This piece by my Berlin colleague Alexandra Prokopenko is essential reading on Russia. The Russian economy is in a slow death spiral, bankrupting itself on fuelling the Ukraine war--and yet the leadership is not changing course, as it believes everyone else is also failing.

I’m on for it. Let’s *have* the debate. Let’s reason it out.

Jim Radcliffe pissed me off, so I wrote this about the inconvenient truth of migration. tl:dr - no, just fucking read it. Some basic mathematics - you know, COUNTING THINGS - might make you reconsider, you stupid twats. (I'm not trying to make friends) open.substack.com/pub/russinch...

It makes you wonder whether the whole ‘war on woke’ over the last few years was waged just so that men like Ratcliffe could be disgustingly racist again without any accountability. PM tells Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I visited this cemetery some years ago whilst working in Gaza. It was a place of peace in a troubled area. Sorry to read of this.

View from where I am mediating today.

⬇️

At this point if I was abducted by aliens 👽🛸I would consider it a rescue mission.

Greetings from the hard shoulder of the M40 where I have hit debris in the carriageway, the car is undriveable and the RAC won’t help me because ‘it’s not a mechanical failure’.

View from where I am mediating today.

As I get older and analyse politics in more psychological terms, I see the far right for what it is: the preserve of older men who mourn and resent their loss of useful knowledge and status. They hate the people who've 'replaced' them - the young, women, people of colour - and seek revenge on them.

View from where I am mediating today.

It's not the Monroe Doctrine 2.0, it's the “Gone-Rogue Doctrine.” My column today for @carnegieeurope.bsky.social on Trump's Greenland gambit as performative imperialism, why “sphere of influence” politics doesn’t work any more and Europe's choices. carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...

Quentin on a Teams call this afternoon.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

View from where I am mediating today.

Smugglers often force people to pilot boats, using threats against them or their families. Prosecuting an Afghan 18 year old seeking asylum for this is twisted and shows how Labour is more interested in playing to Reform than ensuring people are provided with safety. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reading Johan Norberg’s ‘Peak Human’ and came across this timely quote from Abraham Lincoln about the self destruction of America.

Evening in Tirol.

The story of Europe’s economic decline while US is 'soaring' is everywhere. But it is wrong. It is a myth. Europe delivers more leisure, longer life expectancy, less inequality than the US. Gabriel Zucman dismantles the myths.

@jasonbraier.bsky.social has kindly drawn my attention to this brilliant speech by Lady Rose about the Nuremberg trials. supremecourt.uk/uploads/spee...

When I was a teenager Pope John Paul II came to lunch in my house.

There are about 16,500 in residential care now - 10% higher than 2020. Most do have more intensive needs but many could be fostered by the right family (for vastly less money). They are clustered in cheaper parts of the country meaning children are often sent far away from their original home.

My holiday reading is this excellent book by @samfr.bsky.social. Of all that I learned from reading it the most horrifying was the fact that we have left children in care to the mercy of private equity owned children’s’ homes where children are placed often far wat from family and friends 1/

Post Christmas excitement. I am first in the queue for the tip on Sat an!

Hey, do you want a doctor or someone to look after your elderly mum? Tough, Farage has destroyed even that bit of your life like he destroys everything he touches.

View from where I am mediating today.

"We're committed to encouraging people to learn the lessons of history". .... "No, not that lesson"

How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

No doubt Reform and the racists will be acknowledging his heritage - won’t they?

Did you happen to leave your @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk purchases on the Metropolitan line yesterday? Did one of your friends do this and send an anguished message to the group chat? If so, Darren has just done you a very good turn. 👇

View from where I am mediating today (yes, a boundary dispute).

Fans of #CurbYourEnthusiasm will recall the episode about the ‘cut off time’. When do you think it is? I get up early and go to bed early so for me it’s 9pm. I say this because I was called 3x last night by one persistent person after 9 which I consider very unsociable.

The reform party nativity scene. No unmarried mothers. No Middle Eastern people. No refugees. No people seeking emergency accommodation. And not a wise fvcking man in sight…

I spent yesterday with my 96yo father who lives in a care home not far from Katie Lam’s constituency. His carers are overwhelmingly from South Asia or Africa who have I hope IRL. They look after him brilliantly. 1/

Ray of hope here.

LAFRA J/R dismissed. Useful LinkedIn post from counsel for govt. Great news for tenants.

I am doing a remote mediation today and someone has brought their 11-month old baby, which is wonderful, but I’m not sure how he’s going to sign the confidentiality agreement…

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.