Paul Kelly

How lovely - I hope the loss is huge and the option on subsequent titles is withdrawn…👆👆👆

It will be interesting what they take exception to - liking US site anti Trump posts, general US going to the dogs stuff or substantive critical posts. I’ve probably got all of these but mostly the first. When I renewed my ESTA in October they asked for X, Facebook and Insta not bsky or ‘other’. 👆

We’re now up to 22 ex-Tory MPs joining reform. It’s not subtle - every day clearer this is just a rebranding of the nutty fringe of the Conservative Party offering to rerun the Truss/Johnson omnishambles

Sorry Liam that was not my intention - I was suggesting you were not giving sufficient weight to EU scepticism about arguments that might play well only in UK politics between now and 2029. That was not supposed to be ad hominem and sorry if it came out that way. 👆

I share your preference for the rejoin outcome but I suspect the enthusiasm for taking us back depends on settled commitment to remain and whilst I agree that popular sentiment and age tends that way it doesn’t amongst political class - that will take a further decade and possible a Reform defeat

Because it also requires the EU to see an interest in allowing us back - that’s how clubs work. Also given Reform and Tories would scupper such a plan pursuing a domestically popular campaign he can’t deliver is in the same category as rhetorically taking on Trump. 👆👆👆

A white British father and son BOTH raped the same child and pled guilty to multiple counts of Sexual assault.

This has been in the press for 2 days.

The Mirror is the only National newspaper to report on it…

And THAT’s why people have such a skewed perception of the links between race and SA🤷🏼‍♀️

Very pleased the author meets critics panel on my liberal socialism book was approved by @mpsa.bsky.social. Coming to Chicago in April

Indeed and the serious point is that one must keep saying this …👆

Bogged down in intellectual foppery | Tom Jones | The Critic Magazine You know that something is really having an impact the moment people start writing books to criticise it.

Nice to see Tom Jones review of my book alongside Matt Sleat’s forthcoming Post-Liberalism book. Credit to The Critic for the review. And of course the looming presence of Schmitt - the Banquo’s Ghost at all such discussions

thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...

Bogged down in intellectual foppery | Tom Jones | The Critic Magazine You know that something is really having an impact the moment people start writing books to criticise it.

Nice to see Tom Jones review of my book alongside Matt Sleat’s forthcoming Post-Liberalism book. Credit to The Critic for the review. And of course the looming presence of Schmitt - the Banquo’s Ghost at all such discussions

thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...

Bogged down in intellectual foppery | Tom Jones | The Critic Magazine You know that something is really having an impact the moment people start writing books to criticise it.

Review of @pjthinker.bsky.social and my own books on post-liberalism in The Critic. Though I'm quite in favour of foppery, just not of the post-liberal kind.

thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...

May…will… - Will👆

Something something Free Speech, Europe’s going to the dogs something something - and this👆👆👆nice Vance

New profile picture Against Post-Liberalism @politybooks.bsky.social see also @lsegovernment.bsky.social

Given his current preoccupation with Foreign Affairs and Ukraine it’s not implausible to see Starmer stay on as Foreign Secretary in such a regime - there is the Balfour precedent. Also KS is close to Rayner - of course the markets will have their say but they are also fickle and herd like…👆👆👆

Making a quiet point by following all Labour LD Green MPs on Bluesky. 👆👆👆

brilliant👆👆👆

Title panel: CHRISTMAS… AT THE BBC. The Traitors Christmas Special: Who in the BBC Boardroom is trying to bring down the gaff from within? [Image: The Traitors scene with Claudia Winkleman looking like “ooh-er” while the BBC board sit at a table looking suspiciously at each other] Apologising To The People Who Want To Destroy Us At Christmas: A festive extravaganza of self-flagellation before our enemies [Image: A cozy fireside scene with Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch standing, while at their feet lots of BBC employees are kneeling before them and begging for forgiveness]. Donald's Big Distraction: Heartwarming Julia Donaldson animation in which a dragon sues the BBC to draw his friends' attention onto something else [Image: Julia Donaldson’s ‘Zog’ with a Donald Trump wig, holding up a lawyer’s letter to show his dragon friends while trying to block their view of a pile of box files and computer drives some with ‘Epstein’ written on them]. The King's Speech: We let Nigel Farage tell you the BBC is left wing as if that's some kind of fact [Image: Nigel Farage as the King delivering his Christmas speech to camera]. A Ghost Story for Christmas: A venerable British institution is haunted by Boris Johnson's appointees [Image: A BBC studio with a window, outside in the dark snowy night a spectral apparition in the form of Robbie Gibb taps at the window and wails “I want to destroooy you”] Christmas Labour Inertia-Time: Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy present four hours of total silence from under their desks [Image: Show them both under their desks holding up glasses of sherry] Rightward Drift Christmas Special: A bonanza of trust-corrosion with confected immigration panic and Reform coverage [Image: A computer and a smartphone in a cute snowy scene, both displaying the BBC News website with multiple headlines and LIVE feeds and and BREAKING NEWS stories headlined: “IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS!”] [Ends]

Christmas at the BBC

Postliberals Don’t Understand What’s Wrong With America Frustrated with the state of America, some on the Right have come to embrace postliberalism, an ideology that seeks to invigorate conservative politics by rejecting equality.

"Postliberals often wildly misconstrue the history of liberal thought, interpreting the ideology’s core value to be libertine 'autonomy.'"

Good @mattpolprof.bsky.social reminder that post-liberals erase egalitarian liberalism from the story entirely:
jacobin.com/2025/12/post...

What Post-Liberals Get Right (and Wrong) About Liberalism

Had a fascinating conversation with @pjthinker.bsky.social about his latest book, Against Post-Liberalism. A timely defence of liberal egalitarianism against a reactionary agenda which seeks to undermine democracy. No country, including Australia is immune.

open.spotify.com/episode/2qfs...

Good to see @nytimes.com pick up on this. Remember we are not even one year into Trump’s administration. At this rate he will not make 4 years - then what, a constitutional coup? Was that the plan?

This such an extraordinary coincidence I can’t help thinking this is someone Trolling FIFA or Trump’s followers… and for those who don’t know it the book is vile.

Maybe if interest @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social see also @mattsleat.bsky.social 👇👇👇

Nice piece on Post-Liberalism by J-W Muller that nicely converges with my analysis in Against Post-Liberalism and Matt Sleat’s Post-Liberalism @politybooks.bsky.social Perhaps as LRB is a review it might have acknowledged both especially as both are out there being discussed. PL seems to be news…

Jason Bassler
Anyone else find it strange that 7 of the richest men on Earth aren't just billionaires, but also media barons?
Musk, Ellison, Bezos, Arnault, Brin, Page, Zuckerberg.
They own the feeds, papers, platforms and narratives that shape our reality and no one says a word.🚩

I was inspired to read the Tanenhaus Buckley biography after reading Kevin Schultz’s Why Everyone Hates White Liberals - on the language of liberalism in US politics. Two figures loom large - Buckley and James Baldwin. There is a new Baldwin biography in the UK in March - on the to do list.

… Liebman’s warning about Buckley’s movement without his personality has come to pass in the current GOP and Trump. Recovering from that predicament requires serious thought and that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming from Christian or White Nationalism of from Post-liberalism of whatever flavour…

Spent along time reading Sam Tanenhaus’s Buckley. In many ways a great book but for me Buckley remains a deeply unsympathetic character. His Conservatism is nicely summed up by a friend and associate as an ‘aggregation of bigotries’ redeemed by his anti-Communism’. (Page 845)…

What Post-Liberals Get Right (and Wrong) About Liberalism

Of interest to @lsegovernment.bsky.social and @lsepoltheory.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/2qfs...