Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 09/10/2026Increasingly feel that what I really want from government is @danneidle.bsky.social in charge of taxation 000
Reposted by Rob ElliotSpinningHugo @spinninghugo.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Bring back the old way of doing things. Exclude the judges (more accurately, litigants invoking judicial process). Let us go forward, heads held high, into the Nineteenth Century. 122
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 07/10/2026I think if you're going to do that you should _also_ say "read X first to get a narrative view of what happened", because the sort of historians who despise narrative nevertheless always assume you magically know it, dropping in people and events entirely unannounced. 170
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/10/2026I love the way the "Members Exclusive Content" @britishmuseum.bsky.social is, err, not exclusive at all. Got to britishmuseum.org/members-excl... and browse away. I've yet to find anything behind any authentication, let alone authorisation, barrier.britishmuseum.orgMembers' exclusive contentBrowse the British Museum Magazine archive, watch special Members' YouTube videos and more. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/10/2026@britishmuseum.bsky.social I'm a member but I don't have a username and password - how do I get one? Why doesn't the email and booking guide you just sent out tell me how to get one?! 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 30/09/2026Our current system just changed to multiple transferrable voting would enfranchise everyone but quite likely still result in majority governments. And would be a great defence against the extremes, allowing moderate voters to vote for literally anyone but the extremist. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 29/09/2026It would at least be a *sane* referendum - a popular opportunity to veto the government's policy in favour of the status quo. So OKish either way. Not a chance for the electorate to insist on rejecting the status quo for a policy vast majority in parliament neither wants nor knows how to deliver. 021
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026But I think it's true to say that Aslan is a fictional representation of a single person Lewis considered to be real, and considered to have really entered the world as a human called Jesus. Which I think moves it closer to Harris's Agrippa than you are suggesting. 110
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026With perhaps a side order of "and he magically got trapped in a Lion's body". It's still a fictional representation of Churchill. Of course Lewis wasn't a Docetist, so he didn't think of the incarnation in such simplistic terms. 100
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026I think that will depend heavily on your conception of what "Jesus" means. This is going to verge on Docetism, but I think to Lewis Aslan is closer to "what I imagine Churchill would behave and be like if Doctor Who took him to Gallifrey" than I think you are conceiving it. 100
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026In the imagination of Lewis's Narnia series, Narnia and our physical universe are part of the same reality, created by the same triune God, whose second person was incarnate in our universe as Jesus and in Narnia's as Aslan. So in the fictional world they are the same person. 010
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026But aren't we now into Agrippa in Harris' latest book not being the actual historical Agrippa, but being how Harris imagines Agrippa might have been? Which is true, but again, colloquially, saying "the main character in Harris' latest book is Agrippa" is obviously a reasonable thing to say. 200
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 22/09/2026I think those are different, from a Christian theological perspective. The second person of the trinity is thought of as a person, not a demiurgical force; it's more like (though not the same as) Zeus choosing a form to appear in; it's still Zeus whether it's a swan or a bull or whatever. 110
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 17/09/2026Dunno why I said “hadn’t realised”, “didn’t know” would be a much simpler and more accurate way of putting it 110
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 17/09/2026I hadn’t realised until I listened to the TRIH podcast that the “Belgian” Congo was actually very specifically Leopold’s private fiefdom, not a Belgian national thing 220
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 16/09/2026Judging by planning applications crested newts and bats are about as rare as pigeons and rats 010
Reposted by Rob ElliotDmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 11/09/2026Trump voter: "Fool me 23 times, shame on..." <checks notes> "... the libs?" 527642
Reposted by Rob ElliotSam Leith @questingvole.bsky.social · 10/09/2026An irksamleith.substack.comThe history of the world in one book titleAn Irk, Reform, Widowhood, some events, and new books this week 4115
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 07/09/2026In law, marriage / civil partnership is not about religion or romance or expensive parties. It is mostly about what happens when the relationship ends, which is guaranteed to happen, in one form or another. At that level it is profoundly utilitarian and pretty unromantic. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/09/2026The US Government increasingly feels like an extended practical joke. It’s like they’re seeing how far they can push how obviously fascist and jaw droppingly hypocritical they are being before the penny drops with their halfwit cult followers. But apparently the answer is “a very, very long way”. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 01/09/2026Yup, I see this as a coming revolution. Think of all those streets which will double, triple in usable space without the rows of cars on either side sitting idle 98% of the time. 010
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 24/08/2026I'm all for hiding pics of Robert Crampton in his speedos, but calling them "Adult Content" is a bit much. As Sean Lock would say... 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 20/08/2026Also unless my reading comprehension has completely failed your article doesn't "investigate the 'wild' claims made by Arday"? Or even reference them? It's not really about the specifics of Arday at all? 110
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 17/08/2026You can only buy plums in powers of 2. Everyone knows this. 160
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 14/08/2026I think she's the wrong demographic for this. But I loved it. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 12/08/2026Brilliant until the "this iiiis culture" at the end from the commentator which made me laugh out loud 010
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 10/08/2026Quite traditional though. The clauses just used to be rather more alarming. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 10/08/2026Surely one extra agent to tell the coordinating agent to keep going and believe in itself is the solution here? Could be a cheap haiku one. 020
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 10/08/2026Does that include posts where people retweet themselves? Because it’s the 5th retweet about the substacks article / book launch that has me hovering over the unfollow button (not you of course!) 030
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 08/08/2026Bit baffled by Callum Turner… I’m not the target audience but is he really considered movie star hot? James Bond hot?! Found him dull as ditchwater in that USAAF mini series and some after life nonsense with Elizabeth Olsen. 540
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/08/2026I'm skim reading, but there's a lot of bluster about what they think the French & Belgians *ought* to do and what they *want* them to do, but I'm not seeing much elaboration on what happens if they don't play ball. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/08/2026Reading the Reform policy on Small Boats at www.reformparty.uk/view-pdf/ope... > Operationally, we anticipate agreed returns to French or Belgian ports or transfer points, but will anticipate and plan for returns without the receiving state’s consent. What is that plan? 100
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 06/08/20261066 And All That got there first: www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7...gutenberg.org1066 and all that 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 05/08/2026"I’m not saying that William Wallace ... didn’t have sex with her … . But if he did ... it would have been a far less romantic scene than the one enacted by Mel Gibson in the film Braveheart." (c) Stewart Lee 030
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 05/08/2026Can we have an agreement that human beings never use the term "load-bearing" unless they are actually engineers discussing something that is needed to hold up a physical thing? As a metaphor let's just leave it to the AIs from here? 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 04/08/2026The only thing it could tell the service provider is "this is a real adult human and this is their unique ID for your service". It's then up to the service provider whether to allow that ID to have multiple accounts, and what to do if one of those accounts misbehaves. 152
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 04/08/2026It should be easy using one way hashes to setup an identity broker which hands off to individual countries identity providers and not only never knows who you are but stores a different hash for each service you are identified on so cannot link your identity up across services either. 153
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 03/08/2026(I also have reservations about the genius involved in putting all your best and brightest in a wooden box and hoping the opposition don’t look inside) 030
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 03/08/2026Difficult to see how you make that believable to modern audiences - it wouldn’t fool a seven year old 440
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 01/08/2026Which is why Tolkien, who was not an ignoramus, used Farthing. 060
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 31/07/2026> I never thought that the usually perennial week of cloudy, rainy 17 degrees in July was load-bearing Head whips round - load-bearing? 010
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 25/07/2026And it all takes place in 6 months! Same in the book - feels like you’ve been reading about Sam & Frodo slogging through Mordor for about a week, but it’s actually only 10 pages or something. 020
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 24/07/2026Fucking octopuses, man. What a dick. What was it even doing out of the sea... 010
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 24/07/2026It is deeply shameful that our MPs need saferooms. One of the greatest own goals our country has managed in the last 30 odd years is turning being an MP into an actively unpleasant and now dangerous job. 000
Rob Elliot @rob.lidalia.org.uk · 23/07/2026@danneidle.bsky.social I had an idea for a web app where people design their own tax system, with the twist that they then declare their assets / income and are presented with the option to setup a standing order to the exchequer of whatever extra is owing if their tax system were implemented. 000
