Second stanza of the poem that is the third chapter (‘In the TARDIS: Christmas Day’ by Val Douglas):

`We must have a Christmas pudding,’
The Doctor said at last
As he searched through all the cupboards
For relics of Christmas past.
`Aha!’ he cried in triumph
And held up a mouldy goo.
`A present from Mrs Beeton
`In eighteen umpty-two.’

These themed anthologies of Who stories are sometimes more miss than hit, and I fear this is largely in the former category – perhaps not helped by my reading it at the height of summer rather than in the Christmas season for which it was intended when published in 2004, with New Who looming round the corner. Perhaps appropriately, the two stories I enjoyed most are reflexive vignettes where the TV show becomes part of the narrative, “Christmas Special” by Marc Platt and even more so “All Our Christmases” by Steve Lyons. Otherwise I think this is best enjoyed with mulled win in one’s hand and a seasonal mood in one’s brain.

Nest in sequence: Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, ed. David Bailey.

How Jimmy Carter saved the space shuttle

And why.
(tags: uspolitics space )

Second paragraph of third chapter:

It was a good thing, Fanny told a correspondent in England, that she had avoided reading Mrs. Trollope’s Domestic Manners of the Americans. The subject was always cropping up in conversation, and when asked for an opinion, she could truthfully say she knew nothing of the lady or her obnoxious book. Some of Fanny’s first impressions, however, coincided with those of America’s most strident critic to date. It had been a traumatic experience for Mrs. Trollope to enter an American milliner’s shop and have someone introduce her to the milliner. Fanny, being, as she later said, an “English republican”, also noted the lack of class distinction in the New World, but without a sense of outrage. Intrusions upon privacy, mosquitoes, heat, and public dining-rooms where one was forced to masticate, cheek by jowl, with total strangers, were much more trying. Friendliness amounted almost to a vice. The Kembles had brought many letters of introduction with them, and shortly after their arrival on September 4, 1832, they were invited to dine with Mr. Philip Hone, former mayor of New York, a retired commission merchant, whose house, facing City Hall Park, was a meeting place for artists and writers of the conservative stripe.

For some years now, I have been fascinated by the nineteenth-century actress and writer Fanny Kemble, and I’m still waiting for someone to write a good comprehensive biography of her. (Maybe me, in fifteen years when I retire.) This book, published in 1972, fills one of the gaps in the more recent biography by Deirdre David in that it concentrates on her relationship with America (the “lovely land” of the title), and with one particular American, Pierce Butler, and with the issue of slavery – in particular, going into how the letters that became the Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839 were written, and how they came to be published twenty-five years later. There is lots of good circumstantial detail about antebellum Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and of course the Georgia islands of the Butler plantation. (Incidentally, Pierce Butler’s grandfather, also Pierce Butler, had provided refuge on his island plantation to Aaron Burr in 1804 immediately after the duel in which Alexander Hamilton was killed; in 1736, the same islands were also the American base for Charles Wesley, with his brother John just down the road.) There’s a lot of good comparative stuff about how Kemble’s perceptions of America differed from other contemporary English visitors, contrasting her more touchy-feely approach with the intellectualisation of the likes of Harriet Martineau (they did not get on).

At the same time, there’s a huge elephant in the room which simply isn’t mentioned, and which on reflection I haven’t seen mentioned much in any of the writings on Kemble that I have seen. Quite simply, she was a feminist. Her marriage broke down because she insisted on behaving as her husband’s equal, and Pierce Butler, scion of a Georgian plantation family, simply could not cope with this. Her favourite Shakespeare character was Portia, whose crowning moment is when she assumes a male role and wins (she hated being Juliet, which was the role people always wanted to push her into). The Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation is full of material which could only be written by a feminist abolitionist, and the rest of her career is equally full of commentary on gender politics. Wright is not the only biographer to miss this, but she’s the most political of Kemble’s biographers who I’ve read and it seems therefore particularly lacking here.

My other complaint, and it’s one I’ve made before about Kemble’s biographers, is that she was in general a better writer than those who write about her, so it’s a shame not to hear a bit more of her own voice here – there’s almost an assumption that the reader is already familiar with her writings. She was a complex and fascinating character, and people who knew her either loved her or hated her; and subsequent history has not done her justice.

This came to the top of my pile as the shortest book acquired in 2009 which I had not yet read. Next in order is Oracle, by Ian Watson.

An Ancient Device Too Advanced to Be Real Gives Up Its Secrets at Last

The amazing Antikythera mechanism.
(tags: historyofscience )

Commentary on Brexit

From the London Review of Books. #fb
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Nipsa: Tribunal criticises union in ‘communist’ dispute – BBC News

“However the tribunal said they had not shown that the two factions actually have any substantive political differences.

“It added that name-calling or trolling on social media is not sufficient to show political difference nor is “alleged adherence to Trotsky’s 1938 Transitional Program”.”
(tags: politics northernireland )

Posted from Dulles Airport before boarding:

Current
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week)
Lethbridge-Stewart: Beast of Fang Rock, by Andy Frankham-Allan
Galileo's Dream, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Gráinne, by Keith Roberts

Last books finished
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, by Jeff Kinney
The Algebra of Ice, by Lloyd Rose
The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
Boy, by Roald Dahl
Dead Romance, by Lawrence Miles
Empire of Mud, by J.D. Dickey
The Secret History of Science Fiction, ed. James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel
Tales from the Secret Annexe, by Anne Frank

Last week’s audios
Torchwood: The Victorian Age, by AK Benedict
Torchwood: Zone 10, by David Llewellyn

Next books
Between structure and No-thing: An annotated reader in Social and Cultural Anthropology, ed. Patrick J. Devlieger
Corona, by Greg Bear
Earthlight, by Arthur C Clarke

Books acquired in last week
Empire of Mud, by J.D. Dickey
A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason
Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Paper Girls, vol 1, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
The Dinner, by Herman Koch
Best American Comics 2011, ed. Alison Bechdel
The Autumnlands v1: Tooth and Claw, by Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey
Weapons of Mass Diplomacy, by Lanzac and Blain

Nicholas Whyte discusses the European economy

Me on China’s CCTV.
(tags: mymedia eu ukpolitics )

The May delusion: Britain’s new prime minister will regret appointing Boris Johnson

@economist’s brutal assessment. #fb
(tags: eu ukpolitics )

Bronze Age inferno preserved an extraordinary view of life in England 3000 years ago

Fascinating.
(tags: archaeology )

‘Ghostbusters’ Is A Perfect Example Of How Internet Movie Ratings Are Broken

Yep.
(tags: internet films )

New Uncertainty for Lebanese Banks

US anti-money laundering legislation has wider consequences.
(tags: lebanon waronterror )

Everything you need to know about Theresa May’s Brexit nightmare in five minutes

Good summary. #fb
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Racist, xenophobic and anti-intellectual: Academics threaten to leave Brexit Britain

But who needs experts anyway?
(tags: eu migration ukpolitics )

Great expectations? Or: the tale of the missing dancing dogs

A lesson in communication.
(tags: work )

So no book reviews for a couple of days.

What Theresa May really thinks – trawl of speeches over 20 years

*Very* interesting.
(tags: ukpolitics )

8 Reasons Why Pokemon GO Is the Greatest Game Ever

Haven’t tried it yet. Am sure I will!
(tags: games )

From Thatcher’s private secretary to yogi

Fascinating. I knew him in the Balkans!
(tags: religion Balkans )

Second paragraph of third chapter:

He held his breath on the final step, and the panic drove him to near unconsciousness. His vision blurred at the edges, closing to a single pinpoint of light, and then … he floated. The all-consuming celestial blue of the horizon hit his visual field an instant after he realized that the thermal updraft had caught him and the wings of the paraglider. Fear was behind him on the mountaintop, and thousands of feet above the resplendent green rain forest and pristine white beaches of Copacabana, Hans Keeling had seen the light.

Ferriss believes that he has found the answer to happiness in life. It is to outsource all the stuff you hate doing in your working day to long-distance personal assistants in developing countries, and then do only the stuff you like for as long as you want to. He reckons that he can have a princely lifestyle with only four hours of actual paid work per week, and that you can too if you follow his advice.

This is one of those evangelical self-help books which is written by a very confident person with very little self-awareness. He admits towards the end that he has resigned from three jobs in his career and been fired from all the rest. This comes as little surprise to the reader; I think it’s clear that Ferriss and office culture are a poor match, and both sides are winners now that he is no longer there.

Perhaps I’m weird, but I actually like my office and my workmates. I enjoy going to a physical location where you can drop by someone else’s desk (and other colleagues drop by mine) to discuss the latest ideas for transforming our collective brainpower into a paid product. My life would actually be poorer in quality if I didn’t have an interesting place to go and earn money every day separate from where I live. It’s not to everyone’s taste, of course, but I think Ferriss doesn’t quite see that his priorities are not universally shared.

Having said that, he has some very good ideas about productivity and personal branding which are relevant no matter what your working circumstances. I nodded with approval at his evangelical endorsement of Evernote, which admitedly I use more for leisure activities than work but which is a really powerful tool. His tips for cheap travel (including travel with children) are also of general relevance.

Still, I fear the packaging is just a bit annoying. I think I will recommend extracted chapters to colleagues, but counsel caution with regard to the whole thing.

This was both the most popular non-fiction book on my unread shelf, and the most popular unread book that I acquired last year. Next on both lists is The Cuckoo’s Egg, by Cliff Stoll.

Country of Pils, Jagr and Havel Finally Shortens Unwieldy Name

It’s Czechia!
(tags: czechrepublic )

How the Clinton America sees isn’t the Clinton colleagues know

One of Ezra Klein’s brilliant pieces.
(tags: uspolitics )

UK scientists dropped from EU projects because of post-Brexit funding fears

Confirmed now.
(tags: ukpolitics eu research )

Q

Interview with an aid official.
(tags: southsudan )

Why I’ll Be Leaving Post-Brexit Britain

Very sad. #fb
(tags: ukpolitics eu race )

Hungary built a razor-wire fence to keep refugees out. Now, it’s desperate for migrants

Grim irony.
(tags: migration hungary )

The Rise of Theresa May and the Decline of British Politics

Brilliant summary from the New Yorker.
(tags: ukpolitics )

Impact of Brexit on the PR Industry

My colleague James thinks we’ll benefit; probably right.
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Second frame of third chapter:

I had been quite a fan of the earlier volumes in this series, but my interest dropped off around 2012, when I bought this but never go around to reading it. Anyway, it’ the usual dense narrative, interspersed with parentheses which in general I found more interesting – there’s a very disturbing child-abuse one illustrated by Bryan Talbot, there’s a great First World War one illustrated by Gary Erskine; but the main plot has our unfortunate hero increasingly involved with the sinister Pullman and the mysterious Leviathan to a point where I found I didn;t care as much as I would have liked to.

This was my top unread comic in English. Next on that list (actually, ahead of it if I’d tallied promptly) is Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot.

Precedent and learning Martian

You can do it!
(tags: psychology Life )

More than 300 dead in South Sudan fighting

Very sad. Unhappy fifth birthday. #fb
(tags: southsudan )

Why I renounced my US citizenship (Hint: it’s not because I’m avoiding taxes!)

Though tax is an issue! #fb
(tags: uspolitics )

Čay v tea

The words for “tea” in European languages.
(tags: languages )

Which country has the best banknote?

Step forward, New Zealand!
(tags: newzealand art )

Game of Thrones unfolds in Brussels over Juncker’s iron throne

Quotes me.
(tags: eu )

It's really striking that two years ago, it was impossible to find enough comics from 1938 to populate the Retro Hugo category – we gave a Special Committee Award to Superman instead – but this year there is a wealth of 1940 material to choose from. Having said that, there's not in fact a lot of variety; with one exception, the 1941 Retro Hugo finalists are origin stories of costumed crime-fighters. This at least reduces the problem of comparing apples with oranges, but it does mean that we are essentially voting on the same story told differently four times.

I did not nominate in this category. None of the entries is in the Hugo packet, but most can be found fairly easily if you look for them (taps side of nose).

6) No Award. Any of these is a good representation of where comics were in 1940. None of them is perfect, but none is deeply flawed either.

5) The Origin of the Spirit, by Will Eisner
Second panel of third page:

I didn't really warm to The Spirit. I found him a bit smug and complacent, and his drugs and technology work just as far as the plot needs them to. NB that the next story in The Spirit: A Celebration of 75 years ends with him triumphantly spanking a teenage girl, an image that is used for the frontispiece. That story is not on the ballot; if it were I'd be putting it below No Award.

4) The Spectre: “The Spectre”/”The Spectre Strikes!”, by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily
Second panel of third page (from first of two instalments):

I feel a bit more sympathetic to The Spectre than I do to The Spirit because The Spectre is actually dead, and has to manage relations with his girlfriend as well as Fighting Crime. He doesn't do a very good job of it though (the girlfriend bit, I mean).

3) Captain Marvel: “Introducing Captain Marvel” by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck
Second panel of third page:

I found myself warming to this much more – total wish fulfillment for the readers who can imagine transforming into superheroes at the simple uttering of the word "Shazam", and saving America from a plot to Destroy Radio. Glorious nonsense.

2) Batman #1, by Bob Kane.
Second panel of third chapter:

I am assuming that we are meant to consider the collected early Batman stories "The Joker", "Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters", "The Cat" and "The Joker Returns" here. I did not immediately warm to them, but on reflection I can see that Kane put a lot of effort into the world-building, in comparison with the other three origin stories. And the fact that Batman has a sidekick makes the relationship at the top more interesting too. I am sure it will win.

1) Flash Gordon: “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo” by Alex Raymond and Don Moore
Second panel of third installment:

This is a very different kettle of fish; rather than traditional comics style, each panel has a detailed picture plus half a dozen lines of explanatory prose. The story concerns Flash Gordon and team crashing in the Ice Kingdom of Frigia (which is on the planet of Mongo), ruled by the skimpily dressed Princess Fria. Much of the story involves palace intrigues, including a love triangle between Princess Fria, Dale Arden and Flash; this varies from interesting to cringeworthy. But I liked the fact that the women are not generally peril monkeys and at one point team up together to rescue Flash from durance vile. There is the odd plot inconsistency, no doubt due to the difficulty of keeping names and details straight in a story that took thirteen months to publish, but for scale, ambition and (mostly) execution, I am giving it my vote.

For the 2016 Hugos fpr Best Graphic Story, my nominations were:

The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, by Sydney Padua
Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Saga vol 5, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Sandman: Overture, by Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III, Dave Stewart and Todd Klein

The File 770 straw poll found the following as the most popular nominees in this category among contributors:

The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud (15)
The Sandman: Overture, by Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III (9)
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, by Sydney Padua (9)
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why, by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jake Wyatt (8)
Saga, Vol. 5, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples (8)
The Autumnlands, Vol. 1: Tooth and Claw, by Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey (7)
Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro (6)
Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson (5)
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy, by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, and Brooke A. Allen (4)
Rat Queens 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’rygoth, by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, and Stjepan Šejić (4)

I nominated four of the top five of these, a rare case of my tastes coinciding closely with the File 770 spread. However, the final ballot includes only one of these stories. The other finalists did not get a single vote between them from File 770 readers. The slate made a clean sweep here.

My own vote will be as follows:

6) Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams
Second panel of third 2015 installment:

It's not entirely clear what section of this webcomic is intended to be eligible. I started reading from the first episode published in 2015, and lost interest after the first few; the jokes are not particularly funny, the characters unengaging, and the whole thing a bit too focussed on tabletop gaming as the entirety of life.

5) Erin Dies Alone, by Grey Carter and Cory Rydell
Second panel of third chapter (confusingly numbered Chapter 4):

Another webcomic, which started in 2015. Here I read the first three story arcs (numbered Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 4), starting from March 2015 and finishing in November. There is a cute girl and a cute raccoon, and they discover that computer games have their own reality which intersects with ours. I didn't much care for the setting and I thought the emotional pacing was badly off in places. But it has its moments.

4) Invisible Republic Vol 1, by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Second frame of third chapter (rotated):

Carefully drawn, but unevenly plotted story of revolution in an oppressive society, set on a distant moon of a distant planet (but really could have been at any time and almost any place). I did wonder why the main male character didn't simply shave off his beard to avoid being recognised.

3) The Divine, by Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka
Second frame of third page:

Story of an American military contractor in an Asian conflict zone who discovers that dragons are real. Improbable plot twist at the end involving his pregnant wife, and somewhat stereotyped characters among both Americans and Asians. But shows promise.

2) The Sandman: Overture, by Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III
Second text frame of third chapter:

As reported earlier in the year, I really enjoyed this and I nominated it myself. But having read four slated finalists that were nothing like as good as the four other graphic stories which I nominated, I'm angry that we have basically been given one person's choice of what should be on the ballot rather than the collective voice of fans, and a choice between one good work and four poor ones is no choice at all. I am invoking the Foster principle and voting:

1) No Award.
It is simply an outrage that The Sculptor and The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, and probably two other worthy nominees, were kept off the ballot by the slaters. Filling the ballot with complete crap is unacceptable, as voters demonstrated last year; but putting just one good nominee on the ballot also removes choice and competition, and most of all fun, from the process. So I am not going to lend my vote to their enterprise.

As I've said before, let's hope for better times.

2016 Hugo Finalist Review Roundup

I’ve done this in past years, but very glad that JJ has done it this year.
(tags: sf hugos )

An essay I bought online was so bad I want a refund – but the firm won’t pay up

Serves you right. #fb
(tags: academe )

After ‘Brexit’ Vote, Immigrants Feel a Town Turn Against Them

Life in Boston, Lincs. “It was a mistake to come here.” #fb
(tags: eu ukpolitics migration )

How It Feels To Be Trolled By 40,000 Brexiters On Facebook

I should be interested to know if anyone was similarly troubled by Remainers. #fb
(tags: eu ukpolitics socialmedia )

Andrea Leadsom apologises to Theresa May over ‘motherhood’ remark

Pressure from those nasty journalists. Let’s hope her next job keeps her away from that kind of stress.
(tags: ukpolitics )

Second paragraph of third chapter:

True to his father’s instruction, on that fateful evening so many ages past, Peter had the flute named Frost with him. It sat in its small carrying case on the truck bench’s seat beside him. This was a new case, of course, made of modern high-impact plastic and reinforced steel. The original leather case had worn away long ago, as had many successors since. But Frost remained unchanged by time. It looked as new today as when he first saw it, and probably the same as when fabled Jorg first carved it.

I read most of Bill Willingham’s Fables series of graphic stories back in 2008-11 when they were getting Hugo nominations, but rather lost interest after the big battle between our heroes and their enemy was resolved in Volume 11 (of at least 19). This however is a spinoff prose novel, explaining the tortuous relationships between Peter Piper, Bo Peep and Peter’s evil brother Max, coming to a gruesome climax in medieval Hamelin with echoes through to the present day, where fairy tale characters are living under cover in New York – am I right in thinking that there’s a recent TV series with a similar premise?

It’s gorgeously illustrated, clever and well-written, but not especially so, and while it’s supposedly standalone with respect to the comics, I think they do crucially reinforce each other. So I can’t recommend this to those who haven’t tried (or don’t want to try) the graphic stories it’s rooted in.

This was my top unread book acquired in 2011. Next on that list is The Last Theorem, by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl.

I’m a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing

Forensic and searing.
(tags: race uspolitics )

I have facial blindness so I’m crap at networking, but let’s talk anyway

Matthew on prosapagnosia.
(tags: networking )

After the love has gone

Esra fears that time is running out for a Cyprus settlement.
(tags: cyprus )

Mysterious Circumstances

Death of a Sherlock Holmes fan – old news, but a peculiar pancake.
(tags: death crime )

Polish passports enquiries from Brits rise by 10,000 per cent after Brexit vote

No further comment needed.
(tags: migration ukpolitics )

Lush cosmetics chain to move much of its production overseas in wake of Brexit

‘Mark Constantine, who co-founded the cosmetics giant with his wife Margaret 21 years ago, said the referendum result had signalled to staff from overseas that they’re “not welcome and not wanted by people in Poole” – where 58 per cent voted to leave the EU.’
(tags: eu ukpolitics )

As a British Indian and Ukip adviser, I believed in Brexit – but what it’s done to the country has broken my heart

Honest at least.
(tags: eu ukpolitics race )

Current
Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week)
The Algebra of Ice, by Lloyd Rose

Last books finished
The Divine, by Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka
Invisible Republic, Vol 1, by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Cliff Stoll
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons, by Jeff Kinney
Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter

Last week’s audios
[Torchwood] Uncanny Valley, by David Llewellyn
[Torchwood] More Than This, by Guy Adams

Next books
The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
The Secret History of Science Fiction, ed. James Patrick Kelly
Dead Romance, by Lawrence Miles

Britain’s Moment of Truth

Excellent piece by my former colleague Daniel Gros.
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain

Sorry, what did you say? I was thinking of something else.
(tags: psychology work )

Life after fighting – Rosi’s Blog

On retiring from MMA.
(tags: Life )

Dear Summer

Why @tochitruestory hates it.
(tags: race uspolitics )

Second referendum probably legally required

Hmm. But surely Brexit legislation will repeal 2011 Act?
(tags: eu ukpolitics )

20 Diversion Tactics Highly Manipulative Narcissists, Sociopaths And Psychopaths Use To Silence You

Comprehensive.
(tags: psychology )

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Before he set out for Cologne, Morton spoke to Sir Oliver Passmore on the telephone to ask for any further news or indication of what to expect. Passmore chose his words with care. He had been choosing his words with care for most of his life. 'We're not absolutely sure what Kramer intends,' Passmore told him. 'He may try to do what his predecessor, Jacques Delors did, when he was President-designate back in 1985.'

This is another real political treasure of times past, a thriller written by none less than the father of Boris Johnson, himself a former MEP and Commission official who is now one of the best known environmentalists on the political Right in England. The book was written in 1987, set in 1989; I must have read it in the mid-90s, when I was politically engaged in Belfast, though I missed the 1998 film starring John Hurt. (This is the second book I have read recently which was made into a film starring John Hurt.)

It's a rather moral story. James Morton, a Tory MP with a second-rate job but a first-rate majority, is sent by Margaret Thatcher to Brussels as the new British Commissioner. He struggles with the unglamorous position of Commissioner for Industry, but finds himself in the middle of a massive scandal involving the chemical industry and environmental damage, facing off against vested interests in Germany, Britain and the Commission itself, and also in a personal dilemma between his American wife and his Portuguese colleague. The ending turns out rather ambiguous, with good and bad guys both claiming their share of the spoils.

It's surprising, thirty years on, to remember that there was a time when a Conservative writer – a member of the Johnson family, no less – was capable of nuanced commentary about European politics (though I fear not about the Irish). I appreciate now, more than I did before I came to Belgium, the touches of local colour – Morton and his wife move to Rhode-St-Génèse, which was where we first lived when we moved here in 1999; La Maison du Cygne and Comme Chez Soi are still reputedly the best restaurants in town; there is still something of an old-guard clubbish elite around the Place Royale/Sablon where occasionally I get invited to stand outside and look in the window (one missing venue is the Egmont Palace). It's an account by someone who knows and loves the town.

Though much has also changed. There are now 28 Commissioners rather than 12; more importantly, Morton's successor, the Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, has quasi-judicial powers to prevent dubious mergers without anyone else's permission, rather than needing to wage the political campaign that Morton gets tied up in. Also, as I commented in my last review, it's impossible to imagine a romance between two high-profile political figures going unnoticed in the age of the 24 hour news cycle and the Internet.

Still, it's worth getting hold of, if you can, to take your mind back to the late 1980s, a time which, though we did not realise it, was a much more innocent age than our own.

Matthew Parris: For the first time in my life, I feel ashamed to be British

Anti-immigrant feeling won it for Leave, and they know it. They used it, rode it and are complicit in it. I’ve been dismayed to see people I’ve respected descend to this. I never thought either that the reserves of xenophobia in England were so strong, nor that people who should know better would play upon them with such careless cynicism. I was doubly naive.
(tags: ukpolitics race eu )

Alton Sterling was shot and killed by Baton Rouge police officers. Here’s what we know. – Vox

Awful.
(tags: Uspolitics race Guns )

Philando Castile Minnesota police shooting: girlfriend captures aftermath on Facebook video

Even more awful.
(tags: Uspolitics race Guns )

How a $2 Roadside Drug Test Sends Innocent People to Jail

No justice, just US.
(tags: crime )

A prisoner of its past? The future of the Long Kesh/Maze

@katyusha13 looks at the contested site.
(tags: Northernireland )

Andrea Leadsom Tried To Abolish All Worker’s Rights For Small Companies In 2012

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
(tags: ukpolitics )

Chilcot report: key points from the Iraq inquiry

The brutal summary.
(tags: ukpolitics iraq )

The paradoxes at the heart of the Brexit campaign make planning impossible

More great stuff from @telegraph.
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Chilcot Report: How Tony Blair Sold the War

My former colleague @carneross.
(tags: iraq ukpolitics )

my best employee quit on the spot because I wouldn’t let her go to her college graduation — Ask a Manager

Serves you right. #fb
(tags: management )

The UK doesn’t have enough skilled trade negotiators for Brexit so we’re going to have to hire foreigners

Told you so.
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

Brexit can be started without parliament vote, government lawyers say

Yes, I thought so. #fb
(tags: )

There is now a perverse incentive for May to organise for 40 of her core supporters to vote for Gove on Thursday. It would certainly exclude the much more threatening Leadsom from the party members’ ballot.

Everything you need to know about Article 50 (but were afraid to ask)

Andrew Duff in depth.
(tags: ukpolitics eu )

I nominated three works for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) in the 1941 Retro Hugos – Pinocchio, The Thief of Bagdad and Fantasia. All three of these made it to the final ballot – rather better than my usual strike rate! – but for some reason Pinocchio has been placed in the Short Form rather than Long Form category, even though two of the Long Form nominees (One Million B.C. and Dr Cyclops) are actually shorter.

Anyway, it’s (mostly) a good list, representing a decent spread of what could be considered genre film in 1940 – the nominations process doing what it is supposed to do and giving us a wide field to choose from. I confess that I’ve only watched my two nominees in full, but I feel I dipped into the others sufficiently to establish an order of preference.

6) Dr Cyclops
Full film:

I have to say this one lost me in the first few minutes with the awful acting in the first few scenes. Perhaps if I’d been more patient, the special effects might have lifted it above No Award on my ballot. It may yet happen; we have four weeks to go.

5) No Award. All the others seemed to me to have sufficient points of strength.

4) One Million B.C.
Full film:

I skimmed this, to be honest. It’s very much in the shade of the 1960s remake with Raquel Welch, and one can’t help but be reminded of the later better version while watching this. However, the special effects are pretty remarkable for the 1940s, in particular the dinosaurs and other monsters, and for me that redeems it.

3) Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
In full starting with first episode:

I watched the first of the twelve episodes, which I hope is enough to give me a decent feel for it. One has to laugh at the unimaginative approach to the Earth of
whatever century Flash Gordon is set in, which looks just like the 1940s without even any extra flanges. The plot is pretty formulaic. But it’s all done very zestfully, and I think it’s largely forgiveable.

2) Fantasia
Full (probably not legit, watch it soon before it disappears):

This has tremendous sentimental value, and I’m sure it will win. The animation is superb and its merging with the music is genius. But I found myself a bit annoyed on rewatching by the overt didacticism, and for modern tastes some of the sequences drag a bit. So, somewhat to my own surprise, I’ve bumped it down from the top spot to second.

1) The Thief of Bagdad
Full (again, probably not legit, watch it soon before it disappears):

I nominated this on the strength of the scene with Mary Morris as Kali but I sat down and watched it from beginning to end the other night, and, good lord, I was blown away. This is one of very few films with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and while I wouldn’t go that far, it’s tremendously enjoyable. On the one hand, it’s supposed to be about the romance between the rightful but displaced Sultan of Bagdad and the daughter of the Sultan of Basra; on the other, the stars of the show are Sabu as Abu, the eponymous thief, and the amazing special effects – this was apparently one of the first films to use greenscreening, and they used it very well. Sure, one can rightly question the Orientalism of the project; but the fact is that it’s rather nice to be reminded of a time when Iraq was celebrated for its cultural and scientific heritage, even in Holywood style, rather than for other reasons. It gets my vote, and I commend it to your attention.

Best Novel (1941/2016) / Best Novella (1941/2016) / Best Novelette (1941/2016) / Best Short Story (1941/2016) / Best Related Work (2016) / Bet Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) / Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) (1941/2016) / Art categories (1941/2016) / John W. Campbell Award