An important message from the radical left : 1) leave Emma Thompson alone, and 2) become a communist.

I think I may have just received my favourite ever response to one of my attempts at a semi-humorous tweet.  This is what I said -

"During the indyref, No campaign star Emma Thompson said she 'felt Scottish'. Now she's 'more European than English'. I'm confused."

And this was the reaction from radical left blogger Rory Scothorne (it came at the end of a long exchange, but it's what he was building up to from the start) -

"OK, point is: nationalism emerges when state-imposed nationality and popular national identity get out of sync; but it fails to resolve the tension, it just imposes a new nationality on people until that one no longer fits either. It never works. And your refusal to tolerate the idea of multiple, overlapping and fluid national identities is symptomatic of that failure. I'd strongly recommend becoming a communist, it will fix these problems."

My reply was : "Your point is complex and a bit bonkers. My point is simpler : Thompson was changing her tune to suit her audience. I'm not entirely convinced your point has anything to do with my point. By the way, I'll consider your suggestion of becoming a communist, although I'm quite attached to democracy for some reason."

With impeccable - if probably unintentional - comic timing, Rory then thanked me for telling him about my "strange ideas", and bade me goodnight.

I have to admit that it's much more fun having debates with proper left-wingers than with an "international socialist" like Duncan Hothersall.  He never momentarily strikes me dumb by going all Marxist-Leninist on me!