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Matthew Reynolds's avatar

Marina Hyde did recently make a very droll observation about how it was surprising that of all the famous British Campbells, it was Naomi rather than Alastair who’s had to testify at The Hague. You could hear the stifled laughter in the studio.

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Raj's avatar

I literally came here to make this point. Glad some else had the same thought

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pseudonyms for fun and safety's avatar

Never mind Alastair Campbell, I always wonder how Marina Hyde feels about having to unironically do advert reads on The Rest is Entertainment.

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Charles Arthur's avatar

I suspect she closes her eyes and thinks of the money (as with all advert reads everywhere!). Plus not being able to have a pop at Alastair Campbell isn’t the highest price to pay - I suspect that is actually not being able to point out what a dolt Rory Stewart has made himself look at not one but two elections in a matter of just a few months. I still shudder at him confidently pronouncing on what ChatGPT had to say about early results from the UK election.

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Andrea's avatar

She’s had at least one drive-by at Rory post election.

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Charles Arthur's avatar

Holding herself back then..

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Ben G's avatar

She got to have a massive rant about cocaine killing the nightclub industry the other day. I wouldn't worry about her being unable to vent...

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Anna Tuckett's avatar

I recommend an excellent, if harrowing, podcast Who Killed Emma?, to anyone still using the term “sex work”. It shows the grim reality of prostitution - it’s telling the journalist who made the podcast chose not to use the phrase.

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Alistair North's avatar

Can't say I thought very much of the recommended Aaronovitch article. Consistently using the word 'Landowners' rather than 'Farmers' (average salary about £ 27500) and highlighting Dyson as the main example. To be fair, he does talk about Farmers in the last paragraph, but it simply reads something like 'some of my best friends are Farmers, but...'

20/24 in the Tolkien quiz. Some of the questions were a little more difficult than, 'is Bilbo the name of a character or of a Drug?'

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James Marshall's avatar

16/24 on the quiz. Fool of a Took!

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pozorvlak's avatar

18/24 here. I knew a few on both sides, but had a tough time on the ones I had to guess.

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Anne Martinez's avatar

Thanks for linking that Sarah Ditum piece.

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Neil Scott's avatar

No Dean Kissick?

Curious about the Bluestocking editorial policy.

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Helen Lewis's avatar

I had so much already this week that Kissick has been held for next week…

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Neil Scott's avatar

Ah excellent. Highly recommend reading the Tom Wolfe essay as well if you have time.

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Rob Bradley's avatar

4. Could you articulate what the attraction for erudite folk such as yourself the attraction of Twitter and it's equivalents please?

I've been resisting the smug urge to say I've glad I never signed up for it and the loathsome Musk, yet clearly there is an innate appeal to express ourselves succinctly..at any moment.

However for one who routinely places both feet in mouth, I veer away from any opportunity to demonstrate this annoying talent.

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John Woods's avatar

The piece on Biden relaxing the border restrictions and the Texas Governor bussing the immigrants to New York was probably happening all over the marginal States before the election of Trump. It is also possible, if unlikely, that Kamala Harris had known of this problem but decided to ignore it. Noah Smith talked about the lack of concern by the Biden Team for the effect on immigrant populations of additional immigration. There will be a lot of analysis on why Trump won so easily despite all the polling saying it was neck and neck and well within the margin of error.

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Nov 24
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Helen Lewis's avatar

Encouragement is absolutely fine, but there’s a reason we’ve developed elaborate circumlocutions around correcting people — because it can sound very rude and end up being counter-productive. I’ve seen too much gleeful chiding when the tone should be “can I tell you about this helpful thing for the visually impaired?” (Or better yet, lobby the engineers to prompt people to enter it)

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