Philip Challinor
@pchallinor.bsky.social
Pedantic malcontent. Author of all this stuff https://lulu.com/spotlight/challinor07/ and worse https://thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/
Grimmfest Online 2025: the @buck-theorem.bsky.social capsules bucktheorem.blogspot.com/2025/12/grim...
Grimmfest Online 2025
Well, I often bemoaned that many online festivals had stopped after Covid. Even the London Film Festival continued to offer a few titles o...
bucktheorem.blogspot.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Grimmfest Online 2025: the @buck-theorem.bsky.social capsules bucktheorem.blogspot.com/2025/12/grim...
"where the fuck does one start; and, having fucking started, where the fuck does one finish?" thejudge.me.uk/Rants/Rants_...
I Have Seen The Future...And It's Jerks
thejudge.me.uk
December 9, 2025 at 8:15 PM
"where the fuck does one start; and, having fucking started, where the fuck does one finish?" thejudge.me.uk/Rants/Rants_...
Poodle misses out on doggy-bag www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Tony Blair reportedly dropped from Trump’s Gaza ‘board of peace’ shortlist
Former UK leader loses out on key role in transitional authority after objections from Arab and Muslim nations
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Poodle misses out on doggy-bag www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The question (last paragraph) and its answer (second paragraph) theguardian.com/commentisfre...
December 7, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The question (last paragraph) and its answer (second paragraph) theguardian.com/commentisfre...
As the nation approaches the orgasm stage in that three-month orgy of sales-talk, saccharine and sanctimony which is the Season of Feastmas, the annual copyright war has broken out over who really owns the Baby Jesus thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/egyp...
The Curmudgeon: Egypt Wasn't Swamped
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
As the nation approaches the orgasm stage in that three-month orgy of sales-talk, saccharine and sanctimony which is the Season of Feastmas, the annual copyright war has broken out over who really owns the Baby Jesus thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/egyp...
Prospects for youth under Team Starmer: be a waiter, wash dishes, hump bricks or starve www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Young unemployed told to engage with jobs scheme or risk benefit cuts
About 350,000 work and training places in care, construction and hospitality available but ‘sanctions’ may apply if ‘neets’ refuse offers
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Prospects for youth under Team Starmer: be a waiter, wash dishes, hump bricks or starve www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
"Wishing you a very happy Christmas and New Year and by the way here's our wedding anniversary again." All very Defender of Faiths, to be sure www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
King Charles and Queen Camilla unveil Christmas card for 2025
The royal couple chose their 20th wedding anniversary portrait taken in Rome this year for their official holiday greeting card
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 12:14 PM
"Wishing you a very happy Christmas and New Year and by the way here's our wedding anniversary again." All very Defender of Faiths, to be sure www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Since Jesus was a member of an invader culture who thought the natives were dogs, it's easy to see His attraction for pure-blooded Anglo-Saxons who presumably despise the beastly Brythonics www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
C of E to challenge Tommy Robinson’s ‘put Christ back into Christmas’ message
Church leaders respond to far-right appropriation of Christian symbols with ‘Outsiders welcome’ message
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Since Jesus was a member of an invader culture who thought the natives were dogs, it's easy to see His attraction for pure-blooded Anglo-Saxons who presumably despise the beastly Brythonics www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
"For all that our culture seems to extol diligence as the surest guarantor of success and fulfillment, its embrace of AI technology exposes the fact that laziness at the top level is its true cardinal virtue" x.com/jacobin/stat...
Jacobin on X: "The powerful want us to marvel at the splendor of generative AI. They demand that we override our instinctual reaction to false, awkward, uncanny garbage posing as art. We don’t have to go along with it. https://t.co/v1MIKSrI1A https://t.co/bqSUZ831ST" / X
The powerful want us to marvel at the splendor of generative AI. They demand that we override our instinctual reaction to false, awkward, uncanny garbage posing as art. We don’t have to go along with it. https://t.co/v1MIKSrI1A https://t.co/bqSUZ831ST
x.com
December 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
"For all that our culture seems to extol diligence as the surest guarantor of success and fulfillment, its embrace of AI technology exposes the fact that laziness at the top level is its true cardinal virtue" x.com/jacobin/stat...
Team Starmer to proscribe apple crumble as terrorist weapon www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Tower of London closes after apple crumble thrown on crown jewels display
Four people arrested after apparent protest against UK inequality claimed by civil-resistance group Take Back Power
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Team Starmer to proscribe apple crumble as terrorist weapon www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Country with large, hostile military alliance on its borders increases its submarine presence. Shocking, shocking www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Swedish navy encountering Russian submarines ‘almost weekly’ – and more could be on the way
Moscow ‘continuously reinforcing’ its presence in the region, says Swedish chief of operations Capt Marko Petkovic
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Country with large, hostile military alliance on its borders increases its submarine presence. Shocking, shocking www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Pleasant as it is to see the strutting Caudillo of the Farage Falange getting a bit of the Corbyn treatment, it's a pity no retired military blimps have yet come forth to threaten a coup in the event of a fascist government
December 5, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Pleasant as it is to see the strutting Caudillo of the Farage Falange getting a bit of the Corbyn treatment, it's a pity no retired military blimps have yet come forth to threaten a coup in the event of a fascist government
Since higher tax receipts from higher wages, let alone from unearned income, are unthinkable and antisemitic, let's give the young and poor another kicking www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
December 5, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Since higher tax receipts from higher wages, let alone from unearned income, are unthinkable and antisemitic, let's give the young and poor another kicking www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Newspeak was the official language of Oceania www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Streets named after birds in Britain on rise as species’ populations plummet
RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservation
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Newspeak was the official language of Oceania www.theguardian.com/environment/...
"He just went straight to the man who was the keeper of the armoury in the Tower of London, who gave us all the original 17th-century armour we needed" www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
‘My God, what a story it would make’: film-maker Kevin Brownlow on It Happened Here and Winstanley
Brownlow is best known for restoring silent movies, but in conjunction with Andrew Mollo, he made two features, in 1964 and 1975, that look astonishingly prescient today
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"He just went straight to the man who was the keeper of the armoury in the Tower of London, who gave us all the original 17th-century armour we needed" www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
By doing what? Chivvying them into work at minimum wage before they get too dependent on the umbilical handouts?
December 5, 2025 at 11:28 AM
By doing what? Chivvying them into work at minimum wage before they get too dependent on the umbilical handouts?
"Pushing back hard now is about showing Labour who are in charge, and what is and isn't permissible"
"... pedantically scrutinising what Reeves did when she was 14, all the sheer absurdity and oil tankers of bile shows they're not content to box Labour in politically, but would rather this party, this interloper in their politics, be squeezed out for good."
Delegitimating Labour
Not only are the right wing press in this country poisonous, they're petty-minded. Their latest victim is Rachel Reeves. The story, in case ...
averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:22 AM
"Pushing back hard now is about showing Labour who are in charge, and what is and isn't permissible"
Apparently there was a time, albeit quite a while ago, when the strutting Caudillo of the Farage Falange might have come over as a bit of a racist thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/dece...
The Curmudgeon: Decency Draws a Line
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Apparently there was a time, albeit quite a while ago, when the strutting Caudillo of the Farage Falange might have come over as a bit of a racist thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/dece...
New depths of British entrepreneurial gumption are being plumbed at Thames Water, which has announced half-yearly profits of four hundred million as a preliminary to squealing for more hand-outs thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/liqu...
The Curmudgeon: Liquid Assets
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:56 PM
New depths of British entrepreneurial gumption are being plumbed at Thames Water, which has announced half-yearly profits of four hundred million as a preliminary to squealing for more hand-outs thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/liqu...
Apparently Peter Bradshaw doesn't know the difference between an actor and a special effect (since Perkins is restrained and subtle throughout, I assume the reference is to the superimposed skull at the end) theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
December 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Apparently Peter Bradshaw doesn't know the difference between an actor and a special effect (since Perkins is restrained and subtle throughout, I assume the reference is to the superimposed skull at the end) theguardian.com/film/2025/de...
Clearly some fiendish feline plot is afoot www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
December 2, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Clearly some fiendish feline plot is afoot www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Just as there is nothing more natural and Christian when telling the truth than to assert that one is not lying, so there is nothing more normal when everything is normal than to issue a public proclamation about just how normal everything is thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/most...
The Curmudgeon: Mostly Routine Incapacity
thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Just as there is nothing more natural and Christian when telling the truth than to assert that one is not lying, so there is nothing more normal when everything is normal than to issue a public proclamation about just how normal everything is thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/most...
That'll please Wideboy Wesley Streeting's chums in the NHS privatisation sector www.theguardian.com/business/202...
NHS to pay 25% more for innovative drugs after UK–US zero-tariff deal
Agreement could cost NHS £3bn more in drugs over next three years, industry sources estimate
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
That'll please Wideboy Wesley Streeting's chums in the NHS privatisation sector www.theguardian.com/business/202...
"If these films might have once seemed like period pieces, today their resonances with current events are hard to avoid" thequietus.com/culture/film...
Murderers Among Us: Owen Hatherley Picks Over the ‘Rubble Films’ of Post-War East Germany | The Quietus
At least twice, Germany has had among the most influential and important mainstream film industries in the world. First, famously, between 1919 and 1933, German directors, in what was called, not alwa...
thequietus.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:19 PM
"If these films might have once seemed like period pieces, today their resonances with current events are hard to avoid" thequietus.com/culture/film...
"he found himself sitting behind Pinter at a revival of The Birthday Party and, tapping him on the shoulder, said, 'Are you Harold Pinter, or do you just look like him?' Pinter said, 'What?'" www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...
Sir Tom Stoppard obituary
One of Britain’s most outstanding playwrights famed for the ‘hypnotised brilliance’ of his prose and dialogue
www.theguardian.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
"he found himself sitting behind Pinter at a revival of The Birthday Party and, tapping him on the shoulder, said, 'Are you Harold Pinter, or do you just look like him?' Pinter said, 'What?'" www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...