David Klemperer

Sending a WhatsApp to Peter Mandelson illustrating that I should be Prime Minister but making sure I’m shaking my head as I do so people know I’m disapproving

Great piece on the challenges faced by social democrats in confronting the far-right

I think the bigger issue is his relationship with Mandelson...

Is Keir Starmer the British François Hollande? Boring, safe, centrist – and probably doomed.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202... how spot on was this analysis by @dmk1793.bsky.social from almost 3 years ago

I have today been informed that, despite personal assurances to the contrary, the Green party have once again used my image and misrepresented my words on a second leaflet circulated in Gorton and Denton ahead of the by-election. I have now lodged an official complaint with the returning officer.

Re-upping this for the Monday crowd... I think my favourite, most revealing detail is that the guy seems to not realise he's in trouble because London Centric's reporting didn't hit anything like his view counts, so therefore it can't really matter.

Grim morning for the Labour Party but it is healthier to live in a country where decisions have consequences than one where an administration steeped in contact with Epstein sails happily on, even as the resignations pile up across Europe

This is the key point that is lost in so much Westminster bubble talk on net zero. It is popular. It’s hugely popular with Labour’s base and with the progressive voters it needs to vote tactically to defeat Reform. And it’s even popular with Tories who Labour needs not to switch to Reform.

The MoJ continues to be truly terrible for transparency and open data.

They haven’t commented for this article, but I will bet money that the reason turns out to be they want to licence the data out to a company that will then charge a *massive* markup on it, making it inaccessible to the public.

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Is Might Right? The history of an idea that's shaped political philosophy, from Plato to Carl Schmitt.

And here is the link to our lively discussion of the history of the idea that Might is Right on BBC Radio 4 Free Thinking, presented by @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social with @hdrochon.bsky.social , Margaret MacMillan and @leaypi.bsky.social, produced by @lukewm.bsky.social: bit.ly/3ZnGUYN

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In the third part of our series David and Paul Sagar explore what the German writer and sociologist Max Weber can teach us about the pitfalls of political life and political philosophy. Why is doing politics so hard?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"

The madness of X in a nutshell:

A groyper‘s Holocaust denial post (cut off) does great numbers — 12K likes, 500K views.

A prominent liberal journalist and author comes in to try to rationally debate it. 300 likes, 25K views.

In a healthy info environment, these two things wouldn’t be interacting

Coming round to Nadine Dorries thought - she was so real for this

This piece is as good as everyone's saying. It's striking how willing this bonehead is to outsource all ethical judgement to the tiktok algorithm. Just a humble participant in the market, responding to the incentives on offer.

only i solider on

Read this earlier today and it's a great and thoughtful piece. Too much discourse among the left on AI has fallen into a lazy hostility largely disinterested in the technology. This piece is a real antidote

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.

He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.

Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...

The pessimist who became a prophet Philosopher Michael Sandel was ignored by a generation of political optimists. Now he is searching for a way out of the mess he saw coming

Good piece from a series of conversations with Michael Sandel. Sandbu is right to highlight caring more about “the civic consequences of economic power” as key theme from his work, esp in current context www.ft.com/content/7804...

Reform faces police investigation over ‘concerned neighbour’ byelection letters Material distributed in Gorton and Denton did not have legally required imprint stating it was funded by party

If we had an Electoral Commission with teeth, or even opposable thumbs, this sort of blatant electoral fraud could be swiftly and decisively punished during the by-election period, which would also serve to encourager les autres. But we don't. And a police investigation will take us past the vote.

i think this book would be best enjoyed with a Wetherspoons curry, regularly breaking off to google who felix marquardt is, with @duncanrobinson.bsky.social also there for some reason

‘I’m British, English and British Asian’, says Rishi Sunak in riposte to racially charged debate over identity Podcaster claimed former prime minister not English because he is ‘brown-skinned Hindu’

It is terribly sad that the former PM feels the need to say this in the face of low life blowhards.

We cannot allow this to even be a question.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

all been there brother

(from @morganj0nes.bsky.social’s “No Second Chances”)

This sums it up perfectly- such a good read and can’t really add much more to Jim’s take here! Congrats @morganj0nes.bsky.social

Almost exactly the same Labour fiscal rule has been seen as prudence under Gordon Brown, profligacy under Ed Miliband, Communism under Jeremy Corbyn and austerity under Keir Starmer

We owe it to Epstein’s victims and to British democracy to demand historic change | Gordon Brown The abuse of women by figures such as Epstein, and of political power by the likes of Mandelson, must be confronted. As far as I am able, I will play my part, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brow...

💥"Nothing less than a century-defining rebalancing of power and accountability is equal to this moment and the trauma of the victims."

A significant intervention from former PM Gordon Brown on why the Epstein-Mandelson revelations demand a fundamental cleaning up of UK politics.

More ⤵️

Yes the only photo I took of the cover was last Saturday in the pub with a naan bread on the table next to it for size.

Don’t tend to read political books but enjoyed @morganj0nes.bsky.social on 2nd referendum. No big show off explanations you normally get about “how clever we were inside the campaign”. More an anthropology study of the weirdness of FBPE and a two years of Twitter-driven national psychosis.

Starmer faces questions over visit to Palantir office alongside Mandelson Former ambassador was also shareholder in lobbying group that counted US tech firm as a client

New on FT website:

Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract.

www.ft.com/content/5bba...

Starmer's reported condition - incredibly unpopular, shorn of authority, probably un-reelectable and yet will stagger on for want of an alternative - is just the new normal of how Britain is governed. It was also true for two-thirds of May's premiership, half of Johnson's and all of Sunak's.