James Butler
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
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Writes & talks
@lrb.co.uk
reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
about 22 hours ago
âThe only real counsel these elections can offer a Labour politician is that ambition has little downside â they donât have much left to lose.â James Butler (
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
) on the local election results, from our next issue.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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James Butler ¡ Labourâs Failure
Despite a few halting steps towards devolving power in Britain, England itself remains a profoundly centralised country...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n09/james-butler/labour-s-failure
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
1 day ago
âSitting governments always say they are punished in local elections, as if it were an excuse. The degree of punishment this time, however, was exceptional, and does not augur well. But does this government not deserve punishment?â
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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James Butler ¡ Labourâs Failure
Despite a few halting steps towards devolving power in Britain, England itself remains a profoundly centralised country...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n09/james-butler/labour-s-failure
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reposted by
James Butler
James Whitaker
2 days ago
Really excellent
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reposted by
James Butler
Jeff Boone
2 days ago
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
@massimofaggioli.bsky.social
@jackhanson.bsky.social
Thanks for this, helped clarify two things for me: 1. re shift from just war to holy war, US culture war has been great training ground: mission seen as divinely sanctioned, want to change real facts on the ground 1/2
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
2 days ago
âStarmer implored voters to âchoose progress over the politics of angerâ. It is a classic Starmer line, all injunction and no argument. Why shouldnât voters be angry? Britain is not working.â
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
on the local elections, from our next issue.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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James Butler ¡ Labourâs Failure
Despite a few halting steps towards devolving power in Britain, England itself remains a profoundly centralised country...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n09/james-butler/labour-s-failure
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reposted by
James Butler
ProfAFinlayson
2 days ago
Howâs it possible to be in office for 24 months & have not one (not one!) single specific proposition for action to offer? And to claim not one (not one!) specific policy or political success? The answer to the question of what went wrong is here.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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These election results donât mean tacking left or right, but delivering for the whole country | Keir Starmer
In the coming days I will be setting out our path to break with the status quo once and for all by building a stronger and fairer UK, says the prime minister, Keir Starmer
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/election-results-left-right-uk-keir-starmer
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reposted by
James Butler
Luke Turner
2 days ago
By far the best analysis of yesterdayâs election results that ive read:
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reposted by
James Butler
James Bridle
2 days ago
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc1j...
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Polling Day: London, 1992
YouTube video by Nick Ball
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc1j9ok4XMg
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Wrote about the elections for the paper (which went to press last night):
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
2 days ago
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Honestly it's crazy and sad to me that Corbyn/YP ended up endorsing portfolio landlord Mehmood Mirza in Newham.
3 days ago
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Surprised and happy at Green advances in Southwark - including lots of impressively close second places. Southwark Labour has many good people but has done some wretched things in office - bungling the Heygate sale inter alia. â¨Manifesting ⨠Neil Coyle losing his seat in 2029.
3 days ago
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I gave up smoking years ago, but election coverage (and general election campaigns) is always the thing that most tests me.
3 days ago
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The Enoch Powell and Oswald Mosley fan standing for Reform in Blackburn has been elected to the council.
3 days ago
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It is, yes, the old See of Canterbury wheeze: one insanely unsuitable candidate, one reasonable candidate. But inflation being what it is, they presented three insanely unsuitable candidates instead.
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4 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
4 days ago
On the podcast: if OrbĂĄn has fallen, will OrbĂĄnism collapse with him? Journalist Dan Nolan and poet and translator George Szirtes join
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
to discuss why Viktor OrbĂĄn was finally voted out and the challenges PĂŠter Magyar faces. Listen here:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
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On Politics: The Fall of OrbĂĄn, the Rise of Magyar
Podcast Episode ¡ The LRB Podcast ¡ 7 May ¡ 1hr 5min
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=1000766567025
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"Look, when I put 'CHANGE' on the front of our manifesto, I really meant it. I just didn't say it would be for the better. Panta rhei. Mundus senescit."
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4 days ago
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Farage donation case is open and shut. He should have declared his financial interests and chose not to. The Commissioner should seek a suspension in sitting (personally, I'd be delighted if it were of sufficient length to trigger a recall petition, though I think he'd win a by-election.)
11 days ago
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I guess they're juicing the numbers a bit but even so, fucking hell.
add a skeleton here at some point
16 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
18 days ago
On the podcast:
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
, Massimo Faggioli, professor in ecclesiology at Trinity College Dublin, and Yale Review associate editor Jack Hanson consider why the conflict between the pope and the American right has escalated so quickly.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
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On Politics: The Pope and the President
Podcast Episode ¡ The LRB Podcast ¡ 23 April ¡ 1hr 2min
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=1000763195180
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When I wrote this I thought it was disgusting that so many Labour functionaries believe themselves entitled to a peerage as a retirement benefit. Now we discover they wanted to give the grim little man an embassy!
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
20 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
Tomas Hirst
21 days ago
Did you display good judgement? No. Ok, but did you at least follow due process? Also no. I mean, would be quite funny if they werenât running the country I live in!
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
23 days ago
âWe start to think that what we do sexually reveals something very profound about us, and maybe more profound and more true than something that weâve committed to intellectually.â
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
on men looking at men across history, on the podcast.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
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Men Looking at Men
Podcast Episode ¡ The LRB Podcast ¡ 15 April ¡ 1hr 7min
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=1000761463281
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And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
add a skeleton here at some point
24 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
24 days ago
âI donât think itâs been good for historical practice to obsess about identity framed in those kind of linguistic terms.â Tom Crewe and
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
on men looking at men across history, on the podcast. Listen wherever you get podcasts, or here:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
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Men Looking at Men
Podcast Episode ¡ The LRB Podcast ¡ 15 April ¡ 1hr 7min
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=1000761463281
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So much of the Mandelson affair involves people making objectively insane decisions and thinking, well, this surely will not blow up in my face -- despite substantial precedent that, where Mandelson is concerned, it really will definitely blow up in your face.
24 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
25 days ago
âWeâre in a period in which there are these very intense links or affective bonds between men, but the tendency to reduce or to say that that explains away homoerotic material is, I think, implausible.â
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
and Tom Crewe on the podcast.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
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Men Looking at Men
Podcast Episode ¡ The LRB Podcast ¡ 15 April ¡ 1hr 7min
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=1000761463281
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Mandelson: It's hard to see an official sending his principal out to give a press statement that vetting needs to be examined if either he or the principal knew that the vetting had been overruled. Which suggests Starmer can't have known. Which is crazy.
25 days ago
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What man who wages war, asked Erasmus, does not think his cause just? Impossible not to hear the great humanist's contempt, all these centuries later.
25 days ago
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26 days ago
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I should have broken out the ethel merman wig for this episode (which is Very Very Gay)
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26 days ago
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War *is* a 'matter of morality'. All Catholic thought rejects this division. You find its contrary in the traddiest of trad authorities - Pius IX or X - or in Gaudium et Spes, which proclaims (§76) the church's 'true freedom' to 'teach her social doctrine' & 'pass moral judgment'.
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27 days ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
28 days ago
âOur own desire can strike us as alien and predictable by turn, make us seem fools or madmen, even to ourselves. Its hybrid character, our own and not our own, accounts for some of its fascination.â
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
on gay history and its uses.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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James Butler ¡ Am I perhaps in Italy? Cultures of Homosexuality
For all its various forms of sophistication, the ultimate motive of gay history is often a search for people like us,...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/james-butler/am-i-perhaps-in-italy
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I am sorry that G.M. TamĂĄs is not here to see the deserved fall of OrbĂĄn. I hope the incoming government chokes off the vast funding network propping up various petty Lord Haw-Haws across Europe. Exemplary prosecutions for corruption would be salutary well beyond Hungary's borders.
28 days ago
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Now when Donald had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, âJeffrey, come forth!â
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28 days ago
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You can hear the bones humming You can hear the bones humming
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about 1 month ago
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EFF: "To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago."
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about 1 month ago
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My favourite audioguide in Seville, narrated by a Brit, exhorted me to look up and appreciate the "trompay low-ill" ceiling painting. It was in fact so charming that I hope it never changes.
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about 1 month ago
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Today has been improved a lot by the tremendous comical possibility of a Trumpian Antipope. Perhaps Calvin Robinson's true destiny opens itself before us.
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about 1 month ago
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"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
James Butler
Politics Theory Other
about 1 month ago
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop."
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This is real Mad King shit. It is an open declaration of sheer evil.
about 1 month ago
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#barbelith
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about 1 month ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
about 1 month ago
âThis peculiar dance of hiding and revealing, shame and secrecy, colours our post-Christian attitudes to sexuality (even in the reversed injunction to âcome outâ).â James Butler (
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
) on gay history.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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James Butler ¡ Am I perhaps in Italy? Cultures of Homosexuality
For all its various forms of sophistication, the ultimate motive of gay history is often a search for people like us,...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/james-butler/am-i-perhaps-in-italy
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Tenebrae factae sunt: there are worse things you could do with some of today than sit and listen to the Gesualdo Tenebrae responsories. I like this Hilliard recording:
open.spotify.com/album/031Vhx...
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Gesualdo: Tenebrae
https://open.spotify.com/album/031Vhx71seHacFKaHAEm4O?si=DOhILUybTgipOd_LJ7LPbQ
about 1 month ago
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There's no better person to explain the relationship between oil, power and contemporary geopolitics than Helen Thompson. So I was delighted to get her into the studio to explain the stakes of Trump's war - and the energy politics which might characterise the 21st century.
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about 1 month ago
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I don't think any of this read is wrong, and failing on Hormuz would be a genuine humiliation. But US Empire is also about global dollar hegemony - and for all the excitability about settlement of Iranian tolls in Yuan, it's not going anywhere soon. USD has strengthened through the war period.
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about 1 month ago
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
about 1 month ago
âHomophobia is both a moral and historical category error. Score one for Marcel Proust and Lady Gaga: we were born this way.â James Butler (
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
) on gay history and its uses.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
loading . . .
James Butler ¡ Am I perhaps in Italy? Cultures of Homosexuality
For all its various forms of sophistication, the ultimate motive of gay history is often a search for people like us,...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/james-butler/am-i-perhaps-in-italy
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Imv if you can't file 1000 words on a book without robot assistance, either you shouldn't be reviewing books or the book isn't worth reviewing. But, a touch of sympathy: this issue is going to keep happening as money keeps draining out of the field and work time gets more pressed.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
James Butler
Kathleen Commons
about 1 month ago
A little thread on early modern immigration control. Feat. a 'commission for strangers' among other experiments... In 16thC and 17thC common law, subjects had access to both 'legal' protection and 'natural' protection by virtue of birth in the monarch's dominions ("in allegiance").
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reposted by
James Butler
London Review of Books
about 1 month ago
âIf there is any lesson from history, it is that few sexual orthodoxies endure.â James Butler (
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
) on gay history and its uses.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
loading . . .
James Butler ¡ Am I perhaps in Italy? Cultures of Homosexuality
For all its various forms of sophistication, the ultimate motive of gay history is often a search for people like us,...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/james-butler/am-i-perhaps-in-italy
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