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James Calbraith

@jamescalbraith.co.uk
765 followers 427 following 9.1K posts

Edinburgh. Author of history-adjacent fiction. The Saxon Spears and other Post-Roman tales. Jamescalbraith.co.uk 🏳️‍⚧️❤️🏳️‍🌈

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 6h
I'm guessing Google Translate now translates AI to SI ?
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 7h
Yeah I'm gonna need Trump to just shut the hell up.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 12h
Wonderfully filigree palace of the kings of Asturias in Naranco. It must've been an astonishing piece of work for the time.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 28/09/2026
First time got one of these in playoutlier.com
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 28/09/2026
The holy relics of Asturias.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/09/2026
I wonder how many young people have heard of The Rolling Stone.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/09/2026
All dictators are morons.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/09/2026
San Salvador de Valdedios looking absurdly like a scale model of a basilica. As if it was built for a park of Roman miniatures, not for actual worship. ⛪🏺
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/09/2026
Once again, it's completely mad that we're talking about immigration as if it's an actual problem in UK in late 2026. By no real, verifiable measure is it a 'problem'. It's all just bad vibes.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026
I love Threads 'suggested thread' feature, which is always something like: [person you've never heard of, replying to something without context] Wow, really? How great and/or terrible!
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026
Cool little Romanesque capital guys from Villaviciosa ⛪🏺
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026
Inside an 11th century Asturian village church.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026
I'm sorry, but saying British have a 'cuisine' is simply insulting to places like Spain or Italy. They have a collection of preferred foodstuffs.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026
Béziers has lifts to the top of its hill. Lisbon has trams and a lift. Genoa has funiculars. Warsaw has an escalator. Vitoria-Gasteiz has travelators. Edinburgh just tells everyone fuck you, you're going to climb.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Quite happy with that. Always starting with Birmingham New Street really helps. Loconundrum #194 🟨⬜⬜ 🚂🚶🚂 🟩🟩🟩
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 24/09/2026
Englishness is so intertwined with Britishness that in a great number of languages there's no practical distinction between the two, unless in a specific political or legal context.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 23/09/2026
The fact that Carthaginians could have used Asian, African and North African elephants in their armies gives us a tantalising possibility their tactical doctrine involved light, medium and heavy elephants ;)
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 23/09/2026
From the North to Celtic Sea Non-White Britain will be free
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 23/09/2026
The English so badly want to be the oppressed minority in their own country they'd sooner cosplay as some kind of uwu British Basques or Bretons than try to confront their dominant position in the Union.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/09/2026
Not to be all Guardian's Travel Tips but Vitoria-Gasteiz is an *actual* hidden gem of the Basque Country. The vibes are fantastic and the bars are stunning - and as far as I could tell we were the only foreign tourists around.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/09/2026
There are no boring numbers to a mathematician; there are no boring places to a historian. Tiny St-Jean-de-Luz is famous for at least two things: the wedding of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse in 1660, and the evacuation of Polish Army in 1940 on ocean liners Batory and Sobieski
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 21/09/2026
Well that's not ominous at all
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 21/09/2026
Navarra Rosado is definitely one of the weirdest wines I've ever tried (complimentary). Just straight up sweet watermelon juice.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 21/09/2026
At a time when popular music is the least politicized it has been in my memory (especially compared to the 1980s) what an appaling and pointless question to ask.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026
Go on, Merz. Fuck off now.
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Reposted by James Calbraith
Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

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Wide shot of the BRITISH MUSEUM. There are suggestions of fascism around the streets - tanks, barricades, an Orwellian 'Big Brother'-style poster on a wall. A voice of a TOUR GUIDE emanates from the museum:

TOUR GUIDE:
So the Tapestry tells acrucial chapter of our nation's history...

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[Cut to interior of museum. A long Bayeaux-style TAPESTRY is on display, and the Tour Guide is speaking to a tour group]

TOUR GUIDE [smiling]:
How modern fascist Britain was created. 

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TOUR GUIDE:
The Tapestry begins here with the 2008 Crash, then austerity, then the AI Crash...

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TOUR GUIDE:
...and by the end of the room it's just full-on fash. 

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CHILD IN TOUR GROUP [gesturing to the tapestry]:
What's this middle bit?

TOUR GUIDE:
This is the 2026 Battle of Legitimate Concerns 

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TOUR GUIDE:
[show a reporter standing next to the Dover protests]
Here's the media saying the government have got to do something about the legitimate concerns...

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CHILD:
...About the failure of capitalism?

TOUR GUIDE:
No about brown people on boats

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CHILD:
[pointing at boats crossing the sea on the tapestry]
Are these boats the mega-dinghies?

TOUR GUIDE:
Not all of them

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[we see one of the boats  is a giant yacht]
TOUR GUIDE:
That one's a superyacht,
carrying money from the American fascists to the British ones.

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TOUR GUIDE:
You see really it's as much a story of convergence as it is of conflict.

[An alarm sounds in the museum]
DING DING DING DING 

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TOUR GUIDE:
Ok, tour over everyone 

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TOUR GUIDE:
It's time for the Two Minute Hate!

[They all leave the museum]

[ends]
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026
Who knew The Housemartins wrote a song about Ed Sheeran 40 years ago youtu.be/fudOagMeVKk?...
youtu.be
The Housemartins, Sitting On A Fence
YouTube video by 1pjb1888
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026
I don't think there's a single government in the world right now who knows how to deal with the ongoing Permanent Crisis.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026
Bad news guys, turns out AI will not solve all our problems
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026
Emperor Nepos announces a new batch of difficult reforms.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 19/09/2026
Why the hell is everyone in those AI mobile game ads a mad asshole now. Who does this appeal to.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 19/09/2026
Been on a bit of WILTY binge, starting from the first series, and fuck me are the host's jokes terrible. The humour of late 00s was truly terrible - misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia galore. Even David and Lee are cringing at some of the gags, you can tell they're already from a later generation.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 19/09/2026
Jesus H. Christ, humanity is doomed. And this for people who, a generation or so ago, would be sending their own kids to school.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 18/09/2026
Why the fuck are we all taking about immigration again? It's record low, the small boats are under control, there's absolutely zero reason for it to be the topic of national conversation other than so many people *want* us to talk about it.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 18/09/2026
Imagine if instead of Neom and other bullshit the Saudis had just built a better protected pipeline.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 17/09/2026
He'd mostly be surprised I'm still alive.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 17/09/2026
I thought Edinburgh's mass transit system was bad, here I am in Zaragoza, 700k people with only one tram line.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 17/09/2026
Discovery of the year: in Spain, you can just buy all the pinchos ingredients in a decent supermarket, and with a nice baguette and a bottle of cheap wine you can have yourself an evening at a taberna for a fraction of the price and without unnecessary social interaction.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 17/09/2026
Do Americans know they don't have to just let Trump demolish whatever buildings he wants all over the place
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Hector as teammate for Ajax? Have they even *read* the book?
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
All that said, nothing teaches you to separate art from the artist better than being a fan of French music. Not sure if there's any one of them who didn't turn out to be a cunt.
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Reposted by James Calbraith
Libération @liberation.fr · 15/09/2026
Catherine Ringer : on veut pas t'abandonner... C'est la une de Libération mercredi.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
I assume Lisa Nandy will now send riot police to Piddington, Catalonia style?
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
I can't follow UK news anymore, it's just all too stupid.
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Now *this* is France. youtu.be/TB2i_ekaKHg?...
youtu.be
Angélique Kidjo invite Catherine Ringer "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" #SessionUnik
YouTube video by FIP
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Les Rita Mitsouko was the band Eurythmics wished they could be. Au revoir, Fred, Catherine. youtu.be/1zWlnzFXcKY?...
youtu.be
Les Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baïla (Clip Officiel)
YouTube video by Les Rita Mitsouko
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Today is the 39th anniversary of Montreal Protocol, something which, if you listen to climate deniers, never happened and the ozone layer just fixed itself on its own.
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Reposted by James Calbraith
Olivier Mannoni @oliviermannoni.eurosky.social · 15/09/2026
Adieu à Catherine Ringer, immense dame de la chanson. music.youtube.com/watch?v=ubL_...
music.youtube.com
Bernard Lavilliers, Catherine Ringer - IDEES NOIRES avec Catherine Ringer
YouTube video by BernardLavillierVEVO
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 15/09/2026
Not Catherine Ringer! youtu.be/FwllzZuzz58?...
youtu.be
Les Rita Mitsouko - Les amants (Clip Officiel)
YouTube video by Les Rita Mitsouko
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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 14/09/2026
What kind of bullshit JK Rowling name for a Russian oligarch is Omar Kremlev.
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