James Vaughan
@equusonthebuses.bsky.social
Historian of UK-Israel relations, British decline, and propaganda. Hittites. Blues harmonica. Aberystwyth Cricket Club. Just posting stuff that interests me really.
In the spirit of Yosel Cohen...
December 16, 2025 at 12:14 AM
In the spirit of Yosel Cohen...
Reposted by James Vaughan
He was buddies with a pedo but in a tasteful, honorable way
Noam Chomsky’s emails to Jeffrey Epstein display none of the fawning chatter found from, say, Larry Summers. And he does not appear to have been co-opted by whatever access Epstein provided.
https://bit.ly/4s3vx5A
https://bit.ly/4s3vx5A
What the Noam Chomsky–Jeffrey Epstein E-mails Tell Us
Chomsky has often suffered fools, knaves, and criminals too lightly. Epstein was one of them. But that doesn’t mean Chomsky was part of the “Epstein class.”
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 5:20 PM
He was buddies with a pedo but in a tasteful, honorable way
Struggling to quite get my head around The Sun’s concept for a photoshoot to celebrate Liverpool’s Steve McMahon’s first England call-up. Against Israel. In Tel Aviv. During the early months of the first Intifada 🫤
December 15, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Struggling to quite get my head around The Sun’s concept for a photoshoot to celebrate Liverpool’s Steve McMahon’s first England call-up. Against Israel. In Tel Aviv. During the early months of the first Intifada 🫤
The New Statesman (at least in its early 21st century incarnation) did not - to put it mildly - have a good record with front covers and antisemitism so it's interesting to see that they published this, on the institutionalisation of antisemitism in the USSR, #OnThisDay 1978
December 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
The New Statesman (at least in its early 21st century incarnation) did not - to put it mildly - have a good record with front covers and antisemitism so it's interesting to see that they published this, on the institutionalisation of antisemitism in the USSR, #OnThisDay 1978
“It’s not that Russian disinformation has changed fundamentally. It’s that we have changed fundamentally. Today we as a society are practically asking for these disinformation operations” (Thomas Rid)
Russia is ‘exporting chaos’, new head of Britain’s spy agency MI6 warns on.ft.com/3N0jGVx
Russia is ‘exporting chaos’, new head of Britain’s spy agency MI6 warns
In her first public remarks since taking office, Blaise Metreweli will also say that UK support for Ukraine is ‘enduring’
on.ft.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:36 AM
“It’s not that Russian disinformation has changed fundamentally. It’s that we have changed fundamentally. Today we as a society are practically asking for these disinformation operations” (Thomas Rid)
Reposted by James Vaughan
A simple approach would be to tell Mr Cole that he can choose to interview the most overt racists in our country (a man who'd chuck 90 MPs out of our parliament out on racist grounds & ban them from being civil servants) or to ask to interview government ministers - but that he can't do both.
December 15, 2025 at 12:23 AM
A simple approach would be to tell Mr Cole that he can choose to interview the most overt racists in our country (a man who'd chuck 90 MPs out of our parliament out on racist grounds & ban them from being civil servants) or to ask to interview government ministers - but that he can't do both.
Reposted by James Vaughan
Reposted by James Vaughan
Honestly impressed at Starmer and Nandy's commitment to not doing their job. This guy is literally talking about his wife, his children, her, and her children, and they do nothing!
CT explains why he thinks Shabana Mahmood is neither English, nor British, to which Cole does not respond to at all.
Cole: asks how many generations? Is it a race thing?
CT: Not race as Albanians don't count either. It is ancestry.
It is infinite generations, if you don't have the ancestry.
Cole: asks how many generations? Is it a race thing?
CT: Not race as Albanians don't count either. It is ancestry.
It is infinite generations, if you don't have the ancestry.
December 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Honestly impressed at Starmer and Nandy's commitment to not doing their job. This guy is literally talking about his wife, his children, her, and her children, and they do nothing!
Reposted by James Vaughan
Few thoughts on the "Polish exodus" from the UK.
1. It's not an 'exodus', it's a slow drip. We're fine, thanks.
2. Migration is really complicated.
3. The absolute cheek of the very same media attacking Poles for years lamenting their departure.
4. What you can do?
THREAD 🧵
1. It's not an 'exodus', it's a slow drip. We're fine, thanks.
2. Migration is really complicated.
3. The absolute cheek of the very same media attacking Poles for years lamenting their departure.
4. What you can do?
THREAD 🧵
December 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Few thoughts on the "Polish exodus" from the UK.
1. It's not an 'exodus', it's a slow drip. We're fine, thanks.
2. Migration is really complicated.
3. The absolute cheek of the very same media attacking Poles for years lamenting their departure.
4. What you can do?
THREAD 🧵
1. It's not an 'exodus', it's a slow drip. We're fine, thanks.
2. Migration is really complicated.
3. The absolute cheek of the very same media attacking Poles for years lamenting their departure.
4. What you can do?
THREAD 🧵
"Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients... and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives... intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue." www.timesofisrael.com/horrified-bu...
‘Horrified, not shocked’: Australian Jews blame Bondi attack on ongoing ‘incitement’
Community leaders say government has failed to respond to burgeoning antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, attack, leaving Jewish people fearful
www.timesofisrael.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
"Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients... and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives... intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue." www.timesofisrael.com/horrified-bu...
Sign of the times... www.jewishnews.co.uk/uk-police-in...
UK police increase patrols of Jewish communities in wake of Sydney attack
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in contact with her Australian counterpart later about the murder of 12 people on Bondi Beach
www.jewishnews.co.uk
December 14, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Sign of the times... www.jewishnews.co.uk/uk-police-in...
"Darkness of antisemitism casts a shadow over the festival of light" www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck...
Bondi Beach: Eleven killed in shooting targeting Australia’s Jewish community
A further 29 people have been taken to hospital and one gunman was also killed, NSW Police have told a news conference.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 14, 2025 at 12:33 PM
"Darkness of antisemitism casts a shadow over the festival of light" www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck...
#OnThisDay 1942: one of not many British political cartoons to deal explicitly with reports of the Final Solution and the Holocaust during WW2. David Low in the Evening Standard.
December 14, 2025 at 11:34 AM
#OnThisDay 1942: one of not many British political cartoons to deal explicitly with reports of the Final Solution and the Holocaust during WW2. David Low in the Evening Standard.
Been researching old copies of The Sun. Sometimes forgotten that The Sun emerged from the old Labour Party paper, the Daily Herald, and that even after Murdoch took it over in 1969, it took about a decade for the harder right-wing politics to predominate. Some Sun views on Enoch Powell in 1972...
December 13, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Been researching old copies of The Sun. Sometimes forgotten that The Sun emerged from the old Labour Party paper, the Daily Herald, and that even after Murdoch took it over in 1969, it took about a decade for the harder right-wing politics to predominate. Some Sun views on Enoch Powell in 1972...
Reposted by James Vaughan
*Manufacturing consent*
I'm kinda fascinated by why they chose to hit up Noam Chomsky. Were they just sitting around and one guy goes "You know what this pedo sex party needs? Noam Chomsky"
December 12, 2025 at 10:38 PM
*Manufacturing consent*
Speaking of Private Eye, their new version of I'm a Celebrity is top work...
December 12, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Speaking of Private Eye, their new version of I'm a Celebrity is top work...
Latest Musk AI horror show. Courtesy of Private Eye...
December 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Latest Musk AI horror show. Courtesy of Private Eye...
Reposted by James Vaughan
Got to be one of the best blue plaque juxtapositions?
December 12, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Got to be one of the best blue plaque juxtapositions?
I see the Primal Scream fella has been opining about the you know whos again…
December 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I see the Primal Scream fella has been opining about the you know whos again…
Reposted by James Vaughan
This is a really appalling editorial error on BBC Question Time
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
December 11, 2025 at 11:11 PM
This is a really appalling editorial error on BBC Question Time
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
#OnThisDay 1977: the Daily Mirror on football and fascism - Brian Clough and Jackie Charlton sign up to the Anti-Nazi League...
December 12, 2025 at 9:59 AM
#OnThisDay 1977: the Daily Mirror on football and fascism - Brian Clough and Jackie Charlton sign up to the Anti-Nazi League...
Reposted by James Vaughan
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Reposted by James Vaughan
When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 8:47 PM
When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!