Constantin Machiavelli Profile picture
Aug 6, 2022 14 tweets 4 min read
I just spent a depressing but interesting spell in the land of Tory Twitter. Here’s what I found.

Tagging a few of the people I follow and whose analysis I admire. Please consider this. /1

@johnharris1969 @rafaelbehr @chrisgreybrexit @andrewPRlevi @alexhallhall @snellarthur The people I follow write about policy flip-flops and govt weakness, incidents of proven lying and a wobbling economy, as if all these things mean that a reckoning is coming.

But Tory supporters are busy. Not building a defence but preparing for something more aggressive./2
Jan 7, 2022 10 tweets 7 min read
@alexhallhall Great thread.

The UK’s institutions were already weak. They have been made rotten, in my view, by London’s conversion into a great money-laundering enterprise and the UK’s tolerance for, and facilitation of, extreme wealth.

The UK’s membership of the EU masked the problem./1 @alexhallhall The UK encouraged the development of British Overseas Territories as offshore tax havens, starting in the 1960s. They have sucked in, and hidden, wealth from the rest of the world./2 imf.org/external/pubs/…
Jan 5, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
Another piece of lovely writing by Tom McT, who has obviously been chatting with Dominic Cummings and Tom Tugendhat.

I take issue with several parts of his argument, though. 🧵 His core point seems to be that the UK’s death can be reversed if its unifying national myths (and perhaps also a unified central administration) can be restored. /2
Nov 17, 2021 13 tweets 8 min read
@alexhallhall I’m Irish and European by birth, and British by registration. As a baby I was briefly a refugee from NI to the republic during the loyalist revolt against power-sharing in 1974 (my parents were doctors in Belfast). Grew up in Dublin. Educated in Ireland, Germany and the UK./1 @alexhallhall Rejoiced in the Good Friday Agreement. Revolted by the Omagh bombing, and believing the UK and Ireland to be friends and peer democracies, I joined 🇬🇧 armed forces. Married a Brit. Served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Built a life in England based on overlapping 🇮🇪-🇪🇺-🇬🇧 identities./2