Roman Emperors used to call themselves “Pontifex Maximus” meaning High Priest, but literally it means “largest bridge builder”. Can anyone think of a fat politician with delusions of grandeur and an obsession with Latin and with building bridges?
“…one of these displays of madness was Caligula’s demand for the construction of a floating bridge across the Bay of Baiae so that he could ride triumphantly across it” #FatCaligula #BorisJohnson
See? Classics can be useful. :p

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More from @ottocrat

Oct 9, 2018
It's happening. The UK will be permanently disabling a key section of its motorway network at vast cost because David Cameron wanted to settle an internal party fight. Black on white, it's happening, starting next week. ht @odtorson
This means that from next week all traffic heading to the Channel ports and Channel Tunnel will have to exit the M25 through a bottleneck involving traffic lights and a roundabout, whereas at the moment it's seamless motorway. Plus of course extra travel time involved. FML
Reading that closure will be overnight 10pm to 5.30am which would obviously not be as serious. Hope that’s true. kentlive.news/news/kent-news…
Read 5 tweets
Sep 28, 2018
Wilton Park is, er was, the FCO’s prestigious international conference venue. It has, er had, a global reputation for attracting top tier participants to a neutral & discreet environment for sensitive conversations. So you’d think it would be led by someone with those qualities.
Wilton Park invitations used to be like Wonka Golden Tickets. A long weekend in a gorgeous stately home hobnobbing with the finest minds? Yes please! But how can EU players take it seriously now?
Read 4 tweets
Sep 25, 2018
I surprised myself by being literally moved to tears when I saw the video of the standing ovation for Starmer. Dare we hope???
God bless you Labour conference delegates - what an amazing message you sent to the leadership! Thank you so much for doing that. Restored my faith in the party members.
And as an aside: notice how the TV news cameras were too busy focusing on the reaction of fringe Labour Leavers to cotton on to what was happening at first? If that isn't media coverage of Brexit in a nutshell...
Read 4 tweets
Sep 19, 2018
Wow. I can think of at least 10 of the 28 who will look at her as if she's trolling them.
“Come on Manu, you at least must remember what it was like to lose Algeria?”

“Theresa, that was in 1962. I was born in 1977.”
"Andrej, Peter, remember when they split your country in two??"

"Actually, Theresa, 'they' didn't do it, WE did it, we negotiated an amicable separation and remain the best of friends, that's why we call it the Velvet Divorce."
Read 6 tweets
Sep 19, 2018
I mean seriously: THEY ARE THE ONES IN CHARGE AND THEY HAVE *NO PLAN* AND THEIR OWN PARTY IS MIRED IN CONFUSION AND STRIFE, HOW IN THE NAME OF THATCHER CAN THEY BE TRYING TO EMBARRASS ANYONE ELSE? Sorry for the all caps but how can they not be hiding behind the sofas in shame??
- Yeah, hi, Colin the plumber? Yeah, I've paid you to unblock my sink but you're sat there & there's water everywhere & the toilet's backed up and I'm £400 down & nothing's happening

- Yeah but I heard you & your wife arguing over who's emptying the dishwasher so THERE'S THAT
Read 4 tweets
Sep 11, 2018
Given the barking madness we've been hearing today from the ERG about a "world trade deal" here's another reminder of how world trade really works and why the world has moved on from multilateral to bilateral and regional deals. [thread]
The WTO is a safety net (which is currently under serious threat from Trump). It represents a baseline, a foundation upon which more ambitious trade agreements have been built. Ditching those more ambitious deals and falling back to the baseline is not progress, it's regression.
The WTO Uruguay Round (finalised in 1995) was the high water mark in multilateral trade deals. We tried to go further - the Seattle and Doha rounds, remember? - but we couldn't. It was too hard. So global free traders including notably the EU took things up a notch.
Read 6 tweets

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