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oldnorthroad.bsky.social
J-Lo
@oldnorthroad.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.2K following 2.7K posts
English Lit prof based in Edinburgh. Bisexual English Scot - volatile organic compound - he/they. Roundhead in politics, Cavalier in spirit. Small room dj. Opinions expressed here entirely my personal own.
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oldnorthroad.bsky.social
What, here in Edinburgh? Is he on Next Door complaining about students and the bins?
A view over Bruntsfield links in Edinburgh, with the stately tenements in the distance. In the foreground an interpretation panel identifying features on the apparent horizon, which someone has graffitied with ‘Guy Debord Lives’.
November 16, 2025 at 8:12 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
It’s the call of ‘ancestral voices’, according to the massively racist Daniel Hannan. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
In attempting to deflect from the number of terror-style attacks carried out by immigrants, the authorities inadvertently emphasise how many are carried out by the sons of immigrants. They may have grown up watching Blue Peter; but they are moved by ancestral voices prophesying war. Accepting that fact is the first step towards getting the right policies on education, assimilation and, indeed, immigration. We actively need to inculcate a sense of patriotism in all British kids, whether first-generation or fifty-first generation. Our tendency, not only in schools but in many broadcast media, to present our history as a chronicle of racism and exploitation, rather than a story of freedom against the odds, is a big part of our problem. Equally, though, we should admit that not all immigrants are equal. Some places are more backward and more violent than others. People who come from these places are statistically more likely to commit violent crimes than the children of immigrants from, say, Switzerland. That fact should guide our immigration policy.
November 15, 2025 at 10:08 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
From 1910. One hundred and fifteen years ago.
A poster showing a crowd of young male workers in rolled up shirtsleeves using battering rams to break down a door labelled House of Lords - the slogan on the poster is ‘Labour Clears the Way.’
November 12, 2025 at 8:35 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
We learned from the best
De Quincey’s gravestone: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS DEQUINCEY. WHO WAS BORN AT GREENHAY NEAR MANCHESTER AUCUST 15H 1785 - AND DIED IN EDINBURGH DECEMBER 8th 1859. AND OF MARGARET HIS WIFE WHO DIED AUGUST 7th 1837.
November 5, 2025 at 7:53 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Wordsworth’s poem, ‘London 1802’: Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
October 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Went to a wedding yesterday with a special appearance from Choriza May. There’s indeed something quite special about witnessing senior family members belting out ‘My Pussy is a Peach’ and ‘Eat That Ass’ with the best of them…
October 30, 2025 at 7:36 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Anyone want a cherry (pun optional) on the top?
Kerr noted that it would be his eighth political party since he joined Labour in 1959, aged 15 saying that it may be my last, but it promises to be interesting and it remains important to bengaged in
October 26, 2025 at 8:20 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
The party that this guy was in until today literally has this - an officer who is still in office despite being expelled - going on.
His defection comes after he said he was prevented from opening up a discussion on electora strategy and candidate selection at Alba's conference in Dundee this weekend Due to an ongoing and bitter dispute with the party's nominating officer Chris McEleny, who retains the position despite being expelled from the party, there is a risk the party may be unable to stand candidates at next year's Holyrood election The police investigating "regularites in the party finances and Melenyis thought obe.
October 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
I’m not ageing, I’m 🌟superaging🌟 - chugging a venom in a nightclub surrounded by all my glittering friends. alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Quote from the linked article: High extroversion is one trait superagers have in common with each other. Oddly, superagers aren't necessarily leading healthier lifestyles, with some smoking and drinking alcohol regularly; a factor that
October 26, 2025 at 7:15 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
‘Stop immigration, start repatriation’ was literally a National Front slogan in the 1970s. In 2025, a Labour government sees a Tory party saying just that and pauses, sensing a trap. Spineless and gutless.
A National Front leaflet from the 1970s: Make Britain GREAT again National Front says: • Get Britain out of the Common Market • Stop immigration, start repatriation
October 22, 2025 at 7:39 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Met this amazing guy in a bar earlier. This is why bars are good, and we should all go to them more often.
An incredibly fine shiba dog wearing a big doge smile and a cute bandana sitting happily on a bar stool, with the bar and an array of bottles behind him. The photo is suffused in red light.
October 18, 2025 at 10:59 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
A green thought in a green shade
A photo of a window with distorted glass, framed in black; pressed against the glass are some dark green leaves on a branch. The whole is suffused with a gentle pale green light.
October 12, 2025 at 6:46 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Unsolicited sic pic
An emblem book illustration showing a roundel with an image of symbols of worldly glory being consumed by fire, and the legend ‘sic transit gloria mundi’
October 11, 2025 at 10:52 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Either his agent hates him or he’s working County Lines
October 7, 2025 at 7:27 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
💯
A close up of the face of a young William Hartnell with a very faint smile, his hand tucked under his chin, and looking off to his left with a slightly brooding expression
October 4, 2025 at 10:57 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
The Michelle Mone stuff is another instance of the Great Noticing - everyone knew she was dodgy more than a decade ago, but it suited UK governments and client journos to pretend otherwise when they could deploy her fake reputation in their political interests. archive.is/xc9im
From the linked article: Judging by the records at Companies House, the whole basis of Mone's reputation as a brilliant businesswoman needed to be called into question years ago. One leading Scottish businessman said at the time of her appointment to the Lords that Mone was "a small-time businesswoman with PR exposure far in excess of any success".
October 3, 2025 at 8:29 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
A restrained, judicious and typically moderate Daily Mail headline: BAN THIS SICK FILTH
October 2, 2025 at 10:26 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
An absolutely incredible quote. ‘Post-launch’? ‘Probably’? This is clueless, reckless and irresponsible behaviour. www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
From the linked article: The market pressures of startup culture leave little time for such existential musings, however. Tang said the team is eager to bring their product to market before voice-box plushies sour parents on the entire concept of Al for kids. When I asked Tang whether Geni would allow parents to make tiles for, say, a gun - not a far-fetched idea for many American families - he said they would have to discuss the issue as a company. "Post-launch, we'll probably bring on an AI ethics person to our team," he said. "We also don't want to limit knowledge," he added. "As of now there's no right or wrong answer to how much constraint we want to put in ... But obviously we're referencing a lot of kids content that's already out there. Bluey probably doesn't have a gun in it, right?"
October 2, 2025 at 4:41 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Stares in Scottish, Welsh, Irish and - increasingly - Cornish.
Nigel Farage's dire warning that some parts of UK 'not even recognisable as England' EXCLUSIVE: Nigel Farage warned some parts of the country are "not even recognisable as being England" as he warned divisions are destroying communities.
September 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Well the link at the end certainly seems on point.
At the end of the batshit memo, a parenthesis with a link: [Further reading: Labour is losing its mind]
September 29, 2025 at 10:38 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Deals with the antisemitism accusation brilliantly here. He’ll go far.
His younger brother denied holding antisemitic views or being racist but maintained that Jewish individuals maintain a disproportionate presence among the ultra-rich.
September 28, 2025 at 9:47 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Tony Harrison, poet
1937-2025
The last stanzas of Tony Harrison’s poem v, first published in 1985: Next millennium you'll have to search quite hard to find out where I'm buried but I'm near the grave of haberdasher Appleyard, the pile of HARPs, or some new neonned beer. Find Byron, Wordsworth, or turn left between one grave marked Broadbent, one marked Richardson. Bring some solution with you that can clean whatever new crude words have been sprayed on. If love of art, or love, gives you affront that the grave I'm in's graffitied then, maybe, erase the more offensive FUCK and CUNT but leave, with the worn UNITED, one small v. Victory? For vast, slow, coal-creating forces that hew the body's seams to get the soul. Will Earth run out of her 'diurnal courses' before repeating her creation of black coal? But choose a day like I chose in mid-May or earlier when apple and hawthorn tree, no matter if boys boot their ball all day, cling to their blossoms and won't shake them free. If, having come this far, somebody reads these verses, and he/she wants to understand, face this grave on Beeston Hill, your back to Leeds, and read the chiselled epitaph I've planned: Beneath your feet's a poet, then a pit. Poetry supporter, if you're here to find how poems can grow from (beat you to it!) SHIT find the beef, the beer, the bread, then look behind.
September 27, 2025 at 8:11 AM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Sneak preview of the Brit Card official launch.
Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox disastrously hosting the 1999 Brit Awards, one of the most cringe-inducing moments in TV history
September 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
I had an absolute banger yesterday
September 24, 2025 at 7:47 PM
oldnorthroad.bsky.social
Only rapture happened today is me rereading this absolute filth www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/car...
Now in more subtle wreaths I will entwine My sinewy thighs, my legs and arms with thine ; Thou like a sea of milk shalt lie display'd, Whilst I the smooth calm ocean invade With such a tempest, as when Jove of old Fell down on Danae in a storm of gold ; Yet my tall pine shall in the Cyprian strait Ride safe at anchor and unlade her freight : My rudder with thy bold hand, like a tried And skilful pilot, thou shalt steer, and guide My bark into love's channel, where it shall Dance, as the bounding waves do rise or fall.
September 23, 2025 at 10:32 PM