NEW: this is how the US press would report on this if it was happening in a ‘shithole country’. It’s an execution. But it also reveals how weak Trump really is open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Once again, people, this is what you get if you do peer reviewing double-blind. However, it is utterly ridiculous that the editors communicated this feedback to the author.

“We have embedded a notorious US military surveillance company whose founder is a close ally of President Trump into the heart of our military at a moment in which the US is threatening to invade our NATO ally, Greenland.” – @carolecadwalla.bsky.social on Palantir https://bit.ly/4sHG9al

Re: the AI slop paper shared by @thomaspellard.bsky.social and @lameensouag.bsky.social, I wrote to the editors — will update when I get a reply, and will be following closely what they do. Key point is that we should hold the *journal* accountable for this mess I have a few predictions... 1/n

NEW: A mass propaganda event is about to engulf the US news cycle and what, if anything, survives it will be a lesson for our times. But it’s what the rest of the world does now that’s key. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-threat...

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... ICYMI write about why trying to reduce immigration actually exacerbates the problems it claims to cure. Sometimes the electorate doesn't know what it wants!

What really strikes me is their utter inability to see how this sort of language is not just morally wrong, but very clearly helps their opponents.

رحمهما الله

i restarted and my paper is exactly the same 😭

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

learning any Arabic, Ge'ez, Modern South Arabian word:

under communism we’d all be called dr

“to use children as a weapon, as the home secretary is doing, is I think a shabby thing. I’m lost for words, frankly” Lord Dubs www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour...

"Starmer, Mahmood, and McSweeney are testing to destruction the idea that stealing the far right's clothes will win the far right votes. They are about to be disappointed."

Late to this, but if the Sunday Times is correct that Morgan McSweeney spent one and a half hours last week with Lord Glasman then he isn't fit to fill any senior position in government.

Word! · Buchanan Street Bus Station. A warning and an invite. Spotter: James Stewart

The golden age of diversity and democracy in Oz.

This new proposed UK refugee policy (turfing refugees out after a few years) is bollocks on several levels and I will explain each of them.

Le Monde commissioned then rejected this piece from Sari Hanafi despite the fact it argues armed struggle against a nuclear power is an impossible battle and that politics and political imagination are needed to enable Israelis and Palestinians to live together. Pretty shameful from Le Monde imo

'Nous appelons le Collège de France à revenir sur sa décision et à garantir la tenue de ce colloque dans le respect de la liberté intellectuelle. Nous appelons le ministère à honorer son devoir de protection de la recherche, non à en devenir le censeur' 🤔 Römer et Baptiste doivent surtout se barrer

The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think. New piece from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

Very interesting piece, including the extract below which has the ring of truth

The government has shut down refugee family reunion — turning in effect a “temporary pause” into a permanent ban. Cruel. Heartless. Inhumane. 🧵 reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs...

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

From a Songhay cultural group on Facebook: "Today, Friday, let us put our siblings who are in Sudan, and all the land of Sudan - especially Al Fashir, in Darfur - in our prayers: may God hold their hand in the situation they are in..."

So apparently some idiot decided that what Wikipedia really needed more of was Nazi-positive LLM output. Had a look... "Dholuo" - copied from WP. "Dellys" - doesn't exist (!) "Al-Busiri" - copied from WP, with two paragraphs added. "Siwi language" - _not_ copied from WP, and a big mess...

- I'm going to analyse the Welsh by-election result - Caerphilly? - Nah, I'll probably just fire off some hot-takes

If you are confident that a boat near Venezuela is carrying drugs, you stop it and board it. That way, you have evidence. If you don't really care if a boat near Venezuela is carrying drugs, but you just want to kill people, you blow the boat up. That way, the irrelevant evidence is gone.

🔥 @mehdirhasan.bsky.social : “The great irony is Trump is the son of an immigrant, grandson of an immigrant, married to an immigrant… in fact, 2 of his 3 wives were immigrants— proving yet again immigrants will do the jobs even Americans aren’t willing to do.” 😬🙃

AI 🤝 fascism

me and who

I love how, when you ask ChatGPT a hard question and it says "thinking", there's a button you can press "skip this step". I guess that's how some human brains work too....

They've lost the 9yos

“Turn the next election into a choice between Labour and Reform and rely on everyone voting Labour to block Reform” is a bad tactic to start with. But it’s a *terrible* tactic when you do absolutely nothing to oppose Reform while in government.

Do it. Search your name. Take their money. It’s yours anyway.

This is an amazing piece of journalism. Between them, they managed to interview not only the family of the victims of a war crime, but also the specific sniper who murdered them. (It would be nice to think that that might lead to real-world consequences.)

New post: Key myths on asylum, immigration and how to take on the far right mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/09/key-... Few issues are so contaminated by disinformation as immigration/asylum. While some have motives to push these myths, the government has its own myths that stop it explaining facts.

Excellent/thought-provoking by @polphilpod.bsky.social on the "What did you say to make him hit you" approach on the part of many so-called "centrists"/moderates in UK media/politics to the resurgence of bigotry/racism (Marr in NS today a great example!) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/709...

Back when I was a teenager in England, flying flags on your house was generally understood to be something real English people Do Not Do, for fear of being mistaken for Americans or chavs. It would be as weird as knowing all the words to the national anthem.

Strike action undermines the trade union movement.... Says Wes Streeting, writing in a Murdoch paper while asking people to become scabs.

In which I get both furious and very worried about google's AI putting incendiary falsehoods about evicting council tenants to house asylum seekers at the top of the search results. This is dangerous stuff (albeit unintended, though that might be worse). nearlylegal.co.uk/2025/07/arti...

(2/2) @rentouljohn.bsky.social claims, falsely, that when the PM's spoke of the "incalculable damage" done by immigration he was talking about "trust in politics". This is BS. The next 2 sentences refer to public services and the economy. You can read it here. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Via @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social on insta, the most accurate use of this meme ever

New post from me about the elections of the last week, where the 'peak populism' hypothesis stands, and what lessons the Labour Party should be drawing. 1/n benansell.substack.com/p/labour-is-...

The Worker’s May-Pole, Walter Crane, 1894.

From Shakespeare to Wembley, queueing to Sunday roasts—being English means many things. But at its heart, it’s about standing up for what we believe in: democracy, fairness, decency and respect. This St George’s Day, let’s celebrate all it means to be English.

David Edgar and I on Blue Labour's journey into the arms of Trump. All part of The Great Moving Right Show. @willjennings.bsky.social @sundersays.bsky.social @quinnslobodian.com @jdportes.bsky.social @lewisgoodall.com @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/04/01/b...