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Your support makes all the difference.1. The plan for the Palace of the Soviets, Petrograd (now St Petersburg), with a vast statue of Lenin on top. Latest nomination for my Top 10 Unbuilt Buildings, from Jack Tindale and Ben Lyons.
Construction started in 1937 but was abandoned when the war came.
2. The final absorption of Paul Staines, anarchist, rebel and troublemaker, into the Establishment came at a posh dinner last night to mark the 10th anniversary of his Guido Fawkes website. It was addressed by Boris Johnson, who said "all politicians end up talking to terrorists" and, in a pre-recorded video, by David Cameron.
That other outpost of conventional thinking, Owen Jones, is taken to task in a fine review of his book, The Establishment, by Michael Ezra. "The Establishment comprises anyone he does not like. Its main activity is to conspire against the working class."
3. Eggcorn update. Alan Robertson thought they were palmphlets because they fitted in the palm of your hand. (I did Top 10 Eggcorns – misheard or misread words – a while ago. My book of miscellaneous lists, Listellany, is out now.)
4. Poll update. Last night's YouGov had a Labour lead of one point: Labour 33%, Conservative 32%, UKIP 16%, Lib Dem 8%, Green 5%.
Daniel Hannan, the Better-Off-Out Conservative Euro-MP, says that with the Conservatives plus UKIP taking nearly 50 per cent of the vote while Ed Miliband becomes prime minister with 33 per cent, "It’s enough to make you weep." The Conservatives should have thought of that when they opposed preferential voting in the 2011 referendum.
There is a separate YouGov poll for the Times's Red Box that Hannan also won't like. It found that, although people say they would vote by 42 to 36 per cent to leave the EU as it is, they would vote by 44 to 36 per cent to stay if Cameron secured only a "modest renegotiation".
If Cameron secured "substantial changes", including British opt-outs to major policy areas, people say they would vote to stay in by 55 to 23 per cent. Stephan Shakespeare of YouGov said:
"Taking those numbers together, my guess is that Britons only need the flimsiest excuse to keep the status quo, whatever their frustrations today."
5. If you haven't seen it, the Derbyshire waterfall blown backwards by high winds is fun (video).
6. And finally, thanks to Adam Kay for this:
"Homophonophobes hate gaze."
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