Chris Smith
@spyhistorian.bsky.social
Historian. Spies, signals intelligence, Second World War. Social and Cultural history. History of humour. Insults = 🚫
Pinned
Chris Smith
@spyhistorian.bsky.social
· May 12
I cannot continue financially supporting Labour while it bullies immigrants; while it panders to racist Reform voters; while its leader employs the rhetoric of Enoch Powell; and while it is allowing the destruction of my sector of employment again to pander to racism. @teamlabouruk.bsky.social
Is she trying to get herself replaced?
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Is she trying to get herself replaced?
I've been thinking about prosopography. Because why not dip I to Lewis Namier and Charles Beard of an evening?
@sandbaggerone.bsky.social do you think a collective biography approach to British Intel has legs?
@sandbaggerone.bsky.social do you think a collective biography approach to British Intel has legs?
November 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I've been thinking about prosopography. Because why not dip I to Lewis Namier and Charles Beard of an evening?
@sandbaggerone.bsky.social do you think a collective biography approach to British Intel has legs?
@sandbaggerone.bsky.social do you think a collective biography approach to British Intel has legs?
I think the term "historical revisionism" should be banned from use by journalists, columnists and politicians until I personally have tested them rigourously to ensure that they know what it means.
November 27, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I think the term "historical revisionism" should be banned from use by journalists, columnists and politicians until I personally have tested them rigourously to ensure that they know what it means.
Reposted by Chris Smith
Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves what Farage thought of Truss’s budget that cost Britain about £30,000,000,000.
November 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves what Farage thought of Truss’s budget that cost Britain about £30,000,000,000.
November 26, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Said it before, I'll say it again. This podcast is really, really good. I very much enjoy the balance of intellectually meaty material but with a rye, humorous delivery.
This week's episode is our recent live show in which we profile Zohran Mamdani, Zack Polanski, Curtis Yarvin and James Orr and complain about phrases like "woke right"
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 This week’s episode is an edited version of Origin Story Live at the Tabernacle in London on Thursday 13 November. @iandunt.bsky.social & @dorianlynskey.bsky.social discuss political insurgents: the politicians & thinkers who are reshaping politics in 2025 👉 linktr.ee/originstoryp...
November 26, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Said it before, I'll say it again. This podcast is really, really good. I very much enjoy the balance of intellectually meaty material but with a rye, humorous delivery.
This I their most popular song on Spotify, with 900m streams. I'm disappointed it's not metal and despise myself for liking it so much.
open.spotify.com/track/2wBnZd...
open.spotify.com/track/2wBnZd...
November 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM
This I their most popular song on Spotify, with 900m streams. I'm disappointed it's not metal and despise myself for liking it so much.
open.spotify.com/track/2wBnZd...
open.spotify.com/track/2wBnZd...
I've heard a lot about Ghost, the band, apparently they are with Sleep Token the new big thing. Even my students are talking about them.
So I bought an album for £4.99 at the shops. It is really... derivative. It sounds like a poppy version of 70s/80s metal. Very new wave.
Why do the kids like this?
So I bought an album for £4.99 at the shops. It is really... derivative. It sounds like a poppy version of 70s/80s metal. Very new wave.
Why do the kids like this?
November 24, 2025 at 7:34 PM
I've heard a lot about Ghost, the band, apparently they are with Sleep Token the new big thing. Even my students are talking about them.
So I bought an album for £4.99 at the shops. It is really... derivative. It sounds like a poppy version of 70s/80s metal. Very new wave.
Why do the kids like this?
So I bought an album for £4.99 at the shops. It is really... derivative. It sounds like a poppy version of 70s/80s metal. Very new wave.
Why do the kids like this?
Leaving aside of the folly of out Faraging Farage, what does this serve? It is expensive and will not work in putting off migrants from seeking a new life in the UK. Labour have lost the plot.
Labour's anti-asylum policies are already fundamentally inhumane and discriminatory. Applying them retrospectively is pure cruelty though. It serves absolutely no purpose. Meanwhile it will increase the costs and bureaucracy of an already dysfunctional Home Office.
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Leaving aside of the folly of out Faraging Farage, what does this serve? It is expensive and will not work in putting off migrants from seeking a new life in the UK. Labour have lost the plot.
I see the Telegraph are spinning Farage's school boy racism as a non-story. "It was 50 years ago!", they bellow. It's snot fair!!! Is the subtext, like 9 year olds.
But the point is that his racism is more dogwhistle now, yet still present. The other is that he is clearly lying through his teeth.
But the point is that his racism is more dogwhistle now, yet still present. The other is that he is clearly lying through his teeth.
November 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I see the Telegraph are spinning Farage's school boy racism as a non-story. "It was 50 years ago!", they bellow. It's snot fair!!! Is the subtext, like 9 year olds.
But the point is that his racism is more dogwhistle now, yet still present. The other is that he is clearly lying through his teeth.
But the point is that his racism is more dogwhistle now, yet still present. The other is that he is clearly lying through his teeth.
My prediction: the revelations that Farage was a racist and still is, see the Breaking Point poster as Exhibit A, will not dent his or Reform's position by a single point. The idea that "subject him to scrutiny" will damage him is laughable. The people who like him and Reform want the racism.
November 23, 2025 at 1:22 PM
My prediction: the revelations that Farage was a racist and still is, see the Breaking Point poster as Exhibit A, will not dent his or Reform's position by a single point. The idea that "subject him to scrutiny" will damage him is laughable. The people who like him and Reform want the racism.
It amazes me that there are three unoccupied seats in the US House and they have been (or will be) unoccupied for months. Why does it take so long, in a two year election cycle, to hold a special election and fill a vacancy? Who represents the constituents in the meantime? Do they pay federal taxes?
November 22, 2025 at 10:57 AM
It amazes me that there are three unoccupied seats in the US House and they have been (or will be) unoccupied for months. Why does it take so long, in a two year election cycle, to hold a special election and fill a vacancy? Who represents the constituents in the meantime? Do they pay federal taxes?
I'm not sure why people imagine that any embassy, large or small, is not a hub of intelligence gathering. I mean, are t they all?
November 21, 2025 at 9:50 PM
I'm not sure why people imagine that any embassy, large or small, is not a hub of intelligence gathering. I mean, are t they all?
Three things for which there have been zero political consequences:
1. Covid-denialism and government incompetence
2. Brexit
3. Anti-immigration socio-cultural divisiveness
All of these would have destroyed careers in previous years.
1. Covid-denialism and government incompetence
2. Brexit
3. Anti-immigration socio-cultural divisiveness
All of these would have destroyed careers in previous years.
November 21, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Three things for which there have been zero political consequences:
1. Covid-denialism and government incompetence
2. Brexit
3. Anti-immigration socio-cultural divisiveness
All of these would have destroyed careers in previous years.
1. Covid-denialism and government incompetence
2. Brexit
3. Anti-immigration socio-cultural divisiveness
All of these would have destroyed careers in previous years.
So what have we learned (actually not learned as studies modelled this at the time) but Johnson and Cummings ignored the science, leading to 23,000 additional deaths, and lock down "sceptics" (science deniers) were and remain morons.
November 20, 2025 at 9:24 PM
So what have we learned (actually not learned as studies modelled this at the time) but Johnson and Cummings ignored the science, leading to 23,000 additional deaths, and lock down "sceptics" (science deniers) were and remain morons.
I haven't seen my partner in weeks and am (was?) about to go see her, I've had my job formally placed "at risk", and I've come down with a massive cold and am a ball of snot.
Maybe I should just curl up into a ball and hibernate for a week?
Maybe I should just curl up into a ball and hibernate for a week?
November 20, 2025 at 5:51 AM
I haven't seen my partner in weeks and am (was?) about to go see her, I've had my job formally placed "at risk", and I've come down with a massive cold and am a ball of snot.
Maybe I should just curl up into a ball and hibernate for a week?
Maybe I should just curl up into a ball and hibernate for a week?
Oh good.
November 20, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Oh good.
I spoke to Jonathan of the marvellous #Anglotopia podcast recently on the Coventry Blitz. This should be out soon. I had a great time and we arranged then and there to talk further about Bletchley Park, which is a strange part of the Coventry story, in February.
November 20, 2025 at 5:02 AM
I spoke to Jonathan of the marvellous #Anglotopia podcast recently on the Coventry Blitz. This should be out soon. I had a great time and we arranged then and there to talk further about Bletchley Park, which is a strange part of the Coventry story, in February.
Remember when the worst scandal to visit the White House for years was a President wearing an ugly suit? Happy times.
November 17, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Remember when the worst scandal to visit the White House for years was a President wearing an ugly suit? Happy times.
This is bullshit. The political gravity has, in my lifetime, always favoured poorly educated elderly and middle-aged people. It has always disfavoured the young been suspicious of the educated. Where is the triple lock for the young?
And it is not the job of universities to sell the idea of...
And it is not the job of universities to sell the idea of...
'our recent report by UCL Policy Lab and More in Common highlights that something more fundamental is going on in our politics that universities must grapple with: the political centre of gravity has moved towards voters who are more sceptical of universities.' 2/3
www.ucl.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 8:26 PM
This is bullshit. The political gravity has, in my lifetime, always favoured poorly educated elderly and middle-aged people. It has always disfavoured the young been suspicious of the educated. Where is the triple lock for the young?
And it is not the job of universities to sell the idea of...
And it is not the job of universities to sell the idea of...
Labour will lose the next election and deserve to do so. These people aping the right need to be deselected. Now.
Green MP Carla Denyer accuses Shabana Mahmood of trying to "out Reform Reform" and says "toxic racist narratives and the scapegoating of migrants" are to blame for "tearing our country apart" not migrants.
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
Mahmood: "I couldn't care less what any other political party has to say about these matters"
November 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Labour will lose the next election and deserve to do so. These people aping the right need to be deselected. Now.
Moral, intellectual and policy bankruptcy on full display from a *Labour* government. This is a disaster for the centre of politics and an apocalypse for the left.
I'm reading through the white paper or whatever it is. RESTORING ORDER AND CONTROL: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy www.gov.uk/government/p...
Asylum and returns policy statement
This policy statement sets out significant reforms to the UK’s asylum and returns policy.
www.gov.uk
November 17, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Moral, intellectual and policy bankruptcy on full display from a *Labour* government. This is a disaster for the centre of politics and an apocalypse for the left.
I don't do conspiracy theories. But seriously? The WH spent months blocking this. Months. Yet, all of a sudden, Trump is keen to release the files? After his hand picked people have had control of them? After sex-trafficker, Maxwell, has been transferred to a cushy life in minimum security? OK...
BREAKING: President Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal.
In reversal, Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files
President Donald Trump says House Republicans should vote to release files involving the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal.
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 3:21 AM
I don't do conspiracy theories. But seriously? The WH spent months blocking this. Months. Yet, all of a sudden, Trump is keen to release the files? After his hand picked people have had control of them? After sex-trafficker, Maxwell, has been transferred to a cushy life in minimum security? OK...
Lol
November 17, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Lol