Andrew Brown
seatrout.bsky.social
Andrew Brown
@seatrout.bsky.social
Writer, journalist, — attempting simultaneous disillusionment and wonder. ex Guardian, ex Independent. Orwell Prize winner. Interested in trout, Christianity, tech, literature, journalism, Sweden, history. Less and less interested in politics of any sort.
The Times piece plugging a C4 documentary on John Smyth is written by someone with no understanding of the C of E at all, eg the assertion that "the church" "recklessly exiled JS to Africa" — as if it had the power to do so

www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/...
My father John Smyth, the evangelist, sadist and serial abuser
He abused boys in the Christian summer camps he ran for years — behaviour that was known to senior church figures. His son and daughter reveal what it was like to grow up in fear
www.thetimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
Eoin Clarke has handily put together a list of 100 Green policies and it’s pretty astounding anyone can type all these out and not work out the economic collapse they would bring on
December 8, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
I really do not understand at what point we forgot that this is how it works.
People are championing and enforcing these immigration policies now who are *products of this immigration ladder of excellence themselves*.
Did they never eg speak to their parents/grandparents?
December 7, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
We are in a hybrid war on two fronts.
We are also talking about a fragmented electoral landscape where 1-2% shift can change European elections.

Second, US social media platforms will let the far-right rip. The USG will also back them diplomatically. They also think the Musk take over of Twitter was really politically important. 2/
December 5, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
2/2

Sen Bill Cassidy, a liver-disease MD, complains about this ruling, as I am doing.

Here's the difference: He, personally, could have prevented all the resulting casualties, by casting the swing vote against RFK Jr. That's a power the other 330+ million of us lacked.

Don't let him forget it.
December 5, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE HYPHENS
December 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
A similar force is at work with some prominent Brexiteers - many of whom are from families who formed the imperial detritus. They can't forgive England for not being the country they thought they understood from air-mailed copies of Country Life.
December 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
"Surely a quick, violent, successful war of aggression is just what the ruler needs to shore up his legitimacy," said just about every failed monarch in history shortly before invading Serbia.
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
November 29, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
we call it The Epidural chez nous as its only when you try and stand up you realise you've lost the use of your legs
November 29, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Unbelievably depressing. He's talking about university students who lack the capacities I'd take for granted in an eight year old. America is so fucked — and so by extension, are its colonies, like us.
devastating thread
I am forever explaining assignments which, to me, feel fairly basic. I do offer some creative options, which need a bit more context. But so many of my students seem unable to follow instructions, even when I return to them multiple times, write them down, or turn them into games or quizzes.
November 29, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
November 29, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
Muscular Christianity.

“Wear some headphones, kid. And put your shoes back on”
November 29, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
"It is a bit of a shock to realise that, for most of my life, I had taken for granted that we lived under governments that tried, at least, to give power to international law"

Read this week's Viewpoint from @seatrout.bsky.social ⬇️
#Trump #UnitedStates #ICC
Viewpoint with Andrew Brown: In the American Empire, the law serves power
THE most prophetic book title of the century may have been Nothing is True and Everything is Possibl...
www.churchtimes.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM
A virtual Colosseum
Everyone using this should be shunned and probably jailed and those who created it should go to The Hague.
your 14yr old nephew is addicted to at least 4 different gambling apps on his phone where he's actively betting daily on the outcome of individual skirmishes in a real life war happening on the other side of the globe
November 28, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
RIP Martin Luther, you would have loved Papal Audience Black Friday deals.
November 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
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.
November 27, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
November 22, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Kill me now: some experiences of AI open.substack.com/pub/andrewbr...
Kill me now
adventures with machine learning
open.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
“(Premium users can also converse with Satan.)”

man talk about end of days…

www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/tech/re...
November 15, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
Really shocked to hear about the death of the brilliant Observer writer Rachel Cooke - what a terrible loss.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
at one point, i watched a cook county sheriff’s officer (who appears to be in charge) point out a priest in the crowd.

he and a couple officers then went into the crowd , dragged him into the street, and arrested him.

situation is still tense as crowd jostles with police to get into the street.
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Andrew Brown
"The licence fee makes the #BBC vulnerable to political pressure in a peculiarly damaging way, not just from politicians."

Read @seatrout.bsky.social's latest Viewpoint column 👇
Viewpoint with Andrew Brown: BBC protects mass media from abyss of TikTok
‘Sometimes, I think that TikTok is best understood as China’s revenge for the Opium Wars’
www.churchtimes.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 4:06 PM