‘Normal people can feel themselves going mad.’ I think that might be me - and you - that @hugorifkind.bsky.social is writing about. Addiction to the attention ‘reward mechanisms’ of social media publishing companies is so destructive

What's the low low common denominator between Kanye West and Donald Trump? @hugorifkind.bsky.social in fine form: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

#Radio Strong Message Here @aiannucci.bsky.social Righteous Targets for Violence (with Hugo Rifkind @hugorifkind.bsky.social) Today 09:45 BBC Radio 4 Pentagon prayers, sweary Easter messages and Trump praising Allah - is politics becoming more religious? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I know we've all seen it already. But I honestly think this is the defining moment of our time. Past generations couldn't have believed it would happen. Future generations won't believe it could have happened. But here we are, bang in the moment. Lucky, lucky us.

Me neither.

Bob sounds fun.

I was in Vietnam last summer. People there still talk in horrified astonishment about General Curtis LeMay saying North Vietnam should be bombed "back to the Stone Age" in 1965, even though it's disputed whether he ever actually did. Whereas, in today's Washington...

Why we shouldn't cancel the King's visit to Washington. www.thetimes.com/article/8759...

Why we shouldn't cancel the King's visit to Washington. www.thetimes.com/article/8759...

How To Win An Election... podfollow.com/how-to-win-a...

Sums things up well - from ‘My Week: Donald Trump*’ by @hugorifkind.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/4188...

*THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.* ‘My Week: Donald Trump*’ @hugorifkind.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

On Kemi and the war, and what we can learn from a testy consensus. www.thetimes.com/article/e00b...

It's only Monday but I can already tell that Saturday's column will be another one of those ones where I just literally write down his actual quotes in a long, stupid list and then have to vaguely pretend I made them up.

I hear you're an expert on Kharg Island now, Ted.

Column. On Trump, Hegseth, small dick energy, and moral decline. www.thetimes.com/article/7091...

Our Week: The Cabinet* www.thetimes.com/article/283b...

What a strange and wonderful life I’ve ended up with, in which I get to sit down and shoot the shit with the actual Armando Iannucci. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This sounds like a totally great plan, but only if you suffered some sort of terrible head injury circa 2002 and just woke up. www.thetimes.com/article/7aee...

I get the strong sense that the bulk of media are calling Starmer's position on Iran entirely wrongly right now. I simply don't believe that most people out there are either as hawkish as the Tories or as anti-everything as the Greens. Being conflicted in the middle seems about right to me.

What a memorable start to our 75th JBW! The evening was brimming with everything that has made JBW so special over the past 75 years. Join us for a packed day of events tomorrow - book your last-minute tickets: shorturl.at/6oU2f @hugorifkind.bsky.social @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social

I think this might be becoming the most fascinating political period of my lifetime. There's a lot of Polanski's Greens I don't much like (not that they'd care, and nor should they) but I do think there's an authentic freshness there that Corbyn's lot wanted but could never quite manage.

This is pretty bold stuff from somebody who got 552 more votes than Sir Oink A-Lot.

Bit harsh.

Really good, as ever, to talk to @hugorifkind.bsky.social this morning @listentotimesradio.bsky.social - especially about a subject I think he, I and many people are getting more and more worried about...

I've got that slight sadness with the new series of Industry that you get when a show you love moves into a world you already know. And you start to question whether it was actually being equally lumpen with all that brilliant earlier stuff that seemed so subtly done about worlds you didn't.

"Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just regulating your sexual economy?" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A new London mag from some old London friends. Have a look. Explore.onolla.com

"Keep your side of the road clean." In a world of dolourous news, all you can do is find one small thing - then try to fix it. And so me and the British Society of Magazine Editors are launching this - to find the next generation of writers AND PAY THEM. Screw you, AI. We still believe in writing.

On the one hand, I do reluctantly accept there's probably a role for AI in the future of journalism. But on the other, I am rather wondering why a local newspaper in Manchester thinks I'm a critic for the Daily Telegraph who really likes Katherine Jenkins.

Today's column. On the abyss. www.thetimes.com/article/c7f8...

This one hits hard for the Xennials. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Imagine how undistracting a Labour leadership contest is going to be.

This is mad. They've all gone mad.

People have been obsessed with Morgan McSweeney McSweeney had been a shadowy and mysterious figure at No.10. Listen to @iandunt.bsky.social and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social's episode on Blue Labour - a movement that McSweeney has been linked to. 🎧 linktr.ee/originstoryp...

"Thank you for dialling 999. Which emergency service will you be requiring? Police, Fire, Ambulance, or Podcasts?"

I believe we call this an emergency podcast. pod.fo/e/38b2fb

Weird and almost universal revisionism today. Even at the time, it was pretty clear that Mandelson wasn't appointed *despite* his dodgy links but *because* of them. Trump's Washington is a dirty swamp. Mandelson was deemed a man able to swim in it. This wasn't a secret. Everybody said it out loud.

Um.

Today we talked quite a lot about Peter Mandelson on our podcast that used to feature Peter Mandelson. Full ep here: pod.fo/e/388d04

Weird and almost universal revisionism today. Even at the time, it was pretty clear that Mandelson wasn't appointed *despite* his dodgy links but *because* of them. Trump's Washington is a dirty swamp. Mandelson was deemed a man able to swim in it. This wasn't a secret. Everybody said it out loud.

meant to post it earlier, but this is so good and disturbing by @helenrumbelow.bsky.social on the collective mindset the Epstein files reveal www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

We've lost the great Allan Massie. An absolute giant of Scottish literature and journalism, and an inspirational, kind and generous man, too. I think his son @alexmassie.bsky.social is only sporadically on Bluesky, but he has written a beautiful obituary. alexmassie.substack.com/p/allan-mass...

Away for the weekend. Went for a run. It's like last week's front pages around here.

I know we're all bored with the Tim Robinson "man in a hotdog suit" meme now but I honestly don't know how else we're going to describe Reform's next election campaign.

My Week: Donald Trump* @hugorifkind.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I've done My Week: Donald Trump (again) for tomorrow. My first draft genuinely had a joke about Trump thinking there were penguins in Greenland but I took it out because it seemed too stupid.

I think the White House badly underestimates the strength of the pan-European folk memory of 1930s appeasement, and how deep it still cuts. I suppose this is what happens when you learn in school that WW2 started in 1941 in Hawaii.

My Week: Robert Jenrick* www.thetimes.com/article/40c0...