Friday: Hili dialogue

January 30, 2026 • 6:45 am

It’s the last Friday in January, and the penultimate day of the month: January 30, 2026, as well as National Croissant Day, a case of cultural appropriation if ever there was one. But a good croissant and a small cup of strong coffee is the archetypal French breakfast. Here is a specimen of what was judged The Best Croissant in Paris the year I took this photo (a bit of the glaze has broken off):

Here’s the weather forecast for Chicago; in a week the temperature will finally rise above freezing. But there’s a chance of snow for seven out of the next eight days. Oy!

It’s also National Escape Day and School Day of Non-violence and Peace.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 30 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*According to the WaPo, a government funding deal was finally struck yesterday. We are no longer threatened again with a government shutdown. This involves funding for Homeland Security (which the Democrats wouldn’t support) kept separate from the rest of government funding:

President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats said Thursday that they had struck an agreement to fund most of the federal government less than 30 hours before spending is set to lapse.

Senate Democrats said Republicans had agreed to their demand to break off funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a larger spending bill after federal immigration officials killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The agreement would fund DHS at existing levels for two more weeks to allow both parties to try to hash out a deal to impose new restrictions on federal immigration enforcement.

Trump said in a social media post that Republicans and Democrats had “come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security.”

“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” he added.

Senate Republicans are checking with individual senators for objections, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. Any deal would require unanimous consent from senators to pass quickly.

The deal comes after Trump and senators in both parties expressed optimism that they could reach a bipartisan agreement before the shutdown deadline.

“Hopefully, we won’t have a shutdown, and we’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close,” Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting Thursday morning. “The Democrats I don’t believe want to see it either. So we’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don’t want to shut down.”

A short funding lapse is still likely, as any changes would need to be approved by the House, which is scheduled to be out of town until Monday.

Getting any agreement through the narrowly divided House could be challenging for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), as conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus said they would oppose changes to the existing bill before Trump called for them to support an extension. But House Republicans are likely to support it as the president has requested, two senior House Republican aides said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“We may inevitably be in a short shutdown situation,” Johnson told reporters Thursday night. “But the House is going to do its job.”

So we may have a shutdown over the weekend (no mail on Saturday!), but for the nonce things are okay. But look forward to a huge fight over DHS funding in a few weeks; it will require 60 votes to pass the Senate, and Republicans have only 53 seats. I’m not sure what a failure to pass will mean, but surely Democrats will support some DHS funding, for without it there would be no support for border protection.

*Here’s what the Democrats want before they’ll vote for a new Homeland Security bill (the old one will still be in force for two weeks):

The administration’s talks with Democrats began after the lawmakers unveiled a set of demands they said they would insist on in exchange for voting for homeland security funding. They included banning immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring them to wear body cameras and visible identification, an end to random immigration sweeps, requirements for judicial warrants for stop and searches and requirements for immigration officers to follow the same use-of-force standards as community law enforcement.

They also want an independent investigation of the two fatal shootings in Minneapolis.

“No more secret police,” Mr. Schumer said. “The Republican majority must step up to the plate. Republicans in Congress cannot allow this violent status quo to continue. They must work with Democrats on legislation — real legislation.”

If the spending agreement holds, it would clear the way for what promises to be a hard-fought negotiation over what restrictions could be imposed on immigration operations.

If the spending agreement holds, it would clear the way for what promises to be a hard-fought negotiation over what restrictions could be imposed on immigration operations.

Some Republicans were already raising objections to the Democratic demands, including the ban on masks.

“I’m worried about these guys who are being put into a dangerous situation in crowds, where you know damn well some of the people there are just there to play gotcha,” Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said. “I just think that is a police safety issue, and I’m black-and-white on police safety issues.”

“Gotcha” refers to doxing ICE officers, which has already been done.  I don’t know how to prevent that, but the provision about not wearing masks and having to wear bodycams and visible IDs, as well as the rest of the Democrat-desired provisions—this all sounds okay to me.

*From Luana, a notice from yesterday that the Department of Education that the California Department of Education was found guilty of multiple instances in which schools hid the gender transitions of students from their parents.

Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) found that the California Department of Education (CDE) is in continued violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)—a federal law granting parents the right to access their child’s education records—for policies that pressure school officials to conceal information about students’ “gender identity.”

“Our investigation found that the California Department of Education egregiously abused its authority by pressuring school officials to withhold information about students’ so-called ‘gender transitions’ from their parents. Under Gavin Newsom’s failed leadership, school personnel have even bragged about facilitating ‘gender transitions,’ and shared strategies to target minors and conceal information about children from their own families. While the Biden Administration turned a blind eye to this deprivation of parental rights and endorsed the irreversible harms done to children in the name of radical transgender ideology, the Trump Administration will fight relentlessly to end it,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Children do not belong to the State—they belong to families. We will use every available mechanism to hold California accountable for these practices and restore parental rights.”

SPPO concluded that certain California Department of Education (CDE) policies and practices create powerful state-directed pressure for schools to adopt policies that have led to FERPA noncompliance. Instead of ensuring compliance with FERPA as a recipient of Federal funding, California state laws, guidance, and legal actions – such as AB 1955, which prohibits schools from requiring parents to be informed of their child’s “gender transition” – have effectively coerced districts to withhold information from parents in violation of FERPA. District leaders claim State laws and CDE policies put districts in a position of having to choose between complying with FERPA or getting sued by the State. SPPO further determined that the CDE coerces school districts to withhold information about students’ “gender identity,” including through the use of secret “gender support plans” kept in separate filing systems for the primary purpose of hiding these records from parents. The CDE’s guidance asserts these plans are not part of a student’s cumulative record accessible to parents, which directly violates parents’ rights under FERPA to inspect all education records related to their minor children.

According to SPPO’s investigation and public records, school personnel went to great lengths to conceal children’s “gender transitions,” including by petitioning the student management software company used in many California schools to create features that hide student name changes and pronouns from parents. In emails dating back to 2022, staff discussed changing student names without parental knowledge, using different names in front of parents, and overriding the Parent Portal to limit what parents see.

Last year, it was reported that at least 300 students in California were put on “Gender Support Plans,” many without parental consent or knowledge. In a case recently heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a mother sued her daughter’s school after finding out that the staff had convinced her daughter to identify as transgender, directed her daughter not to tell her mother, and instructed the daughter on making chest binders. The mother was informed by administrators that they could not inform her of all of this due to their “parental secrecy policy.”

California has also aggressively targeted schools that follow FERPA and refuse to hide students’ “gender identity” from parents. When Chino Valley Unified School District’s school board adopted a parental notification policy in July 2023, state officials—including California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and California Attorney General Rob Bonta—acted swiftly to stop it, arguing that students have a constitutional right to privacy from their parents in California and that “transgender students may suffer from being ‘outed’ to their parents against their will.” The Attorney General ultimately sued Chino Valley along with other districts who refused to hide information from parents claiming these policies violated the California Constitution and other State laws.

I understand children’s concerns that it might be difficult for them to reveal feelings or actual changes of gender identity to parents.  But schools should not be acting in loco parentis and buying wholesale into students’ decisions.  Parents exist to be sounding boards and provide help and guidelines to children about issues like this. Granted, they might not always be helpful, but schools offer no guidence, but just accept whatever change in identity a student wants. In the end we have to depend on parents, and of course most parents wish the best for their children.

*A reader sent a link to an article from The Liberal Patriot, “Seven principle for a 21st century Left,” that he/she found “the best encapsulation I’ve seen to date and the best prescription for Democrats going forward.”

Recently I argued that the left’s 21st century project has failed. After the era of social democracy sputtered out at the end of the 20th century, the left embarked on a new project they hoped would remedy the weaknesses evident at century’s end and inaugurate a new era of political and governance success. We are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, which has witnessed both a genuine “crisis of capitalism” (the Great Recession of 2007-09) and the systemic breakdown of the COVID era (2020-22). Enough time has gone by to render a judgement: despite ample opportunity to advance their cause, the left’s 21st century project has failed and failed badly.

Consider:

  • It has failed to stop the rise of right populism.
  • It has failed to create durable electoral majorities.
  • It has failed to achieve broad social hegemony.
  • It has failed to retain its working-class base.
  • It has failed to promote social order.
  • It has failed to practice effective governance.
  • It has failed to jump-start rapid economic growth.
  • It has failed to generate optimism about the future.

Of course, the project hasn’t been a complete failure. Left parties, including the Democratic Party, have succeeded in building strong bases among the educated and professional classes and, if they have lacked broad social hegemony, they have generally controlled the commanding heights of cultural production. As a result they have mostly set the terms of “respectable” discourse in elite circles.

But that’s pretty weak beer compared to all those massive failures and the heady aspirations of those who presume to be on “the right side of history.” Most on the left would prefer to believe that the left’s 21st century project is basically sound and just needs a few tweaks. This is whistling past the graveyard. After a quarter century, it is time to face the facts: the project is simply not fit for purpose and needs to be jettisoned.

Here are the seven areas that author Ruy Teixora wants improved to help the Democrats (I summarize each in one sentence, but read the article:

Energy realism: accept an “all of the above” energy policy, including wind and solar energy, but also accept fossil fueles for the near future

Growth realism:  accept more economic and productivity growth

Governance realism: “ideological commitments and interest group ties have outweighed the simple, inescapable realities of good governance. Voters just don’t care about the supposedly noble motivations that lead the left to ignore these realities.” In other words, the Left had prioritized social justice over good governance.

Immigration realism: No more encouragement of mass immigration.  “If the left wishes to legalize certain classes of illegal immigrants (e.g., long-time residents) so they are not susceptible to deportation and/or increase legal immigration levels, that case must be sold to the American public.”

Merit realism: A re-commitment to the idea of colorblind merit, once the bedrock of the Left’s position

Biology realism: An acceptance of the fact that biological sex is binary and a rejection of radical transgender ideology.

Patriotic realism: “If liberal nationalism was good enough for A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, for FDR and JFK and MLK, it should be good enough for today’s Democratic Party. Democrats should proudly proclaim that their party is a patriotic party that believes America as a nation has accomplished great things and been a force for good in the world, a record that can be carried forth into the future.”

That’s it. I agree with some of these more than others, but here again we have a program designed to give Democrats a chance at running the country again. And again we hear that this means rejecting the tenets broadcast by the loudest moiety of Democrats, the far-left “progressives.

*Reader DrBrydon said this in a comment yesterday:

My wife and I recently watched the available episodes of “Nobody Wants This,” about a gentile woman (Kristen Bell) and a rabbi (Adam Brody) who fall for each other. I was surprised that a show dealt with Judaism so prominently and, in my opinion, positively. (The woman knows nothing about Judaism and the man tries to educate her, because he can’t marry her if she doesn’t convert.) It is very funny.

Of course I looked it up, and though I don’t get Netflix it does look like an interesting show. Here’s a three-minute trailer. It’s clearly a rom-com, but she’d have to convert, and that’s the rub.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has tsouris mit mond (Yiddish for “troubles as numerous as poppy seeds”).

Hili: Winter, freezing cold, and a young dog.
Andrzej: Yeah, nothing but misfortunes.

In Polish:

Hili: Zima, mrozy i młody pies.
Ja: Tak, same nieszczęścia.

*******************

From Dad Jokes; a “Do Not Season the Pigeons” sign:

Via Stacy:

From Bad Spelling or Grammar on signs and notices:

Masih was in court yesterday watching the sentencing of yet another Iranian guy who was ordered to kill her. This is the third plot like that, and this guy got a stiff sentence. As usual, though, Masih has her eyes on the prize: the country itself.

From Jay. We never see these spotters at work, but their skill must have saved a lot

From Luana; you can read the original article here. (Actually, Mamdani said that taking people off the frigid streets is a “last resort” but does add that people should not be allowed to freeze to death. But is he willing to forcibly remove homeless people and put them in warming centers?)

Via Emma Hilton; you can read the article here:

One from my feed; I love this! I wish Darwin had seen it. Translation from the Japanese: “The reaction when showing magic to a gorilla for the first time is hilarious lol.”

One I reposted on the Auschwitz Memorial:

From Matthew, clearly referring to the current American administration:

Matthew has a Substack now, and here’s a recent article:

Here's an article I wrote that @nature.com turned down, on Crick and his half-century relationship with Nature. It condenses all the material relating to Nature that appeared in my Crick biography (apart from the double helix, which you can find here: http://www.nature.com/articles/d41…

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T10:47:47.091Z

or click below to go to the article. Crick had a cozy relationship with Nature, and could pretty much publish anything he wanted, sometimes without review.

 

51 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT:
    Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (30 Jan 1882-1945)

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    1. From my modest knowledge of FDR-related history, Eleanor Roosevelt was good to remind him to walk this talk. I don’t know if she talked to him about the SS St. Louis Jewish refugee situation in 1939.

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  2. Don’t keep us in suspense, Professor; how good was that croissant? A transformative experience? Just up to France’s usual high standard?

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  3. I am progressing through “Crick”…he is currently knocking out walls to expand the LaJolla house…and certainly noticed Crick’s influence with Nature editors to get material expedited and placed in the journal over the years. I am not sure that it is a bad thing to give this type of deference to a Nobel Prize Laureate. Peer review is very good and important but certainly not perfect. What do readers think?

    Btw, again I highly recommend Matthew’s excellent “Crick”.

    Reply

    1. Maybe Blackstone’s rule could apply: It is better that 10 good papers be reviewed and rejected from Nature, than that 1 article full of ridiculous nonsense be published to acclaim. After all, there is always arXiv.

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    3. I recall a paper published by Linus Pauling about vitamin C. It was in PNAS and (I think) it was published solely because of who he was and, of course, he was a member of the Academy. But the paper was drek. Awful, and if peer review was involved, they didn’t do much reviewing, except maybe kissing Pauling’s ass.

      Do I think peer review is important? Yes! It’s critical, though as you note, it’s not perfect. I think in the end good journals remain good in part because the papers in them are properly reviewed.

      Doesn’t mean I liked all the reviews I got. Many of the corrections were valid and proper and we appreciated them, but many others were just busy work. Boogers. On one occasion, I was able to identify the reviewer simply by his criticism and request for additional work. It was clear who was asking for it as it mirrored much of his published work (we did it even though we felt it wasn’t necessary as it was an excellent addition).

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      1. Some years ago, Journal of Aircraft would appoint three reviewers and sanitize reviews of names, sending the raw comments to authors. My co-author on a paper, who was also my boss was going through the peers’ comments on an early paper I had written with him. The first reviewer said everything fine- publish as is; my boss said that that guy obviously had not read it. A second reviewer said that the paper was garbage and should never be published; my boss said that that was likely written by Dr X who simply disagreed with the validity of our methods. The third reviewer had some excellent and thorough comments, recommending publication after modification. Over the next thirty years, I never again saw a spread like that, but quality of reviews did vary.

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    4. I just finished Crick by Matthew Cobb (the USA edition). I found it excellent start to finish. I even enjoyed the front material which is unusual for me (mostly I skip prefaces and introductions). Well done, Matthew!

      I mostly read books on Kindle these days (almost exclusively). But I recommend a hard copy in this case. The book is full of interesting graphics and photos (and displaying graphics is one major weakness in the Kindle).

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  4. On Californian schools: I’m childless but if I were to send my dog to doggie day care and, unbeknownst to me they tried to troon him into a her, or into a cat! …. I’d be pretty steamed.

    Interestingly in all this trans stuff – it causes divorces – I’m yet to see a case where the Dad wanted to troon the child into the opposite sex and the mother didn’t. Always the mother is the “moving party” gender wise.

    I’ve only known two converts to Judaism and both were women converting b/c they planned to marry Jewish men. (like Trump’s daughter)
    I’m told Islam is easier to convert into. 🙂

    D.A.
    NYC

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  5. I think in regard to crackpots and fools, Arendt draws to hard a line between totalitarianism and bureaucracy in general. Over time, as the size of Western governments has ballooned and they have come to view themselves as omnicompetent, it seems like crackpots and fools are the ruie rather than the exception.

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        1. No, you’re not. She’s an orangutan, not a monkey, dammit!

          I do LOVE the orangutan’s delighted laughter.

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      1. I realise you wouldn’t knowingly share AI. There are a lot of people who specifically look for it and comment to warn people, but they don’t always find these posts right away.

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      1. For whatever reason, once I find out something is AI, it loses all appeal. It’s not funny anymore and I feel manipulated by fakery. It’s not like watching a movie where you go into it knowing it’s fake and can suspend belief. With short movies like the gorilla, the creator is trying to fake you into thinking it’s real, and it’s akin to being lied to (at least to me). I like to show my wife funny memes and clips that I see on WEIT, but whenever it’s AI, I don’t bother.

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        1. If it’s obviously AI, that’s fine with me. No deception, no foul. Have you seen the hilarious one about the cat playing various musical instruments on the porch?

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          1. YES! As is the ai of a cat driving various animals around on a road trip. Clear satire is fun, deception notsomuch.

  7. What happens if you don’t convert? Suppose they go to the local City Hall and get married anyway. Do these people believe that God will be angry with them or something? When a Manchester City supporter marries a United supporter, there is much acrimony for a few days of the season and relative calm for the rest.

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    1. I would imagine that Temple to which the husband belonged could not recognize the marriage despite the civil marriage. And since the character is a Rabbi, he likely would be out of a job and not hireable in any Orthodox or Conservative synagogue. Reform? Not a problem!

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      1. Yes, Robert, that’s my understanding also.
        Maaybe… it can matter with the Law of Return for purposes of making Aliya (immigrating to Israel) I think.

        Also might complicate getting a “get”/divorce if necessary and child custody. (This is why giving religious courts civil jurisdiction is a BAD idea – UK and Sharia courts for eg.)

        Unless they’re deep into the community, atheist Jews of my acquaintance don’t bother with the conversion. Plus it isn’t easy – lots of classes etc.

        D.A.
        NYC

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    2. My wife and I married in a Reform synagogue, despite the fact that I wasn’t Jewish. I only realized later how rare this is. There was only one Rabbi that would officiate at a “mixed” marriage in Montréal at the time, and after he left town there was no one. I might have considered converting, but I understand that you have to believe in G*d 😉. You can’t convert to secular Judaism! We’ve now been married 42 years.

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  8. I despise having masked police roaming our streets, but I hesitate to accept the D’s demand that the police unmask without the same requirement of the protestors.

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      1. Yes, it’s a hard one from the perspective that these are people with real lives and families that bad actors could harm in both the virtual and the meat world. But I feel the identities of government agents who interact with the public, with rare exceptions such as properly authorized and trained undercover law enforcement, should never be secret. Masks or face covering may be required for protection against gas and violence, but visible name tags and functioning body cameras should be on all of them. Somehow we have to regain trust in our government; those who think the Orange Toddler hasn’t put us on a path to an authoritarian state are whistling past the graveyard.

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      2. Agents could be masked, as long as they carry for example a badge with a clearly readable serial number that can be linked to the actual agent.

        You only need to be able to identify the individual agent in case there are complaints or accusations. In that case it would be trivial to identify the agent in question. If that identification is not possible, the commanding officer is liable.

        This would safeguard the agents without giving them anonymity.

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  9. Regarding Mamdani, he’s not off to a great start. Already blaming the prior regime for his budget problems, he seems to be setting the stage for managing the gap between what he promised to get elected and what will actually occur.

    I hope he’s a quick learner, and not as rigidly ideological as he appears. A rapping career and a short time on the NYS assembly (in which he was often absent) doesn’t seem to have been good prep for running one of the largest, most important cities on the planet.

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      2. One does hope he can’t do any of what he wants to do. This isn’t a case of reach exceeding grasp. It’s that the electorate failed to swat the grasping hand away with a collective, “Fahgetabaht-it”.

        I know some people hope that if the State lets him raise taxes — as I understand it the state of New York, not the city, enables city income taxes as a local variation in the state income tax — on the rich, all will become possible. But I’m reminded of the adage that taxation is not about “fair share” — that looks very different to the envious compared to those being shaken down. Rather it is the art of plucking the goose so as to obtain the maximum feathers with the minimum of squawking. Foie gras is a different project. Tax rates are therefore set by the tax paying class, not the tax spending class, because it’s the payers who do the squawking. Their concentrated incentives to protect what they have, plus their mobility, trump the more diffuse interests of those who want free busses. The robbers are likely to go on to other projects if the wealthy pull up the drawbridges.

        Here’s hoping the mayor doesn’t tax you literally out of house and home, David.

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  10. Those gymnastics saves are amazing. The message? Gymnasts trying to do those things are insane!

    And the gorilla. How human! Is it real? On the subject of gorillas, we had a gorilla in the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle who was quite the comedian. He would po#p in his hands, show his production to the audience, and then proceed to eat his p##ps. The audience’s reaction of “ooooh!,” “yuck!,” and “blah!” was his reward. The gorilla found it to be hilarious, and he honed his comedic skill to a high level. (No. I’m not kidding. I saw it with my own eyes.)

    The rest of the news? Not so funny.

    Reply

    1. Yep Norman. Granddaughter was a competitive gymnast. I had to leave the room during her beam routine…just could not watch. But outside of the coordination and incredible moves, she (and many of the other girls) learned to focus and developed an on-demand tenacity that I found amazing.

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  11. The FERPA scandal in California is insane, and it alone is enough to end Gavin Newsom as a national candidate.

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  12. I would be more in agreement with most of Teixeira’s main points if, rather than framing them as failures to achieve the good, he would note what undesirable developments the party has driven. I will address one of them:

    “Of course, the project hasn’t been a complete failure . . . if they have lacked broad social hegemony, they have generally controlled the commanding heights of cultural production. As a result they have mostly set the terms of ‘respectable’ discourse in elite circles.” Teixeira calls this “pretty weak beer.” Many of us call it poison.

    Social hegemony?! Really, this is one of his goals? Controlling the cultural production to mostly set the terms of “respectable” discourse is precisely what gave us the maddening groupthink and cowardice plaguing the professional classes for the last decade. Democrats both succumbed to and embraced a campaign to expand that hegemony via social pressure, interpersonal enforcement, and government coercion (both at home and abroad). Many in the working class and others—mainly from among those whose professional life and social advancement do not depend on praise of peers—have rejected this attempt to police “respectable” discourse and ideas. As they should—a coerced social hegemony is the antithesis of a free people.

    Until the Democrats and their ideological compatriots abroad purge themselves of the illiberal and anti-democratic impulse to rule and to dictate “respectable” discourse, I don’t care what economic, immigration, or environmental policies they put forth. I will oppose them.

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  13. Times have changed (and not for the better). Let me quote from “Spencer” over at West Hunter (a web site – look for Sex is a spectrum.

    “Lol. I introduce students every semester to various non-overlapping or barley overlapping graphs by sex. Every year their jaws drop further. Twenty years ago barely an eyebrow was raised.”

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  15. “Parents exist to be sounding boards and provide help and guidelines to children… and of course most parents wish the best for their children.”

    Boss, aside from the broad and deep wisdom you impart on a daily basis, maybe avoid speaking for parents.

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  16. “Of course, the project hasn’t been a complete failure. Left parties, including the Democratic Party, have succeeded in building strong bases among the educated and professional classes and, if they have lacked broad social hegemony, they have generally controlled the commanding heights of cultural production. As a result they have mostly set the terms of “respectable” discourse in elite circles.”

    Is so true. And not just in the US. Piketty has documented similar shifts in many other countries. The elite is (massively) shifting to the left (cultural, not economic, left) and workers are shifting to the right (cultural, not economic, right).

    In the US, this shows up as realignments within the existing political parties.

    In the UK, both the Labor party and the Torry party are dying. They are being replaced by Reform and the Greens.

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    1. There is a quote from Andy Burnham (Mayor of Manchester) that has considerable bearing on this

      “Far too much Hampstead and not enough Hull”

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  18. I don’t imagine Crick got as much flack for using the phrase Selfish DNA as Dawkins did for writing about The Selfish Gene.

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