Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2h

I have a pretty large vocabulary and if the author uses a word or phrase that I don’t know that isn’t highly plot-relevant or a necessary term of art, I see it as their problem not mine.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2h

Oh this is sad. Far too young.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 3h

D'Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer recognized by his raspy yet smooth voice and for garnering mainstream attention with the shirtless "Untitled (How Does It Feel) " music video, has died.

D’Angelo, Grammy-winning R&B singer who became an icon with ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel),’ dies

D’Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer recognized by his raspy yet smooth voice and for garnering mainstream attention with the shirtless “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” music video, has died.

bit.ly

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 3h

Anyway, this is jejune. I'd like to see an infographic comparing Starmer to Sauron.

Palantir would definitely feature.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 3h

Astoundingly, this isn't the first time this... surprising comparison has been made. It has previously been made in SNP house comic, the National:

www.thenational.scot/politics/250...

Professor Gregor Gall: These are the troubling parallels between Starmer and Stalin

Friday marked five years since Sir Keir Starmer became leader of the UK Labour Party. In August, it will be 80 years since George Orwell’s Animal…

www.thenational.scot

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 10h

London ('s violent crime rate) has fallen.

Adam Powley @adampowley.bsky.social · 10h

London haters latest.
Less than Copenhagen. COPENHAGEN. They've got about 15 different words for hugging, for crissakes

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 10h

The Conservatives seem to lack any theory of what Villa Toryism would look like in the 2020s.

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 12h

Striking timeline adjacency.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 12h

Each time I have to go into Boots it astonishes me how little interest its management have in the customer experience. Everything from the hostile store layout to the surly staff behaviour seems designed to deter return visits.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 13h

One further point: I wonder what polling of policy positions Badenoch's Conservatives undertake. Leaving the ECHR is opposed roughly 2:1 by the public. Why weld the door shut on centre-right voters still fuming about Brexit?

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 13h

As it happens, I suspect the Conservative party has already had its chips (unless Nigel Farage leaves politics in the next few years for whatever reason). Far too many of their natural support base are utterly alienated by them.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 13h

There are many really good points in this great column by @stephenkb.bsky.social but one of the most important will probably be overlooked.

www.ft.com/content/a65f...

One reason the successive Tory administrations from 2016 to 2024 achieved so little beyond damage control is that they traded middle-aged voters who needed little from the state for older voters who require rather more.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

I’m hotter now!

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

The latest example of how the online right has gone completely loopy.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

How can the Leader of the Opposition be so bad at this? You can buy appropriate oral wallpaper for such occasions by the metre.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

There's a whole new line of publicity to be got out of "take X off the curriculum", with the bonus that would be the correct move for most Xs.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

I realise that the chances of long term peace in Gaza are slim, but can we please just welcome today? Take the good news when it comes. It comes rarely enough nowadays.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

1993.

NB1 hair.
NB2 no computer.
NB3 all the paper.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

Sometimes The Purge doesn’t seem dystopian.

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Reposted by Alastair Meeks

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 2d

Whenever I see someone arguing that people should stay on Twitter because of the discourse or career benefits or whatever, I just think “but I don’t want to 😕”, and for me that is absolutely decisive

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

Sunday gym selfie.

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Reposted by Alastair Meeks

Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 2d

Which party underperformed the most in the 2025 local elections?

Arguably Reform UK. A 🧵 on what the locals tell us about a key and neglected dimension in analysis of the current political situation.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

Another data point for the theory that men will do anything to get more sex.

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

I am glad that I have never relied on X for my career, so the decision to move was fairly easy.

The exact moment that made me abandon X was when a Britain First tweet was promoted into my timeline. I do not wish to spend my time on such content.

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 3d

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it is still shaping policy. So were we all wrong to leave?

Was the left wrong to leave X for BlueSky?

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it's still shaping policy

www.newstatesman.com

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d

An admirable article that is as insightful as the libel laws permit given present publicly available information.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2d

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

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