Latest in the series of “literally every poll question you can think of shows how dumb and fatally flawed the strategy that the McSweeneyites have pursued is”.

At least 12 WI groups are closing or considering closure after the organisation barred transgender women from membership. Members say more groups are likely to close, and that the federation’s decision has opened up a toxic, traditionalist culture that will deter younger women from joining.

When people ask for a definition of "reactionary centrist" I just point them at any Thomas Chatterton Williams article. The most uncharitable caricature could not compete with his actual writing

This seems half cool, half “we have invented the cursed red shoes from the famous cautionary tale The Red Shoes”

Zahawi’s weird “tired man” story is a comical example of the common habit of conflating “I feel uncomfortable” with “I am in danger.” A lot of prejudiced people can feel uncomfortable for bad reasons!

vividly remember, in the Corbyn Hell Years, seeing people on Twitter quite actively bonding over their joint hatred of me - trying to outdo each other in their meanness - and I just don't think it's possible to explain how weird and unpleasant it is, especially as someone who's....no-one

Lovely Wittgenstein story of just nine words — lower line here

Interesting piece on the racial ambiguity of Bronte’s Heathcliff and how there is no solid answer to be found in the text beyond the fact that he comes from somewhere else and doesn’t fit in www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/m...

It’s over for this country

9/11 truther pivot in 2026 is a bold gambit, especially when based on, er, two passports. Either there’s money in it (how? Why?) or he’s gone cuckoo

Reminds me of a mate who posted Springsteen’s ‘41 shots’ on a friends birthday as they presumed it was a drinking song.

Utterly moronic comment. No wonder Your Party is circling the plughole.

For this weekend’s read, I’ve take a step back from the leadership drama to ask - what would a change actually look like? Many MPs are deeply dissatisfied with the government‘s record. What’s the alternative - and who are the Labour factions who will shape it? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

this is comically evil. brazenly anti-social. just absolute black-pilled nihilism. we will not have a republic, we will not be free, until we regulate these companies to the point where — at a bare minimum — they're too afraid to put stuff like this down on paper. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

I regularly post updates on this story because it's an atrocity on an incomprehensible scale but people don't really talk about it www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Many good points caught here by the estimable @jamesrball.com The judgment was an impressive win for the claimant, but the court was certainly *not* impressed by Palestine Action.

Good, what a waste of everyone's fucking time and money the whole thing has been

I can read about people like John Myatt and David Henty all day long. I recently learned that the man who forged the Hitler Diaries became a celebrity forger after getting out of jail and after he died someone started selling forgeries of his forgeries

a stat i always cite is the number of anti-trans articles in the press went from 60 in a year, to 7,500

The “Where are the protests?” lament after Trump’s inauguration was always based on a (willful) misperception – a myth propagated by a punditry vying for relevance, hellbent on presenting grandiose reckonings and sweeping narratives rather than careful empirical assessments.

Absolutely grotesque (and false) quote from a “senior figure” and I’m sure Shipman loved typing it up

I think ALL THE TIME about people who've never seen the sea. If you grew up in a tiny country like Britain it's difficult to imagine. However poor your family was, you'll have been dragged to a lovably shit seafront before you were 15.

How will the government survive without the strategic genius who wanted to make Bear Grylls the UK's ambassador to Washington?

Just to underscore: Trans people, we aren't "issues". Me, I'm not an "ideology". I'm a human, like anyone else. The only "ideology" here is those bigots who use such rhetoric in their effort to dehumanize trans people — because they want us gone.

I’m in London and today is the publication day, for Nation of Strangers. You can find the book ( in several languages) here www.canongate.co.uk/nationofstra...

Because of this story I can never give signed books to charity and if I buy one which turns out to have an inscription I feel bad for the signatory

Ratcliffe is, quite obviously, factually, morally & intellectually wrong about immigration. But his racist comments will be 'both-sided' everywhere because people who simply don't like seeing non-white faces aren't ashamed to say so anymore.

A bit long but here’s Marx from the 1844 manuscripts providing an exposition of Goethe and Shakespeare on the power of money that all happens to sum up exactly where we are right now. (Reminded of this passage by Epstein’s capture of prominent academics.)

Did our feral political press pack call time on Starmer prematurely? Accusations are flying . markurban.substack.com/p/did-the-lo...

Fantastic piece on the current wave of protest music by @carlzoilus.bsky.social slate.com/culture/2026...

Caught between “I am begging people to glance at the profile of someone making a valid point before showing their whole ass” and “lmao keep digging son”

I saw Arcadia last night and I don't know how Stoppard pulled it off. It's such a madly ambitious play, in terms of structure and density of ideas, that it shouldn't work at all but it does. It's writing at the highest difficulty level. One explanation is that great jokes go a very long way

At one point a media hysteria accused Tavistock risking to be sued by thousands. Reality: …8 complaints ……in 10 years ………for a clinic handling 12,000 users at any time Yup.

MEPs recently voted similarly on the words "burger" and "sausage". Are meat and dairy consumers really being hoodwinked by clearly labelled vegan substitutes? Or is it just powerful lobbies lobbying?

Watching these two politicians trade blows over who hates women less when both of them have catastrophically failed on VAWG in different ways actually make me feel a bit sick

Journalists across the country are thanking Kemi Badenoch for this gift.

Interesting piece which includes in passing the claim from @timbale.bsky.social that political scientists hate the term "Overton window"

Given the Industrial Revolution was largely powered by children working in what we could consider prison camps, policed by oligarchs using private militias, and funded by slave-picked cotton, yeah it would probably be illegal. But that isn’t what is stupid about this article!

this post has a ton of quote tweets claiming american pop culture was actually never influential. bluesky moment.

The absurd Republican tantrum over Bad Bunny illustrates how one-sided so many “culture wars” are. There are no congressional Democrats out there praising BB for sticking it to the anglos. It’s like the Robert Crumb “normal guy” meme

Hello. Former Index On Censorship staffer here. To be very clear, having your request to speak at a society of which you are not a member does not count, in any sense whatsoever, as censorship. nation.cymru/news/uproar-...

It's very hard for some people to accept how unpopular Trump has become on immigration, in part because it means a total reassessment of what the 2024 election really meant.

Fortunately he was convicted for the drugs and firearms offences rather than the booby traps, which sound hilarious www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Dana-nana-nana-nana-GLASMAN! @dorianlynskey.bsky.social describes how Maurice Glasman, the driving force behind Blue Labour thinks of himself as a 'Dark Knight' character. A Labour Batman, if you will. @iandunt.bsky.social won't. Listen to the episode on Blue Labour ➡️ linktr.ee/originstoryp...

Oh not a “slick” video. Very sinister

“A student debating society in Bangor has barred several Reform members. This will lead to petrol bombs” is a moronic take to begin with. But obviously what he means is he hopes it leads to petrol bombs. The threat is implicit and explicit.

The inevitable end of seeing "free speech" as the right to be heard, not a limit on your ability to censor.

The tragic fate of Jimmy Lai 🌎 @katiestallard.bsky.social

Simple solution is to bring back Maurice Hankey. What's he doing these days?