James Meek

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

Isn't the lesson from America 'you can defeat the populist right, but voters need to see how shit they are at government first, then forget how shit they were and vote for them again, then be reminded they were shit, then forget again, then be reminded again, repeat until elections cancelled'?

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...

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

Thank you

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

Cartoon of a man sitting on a chair staring into space. Thought bubble reads 'I wonder what I'm thinking about'

My creative process

www.worldofmoose.com/collections/...

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.

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

"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"

Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one

Nowhere does this writer suggest making utilities free at point of use.

Omg Portland REALLY understands the mission.

Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥

Parallels to the Democrats’ loss of the South in the US?

Sorry Keith

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!

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?

James Meek · Computers that want things For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

I wrote about Artificial Desire

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Great description of the anarchic consumerist authoritarianism of our day

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

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.

Morning everyone.

I read it as a threat. ‘Centrists, join our white power crusade or we will kill you along with the rest.’

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

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.

Opinion | Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class

Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

You’re forgetting the most famous Saxon, Hereward the Woke.

look, it might not have worked with the public, but at least it was the wrong thing to do morally

The Telegraph Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence [Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday] Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent 29 August 2025 8:57am BST

The Telegraph Money > Property > Second homes How to avoid tax on your second home From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net [Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto] Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer 29 August 2025 1:21pm BST

On the same day in the Telegraph:

I'm not saying post-Thatcher Britain is a tyranny, rather that China, Russia, Hungary, the US etc show how acceptable people find tyranny if it comes with nice coffee and friendly, efficient retail service.