This is very good on the new wave of denialism, although i'd argue that it's increasingly present not just on the right but across British politics
George MonbiotMy column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Where does this idea that there’s something wonderful or courageous in voicing people’s very worst thoughts come from? Everyone thinks things that would be awful if said aloud; the point of living with and for others is you have to then think beyond that.
flyingrodentThis whole incident is helpfully instructive, isn’t it. Here, we have the country’s worst politicians, including a former Prime Minister, queuing up to salute a bold iconoclast who irreverently spoke truth to power and discomfited the great and good. It makes it pretty clear, does it not.
if you ever get a chance to read issues of New Society from the early 80s you’ll find a slew of very sharp and humane reported essays from a young Melanie Phillips. What happens to these folk?
Will DaviesWhat happened between Rod Liddle being a BBC editor and Guardian columnist, and him being the 'humorous' face of Far Right banter?
Awful to see Jodrell Bank facing closure. Not only is it one of the most important sites in postwar Britain, it was one i spent many thousands of hours at as a child (although i seem to remember some sort of panning for gold type thing as much as the astronomy)
C20 SocietyExtremely concerning news that Jodrell Bank in Cheshire is facing closure, after UKRI announced the end of their funding from 2028. Though the Lovell Telescope is Grade I listed, the best strategy for preserving this internationally significant site is surely to keep the observatory in active use.
Incredibly excited for this. Tash is both an incredible, electrifying writer and a comrade of the higher order. On Un/Certainty will, i have no doubt, be one of the books of the year
Natasha Lennard"stimulating treatise... her energetic challenges to the status quo are timely and intellectually robust".... thanks @publisherswkly.bsky.social for lovely first review of On UnCertainty, @versobooks.bsky.social www.publishersweekly.com/9781804295618
I can guarantee that I wouldnt go to university if I was 18 now. I almost didn’t go 20 years ago. Obviously there‘s far worse things in the world than the fate of vaguely arty white working class lads like me, but it’s a bleak landscape for them now
Will Daviesuniversity was a far better option for disadvantaged young people 10+ years ago than it is now. Part of what's happened, enabling the new 'vocational/technical' policy discourse is that - via cost of living and punitive student finance - the socioeconomic critique of HE has become increasingly valid
This is terrific — on Larkin, Labour and Burnham
Jeremy Noel-TodI wrote about how the young Andy Burnham's admiration for Philip Larkin was all part of his grand plan to rule the UK
Some startling details in this — not only did the police continue to surveil Helen Steel for over a decade, and followed her to New Zealand, they paid the spycop who abused her £2.5million to relocate so he wouldn’t be discovered www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
How the Met police spent £2.5m hiding spycop from former partnerSpycops inquiry has revealed how Helen Steel was secretly monitored in her search for undercover officer who deceived her into relationshipwww.theguardian.comNeed to start seeing this as a positive sign, rather than attempting to appease these loons
Josh GabbatissAs Ed Miliband leaves his post as energy and net-zero secretary, a final tally: There have been an incredible 251 newspaper editorials attacking him and his approach to net-zero since the start of 2024 That amounts to two editorials a week, mainly in the Sun, Daily Mail, Times and Daily Telegraph.
China, without any of the good stuff
Quinn SlobodianAs we describe in our book, Musk’s model of state symbiosis assumes that, in the end, you need to be backed up by Uncle Sam.
This is excellent, from Nesrine Malick. And what she says about the Speccie here can be said for the rest of the right-wing press — reduced to cheap, nasty and poorly written slop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I wonder if this money will find its way to Young’s anti-climate science, frighteningly right wing, ludicrously free market rag, The Daily Sceptic
Peter GeogheganDirect foreign interference in British politics - we have rules against foreign governments funding parliamentary groups, but this is fine?? Seriously?? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...