Jonathan Dent
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jwdent.bsky.social
Jonathan Dent
@jwdent.bsky.social
590 followers 830 following 70 posts
Lancastrian in Reading and Oxford, lexicographer.
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Reposted by Jonathan Dent
adambienkov.bsky.social
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
marcusjdl.bsky.social
There’s nothing left wing socialist or progressive about violent policies towards Black and brown people seeking asylum and the Labour Party will find out what this means for you at the May elections
kss-labour.bsky.social Kingswinford & South Staffs Labour @kss-labour.bsky.social · 2d
On Monday, the Home Secretary will outline the biggest set of changes to the asylum system in modern times.

These changes will restore order to our asylum system. There is nothing ‘left wing’, ‘socialist’ or ‘progressive’ about insecure borders.
November 16, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
jonnymorris.bsky.social
Searching through the celebrity audience with the pope trying to spot Denis Norden, Roy Kinnear or Wincey Willis.
November 16, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
martynjb.bsky.social
...an article by Crawford that is a tad out of keeping with those other contributions. Essentially Crawford was a little angry with Cambridge dons in general and A. C. Benson in particular. I've found no other mention by Crawford of Benson ever, and this piece never appeared anywhere else. Enjoy.
The first of four images covering the whole of Crawford's article. Part 1 reads as follows: The Writings of Mr. A. C. Benson. Some years ago, when Tariff Reform was a common topic of conversation, a lady who was asked her opinion of it, said “I don’t of course understand it, but I feel very strongly about it.” That story very well describes Mr. A. C. Benson’s attitude towards the world; only his feelings can hardly be called strong. He is a typical don – kindly and well-meaning, full of a kind of sentimental sympathy, but without a spark of real insight or critical power. The don is a child who has never grown up. To him the world of nature and of men is like a fairy kingdom, full of strange beings whom he can not make out. His eyes grow round with wonder at their simplest actions. What, however, is natural and engaging in a child is out of place and even repellent in a grown-up man. It becomes a pathological symptom – a form of arrested development. The tears shed by a little girl over her broken doll are normal and healthy tears; The article continues: but these [tears] which fill the puzzled eyes of Mr. Benson as he regards the mysterious things around him are unnatural. For “men must work and women must weep.” Mr. Benson tells us that he takes more pleasure in writing than in anything else in the world. He thereby lays claim to be considered as a literary artist. In one of his essays – The Thread of Gold, page 63 – he says: “It is impossible not to feel, when one is brought into contact with an artistic temperament, that the basis of it is a kind of hardness, a fanaticism of spirit.” That is very true and very well put, but does one find any “hardiness or fanaticism” in Mr. Benson, as revealed in his writing? I trow not. On the contrary one finds there a certain flabbiness and lack of purpose which seems inseparable from the academic character. Literature is one of the greatest among the arts, but good writing need not be good literature and it is not always good art; good writing is meaningless if it is not rooted in reality. Mr. Benson’s essays have no roots; they are like the cowslip-balls of children, an ingenious exercise in stringing words melodiously together. The game may give pleasure to the player, just as there is a kind of pleasure to be derived from constructing Latin Verse. But it is a silly game. The books of an author should be like a lens through which we look at the world, or like the colour-screen which cuts out the haze in a landscape and casts a clear image on the plate. The writings of Mr. Benson are a mirror in which we see only the pale reflection of his won rather bloodless emotions. Continues: Mr. Benson is a great overgrown baby peering at a callous world through his college window. But he lacks the healthy savagery and red blood of youth. It is significant that the one solitary essay in “The Thread of Gold” in which he touches the discoveries of modern science should refer to an extinct reptile of gigantic proportions. Like all children he is attracted by strange beasts. And that is all that the head of a Cambridge college can find in science. Ye Gods! Can he indeed be deaf to the multitudinous tramp of Darwin’s mighty army, and to the rhythmical blows of Huxley’s oratory breaking on the muddy sands of orthodoxy? Can it be that all that is vital in modern thought eludes him and his like? The article concludes: Unfortunately one knows from personal experience that it does, and that of all those dons and tutors only a very few have any idea of what is being said and done in the busy world outside. It has been said that the mind of a British Philistine is impervious to ideas; if that is so, then Mr. Benson and his fellow dons are typical Philistines for whom there is but little hope. A whisper will arouse a sleeping dog, but not all the shouting in the world can disturb the peaceful slumber of a jelly-fish.
November 11, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
vanjpes.bsky.social
Carl Kolchak: An Appreciation

New post from me on a great collision of actor and character, and the films, shows and post-cancellation afterlife of one of the greats

arowofopengraves.co.uk/2025/10/29/c...
Carl Kolchak: An Appreciation
Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak It’s my esteemed and correct opinion that Carl Kolchak is one of popular culture’s greatest characters. As brought to life by Darren McGavin in a shabby seersuc…
arowofopengraves.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
brainmage.bsky.social
Marconi all "Don't worry, this isn't my first radio"
October 20, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
brainmage.bsky.social
...too many people invented radio
October 20, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
celestialweasel.bsky.social
See stoat, say stoat, stoated
brynleyheaven.bsky.social Brynley Heaven @brynleyheaven.bsky.social · 28d
having lived on an upland farmstead and seen one or two things, I have to reluctantly get behind this, but then we keep a cat so any logic is out of the window
October 20, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
zarahsultana.bsky.social
A mainstream “journalist” calling for a British MP to be deported. Is it because I’m Muslim? Next time, just say it with your chest.
October 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
chrisdaleoxford.bsky.social
Bright colours on a dull day, with cormorant, heron and swan extras.
Trees with autumn colours of green, yellow, and orange, with a red bridge in the background. Birds in the foreground include a cormorant, a heron, and two swans.
October 18, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
this is obviously appalling - and he should lose his job - but it's also really quite shocking; I first met Calgie when he was a baby reporter in his early twenties and sure, he was always a Tory, but he was....fine and normal? right-wing radicalisation is out of control in SW1
zarahsultana.bsky.social Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana.bsky.social · Oct 17
A mainstream “journalist” calling for a British MP to be deported. Is it because I’m Muslim? Next time, just say it with your chest.
October 18, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
adambienkov.bsky.social
It's apparently perfectly fine for senior political journalists to call for the deportation of British Muslim politicians now, with zero consequences
October 18, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
hedleythorne.bsky.social
The original and best white horse, leaping up a wintry Uffington Hill. This picture was taken before the first stage of its restoration.
October 17, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
mrchrisbarrett.bsky.social
Sibelius *could* have watched the Panorama spaghetti tree hoax.
October 8, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
jonnelledge.bsky.social
This is appalling.
adambienkov.bsky.social Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · Oct 6
BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...
October 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
lordbonkers.bsky.social
The exhibition at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes consists of screenprints, paintings and relief prints, alongside books, lithographs, prints, paintings, drawings and maps drawn from the museum's own collection.
Art meets archaeology in new exhibition about Wiltshire landscape - BBC News
Artist and archaeologist Dr Rose Ferraby's exhibition aims to show Wiltshire's influence on art.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
cjayanetti.bsky.social
Labour MPs who voted against welfare cuts this summer have warned that plans to change disability benefit assessments could trigger another mass rebellion

Others called for a vote to be delayed until a review into the assessments is complete

By me, for Big Issue: www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to universal credit
Welfare secretary Pat McFadden plans further reforms to the benefits system, expected to include abolishing the work capability assessment.
www.bigissue.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
thehistoryboy.bsky.social
Terrible first date ideas: getting felsted in Herefordshire 😳
October 4, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
unicornsrockuk.bsky.social
This amazing article from @vic-parsons.bsky.social via @wearequeeraf.com shows the absolute criminal state of trans healthcare in the UK.

Scotland has a 224 year wait for a first appointment. Yes, you read that right.

www.wearequeeraf.com/gender-clini...
Latest waiting times for gender identity clinics in the UK
Revealed waiting times of all GICs in UK: Most Trans+ people in the UK will wait more than a third of their adult life to get an appointment, and some will never receive care
www.wearequeeraf.com
October 4, 2025 at 5:09 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
eddierobson.bsky.social
From the Film Is Fabulous Facebook page:
Facebook comment from Film is Fabulous to Justyn Adderley: "Thanks. As mentioned by Sue Malden at our RECOVERED event in May, we are aware of several missing episodes of Doctor Who (Sue stated one of two, but there are more than this) in private film collections in the U.K. We are liaising with the individuals about cataloguing and preserving their entire collection, including the missing Doctor Who episodes, and ensuring that copies are returned to the BBC. We expect to make a detailed announcement shortly."
October 3, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
petey632.bsky.social
Marsh Harrier RSPB Lytchett Fields Poole Dorset @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social @dorsetraptors.bsky.social @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @harbourbirds.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
kirkdalebooks.bsky.social
a customer raises the topic of this exceptional film
a woman wearing a red scarf and a red bag is standing in front of stairs .
Alt: a woman wearing a red scarf and a red bag is standing in front of stairs . Grey Gardens innit bruv
media.tenor.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
drsimevans.carbonbrief.org
NEW: Something remarkable happened recently and hardly anyone noticed – GB electricity demand was 100% covered by clean power

We took a look at the data and this has happened for a record 87 hours in 2025 to date, twice as often as ever before

🧵

www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
September 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
gwenynen.bsky.social
This really needs to be vastly bigger news across they media, but it'll be ignored because "just Wales" of course.
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 26
Nathan Gill, Reform's leader in Wales at the last Welsh parliament election, has pled guilty to 8 bribery charges, taking Russian cash while he was one of Nigel Farage’s MEPs to speak in favour of Putin's Russia in that parliament
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges
Gill admits to eight counts of bribery relating to pro-Russia statements made in the European parliament and articles
www.theguardian.com
September 26, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Jonathan Dent
chrisdaleoxford.bsky.social
Very good, old dog. You've noticed that I am going up and down stairs carrying things, and wanted to be involved by occupying the big step on the bend. No - it's all right, no need to move. I can just about get past without dropping everything or stepping on you.
Black and white photograph of a black dog lying on the curved step of the stairs.
September 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM