Quick links 23

This week's roundup, I've had time to add more commentary again.

Garbage message, looks like a garbage movie too: Disney’s ‘Cruella’ Tells Girls To Prioritize Vengeance Over Love


Scottish independence: Give the people what they think they want As long as we keep Falsane and any parts of Jockland that wish to remain (Shetland, Orkney, etc)



‘Taking a knee’ is imported from America, tied to an American movement, arising from an American social context and tied to a set of demands alien to this country and its history: What the England team doesn’t get about ‘taking the knee’ I'd refuse to if an employer asked me to do it


Looking forward to the 5th anniversary of the referendum and The unexpected Brexit bonus

Education: Abolishing grammar schools created today's poshocracy Yep, as a former Grammar boy from a low-income family it's a shame May's plan for new Grammar's got dropped. Also on education: Tony Blair is still wrong on his 50% university target. Was there anything he did that had a positive legacy? Agree with dropping back down to 25-30%, which I've previously suggested. 

Disagree: Why wait to die? 'The reason most of us devote so little thought to how we want to end our lives is dread, and not merely of death. We’ve good reason to dread falling into the hands of modern medicine, whose practitioners, often with the best of intentions, can artificially drag out the very worst part of our lives. Extended life expectancy doesn’t mean we get to be young longer. We get to be old longer.' Alternatively, fund anti-aging and life extension technologies. 

I hope so, and England without would be much diminished: Can the monarchy survive? The rituals associated with monarchy may seem arcane and even absurd, but they provide a function in drawing prestige and splendour away from the powerful. The unchanging nature of ceremony removes the individual ego, and where people in power innovate, they also reflect their own glory. Tradition is about sublimating narcissism, why is why non-traditional ceremonies — secularised weddings or “naming ceremonies” — make everything about the individual.

Douglas Murray of Covid: The polarising power of plague. Excellent as usual.

Northern Ireland: Whatever the two sides agree, this Protocol is not democracy – and it isn't Brexit
and "You broke it, you own it" cuts both ways. As Biden, the EU and Ireland's Government risk finding out. Article 16 (which the EU has already invoked once) seems to be the way ahead. 


And Free-marketeers the world over: Why Republicans Must Rethink Antitrust. It's not the 1980s and big business is no longer (if it ever truly was) on the side of liberty. This seems a good idea too: Reclaiming Art as a Force for Liberty


And finally, video: In Honor Of Pride Month, Here Are The Babylon Bee's Top 2 Genders


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