Paul Kelly

Happy Lunar / Chinese new year of the Fire Horse to all my students and colleagues …

Belting start to the week. My Aim is True plus strong fresh coffee

Looks interesting…👆👆👆

Re-litigating the charge of deicide against the Jews tells you something about the state of conservative Catholicism in America (cit. from a friend)

Will the Epstein files tarnish the reputation of Jamie Dimon, America’s banker? The final stretch of the JP Morgan Chase chief’s career is a bumpy one, as Trump himself demands prosecutors investigate Epstein’s ties to Dimon’s bank

www.theguardian.com/business/ng-...

Tarnish his reputation? I thought that had happened years ago …👆👆👆

Well done #BBCR4Today for inviting a climate denier on to justify Trump…

Love Temu Corbynism …

… and so indicates that she actually does give a stuff. 👆👆👆

People asking him to do his job ie see his students etc (I was one of those bullshit job people in this instance - I otherwise quite liked David) - he was of course a Professor of Anthropology a job others might question..👆👆👆

Ah yes but it’s necro-imperialist Zionist settler colonialism - and not of course the other variants… (I’m pretty sure there ought to be a ‘neoliberalism’ in there somewhere…

I wouldn’t read too much into Reform’s response as policy - it’s more populist talking point stuff. Kill high skill employment in a smallish north Wales town is not an obvious vote winner…

… It might also be Pochin thing. As I understand it the ‘Reform’ student societies want Tice, Yousuf or Bull as these are the guys to get close to if you want party roles. Farage wouldn’t do society events, Lowe and the other guy don’t count not sure how well Goodwin is regarded or what he is up to.

As far as I can tell this is not a ban but the denial of a request for a platform. Our LSE conservative student society (which has basically gone Reform) has no problem getting a platform for Reform speakers, I event chaired one such event with David Bull … 👆👆👆

Quite epically wrong - nearly two decades after Blair’s departure there are no Blairites (except @rentouljohn.bsky.social) only those whose politics has been shaped for good or ill by Blair and Brown. The real dead end was the Blue Labour populism of Glasman etc and that needs p urging…

Speccy is not quite sure how to deal with Mandelson - they hated him because he was the Labour Party they wanted …

Line chart showing that confidence in President Donald Trump's ethics has declined among several U.S. religious groups over the past year. The chart is based on Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults.

% of White evangelicals who are extremely/very confident that Donald Trump acts ethically in office 📉

55% in early 2025
40% in early 2026

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Nice piece from Theo Hobson - (now read the books @pjthinker.bsky.social Against Post-Liberalism and @mattsleat.bsky.social Post-Liberalism) @politybooks.bsky.social

The trouble with post-liberalism You might suppose that sensible mainstream theologians have been calmly refuting such reactionary posturing. If only

For about fifteen years now, the term has attracted academics and pundits who want to sound edgy.

✍️ Theo Hobson spectator.com/article/the-...

It’s very good of Prince William to distance himself from his horrific uncle Andrew, while on a visit to hang out with journalist-murdering bastard Mohammed bin Salman. I

I think Starmer is interested in foreign policy - but otherwise agree. Foreign policy is never enough to save an administration especially when as now it can’t actually speak its goal. Maybe Starmer should step aside in return for being Foreign Secretary - like Balfour? But with more free reign …

@politybooks.bsky.social @lsegovernment.bsky.social

As @mattsleat.bsky.social says a great piece - and one that continues to bring our related but independent work to a wider audience when that might matter. I have more of a dog in this fight than Matt - more on this in the coming months …

Very grateful for the mention of mine and @pjthinker.bsky.social's book on post-liberalism in The Spectator. I have no dog in the fight, but politics of the British and American post-liberals are more different than acknowledged here (as I explain in my book).

amzn.eu/d/0hDHqugN

amzn.eu/d/051VjPnM

Winning is extremely important in electoral politics (including referenda) but the idea that it is the only thing that matters has destroyed British politics, hollowed out political parties and left policy making a mess.

With all due respect to my U.S. followers no one outside the U.S. cares who won the NFL and absolutely no one cares what Trump thought of Mr Bad Bunny and the half-time show - perhaps BBCNews might take note.

He did let his boss down on so many levels and that he is surprised at the seriousness of his Boss’s position shows he is far from the galactic political mega-brain he was supposed to be, but then such people - think Cummings - are rarely as good as they seem to a gullible press.

This was not orthogonal to the whole Epstein scandal - the number of times Thiel is mentioned illustrates and the way his business influence extends through the likes of Mandelson should worry us all. This takes nothing away from the centrality of the suffering of the women victims or Trumps role…

*bit*

I find the emails but crazy - I remember my brief period in senior management re-learning to use the phone. All HR stuff was by phone until final agreed positions needed to be on record. At best email was ‘please phone at …’ OK I didn’t do Epstein stuff but were these people just stupid?

Just a reminder the excellent @thetablet.bsky.social piece on Against Post-Liberalism and @mattsleat.bsky.social Post-Liberalism is out today…👆👆👆