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Sir Almaviva

@ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social

540 followers 940 following 4.6K posts

Lover of trams, classical music, maths, tea and cats. Member of the cycling lobby. 🇮🇹 immigrant in 🇬🇧. Refugees are welcome, racists are not. Lover of "Italian Effeminacy and Italian Nonsense" (i.e. opera, according to Jonathan Swift)

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · Jan 8

Let's see if I can keep it up, but I am going to try to do a thread with all the books I read in 2025, starting from the following post.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 1h

Also Waterstones at Arndale is having a refurb.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 2h

The UK also requires you to do that. You can avoid taking the test if, for example, you have a degree from a British university, which is how I proved my language knowledge when I applied for citizenship.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 2h

A Nazi government.

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 11h

X post today from Homeland Security @DHSgov that says "Remigrate."
3:06 PM · Oct 14, 2025

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 3h

The "best" part of the Life in the UK test is that many of the questions are just common sense (like "Should you dump your rubbish in your neighbour's garden?") and then some of them are quite random facts about British history, sport and culture which I think many British people would not know.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 3h

The number of people on a jury in Scotland! That's one of the things I remember from my Life in the UK test. And the Battle of Bannockburn.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 4h

Either very shoddy journalism or just an outright lie from the Times. Hard to say which one.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 4h

Just a point to add to this.

In a Times article mentioning the same issue, it notes about dependents of migrants that:

“At present they do not have to speak any English at all.”

Which isn’t the case - at all.

The tougher language requirement will not apply to family members who come with migrant workers, known as dependants.
Separate changes will require them to learn a standard of English equivalent to GCSE.
At present they do not have to speak any English at all. The government has not said when the changes for dependants will be introduced.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 11h

Almost 20 years ago Italy won the World Cup, now it looks like a great achievement if we qualify for a playoff.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 13h

Oh, actually there is one!

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 14h

Can people at the Home Office come up with puns in three languages, often mixed with each other? No? That's what I thought. Here it's just a day ending in y.

Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 14h

"are you SURE you can communicate with your british spouse? are the three tests we already make you do and the life in the uk test reaaaally proving anything?" - the stupidest person in the home office, which may well be all of them

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 15h

You can also tell it was written before the Rossini Renaissance, because in the long list of operas inspired by Walter Scott there is no mention of La donna del lago (!)

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 2d

I started reading a book which promises to be quite interesting (Literature as Opera, by Gary Schmidgall, 1977) and where it talks about Händel you can tell the book was written before the massive boom in popularity of baroque opera, because it talks about those operas as largely forgotten.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 15h

I've been listening again to 'Giulio Cesare' and to the three Ariosto operas by Händel (or Handel) — Orlando, Ariodante, Alcina: Italian operas by a German-British composer, composed for an English audience. And marvellous music.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 16h

For comparison, Italy requires a B1 level to obtain citizenship. Now the UK will require B2 for some visas.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 17h

If the government really wanted to fix our "failed immigration system" (in their own words) they would reduce the spouse visa fees which currently are in practice a financial penalty for marrying a foreigner. But what they really mean is that they don't like us foreigners and don't want us here.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 17h

IT'S ALREADY CONTROLLED, VERY MUCH SO

Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today (14 October), as the government continues to replace Britain’s failed immigration system with one that is controlled, selective and fair.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 17h

Yeah, what annoys me the most is the way they announced it as if previously immigrants didn't have to show that they knew the language.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 18h

In my household of two people we speak an average of 2.5 languages per capita at a fluent level, and know another 2 each to some extent. Each of us is learning the other's language. This whole "immigrants need to be able to speak English" is nonsense. We already do, and often other languages too.

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 19h

I'm an immigrant and I love Hardy!

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 19h

I imagine the skilled workers who come on those visas already speak English to a level which is good enough to enable them to do the job they've been hired to do. Just more nonsense from this xenophobic government.

Ms Mahmood said it was “unacceptable” for migrants to come to the UK “without learning our language”, claiming they were “unable to contribute to our national life”.

Migrants wanting to come to the UK on the skilled worker, high potential individual or scale-up visa routes will have to demonstrate they can speak B2 level English – equivalent to A-level standard – from 8 January 2026.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 22h

Elon Musk has been supporting (politically and financially) the worst far-right extremists in the UK and explicitly inciting violence, the government should do something about it.

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1d

Elon Musk is paying Tommy Robinson's legal bills.

The British media and political establishment is still on X and maybe this is the wake up call they need.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Tommy Robinson says Elon Musk is paying his legal costs as trial begins

Far-right activist is accused of refusing to comply with counter-terrorism police request at Channel tunnel

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Sir Almaviva

HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 1d

Reform UK's deputy leader has broken parliamentary rules by failing to register hospitality. So what's the story with Richard Tice, the French villa and the ex-Kremlin minister?

hopenothate.org.uk/2025/10/13/r...

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 1d

In the spirit of "this meeting could have been an email": most of the time, a trilogy (series, etc.) could have just been one book.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 1d

"They don't even know the class-based distinctions of British society, the barbarians!"

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 1d

Lorenzo Da Ponte. After writing some of the most perfect libretti, he brought Italian opera to America and was the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia University.

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 1d

name an italian more worthy of an american holiday than columbus

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Reposted by Sir Almaviva

Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 2d

these are not "AI clips of European cities changed by migration", these are constructed videos designed to propagate a certain worldview - designed by the people this subhead describes as "seizing on" them

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 2d

In an AI-generated, dystopian vision of the British capital, a video shows Big Ben smouldering above piles of rubbish and London crowds dressed in traditional Islamic garb.

Far-right leaders are seizing on such AI clips of European cities changed by migration to promote racist views
u.afp.com/Smz4

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 1d

a man in a brown jacket covering his mouth with his hands and the words pretends to be shocked

Alt: a man in a brown jacket covering his mouth with his hands and the words pretends to be shocked

media.tenor.com