Ben Williams

Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? Wherein villainous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

Masterfully retaining his rank as the world’s most tiresome pedant, if he’s going to correct others on Simon Heffer’s peerage, @oliverkamm might like to note that he was in fact ennobled as Lord Blackwater.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@yuanyi_z Tail coats really don’t flatter the short do they? Unless on horseback.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

Source? Perhaps it’s just that many EU countries are even more badly governed than we are? Forget the idiot politics around Brexit. Think about Americans instead. Why do tourist based economies like Portugal, Spain, S Italy, condemn them to long queues when they spend like drunken sailors? The UK doesn’t. And nor does Greece. So making non EU citizens, whether British or American or anything else, endure long queues is an elective (and mad) choice the countries in question are responsible for. No one and nothing else.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@BrexistentialC Another closet leaver funded by Putin. We all know the actual loss is £576.457 septillion per DAY.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

I am afraid that one thing which divides us is Rylance. I thought he was a wonderful Richard III and he was amazing in Jerusalem. But I’ve found other performances very mannered and - the great heresy - have always thought him completely miscast as Cromwell. He just doesn’t have the menace.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

It can be read in that way, and of course the staging demands of the “wooden O” made crowds impossible. But Holinshed, the main source, has HV making a rousing address to the army, and the crowning peroration in the play about gentlemen holding their manhood cheap works so much better if the audience included non-gentlemen.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@BucketsOf_Rain @murielzagha Thank you! Read the article with great interest and will listen to the pod when next in the car.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@RollingHedge It’s essentially what people like Lord Salisbury (then Lord Cranborne) warned would happen when the franchise was extended in 1867. It just took 150 years for democracy fully to embrace the lowest common denominator.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@ross_baglin @2D0XPS I agree. But although the speech is addressed to Bedford, Exeter et al, it’s clearly not just aimed at the nobles. The promise that fighting with the King would “gentle” the “vile” was clearly to the masses. So ultimately I think this is a contrarian take which doesn’t quite work

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

It seems mad to blame anyone other than the Norwegians (I’m not saying that you are). I have been through LHR many times this year. The egates are open to everyone from western countries plus Japan & S Korea. I’ve never queued for more than a few minutes, and often get through in seconds.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@NicholasOShaug1 That was precisely my thought!

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

Another 30 second passage through Heathrow immigration - for UK, US, EU, Swiss, CANZAUS, Japanese and S Korean citizens alike. I will never understand why the militant rejoiners blame our Government for the chaos at many Continental airports rather than theirs.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@B1EMW @MDC12345678 @edwardstrngr65 @afneil @EdConwaySky No

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@B1EMW @MDC12345678 @edwardstrngr65 @afneil @EdConwaySky That is probably the worst metaphor I’ve ever read. An arthritic Rottweiler would be neither persistent nor unsubtle in its arousal.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

Despite being a peaceable soul, every time I pass the dynamited remains of Didcot power station (about 3 times a week), I have the fairly strong feeling we should hang the politicians who authorised it. Mad.

[Maurice Cousins @MDC12345678]

Brilliant piece by @afneil. Like @EdConwaySky’s recent article for the New Statesman, it gets to the heart of Britain’s growing strategic vulnerability.

The truth is that ministers are reluctant to promote the Be Ready campaign because doing so means confronting the consequences of decades of terrible political decisions based on wildly optimistic assumptions about international stability.

Nowhere is this failure of statecraft more apparent than in energy and defence policy. Prematurely phasing out coal, restricting domestic oil and gas production (onshore and offshore), placing too much faith in weather-dependent renewables, and increasing our reliance on China.

We are a maritime nation that has hollowed out its navy and forgotten the basic principles of British strategy that served the basis of our prosperity and security.

This is not just a Labour problem. It impacts all parties, including Reform. Successive governments have made Britain more vulnerable to the very disruptions they are now asking households to prepare for.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@brianstwitfeed @admcollingwood One of my favourite things on zombie shows is cars just starting with 20 year old fuel in the tank.

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

I would very much suggest listening to Gates on this. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a visionary who, unlike the owner of this site, saves lives. He is also calm and clear thinking. The fact he sounds genuinely scared about the impact of AI on public safety in the immediate future tells you why HMG is asking us to stockpile.

[Bill Gates @BillGates]

AI is the most profound technology I’ve seen, both in its ability to help people and to disrupt their lives. I’m optimistic about the good it can do, but we need to take its risks seriously. https://t.co/MZuSaceOYr

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@Arron_banks He still drinks, albeit moderately, so I don’t think so!

[Ben Williams @FaringForwards]

@MWHoyle19 @DanNeidle I knew you would reply to that! I thought only for taxes collected by the taxpayer like VAT. Not say self-assessed self-employment obligations. But I would need to check in more detail.