did delete it from the bill - twice! Which was almost unprecedented but really did happen. If the Government had persisted in 2000 they would have lost their entire bill for about a year.

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 22d

Can I just once again address the claim made in this blog that New Labour (or more specifically Tony Blair)"delayed the repeal of s.28 for years". Repeal was included in the Local Government Bill in 1999. The relevant clause was deleted by the House of Lords.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 23d

What is Reform's position on idolatry? Do they proscribe the display of images of Nigel Farage? And along with the the 16th century puritans, do they disapprove of dancing and Christmas? A manifesto pledge to abolish Christmas could produce an interesting coalition of voters.

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Reposted by Paul Evans

Charlotte Nichols MP @charlotte2153.bsky.social · 25d

It melts my head that X is still used for official Government communications, and, catching up on today's news and the fact we have a foreign billionaire inciting violence on our streets, it's clearer than ever that this should end.

I raised this in Parliament last week 👇

Question from me: "I warmly welcome the Leader of the House to his new role and associate myself with the support across the House for my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson). Members have raised many times the unacceptable level of threats that we face. Increasingly, abuse and threats are being driven and whipped up by one platform in particular, X, previously known as Twitter, which has become a sewer of antisemitism, racism, misogyny and dangerous conspiracy theories. Its owner has specifically targeted Members of this House. With a new director of communications in No. 10 and a refreshed Front Bench, may we have a debate in Government time on whether it is appropriate for that platform to continue to be used for official Government communications?"

Answer from Sir Alan Campbell, Leader of the House: "What my hon. Friend says about X is truly shocking. We are very much in favour of free speech, but we are also against incitement to violence. We have delivered the Online Safety Act 2025 to seek to strike the balance between user protection and freedom of speech. On the matter of the Government’s use of X, it is right that the public are kept up to date with information and a number of people still use X, although of course many are moving to other platforms. I am sure that the Government will take that into account in our deliberations in future, and we also keep our wider social media practices under review."

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 25d

The imagined indoctrination would seem to have around a 99.9999% failure rate. Par for the course for these lefty academics I guess.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 25d

It's Horst Wessel all over again.

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 26d

Horst Wessel

Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · 26d

First conkers of 2025 - picked up in the bucolic surroundings of Heston M4 Services (Westbound since you ask). Autumn has definitely arrived. I love conkers - one of the greatest beauties in nature.

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Paul Evans @courtenayilbert.bsky.social · Sep 8

It's not a hammer it's a gavel

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