Legal Aidan
@legalaidan.bsky.social
Former history student at Warwick, Berkeley and Oxford, now a barrister working in international trade law. Cursed/blessed to support Bristol City. Views my own etc etc
Watching Star Wars for the first time in my early 20s, it was the setting (as opposed to characters and themes) that really stood out for me. ‘_____’ in Star Wars works much better than ‘doing Star Wars’ because what SW contributes most of all is a cool place for things to happen.
ironically what makes star wars stuff best is when it is 'something else, but also star wars'
e.g. Andor, a British political thriller but also Star Wars
the Mandalorian, an episode-of-the-week Western but also Star Wars (when it was good)
e.g. Andor, a British political thriller but also Star Wars
the Mandalorian, an episode-of-the-week Western but also Star Wars (when it was good)
November 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Watching Star Wars for the first time in my early 20s, it was the setting (as opposed to characters and themes) that really stood out for me. ‘_____’ in Star Wars works much better than ‘doing Star Wars’ because what SW contributes most of all is a cool place for things to happen.
Having grown up in rural Oxfordshire, this is 100% correct - and there are many such cases!
hear me out: Tolkien would be a Tory-Green swing voter in the UK
October 31, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Having grown up in rural Oxfordshire, this is 100% correct - and there are many such cases!
One could say we are producing new knowledge so quickly that even people who are relatively well informed don’t have time to take it all in
Maybe this is simply a difference in the expected 'rate' of knew knowledge, but this take puzzles me, because there's quite a bit of new data and studies needing to be done that I can see pretty easily in Roman history.
Knowledge creation steady and clearly visible.
Knowledge creation steady and clearly visible.
October 13, 2025 at 7:40 PM
One could say we are producing new knowledge so quickly that even people who are relatively well informed don’t have time to take it all in
Not policy related, buuuut - a road trip to eat at every Frankie and Benny’s in the uk
What policy themed visitor trail would you do upon retirement? I would pilgrimage to visit the 100 Rishi Sunak outdoor chess sets around the country. I genuinely think it would be one of those fun random things that would take me to places I’d never otherwise go to
October 12, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Not policy related, buuuut - a road trip to eat at every Frankie and Benny’s in the uk
There was literally no reason for this story not to end with Grogu being picked up by Luke at the end of S2. Everything that needed doing had been done.
Unclear if the lack of chatter about this on my feed is just a) a lot of the Star Wars people I follow are boycotting Disney or b) that this trailer is incredibly uninspiring.
The Mandalorian and Grogu | Official Trailer | In Theaters May 22, 2026
YouTube video by Star Wars
youtu.be
September 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
There was literally no reason for this story not to end with Grogu being picked up by Luke at the end of S2. Everything that needed doing had been done.
I’ve seen this in Whitehall pubs, the correct response is to just walk right to the front and get served, not my fault people don’t know how pubs work
I wrote about the most frightening and dangerous trend in Britain
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...
Queueing in pubs disgraces Britain
The practice is unpatriotic and must be banned
www.newstatesman.com
September 21, 2025 at 11:04 AM
I’ve seen this in Whitehall pubs, the correct response is to just walk right to the front and get served, not my fault people don’t know how pubs work
That’s for the playoffs! #bristolcity #bcfc
August 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
That’s for the playoffs! #bristolcity #bcfc
August 4, 2025 at 11:01 AM
The BBC News app seems to absolutely love sending push notifications about random criminal trials, which can’t be helping things
The replies to this post, even on here, even moreso on X, are so depressing to me. We live in a world where cities have never been safer and a minority of people are denying themselves a lot of delightful experiences because they’ve gone mad online.
Crime and the perception of crime: @jburnmurdoch.ft.com via @stephenkb.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/9623...
August 2, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The BBC News app seems to absolutely love sending push notifications about random criminal trials, which can’t be helping things
Mum’s going to Bristol City vs Real Valladolid today, 24 years after her last football match - England vs USSR in 1991. A troubling omen for Valladolid.
August 2, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Mum’s going to Bristol City vs Real Valladolid today, 24 years after her last football match - England vs USSR in 1991. A troubling omen for Valladolid.
*looks at the replies* WHOOOOSH
July 28, 2025 at 9:48 AM
*looks at the replies* WHOOOOSH
Dried fruit by itself can be nice as a snack but it has no place whatsoever in cookery or baking
what's a traditional food of your people/culture that everyone else seems to love that you absolutely cannot stand?
for me it is vada pav. Vada is incredible, pav is fantastic, in combination they cancel each other out and become a black hole of anti-taste
for me it is vada pav. Vada is incredible, pav is fantastic, in combination they cancel each other out and become a black hole of anti-taste
July 6, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Dried fruit by itself can be nice as a snack but it has no place whatsoever in cookery or baking
Reposted by Legal Aidan
I think a lot of the terror of the modern age can be understood by the fact that the Internet accelerated the development of the worst type of person, the "Anti-Intellectual Nerd."
June 16, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I think a lot of the terror of the modern age can be understood by the fact that the Internet accelerated the development of the worst type of person, the "Anti-Intellectual Nerd."
This is such a pity - I genuinely loved writing essays in a way I could never love an exam. It frankly also boggles the mind that people would stoop so low!
UCL are going back to all in person exams. There is no other solution to this problem currently available.
It's not the biggest problem education is facing but at some point the preference of parents and students for coursework and fewer exams is going to collide with the fact that AI probably necessitates a big return to in-person exams
June 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
This is such a pity - I genuinely loved writing essays in a way I could never love an exam. It frankly also boggles the mind that people would stoop so low!
Forums remain undefeated
i’d be curious to know whether any of the journalists who have taken to bluesky had prior experience in an earlier internet age with forums. for me at least, my acculturation into the social internet was by way of forums and so the lack of an algorithm seems natural to me.
June 12, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Forums remain undefeated
Dinner at 5.30 is profoundly distressing, what are we even doing guys
sorry to be mediterranean but "drinks at 430 then food at 530" is a very late lunch
⏰Further proof that we've shifted our days earlier – Pubs now often closing at 9pm, late-night supermarkets shutting at 10pm etc
Just been invited to a work/PR "sit down dinner".
"We're welcoming guests from 4:30pm for drinks, followed by...dinner kicking off at 5:30pm" 🧐
Just been invited to a work/PR "sit down dinner".
"We're welcoming guests from 4:30pm for drinks, followed by...dinner kicking off at 5:30pm" 🧐
June 6, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Dinner at 5.30 is profoundly distressing, what are we even doing guys
Westminster system can’t be beat
June 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Westminster system can’t be beat
My parents were genuinely devastated when I told them Pickles had closed
Yeah, within London, the survival of the good but cheap sandwich shop is essentially impossible to fully understand. (Still embittered that Unherd destroyed a great greasy spoon to replace it with the most generic 'This could be any mid-range hotel restaurant in the world' place)
June 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM
My parents were genuinely devastated when I told them Pickles had closed
This game is basically two guys trying to have a fight at closing time but they’re so hammered they can’t stand up any more
May 21, 2025 at 7:45 PM
This game is basically two guys trying to have a fight at closing time but they’re so hammered they can’t stand up any more
Reposted by Legal Aidan
Andor: 29 brilliant and *very* minor characters, ranked.
A THREAD
I'm not a Star Wars fanboy at all. I vaguely watched the films and forgot them. But I happened on Andor S1 and loved it - not least because of its conveyor belt of amazing British (and in S2 French) character actors in tiny roles
A THREAD
I'm not a Star Wars fanboy at all. I vaguely watched the films and forgot them. But I happened on Andor S1 and loved it - not least because of its conveyor belt of amazing British (and in S2 French) character actors in tiny roles
May 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Andor: 29 brilliant and *very* minor characters, ranked.
A THREAD
I'm not a Star Wars fanboy at all. I vaguely watched the films and forgot them. But I happened on Andor S1 and loved it - not least because of its conveyor belt of amazing British (and in S2 French) character actors in tiny roles
A THREAD
I'm not a Star Wars fanboy at all. I vaguely watched the films and forgot them. But I happened on Andor S1 and loved it - not least because of its conveyor belt of amazing British (and in S2 French) character actors in tiny roles