Ed West
@edwest
Writer, the Wrong Side of History substack
My Vietnam piece from earlier this year edwest.co.uk/p/travels-in-v…
very good x.com/JohnRentoul/st…
Keir Starmer by Jonn Elledge, via @mrianleslie: “A man who moves through politics like a Roomba moves through your living room: without a plan, capable of mapping the territory only when he bangs into things and has to reverse” jonn.substack.com/p/why-is-keir-… ian-leslie.com/p/keir-starmer…
Before university, I was sent a lengthy reading list. The only book on it which I finished was Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity. It was enough to convince me that I had chosen the right degree. A lovely tribute to the great man at 90 by @edwest. edwest.co.uk/p/the-world-of…
I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better
People say there's no state capacity any more, but here the government pulled off a multi-billion pound relocation of tens of thousands of people with all the planning, execution and spending kept completely secret from the country
UK set up secret £7bn Afghan immigration scheme after data leak and gagged media ft.com/content/f6b411… via @ft @LOS_Fisher
This is absolutely nuts. 4,000 new homes a year for a city of 9 million people.
The govt says London needs to build 88,000 homes a year. The latest data from @MoliorLondon, published today, shows private housebuilding is running at 1/20th of that figure. (1/)
🇦🇱 Albania has the largest population decline in Europe. Albania's population shrank by 18% between 2011 and 2024, the largest drop in Europe, according to Eurostat. The country lost over 500,000 people. Bulgaria followed with a 12.3% decline. European countries with…
Thinking about the guy who was driving Seneca mad, powerlifting in the bathhouse below him. "When your strenuous gentleman...is exercising himself by flourishing leaden weights..I can hear him grunt; and whenever he releases his imprisoned breath, I can hear him panting in wheezy…
The philosopher Seneca complaining about "the assortment of sounds, which are strong enough to make me hate my very powers of hearing!" coming from the bathing house that was below his lodging.
What a character x.com/50YearsAgoLive…
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin stages an opulent £2 million wedding to his sixth wife, 19-year-old stripper Sarah Kyolaba. PLO chairman Yasser Arafat serves as Amin’s best man. In an address at the wedding, Amin announces that he has had Kyolaba’s ex-boyfriend beheaded. Everyone…
Guthrum's forces are now even making inroads into Alfred's land x.com/LeftieStats/st…
🚨 NEW | Reform lead by 13pts ➡️ REF – 34% (+19) 🔴 LAB – 21% (-14) 🔵 CON – 16% (-8) 🟠 LD – 11% (-2) 🟢 GRN – 11% (+4) Via @FindoutnowUK, 9-10 Jul (+/- vs GE2024)
It's the feast of St Swithun, 9th-century Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester. Since the Middle Ages, his day has been linked to weather-lore: it's said that in mid-July weather patterns shift, and if it rains on St Swithun's Day it will rain for 40 days. aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2017/07/that-t…
It's the feast of St Swithun, 9th-century Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester. Since the Middle Ages, his day has been linked to weather-lore: it's said that in mid-July weather patterns shift, and if it rains on St Swithun's Day it will rain for 40 days. aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2017/07/that-t…
And yet everyone vaguely connected to the uni seems to think they know her identity x.com/visegrad24/sta…
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year. No charges. No accountability. A deliberate attack on history met with silence
I'm extremely sceptical that the US is going to be brain-drained by Europe or China TBH. As for Canada gaining 'three tenured Yale professors who study authoritarianism and fascism' - it's not quite flight of the Huguenots stuff
I’m not a psychiatrist or anything but I think this guy maybe should be locked up in a hospital. But obviously I defer to the experts!
Solomon Galligan who tried to kidnap a child at school is found incompetent to stand trial so he will be released back into our community. The DA’s office stated they are “planning to drop charges against the defendant, which is required by law when they are found mentally…
There's more than a day's worth of links to interesting stuff if you open and read them all. Wrong Side of History newsletter #66, by @edwest edwest.co.uk/p/wrong-side-o…
This - on why English is written without accents - I found really fascinating
Must be the only postcode enclave in Britain. The San Marino of postcodes x.com/Ismeretlen53/s…
The post-1965 London boroughs are both too large and diverse to be really local, and too small to effectively exercise strategic functions. That needs to be the starting point for any rethink. Bonus fact: the former Olympic Park in Stratford has been given its own postcode -