Some top notch bullshit right here. The degree of media subservience is obscene. So, Cuba is now going to drone Florida?! Give me a break. www.axios.com/2026/05/17/u...

Things I would like a @labouruk.bsky.social Prime Minister to do (a non exhaustive, provisional list, not in order ot importance): 1) Tax the rich, 2) Fund welfare (health, education etc), 3) Undo Brexit, 4) Deny contracts to tech-fascists companies, 5) Take climate change seriously,

Dear @labouruk.bsky.social, the problem from the start has been your decision to behave like a centre-right party. Replacing Starmer with someone like Streeting would not solve the problem at all. it might even make it worse. Regards.

If only there was a Labour government in charge... www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...

If it continues like this, it won’t matter who’s in charge at the next election.

One of the most frustrating things about the current Labour predicament is that, after years of Tory governments, the bar was so low. A modicum of competence, decency, humanity, and communication skills would have likely been enough.

Starmer's leadership

This is brilliant. Give it a listen. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u...

Starmer out, Streeting in?! Idiotic. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

It's infuriating how Starmer has chosen THIS moment to be so aggressive. Throwing down the gauntlet to challengers, demanding THEY push him, rather than him jumping. Where has this fight been against Reform? Far-right, divisive rhetoric? Where has this fight, this gusto been? Instincts all wrong.

Short intervention on SF, utopian method and IR below 👇 'Utopia, dystopia, and method: SF imaginaries of war and political order' Thanks to @tfawatts.bsky.social and Duncan Depledge for the kind invitation to contribute www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Today in ‘This country has lost the plot’ Part 1. One political leader receives a £5 million donation. Media response: silence. Another political leader pays the wrong council tax. Media response: Watergate-style investigative journalism.

Starmer adamant he wants to finish the job of destroying one of the largest majorities ever. With Labour having campaigned on vague promises of change, I was not expecting social democracy. I was also not expecting the embrace of techno-fascists, the cowardice on climate, on taxing the rich.

BBC News this morning: a combo of graphics on Nigel’s “triumph” and Starmer apologists. No view against Starmer. No reference to the dodgy financing of Nigel’s purse. Top marks. No notes.

Please, god, please, not Streeting. We might as well stick with Starmer. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

'In Gaza the systematic devastation of the environment...destroyed the ability of the society to feed itself. Attacks on schools and mosques reduced its capacity to organise and offer mutual care to mitigate the worst effects of scarcity, thus aggravating famine.' www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

And of course, BBC NEWS combines a graphic of the election results with a whole segment on refugees and small boats. Why not further mainstream far right narratives. This country does feel unredeemable some days.

The only thing you should do in the coming day is resign. You’ve offered no vision, no hope, just a continuation of Tory policies and rhetoric. It would also be good if we did not fall into the trap of equating the threat to democracy posed by “the left” and “the right.”

I think the lesson here is very simple: Starmer and his style of technocratic and repressive politics have failed. Labour and, more worryingly, the country are doomed if the stay on the same path.

If he takes responsibility, there would be one honourable thing to do. Especially since he has already demonstrated that he can’t and won’t change course.

A reminder for those at the back in @labouruk.bsky.social. Mainstreaming the rhetoric of far-right parties, parroting the policies of right-wing governments, doing nothing for working people, and being at the same time blasé about party funding is not a good electoral strategy.

‘How else can we interpret US … elites’ chatter about “colonizing Mars” except as an admission that the present course of politics doomed the planet? But the raft of insight is thin indeed, and the seas of delusion stormy.’ @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social in @bostonreview.bsky.social

Every app: ‘Aren’t you excited, we’ve added and AI companion.’ AI companion proceeds to make everything worse. The app: ‘Aren’t you enjoying the AI companion?!’ Everyone: ‘No.’ The app: ‘Due to the higher quality of our services, thanks to our AI companion, we had to increase our prices.’ Repeat.

A bit like Bake Off, it’s French week. I’m reading L’Affaire Ben Barka. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ej7...

People find politicians' speech alienating but it's not because it's overly caveated, precise, and syntactically complex; it's because it's vague, platitudinous pablum that fails to condemn injustice, fails to chart a path towards a brighter future, and is unaccompanied by concrete action.

One aim of the Society on BlueSky is to highlight organisations and opportunities that support historians and the humanities. One to promote is @britishacademy.bsky.social's UK-wide Early Career Researcher Network bit.ly/4f2H3tF which offers training, funding, peer support and events #Skystorians

I deleted Facebook for mobile, so now my BlueSky audience will get my morning walk to work music picks. Enjoy (or sorry). www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6C...

🔊 📖 We've also published some brilliant new book reviews over the past few months! 📖 First we have Kyle Bester with a review of Durán and Loza's "Justice Required," 'a thorough and morally urgent analysis of police shootings'. Read the review here ➡️ doi.org/10.1080/1833...

It’s important to eat your yoghurt in comfort.

I’m shocked.

‘Climate,’ ‘energy crisis’ if only there were real people and idiotic, short-sighted decisions behind these ‘shocks.’ www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Would be great of the UK media did not follow the US ones down the drain. The double standard in treatment between Farage and everyone else is obscene.

If only these tactics, or that method had a name. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Can't save Universities tho

Phew! No mention of the fact that it was a Reform supporter. That's the sort of journalism we need.

This was excellent. Go see it.

Two interesting discoveries today. One, a brilliant @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode on The Empire of AI by @karenhao.bsky.social. Points about the exploitative nature of AI, the AI elite, and the man-made, hence not inevitable nature of the technology. newbooksnetwork.com/empire-of-ai

This would be funnier if Trump knew what happened in 1814.

Pretty sad to see publications and centres that were once relatively mainstream, buy into the Trumpian culture wars zeitgeist and, truly, radicalise.

Fantastic episode here on the Empire of AI.

I'm considering starting the new series 'Let's all laugh at... [insert mainstream media here].' Last week, it was the @telegraph.co.uk comparing @greenparty.org.uk to Karl Marx. Today, it's @cnn.com all of a sudden discovering an interest in democracy.

I’ve been interested for a long time in the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. I’ve covered it in my book and in a @nsarchive.bsky.social EBB with @ajimenezbacardi.bsky.social. Last week, I recorded a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode with Jack Cheevers on his Kennedy’s Coup.

‘“So yes, it’s a reality, and of course I take steps to be safe,” she continues. “But that is the cost of backtalking to the forces of autocracy.”’ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

This was very good. www.jointhewater.com

‘“If we had not got rid of Mossadegh, Iran today would be a good member of the family of nations, a socialist democratic country,” Sichel is captured saying on camera in the documentary.’ www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

Despite all the warnings provided by the authoritarian turn in the US, we are seeing the same dynamics in the UK most of them enabled by either the government (technofascism) or mainstream media outlets (platforming of extremists, from Carlson in The Economist to Reform’s regular slots on the BBC)

Let’s all laugh at @telegraph.co.uk

They spent more than a decade in opposition. They developeed no original policy. They continued cruel and frankly immoral Tory policies. They had the option of taking the moral high ground and exposing years of Tory scandals.

Palantir should not be allowed to have any government contracts at any level because it is fundamentally opposed to the basic concepts of liberal democracy. gizmodo.com/palantir-pos...