Italy has been the “Silicon Valley of populism” since the 1990s—from Berlusconi to Meloni. So Giuliano da Empoli had a headstart in understanding how predator politics works:

I wrote a little, vaguely festive something on why Top of the Pops was perfect Christmas viewing, but also why it can't be resurrected: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/musi...

Control over copyright, and compensation for their work, is all the security musicians have, and retaining that control is hardly an unreasonable ask, writes @musicclerk.bsky.social.

Speaking to Prospect’s @petermwilliams.bsky.social, Giuliano da Empoli warns that, in the age of AI, we’re like Aztec scribes recording the conquistadors… an old order encountering in a superior power it doesn’t understand:

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Giuliano da Empoli about his new book, The Hour of the Predator, for the latest issue of Prospect - discussing power in the 21st century, the digital failed state, Giorgia Meloni, JG Ballard and much more: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7184...

New Prospect out now! A brilliant winter double issue—bumper, one might even say. Highlights include @arusbridger.bsky.social , in his last issue as editor, on Haaretz, Lucy Jones on tardigrades, @katemaltby.bsky.social on Marlowe, and Stuart McGurk on Morgan McSweeney bsky.app/profile/pros...

Hats off to @arusbridger.bsky.social as his final issue of @prospectmagazine.co.uk goes off to press Under him, the mag had a far-sighted focus on the feedbacks between new media, culture & a darkening politics Witness this pair of covers waking readers up early to GB News & Reform

Trump’s pooping fighter jet video conjures, as Freud put it, the opposite of civilisation: a fantasy of excretion without consequence, of the unfiltered id released from every restrain, writes Sasha Mudd.

Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic candidate for New York mayor on a wave of enthusiasm for his left populist agenda. Atul Dev asks: why is the party’s establishment trying to stop him? www.prospectmagazine...

“Description is revelation!” Oliver Soden reviews THE POEMS OF SEAMUS HEANEY, a vast new collection revealing a poet who got blood and mud under his fingernails.

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

In Jeremy Corbyn’s day, Labour conference was practically a lobbyist-free zone. “There was no point in going,” a veteran consultant told @petergeoghegan.bsky.social. But that has changed...

A provocative & unsparing look at the difficulties of confronting national-chauvinism around the world by Ivan Krastev www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lib...

A new ITV drama on the phone-hacking scandal, featuring @arusbridger.bsky.social played by Toby Jones, shows us journalism at its worst, but also how reporting can make real change.

In less jest - yes, it's good if universities can help students develop skills for the labour market. However, the pointless venom of the current government about one of the few world class sectors in the British economy is tiring, enervating and just plain sad. Get a grip lads.

NEW Has the government overreached in using terrorism law against Palestine Action? A disclosed MI5 document indicates that the basis for proscription may be weak By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

"Our country was founded upon the admirable principles of a moneyed elite spoon-feeding its beliefs to the ignorant and unwashed masses, and yet today that legacy stands in tatters....For too long, we have watched the God-given right to suppress free speech slip away."

@arusbridger.bsky.social will step down as Prospect's editor at the end of 2025. Our print & digital circulation grew 30% last year & he’s transformed Prospect into a flourishing multi-media company. Excited that acclaimed journalist Philip Collins will be our new editor.

Reupping this by @petergeoghegan.bsky.social in honour of Trump's visit www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/684...

The latest issue of Prospect is out today. A month’s worth of absorbing reads. Plus - to celebrate the magazine’s 30th birthday - we’re lifting the paywall for a couple of days. Feast yourself !

New Prospect out now! With Zack Polanski the new Green leader @benansell.bsky.social asks is left populism the answe? Plus @rostaylor.bsky.social on the private school question, David Edgar on the far right's antisemitic ur-conspiracy, and @susiedent.com on the trouble with Scrabble

Clear pattern emerging: impact of new taxes on private schools, non-doms and large farms is far smaller than typically suggested. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“I think [@alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and @rory-stewart.bsky.social] had maybe drunk their own Kool-Aid a little bit.” @theresthistory.bsky.social’s Dominic Sandbrook on Donald Trump’s election. www.prospectmagazine...

New hotel EXPOSED! 😡 🦁 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Graham Thorpe, who would have been 56 today, is being remembered at the Oval, in support of Mind. I wrote on why the England batter meant so much to many of us and how he helped generations of cricketers to speak honestly about their mental health: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/7074...

Henley & Partners’ wealth migration reports have been reported all over the world, both to prove both that there's a massive exodus of wealth from the UK and that there isn't. Our forensic review finds the data riddled with anomalies - and in key places looks fabricated:

also, "it remains to be seen". any final sentence or paragraph containing that heap of nothing should be deleted whole.

We asked former Labour minister David Blunkett and Big Brother Watch’s @rebeccajvincent.bsky.social whether digital IDs could modernise government—or condemn us to intolerable state surveillance. www.prospectmagazine...

As reports emerge that Ofwat, the water regulator in England and Wales, will be abolished, @oliverbullough.bsky.social investigates how privatisation left us with filthy rivers, soaring bills and broken infrastructure www.prospectmagazine...

The UK’s filthy rivers are a national scandal and our water infrastructure is broken. Privatisation has failed, but why? @oliverbullough.bsky.social tells the sorry tale. www.prospectmagazine...

Prospect summer double out now! As per journalistic law, a double issue means a bumper issue. Highlights include @oliverbullough.bsky.social on the state of our water, @isabelh.bsky.social on the Dalai Lama, @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social on Matthew Goodwin plus Mark Gatiss, Brian Cox, and loads more

As he approaches reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader has set up a fight with Beijing that will endure beyond death, writes Isabel Hilton. www.prospectmagazine...

Geezer and I on our way to the stage 🎸 Photo by Mark Weiss, ca. 1970s

New Prospect out now! Highlights include Daron Acemoglu and Peter Hoskin on AI, Neil Kinnock on Labour's "paralytic caution", @aloner.bsky.social's extraordinary encounter with the deputy mayor of Jerusalem; and our new columnist @benansell.bsky.social on the state of the Rejoin movement

Looking at private school pupil numbers in the ISC census and they've fallen back to where they were in..... 2022. Not exactly the disaster many predicted....

What to Look For in Spring, with Kemi Badenoch

Long accustomed to moral and cultural ascendancy, liberalism must now defend itself against Trumpian values of hierarchy, dominance and submission to authority, writes Sasha Mudd. www.prospectmagazine...

‘It makes no sense for the government to subcontract its entire economic agenda to almost-certainly-wrong predictions by an external body.’ John Lanchester on the problem with the government’s overreliance on the OBR: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

In case you were looking for something different to get annoyed about, @timsmedley.bsky.social on water companies, sewage, executive pay etc

Huge thanks to @danigaravelli.bsky.social for her brilliant piece in @lrb.co.uk this was Alasdair’s favourite literary magazine to read so feels very special for the archive to be featured in it, link in bio to read the piece in full👆🏽

There are checks and balances to stop much of what Trump is doing. They are simply not being used by a compliant Congress, writes @davidallengreen.bsky.social. www.prospectmagazine...

Trump’s abrupt firing of the two more senior officials in the National Security Agency – perhaps at the behest of Laura Loomer? – puts further strains on the Five Eyes alliance. But without it, everyone involved – including the US – is running blind. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/united...

New Prospect out now! Highlights include @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the men funding Reform, @rostaylor.bsky.social on how Britain's universities were pushed towards penury, @emmahaslett.bsky.social on Maga pronatalism, and @stephencollins.bsky.social on Kemi Badenoch's unique leadership style

Libraries are essential for many communities. But funding for them is constantly being reduced, and we are losing these places of knowledge.

"If America can threaten Greenland and Denmark—and Canada and Panama and Mexico—there is no inherent reason why it cannot also threaten us. Plucky independence ultimately means nothing to bullies who want to take things from you," writes DAT Green www.prospectmagazine...

"We don’t need rigid, arbitrary rules to determine acceptable levels of spending—real-world rules are already baked into the economy" Reupping @samfr.bsky.social's piece for @prospectmagazine.co.uk on fiscal rules after the Spring Statement www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lab...

If there is one chart that damns our fiscal establishment it is this. During a period of historically low interest rates we utterly failed to lock them in when issuing our national debt.

Desperate stuff from US government, a last resort so as to escape from their own legal incompetence.

Growing differences in the way we eat reflect the polarisation of society, writes Julian Baggini. www.prospectmagazine...

Disability benefits: soothing words, frightening numbers New column attempting to cut through the spin www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...