Stoatwobbler

Supporter of rejoining the EU. Christian, Whiggish, Wednesdayite, partial to real ale and slightly geeky.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@The_Davos_Man The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again in the hope of different results.

#brexithasfailed #rejoinEU

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Sorry to be a party pooper, but England being in a football tournament is not on the liturgy of any Church, and with good reason!

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Churches should be encouraged to fly the St George’s Cross during the World Cup, a Church of England bishop has said.

What are your thoughts on this?

🔗: https://t.co/iMOMtvm4tI

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@OBEhizele No I think people like venting about politics far more than actually getting off their sofas and doing something about it.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Yeah there's a lot of people posing as "anti-modernist" on Twitter who are clearly doing it for cosplay rather than any genuinely held conviction.

[Nick Freiling @NickFreiling]

I tend to distrust people's "anti-modernist" self-styling.

Almost nobody I've met who wears this label seems *actually* anti-modernist. Most people like this seem to just ignore the tough questions that modernism (and post-modernism) pose to us, today. These people's lives might look different "on the surface," but it doesn't (usually) seem to go very deep.

I've considered whether I'm just projecting. Maybe I am. I undoubtedly have "modernist" sensibilities, even as I (try to) embrace traditional ways of, for example, being a father and practicing my Catholic faith.

But I don't think I'm projecting. Fact is, I *have* met some people who (IMO) clear this bar – true not-modernists, all the way down. But none of them publicly self-style that way, and none of them live in ways that a casual bystander would immediately consider "different." They aren't "anti-" anything. They just think differently about almost everything, and in ways that don't often seem apparent even to them.

In many ways, I think embracing anti-modernism as a cause is a very "modern" thing to do. Insofar as anti-modernism is a "movement" one might adopt, it's just not a very serious thing (in light of what it alleges to be, and to do for us).

Modernism (and post-modernism) pose serious questions for religious (and all) people today, and I don't think virtually anyone has got anywhere close to having dealt with them sufficiently. In fact, I think the questions are still unfolding, and that this process will only accelerate in the AI era. Just waving things away as "modernism" doesn't work, and it's even more tendentious insofar as one approaches these questions as an "anti-modernist."

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

I can see Bostonians going on holiday to Scotland inspired by the Tartan Army, only to end up in Cumbernauld wondering what all the fuss is about! 🤣

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

Seen in Boston outside the stadium before the England game…

[Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @JoshEakle]

Real liberalism has been tried.

First it created the Constitution.

Then it abolished slavery.

Then it ended segregation.

Then it created the greatest surge of prosperity in history.

Our problems today are not because liberalism failed.

They are because we failed liberalism.

[Nikolaj🇺🇦🇵🇸 @nikicaga]

Britain in 2016: We fucking hate Poles. Deport them all and replace them with Pakistanis

Britain in 2026: We fucking hate Pakistanis. Deport them all and replace them with Poles

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Declaring "war" on the NIMBY's is populism???

At the recent local elections people voted time and again for the most NIMBY options for their area, which often meant Reform and Greens taking seats off Labour.

Like it or not, these days the NIMBY cause is pure populism.

[Oli Dugmore @OliDugmore]

The age of rent extraction is over, the time of the productive state has come

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@The_Davos_Man 1982?
1990?
1998?

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Any attempt to defend the disastrous project to leave the EU inevitably ends up looking a lot like a man in A&E explaining why he's been admitted for the 100th time with a Hoover stuck to his penis!

[Fred de Fossard @defossardf]

A decade on from the day when the British people decided to take a new path. It hasn't all been plain sailing. My latest piece on why Brexit happened, what has gone well, what remains undone, and why the cost of democracy is worth it. Without freedom we will not change course.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@amelia_tweetz Over in this side of t'pond we don't know how they can afford it either!

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Am I the only person on this site not interested in a load of Algae in Washington DC?

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

The EU was always an easy scapegoat. It's hardly a likeable organisation to begin with.

Trouble is, scapegoating doesn't actually solve anything. Real solutions are much more difficult.

[Colm O'Cinneide @colmocinneide]

For 30+ years, big chunks of the UK political commentariat convinced themselves that EU membership was corroding British identity, democracy, economic flourishing etc. Only for Brexit to happen & the realisation to dawn that the EU was never the issue. A farcical misdiagnosis.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Today's earworm is inspired by the teeny tiny size of Walkers Crisps packets at present.

https://t.co/pmTBbbi8HI

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

The split with the Methodist movement was the biggest mistake in Church of England history IMHO.

[Madeleine Davies @MadsDavies]

Seven years since General Synod called halt on proposals for a relationship of Full Communion with the Methodist Church. It will be eight before a new report comes back and this will say that "significant work remains to be done before further proposals can be brought forward".

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@aristophaneet "YA" has nowt to do with it.

There's a definite trend towards ever blander, more generic book covers across all genres of fiction.

It's sci-fi and fantasy where this trend is at its most glaring.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@MiniHobo The generation that was listening to the likes of Slipknot and System Of A Down is now in its mid 40's and getting elected to Parliament.

Think about all the weird and wacky music we had in the 90's. Those of us of that generation haven't stopped listening to it!

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

Most politicians do have such a "hinterland". But in today's toxic political climate most won't admit to having any sort of personal tastes that party bosses might disapprove of.

Very notable how few MP's will admit to being metalheads for example.

[Dr. Michael Economou @MSEconomou]

@SashaSwire I quite agree with this! A politician should always have a 'hinterland' (à la Denis Healey) of cultural interests.

[Stoatwobbler @Stoatwobbler]

@Elainebks @SashaSwire I have a horrible feeling that he'll be attacked mercilessly by the media for whatever books he admits to enjoying.

[Richard Johnson @richardmarcj]

This is spot on:

'I think the real problem was more profound. Starmer could never properly explain why he wanted to be prime minister. In fact it was always unclear whether he really knew himself. There was no “irreducible core” to his premiership, no governing project around which everyone could unite. That meant Whitehall did not know what it was supposed to deliver and the voters could not see the point of his government. It left the prime minister swerving all over the place, nicknamed the “ditherer-in-chief” by exasperated officials.'

https://t.co/3sct5sQjzW