Robert Hanks
@roberthanks.bsky.social
The man who never was but sometimes looked as though he might be. Cultural commentator for hire. Will work for food.
@tommckinney.bsky.social ‘Dance in the Sunlight’ was certainly recorded before 2014 – I grew up with a vinyl recording my parents had, along with Hamilton Harry’s John Field Suite and bits of Butterworth.
December 2, 2025 at 7:40 AM
@tommckinney.bsky.social ‘Dance in the Sunlight’ was certainly recorded before 2014 – I grew up with a vinyl recording my parents had, along with Hamilton Harry’s John Field Suite and bits of Butterworth.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
A reminder of how the BBC covered Boris Johnson's long record of lying, as being a "complicated relationship with the truth".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...
December 1, 2025 at 3:08 PM
A reminder of how the BBC covered Boris Johnson's long record of lying, as being a "complicated relationship with the truth".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...
What on earth makes Chris Mason think it's his job to "call it"? (I'm reminded of Robert Peston's BBC editorial piece, three days before the 2015 election, which concluded that Ed Miliband hadn't apologized sufficiently for Labour's handling of the economy. Impartial, schmimpartial.)
December 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM
What on earth makes Chris Mason think it's his job to "call it"? (I'm reminded of Robert Peston's BBC editorial piece, three days before the 2015 election, which concluded that Ed Miliband hadn't apologized sufficiently for Labour's handling of the economy. Impartial, schmimpartial.)
Reposted by Robert Hanks
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
But this time the Labour government seems to be in agreement with its opponents.
What we're seeing is exactly what we saw in the late 1940s, the late 1960s and the mid- to late 1970s: a concerted and hysterical campaign to delegitimise a Labour government, and indeed the very idea of Labour governments at all.
December 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
But this time the Labour government seems to be in agreement with its opponents.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
Just started watching Priscilla. Quite taken aback by the way it opens with an almost subliminal musical cue from the New World Symphony (cut short by the Ramones). Feel someone should have warned me.
November 29, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Just started watching Priscilla. Quite taken aback by the way it opens with an almost subliminal musical cue from the New World Symphony (cut short by the Ramones). Feel someone should have warned me.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
I discussed Tom Stoppard’s TV play ‘Professional Foul’ in this column for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social (no paywall) www.thenewworld.co.uk/everyday-phi...
Everyday Philosophy: Professional fouls and ethical dilemmas
The epidemic of cynical tackles at the Euros evokes Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of the ‘teleological suspension of the ethical’
www.thenewworld.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 8:31 PM
I discussed Tom Stoppard’s TV play ‘Professional Foul’ in this column for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social (no paywall) www.thenewworld.co.uk/everyday-phi...
One of my very favourite Stoppards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5MY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5MY...
Play of the Week - Professional Foul (1977) by Tom Stoppard & Michael Lindsay-Hogg
YouTube video by Play For Forever
www.youtube.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
One of my very favourite Stoppards.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5MY...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5MY...
Reposted by Robert Hanks
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter
The playwright Tom Stoppard, whose playful erudition dazzled the theatregoing world for decades, has died aged 88.
One of a select band of writers from any discipline to earn his own adjective – “Stoppardian” – in the Oxford English Dictionary, he delighted in the most improbable juxtapositions: philosophy and gymnastics in Jumpers (1972); early 19th-century landscape gardening and chaos theory in Arcadia (1993); rock music, dissident Czech academics and the love poetry of Sappho in Rock ’n’ Roll (2006). Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
Several people in the replies incredulous about that price in 1970; but certainly paying four figures for a house was not uncommon then, and North Kensington is at least partly a euphemism for some pretty shitty neighbourhoods. I don't think it's impossible.
November 29, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Several people in the replies incredulous about that price in 1970; but certainly paying four figures for a house was not uncommon then, and North Kensington is at least partly a euphemism for some pretty shitty neighbourhoods. I don't think it's impossible.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
if you include pensions
November 26, 2025 at 5:45 PM
if you include pensions
I don't see how the BBC can ignore the response to the Budget on Budget Day by the leader of a political party riding high in the polls. Perhaps they've moved on from the racism story, but one news alert that they were bound to put out isn't the thing that proves it.
November 27, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I don't see how the BBC can ignore the response to the Budget on Budget Day by the leader of a political party riding high in the polls. Perhaps they've moved on from the racism story, but one news alert that they were bound to put out isn't the thing that proves it.
To be fair to the BBC, World at One on Radio 4 went big on the racism yesterday; the budget is clearly today's big story. (In any case, one news alert is not evidence that the BBC is treating this as a big story. There are things it's worth bashing the BBC for: hard to see that this is one of them.)
Thanks BBC News, this is clearly the most important story today about Nigel Farage.
November 26, 2025 at 11:49 PM
To be fair to the BBC, World at One on Radio 4 went big on the racism yesterday; the budget is clearly today's big story. (In any case, one news alert is not evidence that the BBC is treating this as a big story. There are things it's worth bashing the BBC for: hard to see that this is one of them.)
A great loss. Worth looking out for Bill Brand, the 1976 ITV series written by Trevor Griffiths, where he starred as a Labour MP; and he write the terrific play In Lambeth, in which Thomas Paine ends up in William Blake’s garden. youtu.be/t2mCXOdO2AI?...
November 26, 2025 at 9:07 AM
A great loss. Worth looking out for Bill Brand, the 1976 ITV series written by Trevor Griffiths, where he starred as a Labour MP; and he write the terrific play In Lambeth, in which Thomas Paine ends up in William Blake’s garden. youtu.be/t2mCXOdO2AI?...
@mjrobbins.com Possibly you feel you've done enough on Cambridge, but I'd love to hear an episode on guided busways – beloved by local government in Cambridge but, afaik, nowhere else. My suspicion is that if we want really reliable public transport, we need light rail + congestion charging.
November 25, 2025 at 10:27 AM
@mjrobbins.com Possibly you feel you've done enough on Cambridge, but I'd love to hear an episode on guided busways – beloved by local government in Cambridge but, afaik, nowhere else. My suspicion is that if we want really reliable public transport, we need light rail + congestion charging.
People are sneering, but I don't much like cars and my mother died of motor neurone disease, so…
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
November 24, 2025 at 10:19 AM
People are sneering, but I don't much like cars and my mother died of motor neurone disease, so…
The details of Ryanair's shittiness are astonishing.
Make sure Ryanair get more than £100 worth of bad publicity over this. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...
Ryanair expects me to take the financial hit for helping others
As a doctor I stepped in to tend to an elderly passenger … but it won’t waive £100 transfer fee to rebook
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:33 AM
The details of Ryanair's shittiness are astonishing.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
Make sure Ryanair get more than £100 worth of bad publicity over this. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...
Ryanair expects me to take the financial hit for helping others
As a doctor I stepped in to tend to an elderly passenger … but it won’t waive £100 transfer fee to rebook
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Make sure Ryanair get more than £100 worth of bad publicity over this. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...
Reposted by Robert Hanks
big bugs bunny getting elmer fudd to marry him vibes in the white house currently i see
November 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
big bugs bunny getting elmer fudd to marry him vibes in the white house currently i see
There’s also evidence of him having been a strong advocate of human rights, a talented administrator and on the left(ish) of the Labour Party. Is it possible he was replaced by a clone?
Starmer genuinely loves football, like, there's evidence of him LOVING football for decades. And yet...when he talks about it....he sounds like someone who has never seen a minute of it. He sounds like someone who only just heard the word "football" earlier that day.
November 19, 2025 at 1:03 PM
There’s also evidence of him having been a strong advocate of human rights, a talented administrator and on the left(ish) of the Labour Party. Is it possible he was replaced by a clone?
Reposted by Robert Hanks
I'm fucking cryinj
Worst hold music ever?
YouTube video by Unreasonable Steev
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
I'm fucking cryinj
Can I just urge people disillusioned with Labour: don’t just decide not to vote Labour. If you have a Labour MP, it takes two minutes to find their email address and write to them, telling them they’ve lost your vote and explaining why.
My greatest disappointment with Starmer is the continuation of this same old game. Half-arsed policy with focus on electoral dynamics over effectiveness. Underlying situation gets worse. Then you complain the border is out of control, when in fact it is your policymaking which has failed.
November 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Can I just urge people disillusioned with Labour: don’t just decide not to vote Labour. If you have a Labour MP, it takes two minutes to find their email address and write to them, telling them they’ve lost your vote and explaining why.
Reposted by Robert Hanks
Network DVD's liquidated stock has finally surfaced here, giving you a chance to buy one of the greatest sitcoms of all time before all the copies are gone: futurenetwork.wales/product/nigh...
NIGHTINGALES: THE COMPLETE SERIES – Future Network
futurenetwork.wales
November 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Network DVD's liquidated stock has finally surfaced here, giving you a chance to buy one of the greatest sitcoms of all time before all the copies are gone: futurenetwork.wales/product/nigh...
Mahmoud says that small boats are tearing the country apart. So she’s decided to stop this conflict by coming down decisively on the opposite side to most Labour voters.
November 16, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Mahmoud says that small boats are tearing the country apart. So she’s decided to stop this conflict by coming down decisively on the opposite side to most Labour voters.