The end of the West is not the end of the world. EQUATOR: a new magazine of politics, culture, art. ** If you haven't signed up to our mailing list, do so at equator.org **

trump’s numbers are tanking and there is a palpable desire in the electorate for a real alternative and yet the only money in democratic politics is for doing starmerism

Our new magazine, Equator, is officially out in the world — and here @equatormag.bsky.social Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event in London: equator.org

I think a key UK political science question is how the current government can shoot itself in more feet than it actually has. And for theorists the issue is how to characterise a form of rule in which the government shoots itself in the foot, then puts the foot in its mouth and shoots it again.

Indeed. Far too much worrying about Polanski, about Farage, about the Ipsos' issues index, about individual polling, and not enough on 'how can we deliver election-winning budgets and spending rounds in 2027-8 and 2028-9'.

How it started How it's going

It feels like it ought to be possible for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to avoid giving a running commentary on a music festival.

Oh no not criticizing Israel’s demonstrated practice of apartheid, a practice identified by human-rights groups the New York Times frequently quotes with credibility, or describing Zionists as oppressors just because they oppress Palestinians!

The immediate success of congestion pricing, after the Dem establishment insisted it would discredit the entire party, was a great advertisement for Trying Shit.

"The problem with the polling and all the emphasis on data in contemporary politics is that it does not take into account that the electorate doesn’t really exist until election day, and the politician and his or her campaign are actively creating that electorate."

All a bit feral www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Very unusual to wake up to find good news overnight from the United States. More of this, please, Americans.

Great piece by @will-davies.bsky.social on TikTok, "clustered publics" and their role in far-right resentment. (I've found this shift profoundly challenging to respond to as a journalist. Ignore it and trust what I write reaches readers anyway? Dive in? Something else?) www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

There are New Yorkers who don’t want Zohran to be mayor but there are no New Yorkers who actually want Andrew Cuomo to be mayor, including Andrew Cuomo

I would like to say that I support all sports posters. Your occasional, rapid fire 1-5 word posts that make no sense unless you are watching a game are beautiful to me.

who would the New York Times and Wall Street want in charge of New York's fire department: an upstart young firefighter or a serial arsonist? The answer may surprise you

Interesting essay: fruit machine meets television the best description of TikTok

After months of reporting (and even my own attempt at a jiu jitsu class), my FT Magazine cover story on Mark Zuckerberg’s metamorphosis to red-blooded “Maga Mark” is out! Is this political expediency, a midlife crisis or who Zuck has been all along? on.ft.com/4nsoktx

Having read for research purposes no fewer than four articles by opinion columnists about how dreadful Bluesky is, I think my conclusion is "kind of interesting except I notice that Financial Times and Bloomberg journalists seem to get on fine and have lots of mates here"

Huge implications from this: Microsoft cut off the email of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, because of his work on Israel www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/t...

I rant about this a lot but I can’t for the life of me understand why BBC 6 Music News gives a daily update of how many people crossed the channel in small boats yesterday From a news values perspective alone, it makes no sense

Somehow seems that despite all the big success stories of politics over the last **three decades**, we're averse to concluding "people who appear to believe in something sincerely are popular, being the kind of person perceived as someone who would say anything to get elected is unpopular"

In two important ways Labour empowered Nigel Farage and Faragism this week. Both were strategic mistakes. We’ve seen this story before. New writing from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

We stay winning. We've successfully found the most strategically brain dead idea in UK politics, everyone else can give up and go home.

A brilliant and bizarre story here from @christopherkay.ft.com

Given its mythology in current Labour strategy, you wouldn't think that percentage of people voting BNP in Barking and Dagenham actually went up between 2006 and 2010.

luckily Starmer doesn't have a reputation for breaking promises, or a staff and media outriders who have got into the habit of explaining that the people who voted for him deserved to be lied to

Those group chats aren't going to ironically re-name themseves!

Great piece. The other dumb thing about Uxbridge is that ULEZ is a *fantastic* policy that stops people choking to an early grave. Opposing it for short term electoral reason is close to immoral

Starting to think this guy is not very serious

Excellent piece by @edwardluce.bsky.social ! Thank you Ed for speaking out. www.ft.com/content/bcd3...

Elon out Ange in

what sort of thing did he think was going to happen when he launched this court case?

Here's a small, 15-year-old scoop: I found a 2010 guide on how to beat the far right written by Morgan McSweeney. Since he's now Keir Starmer's chief of staff, I used it to assess what Labour is doing to beat the far right in 2025. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... @lrb.co.uk

Supreme Court rules 6-3 that Teslas are priced to move with $0 down and no payments for 48 months

For the FT Magazine I spent the past year following Aron D'Souza, the man behind the Enhanced Games, a Peter Thiel-backed "steroid Olympics", and his attempt to turn performance enhancing drugs into a culture war issue. www.ft.com/content/8a14...

fascinated by how much discourse on this site is devoted to the hypothetical question of how to treat regretful or recalcitrant trump voters

Been listening to some of the Change For Tottenham podcast appearances, and they are spectacularly incoherent. One minute Levy is bad because he doesn’t spend enough money. The next, he’s bad because he’s spent too much money on shit players…

Come to our event on 2 March! We have a banging line-up of speakers giving readings in support of Palestinian rights and culture, in response to Israel's raid on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem last week. Tickets going fast so don't miss out... actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...

the Soy Right: "right-wingers who have adopted the sensitive, aggrieved victimhood pose and corny rhetorical and personal style that they have spent the last 10 years attributing to liberals" maxread.substack.com/p/soy-right-...

this week's newsletter: the soy right maxread.substack.com/p/soy-right-...

My latest for the Guardian Long Read is a strange story of human experimentation, informed consent and radioactive chapatis. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/fe...

Working on some other projects at the mo and no longer covering UK migration politics so often, but I had a chat with @archiebland.bsky.social for this morning's Guardian newsletter about Labour, if you want to know my thoughts. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Fascinating read-out -- but the question remains: why is a six-month old government asking regulators for ideas? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...