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Sam

@samkarlharrison.bsky.social
212 followers 443 following 539 posts

Sporadic writer & editor at Lion & Unicorn thelionandunicorn.com

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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Apropos Andy Burnham's enthusiasm for electoral reform – is the Green Party still part of the progressive alliance?
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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Best thing you'll read - and listen to- all morning
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"None of the artists I had were attractive or slim or fit any pop role model. They were plump, fat, one was balding. Tina was the youngest one, but she was nothing like you’d imagine a pop star to be" @alwynturner.bsky.social's profile of Britain's disco king👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/04/b...
thelionandunicorn.com
Biddu: the album
ALWYN TURNER on Britain’s first disco-king, with music from Carl Douglas and Geno Washington to the Playthings and the Electric Dolls.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"It’s quite daunting," remembered Biddu; "suddenly here’s this little kid from India and he’s got the BBC orchestra and he’s on Top of the Pops." @alwynturner.bsky.social on Britain's king of disco. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/04/b...
thelionandunicorn.com
Biddu: the album
ALWYN TURNER on Britain’s first disco-king, with music from Carl Douglas and Geno Washington to the Playthings and the Electric Dolls.
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Nick Cohen @nickcohen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Any Green member who participated in Jewish communal life could be denounced as a racist – as indeed could members of Polanski’s family. Needless to add, the Greens have no plans to denounce Muslims who attend mosques controlled by reactionary imams, or Christians who attend homophobic churches"
nickcohen.substack.com
Zack Polanski and the shadow of antisemitism
The Jew will get the blame
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"The lingering image of the prime minister this year will not be that of a ‘dead woman walking’ (as George Osborne called her, following the disastrous 2017 election) but of her mum-dancing at the Tory conference" #OTD in 2018 thelionandunicorn.com/2018/12/30/2...
Theresa May 'mum-dancing'
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"I understand that Alex Horne and Greg Davies, the hosts of the show, are the subjects of a disproportionately large amount of slash fiction online. Each to their own..." thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Coming soon to Lion & Unicorn, @alwynturner.bsky.social on Britain's first disco-king.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
'Breverie' seems more apt
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"It’s a simple premise on the face of it. Five comedians being given silly/deceptively ingenious tasks to complete by a seemingly neurodivergent man with a beard." thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Alwyn Turner @alwynturner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'll be at the Cuckfield Bookfest tomorrow, in conversation with the very wonderful Juliet Nicolson. It was sold out, but they've moved the event to a larger venue and tickets may still be available. cuckfieldbookfest.co.uk/event/alwyn-...
cuckfieldbookfest.co.uk
Alwyn Turner - Cuckfield Bookfest
Alwyn Turner on A Shellshocked Nation, his definitive history of 1920s Britain, from the General Strike to the rise of fascism.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Politicians are very keen to acknowledge that people have legitimate concerns about immigration. Quite what those concerns are is seldom spelt out..." L&U explores the 58-year history of a political cliché👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/27/c...
thelionandunicorn.com
Calling all cliches: Legitimate concerns
When did politicians start talking about legitimate concerns over immigration?
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s October. In America that means it’s National Sausage Month (not to be confused with National Hot Dog Month, which is in July). thelionandunicorn.com/2024/09/25/s...
thelionandunicorn.com
Sausages: an anthology
ALWYN TURNER selects some passages from British literature that concern sausages.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"He may look like a seven-foot golem made of reclaimed chicken, but on stage he’s mercurial, giggly and has an appetite for self-abasement that would make the Marquis de Sade blush" It's @summers2theb.bsky.social on Greg Davies and TASKMASTER for L&U👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Matt @matthewblott.com · 01/10/2026
I saw this at the Other Place. Brexit failure doesn't translate into fanatical EU support.
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Ben Thomas @summers2theb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"Each to their own, but for me personally, that would be the Fermat’s Last Theorem of difficult wanks." thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nearly time for Taskmaster - but to keep you going, here's @summers2theb.bsky.social on when it went wrong... thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Robert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If Reform did something like this with mosques we might think they were a bit racist. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Jewish Greens face sanctions for belonging to ‘Zionist’ synagogues
The Green Party rejected an amendment to protect Jewish members attending self-declared ‘Zionist’ organisations from reports of racism
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Ivan @hellothisisivan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That’s Life! was just incredible. Its two most famous moments are a man being movingly celebrated by the now grown Jewish children he got out of Nazi Germany & a dog saying “sausages”. No other programme has ever had that range.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"He may look like a seven-foot golem made of reclaimed chicken, but on stage he’s mercurial, giggly and has an appetite for self-abasement that would make the Marquis de Sade blush" It's @summers2theb.bsky.social on Greg Davies and TASKMASTER for L&U👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/10/01/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: Taskmaster
BEN THOMAS takes exception to a below-par series of Taskmaster.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Happy 65th birthday to Paul Hawksbee, part of "the best double-act on British radio, one of the few places where the likes of Victor Silvester and Old Mother Riley can get a mention, where Wilson, Keppel and Betty still mean something". thelionandunicorn.com/2024/07/14/c...
thelionandunicorn.com
‘Cathedrals are cathedrals’: the first 25 years of Talk Sport
From Caesar the Geezer to Covid, via the Two Mikes and the mighty H&J, ALWYN TURNER celebrates TalkSport radio.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"I have to confess when me and my friends used to run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren’t too pleased about that." Happy birthday to Theresa May, who reaches 70 today. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/07/13/i...
thelionandunicorn.com
‘I like my shoes’: The wit & wisdom of Theresa May
The life and career of the former prime minister, in her own words.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
In the latest from Lion & Unicorn, @summers2theb.bsky.social turns his hateful gaze on TASKMASTER👇
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Ben Finlay @benfinlay74.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"Now it is autumn again; the people are all coming back. The recess of summer is over, when holidays are taken, newspapers shrink, history itself seems momentarily to falter" A timely repost of my Oct 2025 article that celebrates the 50th anniversary of The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury. #booksky
thelionandunicorn.com
The (rest is) History, Man
BEN FINLAY celebrates 50 years of Malcom Bradbury’s satire of fashionable left politics.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A splendid new episode from Richard Johnson & @leedavidevansuk.bsky.social. I especially enjoyed Richard's vituperation at the PM's support for electoral reform and Rejoinerism: "The liberal progressive parasitical worm has burrowed its way into Burnham's head"! open.spotify.com/episode/4t8t...
open.spotify.com
Matters of Interest: Burnham's Big Speech & Labour's Missing Working Class
Since Attlee & Churchill · Episode
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Just been to Spotify to check on Pod Save the UK
John Major in the Tories' 1992 "It's still there" party political broadcast
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Finlay McLaren @finlay24.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"I think David Attenborough should take a leaf out of Johnny Morris’s book and do a few funny voices when he meets those animals. Cheer us all up a bit."
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"The face mask wasn’t just a shield; it was a gag. And Britain, it seems, still prefers the quiet" Andy Burnham spoke of Thatcher, who stood down 36 years ago. But not of Covid, which we forgot in 2021 @finlay24.bsky.social on the great omertà of our politics👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/10/11/d...
thelionandunicorn.com
Decade: Lockdown (2020)
Do you remember the covid lockdowns? asks FINLAY McLAREN. Of course you do. So why have we chosen to forget?
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Trudging home from a real slog of a day at work, listening to this again to pep myself up — and it's working!
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The prime minister "warned that there was 'a legitimate concern' about prospective immigration". Of course, that was 35 years ago. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/27/c...
thelionandunicorn.com
Calling all cliches: Legitimate concerns
When did politicians start talking about legitimate concerns over immigration?
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Tonight on digital versatile disc, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946), David Lean's brilliant gothic adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel — also available on YouTube youtu.be/-C2ouPXAok8
Poster for GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946)
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
What is a 'legitimate concern'? And how long have we been having them? Lion & Unicorn investigates👇
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I loved the first two series of THE CROWN, and the use of Max Richter's reinterpretation of Vivaldi as the soundtrack for the motorcycle scene, where Princess Margaret rides pillion behind Antony Armstrong-Jones, is electric youtu.be/BeBChOAqzpI
youtu.be
The Crown Margaret & Tony Motorcycle Scene Uncut HD
YouTube video by Azeem Abbas
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Feeling rather disconsolate on this grey Autumn day in Nottingham So I'm listening to 'Piano Parchment' (1968), which is more famous as the theme to the BBC adaptation of ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (1978-90) Was an opening theme ever more uplifting? youtu.be/V5fk9HwqnsM
youtu.be
Piano Parchment
YouTube video by Johnny Pearson - Topic
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Life was so much more ginger in those days
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Man alive! It's @hellothisisivan.bsky.social! "Eventually we meet two particularly vivid characters: 82-year-old Cyril Fluck, who continues in the business in order to ‘keep me away from my wife, who hates the sight of me’, & the flashy Barry Quartermaine" thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/26/l...
thelionandunicorn.com
Last night on YouTube: Man Alive
IVAN KIRBY on the Britain of 1965-66, as revealed by the BBC documentary strand.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I'm grateful we have journalists like Dorian, who still look past the distractions of the trees to discern clearly the wood
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Among my favourite sound gags is the 'tapping the camera lens/inside of the TV screen' effect👇
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Ivan @hellothisisivan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Bad feeling is far more likely to occur if we ignore the legitimate concern of electors than if we have the courage to speak frankly. Most sensible people would agree that the limit to the number of immigrants which this country can absorb has now been reached" – Guy Wallis, 1968 🔗 below
Reads: "LEGITIMATE CONCERNS"
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Trevor Philpott asks the pressing question: ‘Would you let your daughter marry a man who trod the streets crying “rag-bone”?’" In our latest article, @hellothisisivan.bsky.social goes deep into the Sixties👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/26/l...
thelionandunicorn.com
Last night on YouTube: Man Alive
IVAN KIRBY on the Britain of 1965-66, as revealed by the BBC documentary strand.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Apropos Angela Rayner & Shabana Mahmood thelionandunicorn.com/2026/02/18/i...
thelionandunicorn.com
Immigration: 60 years of manifesto pledges
The pledges made on immigration by every incoming government from Harold Wilson to Keir Starmer.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
When did people start having legitimate concerns over immigration? Well, let's go back nearly 60 years... thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/27/c...
thelionandunicorn.com
Calling all cliches: Legitimate concerns
When did politicians start talking about legitimate concerns over immigration?
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
One of the small things that makes contemporary British TV drama feel like it's set in a parallel universe is that you so rarely (ever?) see any of the characters vape
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Stripper Annette dashes between four Soho clubs each night ‘with the expediency of a fireman answering an alarm’ in order to provide for herself & her boyfriend Colin, a ‘poet, painter & designer of Aztec jewellery’" NEW from @hellothisisivan.bsky.social👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/26/l...
thelionandunicorn.com
Last night on YouTube: Man Alive
IVAN KIRBY on the Britain of 1965-66, as revealed by the BBC documentary strand.
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's Ben 'Basher' Thomas for Lion & Unicorn on THE WRESTLING👇
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
No podcast does more to lift my mood than @wheezingpod.bsky.social. The NHS should prescribe those three giggling twats for depression.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The match lasted seven minutes and six-and-a-half of that was filled with what could be called shenanigans. It had to be. Vader couldn’t safely take most of Ospreay’s offence without risking his life" Have you read the latest from @summers2theb.bsky.social? thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/23/h...
thelionandunicorn.com
Hate watch: The Wrestling
BEN THOMAS on shenanigans in ‘one of the worst UK wrestling matches of all time’.
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Lion & Unicorn @lionunicorn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
COMING SOON at Lion & Unicorn: 'Calling all cliches' returns to look at the history of...
Reads: "LEGITIMATE CONCERNS"
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Sam @samkarlharrison.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Stripper Annette dashes between four Soho clubs each night ‘with the expediency of a fireman answering an alarm’ in order to provide for herself & her boyfriend Colin, a ‘poet, painter & designer of Aztec jewellery’" NEW from @hellothisisivan.bsky.social👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2026/09/26/l...
thelionandunicorn.com
Last night on YouTube: Man Alive
IVAN KIRBY on the Britain of 1965-66, as revealed by the BBC documentary strand.
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