Phil Edwards
@philedwards.bsky.social
"Research fellow" (i.e. retired) at MMU; still writing. Interests: international law, jurisprudence (mainly Kelsen). Other interests: folksong, real ale, the Left, cinema, Bowie, Aickman. Blogs at gapingsilence.wordpress.com and ohgoodale.wordpress.com .
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Under Mahmood's current proposals, presumably would have been deported to Czechoslovakia in 1945, when it was "safe" again.
R.I.P. Tom Stoppard, playwright most famous for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain at the age of eight. He later discovered all four of his grandparents had died in the Holocaust.
Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain at the age of eight. He later discovered all four of his grandparents had died in the Holocaust.
Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright famed for his wit and depth, dies at 88
Winning an Oscar for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love, he captivated the hearts of audiences for more than six decades.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Under Mahmood's current proposals, presumably would have been deported to Czechoslovakia in 1945, when it was "safe" again.
Are they holding the conference in a Faraday cage or something? I thought my TL would be awash with YP takes - nothing! (The other place isn't much better.)
November 29, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Are they holding the conference in a Faraday cage or something? I thought my TL would be awash with YP takes - nothing! (The other place isn't much better.)
Well played, everyone. No notes.
Beyond all the jokes about the Judean People's Front versus the People's Front of Judea, Christmas has truly come early for the Green Party. First they get Mahmood imitating Farage, and now this...
news.sky.com/story/zarah-...
news.sky.com/story/zarah-...
Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana refuses to enter group's conference hall
Your Party's 'historic' founding conference has descended into chaos on day on as one of its co-founders stages a boycott over claims of a "purge".
news.sky.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Well played, everyone. No notes.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
I’m hoping they go for ‘Our Party’, because that will wreak havoc in political interviews, as Tory or Labour or Lib Dem people will end up saying things like ‘Our party is doing very badly in the polls,’ or ‘Nobody in their right mind would vote for our party,’ etc etc etc
November 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
I’m hoping they go for ‘Our Party’, because that will wreak havoc in political interviews, as Tory or Labour or Lib Dem people will end up saying things like ‘Our party is doing very badly in the polls,’ or ‘Nobody in their right mind would vote for our party,’ etc etc etc
I'm utterly dismayed if Corbyn is using his YP conference speech to talk policy - a policy platform is absolutely the last thing YP needs now. Moreover, that conference isn't competent to develop policy, so delegates (however high-profile) shouldn't be wasting its time freelancing like this.
Good to hear Jeremy Corbyn using his #YourPartyConference speech to highlight the issues that need addressing to solve the housing crisis:
🔹The housing crisis affects so many millions of people in this country
🔹Completely unaffordable private rented sector flats
1/4
🔹The housing crisis affects so many millions of people in this country
🔹Completely unaffordable private rented sector flats
1/4
November 29, 2025 at 12:09 PM
I'm utterly dismayed if Corbyn is using his YP conference speech to talk policy - a policy platform is absolutely the last thing YP needs now. Moreover, that conference isn't competent to develop policy, so delegates (however high-profile) shouldn't be wasting its time freelancing like this.
"What a catalyst you turned out to be -
Loaded the guns, then you ran off home for your tea!"
What? Oh, nothing, just been watching an old TOTP.
Loaded the guns, then you ran off home for your tea!"
What? Oh, nothing, just been watching an old TOTP.
November 28, 2025 at 10:28 PM
"What a catalyst you turned out to be -
Loaded the guns, then you ran off home for your tea!"
What? Oh, nothing, just been watching an old TOTP.
Loaded the guns, then you ran off home for your tea!"
What? Oh, nothing, just been watching an old TOTP.
Tell me you don't know anything about the far Left without, etc.
![And although Your Party members are barred from also being members of other parties, Sultana is backed by the Socialist Unity Platform, a lobby organisation comprising groups including the Communist party of Great Britain [sic]. It is from here that possible disruption is predicted.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jsysc3yqc3wdkaqwgt3lmb4q/bafkreidpmjegu5wvsbdw7tcfmaidqssxsuskzl432rpljuduv22lx3rswq@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Tell me you don't know anything about the far Left without, etc.
The thing about polarisation is, sometimes it's unavoidable. Which is to say, sometimes it's the best possible response; sometimes it's correct.
thebristolcable.org/2025/11/if-y...
thebristolcable.org/2025/11/if-y...
If you choose to terrorise children, we have nothing in common
Following yet another anti-migrant hotel protest, Nikesh considers whether it’s even possible to engage with the other side
thebristolcable.org
November 28, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The thing about polarisation is, sometimes it's unavoidable. Which is to say, sometimes it's the best possible response; sometimes it's correct.
thebristolcable.org/2025/11/if-y...
thebristolcable.org/2025/11/if-y...
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild.
Fox (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Hedgehog (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Goshawk (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Parakeet (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Terrapin (Whalley Range)
Fox (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Hedgehog (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Goshawk (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Parakeet (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Terrapin (Whalley Range)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild
Fox (Tower Hamlets)
Mouse (Tower Hamlets)
Heron (Tower Hamlets)
Falcon (Tower Hamlets)
Kingfisher (Tower Hamlets)
Fox (Tower Hamlets)
Mouse (Tower Hamlets)
Heron (Tower Hamlets)
Falcon (Tower Hamlets)
Kingfisher (Tower Hamlets)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild
- beaver (in Scotland)
- platypus (in Queensland)
- skunk (in California)
- raccoon (in Massachusetts)
- boar (in Italy)
- beaver (in Scotland)
- platypus (in Queensland)
- skunk (in California)
- raccoon (in Massachusetts)
- boar (in Italy)
November 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild.
Fox (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Hedgehog (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Goshawk (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Parakeet (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Terrapin (Whalley Range)
Fox (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Hedgehog (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Goshawk (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Parakeet (Chorlton-cum-Hardy)
Terrapin (Whalley Range)
"Oh, Jeremy Corbyn"
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"Oh, Jeremy Corbyn"
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Is your child texting about Buckinghamshire Archives? Here are the signs to look out for:
BRB: Buckinghamshire records, blimey
LOL: Lots of ledgers
SMH: Some medieval holdings
WTF: Where's that folder?
ROFL: Researching our former lacemaking
IDC: Is Duke corrupt?
BTW: Big trees, Wendover
BRB: Buckinghamshire records, blimey
LOL: Lots of ledgers
SMH: Some medieval holdings
WTF: Where's that folder?
ROFL: Researching our former lacemaking
IDC: Is Duke corrupt?
BTW: Big trees, Wendover
November 28, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Is your child texting about Buckinghamshire Archives? Here are the signs to look out for:
BRB: Buckinghamshire records, blimey
LOL: Lots of ledgers
SMH: Some medieval holdings
WTF: Where's that folder?
ROFL: Researching our former lacemaking
IDC: Is Duke corrupt?
BTW: Big trees, Wendover
BRB: Buckinghamshire records, blimey
LOL: Lots of ledgers
SMH: Some medieval holdings
WTF: Where's that folder?
ROFL: Researching our former lacemaking
IDC: Is Duke corrupt?
BTW: Big trees, Wendover
New music pretty much stopped for me in 2004, so I'm not sure how to feel about hearing something interesting today and tracking it down to an album released in 2012. On one hand that's a full eight years after 2004, so hurrah for me getting all up to date.
November 27, 2025 at 11:39 PM
New music pretty much stopped for me in 2004, so I'm not sure how to feel about hearing something interesting today and tracking it down to an album released in 2012. On one hand that's a full eight years after 2004, so hurrah for me getting all up to date.
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
Kraftwerk
Lenny Kravitz
The Wonderstuff
The Prodigy
Inspiral Carpets
Kraftwerk
Lenny Kravitz
The Wonderstuff
The Prodigy
Inspiral Carpets
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
A random selection
-Electric Six
-Killing Joke
-PJ Harvey
-Einstürzende Neubauten
-Pop Will Eat Itself
A random selection
-Electric Six
-Killing Joke
-PJ Harvey
-Einstürzende Neubauten
-Pop Will Eat Itself
November 27, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Do we or do we not live in a country where these awful people got their way at almost every major decision point of the century so far? We do! Is it good? No, it is a national calamity. Are they sorry? No they’re not, they’re *absolutely furious* that they haven’t got more and worse.
November 27, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Do we or do we not live in a country where these awful people got their way at almost every major decision point of the century so far? We do! Is it good? No, it is a national calamity. Are they sorry? No they’re not, they’re *absolutely furious* that they haven’t got more and worse.
I've been surprised by some of the reactions to the continuing Farage racism story. I mean, anything that discredits him is all to the good, but has anyone learnt that he at school he was a racist bully and been *surprised*? I've never thought he was anything else.
November 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I've been surprised by some of the reactions to the continuing Farage racism story. I mean, anything that discredits him is all to the good, but has anyone learnt that he at school he was a racist bully and been *surprised*? I've never thought he was anything else.
Being an old git, I know exactly what distinction he's making here. People used to call it being a "racialist" as opposed to being a racist - the idea being that noticing and reacting to other people's ethnicity was normal and unexceptional...
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Being an old git, I know exactly what distinction he's making here. People used to call it being a "racialist" as opposed to being a racist - the idea being that noticing and reacting to other people's ethnicity was normal and unexceptional...
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Do I know anyone on here who went to a British boys boarding school -preferably the elite kind- within the last 20 years? If that doesn't describe you then retweet this until somebody it does describe sees this.
November 24, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Do I know anyone on here who went to a British boys boarding school -preferably the elite kind- within the last 20 years? If that doesn't describe you then retweet this until somebody it does describe sees this.
How did I get to be an academic, writing mainly about philosophy of law? Simple! I liked writing annd thinking about abstract ideas, so I thought I'd be a lecturer in Philosophy. Then my sister talked me out of applying to do Philosophy, so I did English...
November 23, 2025 at 12:18 AM
How did I get to be an academic, writing mainly about philosophy of law? Simple! I liked writing annd thinking about abstract ideas, so I thought I'd be a lecturer in Philosophy. Then my sister talked me out of applying to do Philosophy, so I did English...
Yes, it's a dominance play - but it's a dominance play that involves someone calling him a Fascist in his own office, so >shrug<. If I was going to be bullied by Trump, I'd rather be bullied like Mamdani than like Starmer.
“I don’t mind” isn’t really a buddy-buddy thing, it’s “you need my permission and I know you think this so if you’re not saying it it‘s because you’re scared of me.” but you can’t call it out without looking like the asshole.
November 21, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Yes, it's a dominance play - but it's a dominance play that involves someone calling him a Fascist in his own office, so >shrug<. If I was going to be bullied by Trump, I'd rather be bullied like Mamdani than like Starmer.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
![[A man is talking to a woman over 4 film frames stacked atop each other
Arrested Development "but it might work for us" meme but with Shabana Mahmood and Keir Starme photoshopped into the final frame]
Man: Some people think that if you give racists and xenophobes a bit of ground then they'll stop being bigoted
Woman: Well did it work for those people?
Man: No, it never does, I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but...
Keir Starmer: ...But it might work for us.
[Shabana Mahmood looking thoughtful]
[Original is Tobias and Lindsay Funke discussing an open marriage]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreigvws7dtpfqqyycqfzdykibxl3z5nqk6ergrigocrnxqpxpvp77zq@jpeg)
Reposted by Phil Edwards
pretty clear what happened: Zohran converted Trump to the divine and immortal science of islamo-communism.
November 21, 2025 at 8:48 PM
pretty clear what happened: Zohran converted Trump to the divine and immortal science of islamo-communism.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Correct and based posting from the Lib Dems here
Nathan Gill has been sentenced to 10.5 years for endangering national security and taking Russian bribes.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
November 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Correct and based posting from the Lib Dems here
This is terrible reporting - I've read the article twice in a vain attempt to find out What Is Actually Being Proposed. (Are they intending to make all either-way offences summary-only, or only some of them? Which ones? What about Leveson's other recommendations – are we getting all of them, or...)
MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
Exclusive: Courts minister says change needed to stop criminals opting for juries to delay cases, sometimes by years, and clear huge backlog
*
UK politics live – latest updates
Criminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, the courts minister has said, promising to enact radical changes to limit jury trials by the next election.
Drug dealers and career criminals were “laughing in the dock” knowing cases can take years to come to trial, Sarah Sackman told the Guardian, saying inaction would be a road to “chaos and ruin”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:56 AM
This is terrible reporting - I've read the article twice in a vain attempt to find out What Is Actually Being Proposed. (Are they intending to make all either-way offences summary-only, or only some of them? Which ones? What about Leveson's other recommendations – are we getting all of them, or...)
Why - hear me out - why has nobody thought of simply putting the grownups in charge? Baffling!
What’s that, you heard these people were competent you oaf, you onion? Well that’s the kind of thing that only an idiot would believe and frankly, I have no idea where you imbeciles might have got the idea they were anything other than repellent and absolutely useless
November 19, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Why - hear me out - why has nobody thought of simply putting the grownups in charge? Baffling!
Not that I don't know anything about sport or anything, but I've just googled "scotland football".
And what I say is, jolly good. Well done them.
(But 90+*9*?)
And what I say is, jolly good. Well done them.
(But 90+*9*?)
November 18, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Not that I don't know anything about sport or anything, but I've just googled "scotland football".
And what I say is, jolly good. Well done them.
(But 90+*9*?)
And what I say is, jolly good. Well done them.
(But 90+*9*?)