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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 22h

Are the “rip-off” degrees those which require thoughtfulness, empathy and imagination, and are therefore utterly unfathomable to people who are in the modern Conservative Party?

The world should be rows of humans solving maths puzzles while being pumped with a nutritional paste from a feeding tube!

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 1d

The “identity politics” bit seems legit - of which Badenoch, Jenrick et al are the chief exponents.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 1d

Hmmm. Within the pantheon of over-regarded directors, where well over “60% of the films stink”, I’d probably place Ridley Scott as the apex example. 3 good films, 3 middling films, all the rest (of the many, many films) are bad.

Bad movies: is Ridley Scott right to say that 60% of films stink?

Napoleon director Ridley Scott has declared the history of film to be overwhelmingly rubbish – with a few notable exceptions

www.theguardian.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 2d

Excellent primer with @zoejardiniere.bsky.social on the present state of the immigration system & the policy issues involved. Good on the recent history, inc. Dublin regs. Policy thoughts on how the govt might stop fucking this up so repetitively. Recommended as part of your anti-Farage arsenal.

Migration - the real facts in an age of alarmism

Podcast Episode · Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell · 30/09/2025 · 56m

podcasts.apple.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 2d

Having canvassed in urban, East Kent in May, my feeling was that the Reform surge driven by the immigration rage-machine & online conspiracism - “the globalists” etc - was so deranged that I think it may have to naturally exhaust itself before many of these voters are able to return to reason.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 4d

Actually found myself reaching up, in dread, to see if my own hands were bigger than my entire head.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 5d

Really interesting detail on Ukraine’s campaign targeting Russian oil refineries.

I wonder if this type of campaign can be co-ordinated with the sanctions and other activity on the part of the European states, in order to further disrupt global movement of Russian oil & accelerate the pain.

Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 5d

Hi all, just sent out this free post to explain what matters (and what does not) in the Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil refineries. It discusses why the campaign now seems more successful, but also what else needs to happen to have a greater strategic effect. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Attacking An Oil Production System

Some Of The Nuts And Bolts--Starting With Refineries

open.substack.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 5d

"The renewed enthusiasm for the death penalty...is bigger than the inadequacies of the system...it is a symptom of Trumpism, and the creeping degradation of civil, legal and human rights".

Death & Donald Trump

Killings are up, as the rule of law diminishes

www.aftershocks.co

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

Excellent from Krugman on the stupidity and inadequacy of Hegseth:

Bulging Biceps Don’t Win Modern Wars

Hegseth’s speech was vile. It was also stupid.

open.substack.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

“We’ve had enough of them calling us Fascists, we’re going to respond with Fascism!”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Stephen Miller: "They say they are trying to kill the fascists & stop the fascists. It's deliberate. President Trump is saying that we as a nation are not going to tolerate it anymore & the joint terrorism task force at the FBI is going to find these terrorists & we're going to put them behind bars"

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

For me, this is less about reintegration with the EU at this particular moment, & more about our national consciousness. There needs to be a reckoning with what the small-minded nationalism and reactionary atavism of Farage (& the Brexit Tories) has meant for this country.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

It’s amazing how far the politics of the right in the UK are now suffused with MAGA conspiracism originating in the US. The lexicon - “radical Left”, icons and iconography -“Charlie Kirk” - even the phrasing of Cole’s tweet. They have become a weird subculture, rather than political formation.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

Yes, & there have been a couple of other oblique references here and there. But it’s far too timid - buried in a list of other points and framed in terms of the past, rather than the effect that it has on the present & the ongoing harm that it is causing. They need to open up a major front imo.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

I remember that we debated this a year ago, where I mounted a defence of the policy not to engage on Brexit. Results are in, and you were right! Difficult to assess what might have happened had they opened the argument at that time, but now is definitely the time.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

What is missing is Brexit. I understand the initial impulse not to fight yesterday’s battles or re-open a divisive, nationalistic culture war, but that war arrived anyway. They must end the Brexit Omerta, *repeatedly* itemise the costs to Britain, and pin those costs on Farage.

Starmer brings the steel – and draws up battle lines with Reform UK

Prime minister answers his critics in conference speech but the real challenges still lie ahead

www.theguardian.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

Yeah but that’s such a thin and transparently shit argument, that being forced to repeatedly state it, together with the *detail* of what he would have done differently, and would do if he were to form a government, would not go well for him.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 7d

Also shows what happens if they are properly attacked, rather than ignored or filibustered. I think it’s time to end the Brexit Omerta, explain what it has cost Britain, and make Farage defend that cost.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 11d

The last truly credible candidate that the Democratic Party managed to excavate was Obama - the best part of 20 years ago now, which says everything about the position in which the US now finds itself.

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 11d

Ooof this is a damning verdict. And an indictment of her lack of self awareness, if she really is as much of an incompetent dick as this summary of her book suggests.

107 Days, Zero Ideas

Kamala Harris’s new book proves she fell far short of being the candidate Democrats needed.

open.substack.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 12d

Yep - just checked Wikipedia, WOW

Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 12d

Strongly suspect that Hanson may have been the birth of Christian Nationalism #TOTP

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 12d

Lighthouse Family. Emperors of the dirge. 98 gets even worse #TOTP

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 12d

I did not remember ‘98 being this bad for chart music. And always hated Vindaloo, Keith Allen & a bunch of dickhead Notting Hill luvvies with an offensive impression of what they imagine football fans to be and to like #TOTP

Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 13d

The endless battle to stop my two from speaking American. They now do it purely to wind me up.

Rage-chased my 5-year-old around the table the other day while he shouted “Zucchini!”

Volume of US YouTube shows ‘weakens UK children’s ties to their own culture’

BBC’s head of children’s TV says YouTube’s algorithm takes children to US-based content, rather than UK shows

www.theguardian.com

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Elio España @elioespana.bsky.social · 14d

The airspace incursions did seem indicative of a degree of panic in Russia. Their response to setbacks is always to try and apply pressure through escalation; flying into NATO airspace in the way they have been looked like mounting desperation. Fingers crossed.

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