What do you do when you’re an ex-KGB guy running a deeply corrupt, post-Soviet petro-State by stoking the flames of Russian nationalist identity to cement yourself and the country around your rule?

Kirk Bennett at the American Interest: ‘The Failures Of Putin’s Ukraine Strategy:’

‘Besides working sympathetic European leaders, Moscow has also cultivated a motley array of right- and left-wing extremists, people often of diametrically opposed political orientations united only by their hatred of Washington and Brussels. However, even where such groups attract a stable portion of their national electorates and can reasonably aspire to enter governing coalitions, they tend to have only a marginal influence on policy, particularly foreign policy’

Brendan O’Neill at Spiked on the British elections as he sees them: ‘Election 2015:  Social Democracy Is Dead. Don’t Mourn:’

‘This collapse of Labour in Scotland and growth of Labour in London is about so much more than last year’s independence referendum (some are blaming Labour’s decision to align with the Tories in that referendum for its poor showing now) or the fall of the Lib Dems everywhere (which created the space for Labour gains in London). It tells a bigger, longer, more historic story about what is becoming of Labour: it is shifting from being an outlet for the expression of trade unionist and working people’s interests to being a kind of encampment for the chattering classes, a safe space, if you like, for a secular, pseudo-liberal clerisy.’

Check out this tweet:

I keep putting it up, but if you don’t get ‘The Critic Laughs,’ then I’m not sure if I can get you: