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...
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.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Not enough chatter on my timeline about the upcoming centenary of the 1926 UK General Strike. This'll fix that. youtu.be/jcrQvxteO08?...
General Strike Number 1 (1926)
YouTube video by British Pathé
youtu.be
February 12, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Not enough chatter on my timeline about the upcoming centenary of the 1926 UK General Strike. This'll fix that. youtu.be/jcrQvxteO08?...
Reposted by Alan Allport
An issue with the Epstein files is that the FBI interviewed a lot of people after Epstein died, and some of them were cranks who said things like “He sounds like Mossad to me” and now people can be like “Epstein was Mossad, it’s in the Epstein files!”
February 13, 2026 at 1:44 PM
An issue with the Epstein files is that the FBI interviewed a lot of people after Epstein died, and some of them were cranks who said things like “He sounds like Mossad to me” and now people can be like “Epstein was Mossad, it’s in the Epstein files!”
Reposted by Alan Allport
South Africa has yielded the oldest direct evidence of poisoned hunting weapons. The find pushes poison-based hunting deep into the Pleistocene and reveals sophisticated chemical knowledge, planning and tool use far earlier than previously documented. Ars Technica buff.ly/3ySienA
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
These 60,000-year-old poison arrows are oldest yet found
Hunter-gatherers probably derived the poison from the milky bulb extract of a Boophone disticha plant.
buff.ly
February 13, 2026 at 1:50 PM
South Africa has yielded the oldest direct evidence of poisoned hunting weapons. The find pushes poison-based hunting deep into the Pleistocene and reveals sophisticated chemical knowledge, planning and tool use far earlier than previously documented. Ars Technica buff.ly/3ySienA
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Reposted by Alan Allport
The year is 2015. China is getting richer and more powerful every year, but America has three trump cards: universitities, biomedical research, and immigration.
February 13, 2026 at 7:58 AM
The year is 2015. China is getting richer and more powerful every year, but America has three trump cards: universitities, biomedical research, and immigration.