Honestly very funny to imagine Starmer basically doing "You common cry of curs! ... I banish you! And here remain with your uncertainty". It's definitely a... take. youtu.be/VSqETgMr7O8?...

In 2008, Martine Vik Magnusson was raped and killed and her body dumped in a Gt Portland Street basement. Billionaire's son Farouk Abdulhak, who did it, fled back to Yemen the next morning. Here's Jeffrey Epstein seeking legal advice (from an ex-DPP) on how he could be sheltered from justice.

Matrix Chambers have some questions to answer.

In 2008, Martine Vik Magnusson was raped and killed and her body dumped in a Gt Portland Street basement. Billionaire's son Farouk Abdulhak, who did it, fled back to Yemen the next morning. Here's Jeffrey Epstein seeking legal advice (from an ex-DPP) on how he could be sheltered from justice.

‘Even stranger, as a figure embraced by both the far right and the left, El Cid has also come to stand as an emblem of democracy and pluralism.’ @annadella.bsky.social on a new account of the medieval Spanish mercenary. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Probably unwise for defenders of the government to expatiate on the dangers of 'political impotence'. Probably also somewhat eccentric to consider Kinnock dangerously left-wing.

Yes, and that's good. Parliament isn't the same as a carpet-tiled retail park workspace off the A40. It is an expression of democratic power and sovereignty. I just propose we leave them all in an unrestored Victorian deathtrap until *they* start treating it as such.

Great, mad story. These people really hate journalism. (And can piss money away: it's really hard to find a leaker even with full-ish systems access. Too many moving parts. And the internal inquiry itself motivates even more people to consider leaking against you.)

This isn't quite true imv. There are plenty of people Morgan is happy to let have power: mostly, those who already have it and have held it for a long time. What drives him is keeping the left of the party out of power. It is core to him in a way people still underestimate.

People love little stories, symbols, emblems in which the whole rotten vortex is concentrated. Journalists should have the same eye for them that early modern pamphleteers did. Find something telling and concrete.

The Cranston Inquiry has found that "loss of life was avoidable" in HM Coastguard's response to the mass drowning in Nov 2021,in which 33 people lost their lives. I spoke to a senior coastguard who described 20-hour days, understaffed, overworked. "Intolerable" indeed. share.google/IXhupBVNXx2Z...

You know the Labour Party has entered one of its periodic fits of deep collective stupidity when the idea emerges they should be led by a soldier because Real People (i.e., people who hate the Labour Party) love a soldier, and, er, we need some discipline, or something.

There are (very few) exceptions, but my first thought when reading most substack emails is "this could have used an editor".

"The other iron law of reactionary centrism – beyond the asymmetry that is hiding behind the seeming evenhandedness – is that only the left and liberals really have agency. The right just reacts – everything is always backlash, never a self-generated political project." This is really worth a read:

not only is he the man we all knew he was - including Streeting - the wheedling, slimy, ingratiating tone of the emails has *always* been the core of who he was, from 'intensely relaxed' through to chumming about on Deripaska's yacht to, yes, betraying his country for a paedophile financier.

This presents a nearly irresistible option for a journalistic second mention: 'the Grammy Award-winning spiritual leader'.

It is not enough that Mandelson should resign from Labour. The entire degrading approach he advocated, its noxious embrace of oligarchy and corruption in the name of realism, must be torn out of the political system by its roots.

The much-missed Jeremy Hardy died seven years ago. In addition to his Radio 4 work, he had a column for @redpeppermag.bsky.social - here are some highlights:

in re: Mandelson and gifts to partners, a question ––

There is a pathological degree of past-self disavowal going on here: in the early-mid 2010s, Goodwin privately floated the idea that progressive politics could be furthered by maybe having nice dinner parties between various stripes of progressive opinion, from the liberal centre to Owen Jones.

Dug out this old edit from 2014. Maybe time for a second edition @owenjones.bsky.social?

‘In this collapsed economy, perhaps the only people who continue to earn an income are sellers of dates, halva and candles – because at mourning ceremonies it is customary to distribute dates and halva, and to burn candles, constantly.’ Raha Nik-Andish in Tehran. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

in re: Mandelson and gifts to partners, a question ––

Uncle Karl got it right in 1844: "The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being."

‘Kojève described his book as “very bad”, and he had a point. His take on the Phenomenology is not only misleading but slapdash, dogmatic, frivolous and flamboyant.’ Jonathan Rée on the philosopher Alexandre Kojève: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The regime, worn down by prolonged economic warfare and austerity, has increasingly come to frame its role within the Axis of Resistance in nationalist rather than revolutionary terms.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on Iran’s foreign policy: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

Looking forward to the electorate discovering more widely that Lil' Matt Goodwin is an obnoxious, self-interested, deeply unlikeable prick.

‘The rebels shared Assad’s view that Kurdish demands for federal autonomy were really illegitimate separatism. Now that they control the government, they are in a position to act on that view.’ @tomstevenson.bsky.social on Syria, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

And we're going to round off with a singalong. Don't worry, you all know it... Things! Can never get better! Can never get bettah-ah-ah...

fwiw I think the Labour strategy of saying Reform is stuffed full of Tory failures risks making Reform seem much closer to normal & less dangerous than they are. The relationship of the Conservatives to Reform is the relationship of the incubating body to the chestburster xenomorph.

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

Maybe UK journalists could ask why our government is so keen to get into bed with with this company.

well –––

Just staggered by the complete moral void of not even *pretending* to wait for more information before pivoting to “the opponent of the state deserved it.” It is so insanely depraved. Soulless.

Difficult not to feel that Andy Burnham’s political ambitions have already been skewered by Tacitus: he will be a great future Labour leader so long as he never actually becomes Labour leader.

‘Why are we so surprised at what is going on now? How could a legal argument for “freedom of the seas” come into being to serve the interests of a corporation whose purpose was to bring about the opposite?’ David Wengrow on how we got to our new world order. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

Very good piece, which inter alia suggests again how strong the small biz base for Faragism is. Also: -real journalism! (wheelie bins!) -on a hugely influential medium largely ignored by the press! -actually about London! V glad to subscribe.

There will be a painful gap in my list of ‘Blog Posts of the Year’ next December; RIP Deborah Cameron and ‘language: a feminist guide’, which has appeared every year since 2019. thesphinxblog.com/2026/01/23/a...

I liked the period where the Left of the party - in what can only have been an episode of collective amnesia - assumed the NEC would respond to moral pressure from members, or cede to the party's strategic interests.

‘Politics is a long, slow scramble up the scree slope of history. As the climate crisis deepens, we don’t have time for that, which is one reason it makes sense to be pessimistic. But there is enormous political potential – and hope as well.’ Geoff Mann on end times: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘To see Angelico’s art in situ, and in such abundance, is an extraordinary experience – and one that is not limited to the exhibition.’ Anna McGee views a comprehensive survey of Fran Angelico’s work in Florence. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

In my ears this morning: Caroline Shaw's wonderful, deeply strange cover of ABBA's Lay All Your Love On Me. www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0BI...

He's always madder than one remembers.

Worth saying that the Churchillian fantasy involved Britain at the pivot of three international relationships: Atlanticist, European and Commonwealth. We torched one, another is collapsing in real time, and the third is at best flimsy. It would be good to face reality some time soon.

Enjoyed this critique of governments relying too heavily on MPs as interpreters of public sentiment. Reminds me of a study from the US which found both Democrat and Republican electeds generally believed their constituents to be more conservative than they were. Would it be the same here I wonder?

Fuentes apparently considers himself a Catholic. Not that I imagine he really cares, but the catechism says, 'If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbour, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin.' www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0...

V good piece and wide overview of the protests in Iran and their prehistory from @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Will pay good money for a world leader who reads the *next* bit of Thucydides.