7:51: 🔗 The Centre Shrinks

lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/february/t

> Centrism in Britain is less a set of principles than a style: a preference for triangulation over truth, ‘responsibility’ over morality, ‘electability’ over leadership. It treats politics as a stress test of optics rather than a contest of values. It confuses the avoidance of conflict with coherence. And it creates a vacuum, an absence of moral clarity, that the far right is delighted to fill.

[...]

> This is the deeper problem with centrism: it wants the prestige of professing values without the cost of acting on them. It’s allergic to taking moral risks. It will cheer international law when it flatters Britain’s self-image, but equivocate when it implicates an ally. Inconsistency is not a minor flaw in an era of authoritarian resurgence. It’s a structural invitation. Fascists thrive on the collapse of shared standards. They feed on the public recognition that rules are selective, that principles are mere branding, that justice is transactional.

11:26: Home is once again ravaged by toddler respiratory bugs. At least there's only one week until half term break

15:21: If you're suddenly following this, it's because I merged my personal account with the (much more active) account I use to generate weekly digest posts on my site, so, hello again!

19:56: 🔗 I got 173 animals on rose.systems/animalist

Surprisingly fun, lots of Easter eggs

19:59: 📖 I surprised myself by getting several days ahead of the reading schedule on The Circle, so I found time to read some Odyssey as well.

21:21: Well, I feel pretty rough today. Mild bug, chronic hiccups (I occasionally get this, and it's painful after a while), and just so tired thanks to snotty toddler. Signing off for the week to sleep all this off (hopefully)