Phil Edwards

Zach @megapolisomancy.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 16:24 UTC

Never agreed with anyone more than with Robert Aickman when he said weird fiction “must open a door, preferably where no one had previously noticed a door to exist; and at the end, leave it open, or, possibly, ajar.” Happy birthday to him.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 17:04 UTC

25% - worth a punt if the question you're asking is "where have all the Tory voters gone?".

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 16:03 UTC

24% leaves plenty of room for people to hate her, including (or especially) former Tory voters who might be going to Farage this time. Reform UK were on 2-3% under Liz Truss, vs 15-16% now; you can see how the Tories could be thinking "if we could get a third of that 13%... half even..."

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 13:28 UTC

But I admit that these days I'm betting on "Tories May Be Smarter Than They Look" less from conviction than out of habit, and because it makes life more interesting.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 13:28 UTC

It's also a way of attacking Keir Starmer on what's emerging as his weak point - being weak/not really in charge - without going down the "people who became party leader by a less than ideal process" route.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 13:24 UTC

Not sold on the artwork or the promo copy, I'm afraid, BUT it sounded great when Kermode reviewed it - and I'm always there for Olwen Fouéré (and Ian Lynch). I'll try and catch it on Apple TV (& will hopefully big it up on here afterwards, to make up for the slight negativity above).

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 13:18 UTC

It's good, but it's no Goodbye Tonsils.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 13:17 UTC

I don't get this take. I mean, I think it makes her look fantastic, but it's very, very, very much Not Aimed At Me. They're not trying to make her look ugly or unattractive, just threatening - and a certain stratum of men will see her as more threatening the better she looks.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 09:28 UTC

...the British people disagreeing with their bright ideas (or) ...getting screwed over by the Conservative Party

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 09:27 UTC

Then it says, almost as an afterthought, "There'll be a referendum on [all of the above], and it'll only happen if there's a majority in favour. Otherwise, as you were." In other words, they planned for absolutely everything except (depending how charitable you're feeling)...

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 09:26 UTC

One thing that I think says a lot about the Lib Dems is the amount of thought & planning that went into the whole thing. If you look at the Act that provided for a referendum on AV, it specifies everything about how the system was going to work, practically down to the size of polling stations.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 09:25 UTC

I picture a lot of meetings with people basically hostile to the whole idea (not necessarily Tories) and AV emerging as the compromise solution b/c least disruptive (keeps single-member constituencies and feeds into the bar-chart mentality ("Labour can't win here, so make sure you give us vote #2").

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 22:47 UTC

"the man who ran as the unity candidate for the Labour leadership — positioning himself between the Corbynites and the right of the party — came to see that this position was impossible and that the policy of the Corbynites was irresponsible" Nice story, but not remotely what happened.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 18:32 UTC

That too!

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:19 UTC

Re: rolls of the dice:
x.com/DrSchwitters...

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:17 UTC

On Arts Labs, Beckenham in particular, see "Cygnet Committee".

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:16 UTC

I don't think he was signing on, though - Kenneth Pitt was effectively his patron, as I think was Lindsay Kemp for a while. But there was much less of a star system in music at the time (and no corporate involvement to speak of), which meant there was a lot more money around at lower levels.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 15:45 UTC

In practice very few governments approach the level of partisanship you're assuming. To govern on that basis - good stuff for our people and screw the rest of them - would be a recipe for disaster, in the form of political upheaval and social unrest.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 15:43 UTC

I think the point is that governments of whatever party are supposed to be trying to do the best for the whole country, including constituencies with MPs from other parties, so that MPs who flag up local issues to the government can expect to get a fair hearing.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 15:39 UTC

Conversely, when my daughter was visiting we tried to move the cat (who wasn't pleased). She promptly went into "Oh! Oh! You kick Miette? You treat her body like the football?".

And there was me thinking that was one for @londonreview.bsky.social subscribers...

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 15:38 UTC

I remember reading about someone having fun with "...Not!", when that was a thing... "God, Mum, you're so out of touch." - Not! "No, that's not what you... Argh!"

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 22:37 UTC

youtu.be/M3LT98uOwck?...

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 16:18 UTC

Not laughing - whatever gets you started! A friend of my son's was an unshakeable non-reader until he met Captain Underpants.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 16:16 UTC

Reading this to my kids, I got bored with trying to give Extra! Emphasis! to entire paragraphs, and decided ALL CAPS was code for "Harry expresses his annoyance by dropping into a Welsh accent". Several pages later I realised that the joke was on me, but by then it was too late.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 16:12 UTC

There are Jacqueline Wilsons for pretty much all ages and tastes, in the unlikely event the kid hasn't come across her. Some of them pretty tough, too - the mother who has a psychotic break, strips naked and paints herself white with house paint sticks in the mind.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 16:10 UTC

Shout out for Artemis Fowl, and for Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, which are quite silly but a lot of fun. My son was also very into Garth Nix, and I think still *is* into Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant books (he certainly took them when he moved in with his gf).

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 24, 2024 at 16:05 UTC

I actually thought #7 was a big improvement on the previous two in plot terms, and I didn't mind having this whole new mythology appearing out of nowhere (in retrospect that was an awful warning). But the whole "Dumbledore raised Harry to be a sacrificial lamb and this is good actually" plot... ugh.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 21:25 UTC

Above that, Yards Bubble Boom Rogue Legend/Empire <---- borderline of not-crapness here

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 21:22 UTC

I picture Babies and Chord as locked in a perpetual struggle for last place, each carving out a space lower than the other as its unique wrongness comes back to mind. And Church wasn't much better.

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 11:26 UTC

Milestones: I retired as a lecturer in August 2022 and gave my last guest lecture* six months ago. I've just taken Powerpoint out of the Dock. *to date

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Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 22, 2024 at 20:34 UTC

One of the most wonderful things is the frame story, which has a stock English country type reminiscing about the battle, and adding casually "a year after that, they tried the real invasion - well, we all know how *that* turned out!". It was made in 1942.

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