The true poison of #Brexit is that it has left all politicians convinced that the majority of voters in England are incorrigible xenophobes, to be permanently feared or mobilised at will, depending on your position.

Back up to #1 in the @irishtimes.com today! This dream can go on forever as far as I’m concerned…

This is so appallingly true. Two and a half years ago, my entire department at Oxford Brookes University was summoned at virtually zero notice and informed of redundancies come. The fact that we were the highest-rated research dept in the university was raised - and the administrator just shrugged.

#Burnham = King of the North, offering a desperate last stand in the tribal heartland to the Party of the English North, now totally without “Celtic” allies for the first time since Gladstone’s day. Which also means he = @uklabour.bsky.social abandoning all hope of winning next GE in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Looks like #WesStreeting has been reading the Shortest History of Ireland😀

What lessons does the history of Ireland have for the future of the UK? Check out this brilliant analysis covering 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇮🇪 by best selling historian @jameshawes.bsky.social with @goldbergradio.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social 🎧 pod.fo/e/412e45 📺 youtu.be/wt5HwHNZA-I?...

Brilliant new episode with @jameshawes.bsky.social - author of 'The Shortest History Of Ireland...' He say England needs to rethink its relationship with Ireland, Scotland & Wales @goldbergradio.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/7BFP... 📺 youtu.be/wt5HwHNZA-I?...

This country will not succeed with the current Brexit deal - it’s time to rip up the red lines, renegotiate and put our national interests first. Join the @labour4europe.bsky.social to back this call and find out how you can help our campaign.

#Essex was in the 2000s the only place in England where both UKIP and the BNP (otherwise very much split south/north) were strong. So no surprise there.

I get a lot of AI slop book marketing emails, but this is the first time I have ever been . . . mistaken for Jane Austen.

The technical terms are “a Ponzi scheme” or “snake oil”, both of which target credulous suckers.

Not sure about this! I was a romantically history-loving teen in Bridgnorth in the 1970s/80s: delighted in the old half-timbered market hall, the town gate at the end of this street, the ruined Castle etc… - but this?

📌 ICYMI — Britain’s Solar Revolution Is Here and We Should Be Shouting It From the Rooftops Ed Miliband is helping to turn the country into a nation of 'solar zealots' and Josiah Mortimer is enthusiastically along for the ride

Time to remind ourselves that the secret narrative of #Brexit (from inception in the early 1990s) was always the Atlanticist “Empire 2.0” fantasy that the UK had an umbilically bilateral tie to the USA - which was being cut by the dreaded EU. So much for the special relationship.

Siri: define literary fiction.

Third week in a row at no.1 in Ireland (and by a mile) James Hawes's The Shortest History of Ireland. ‘Deeply impressive' IRISH TIMES 'A thrilling ride... wonderful, never less than remakable' IRISH INDEPENDENT @jameshawes.bsky.social @irishtimes.com @independent.ie

Unbelievable but true. Third successive weekend at no.1 in #Ireland!

BREAKING: We’re taking the government to court over Palantir. The government is refusing to hand over important briefings given to Wes Streeting about the £330m NHS data contract with Peter Thiel’s surveillance firm So we’re taking legal action. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-w...

On the limits of trying to unpick Brexit by stealth www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What do these companies have in common? -Block -Citigroup -Coinbase -CVS -Dominion Energy -Disney -Halliburton -Hasbro -HP -Kohl's -Live Nation -Palantir -Paypal -PG&E -Southwest Airlines -Tesla -United Airlines They all paid a lower effective income tax rate than you: zero.

The central motto for today’s international politics: Follow the oil money

What he said.

As Hungary votes, would recommend this piece about how Viktor Orban has used public money to bankroll an international ultraconservative network - including Roger Scruton cafes and €10k a month for failed Reform candidate Matt Goodwin democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

Go #Hungary!

Very weekend-making! @irishtimes.com today…

Nurse! Oh fffs NURSE!!! NURSE!!!

“We in Europe”

This is quite fascinating, especially about Epstein’s Russian links and the details that the UK as well as the US has yet to confront

“This is a trans-national effort, funded by Russian oil, to replace Western liberalism with a pro-Russian ideology... Orbán is not just the puppet that gives this packaged ideology a European face... he oversees the money laundering vehicles to fund the larger network” emptywheel.net/2026/04/07/p...

Everything is now essentially Long Seventeenth Century but somehow a worse version of it ... #earlymodern #skystorians

Wer sich jetzt über das Ausmaß der ausfallenden & teil wirren Postings aus dem Weißen Haus wundert, hätte im Wahlkampf seine Auftritte, Postings & Reden genauer studieren sollen. Keine Ausschnitte oder Zitate, sondern den Originalcontent. Dieses Verhalten war absehbar.

“A street car passenger requires an average of only six square feet of street space; an automobile passenger requires eight times as much.”

"Brexit, Hilary Mantel and England’s endless lies" Holiday read from me on why one of England’s greatest novelists turned against her country

Good morning from #Ireland!

It‘s a wonderful book and I hope to God everyone in a position of power in this country reads it.

Well the banner is up. Nothing more nerve-wrecking than to send your manuscript to people you respect & wait for their opinion. V.grateful to @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social @ciaranm.bsky.social @gavinesler.bsky.social and especially the generous @jameshawes.bsky.social for supporting my book.

In the UK press at last! www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-hawes-...

The tactical-voting result will be spectacular.

This is an extraordinary front page for a British newspaper to run. Donald Trump’s delinquency, derangement & imperilling of international security is somehow a stick with which to beat our own Prime Minister, who has negotiated the current horror show rather well. It is actually sickening.

So the goal is to travel back in time and prevent Trump from tearing up the JCPOA that Obama worked out that already delivered all these things? Super. Good luck with that, Petey.

One of my most exasperating moments of canvassing was a guy, in a Victorian terrace, say the biggest issue for him was parking, and then "You see, we have four cars in this house".

Never forget who is really winning this war. https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-big-oil

This AI slop is still being pumped out by these fake accounts and nothing is being done by Meta, etc. And now they are attracting comments calling for the UK energy minister to be "killed".

“TACO is Wacko!” Piece from me attacking the’ comforting conservative belief that Trump is a rational actor who can be relied on to see sense in the end

Again, the allegation here has to be left unsaid because the moment you spell it out it makes no sense – to affect the result here the claim needs to be that Gorton and Denton was full of Muslim women who wanted to vote Reform, but were coerced by their husbands into voting Green instead.

Today: #2 in @irishtimes.com & #7 in @thetimes.com - third week in the top 10 - but still not a single word, never mind a review, in any UK print media (despite the fact that I’ve written articles and reviews for practically all of them!). What do you have to do to get a review?

There is an imagined working class, that largely no longer exists and a modern working class that the political class rarely interact with outside of service provision.

Ever wonder how some billionaires can get away with paying such low tax rates compared to working class Americans? Here’s their secret playbook — and what we can do about it.

I have never bought a remotely newish car before. Today, I bought a modest, 7-year old one from a main dealer. As I left them and turned into the street, I heard a hideous noise and had to pull over with the emergency flashers on…