Collingwood 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Jul 11, 2022 10 tweets 10 min read Read on X
This week's issue of #BritanniQ has landed in people's email inboxes. Didn't receive it? Follow the link below to get it every Monday free of charge. What did you miss out on this week? We started, of course, with #BorisJohnson's resignation... [1/n]

bournbrookmag.com/britanniq
...@TomMcTague argued that #Johnson might suffer from Phaeton Complex, and ultimately achieved nothing apart from one big thing. The achievement of nothing infuriated @arisroussinos, who argued in a brilliant essay that this, rather than his sleaze, was his main...[2/n]
...crime. Finally @sullydish said Johnson was useless, but, far from being the avatar for a right wing racist takeover (as many on the hysterical left argue), he actually prevented one. #BritanniQ also guided people to a brilliant @unherd podcast, with @freddiesayers... [3/n]
...@Fox_Claire, @Will___lloyd and @arisroussinos discussed not the gossip surrounding the #BorisOut moment, but its place in the mega geopolitical, economic and social trends shaking the nation.

@BDSixsmith pleaded with God to save us from Tom Tugendhat, and a certain... [4/n]
...@admcollingwood argued that leadership elections play a crucial role in blocking the creation of a genuinely conservative political voice in Britain while running a disdainful eye over the contenders.

We also asked, is Britain defended? The answer, from @simonakam... [5/n]
...@James_P_Snell, @RUSI_org and @WarOnTheRocks was, given the changes in the nature of warfare and the specifics of the British Armed Forces, probably not.

We recommended a wonderful essay by Paul Kingsnorth for @unherd about how the left and big businesses ended up...[6/n]
...in bed together, and then looked at the late Shinzo Abe's legacy with two of the most capacious minds in the public intellectual sphere today, @adam_tooze and @ELuttwak. Both offered invaluable detail, breath and context to the former Japanese PM's politics.

Moving...[7/n]
...on, we took a dispiriting look at education with essays from @Im1776_ and @LD_Sceptics. We then suggested an interesting, low cost solution, based on @ATabarrok's review of a Kenyan study for @MargRev. No doubt the teaching unions would hate it. We rounded off the week...[8/n]
...with a wonderfully curmudgeonly (and uncomfortably correct) essay from @cjsnowdon about his hatred of WhatsApp, and a look at why medieval cities hired musicians as first responders, armed guards and essential workers with @tedgioia.

Finally, we had a little...[9/n]
...chicken soup for the patriot's soul.

BritanniQ has received wonderful feedback so far; every week, people have taken the time to write emails saying how much they enjoy it. If you would like it, free of charge, every Monday, follow the link below.

bournbrookmag.com/britanniq

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Collingwood 🇬🇧

Collingwood 🇬🇧 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @admcollingwood

Apr 26
Just read this terrifying little column. It's a must read (link below) because it suggests Europe is on the road to war. It's written by the former staff director of the Near East Subcommittee of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so it should be reasonably...

1/n Image
...credible. It argues that the Biden Administration thinks that anything that looks like a Russian victory in Ukraine would be a serious "setback to US security strategy and would be a blow, even a fatal one, to NATO." This is true, but I would add that this is only...

2/n
...because we made it so by (1) discouraging negotiation in winter 22-23, and blocking an agreement in spring 22; and (2) because we repeatedly said that our credibility -- and even democracy and liberty itself -- was on the line in Ukraine. It patently wasn't, but it's...

3/n
Read 7 tweets
Mar 22
The Anglo-Saxon chattering class is fiercely critical of the methods 🇸🇻 President @nayibbukele has used to tackle violent crime and gangs in his country. They're wrong to be so *even on their own terms*, for reasons important for our own governance. A🧵 on why. First...

1/n
...let's get some facts straight. The methods President Bukele used *were* extremely harsh. To achieve his goals, rights of association were suspended, as was the right to legal counsel. The period in which a suspect could be detained without charge was extended from 3...

2/n
...days to 15. The option of pre-trial house arrest or bail was removed. The age of criminal responsibility was lowered. Sentences were dramatically increased. Home raids and communications monitoring without warrant were permitted. Mass filtration points established.

3/n
Read 21 tweets
Mar 13
@benshapiro is trending for arguing that the #pension age should be raised and that the current system is unsustainable. His arguments are, to be kind, bad (even in terms of data/facts), but they are used by UK politicians, too, so let's tackle them in a quick thread 🧵
1/n
The first argument Mr Shapiro uses is that when state pensions were introduced (in the US by FDR) life expectancy was *lower* than the pension age. In Britain, pensions for all through NI were introduced in 1946. Male life expectancy was indeed lower than the pension age...

2/n Image
...and women's a bit more. In terms of pension payments, however, that's *not* important. Key is life expectancy *at 65*, because it relates to how much we have to pay out. The chart below shows that life expectancy at 65 in the late 40s was 12 years for men and 14 for...

3/n Image
Read 13 tweets
Mar 2
🧵 on why I have no sympathy for most political and media figures criticising @georgegalloway after his #Rochdale win -- and why you shouldn't either. Galloway has been criticised for two things: his support for Palestine and his 'divisive' politics. Let's go one at a time.

1/n
First, to upset everybody, I don't have any opinion on the Gaza situation beyond that I'd like the killing to stop. I don't even have any opinion on the overall Israel-Palestine feud, beyond that I would prefer that they could live in peace together. This conflict has...

2/n
...roiled for centuries, and I have neither the knowledge (nor the time to gain the knowledge) to form a considered opinion about the rights and wrongs of it all. Further, I think that Britain has long passed the stage where it had the military or diplomatic power to...

3/n
Read 23 tweets
Feb 24
I know I'm going to upset a lot of people by saying this, but conservatives and the right have picked the wrong cause with Shemima Begum. Yes, what she did wasn't just morally repulsive, but worse: it was traitorous. Yes, she showed no interest in coming back and appeared to...
...revel in the anti-Western medieval savagery of the state she had chosen. Yes, it's possible (perhaps probable) that she isn't repentant or contrite, but is instead just desperate. Yes, we should loathe the often pernicious human rights lawyers and open borders left who have...
...taken up her case. Nevertheless, two issues are inescapable. First, she was only 15 when she left. We protect people under sixteen and eighteen, and do not afford them the full freedoms of adulthood, for a reason: namely, that they are immature, and open to manipulation and...
Read 12 tweets
Jan 24
The Telegraph's war drums beat evermore alarmingly. Three points. (i) We could not draft the public into the army, because there are no cadre regiments able to accept, organise, train and equip them. (ii) "there should be a “shift” in the mindset of regular British people...

1/n Image
...think more like troops, who are mentally prepared that war with Russia could happen." Has General Sir Patrick taken leave of his senses? He wants the entire population to focus on war with RUSSIA?! Over what? Who controls Lugansk? No thanks. The establishment has lost...

2/n Image
...their minds when it comes to Russia. The only ability Russia has to seriously harm Britain is nuclear weapons. And I'm not in favour of massively increasing the risk that Britain is overnight reduced to an irradiated hellscape with Medieval population levels and living..

3/n
Read 15 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(