“This is not democratic politics, it’s oligarchic politics...A donation is a bribe. A billionaire isn’t giving money to Nigel Farage because he likes his company, he wants something.”
Great to speak to Peter Oborne in new edition of Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/mandelson-...
Today’s podcast with
@petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the incredible story of Labour Together
Listen on Spotify
open.spotify.com/episode/5tkr...
Listen on Apple
podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/f...
Sign up for updates via freestatepodcast.com
Should add, do support Democracy for Sale if you can! Thanks!
democracyforsale.substack.com/subscribe
Wow. Josh Simons has resigned as govt minister
Follows weeks of reporting by Democracy for Sale and others about how he paid PR firm to smear journalists investigating Labour Together
Huge thanks to all our supporters. Couldn’t have done it without you
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/starmer-al...
Because nothing else is happening, let me highlight the constant glory of the library card.
I have just returned @neilhegarty.bsky.social's exceptional, remarkable THE JEWEL. And I had not planned to pick up anything else - but looky here:
(yes, it is rather a change of mood)
This is really good: well worth listening to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social laying out a forensic analysis of Labour Together.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
Starmer’s response to yesterday feels like the end of his leadership
There’s no way can compare Greens to Reform and expect to win back the voters that have left you
Thinking about everyone in Tehran seeking safety under this onslaught.
28.02.2026 10:13 — 👍 43 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 0
Congratulations to Hannah Spencer on a stunning victory.
Proud to support a campaign built on hope and humanity.
Under our new leadership team, Your Party will work constructively with the Greens, because there is only one way we can bring about real change: together.
Loved chatting with @zackpolanski.bsky.social in a live @boldpolitics.bsky.social from #Brighton - we covered everything from the climate & nature emergency (obvs), telling better stories of England, hope & despair, & why we often do end of life so badly - give it a listen 👇
26.02.2026 10:02 — 👍 147 🔁 56 💬 3 📌 4What a result!! Huge congratulations to the amazing Hannah Spencer - everyone in Gorton and Denton has just made history. This result shows @greenparty.org.uk can win anywhere, that the politics of hope can win over the politics of hate & there is no longer any such thing as a Labour safe seat 💚
27.02.2026 07:02 — 👍 1689 🔁 268 💬 35 📌 20
Newsnight can put Zack Polanski in a Russian hat. They can portray him as Voldermort. James O'Brien can accuse him of "breaking Britain".
It's not going to work this time, lads. People have seen too much. The electorate just knows more. Watch the attacks ramp up and recognise their toothlessness.
GREEN VS REFORM VOTE GREEN! Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
Today is the day.
Hope vs hate.
Green vs Reform.
Vote Green in Gorton & Denton.
You know it's rainforest when almost everything is mantled in a rich, green cloak of mosses and ferns.
26.02.2026 07:25 — 👍 216 🔁 24 💬 1 📌 1
This is coming up on Saturday night, in the Heaney heartland of south Derry, with Nicholas @dedalusdenaries.bsky.social & Iarla: do join us if you're in the area.
@shhomeplace.bsky.social
Many thanks to @pva-books.bsky.social & @booksupstairs.bsky.social & a terrific audience for a great launch of the latest Paper Visual Art tonight. Enjoyed it so much.
25.02.2026 20:53 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Reform could gain another MP this Thursday. That's why we're urging Labour, Lib Dem, & other party supporters to lend their vote to the Greens this time in Gorton & Denton. We've carried out extensive research and it points to this being our best chance of stopping a very real threat from Reform.
21.02.2026 20:58 — 👍 346 🔁 330 💬 8 📌 14
Woken up to lots of unhappy messages about us keeping on this story
Sorry but if a political org - run by a now Minister - hires private intel to smear journalists then takes these baseless smears to security services, I will investigate it.
And keep investigating until accountability happens
Read this thread #LabourTogether
20.02.2026 14:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We have seen an internal APCO briefing that references stories in the Sunday Times and other media, saying “it is important to identify the source of the information”.
The same document lists “significant persons of interest” - journalists at Sunday Times, Guardian’s @direthoughts.com and others
On Twitter, Simons dismissed our story as “nonsense”. He has said he asked a PR company to look into a "suspected illegal hack"
“It was nothing to do with excellent UK journalists at Sunday Times, Guardian or any other British newspapers.”
But the facts seem rather different....
Read the full story on Democracy for Sale - and do subscribe to support our work 😀
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/mcsweeney-...
For the day that’s in it would really recommend reading this piece and watching video with Andrew Lownie about carefully curated narrative was created around Andrew - and ‘policed by armies of lawyers and PR people’ and a pliant media.
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...
I wish it were true that "no one is above the law". But while the City of London acts as laundromat for the world's dirty money, as almost all fraud and waste crime go unprosecuted, as no one has gone to jail for the financial crash or the poisoning of our rivers, this is manifestly untrue.
19.02.2026 14:49 — 👍 1696 🔁 486 💬 43 📌 18
This is an enormous victory for the Palestinian solidarity movement, for civil liberties and for our common humanity.
The real crime is this government’s complicity in genocide - and we will not rest until we have justice for the Palestinian people.
The Peter Mandelson scandal is what happens when a government abandons its moral compass.
Parliament needs to look itself in the mirror — and ask itself how it became embroiled in a web of lies, abuse and corruption.
My piece for The Independent.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/peter...
This government is taking away our civil liberties — and handing them to Reform.
My article for @islingtontrib.bsky.social on facial recognition, the erosion of jury trials, and the attack on our right to protest.
www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/faci...
Join us for an evening of conversation and music with Neil Hegarty and Iarla Ó Lionáird to celebrate the publication of Nicholas Allen’s Late Heaney.
📅 Saturday 28th February
⏰ 7.30pm
🎟️£15
Secure your tickets here > tinyurl.com/4k4e7avx
@neilhegarty.bsky.social @dedalusdenaries.bsky.social
“We know McSweeney was aware of APCO’s work; and that Starmer himself took a keen interest in media coverage during his ascent to power. Given this, the PM’s claims that he ‘didn’t know anything’ seem increasingly hard to square with the public record.”
https://bit.ly/4ruVaeS
Well well Fenians.🔥
All Together Now festival 💚🤍🧡
