Nicholas Guyatt

Hearing in groupchats that the language here on gender is much worse than the Columbia settlement

Amazing visit to the Museum of Free Derry, where the staff patiently explain to visitors why the connections between the Irish and Palestinian struggles are so deep and abiding

Memorial to Columbus

Greetings from Galway!

I understand what Trump cares about, says Starmer The prime minister says he found common ground with President Trump as both "really care about family".

Could not be more ashamed of our desperate and pathetic PM

Musk biography half price

Spotted at Heffers bookshop in Cambridge. Nice try but this needs to go much lower I think

Is This an American Cultural Revolution? Liberal critics charge Trump with creating a cult of personality not unlike Mao Zedong’s.

I wrote something with my pal Julia Lovell for @foreignpolicy.com on why analogies between Trump's second term and Mao's Cultural Revolution are a bad idea foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/30/m...

From BBC website: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he regrets saying the UK risked becoming "an island of strangers" in a speech about immigration. The prime minister was accused by some critics of using divisive language when he made a speech to announce plans to cut immigration in May. Some MPs compared Sir Keir's remarks to those made by former MP Enoch Powell in a well-known speech about immigration in 1968. Downing Street rejected the comparison and said the PM stood by his words. But the PM's comments have now been met with fury by some of those loyal to him, who have called them "weak" and "outrageous". In an interview with his biographer, Tom Baldwin, Sir Keir said: "I wouldn't have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell. "I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn't know either. "But that particular phrase – no – it wasn't right. I'll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it."

The newspaper interview, in which he repudiates not just the speech, but much else of the political strategy of his first year in office, is being met with total fury by Sir Keir's loyalists. "Outrageous", "weak", and "totally lacking in moral fibre" were some of the words used by those allies of the prime minister. There is particular anger at the perception that he is throwing his closest aides under a bus. A senior government source said they were too angry to speak about it.

So Starmer’s aides did know his “island of strangers” speech had echoes of Powell and are pissed off at him saying they didn’t? Am I reading this right?

Opinion | The fight for birthright citizenship started with these Black Americans We have endured years, decades, even centuries of confusion about citizenship.

I had something to say: “The fight for birthright citizenship started with these Black Americans
We have endured years, decades, even centuries of confusion about citizenship.”
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... via @MSNBC

The Narrowing of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s Philanthropy

A really powerful (if unsurprising) exposé of elite liberalism’s utter cowardice in the face of Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/t...

«The overt commitment to social equity clearly accelerated on Ryan's watch," said Jim Bacon, a journalist and conservative commentator who co-founded the Jefferson Council, a group of university alumni who have been critical of Mr. Ryan. "Pursuing social justice, as opposed to focusing on the core mission, means that instead of educating kids, he's indoctrinating them."

The sheer craziness of believing that pursuing justice and equity is a form of indoctrination

every day's latest outrage dulls everyone's wits and lowers expectations and hopes; if the legislature and the judiciary aren't going to do their jobs, it'll be down to ordinary people and civil society to fight back

University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration

THIS IS NOT NORMAL www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

It’s Not Just a Constitutional Crisis in the Trump Era. It’s Constitutional Failure | Washington Monthly While Trump defies constitutional norms, Congress remains conspicuously silent and the Supreme Court has abdicated its responsibility.

This is a subject I have been brooding about for some time. I am grateful to the Washington Monthly for posting this piece.

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/27/i...

Yeah but have you or I ever made a fortune betting on JP Morgan trading losses?

Boaz Weinstein, the billionaire boss of New York hedge fund Saba Capital, voiced optimism that Mamdani's "shock" victory could lead to voters turning up in droves this November to ensure he is roundly defeated. "I bet you that we get a record turnout," said Weinstein, who made a fortune betting on JPMorgan trading losses in 2012. He pointed to the fact that Mamdani only secured 430,000 votes in a city where there are 4.7 million people who are eligible to cast ballots.

The GOP nominee in 2021, who is likely to be the GOP nominee in 2025, received 312,385 votes in the general election

Ironically, in the 1920s Stephen Miller's grandparents, Jewish immigrants who settled in central Pennsylvania where they created the inter-generational wealth that helped fund Miller's lifestyle, were attacked with this exact same rhetoric from the immigration restrictionists of their day, the KKK.

"Right wing" = cancellation of student visas, destruction of overseas aid, gutting of major federal agencies, constant violations of international law, US Army on the streets of Los Angeles

"Far left" = free buses

So much of what's wrong with American (and UK) politics is the media's determination to present militantly centrist figures like Andrew Cuomo, Bill Clinton or Keir Starmer as in any way "left"

Zohran Mamdani's all but certain upset in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City reverberated from the five boroughs across the nation on Wednesday, as the political system acquainted itself with a startling new reality. The primary results were not expected to be finalized until next Tuesday. But attention almost immediately turned to November's general election and to the impact a far-left Democratic mayoral nominee could have on midterm races across the country.

It's so bizarre to see the Times describe Zohran as "far left" when they would never use "far right" to describe Trump and his MAGA goons, even as the latter are currently destroying the political structures and assumptions that have anchored America for nearly a century

I think pretty much every one of them would do exactly the same; they talk tough on everything but never miss an opportunity to tickle Trump's tummy

The enthusiasm that Mr. Mamdani generated among a swath of New Yorkers looking for fresh leadership called to mind the insurgent campaigns of Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her upset victory in a 2018 House primary. All three are democratic socialists, a once fringe movement popularized by Mr. Sanders that calls for reining in the excesses of capitalism and curbing the power of the wealthy. Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom endorsed Mr. Mamdani, remain popular progressive figures but have had only limited impact on changing the Democratic Party’s agenda and messaging. Image

Loving this definition of democratic socialism from comrades at the New York Times, which correctly makes it seem that you'd have to be nuts NOT to be a democratic socialist given the excesses of capitalism and the power of the wealthy

Head of NATO tells ordinary Europeans they should be spending twice as much as they do on standing up to aggressors, while also sending blandishments to the guy who is destroying international law and directly funding a genocide

Mr President, dear Donald, Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer. You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we've got them all signed onto 5 percent! Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win. Safe travels and see you at His Majesty's dinner!

The only silver lining to Trump's pathological narcissism is that he'll always leak the toadying messages he receives.

"See you at His Majesty's dinner!"

2025 headline on Blinken hoping Trump's Iraq strike succeeds, along with 2003 extract from a column by Tom Friedman hoping that Bush succeeds in Iraq

Wow Blinken has actually rewritten the Tom Friedman column from 2003, the one about liberals getting behind the occupation of Iraq!

I'm surprised more people haven't been talking about this. The lesson from here in the UK is that if a left leader somehow wins a nomination or leadership election, the entire spectrum from liberals to the far right will happily work together to destroy that candidate ahead of the general election

While the courts keep delivering Harvard victories in the face of Trump's flagrantly unlawful behaviour, the ever-unhelpful Larry Summers is still pushing for a 'deal' which would fatally undermine academic freedom and autonomy. With friends like these...

In 2003 President Bush went to war with Iraq after winning a Congressional resolution but the invasion was widely seen as illegal because Bush couldn't get UN approval.

In 2025 President Trump launched his war on Iran without the approval or even the knowledge of Congress, let alone the UN.

hegseth photo

So wild watching *Pete Hegseth* boasting about how great America is at keeping its military intentions secret

Really feel like the NYC mayor’s race shows that there is no such thing as a progressive establishment, and there is, in fact, an anti-progressive establishment that runs all the way from Murdoch to Clinton

The effects of the US attack on Iran may not be immediate, but in the coming years expect aggressive regimes everywhere to cite Trump & Netanyahu when they invade their neighbours; and expect every regime to make a push for nuclear weapons. We're entering a new and unimaginably dangerous era