Sitemap - 2024 - Writing from London

Free speech in the 2020s: The legacy of Christopher Hitchens

The liberal despair of Rafael Behr

Buckle up for a bumpy ride -2025 is here!

Buckle up for a bumpy ride -2025 is here!

J.K. Rowling won’t play nice

The misuse of history: Germany, Putin, and the betrayal of Ukraine

Arthur Miller, McCarthyism and today’s woke witch hunts

How Hilary Mantel came to despise the England she mythologised

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to one and all!

That was the year that was!

That was the year that was!

Conservative immigration betrayals have turbocharged the radical right

Trump will use antisemitsm as an excuse to attack basic freedoms

Keir Starmer joins the Tories in appeasing the radical right

Tell Trump, Musk & Farage to get lost!

Tell Trump, Musk & Farage to get lost!

Last call! A Xmas present for the miserable bastard in your life

China’s spy masters want to ensnare disgraced royals because they want to ensnare EVERYONE

As Trump and Putin loom over us, Europe lives in a world of make believe

The liberal case for censoring the social media conglomerates

Can democracy survive social media?

A Christmas present for the miserable bastard in your life

The war on digital hate must be won

The war on digital hate must be won

Why the BBC cannot hold the right to account

Trump’s America isn’t an oligarchy: it’s much worse than that

Why can’t the UK face up to its crisis

Lost in narcissism, an unwitting Elon Musk makes the case for censoring the Web

The times - they are a-worsening

The times - they are a-worsening

Where is the unhinged world of Musk and Trump taking us?

Assisted dying and our competing visions of hell

What the Trump-Farage-Musk alliance means for Britain

Get set for the Farage-Tory Trump Love-in

Get set for the Farage-Tory Trump Love-in

Trump’s America will be a mafia state

Trump's second term: This is going to hurt

Facing down the Trump threat

Facing down the Trump threat

Identitarian Politics: A Guide for the Confused

If they want to survive Trump, progressives must get smarter

Did the woke win it for Trump? Podcast with Yascha Mounk

Did Woke win it for Trump?

Did Woke win it for Trump?

Roman Polanski, Alfred Dreyfus, and the absurdity of modern censorship

The British right betrays its country as it kisses Trump’s ring

Is Trump about to make Starmer sell out Ukraine?

Mr Tangerine Man & the challenge for Labour - Tom Baldwin

Mr Tangerine Man & the challenge for Labour - Tom Baldwin

It’s not going to be OK – you can’t appease Trump, and you shouldn’t want to try

The great Trump disaster: Now the far right can let rip

How were we so wrong about Trump?

How were we so wrong about Trump?

Trump destroys the West

Maybe, just maybe, hope and history will rhyme

‘Our news agenda is being driven by an increasingly deranged, obsessive and extremist Tory press’

Ep 48: The Tory press is trying to drive us all nuts

Ep 48: The Tory press is trying to drive us all nuts

Kemi Badenoch and the betrayal of an invented past

Trump exploits the fake news of opinion pollsters

Don't panic! Trump's gonna lose bigly - maybe!

Ep 47: Don't panic! Trump's gonna lose bigly

Ep 47: Don't panic! Trump's gonna lose bigly

Democracy dies in broad daylight

David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the death of the English ruling class

The bitter truth for Palestinians is that Hamas made the Israeli right stronger

Ep 46: A dog at Number 10!

Ep 46: A dog at Number 10!

As Europe teeters on the edge, Russian subversion is everywhere

Robert Jenrick, J.D. Vance and the bull market for bullshitters

Ep 45: How Putin corrupted Europe's banks

Ep 45: How Putin corrupted Europe's banks

Labour’s first 100 days: Could do (MUCH) better

The West betrays Ukraine

Why British business wont fight back

Ep 44: How the West is helping Putin defeat Ukraine

Ep 44: How the West is helping Putin defeat Ukraine

The radical right gets a free pass

Ep 43: The Tories in Lala Land with Nick Tyrone

Ep 43: The Tories in Lala Land with Nick Tyrone

Brexit will carry on dragging the UK down

Ep 42: The Brexit Blight with Simon Nixon

Ep 42: The Brexit Blight with Simon Nixon

Three (more) reasons to worry about the Middle East

Conservatives are not only more damaged than they imagine. They are more damaged than they can POSSIBLY imagine

Ep 41: Tories in the bin with Nick Tyrone

Ep 41: Tories in the bin with Nick Tyrone

How Western intelligence agencies helped Vladimir Putin

The modern progressive dilemma: You can only win by being cautious; you can only govern by being radical

The real scandal is that there is no outrage on the US right about Russia buying up its journalists

Ep 40: Labour's fight to govern with Steve Richards

Ep 40: Labour's fight to govern with Steve Richards

Ep 39: Russia's war of lies & sneers on the West with Peter Pomerantsev

Ep 39: Russia's war of lies & sneers on the West with Peter Pomerantsev

Trump is Putin’s useful idiot: How Russia sabotages the West

Sarcastic, sneering and sadistic: The voice of modern power

Labour: Too crippled by caution to rescue the UK?

Boris Johnson destroyed the Conservative party - and the Tory leadership election proves it

Ep 38: Labour's chance to salvage the UK with Rafael Behr

Ep 38: Labour's chance to salvage the UK with Rafael Behr

Kamala Harris makes Trump look a weak and washed-out leader

Conservatives head for the extremes: Germany follows the US and UK

Dirty Russian money and the American far right: The case of Dave Rubin

Ep 37: The rise of the Far Right in Germany with Annette Dittert

Ep 37: The rise of the Far Right in Germany with Annette Dittert

Keir Starmer cannot govern as an autocrat

How bureaucrats destroy the careers of artists

The abuses of secrecy: the Spycatcher scandal then and now

Suffering does not make us better: why it is deluded to imagine that the massacres in Israel and Gaza will lead to a better future

Are Liberals becoming over-confident

The British right would rather back Donald Trump than back its country

Why Democrats think they can win

Why are progressive editors hiding Donald Trump’s hacked emails when they ran Hillary Clinton’s?

Why liberal reporters cover up for Donald Trump

The far right wants to be above the law

Elon Musk's global far right targets the UK

“There should be no checks. There should be no balances."

Ep 36: A new age of authoritarianism with Anne Applebaum

Ep 36: A new age of authoritarianism with Anne Applebaum

Kemi Badenoch and the corruption of failure

If you’re so anti-fascist, why aren’t you more right wing?

Why punishing poor kids became popular

As the West totters, the power of the global autocracy grows

Biden goes Trump weakened?

Keir Starmer’s quiet radicalism

Europe is not ready to cope with a triumphant Donald Trump

History will condemn American progressives if their cowardice grants Trump a second term

Donald Trump: the only Quisling Vladimir Putin wants and needs

Lessons from the UK for America’s fight against Trump

Do you ignore the deaths of Jews or of Palestinians? Close your eyes and pick a side

An eerie dawn has broken in the UK

UK Election night: Rolling commentary

The British right is about experience its worst defeat - ever

A political earthquake is about to shake the UK

The wasted Tory years are finally over

Are we stupid, selfish children stumbling through a world we are too brainwashed by infantile, corporate dross to understand?

Biden and Harris must go – but who can make them?

Tories on the verge of an electoral breakdown

From Brexit to Johnson to Truss to Farage: the British right’s radicalisation spiral

Ep: 35 Torygeddon - can the polls be right? With Tory expert Professor Tim Bale

Ep: 35 Torygeddon - can the polls be right? With Tory expert Professor Tim Bale

​ Three reasons why Rishi Sunak is an "absolute dud"

The last days of the Tory dinosaurs: Interview with Rafael Behr

Billionaires and democracy don’t mix

Ep: 34: The Twighlight of the Tories with Rafael Behr

Ep: 34: The Twighlight of the Tories with Rafael Behr

Brexit and collaborationist journalism

Three UK Election takeaways

Can you fight woke ideology from the liberal-left?

The radical right destroys the Conservatives

Forget about Farage, will the Liberal Democrats destroy the Conservatives?

With Nigel Farage entering the UK election, here are some resources you might want to look at

Screaming, lying and denying, the British right blames everyone but itself for the disaster it has brought on the country

Keir Starmer and the dangers of the urge to purge

Homophobic hatred unites authoritarian regimes

Whatever happened to the British left?

Can we fight climate change and China’s will to power at the same time?

The last stand of the deluded leader of a broken party

Contaminated blood destroys the UK's comfortable myths

The war against the West and the civil war within the West

"Fuck off!" Why the language police deserve Anglo-Saxon English

The failure of the West to defend Ukraine rewrites the lessons of the 20th century

Three interesting pieces for a May Sunday

​Why always the Jews?

Waiting for a crash: why Putin will wreck our prosperity (such as it is)

They will never forgive J. K. Rowling for being right

Labour is more left wing than purveyors of conventional wisdom admit

The pro-Palestinian cause and the seduction of extremism

How to revive Britain after the Tories and Brexit have battered it into the ground

Maybe Britain isn’t broken

Episode 33: Will Hutton on Labour's path ahead

Episode 33: Will Hutton on Labour's path ahead

Rishi Sunak: The UK's failed extremist

Salman Rushdie and the tedium of terrorism

​“Liz Truss does not understand a word I write,” says her favourite author

Liz Truss's eyes still shine with a bright, self-righteous fanaticism, as if backlit by an idiot’s lantern

The Weekend Roundup: Waiting for a War

How England sold its justice system to the global rich

The intellectual dark web proves the left was right all along

Sickness, wokeness and the limits of language policing

The Conservatives have cursed the UK

The betrayal of Ukraine and Germany’s misreading of history

The terror that dares not speak its name: Fear and silence in the UK

If the British monarchy falls, the monarchists will have killed it

Trump and the far right are up for sale

We’re just waiting for the terrorists to strike us again

I believe Labour offers the UK an escape from decline*

Keir Starmer: the nicest ruthless bastard you could hope to meet

This time the UK’s decline is real

Can Keir Starmer finish off the radical right?

Gaza, Ukraine and the decline of the West

George Galloway and rise of an Islamist foreign policy

What Europe’s struggle against fascism can teach the US

Can nothing halt the UK’s decline?

Trump, Putin and the lost anti-fascist cause

Ep 31: Pulling Brexit Britain out of its economic death spiral - with economist Danny Blanchflower

Ep 31: Pulling Brexit Britain out of its economic death spiral - with economist Danny Blanchflower

Threats of violence bring fascistic menace to UK politics

Everybody move to the right!

Rochdale the UK's capital of conspiracy theory

Ep 30: The Tories' by-election blues and the stench of electoral death with Professor Tim Bale

Ep 30: The Tories' by-election blues and the stench of electoral death with Professor Tim Bale

Three constant facts about the state of the UK

Are Jews in danger?

Ep 29 How Labour wins big & stays in power with former Blair adviser John McTernan

Ep 29 How Labour wins big & stays in power with former Blair adviser John McTernan

Why US Republicans hate Ukrainian democracy

The radical right turns paranoid

Are US progressives playing into Trump’s hands?

Think too hard about the culture war and you will surely go mad

Ep 28: The Left's failure to confront the Trumpism menace with writer Matt Johnson

Ep 28: The Left's failure to confront the Trumpism menace with writer Matt Johnson

Ep 28: The Left's failure to confront the Trumpism menace with writer Matt Johnson

Radicalised conservatives cannot save themselves (Or their country)

The first Labour government and the next Labour government

A serious country would face the Brexit disaster: the silly and scared UK can't do it

Fear and lies in a world of fakes

Ep 27: Breaking the Brexit Taboo with Professor Chris Grey

Ep 27: Breaking the Brexit Taboo with Professor Chris Grey

Ep 27: Breaking the Brexit Taboo with Professor Chris Grey

Trump persuades British Tories to betray their country

It’s time to abandon winner-takes-all politics in Israel

Psycho bosses will ruin us all!

Ep 26: The Post Office scandal & the curse of British managerialism with economist Chris Dillow

Ep 26: The Post Office scandal & the curse of British managerialism with economist Chris Dillow

Ep 26: The Post Office scandal & the curse of British managerialism with economist Chris Dillow

Conservatives would rather keep the country poor and stupid than accept their failure

Freedom is not the preserve of the "Christian" West

Crimes and lies in Gaza

​You don’t fight antisemitism by feeding the prejudices of Trump and the world’s worst anti-Muslim bigots

Ep 25: Crimes against humanity, lies & misinformation in the Gaza conflict with Daniella Peled

Ep 25: Crimes against humanity, lies & misinformation in the Gaza conflict with Daniella Peled

Ep 25: Crimes against humanity, lies & misinformation in the Gaza conflict with Daniella Peled

On the world historical importance of pandering to middle-class, middle-brow, mid-western voters

It will take a missile hitting the BBC to shake the cosy stupidity of UK politics

Writing for Substack

Will the radical right take over the Tories?

Ep 24: How the Radical Right of Reform could destroy the Tories - with Rob Ford

Weekend round up: Just one damned thing after another

The lies of the Gaza conflict will haunt us

How reputable Conservatives paved the way for Trump and Brexit

Farewell to 2023 (part two)