The elites of Victorian Britain got up late, drank ceaselessly, worked short hours, partied through the night, and knew nothing about science, technology or engineering. And yet, by their own lights, they were hugely effective. worksinprogress.co/issue/the… The Victorians are often held up as a model against the supposedly soft, feckless, humanities-educated elites of today. But I argue that the genius of their system may have been its drastic weighting towards soft skills, team-building and intra-elite networking: - A Victorian’s gentleman’s office hours typically began about 11am and finished about 5pm, including a multi-course lunch with wine. - Upper-class Victorians drank ceaselessly. Conduct guides recommended four or five glasses of wine at dinner *for married women*. Port was often served in pints. - Party culture was intense and nocturnal. Balls started at about 10pm, peaked after 1am, and continued till dawn. During the social season, bankers, judges and politicians might go to several balls per week. - Elite Victorians learnt almost no STEM at school or university. At least half of class time was given over to ancient languages, often as much as 80 percent. One leading educationalist remarked that it was not worth teaching science to gentlemen because it does not involve ‘continued reasoning’. - Sports and character formation were valued far above transmitting facts. A top headmaster described his school’s priorities as ‘First – character, second – physique, third – intelligence, fourth – manners, fifth – information’. This cannot have made elite Victorians more productive individually, but maybe the dense social and emotional network it created helped them to work as a sort of extended team. Perhaps we should think again about what makes groups of people effective.

Blackadder in 2026: Blackadder: “Baldrick, why have you entered the Women’s 100m Freestroke” Baldrick: “I’m going to say I’m a woman sir, it’s a cunning plan.” Blackadder: “Baldrick you can’t swim at all!” George (dressed as a bin): “Tally-ho! I’ve just been raped by an asy-”

our noble hard work. their barbarous grind culture

Pink Floyd is such depressive self pitying garbage. Musically it’s fantastic but thematically it’s some of the most reprehensible dogshit I’ve ever heard. Bunch of “woe is me I grew up and have to get a job my dreams are dead” BULLSHIT. No wonder boomers think it’s peak being the most entitled and spoiled generation in history

Very powerful segment in her speech as Badenoch speaks out, as she did yesterday in our interview, about Suella Braverman’s remarks on Englishness. She is clearly angry as she talks about her children. Standing ovation in the room - this the strongest moment in the hall so far

BBC removes 11 Mitchell and Webb comedy sketches from iPlayer bbc.in/4799EIB

Good. Smokers are scum of the earth

Good. The poor guy died 22 days after this.

so there's this highest rated episode of any british comedy ever made

Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives let 4 million people into Britain in 4 years because “ministers didn’t notice.” 21 of the 27 people in her Shadow Cabinet were those ministers. Her entire team is incompetent and can't be trusted.

England is getting what she deserves. Let me say that again: England is getting what she deserves. It’s not the globalists. It’s not the elites. It’s not the foreigners. It is us. Our malaise is the fault of no one but ourselves. Mass immigration, demographic chaos, organised child rape gangs, cultural vandalism, an economy on the brink of collapse, an education system that teaches self-hatred, a media with no regard for the truth, a political class whose treachery knows no limits — none of these are the ultimate cause of the present condition of England. They are symptoms, downstream consequences, of something far more fundamental. And each one is our fault. We, the English, have forgotten who we are. We — all of us — have indulged in the poisonous fruits of modernity. We have looked the other way while our sons and daughters stripped themselves of dignity. We have allowed our culture to debase itself. We have invited evil into our Kingdom — and in every case, we have done so willingly. We have delighted in sin and turned our backs on God. We are not the beset-upon victims of an unfair world. We have been docile and complacent, made weak by the decadence of modernity. We have given ourselves to worldly things and rejected the eternal moral principles that once made us the greatest civilisation in history. In their place we have embraced a religion of the self. Our culture’s moral centre of gravity is “the individual” — whether that takes the form of woke identity politics, hedonistic self-indulgence, or the endless pursuit of wealth. Popularity, not truth, is our social and political currency. Pride is celebrated as a virtue and humility is in short supply. And what is it that those of us engaged in the political struggle are fighting for? England is not worth defending merely because “something something the shires” or “something something our grandchildren”. England is unique among nations as a defender of truth, reason, and faith — we are the protagonists of history, leaders of all mankind, and we have chosen to abandon our post. A mere political revolution will not save this country from the collapse that now looks all but certain. What is required is a revolution of the soul. The English must remember who they are and what their purpose is: the pursuit of truth, the defence of reason, the banishment of evil, and the glory of God. Failing that, England burns. And rightly so.

Looks to me like Farage is setting up his next business venture rather than preparing his party for government. Maybe he's getting ready to cut a deal and run like he did in 2019.

Don’t cry mate

“If there is a single most deplorable intellectual failing on the conservative side, it lies in reducing every question of law, constitution, culture and society to a question of economics.” Sir Roger Scruton