Alan Allport
@alanallport.bsky.social
Professor, historian, husband, dad, scouser, gobby. Author of Demobbed (2009), Browned Off & Bloody-Minded (2015), Britain at Bay (2020), Advance Britannia (2025). “Awesome but a bit boring” (RMP). Personal account.
Pinned
Alan Allport
@alanallport.bsky.social
· Jan 6
Why the British Were Afraid of Winning World War II
www.nytimes.com
#AdvanceBritannia is released in North America today. The NYT review says (ahem): “Elegant and unsparing … Allport is a fluid writer, a conjurer with the rare ability to sustain a gripping narrative without resorting to Vaseline-lensed sentimentality.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/b...
Reposted by Alan Allport
Reposted by Alan Allport
Explaining the plot of Scooby-Doo to my daughter and realizing the central irony of the show is that the gang cruises around looking for magic and mysteries that never pan out, while the only truly supernatural element is the talking dog they all ignore.
February 14, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Explaining the plot of Scooby-Doo to my daughter and realizing the central irony of the show is that the gang cruises around looking for magic and mysteries that never pan out, while the only truly supernatural element is the talking dog they all ignore.
This is an irresponsible headline.
Overall, veterans are less likely to have criminal records.
Mass shooters are overwhelmingly younger white men and that’s where the correlation with veterans is.
Veteran mass shooters are usually those with *failed* military careers who were discharged early.
Overall, veterans are less likely to have criminal records.
Mass shooters are overwhelmingly younger white men and that’s where the correlation with veterans is.
Veteran mass shooters are usually those with *failed* military careers who were discharged early.
‘Military service is one of the strongest predictors for becoming a mass shooter in the US.’
@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the symbiosis of drugs and war.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the symbiosis of drugs and war.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Guns, Money and Opium
There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 12:48 PM
This is an irresponsible headline.
Overall, veterans are less likely to have criminal records.
Mass shooters are overwhelmingly younger white men and that’s where the correlation with veterans is.
Veteran mass shooters are usually those with *failed* military careers who were discharged early.
Overall, veterans are less likely to have criminal records.
Mass shooters are overwhelmingly younger white men and that’s where the correlation with veterans is.
Veteran mass shooters are usually those with *failed* military careers who were discharged early.
Drop an album that was important to you when you were nineteen.
February 15, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Drop an album that was important to you when you were nineteen.
Icebergs can’t melt steel beams
February 14, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Icebergs can’t melt steel beams
Reposted by Alan Allport
My local Barnes and Noble gives #AdvanceBtitannia the old red carpet treatment
February 14, 2026 at 8:59 PM
My local Barnes and Noble gives #AdvanceBtitannia the old red carpet treatment
Reposted by Alan Allport
I feel you, overhead locker
February 14, 2026 at 3:23 PM
I feel you, overhead locker
From Sebastian Haffner’s memoir of Berlin 1930-1933, Defying Hitler. Posted without comment.
February 14, 2026 at 5:41 PM
From Sebastian Haffner’s memoir of Berlin 1930-1933, Defying Hitler. Posted without comment.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Reposted by Alan Allport
Well, happy 13th birthday to this immaculately timed headline
February 14, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Well, happy 13th birthday to this immaculately timed headline
“The couple who instigated the fight fled the club for their gated condominium” in least surprising detail ever.
February 14, 2026 at 12:51 PM
“The couple who instigated the fight fled the club for their gated condominium” in least surprising detail ever.
Reposted by Alan Allport
February 14, 2026 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Alan Allport
RFK Jr. sniffed cocaine off toilets the right way.
By Ezra Klein
By Ezra Klein
February 13, 2026 at 4:44 PM
RFK Jr. sniffed cocaine off toilets the right way.
By Ezra Klein
By Ezra Klein
Reposted by Alan Allport
"Enchanted suits of armor punch Nazis" is definitely top tier
What’s your favourite Disney movie?
February 13, 2026 at 11:29 PM
"Enchanted suits of armor punch Nazis" is definitely top tier
Reposted by Alan Allport
Chuck Schumer is verb and subject
February 13, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Chuck Schumer is verb and subject
Reposted by Alan Allport
The other day Manchester United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said the UK had been "colonised by immigrants"….today there’s this billboard outside of Old Trafford 🔥….way to go Manchester 💪!
February 13, 2026 at 9:33 PM
The other day Manchester United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said the UK had been "colonised by immigrants"….today there’s this billboard outside of Old Trafford 🔥….way to go Manchester 💪!
Reposted by Alan Allport
@andreapitzer.bsky.social "concentration camp regimes in their early stages often make use of large open infrastructure to convert into detention spaces. Dachau was converted from a shuttered factory into a concentration camp in 1933"
degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-t...
degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-t...
February 13, 2026 at 9:22 PM
@andreapitzer.bsky.social "concentration camp regimes in their early stages often make use of large open infrastructure to convert into detention spaces. Dachau was converted from a shuttered factory into a concentration camp in 1933"
degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-t...
degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/building-t...
Reposted by Alan Allport
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 7:41 PM
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.
But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
Reposted by Alan Allport
I guess I’ll be giving up department meetings for Lent.
Pope’s Lenten message: Abstain from harsh words and rash judgement
www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...
www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...
Pope’s Lenten message: Abstain from harsh words and rash judgement - Vatican News
Ahead of the start of Lent, Pope Leo XIV invites Catholics to open ourselves to listening, fasting, and community, urging us to abstain from words of ...
www.vaticannews.va
February 13, 2026 at 5:01 PM
I guess I’ll be giving up department meetings for Lent.
This is a great question. It seems to me (admittedly from a great distance) that Labour was traumatized by the Red Wall collapse and still cannot decide for itself what sort of party it even wants to be any more.
I am curious as to what British politics watchers think: beyond Starmer's personal moral collapse on immigration etc, is this government unusually incompetent or is it just that the stench of death now accompanies their every move?
February 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM
This is a great question. It seems to me (admittedly from a great distance) that Labour was traumatized by the Red Wall collapse and still cannot decide for itself what sort of party it even wants to be any more.
Reposted by Alan Allport
the Palestine Action ban really was a classic Starmer govt move: a hysterical overreaction that won them zero plaudits from the right, cost them badly to the left, and which got shot down in the end anyway.
February 13, 2026 at 3:27 PM
the Palestine Action ban really was a classic Starmer govt move: a hysterical overreaction that won them zero plaudits from the right, cost them badly to the left, and which got shot down in the end anyway.
The Dow is over 50,000!
February 13, 2026 at 4:26 PM
The Dow is over 50,000!
“Here’s another reactionary edgelord asshole we mystifyingly find fascinating”
Rod Dreher has fueled some of the more apocalyptic currents on the Trumpist right. Robert F. Worth spoke with the writer to understand his worldview:
Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake
The influential author derides secularism and the modern world. Conservatives—including the vice president—are joining him on a march back to the Middle Ages.
bit.ly
February 13, 2026 at 2:12 PM
“Here’s another reactionary edgelord asshole we mystifyingly find fascinating”
Reposted by Alan Allport
There just simply isn't a nazi in this world that won't at some point get a friendly puff piece in the Atlantic or NYT. They just can't help themselves.
Rod Dreher has fueled some of the more apocalyptic currents on the Trumpist right. Robert F. Worth spoke with the writer to understand his worldview:
Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake
The influential author derides secularism and the modern world. Conservatives—including the vice president—are joining him on a march back to the Middle Ages.
bit.ly
February 13, 2026 at 2:10 PM
There just simply isn't a nazi in this world that won't at some point get a friendly puff piece in the Atlantic or NYT. They just can't help themselves.