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Adam Lechmere

@adamlechmere.bsky.social
546 followers 407 following 807 posts

Wine journalist and publisher of The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide (Académie du Vin Library). Procrastinator.

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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
South-East London for Europe (Selfe) @selfe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Fantastic news Latest records show that #RNLI donations have increased by 5000% over the past couple of weeks after far-right backlash. The RNLI is on track to record its highest annual fundraising total in its almost 200-year history. Donate here rnli.org/support-us/g...
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
I’ve worn a grubby RNLI cap for decades. I sound London, but I was born in Truro and I was a basically feral (Gen X) kid wandering the coast path with a dog until sunset for a lot of my early life. The lifeboats are in the fabric like trawlers and farms and pasties and fish and chips.
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Slop fans! How about this, from Assouline, purveyor of books for people who don't read books
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I know Bluesky has its downsides but by heavens we enjoy a leftie pile-on
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Plesiosaurus and oblivious duck, Crystal Palace Park
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I love Veolia's explanation that the banner had become a health and safety hazard. What on earth was it made of? But then again - why would Veolia have incinerated it if not on orders from the GLA? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Led By Donkeys wins compensation over seizure of Gaza protest banner
Waste firm Veolia pays £27k after ‘Yes It’s A Genocide’ banner taken by Greater London Authority was destroyed
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Give the man a chance. I loathe Mahmood & her policies but some of the comments below are absurd, talking about what a failure he is when he's been in office about three and a half minutes - some of you sound like self-parodies frankly. No offence
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Interesting thread. No one mentions England being psychologically incapable of winning a major tournament, despite having the highest-paid players from the world's most prestigious league. We simply don't feel we can win
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Great! A new comedy on BBC Radio 4. Said nobody, ever
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Gorilla Glue: "For the toughest jobs on Planet Earth". Has there ever been a better strapline?
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
How does "no replies" work? Why do some posts have them & why can only some people reply (do you have to prove you were at the Palladium in 79)? Why post something like this but not allow ordinary people (I wasn't there but I like London Calling, indeed think it's one of the great albums) to reply?
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I love Scotland, have many strong connections there and one day would like to live there but by heavens their performance in the World Cup has been dismal. Last night was like the first reel of a bad Netflix comedy
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
oh for Janey Godley (if you know, you know)
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
All these 10 year anniversary programmes for Brexit. It's like marking the day you stuck your todger in a blender. Now that was a bad idea, wasn't it? Any upsides? No. End of story
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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Timeline: what Farage has said about the £5m gift from a crypto-billionaire
theguardian.com
Timeline: what Farage has said about the £5m gift from a crypto-billionaire
Whether the money was a reward for Brexit or for his security, media interest in it has intensifed as the Reform UK leader returns to the public eye
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I was just locking up last night, went round the corner and saw this. Gave me quite a turn. I didn't know my daughter's chap had left his golf bag...
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Next from Heffer: "I'm not saying Hitler was right. He just went a bit far". Deceitful, falsely-argued, sloppy, race-baiting bilge. Avoid (but if you want to see the kind of stuff Speccy readers are lapping up, www.removepaywall.com will get you the text) spectator.com/article/its-...
spectator.com
It’s time to uncancel Enoch Powell
Despite a career of nearly half a century in public life, Enoch Powell is generally remembered for one utterance only
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
"Farage is... a moral stain upon this country’s reputation, the fag-brown teeth of a rotting corpse. But he is also, and this is underdiscussed, a hapless clown." Absolutely love that faux-academic "underdiscussed" iandunt.substack.com/p/triumph-in...
iandunt.substack.com
Triumph in Makerfield: Everything is about to change
Andy Burnham is now certain to be the next prime minister
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Richard Tice on BBC Today arguing that Makerfield was a win for Reform because votes for Burnham = votes to get Starmer out, which will mean a GE and a Reform govt. It was basically highly sophisticated tactical voting. 3d chess for Reform voters
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Is this a new thing? just had an email saying a party has been postponed because of the weather. I feel it's rather an un-British thing to do - aren't we just meant to jolly well get on with it?
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Pub. Pretty empty. Three blokes behind the bar. One serving, the other two piddling about w glasses, admin ect. Family getting complicated meal and drinks. I'm ignored for 5 mins until I say to one of the blokes, can you serve me? Pulls pint, surly, unsmiling, as if I'm being totally unreasonable
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
What IS it about these strutting little bigots that is so chilling? Is it the stupid Nazi hair, the horrible pub-bore clothes? Or is it the puffed-up confidence, the flexing of muscles, the look that says they're on the winning side and this is just the beginning? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Code of conduct complaint for Reform UK council leader
The complaint comes after George Finch released a statement on the county's libraries on Monday.
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Grotesque the way Badenoch takes Reform rhetoric, dresses it up with some 6th-form argument to sound reasonable and measured, and peddles it out to her vanishing base of support. Shires Tories might buy it but it's thin, nasty gruel www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Badenoch to vow to scrap public sector equality duty in effort to fend off Reform
In speech on Tuesday, Tory leader will claim obligation to consider equality being used to advance ‘divisive agendas’
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Ho hum. Reporter makes a minor mistake and hands Reform a PR coup. A comment that should sink Farage as a politician and - as textbook incitement to racial hatred - put him in the dock, has now been turned in his favour www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
BBC's Matt Chorley apologises for misquoting Nigel Farage on Newsnight
Matt Chorley says he "misremembered" a quote by the Reform leader, which was "a mistake on my part".
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Robert Kenyon is as comical a candidate as Susan Hall was for London mayor in 2024. She was the one who had no idea what a Met policeman earned, and thought Hammersmith & Fulham were separate boroughs. Kenyon's on a different level of course, but equally entertaining in a ghastly kind of way
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Heat (1995). I'd forgotten what a superb film it is. Sample line from the weary and permanently exasperated Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino): "Empathy was yesterday. Today you're wasting my motherf**king time"
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
And the problem of our post-war generation is that we dropped our guard to the point of complacency. Fascism seemed to have been so comprehensively destroyed it became a joke (remember Viv in the Young Ones?) I'm permanently in a state of mild shock at what's happening
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
For a Farage disciple the only way to respond to a call for "Pure, cold rage" is with violence, and it's clear he means violence toward the Sikh community (and by extension other Asians). Surely this is incitement to racial hatred, a criminal offence? Any lawyers here - Is there a case to answer?
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Sky the colour of Peter Mandelson's underpants... drizzle... persistant chill... that's summer over then
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Mandelson. Most striking is the sheer pettiness of the exchanges. The cheap sniping, the veiled threats, the fawning when he got the job ("Congratulations, Your Excellency"). Everyone seems terrified of him - of what he might do if thwarted. Unedifying stuff. Starmer comes out pretty well I'd say
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
At Whitechapel a bloke in a motorised wheelchair zipping along the platform, his daughter, chubby little girl of about 10, being pulled along on rollerblades
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
She makes me long for a liberal, tolerant and humane home secretary, like Priti Patel
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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
Arnab Dutt @arnabdutt.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
This was always the end game. The world stood by as the US enabled Netanyahu's murder and brutality at scale and now we proceed with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. "Never again" is a meaningless phrase. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
theguardian.com
Israel’s defence minister says large-scale Palestinian migration from Gaza will go ahead
Human rights groups and lawyers say policy amounts to ethnic cleansing
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
This idea that "ordinary men" are sexist morons is so wretchedly wrong and as offensive as the trope that working class men are naturally racist. Most ordinary men would be repelled by this bloke's comments, and by the villainous Danny Kruger www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Carol Vorderman demands apology from Reform candidate over ‘disgusting comments’
Broadcaster describes Robert Kenyon, who is standing in Makerfield byelection, as a misogynist and a ‘cowardly man’
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The first ever instance of Nominative Determinism? In 1472 William Caxton printed De Proprietatibus Rerum, in Cologne. One of his apprentices (who later took over the shop) was called Wynkyn de Worde. Thanks to @lrb.co.uk
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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
joeatsandreads.bsky.social @joeatsandreads.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
www.gofundme.com/f/bookseller... Jon was the kind of man that when a random woman walks into their shop and says sthg along the lines of “I really love books and your shop: can I work here?”, he wld just say….Ok. Kind, patient, really fucking random and erudite. The exact bookseller you need.
gofundme.com
Donate to Support Jon's Legacy - Raising Funds for Bookseller Crow, organized by Karen Mcleod
Dear all our loyal customers, authors and friends, It is wit… Karen Mcleod needs your support for Support Jon's Legacy - Raising Funds for Bookseller Crow
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Sadiq. I love the way he relies on quaint concepts such as "procurement rules". He's sensible, principled and running one of the greatest cities on earth. He'd make a very good prime minister, but then old Andy B up north is taking up all the oxygen in the room www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks £50m Met police deal with Palantir
Exclusive: Scotland Yard had been in talks to use Palantir’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This boy is barely shaving and he talks about "protecting women and girls" from people "with medieval attitudes". He scorns climate science. His views are as calcified as a Clacton pensioner's. We're going to be ruled by people like this if Reform are not reined in www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Reform UK's George Finch, 19, becomes leader of second council
Finch now heads Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council as well as Warwickshire County Council
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Reposted by Adam Lechmere
Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This is what Farage, Reform and Brexit have done. This is where a very ugly obsession with immigration leads. To this. To “appalling levels of racism and unfair treatment.” To ordinary people being made miserable, day in, day out, at work. What a shameful place to be. www.tuc.org.uk/news/shockin...
tuc.org.uk
“Shocking” increase in explicit racism at work in recent years – new TUC research reveals
Black and ethnic minority workers are facing “appalling levels” of racism, bullying and unfair treatment at work, according to new TUC research published today.
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Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Reform UK Gone Since the Local Elections Dr David Bull has been sacked as Chair.
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
"There has been a failure, an inability to grapple with the gravity of what is happening" I imagine a home secretary like Shabana Mahmood might say, "Why, what's the problem?"
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Well said. I'm sure 90% of those marchers were not Londoners. We love the diversity and tolerance of the great city, and we loathe the idea of the streets full of thugs draped in horrible nylon flags.
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
I rather like this. One thing that unites thugs and bullies like Robinson ect is their lack of sense of humour. Couldn't you do the same thing with Trump? Pledge a quid for every time he says "ballroom" ...
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Email Header of the Week goes to Phipps pr with "A “fustercluck of fruit” from a wine legend..." Next in a trend of Riojas made by celebrity winemakers from afar, Cloudy Bay founder David Hohnen's Hohnen X is "deliberately disruptive" and in Sainsburys for a tenner
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Timeline for Reform: win a good slew of seats in 28/29. Make mischief in a hung parliament; professionalise as Trump did between 2020 and 24, getting rid of the racist numties and pulling in clever moral vacuums a la Jenrick, Tice etc. Win bigger in 32/33. Unless we stop them
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Always instructive to see the comments below stories like this. One gets the impression local voters are surprised and disappointed to find Reform is peppered with racists, chancers and bigots www.plymouthplus.co.uk/plymouth-ref...
plymouthplus.co.uk
Plymouth Reform councillor suspended just days after being elected
Ben Rowe, Plymouth Ham Ward councillor has been suspended from Reform UK pending an investigation just days after winning his seat.
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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Obviously not to steal your thunder, but my own punk diaries which are definitely authentic and everything reveal so much about the times. What times they were.
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Alice Woolley @alicewoolley.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Trigger warning: this article is full of success, hope and positivity. Lovely interview with the inspiring @london.gov.uk ♥️ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘London is a case study in hope’: Sadiq Khan on 10 years as mayor
London mayor talks up coalition-building, highlights his environmental record, and worries national Labour party is on the wrong track
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Sky the colour of old tupperware, bone-chilling wind, lilac outside the window drooping with misery; sitting at my desk and gradually losing sensation in my lower legs. Ah yes, May in England
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