Mark Crombie
@northofwatford.bsky.social
Indie music, education, popular and unpopular culture, Some other random stuff.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Nigel Farage has got the Reich hump
December 4, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Nigel Farage has got the Reich hump
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Occasionally, I read something and fall deeply in love, all over again, with the German language.
Today's unbearably cute discovery is the colloquialism for toddler: "dreikäsehoch". Literally, "three-cheeses tall".
Today's unbearably cute discovery is the colloquialism for toddler: "dreikäsehoch". Literally, "three-cheeses tall".
December 4, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Occasionally, I read something and fall deeply in love, all over again, with the German language.
Today's unbearably cute discovery is the colloquialism for toddler: "dreikäsehoch". Literally, "three-cheeses tall".
Today's unbearably cute discovery is the colloquialism for toddler: "dreikäsehoch". Literally, "three-cheeses tall".
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Farage had to come out hiding early because Tice tried to defend him earlier & libelled the target of Farage’s vicious anti-semitism. Rarely have two people deserved each other more.
December 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Farage had to come out hiding early because Tice tried to defend him earlier & libelled the target of Farage’s vicious anti-semitism. Rarely have two people deserved each other more.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Four days in to the press up challenge and I have done press ups already in the department meeting, in the pub and in the street. Please consider a donation to encourage me to keep making a part of myself - it’s a great cause! www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-he...
December 4, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Four days in to the press up challenge and I have done press ups already in the department meeting, in the pub and in the street. Please consider a donation to encourage me to keep making a part of myself - it’s a great cause! www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-he...
Reposted by Mark Crombie
This is why it is good that financial literacy is going to be taught in schools. On average, if you are 20, you should save in an index fund and not worry about it for decades, and he should know this!
Josh Hall, 20, is 'worried' about how the cash ISA allowance cut announced in Wednesday’s Budget will affect his long-term savings plans
➡#Read More: trib.al/UPCzygg
➡#Read More: trib.al/UPCzygg
November 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
This is why it is good that financial literacy is going to be taught in schools. On average, if you are 20, you should save in an index fund and not worry about it for decades, and he should know this!
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Stranger Things - Demogorgan Theme (Upside Down) on my 1984 Oberheim Xpander synthesizer
November 29, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Stranger Things - Demogorgan Theme (Upside Down) on my 1984 Oberheim Xpander synthesizer
Reposted by Mark Crombie
It’s here: Our list of 100 Notable Books of 2025. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
November 28, 2025 at 1:48 AM
It’s here: Our list of 100 Notable Books of 2025. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Just cancel your Netflix subscription and stop buying avocados. You'll be fine
November 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Just cancel your Netflix subscription and stop buying avocados. You'll be fine
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
November 27, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Gove has been an extremely poisonous influence on our politics. Undermining expert consensus on Brexit [had enough of experts, etc] and lying his way through the whole process in the aftermath of the Referendum. A travesty that he is on this panel of judges assessing political writing.
I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny
Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment
bylinetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Gove has been an extremely poisonous influence on our politics. Undermining expert consensus on Brexit [had enough of experts, etc] and lying his way through the whole process in the aftermath of the Referendum. A travesty that he is on this panel of judges assessing political writing.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
We urgently need to know how many of these accounts have been spreading/amplifying hate, division and instability in Britain. We already know that a foreign actor - Elon Musk - promoted violent overthrow of the government. Has his platform been enabling foreign adversaries to do the same?
This is one of the big accounts boosting Tommy Robinson, Farage and Reform and ‘English Patriots’.
It’s Russian.
It’s Russian.
November 24, 2025 at 10:09 AM
We urgently need to know how many of these accounts have been spreading/amplifying hate, division and instability in Britain. We already know that a foreign actor - Elon Musk - promoted violent overthrow of the government. Has his platform been enabling foreign adversaries to do the same?
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Labour's plan for a levy on foreign student fees makes no sense, unless it's to appease racists who don't like foreign students, or populists who believe in the lump of student capacity fallacy, that somehow they displace domestic students out of education.
November 23, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Labour's plan for a levy on foreign student fees makes no sense, unless it's to appease racists who don't like foreign students, or populists who believe in the lump of student capacity fallacy, that somehow they displace domestic students out of education.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Remembering the late 🇺🇲 American actor and comedian Arthur "Harpo" Marx (23 November 1888 – 28 September 1964), seen here in the pre-Code comedy classic film "DUCK SOUP" (1933)dir. Leo McCarey
#HarpoMarx
🎬 Paramount Pictures
#HarpoMarx
🎬 Paramount Pictures
November 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Remembering the late 🇺🇲 American actor and comedian Arthur "Harpo" Marx (23 November 1888 – 28 September 1964), seen here in the pre-Code comedy classic film "DUCK SOUP" (1933)dir. Leo McCarey
#HarpoMarx
🎬 Paramount Pictures
#HarpoMarx
🎬 Paramount Pictures
Reposted by Mark Crombie
It’s just nuts. Even if you accept Labour’s policy diagnosis, we “lost control” of our borders, and concern about immigration was rising long before the alarming rise of racism. The big change on racism has been we traded an anti-racist government for one that is at best Trappist on it.
I find insane that shabana mahmood is going out there and saying "white british people cannot be asked to accept too many of us outsiders, it is not in their nature, and their pushback against all of us is to be placated". What???
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made more explicit her argument that when ethnic minorities face racism, "we have no choice but to ask: what is the cause of our division"
Her answer is the level of net migration, 2019-23 causes racism. (She on Monday said it was caused by the scale of asylum)
Her answer is the level of net migration, 2019-23 causes racism. (She on Monday said it was caused by the scale of asylum)
November 21, 2025 at 1:45 PM
It’s just nuts. Even if you accept Labour’s policy diagnosis, we “lost control” of our borders, and concern about immigration was rising long before the alarming rise of racism. The big change on racism has been we traded an anti-racist government for one that is at best Trappist on it.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Yes, it's the latest Politics Weekly UK, a rich & questioning chatfest with me, @kiranstacey.bsky.social, @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social & @rafaelbehr.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...
How dangerous are Labour’s asylum plans?
Podcast Episode · Politics Weekly UK · 19/11/2025 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Yes, it's the latest Politics Weekly UK, a rich & questioning chatfest with me, @kiranstacey.bsky.social, @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social & @rafaelbehr.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...
Reposted by Mark Crombie
On Labour MPs in a dark place. Featuring King Lear. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Starmer’s squandering of a historic election victory is a tragedy nearing its finale | Rafael Behr
The tactics that gave Labour its huge majority in 2024 were no preparation for government – and the prime minister has proved he has nothing more to offer, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:20 AM
On Labour MPs in a dark place. Featuring King Lear. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Mark Crombie
The Covid inquiry’s findings are shocking but unsurprising now, so the main thing it left me thinking is that without a vaccine we wd’ve been utterly screwed. & if you worked round the clock to make a thing that saved millions of lives globally, to see that legacy trashed by anti-vaxxers…
November 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The Covid inquiry’s findings are shocking but unsurprising now, so the main thing it left me thinking is that without a vaccine we wd’ve been utterly screwed. & if you worked round the clock to make a thing that saved millions of lives globally, to see that legacy trashed by anti-vaxxers…
Reposted by Mark Crombie
6 music playing Stone Roses first album in its entirety this morning is not exactly helping this middle aged Gen Xer resist the aching undertow of nostalgia for late 20th Century.
November 21, 2025 at 8:10 AM
6 music playing Stone Roses first album in its entirety this morning is not exactly helping this middle aged Gen Xer resist the aching undertow of nostalgia for late 20th Century.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
this week's newsletter is titled "aren't you tired of feeling insane all the time?" and I think it speaks for itself
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
November 21, 2025 at 10:18 AM
this week's newsletter is titled "aren't you tired of feeling insane all the time?" and I think it speaks for itself
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
it is also free to read
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
November 21, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
Reposted by Mark Crombie
A theme of the Hallett report is that decisionmakers routinely underestimated the ability of the public to deal with complexity & accept hard trade-offs.
It's a problem that continues to plague our politics. One lesson of the pandemic is surely that we can have more honest conversations with voters
It's a problem that continues to plague our politics. One lesson of the pandemic is surely that we can have more honest conversations with voters
November 20, 2025 at 10:31 PM
A theme of the Hallett report is that decisionmakers routinely underestimated the ability of the public to deal with complexity & accept hard trade-offs.
It's a problem that continues to plague our politics. One lesson of the pandemic is surely that we can have more honest conversations with voters
It's a problem that continues to plague our politics. One lesson of the pandemic is surely that we can have more honest conversations with voters
Reposted by Mark Crombie
Also even if privately those people conceded that what Labour was proposing was enough, they'd just outbid them anyway and manufacture further grievances that more extreme measures were required to redress.
VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it
November 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Also even if privately those people conceded that what Labour was proposing was enough, they'd just outbid them anyway and manufacture further grievances that more extreme measures were required to redress.