When I was a kid during the late Cold War, Birchers were a synonym for total political crazy, the epitome of what the GOP had banished from their party to regain credibility with the mainstream. They were just WAY outside the Overton Window. Now these lunatics are running the US government.

Private equity controls large parts of UK economy & public services. It is opaque, lacks transparency and accountability. PE conceals ownership, uses complex structures, financial engineering: shifts profits offshore, engages in tax abuse Little information Company law is not fit-for-purpose.

I'm not convinced wasting huge sums of public money in order to protect himself / divert from an investigation into his finances would help him much

Ok seen a few of these stories now. It's weird, given how many mid-term changes of PM we have had lately, that people don't remember they don't have shadow cabinets and there are many reasons they literally can't 'appoint' their picks before actually becoming PM. www.ft.com/content/66ad...

So it turns out the "contract" teenagers signed for their student loans wasn't actually a contract at all, the government always had the right to retrospectively change the terms, and at no point was this explained to those taking out the loans... www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

Losing Poland as an ally is not a wise strategy.

"In one chapter [of Cottrell's book] entitled 'The Art of the Bribe', [he] sets out how politicians can be bought....'Long-term relationships keep the bought person in hand while you're making money'". Subtle. www.ft.com/content/7a0f...

10/ And one more thing. I find it somewhat ironic that some of the same people who told us heat pumps don't work now demand we all install heat pumps in the form of air conditioning. Because that is what an air conditioner is: a heat pump running in one direction.

Land Explorer is a superb resource for finding out who owns land in England & Wales. They're on their last day of crowdfunding and well worth supporting. (Plus, one of the gifts on offer is a signed copy of The Lie of the Land, by yours truly!) Chip in here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/land-explo...

Bluesky this morning:

Times Radio was leading on this garbled nonsense. The media keeps finding ways (inc nonsense) to report "immigration still rising" yet serious outlets show little/no interest in the actual news. (Immigration has fallen fast & will fall further in 2026-27 than almost anybody realises or recognises)

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba... Poor old USA team was widely popular before Trump’s intervention-now their defeat is being celebrated. Everything Trump touches turns to 💩

Very much agree. Weve got the highest level of student debt and the lowest levels of government financial support for universities in the OECD.

@jeffjarvis.bsky.social Thanks for helping me with this, Jeff. And for pushing me into blogging a long time ago. pressthink.org/j/rosen-arch...

Labour MP @philbrickellmp.bsky.social: “The sheer breadth of interests Farage has outside of Parliament – in addition to his 16 paid roles on the register of members’ interests – is unprecedented.” This stuff is starting to cut through. bylinetimes.com/2026/07/06/n...

It’s just totally bent. Totally and undeniably.

Suspect where Ireland ends up is with more of a Swiss rather than a Panamanian model of neutrality, which is arguably what it aspired to pre-T.K Whitaker

Important piece. A key challenge for the public debate is going to be seeing the defence issue from a European rather than a British or American perspective. Loud interventions by Westminster think-tanks are unhelpful in that regard.

At its core the EU is a permanent negotiation between members therefore its relations with neighbours must also be. Not sure why UK politics struggles so much to understand this. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Latest subscriber profile is on the CIA Intelligence Community Staff. Might have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one. I suppose it's kind of topical in a 'who tells the President whether he's winning the war' sense. intelligencehistory.substack.com/p/cia-intell...

Scots-Irish Presbyterians, who figure disproportionately at over 10% of soldiers in the Revolutionary War, came to America in large numbers in the mid-18th century, fleeing from second class treatment in Britain and Ireland, where only the Anglican Church was recognized.

parasocial media

In that scenario, he said, Wales might find the “United Kingdom has changed so radically that its component parts” may find “they will be better off elsewhere”. Will UK break up if Farage gets to No 10 political leaders outside England ask www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

the FT in 1984: 'Why coal-miners are leaving mining'

It's striking how many MPs name "ending the two-child benefit cap" as their proudest achievement: something forced on govt by backbenchers. It's a reminder of the benefits of a parliamentary system: that even govts with huge majorities have to listen to their MPs. They should do so more often.

Worth noting (although this article fails to do so) that the Trump administration’s opposition to Miliband is rooted in the fact it does not think anthropogenic climate change is happening and believes fossil fuels are completely unproblematic. www.thetimes.com/article/cc02...

Of course building the West London Orbital to the National Archives is what would really commend him to posterity.

Strongly support this move from my excellent colleague. The reality is that Twitter / X does push misinformation, abuse and racism, and we all know it. While we both support colleagues to make their own choices, Twitter / X is not the country, and there are lots of ways to engage with voters.

Former MI6 officer who helped open back-channel between British Government and IRA dies aged 90 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/former-...

"You see in such a world as this, an idealist – or perhaps it’s only a sentimentalist – must be stoned to death. He makes the others so uncomfortable. He haunts them at their golf…." Ford Madox Ford

British Academy President's statement on the UK's higher education crisis, July 2026.

European teams in the last 16 of the World Cup: 2018: 9 2022: 8 2026: 7

Actually, it was a volunteer archivist at The National Archives, Kew called Michael Scurr who found it, not the "UK" that found it. (with a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers). giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

for better or worse michael harrington referred to his own politics as a "long-distance run" and honestly, it's not wrong

This sort of thing highlights how laughable hollowing out of the state is. Reduce capacity to collect taxes and what happens?

A lot in this. I suppose one issue is that in establishing an oligarchy, aristocratic republicans have to balance risks of empowering a tyrant over themselves or mobilising the democracy. I guess US tech elite are more worried about the latter.

RENEWABLES: They're still wildly popular with the British public, not that you'd realise from news coverage * Only 4% are opposed Even for wind/solar farms in your local area, opposition is very low * 74/68% would either be happy to have a local solar/wind farm, or don't care

Sometimes people are surprised by how statist I sound when talking about UK housing policy given my other political views, but at the end of the day it comes down to having seen this graph. I mean, just look at it.

❗Tomorrow❗ The Irish Language in London/An Ghaeilge i Londain Dr Deirdre Nic Mhathúna @dublincityuni.bsky.social Dr Ríona Nic Congáil @ucddublin.bsky.social Professor Brian Ó Conchubhair @ndirishstudies.bsky.social Dr Eoghan Ahern (chair) 🗓️7pm, 3 July 🧭 @irishculturalcentr.bsky.social

The lesson for Labour is that if you wander into the leopard enclosure waving a big piece of meat and saying “enjoy this lovely food, please don’t eat my face”… The leopards will still eat your face.

🚨 NEW: "Donald Trump ​reported more than $1.4 billion in income from ‌his family’s crypto ventures last year, showing how he now earns most of his income from digital assets ​that have benefited from his policies" Tom Bergin and Koh Gui Qing for @reuters.com

The number of people sleeping rough in London fell 2% in 2025-26, official statistics show, as Sadiq Khan aims to end street homelessness by 2030.

The Trump administration may be a new kind of counterintelligence threat in itself, but it has a way of speedi running the excesses of every past president. Previous attempts at counterintelligence centralisation are one example of that. intelligencehistory.substack.com/p/who-spies-...

one thing i find funny is that the founding generation would likely have been very enthusiastic about, say, muslim immigrants and intensely skeptical of all the catholics

I was thinking that a definition of "great power" in 2026 which includes the UK (but not France) seemed odd and hard to defend. Looked up the author and found that he wrote a few years ago about how the British monarch should be made "king-emperor" of the EU engelsbergideas.com/notebook/cha...

these guys are people and it's an insane situation, I have a lot of sympathy in all directions but that's precisely why processes are so important -- you need people to know in advance what their job will be so they can focus on it rather than asking for volunteers willy-nilly