James Hawes
@jameshawes2
Series Story Consultant BBCTV #ArtThatMadeUs. Novel “Speak for England” (2005) predicted Brexit - “it deserves some kind of prescience prize" (Observer, 2017)
Or we could go back to timed, public exams. But we can’t do that because… sorry, I forget why. Remind me? Why can’t we require students to hold large amounts of information on a topic in their minds and present it convincingly without knowing the question in advance?
This is the central problem with higher education in the age of AI. We can't require students to do take-home writing assignments (e.g. term papers) any more, because most will cheat and have ChatGPT or Claude or Grok do the writing. But we can't teach critical thinking,…
All true.
Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.
You’re thinking of Boris Johnson, presumably?
The social contract is breaking down, because we now have many people here who do not understand the implicit code of behaviour that our country has traditionally operated on.
Oh joy! “Brachiosaurus” and “pretzel” are from the same root. @holland_tom
Ah, Ted, there you are. Busy eh? Yes, busy. Good to be busy. I was just, you know, after all our little chats, Ted, I thought I’d write a little book about Ireland, and, well, perhaps you’d like to take a look, you know, you being Irish and everything…?
Congratulations! Always great to finally deliver a book.
I’ve just handed in “The Shortest History of Ireland” after three years of solid research and #writing. Bereft, exhausted, nervous, I cling to this from Amazon.de now, as proof that all that time and work to get it right really can be worth it…
In Trump's US as in Stalin's USSR, the past changes so often, you don't know what's going to happen yesterday
American history distorted and rewritten by the current administration to suit its political needs? Sounds familiar. As we said in the USSR, it was a country with an unpredictable past!
Brilliant and disturbing: “The AfD is pretending to deradicalise while plotting the destruction of the German political centre by instigating culture wars.“
Germany latest before the summer recess : Why Merz is maybe not up to the job. And why we shd worry even more about his party. Very good overview by @ConStelz 👇👇 on.ft.com/44DKhyk
Or it could allow in some of the millions of young, ambitious people who really, really want to live and work and have children here? Oh, but of course, I was forgetting… wrong people, right? Remind me why?
Either Europe starts having large families or it will keep dying
I had recently read a newspaper article that even today those areas in Germany that were once occupied by the Romans (mostly in the south and west) are still significantly more prosperous than the other parts of the country faz.net/aktuell/wissen…
The Catholic Church is structurally unsuited as the obedient tool of authoritarian nationalism. Yes, it has made notorious accommodations with that in the past - but unlike State Protestant churches, and locally self-electing, low-church structures, its nature is non-nationalist
Tom Homan just accused a Catholic bishop of lying about ICE raids — after already lashing out at the pope. MAGA’s Catholic problem is getting worse. api.omarshehata.me/substack-proxy…
"When I look at Macron and Starmer talking now, it just demonstrates the narcissism of the arguments we had around Brexit and the extent our country turned in on itself. Looks ridiculous with hindsight." And that's Sir Alex Younger, the longest serving head of MI6 @BBCNewsnight
When even Trump turns on Putin, you know the tide’s shifting. Weapons flowing, 500% tariffs coming — GOP suddenly remembers who the enemy is. Too little, too late? Or the start of real pressure?
Why is it that @EmmanuelMacron can tell the British people the plain truth — that Brexit was sold on a pack of lies — yet our own Prime Minister still can’t? Why does @Keir_Starmer protect the Brexit myth with ludicrous red lines instead of confronting the damage? Brexit was a…
British people were 'sold a lie' with Brexit, Emmanuel Macron says in response to a question from @Peston at a joint press conference with Keir Starmer He said Brexit has made it harder to combat illegal migration across the Channel itv.com/news/2025-07-1…
Agree. Only an executive Head of State of a P5, G7, EU & nuclear NATO power can speak truth to UK leaders bound by the Brexit omertà compact & be openly reported by the UK media including BBC who otherwise would censor such assertions for whom Brexit is an irreversible done deal.
President Macron speaking at Guildhall, "The European Union was stronger with the UK, and the UK was stronger with the European Union" "We want to write our future and not be the story written by another continent.. The only way to chose our future is to do it together"
Pleased @thetimes has run my letter about The Salt Path scandal this morning.
Another week, another first since Brexit. The first European leader to visit our isles in far too long. Britain is edging back onto the global stage. reuters.com/world/uk/king-…
You pathetic little pub bore.
So Macron comes over here on a taxpayer funded state visit to: - tell us Brexit was regrettable - tell the PM the migrant crisis is his fault - tell us what to think about Palestine - speak almost entirely in French in Windsor castle - break royal protocol - eat almost entirely…
He means we should have ID cards. He and Tony Blair are right. If you use 999, the roads, the NHS, the schools which the state provides - while the Armed Forces that defend you - why wouldn’t you identify yourself if the state asks?Unless you’re a criminal or a tax-dodger?
Emmanuel Macron says the migrant crisis can be solved by 'making Britain less appealing', something Labour have been working on tirelessly since they came to power
🚨 🇫🇷 Macron: "Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy, the very core of our identity are connected across Europe"