UnHerd has become a daily reading habit of mine, and I generally respect its content and the people creating it. So at first I didn't know what to make of this column. It might be best to regard it as a joke. Not one that I get, necessarily, and maybe the author doesn't either. But a joke nonetheless.
The part about Biden's nomination being "more accident than design" is certainly hilarious, if you remember how he came up 4th or 5th place in both Iowa and New Hampshire, occasioning a full establishment panic to get him over the top in SC.
2 comments:
As Jer noted after reading the article, if serious, it was written as though the author had read nothing but the news according to The Guardian or the NYT. That may well be the case and Peter Franklin doesn't appear to be the most sophisticated of the many writers who's columns appear regularly on Unherd. Nevertheless, despite the fact he seems to be sold on the idea that Joe Biden really did win the recent US election, he has written a few fairly perceptive articles. This one about why restorations fail is well worth a look.
I enjoy reading Unherd too, one of my favorite articles is one I read a year or so ago about the excellent reasons for Britain to restore its railway lines. In the mid 60s when I enjoyed taking train rides around England, often having a compartment to myself, I had no clue I was witnessing what was essentially the demise of the oldest and most trusted rail service in the world.
I tried allowing for the possibility that it was some kind of send-up, but just couldn't find anything in the text to support it. Maybe just too subtle for me, but I dunno. Nevertheless, I did read and enjoy the piece on why restorations fail, and just didn't connect with the byline. The section on Julian the Apostate is wryly funny. Oops.
I'd heard good things about Britain's railway lines but, as you indicate, this is very much in the past. Trains in general seem to have been neglected for the past fifty years, if not more. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best ways to actually see the country you're traveling through.
Post a Comment