Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦 @SAThevoz Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

@SAThevoz

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Historian, writer, immigrant, FRHistS, right eyebrow raiser; UK political finance & Clubland; ; Latest book: ‘Behind Closed Doors'

London

https://t.co/EbHEUEai0t

Joined April 2013

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift this year? BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: THE SECRET LIFE OF LONDON PRIVATE MEMBERS’ CLUBS. “Compendious & entertaining” @FT ; “Exuberant, rollicking” @TheTLS ; “Brilliant” @Telegraph ; “Lively & comprehensive” @ObserverUK

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

Liz Truss opened on her childhood, saying she was inspired to go into politics by "lots of children being let down by low educational standards". Truss (b.1975) was entirely educated under Conservative governments, from primary school to university (1979-96).🤨

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 month

“Under the right circumstances, and with the right bookmaker, it could actually be more profitable for the Conservative Party to call an early election and lose it by an unprecedented landslide.”

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

People often imagine that each of London's private members' clubs are bursting with vast libraries. Not true. Many have closed down - as underused as public libraries - or been converted into conferencing rooms. Many never had a library. This🧵looks at those which survive...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 months

If Keir Starmer does become Prime Minister next month, it'll be a culture change in another sense: As far as I can tell, he will be the first British Prime Minister since 1763 to *not* be (or have been) a member of one or more London private members' clubs...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

Can we please stop repeating the lie that it's a "convention" for defecting MPs to trigger a by-election? Since WW2, 69 MPs have switched from 1 party to another (not including party mergers, withdrawals of the whip, & sitting as an Independent). Only 4 triggered by-elections.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Conor Burns, the Tory MP named by Fleet Street veteran Simon Walters as having found Boris Johnson in a "compromising situation" in his office with his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds, has been given a knighthood in Johnson's resignation honours list.

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MP who walked in on Carrie and Boris Johnson in ‘compromising situation’ named

Exclusive: Conor Burns had a ‘sixth sense’ about the couple’s relationship after finding them ‘having a glass of wine’ in Boris Johnson’s office

www.independent.co.uk

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

It's a novel pitch for the leadership of the Conservative Party. (And an interesting reminder that she joined the Lib Dems in the early 1990s.)

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

Given her efforts to emulate Thatcher, it seems all the more odd to slate Thatcher’s educational legacy.

@ASGunn

Andrew Gunn 🇺🇦

2 years

For the #C4LeaderDebate Liz Truss has recreated Margaret Thatcher’s appearance from her 1979 election broadcast down to the last detail

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

Perugia already helped bring down a previous Tory leader: Iain Duncan Smith. Over the years, IDS had embellished his CV, so a summer language course in rented halls across the street from the university became a 3-year BA from the prestigious 700-year-old University of Perugia.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Athenaeum has the most extensive library in Clubland today. This is its principal room, the South Library; but a working library runs through much of the building.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

I get a lot of questions on the portrayal of private members' clubs in Yes, Minister. I'll try to answer them in this thread. We see at least 9 club rooms in Yes, Minister & Yes, Prime Minister; though they could be portraying as few as 3 clubs. Read on for more details...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@AdamBienkov Not original, I know, but…

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

A friend of mine was on holiday in Spain in the early 70s, staying in the same resort as Jon Pertwee. When Pertwee found out there were lots of children there who recognised him as Doctor Who, he sent off for his costume & put on a magic show, in character, free of charge.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 months

THREAD: The lost clubhouses of London. We often don't realise just how many private members' clubs London has - I count 130+ today, and 600+ historic ones. And we walk past ex-clubhouses all the time, i.e. the🇨🇦High Commission on Trafalgar Square was the Union Club (1824-1924).

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Fighting talk from the Privileges Committee. (Always read the footnotes.)

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The East India Club has a library that is particularly well-stocked on imperial and military history.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

While the National Liberal Club lost its original library in the 1970s, it reestablished a new one over a decade ago, heavily focused around Liberal history, philosophy & biography. (I was responsible for this, when I was a member there, during a 10-yr stint as Hon Librarian.)

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

So, running through the surviving libraries alphabetically...the Army & Navy Club on Pall Mall maintains military history library, as you might expect.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

One of the more extensive libraries is that of the Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall, which divided across three principal rooms, including a quiet room; plus further rooms for reading periodicals.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Reform Club probably has the 2nd largest library in Clubland. Like the Athenaeum, it is not limited to the principal library room, seen here - much of the building is a scrupulously maintained, working library.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Garrick Club, one of the wealthiest in London, has an extremely well-endowed library focused around the performing arts.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Caledonian Club's library is, as you might expect, particularly strong on Scottish history.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Travellers Club library - focused on travel - is one of the architectural gems of Clubland, designed by Charles Barry (who also designed the Reform Club next door), with its classical frieze. There is a further overflow travel library below in the basement.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

Remarkable what being the MP who saw Boris Johnson & Carrie Symonds in a compromising position in Johnson's private office during his time as Foreign Secretary - and largely keeping quiet about it - has allegedly done for Burns' career. According to several Tory spads, that is.

@PippaCrerar

Pippa Crerar

2 years

Conor Burns, the former trade minister sacked over misconduct claims, is set to receive a knighthood in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list - story from the brilliant ⁦ @cazjwheeler ⁩ et al

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

As you can see, the surviving club libraries (& many have closed...) come in all shapes & sizes. Some are specialist, some generalist. And they are not limited to hard copy books, either. Some include a digital component, to periodicals & databases with online subscriptions. ENDS

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

Brooks's maintains a capacious library, not in the original Georgian part of the building, but in a large adjoining Victorian annexe. It is also used to display the portraits of members of the Society of Dilettanti, which merged into the Club.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

More typical (if there even is a library) is something like the "Library Bar" of Soho House's 76 Dean Street. Note the complete absence of any books. Generally speaking, fewer than half of the historic clubs of London still maintain a working library, & none of the modern ones.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@darrengrimes_ It really was, you know, Darren. Why not try reading a book or two on a subject before commenting on it? This one might be an excellent place to start.

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Black England: A Forgotten Georgian History

Black England: A Forgotten Georgian History

www.amazon.co.uk

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

Finally, the gorgeous library of the University Women's Club in Mayfair.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Naval & Military ("In & Out") Club St. James's Square maintains a well-stocked military history library.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Oriental Club's library in Stratford House is particularly opulent and decorative.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

I accidentally skipped one alphabetically - the Magic Circle, the club for practising magicians, has over 6,000 books on the history and practice of magic, plus a DVD and audio library of magic performances.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

9 months

So David Cameron has been appointed Foreign Secretary…by the very minister he was lobbying, in the biggest lobbying scandal of recent years. It makes Sunak’s usual “I didn’t see anything improper” schtick ever less credible.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

Hartlepool by-election should be seen in long-term context. 15,529 Con votes is not that much - they used to come distant 2nd with more votes. The real story is Labour's collapse to 8,589 votes. From 1950-2001, they consistently polled 22,000-27,000 in Hartlepool.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

I blagged my way into the National Conservatism Conference. It was wild. Here’s my write-up for @openDemocracy

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What we learnt when we snuck into the NatCon conference

Despite organisers’ best efforts, openDemocracy still got a reporter into the National Conservatism conference

www.opendemocracy.net

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

@LloydLlewJ You might have more of a point if you hadn't used your Twitter account to say that. Your Twitter account with, erm, your academic title...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

Given its strong literary roots, many of the library books in the Savile Club have been authored by its own members.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

6 months

Map of London’s Clubland, in the first A-Z of London of 1938.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 months

@JamesHarrisNow Yes, part of what makes 'Rear Window' such a great film on 1st viewing is that until the last 20 minutes or so, you're genuinely not sure whether or not there's been a murder, or whether this is all in James Stewart's overactive imagination, and your suspicions go back & forth.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Royal Automobile Club, unsurprisingly, has a library heavily focused on cars and the history of automobiling.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Royal Air Force Club on Piccadilly maintains a library.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

Dominic Cummings' "Dominic Goings" hurried coronavirus exit from Downing Street earlier today - with some appropriate music...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

Quite the catalogue of shameless cash-ins.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

Strangely enough, it is the position of the Conservative Party that the system of party funding doesn’t need any major reforms.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@RhonddaBryant Piers Morgan's the expert on this...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

1. One of the reasons for the current crisis is that in Feb 2017, MPs voted by 498 to 114 to trigger Art. 50. That included Corbyn issuing a 3-line whip for Lab MPs to vote for it, with only 47 of the 232 Labour MPs defying the whip to vote against, while 167 voted to trigger it.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

25 days

The Union Jack Club is a mass-membership services & veterans' club in Waterloo, open to enlisted ranks, and it also maintains a library.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

Downing St aide: “It’s like something out of N Korea. I honestly think they’ve completely overreached. They have f_ed this up. We look bonkers. You’re trying to frame it as parliament vs. people; & then you deselect 20-odd of your own MPs, including Winston Churchill’s grandson?”

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

BREAKING: The Conservative Party's 2020 accounts, released today, disclose that Boris Johnson received a £52,802 "bridging loan" from Tory party funds in summer 2020, reimbursed by Tory donor Lord Brownlow in October 2020, & repaid by Johnson in March 2021 when details had leaked

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 month

Roy Jenkins was a highly effective, reforming Home Secretary. He was very disciplined about ploughing through work during the day, but insisted that he leave the office at 5, & never take red boxes home. Consequently, he had a private life, hinterland, & so greater perspective.

@redhistorian

Robert Saunders

1 month

It's not clear to me that having politicians on instant-reaction mode, 24-hours a day, with no space for reflection or time with family, has produced good or considered government. There won't be an international crisis every Friday evening. Other stuff can probably wait.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

7 months

This is getting embarrassing now. We’re not even a week into the New Year, and for the 3rd time in 4 days, a bold policy claim from Rishi Sunak’s Twitter/X account has had to be tagged with a factual note flatly contradicting it. It’s going to be like this until the election.

@RishiSunak

Rishi Sunak

7 months

From today, 27 million working people will pay less tax. It’s taken tough decisions to get to a place where we can cut tax responsibly but as soon as we could, we have. Conservatives believe in low taxes. If we can go further this year, responsibly and sustainably, we will.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

This morning, the government had a majority of 1. By the afternoon, it was in a minority of -1. Before midnight, it had shrunk to a minority of -43.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Letter in the Daily Telegraph.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@richardmarcj This is precisely the kind of thinking that has seen Labour lose 17 of the 27 gen elections in the last 100 yrs, failing to get a working majority at 22 of them. It's why the Tories have been in gov for 67 years of the last 100, despite only once winning >50% of the vote (1931).

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

Newsnight's Michael Crick exposed this at the time (along with other IDS fibs on his CV, about having attended courses *at* Durnchurch College of Management, rather than in halls rented from them), and it helped establish IDS as a persistent fibber.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

The full Nadhim Zahawi report by Sir Laurie Magnus is scathing: Zahawi had been notified of HMRC’s tax investigation A YEAR before becoming Chancellor (but claimed not to understand its full meaning); report slams NZ’s 6-month “delay in correcting an untrue public statement”.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

Lord Geidt is in an impossible position. When he accepted the job, he accepted Johnson’s revised terms for the role. These put Johnson completely in charge of the government’s ethics regime. The “Independent Adviser” can’t be that independent.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

This is peak Johnson. The PM is set to be “cleared” over “allegations of soliciting a donation from Brownlow”. But that wasn’t the accusation. It was that he’d lied over knowing where the £ was coming from, & lied over the existence of WhatsApp messages.

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Boris Johnson to be cleared of breaking rules over Downing St flat refurbishment

Geidt inquiry will ‘criticise’ prime minister’s conduct, say senior officials

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@darrengrimes_ There was this extraordinary thing during “Dickensian England” called “empire”. It involved people from different parts of the world. And lots and lots of ports - Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, Dundee, Hull, Liverpool, London, to name but a few - with people coming & going.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

9 months

The government has just rushed through a raising of election spending limits, without needing to go through a single parliamentary vote.

@UK_Laws

UK Legislation

9 months

The Representation of the People (Variation of Election Expenses, Expenditure Limits and Donation etc. Thresholds) Order 2023

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

@andrew_lilico “Not a shred of evidence”

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 months

This is a marked increase from my peer-reviewed academic research into the previous decade (2006-14), which showed that 1 in 9 peerages were going to party donors. Now it’s 1 in 4. The problem is getting worse, not better.

@redhistorian

Robert Saunders

4 months

In the last decade, 1 in 4 peerages have gone to party donors. Those donors have given £58 million to political parties, of which £53.4 million went to the Conservatives Seats in Parliament are being given out as subscriber benefits for party fundraising

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

@LloydLlewJ This just reads as petty jealousy and sour grapes.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

For the original story, see here. IDS didn't even finish his exams.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

@MrFoizAhmed @EmilyRDent A very grand Tory lady canvassed Mountbatten at Broadlands, his Hampshire stately home, in 1945: "Admiral Mountbatten, can we count on your continued support?" "Actually, I'm a Labour man myself. But my butler's a Conservative - would you like to speak to him?"

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

She wasn't wearing a mask, either, and she looked thoroughly out of it. I really do despair at our chances of making it through this pandemic when this level of stupidity is on display. Covid carelessness affects other people - and kills.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Boris Johnson's loyal Principal Private Secretary, Martin Reynolds, who was mentioned 24 times in Sue Gray's 'Partygate' report, including his boast that he "got away with" rule-breaking, is rewarded with the Companion of the Order of Bath.

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Don’t make Partygate official Martin Reynolds our man in Riyadh, urge Tories

Senior figure warns that man mentioned 24 times in Sue Gray report would be ‘representing the Queen’ as ambassador to Saudi Arabia

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Lib Dem victory photo stunts: brilliant or terrible? You decide.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

Now the Secretary of State for Health endorses breaching the Department of Health's own guidelines.

@MattHancock

Matt Hancock

4 years

I know how ill coronavirus makes you. It was entirely right for Dom Cummings to find childcare for his toddler, when both he and his wife were getting ill.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

What NOT to do in a global pandemic: Visiting the optician, and then a cafe, when you're awaiting covid-19 test results, and have been advised to self-isolate at home. THREAD...

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

11 months

I would never have learned that former Conservative/Lib Dem MP Antoinette Sandbach was still farming land bought by her slaveholder ancestor, unless her lawyers had made legal threats to a Cambridge history PhD student over his research. #StreisandEffect

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Former MP asks to be removed from slavery research - BBC News

Antoinette Sandbach, a descendent of a slave owner, argues she has a right to privacy.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Which clubs are they meant to be? The books are much clearer on this than the TV series. Sir Humphrey & Sir Arnold are both members of the Athenaeum. That’s explicitly stated in their diaries, whenever they meet at “The Club”. Permanent Secretaries have long been found there.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@IanDunt I strongly disagree. It is where government has been at its most corrupt. And gov defeats have been down to historical accident more than anything else - not least as in its current form, the Lords are a creature of prime ministerial patronage. The gov can give itself a majority.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

@danielmgmoylan @pimlicat @BorisJohnson Perhaps it comes from being an historian, but I remember a time when peers of the realm conducted themselves with at least a semblance of dignity.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

60 years ago last week, John Profumo quit as an MP, accepting that he misled the House of Commons; & taking responsibility for having misled the House, whatever his original intentions. He dedicated the rest of his life to fighting poverty. Makes quite a contrast, doesn’t it?

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

7 months

“The past is another country.” What would mid-19th-to-mid-20th century British Prime Ministers have looked like in colour? I’ve been experimenting with the AI photo colourisation app to find out… [THREAD]

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 months

It's easy to underestimate the reach of London's Clubland. This map, from 1910, isn't exhaustive; but it gives some sense of what was there (and spread much further afield). In the below thread, I'm adding photos of the surviving ex-club🏛️ from a different street each day.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 months

THREAD: The lost clubhouses of London. We often don't realise just how many private members' clubs London has - I count 130+ today, and 600+ historic ones. And we walk past ex-clubhouses all the time, i.e. the🇨🇦High Commission on Trafalgar Square was the Union Club (1824-1924).

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@richardmarcj If you prefer "casino" politics, with Labour out of office 2/3 the time, with 13-18-year stretches of Tory gov, holding out for a Lab jackpot one day, this is the way to go. The UK's been here before, in the 1980s. Compared to the 1990s, when Opposition parties worked together.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

5. A prudent House of Commons would have said to the government, "Come back to us with a viable stance, and we'll vote to trigger once we're convinced it could fly." But 498 MPs voted for unicorns, and pink elephants.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@PoliticsMoments It is reassuring to know that his resignation letter was of unimpeachable integrity, in explaining that he was purely motivated by recent events of the last few weeks.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 months

(Incidentally, for those of you asking about the source of the list excerpt - it’s from the manuscript of my new book on London Clubland, due out in May 2025; details to be announced shortly!)

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

The Cabinet Office, which processed a £52,800 payment covered by an illegally-undeclared Conservative Party donation, wishes you a happy Anti-Corruption Day. h/t @Direthoughts

@cabinetofficeuk

Cabinet Office

@cabinetofficeuk

3 years

On anti-corruption day and everyday, we, as partners and allies, want to empower individuals to stand up against corruption and promote transparency. Democracy enables us to hold each other to account, at home and abroad. #IACD2021 #DemocracyAllies

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 years

@LloydLlewJ Why do you feel the need to tear down a highly respected scholar over, of all things, their book cover? It’s a little bit sad, and suggests both insecurity and inflated ego. A curious mix…

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

On #JamesBondDay , the 60th anniversary of Dr No, I'll be starting another of my "Clubs in film" threads, looking at how clubs have been an essential part of the James Bond films. Lest you think this is tangential, Dr No literally starts with 3 assassins turning up at a club...

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

2 years

@AdamBienkov Who would have thought that Kenneth Connor and Hugh Paddick would have enjoyed a 21st century resurgence in popularity as an enduring meme?

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

In 3 weeks, MPs will consider the Privileges Committee report on Johnson misleading Parliament. Johnson claims he misled MPs by accident, after receiving a “purported assurance” from his press chief Jack Doyle. He just gave Doyle a CBE.

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The partygate inquiry: The key questions facing Boris Johnson

The Commons Privileges Committee has set out the issues it intends to address when it questions the former prime minister.

www.expressandstar.com

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

In the TV series, the exact identity of the clubs is left ambiguous. The explicit naming of the Athenaeum and Reform didn't happen until the publication of volume 1 of the book version of Yes, Prime Minister in 1986 (and is repeated in volume 2).

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 months

Who still supports the government's Rwanda Bill? One person who apparently does is Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge, better known as Charlotte Owen, the obscure 29-year-old special adviser whom Boris Johnson ennobled in his Resignation Honours, for reasons no-one can yet fathom.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

9 months

The Conservatives (quite rightly) demanded that the Lib Dems repay their £2.4 million in donations from convicted & jailed fraudster Michael Brown. Will the Tories now repay their £2 million in donations from convicted & jailed money-launderers & fraudsters Lycamobile?

@HeidilBlake

Heidi Blake

9 months

8/8 The Tories quietly stopped taking fresh donations from Lycamobile in 2016, but by then the party had already accepted more than £2m. Now that the company has been found guilty of money laundering, what will happen to those funds @CCHQPress ?

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

It’s further complicated by a couple of instance of Sir Humphrey meeting his great rival, Sir Frank Gordon of HM Treasury, for lunch at the Reform Club. But the clear inference is that Sir Frank is hosting both of these lunches at the Reform, where he is a member.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

If Indiana Jones has taught us anything, it's to not have any particular reverence for 'X'.

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 years

@IanDunt @harrold_lucy I still remember a 50th anniversary Beano & Dandy book I had as a child, with a full-page endorsement from John Cleese, back when he was still funny: "For me, the Dandy and the Beano are the only trustworthy journals in the United Kingdom."

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

Theory: the reason so many🔵MPs worry about private banking is a worry about their £££ in opposition. 99% of people don't have a bank offering them brokerage, discretionary investment management, tax advice, bills paid & home visits. Private banking: not a right, a privilege.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

29 days

@trussliz Shouldn’t you have said this in person, in the concession speech you ducked out of making, at your election count 35 hours ago, rather than on Twitter 4 minutes ago?

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

3 months

Vienna, 2022. Film buffs may recognise the doorway where Orson Welles made his entrance in ‘The Third Man’…

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

4 months

It shouldn’t be lost on NATO that after Slovakia’s election, 4 of the 7 states bordering Ukraine are now led by governments that don’t wish them well. Expect Putin to try further meddling in Romania, further completing the encirclement (and endangering Moldova & Transnistria).

@JayinKyiv

Jay in Kyiv

4 months

With Putin today adding Slovakia to his collection, let's review his progress in paralyzing Europe to his global terror binge. Remember, like we've seen with US congress, Putin doesn't need to control EVERYONE, just enough to paralyze. He's now planning to do it with Europe.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

1 year

@Direthoughts Surely he'd never repeat a mistake? No, wait...

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Boris ‘ignored perm sec’s warning’ on resuming columnist role

Standards watchdog raps former foreign secretary for breach of Ministerial Code

www.civilserviceworld.com

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

6 years

@drphilhammond All bafflingly hypocritical, given that @BBCSouthNews didn't sack Richard Drax, and kept him on as a journalist, when he was a PPC! And his reporting during this time was rather good, I thought...

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@SAThevoz

Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

5 years

@darrengrimes_ No, but you do spend a lot more time wining and dining in London's elite private members' clubs than I do. Which, given what I do professionally (as an historian of clubs), is really quite extraordinary. So please do spare us the "man of the people" act.

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Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦

11 months

An audience with @CountBinface . He's very polite.

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