Judith Knott
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judithmknott.bsky.social
Judith Knott
@judithmknott.bsky.social
Researching 19th-century German letters - when I’m not learning Estonian, knitting or playing piano.
FRSA, ex-civil servant and uni governor. (Pronoun tema.)
Pinned
Excited to announce I have a German article in Vol 24 of the Mendelssohn-Studien, due out in November.
“Der Rest ist Schweigen”: Zwei Briefe von Rebecka Dirichlet an Johanna Kinkel.
www.wehrhahn-verlag.de/public/index...
(picture is Rebecka’s sister Fanny Hensel)
Reposted by Judith Knott
As a Ukrainian who greatly appreciates the UK's support for Ukraine, feel free to replace your leader if he's shit.

A Prime Minister only clinging to power because of his opposition to Russia is more likely to create a pro-Russia backlash than hold the line indefinitely.
December 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Feel a bit sorry for Morris Halle tbh.
December 12, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Omg if I could go back and tell my 19-year-old self not to waste time on degenerative grammar …

Meaningless vogue ideas die curiously.
December 12, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Is this as opposed to a discontent factory?
How can this inoffensive man have become so viscerally loathed?

Keir Starmer must make No 10 a content factory

🖊️ Lewis Goodall
Keir Starmer must make No 10 a content factory
The Prime Minister can only re-establish authority if he learns to command the message
www.newstatesman.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Sleet How ridge below Grisedale Pike #LakeDistrict
December 12, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
The most shameful language point about school kids in the U.K. is not the number who speak English as a second language, but the number who don’t speak any language other than English.

Even more, the number of adults who don’t.
December 12, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Judith Knott
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte:

We are Russia's next target. And we are already in harm's way.
December 11, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Tone and intent aside: that a far-right American president tells us Europeans that we are weak and decaying is a bit jarring, sure, but somehow I find the far-right Europeans cheering for that while the rest of Europeans shrug it away with a "it's just Trump" equally if not more depressing.
December 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Davey presses PM over Trump's national security strategy

'Will the PM pick up the phone and make clear to Trump that attempts to interfere with our democracy are unacceptable?'
#PMQs
December 10, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Also - why now?
Starmer’s resignation honours … (🤞🏻)
December 10, 2025 at 6:38 PM
First Vogon peerage.
December 10, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Great Gable #LakeDistrict
December 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Home Office Ministers state publicly, on the record, that they are deliberately making life worse for older people and people with disabilities who depend on care services, but it's worth it because it reduces net migration.
December 9, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
🚨BREAKING🚨

MPs have voted to PASS our bill to establish a UK-EU customs union.

The Prime Minister must now listen to his own MPs, drop his self-imposed red lines and finally go for proper growth through an ambitious trade deal with the EU.
December 9, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
We don’t talk enough about how the English are a people of the Baltic - the Angeln region from which they originated borders the Baltic Sea
December 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Memories of Guarda #Switzerland
December 7, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Happy Independence Day, Finland🇫🇮!
💙🇷🇴
December 6, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Judith Knott
It's a mark of our moral disintegration that there's even a discussion about Ukraine giving up land. To even countenance it is to reward colonialism.
December 4, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
This was eminently predictable - that Moscow would seek to take advantage of one of Europe's least defended countries. What is surprising is that more contingencies were not in place, especially between Ireland and the UK, to protect Zelensky and intercept / destroy drones as required.
Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:
Four unidentified military-style drones breached no-fly zone to target Zelenskyy's arrival in Dublin
Gardaí are investigating whether the drones took off from land in Dublin or from an undetected ship.
www.thejournal.ie
December 4, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Maybe Lammy just has something against Gilbert and Sullivan?
December 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Nick Thomas Symonds has us both screaming at the radio.

Though he does it with a lovely Welsh accent.
December 3, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
This is wonderful and also true.
The analogies you draw, the thoughts you suddely have, the roads you pursue, the structures you comprehend, simply because a piece of art or theatre shakes you up and makes you think differently.
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Who’s going to do Treasury Select Committee in the morning?
December 1, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Judith Knott
Very good piece this by John Harris about Labour’s distaste for their squeezed middle class voter base. Connects to a lot of what I said a few week’s back in my Substack piece.

benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...
November 30, 2025 at 5:06 PM