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Philip Challinor

@pchallinor.bsky.social
180 followers 160 following 2.3K posts

Pedantic malcontent. Author of all this stuff lulu.com/spotlight/challinor07 and worse thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 5h
Those who still believe that Britain's national security has anything much to gain from vassalage to the World Cop will be relieved at the announcement that the USAF base at Fairford is safe thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/10/bomb...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Bombed Out
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Shabana Mahmood tells a clown and a war criminal that she's in the wrong job www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Nearly all women arriving on small boats have been raped, says Shabana Mahmood
Home secretary warns people traffickers will exploit asylum seekers because they decide who comes to the UK
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Caution is no doubt advisable. The great English nation is quite capable of voting to rejoin one year and then electing a Farage Falange government the next www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...
theguardian.com
Half of UK wants to rejoin EU and backing it could drive up Labour vote, megapoll finds
Exclusive: Findings will bolster those in No 10 who want to negotiate on re-entry but some senior figures remain wary
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I've gone and done it again thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/10/avai...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Available Now
YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
French students protest at the Britishness of their education www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Anyone who thinks privatised public services are not fit for purpose must have a very strange conception of the purpose in privatising a captive market www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Bosses of three firms that supply trains to UK railways made £3.5m last year
Rolling stock companies, which also paid out nearly £400m to shareholders, accused of profiting at passengers’ expense
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Perhaps because there's a minor functional difference between borrowing and stealing
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Even the most venerable heritages are not immune to controversy, and that of Egypt is no exception thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/10/poli...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Political Pareidolia
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Reposted by Philip Challinor
Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Brexit revisited. New, unscheduled, post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog on why Burnham's conference speech was a significant development in the Brexit saga, the questions and concerns it raises, and why it might come to be seen as a historic moment: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/brex...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Christian state of Tennessee has declared a moratorium on terminally correcting its enemies in the wake of yet another botched execution thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/10/inco...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
As always, the solution to the climate catastrophe is to enable those primarily responsible for it to keep doing more of the same thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/simp...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Simple, Simone Says
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Fossil fuel profiteers and blanched radioactive pachyderm salesmen consider new fossil fuel projects a no-brainer. Apparently this is news www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
New UK gas and oil projects are a ‘no-brainer’, says EDF boss
Developing North Sea fields does not contradict net zero goals, according to Simone Rossi
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Apparently all that squealing about imminent threats and being unprepared was just genial, statesmanlike banter
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Reposted by Philip Challinor
Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"If Burnham follows through and this programme is visibly making headway by the next election, then he may well get to oversee the fruits of his 10-year plan."
averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com
Andy Burnham at Labour Party Conference
There was something for almost everyone. Andy Burnham's speech at Labour conference was what most of the party's voters were hoping for. It ...
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Reposted by Philip Challinor
Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Praise for Burnham's speech is OK; it was better than Healey's vacuous drivel. But it misses a key point about politics - that we over-rate words & under-rate power, interests, administration etc.
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Concerning the interwebs, from Ancient Times until now, by One Who Was There www.thejudge.me.uk/Not_blog/Not...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
London's railway stations have been privileged to host the latest glorious manifestation of technological Britishness, namely the automation of witness unreliability thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/dete...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Detectable Advantages
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Patriots will no doubt rejoice to discover that, although British awareness of the Holocaust did not necessarily begin with Mr Churchill's personal liberation of Auschwitz, British values regarding the victims were about as robust as ever thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/not-...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Not Altogether Why We Fought
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
While visiting France amid the Church of Rome's customary trappings of poverty and humility, the Pope has once more called for a healing of the church's "deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors" thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/lour...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Lourdes, Art Thou Not Worthy to Receive Me
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Having spent so much time and effort protecting their realm from the perils of science and history, the Trumpster and his head-tribble will be relieved that an embarrassing document penned by a Founding Father is about to be auctioned off thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/doub...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Doubtful Thomas
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Sort of easy to see why it might have that effect
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Government policy linked to government policy, inquiry hears www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Overcrowding and racism at Manston asylum centre linked to government decisions, inquiry hears
Kent facility became dangerously overburdened after ministers halted transfers to hotels
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"it is extraordinary that we are now probably more than half-way through the Labour government’s term of office and virtually nothing concrete has been achieved in terms of the EU reset it promised to deliver"
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tired grown-up and sulking infant
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Dear me, how very unfortunate www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Israel facing water shortages caused by destruction of Gaza’s treatment plants
Five desalination plants shut down for days, while Gaza remains in grip of severe water and sanitation crisis
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In an instance of knife crime which even critics of Sadiq Khan may be inclined to tolerate if not to condone, a soul-mate of the Dover and Portsmouth Blackshirts has done his bit for Britain by stabbing a dinghy thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/patr...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Patriotic Deflation
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A photographer asserts that the truth is inevitably partial and contingent, and a journalist does not understand. Imagine that www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A government spokesbeing said nothing against endangering rescue workers at sea, but instead sought to reassure the migrant-bashers www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Should the @libdems.org.uk lie to the right about the tax cuts, or lie to the left about better public services? Were it not for their record in office, it might look like quite the little dilemma
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If Georgie, Blair and Fishy Rishi all think it's a wonderful idea, well what could possibly go wrong
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
While the effects of Donskoy's digits and Sasha's samples are yet to be noticeably felt in Tsar Vladimir's holy war, some other sacred relics appear to have brought about a salutary transformation in Bristol thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/his-...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: His Glorious Body
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Various beneficiaries of Imperial largesse in the Caribbean have drawn up an action plan with prongs to stab yet deeper at the ghastly, gaping wound of post-colonial ingratitude thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/stra...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Strange Historical Blind Spot
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Imagine treating a British expat - and a businessman, to boot - as if he were just some migrant www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘I have nothing in the UK at all’: British man torn from his Swedish wife and home
Charles lands at Heathrow with just two bags and nowhere to go as a result of Brexit and Stockholm’s hardline immigration position
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Extremists on both sides, obvs
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
How could any conscious adult, anywhere in Britain, take action like that and *not know* what would happen? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Unease in ‘newly independent’ Piddington as world media and Danny Tommo descend
As villagers take stock following symbolic vote, some fear far-right weaponisation of asylum dispute and influx of ‘masked people like in Dover’
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Whenever Gaston Leroux finished a book, he used to leap up and fire his revolver out of the study window. I don't know where he got the energy
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Parliamentarians with the necessary spare time and cultural depth are poised to inquire into the nation's performances at the Eurovision song contest thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/roya...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Royaume-Uni: nul points
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Just the most British thing imaginable to believe you can straighten out a child by extending collective punishment to the entire family www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Parents in England and Wales could be fined or jailed for child’s crimes, minister says
Jake Richards says changes would be part of ‘carrot-and-stick’ approach to try to turn around young offenders
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Given the @libdems.org.uk considerable contribution to the economic and social disaster that fuelled the rise of Farage, it's a little late for the sometime Bullingdon Club fag Sir Edward to start burbling about moral responsibility now www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Lib Dems have ‘moral responsibility’ to block Reform, says Ed Davey as party gears up for snap election
Exclusive: Lib Dem leader bullish ahead of party conference despite static poll ratings and MPs’ frustrations
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New evidence of grown-upness in Team Starmer's foreign policy has emerged thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/hitt...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Hitting the Right Targets
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Team Starmer kicked the poor and helped the rich. Apparently this is news www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
Poorest countries hit hardest by UK aid cuts under Keir Starmer government, new figures reveal
Aid to lower-income countries fell by almost 7%, while higher-income countries saw their share of Britain’s aid budget increase
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Presumably we are to be reassured that the Minister for Tech-bros, Cultchah, Meedjah and Rah has nothing more urgent to see to www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
theguardian.com
UK to answer for its ‘dismal record’ in Eurovision before committee of MPs
Digital, culture, media and sport committee expected to hear evidence from BBC bosses and music industry experts
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Trade legislation intended to protect European markets against the yellow peril may also incidentally affect the mainland thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/oh-i...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Oh, the Injustice of it All
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
While we do not comment as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that hobnailed passive-aggressive insinuation does have its uses www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Doubtless owing to the notorious French taint in their breeding stock, the Canadians may yet accept their servitude in preference to liberation by the empire of the head-tribble thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/oh-u...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Oh, the Unfairness of it All
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
State propagandists among the Heathen Chinee have very cunningly and insidiously insinuated real-world events into a TV thriller, without scrupling to put their own particular slant on the story thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/stra...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Strange Tastes, Alien Values
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The fiends www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘This is seriously bold’: How China turned Taiwan tensions into a top-rating TV spy drama
Dismissed in Taiwan as simply propaganda, the Long Watch, or Jiaofeng, has proved a sensation across the strait with its references to real-life crises
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
RIP Jeremy Thomas, whose name on a production usually indicated something interesting www.theguardian.com/film/2026/se...
theguardian.com
Jeremy Thomas obituary
Film producer who enjoyed his greatest success with the 1987 epic The Last Emperor for which he won an Oscar
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It's all very laudable for the lesser breeds to adopt civilised values, but problems can still arise from forcing fine British wine into shoddy foreign bottles thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/our-...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Our Powers of Nuance Elude Them
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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
One of the major contributors to the Grenfell disaster has accepted the very British penance of a new job in the public housing sector thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2026/09/burn...
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon: Burning to Serve
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