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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My dad was a big fan of Alistair Cooke’s Letters From America. Both would be turning in their graves if they could see it now.

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The government has been persuaded that they are vital to 'growth'

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Anyone concerned by the rise of intolerant nationalism should read this masterful piece by @fotoole.bsky.social This passage in particular leapt out at me as explaining what is wrong with 'make [insert country here] great again' populism: the difference between national pride and national vanity.

National vanity is arguably dependent on the absence of national pride. To be proud of one’s country is, as Yeats says, not to disguise its faults but to want to believe that the country is capable of rising above them. The keynote of national pride is “We’re better than this.” National vanity, on the contrary, is indeed a form of disguise. It uses the mask of greatness to cover up a society’s complex realities. The dark parts of its history and the persistent stains of injustice must be erased. The dignity of self-knowledge is sacrificed to the willed ignorance of inflated self-esteem. Self-belief is replaced by self-delusion.

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

I've finally worked out who McConnell reminds me of

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The bluebells in Kent have been quite exceptional this year. I’ve seen them in many places where I’d never previously noted any. These white and blue ones are at Trinity church in Tunbridge Wells

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

After reading about Trump's increasingly painful collision with reality in Iran, the next thing I see is this. Are there any sane people running the USA at all?

Newspaper headline "JD Vance says aliens are 'demons' and details obsession with UFOs"

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Why Brexit wasn't just a mistake for the people who voted for it, but screwed all of our children www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

Brexit, by killing free movement to and from the EU, caused the biggest voluntary loss of rights in British history, and economically was somewhere on the spectrum between a mistake and a disaster. Leave voters in the Brexit referendum skewed heavily towards older people with secure retirement incomes. People in work and the young overwhelmingly voted remain. The upshot is that the old put their cultural anxieties ahead of future generations’ economic needs. The old voted to jeopardise the economic prospects of the young.

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

This beauty established itself in a crack in our terrace a couple of years ago and now cannot be moved

pink and yellow primrose flowering in a crack in a stone terrace

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

My point was about the breadth of ideas that can be entertained, but if you want specifics, see below. We can argue the numbers but at least they're being discussed. That you consider the things you mention (which are good and welcome) 'radical' just underlines how far the pitch has been tilted.

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

They did something similar in Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, with the Empire State Building. Hope this one goes better:

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firstprinciples.bsky.social @firstprinciples.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

This appeared immediately above your post in my feed. Makes it hard to see how Trump's US is 'winning'

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