Have genuinely wondered since if it being the weekend was actually important here. Rush-hour commute probably more solo travellers with earbuds in who would keep to themselves (other than the ones blasting from speakers, of course). This was more like a... community occasion.

Few months ago on the bus made the mistake of backing someone up in a row over phones. What I didn't expect: it pulled in most of the bottom deck. All ages, classes, genders jabbing fingers, swearing. One prob. had issues; not the rest. Sunday lunchtime. Proper "that escalated quickly!" experience.

Looking forward. Excited by your chronology. I hope I can review it!

He's only bloody read this thread: bsky.app/profile/bold...

I am not used to being cited in the first decade or two after publication. Writing something that social scientists rather than historians read is odd. They do not seem to realise that there is a second round of ageing in the bottles.

Conflict of interest given the Macron sponsorship.

Interesting! I guess like any "people don't talk enough about" generalisation, it depends on what you read. I feel like I've read a lot of "of course it will never happen, but isn't it alarming that..?" takes, which always remind me of certain other events people looked at polls and said that about.

Possible. It is one of the areas of London with bilingual French private schools, too.

I agreed with what you said re. fragmentation vs polarisation btw. Nice interview as usual!

The alternative case - that a majority will NOT develop for a more popular alternative - has never been more plausible. That is not the same as me making a prediction! Only that people seem to assume previous experience is a guide to what comes next, when that is the thing it will never be. 2/2

My thoughts are too long for this format so I'll cut to the chase: Don't you think that, if anything, people are UNDERpricing the possibility of an RN victory? The base case seems to be: too early to say, scenarios too abstract until we have the candidates, etc. Don't disagree with that, BUT... 1/2

Well, Romanian is the third most spoken Main Language in the entire country and by quite a substantial margin, so without further context I would expect to see it separately listed more than, well, any of the other languages on that chart. It's a funny one! www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

My mum makes and sells clothes for them. If you're interested, DM me (genuinely).

Yes, and ironically that rigid disciplinarity, learning to think and act in the way of an established group with their internal standards and norms, trying to do THAT really well but NOT worrying how it relates to other things, IS itself a very "useful" experience, as it is like many things in life!

My first reaction was that it feels like a distant and mutated relation of the "échos mondains" etc. you find in late C19 European papers.

Better, but do not be afraid to make bolder claims where there is no clear contradictory evidence.

Yes. Already seeing some issues ('probably'?).

Are historians still calling it the Redwood-West School of Conquest Studies or have they come up with something snappier?