Alan Stewart
LightNews LightNews
banner
laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart
@laikaalan.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.6K following 900 posts

Ex-goth, socialist, man about town.
Into Memorial Device before Mary Hannah joined. Communist family history stuff. Resist moral panics. Writing a biography of Dundee Comintern agent Bob Stewart.
#MDANT #JoinaUnion

Videos
History 41%
Art 18%
Posts Replies Media Videos

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 14m
I’m fucking terrified Keir btw.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 14m
Stares in paraphrasing Enoch Powell.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 2d
Cheers!

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 2d
It’s Not My War. For Remembrance Sunday I wrote about my great grandfather Bob Stewart’s experiences as a conscientious objector in the First World War.

breakingthefetters.com/2025/11/09/i...
It’s Not My War.
Bob Stewart: Conscientious Objector. For Remembrance Sunday here’s something I wrote about Bob Stewart’s experiences as a conscientious objector during the First World War. On the day w…
breakingthefetters.com

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 2d
Still writing the bloody thing but at least I’ve got the cover sorted.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 2d
Just lost it at the phrase ‘poking the Russian bear’ on Channel 4 news.

Reposted by Alan Stewart

soozuk.bsky.social
Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 2d
Finished the Apple TV Scorsese documentary and five episodes wasn't enough, there should have been a thousand.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 3d
If anyone’s been watching the superb Mr Scorsese documentary series - what’s the beautiful piece of music playing when they’re talking about the reception of Taxi Driver? It sounds like Neu and I can’t place it.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 3d
Having a closer look at Anthony Blunt’s MI5 files. Here he’s telling Peter Wright of Spycatcher fame that my great grandfather Bob Stewart knew the identities of Blunt, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess as Lizzie Philby passed their secrets on to him in the 1940s.

Reposted by Alan Stewart

ianboudreau.com
Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 5d
Rewatching Zohran's victory speech bit by bit and it's hard not to be emotional about it - it's an appeal to hope and courage but also to the fundamental idea of living in society, together. Feels like we've been starved, often deliberately, of that kind of thinking

Reposted by Alan Stewart, Maya Sen

theguardian.com
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 6d
Mamdani’s victory is a rebuke to the failed strategies of the Democratic party | Moira Donegan
Mamdani’s victory is a rebuke to the failed strategies of the Democratic party | Moira Donegan
The Democratic party appears listless and unprincipled, unwilling to fight because they do not believe in anything. Zohran Mamdani is the opposite of this
www.theguardian.com

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 6d
🎼Start spreading the news,
I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
Your vagabond shoes, they are longing to stray
And step around the heart of it, New York, New York! 🎵🎶

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 6d
I loved it and it was lovely to meet him at the signing in Leeds.

Reposted by Alan Stewart

benwritesthings.bsky.social
Ben Miller @benwritesthings.bsky.social · 6d
people be like “this strategy of a popularly elected socialist mayor of one of the world’s largest cities pales in comparison to my strategy of organizing the vanguard party” and then pay Elon to be Verified on the Everything App

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 7d
Have rallied- about to teach the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet and have come across this sonnet I wrote about Ratatouille I’d forgotten all about.

Reposted by Alan Stewart

evansmithhist.bsky.social
Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 7d
48 years ago today (4 November 1977), the New Statesman published this article about divisions in the Communist Party of Great Britain. It is the first written use that I have found of the term ‘tankie’ to describe someone who (uncritically) supported the Soviet Union.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 7d
Yeah but I need to cling on to something Jo. It’s all I’ve got!

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 7d
At least I didn’t die on my birthday so I win that one.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 7d
Found out today that I’m the same age William Shakespeare was when he died so have ended up judging my achievements against his and now I’m depressed.

Reposted by Alan Stewart

alanmaguire.bsky.social
Alan @alanmaguire.bsky.social · 8d
Centrism is the belief that society achieved perfection around the same time as you became a homeowner

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 10d
When I did a Jake the Dog from Adventure Time pumpkin for Hallowe’en. Nearly sliced my hand off at one point.

Reposted by Gavin Miller, Alan Stewart, Michael Kevane , and 2 more

regretteruane.bsky.social
Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 11d
Philip Larkin’s this be the verse mangled into Ozymandias, the text reads They Oz you up, your mandyias. They may not mean to, but they do. They give you vast and trunkless legs A sunken shattered visage too. But they were Ozzed up in their turn By Mandyias upon the sand Who half the time had wrinkled lips And half in sneering cold command. Oz hands on mandyias to man. Like mighty works atop a shelf Look on them early as you can Ye mighty and despair yourself

Reposted by Alan Stewart

workingclassicists.bsky.social
Working Classicists @workingclassicists.bsky.social · 12d
✨NEW ARTICLE!✨

If you want to know about the ancient connections between dancing 💃 and fighting 🤺 run your peepers over our latest Zine article by @corrugatedcavalier.bsky.social

www.workingclassicists.com/zine/kd36lab...
Slide to the Left: Training Martial Attributes Through Dance in the Ancient Greek World — Working Classicists
Jeffrey Cierniak explores the role of dance in ancient Greek war - prepare for some surprises!
www.workingclassicists.com

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 12d
A fascinating life. According to his obituary was never a communist but this suggests he was a secret member. This account of his life is worth two minutes of your time.

www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/monuments-me...
Capt. Ewan M. G. van Zwanenberg Phillips | (1914-1994) | Monuments Men and Women Foundation
www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 12d
Early morning rabbit hole. Looking through Anthony Blunt’s MI5 files and the earliest mention linking him with my great grandfather Bob Stewart is this 1955 phone call from Ewan Phillips one of the ‘Monuments Men’ and later first director of the ICA. 1/2

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 13d
He’s amazing in it.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 14d
Taped it off the telly as a teenager soon after I’d seen Prick Up Your Ears. Watched it on a loop for a while.

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 14d
RIP Prunella Scales. My favourite performance of yours was this BBC version of Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw alongside Timothy West. It is wonderful.

youtu.be/a5Q8btlQLfE?...
What The Butler Saw by Joe Orton
YouTube video by Ortonesque
youtu.be

Reposted by Alan Stewart, Justin Lewis

simonpegg.bsky.social
Simon Pegg @simonpegg.bsky.social · 14d
This reflection on Prunella Scales has been put up by The Guardian, and her son, Samuel, reckons she'd have loved it. Definitely worth sharing here:

www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/o...
Prunella Scales was a queen of comedy with a passion for classical theatre
The actor best known as TV’s Sybil Fawlty dazzled over five decades on stage, in roles from from Shakespeare to Alan Bennett
www.theguardian.com

laikaalan.bsky.social
Alan Stewart @laikaalan.bsky.social · 14d
This Land Is Your Land: “After you’ve stopped the boats; after you’ve deported your neighbours; after you’ve waged war on woke, shrunk the state even further and redesigned the economy in the mould of Javier Milei what happens when people realise their lives are still shit?”