Brett Christophers

‘A woman screams from a high balcony: “Help me! I’m freezing to death!”’ – novelist James Meek returns to Kyiv Stepping off the night train, full of memories of his life there three decades ago, the writer finds a changed city fighting for survival

On being in Kyiv in 1991, and now

Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented - The End of Keir Starmer Podcast Episode · Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning · 28 February · 44m

Was really good to talk to Dion Fanning at the Free State podcast, about Labour Together, and how it paid for a black ops campaign against journalists exposing its undeclared funding

Was great to have time and space to really unspool story and why it matters

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

I live in a green facing seat in London and hear some variant of this question every day atm

Three-in-Four: The Odds Against the UK Knowledge Economy The great repricing of knowledge work isn't a forecast anymore. It's showing up in the data and the probability-weighted outcomes are worse than I feared.

If you're not yet convinced that AI is going to ransack the UK economy (perhaps more than any other economy), read this:

I really appreciate @dwallacewells.bsky.social's work, but this—green energy supplementing rather than replacing fossil fuels—seems to me the main story, not just a qualification to the story of the "green transition." GHG emissions keep rising—with 2025's projected to reach the highest level ever

Probably not coincidental that Atlanta also has long been ground-zero for private-equity investment in America's rental housing

If you're in Manchester March 3rd, join us for the Geography & GDI Lecture by @brettchristophers.bsky.social. The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet. 4:30 PM Lecture Theatre A, Simon Building. @uomseed.bsky.social @cperguom.bsky.social

‘Housing Young People Under Late Neoliberalism’ Between declining access to affordable rental and homeownership, and growing inequalities in housing outcomes for young people, scholars have examined both their housing pathways and “solutions” fo...

📢 Special issue alert: "Housing young people under late neoliberalism"! 📢

See @constanceu.bsky.social, Igor Costarelli and Oana Druta's introducing piece ⬇️

John Lewis ditches plan to build 10,000 homes Retail group pulls plug on venture due to changes in UK economic conditions and property market slowdown

This sounds like it has more to do with interest rates and construction costs than the property market as such - but if John Lewis can’t make plans for 10,000 homes stack up on land it already owns what does that say about rest of market?

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Ireland's biggest landlord tells investors new rent rules will be major boost for shareholders Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said the details of Ires Reit’s projections would “send a shiver down the spine of all renters”.

It'll be very interesting to see how the Government reacts as the reality of rent increases become more obvious over the coming years.

www.thejournal.ie/rental-secto...

X Really Is Pulling Users to the Right Elites may not be as immune to this kind of algorithmic radicalization as they think.

“it turns out that the engine of Musk’s X — its algorithmic ‘For You’ page — is an ideological ratchet.” - @jwherrman.bsky.social

nymag.com/intelligence...

The biggest problem with solar energy is not that it is intermittent, it is that greedy people cant make it scarce nor monopolize it.

#greensky #nature #energysky

Billionaire halts mass eviction after London Centric investigation Exclusive: Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital hoped to replace hundreds of tenants with more lucrative temporary accommodation. That plan has been shelved – for now.

On Sunday, @londoncentric.media broke the story that Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital was undertaking London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” - after our investigation, hundreds of tenants who received section 21s have now had them rescinded www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Absolutely fascinating piece, this -- with an unexpected, starring role for Ernst Mandel, whose 1972 visa refusal case played an important role in subsequent history of US ideological policing of its border

The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

Really great reporting by the brilliant @pollysmythe.bsky.social on Criterion Capital and the billionaire philanthropist behind “one of the worst mass evictions in our capital’s recent history” www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Electro-Capitalism Ours is the age of transition: from fossil capital to electricity capital. The future that emerges will be determined by the fierce struggles of the present.

NEW: Gareth Fearn lays out the stakes of "electro-capitalism".

"The economic basis of this transition is not simply between technologies of energy production. Rather, it is between two different fractions of capital."

www.break-down.org/electro-capi...

Come work with me workwithus.theguardian.com/job-search/e...

We're recruiting 2 PhD candidates in human geography here in Uppsala, one position focused on urban/housing issues and one in political ecology.

Please spread the word/repost etc. Being a PhD student in Sweden is a good gig.

He ain't wrong about everything though .... (eg "constant craving for recognition")

it's been said before, but i'm still consistently surprised by how many people whose politics are otherwise pretty sound continue posting on X (not to mention the MPs, the train companies, the vital arms of the british state, etc etc)

Build Up Not Trickle Down Need-Led Housing - Shelter England The government must adopt a need-led development model that delivers genuinely affordable social homes so everyone has a safe, affordable and secure place home.

🚨New report out today.🚨

If we want fewer families facing homelessness, we need to be honest about what works... and what doesn’t.

Our new report looks at the evidence behind housing policy and why social housing is key to ending the housing emergency. 🗝️

Read the full report: shltr.org.uk/ifWuB

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings From climate change to geopolitics, the knowledge, skills and insights of geographers have never been more relevant, say five professors

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uk-u...

With @jennypickerill.bsky.social @peterhopkins.bsky.social Beth Greenhough & Jamie Woodward

Crucial - and generally totally overlooked part of this story - is *what* the journalists that Labour Together smeared were reporting on

How Labour Together used £730k in illegal political donations to boot strap Keir Starmer’s political rise

That’s why they were targeted

Student loans show that hard policy choices will only get harder The debate over university funding is a good example of the intractable challenges facing the UK government

This take on recent history of UK universities omits the 35% cut in academic salaries, the booming bureacracies, the managerial incompetence, the dodgy governance, the obsession with new buildings, and the debts and disciplinary convenants. Otherwise, it's spot on.
www.ft.com/content/131f... via @FT

The Labour Together scandal goes right to the heart of No 10 – Starmer has nowhere to hide | Peter Geoghegan He can sack who he wants to protect himself, but all roads currently lead back to the prime minister, says Peter Geoghegan of Democracy for Sale

Starmer needs to commission an independent inquiry into Labour Together- or he too becomes implicated in an increasingly unsustainable cover-up

New by me in @theguardian.com on why PM needs to act on Labour Together hiring a PR firm to smear journalists

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dirty Business New factual drama about the muck in our water and a corporate scandal

In Britain, TV dramas now do a better job of holding power to account than most regulators. I spoke to Ch4 while they were making this one about water after reporting on the government's decades-long project to dismantle the Environment Agency www.channel4.com/programmes/d...

I’m not normally that person but….

It’s really annoying that Democracy for Sale a has hardly been credited anywhere in last 24 hours for breaking story of Labour Together paying to spy on journalists *almost two weeks* ago

Hadn’t expected Tory press office to be the exception!

Democracy for Sale | Peter Geoghegan | Substack A newsletter dedicated to revealing how dark money and hidden influence threaten our democracy. Click to read Democracy for Sale, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Huge evening at Democracy for Sale as Labour Together’s investigation into journalists leading Sunday Times

Want to thank all our supporters: without you, this story would never have happened

Really shows the power of independent journalism

Do support, if you can

democracyforsale.substack.com

I’ve never been this swept up in so many characters’ lives. And I certainly could never have predicted what would happen as Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call head north to Montana. At so many different times in this epic narrative, I was yelling at the characters to make different choices. What a story!

F&L Blog - Property Damages - International Karl Polanyi Society Property Damages by Jacob Blumenfeld 13.02.2026 Does private property secure freedom, or train us for domination? In this article, philosopher Jacob Blumenfeld traces how liberal ownership rights shap...

"Liberalism is founded on the right to private property, but private property is also what breaks liberalism. For what better way than owning property is there for learning how to be a dictator?"

www.karlpolanyisociety.com/2026/02/13/f...