I swear to God this guy was ahead of me in the queue at Toad bakery today and he looked so head in the clouds but he took the last pain au chocolat
‘Lanier’s songs moved many of his contemporaries. Herrick called him “rare Laniere” while John Donne said he “gave a life and harmony to all that he set”.’
Alice Spawls on the rediscovery of a portrait of one of the most intriguing figures of the 17th century.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Alice Spawls on the rediscovery of a portrait of one of the most intriguing figures of the 17th century.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Alice Spawls · On Nicholas Lanier
The portrait that I came across so unexpectedly at Frieze Masters doesn’t have the prestige of the Van Dyck or the...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I swear to God this guy was ahead of me in the queue at Toad bakery today and he looked so head in the clouds but he took the last pain au chocolat
Brilliant, place-grounded essay from @sachahilhorst.bsky.social about Reform powering on through its seemingly irreconcilable contradictions
Reform’s aesthetics of industry
Renewal 33.2_HilhorstRenewal 33.2_Hilhorst.pdf110 KBdownload-circle
In North Nottinghamshire, Reform UK present themselves as the party of workers, community and coalmining heritage. But this image...
renewal.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Brilliant, place-grounded essay from @sachahilhorst.bsky.social about Reform powering on through its seemingly irreconcilable contradictions
It was odd that Ukraine’s main response to the mass destruction of its large conventional power stations by Russian strikes last year seems to have been to repair them so they could be destroyed again
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies conduct major operation to expose corruption in Ukraine's energy sector
Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) are carrying out large-scale searches related to corruption in the energy sector, including at former energy minister and current ...
www.pravda.com.ua
November 10, 2025 at 10:26 AM
It was odd that Ukraine’s main response to the mass destruction of its large conventional power stations by Russian strikes last year seems to have been to repair them so they could be destroyed again
Great and brave reporting by the upstart startup Sheffield Tribune. A reminder that the internet is still available for the proper reporting of ‘local’ news if you do it right
Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Great and brave reporting by the upstart startup Sheffield Tribune. A reminder that the internet is still available for the proper reporting of ‘local’ news if you do it right
Nigel Farage, man of the people.
(Courtesy @chrisgiles.ft.com)
(Courtesy @chrisgiles.ft.com)
November 3, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Nigel Farage, man of the people.
(Courtesy @chrisgiles.ft.com)
(Courtesy @chrisgiles.ft.com)
Reposted by James Meek
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
October 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
Reposted by James Meek
This story is jaw-dropping. "Chinese-run facilities have recently been discovered in the Philippines and the desert outside Dubai. In 2022, Chinese scammers took over the shuttered Seaview Hotel on the Isle of Man...". @alexclapp.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... @lrb.co.uk
Alexander Clapp · Pig Butchering: Scam Gangs
If it were a national economy, cybercrime would be the third largest in the world, behind only the United States and...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
This story is jaw-dropping. "Chinese-run facilities have recently been discovered in the Philippines and the desert outside Dubai. In 2022, Chinese scammers took over the shuttered Seaview Hotel on the Isle of Man...". @alexclapp.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... @lrb.co.uk
Trump style makes me think of its antecedents, which makes me think of Napoleon III, which makes me think of Flaubert, which makes me think of this from Julian Barnes in the new LRB
October 29, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Trump style makes me think of its antecedents, which makes me think of Napoleon III, which makes me think of Flaubert, which makes me think of this from Julian Barnes in the new LRB
Reposted by James Meek
October 27, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Having read this none the wiser why the Met chases these petty crims in helicopters instead of following the stolen phone which is literally telling you every second where it is
The phone theft victims and the battle to catch the snatchers
One officer said pickpockets fly in from abroad and fly out once they've amassed a haul of phones.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 26, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Having read this none the wiser why the Met chases these petty crims in helicopters instead of following the stolen phone which is literally telling you every second where it is
Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America
October 24, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America
Reposted by James Meek
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:16 PM
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
Reposted by James Meek
Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one
October 14, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one
Reposted by James Meek
Omg Portland REALLY understands the mission.
Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥
Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥
October 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Omg Portland REALLY understands the mission.
Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥
Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥
Reposted by James Meek
I don't know where this revisionism has come from about the suffragettes - people saying "if the suffragettes were around today, they'd be considered terrorists."
The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
October 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I don't know where this revisionism has come from about the suffragettes - people saying "if the suffragettes were around today, they'd be considered terrorists."
The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
Are the childhood transgressions of bullies, dodgy business people and trolls not classified as 'neurodivergence' because society deems it normative, or is it that educators are cowed by controlled, self-possessed, confident aggression and deceit in a way they aren't by autism & hyperactivity?
October 4, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Are the childhood transgressions of bullies, dodgy business people and trolls not classified as 'neurodivergence' because society deems it normative, or is it that educators are cowed by controlled, self-possessed, confident aggression and deceit in a way they aren't by autism & hyperactivity?
Great description of the anarchic consumerist authoritarianism of our day
i wonder what it’s like to look around every day and see the country being run into the ground by pill-poppers and secret police and anti-vaxxers and book burners and you go into work and sit down at your computer and you’re the guy whose job it is to come up with new oreos flavors
October 1, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Great description of the anarchic consumerist authoritarianism of our day
Essential reading from @petergeoghegan.bsky.social
‘The Telegraph and the Express have already decided that Reform is the true keeper of the Thatcherite flame. Fleet Street support is in any case a declining commodity: many of those I met said they only watched GB News and social media.’
At the Reform UK conference: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
At the Reform UK conference: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Peter Geoghegan · Short Cuts: Reform’s Disaster Capitalism
Reform has been accused of lacking policy: its critics say it’s a party of Farage and his epigones, with few firm...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Essential reading from @petergeoghegan.bsky.social
The outrages and atrocities fall like leaves, uncountable, ungathered; we're left with a residue of powerlessness and shame
Pic by Abed Rahim Khatib. In Gaza, the body of one-month-old Majed Mohammed Zarab, thought to have starved to death, is brought to his funeral
Pic by Abed Rahim Khatib. In Gaza, the body of one-month-old Majed Mohammed Zarab, thought to have starved to death, is brought to his funeral
September 18, 2025 at 11:19 AM
The outrages and atrocities fall like leaves, uncountable, ungathered; we're left with a residue of powerlessness and shame
Pic by Abed Rahim Khatib. In Gaza, the body of one-month-old Majed Mohammed Zarab, thought to have starved to death, is brought to his funeral
Pic by Abed Rahim Khatib. In Gaza, the body of one-month-old Majed Mohammed Zarab, thought to have starved to death, is brought to his funeral
Reposted by James Meek
All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.
September 18, 2025 at 7:19 AM
All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.
Reposted by James Meek
Reposted by James Meek
Loath though he is to alienate floating racists, perhaps Starmer could rouse himself to condemn a violent fascist rally teeming with people who want him overthrown and/or killed
September 13, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Loath though he is to alienate floating racists, perhaps Starmer could rouse himself to condemn a violent fascist rally teeming with people who want him overthrown and/or killed
Reposted by James Meek
Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them.
This is getting very dark, very quick.
This is getting very dark, very quick.
September 13, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them.
This is getting very dark, very quick.
This is getting very dark, very quick.
Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...
Opinion | Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class
www.nytimes.com
September 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...