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James Graham

@jamesgraham.theliberati.net
842 followers 660 following 6.5K posts

Tabletop gaming retailer, cat owner and retired political campaigner.

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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
In short, this is a pretty good model for how you reboot a show so that it stays fresh and tells new stories, while still keeping the ethos of what made the original show great. I was initially a bit wary but they pulled it off and by the halfway mark I was fully on board. Good job.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
This is no longer a show about how many restaurants a professional footballer should buy but about the challenges of childcare and keeping an eye on your post football career. We don’t have a whole season of an angst ridden coming out story; half the cast are lesbians and it’s taken for granted.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
Season 5 will start with the new team well established and the focus squarely on them. It’s now a very different show, focused on the realities of women’s football being far less well financed and high status than the men’s, meaning that it’s telling very different stories.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
Indeed, the season finale ends with one of the recurring cast members exiting and another presumably having a role reduced to cameo status next season - one gets the impression that they only stuck around to resolve a significant lingering plot thread.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
Not sure they entirely got the balance right, but at least the show ended squarely focused on the main cast, including newbies. It’s not like, say, the old team got together at the end and took over (*cough* Picard season 3 *cough*). NEXT POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
But in fairness, while this was fan service, it was more in the service of giving the new characters an audience than it was to wallow in past glories. As the show progressed, the cameos reduced and allowed the new cast the space they needed.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
The interesting thing for me was the way they used cameos. This was a bit annoying for the first half of the season and a character from the previous seasons would show up, do their bit and sod off again.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
Season 4, if you don’t know, marks a big shift as the focus switches from the men’s team to the women’s. Honestly I think it struggled a bit at the start but it won me over.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
Watching Ted Lasso season 4, I do think there are some good lessons there to be learned for other franchises.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1h
A particular type of nerd who turned to hateful, nihilistic philosophies over finding community in other interests, to be fair. They all seem to have a common origin story of playing D&D as teenagers but very few sound like the sort of person you’d want as your DM.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 5h
Quite possibly. I get the feeling that everyone was waiting for someone else to get organised in the run up to conference. And when no one did they were left scrabbling for a response.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 5h
As I expected, the new Star Wars D&D is going to be a standalone game and not a supplement to the existing game, making it far closer to the D20 Star Wars games that a lot of commentators I think were expecting.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 6h
I love the fact that when I typed “has larry the downing street cat caught any” into google it autocompleted it to “ghosts”.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 8h
This Weeks Editorial Cartoon: Recipe For Disaster theonion.com/recipe-for-disaster
This Weeks Editorial Cartoon: Recipe For Disaster
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 8h
A 2027 challenge will damage the party with not much immediate benefit.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 8h
I have real concerns that it’s too late. With 8 months to go before the locals people are far more likely to just minimise it and move on. Maybe the start of something that sees fruit in 2029 but too late for a leadership challenged before the next General Election.
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Jooooohhhh No! @josefoshea.bsky.social · 10h
He can survive this - by abseiling off the roof and riding a jet ski to the Bahamas
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
Never mind Sharia Law, when is London going to adopt Shakara Law?
Shakara saying “Shakara!”
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
The industry is addicted to mega blockbuster films making mega profits when it could make more money making more lower budget, more creatively interesting films.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
To be fair, if they can find a way to push up cinema prices and thus profits for a troubled medium, I’m not completely against. But at a time when cinema ticket prices have plunged and that seems to have worked for the industry, I suspect it will backfire.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
Always bet on the liberal with “Maynard” in his name (or not, I don’t actually know this dude and this push should have started in May).
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
I think the 3D push might have been worse, forcing us to pay more for what was often a worse experience.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10h
But also, reflecting on this, if she thought that the Greens might win AFTER the ZIR motion passed then she must recognise that it would have been seen as a vindication of that conference vote. So really the right thing to do would have been to campaign more, not less.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 11h
He’s from bloody Hampshire! This is the greatest outrage since the Yorkshire Tea debacle.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 12h
They must have been thought that HSP was extremely close. I can see how it was possible to win but not without a lot of luck, which they manifestly hadn’t been having. Which begs questions about how they convinced themselves it was so winnable that it was worth sacrificing their conference for.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 13h
I’m not saying it’s easy to criticise a leader after a strong result (been there, done that), but there are diplomatic ways to do so and there is certainly an opportunity to organise concerned members in a way that can’t be presented as a direct attack on the leadership.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 13h
I say that because the signs were there and politicians need to look beyond basic results. For example the local election campaign was a disaster for the Greens in my bit of North London (Barnet) with Polanski doing everything he could to sabotage it with his social media re the Golders Green attack
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14h
There certainly should have been interventions when the local election campaign went off the rails in May. And there were a few articles concerned with how online Polanski is but there’s been almost no concern about this entryist putsch and October was far too late to say anything.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14h
I think it goes beyond ZIR. The writing has been on the wall re Polanski’s leadership style for some time but MPs have been busy either sulking or hoping that it will sort itself out. Aside from Spencer they’ve all been remarkably quiet for the last 12 months.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14h
I agree he’s lost all moral authority, but question that if there was a leadership election now he wouldn’t simply be replaced by someone worse. It would likely backfire like Labour’s 2016 putsch. Still, at least a more extreme leader would hasten their demise and make space for a new alternative.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14h
You can get cardamom from Ocado, mom.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14h
I’m sure Trump will be delighted. Who has won this year’s FIFA peace prize incidentally?
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
How high does this thing go?
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AJ Thomas @zzypt.bsky.social · 17h
Take joy where you find it.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 16h
On balance I will take government procurement by “mob rule” over and above government procurement by shady back room deals overseen by Peter Mandelson.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 09/10/2026
It got bounced around so badly I never got to see it. Treated atrociously.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
Lower Decks was a nostalgia fest as well of course, but it did seem to have broader appeal. It’s my wife’s favourite for example - and she’s basically given up on everything else by this point.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
It started with plenty of potential but then they junked all that in favour of a TNG reunion and bringing the Borg back AGAIN.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
We made a whole season about the complex history and different meanings of socialism and he just comes out and nails it in a sentence. Damn
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
If you spend over a decade gleefully conducting culture wars over history, don’t act surprised when the vast majority of the public nope out and favour nature of history.
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aLec robBins @alecrobbins.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
looked up mine and this is killing me lmao
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
Picard Season 3 was a pile of arse though.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
Too much puffin hate on this website.
static.klipy.com
Photographer Captures Puffin Portrait
Alt: Photographer Captures Puffin Portrait
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
You’re happy with the bee and call yourself a proud Yorkshirewoman?! Typical pro-Manchester bias.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
My one criticism of this is that I question the wisdom of choosing to depict an Attack Puffin on the puffin note. Absolutely terrifying: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Bank of England reveals the four animals to feature on banknotes
The decision comes after nearly half a million people voted on a shortlist of 18 creatures.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
To be fair, his main issue was with badgers and he can claim a victory that they have not been selected. Fucking badgers!
static.klipy.com
Robert E Fuller's Yawning Badger
Alt: Robert E Fuller's Yawning Badger
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
If you spend over a decade gleefully conducting culture wars over history, don’t act surprised when the vast majority of the public nope out and favour nature of history.
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Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Lookit. Deep down every Irish person wants to spin some yank a yarn that gets cited as fact in some factual text. We told an Irish American girl that when the Muppets was released in Ireland, Kermit the Frog was called Dermot the Frog because Cromwell’s son was a Kermit.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
I think that’s exactly right. But I think it’s also true that Labour thinks a “working class northerner” is what Ecks thinks it is as well.
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James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026
This page makes me look incredibly healthy. I think they’ve grasped the wrong bit of the elephant there. Happy to not correct them.
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