Peter Williams

This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something

Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used

www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...

The Greens’ triumph is Labour’s catastrophe The Gorton and Denton result is as disruptive as it gets. The old pendulum didn’t just swing: it snapped

The Greens’ triumph in Gorton and Denton is Labour’s catastrophe and Starmer’s “machine politics” didn’t pay off, writes Tom Clark

No matter the outcome of the Gorton and Denton byelection tomorrow, it’s going to be all eyes on Starmer...Tom Clark explains in the latest episode of the Prospect Podcast

Dirty Business Shocking real-life drama about the muck in our water and a corporate scandal

I teared up watching this. I walked the Windrush with Ash for my book in 2021 - now he and Peter have had a 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' style drama made of them and the sewage scandal. All available on the 4 Player thingy. Pls watch! #DirtyBusiness #SewageScandal www.channel4.com/programmes/d...

Escaping the tech hype cycle From the Metaverse to crypto to AI, so-called visionaries and their investors are selling us a future where they get paid

Segways, the Metaverse, cryptocurrencies...they function in society but have not transformed it, writes Ethan Zuckerman on over-hyped tech

Will be fascinating to see who steps into the breach given Starmer was a McSweeney project. I suspect the answer to a scandal caused by a New Labour grandee will be yet more New Labour. But do read Stuart McGurk's @prospectmagazine.co.uk account of how MM took control of the party.

The prime minister has lost the trust of the Commons on national security MPs have defeated a government they no longer trust on matters of the highest importance

NEW

The prime minister has lost the trust of the Commons on national security

MPs have defeated a government they no longer trust - and why this constitutionally significant

By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

🎥: The latest release of the Epstein files has further tarnished the reputation of Peter Mandelson. But what broader lessons do the files reveal? Peter Geoghegan explains.
prospectmagazine.sub...

We are celebrating Philip Collins’s first issue as Prospect editor by dropping the paywall on our website! Visit www.prospectmagazine... to unlock free access to all our online journalism.

Free access is available until 12pm GMT Monday 2nd February.

bsky.app/profile/pros...

From the heart: Ralph Fiennes and the making of ‘Eugene Onegin’ Ralph Fiennes talks exclusively to Prospect about directing his first opera—Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’—in Paris and in collaboration with Semyon By...

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Ralph Fiennes speaks to Fiammetta Rocco about directing his first opera—Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN in Paris. “I couldn't believe it... What the f***?!”

Death in Minnesota The significance of the reaction to the killing of Renee Nicole Good

My three @prospectmagazine.co.uk posts on the Minnesota killings and government thuggery

A death in Minnesota (Good)
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

The new ICE Age
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Another death in Minnesota (Pretti)
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

📰 Prospect’s latest issue hits newsstands today! Here’s a peek at what’s inside... 1/7

For the cover essay of his first issue as Prospect’s new editor, Philip Collins surveys the wreckage of the two party system: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/722...

Matthew Goodwin, Reform and the politics of resentment The ‘heterodox intellectual’ turned populist is a morbid symptom of the digital age

Reform’s candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection will be Matthew Goodwin. James Bloodworth profiled the controversial right-wing populist last year, calling him a “morbid symptom of the digital age”:

The latest Prospect is out now! Our new editor Philip Collins leads on the collapse of two-party politics, plus @isabelh.bsky.social on Greenland, @jenstout.bsky.social on treason in Ukraine, @ethanz.bsky.social on servers in space, and Ralph Fiennes' operatic debut:
bsky.app/profile/pros...

Beware Denmark’s quiet power Trump and Vance see the small Scandinavian nation as a pushover, but Denmark is a business giant. They may regret messing with it

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said this morning that Denmark is “irrelevant”. But as Elisabeth Braw wrote last year, Trump and Vance shouldn’t underestimate the small Scandinavian nation.

The new ICE Age The implications of the transition to lawlessness as general policy

ICE is freely kidnapping, beating up and killing people. This is no accident. It is deliberate public policy, writes dag

Trump has destroyed American soft power With its actions in Venezuela and the menacing of Greenland, the US is just another global bully

Trump is pursuing an “ahistorical version of ‘greatness’ [which] rejects persuasion in favour of intimidation, legitimacy in favour of spectacle and leadership in favour of force,” argues Sasha Mudd.

Badenoch has missed a trick not doing her sacking Jenrick video like his fare dodging one. Chasing him through Portcullis House saying 'you're bang to rights'.

New here on Bluesky, thanks to Grok’s mayhem on the Other Site? Our starter pack provides a great list of journalists to follow for news and analysis on UK politics and global affairs.
go.bsky.app/Vk8j7vP

The PM vowed to abolish the Lords. Why is he stuffing it with allies? In Matthew Doyle, we are about to get another less than stellar peer. Now is the time for change

It was a little over three years ago that Keir Starmer promised to do away with the House of Lords altogether as part of his plans to restore trust in politics. Now, he's nominating his own (less than stellar) allies, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social

Keir Starmer’s unhappy new year The natural new year prayers for the PM will be for prosperity, peace and political harmony. His survival, however, could be more likely if those pray...

The natural year prayers are for peace, prosperity and harmony

The odds of an embattled PM, however, could actually be improved by an unhappy new year

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/720...

The limits of Superman Is he an immigrant? An American? A god? An average joe? The answer is all of these things and more, though he still can’t be everything to everyone

“Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places...” When @jamesgunn.bsky.social said this, the internet exploded.

@pghoskin.bsky.social on why the director’s comments are unimpeachable—as a lavish new book reveals.

I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay

“Christmas, as much as it is about anything,” writes @petermwilliams.bsky.social, “is about what we watch”—and we all used to watch Top of the Pops. Should we miss the programme, or should it stay in the past?

Meet the 21st century’s apex predators Giuliano da Empoli has spent his working life around power. He tells us where its holders are leading us now

Italy has been the “Silicon Valley of populism” since the 1990s—from Berlusconi to Meloni. So Giuliano da Empoli had a headstart in understanding how predator politics works:

I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay

I wrote a little, vaguely festive something on why Top of the Pops was perfect Christmas viewing, but also why it can't be resurrected:

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/musi...

Elon Musk versus Wikipedia continues an age-old battle over truth Musk’s Grokipedia wants to take us back to a time when established knowledge was controlled by one opaque voice

Grokipedia promises a backward-looking dystopia where one conspiracy-minded individual can overturn established knowledge, writes @ethanz.bsky.social.

I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay

Top of the Pops is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas Past. A unique archive of pop’s golden age—and the darkness it contained, writes Prospect's @petermwilliams.bsky.social

The curious rise of Morgan McSweeney How a behind-the-scenes fixer captured the Labour party, only to become a symbol of Keir Starmer’s failing government

“Other PMs have had powerful advisers—Cummings, Mandelson—yet only Morgan McSweeney has effectively chosen a leader.” Stuart McGurk profiles the back-room fixer who captured the Labour party.

Meet the 21st century’s apex predators Giuliano da Empoli has spent his working life around power. He tells us where its holders are leading us now

Italy has been the “Silicon Valley of populism” since the 1990s—from Berlusconi to Meloni. So Giuliano da Empoli had a headstart in understanding how predator politics works: