Anthony Barnett

The truth about the small-boats crisis What Nigel Farage won’t tell you

great report by Miles Ellingham and Jack Jeffery (neither it seems on here) www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’ The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the U...

"We haven’t come all this way, Katwala says, “just for Elon Musk, a man born into an apartheid state, who’s polarised America, to come and start a civil war here by breaking the law"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Iron Britannia 0/5 (0 Reviews) Related Articles The Iron Woman Read More The Iron Woman Read More Iron Britannia Read More The Iron Woman Read More

I've registered my interest in the class action against Anthropic for training its AI by stealing from Iron Britannia www.faber.co.uk/product/9780... (one for @firstdataunion.org)

🤣

Another catastrophic gaff at the Conference nobody is talking about

Changing and contested ideas of nationhood This post explores how our ideas of democratic nation states can conflict with the current reality.

The very modernity of the nation state means that today’s nations embody much older ideas of nationhood with deep roots long before the emergence of democracy.

Zack Polanski was the only major party leader not to be interviewed on the Laura Kuennsberg Show and he said that it’s likely because of his pro-Palestine and anti-genocide politics, which is obviously true.

"One leader tried to bridge the political centre and the neoliberal-authoritarian right; another has (however imperfectly) bridged the political centre and the emancipatory left"

#Brexit 👇 #ThenAndNow 👇

@profjacob.bsky.social @pmdfoster.bsky.social #ICYMI

YouTube video by Compass 2025 Robin Cook Memorial Lecture

Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB7w...

Gore Vidal: American prophet The writer understood better than anyone how far the United States was going to fall

Extraordinary good piece by @willoyd.bsky.social on Gore Vidal! www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

The Integrity Gap: How We Built the Authoritarian Future We Fear Labour MP Clive Lewis argues that the collapse of public trust in Government is the product of corporate power being wired into the architecture of the state

awesome political writing from @labourlewis.bsky.social on the state we are in (tho @adamramsay.bsky.social substack on the corporate capture of civil service boards deserved a mention)
bylinetimes.com/2025/09/29/t...

Adding this to my thread on Tony Harrison which is here:
bsky.app/profile/anth...

www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/...

Laureate's block I'm appalled to see newspapers use my name as 'widely-tipped' for a job I'd never seek. Swans come in Domestic, Mute, and Tame and no swan-upper's going to nick my beak

This too www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/...

At the bottom of this mess is a simple point: the police and the prosecutors were careless with terrorism law and careless about its express safeguards. Things were left to the last minute and a consent (which may or may not have been given) - a step imposed by parliament as a crucial step - was not obtained. And this mishap meant that the Chief Magistrate of England and Wales had no jurisdiction to hear what was on the face of it a terrorism case. Police and the prosecutors should remember that this is terrorism law that they are dealing with. Terrorism law should be taken seriously.

NEW

The Kneecap prosecution collapsed because police and prosecutors did not take terrorism law seriously

Where "a technicality" hides a fundamental error

By me

Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-kneeca...

Personal blog:
davidallengreen.com/2025/09/the-...

George Monbiot on Blair, Starmer and the capture of democracy I spoke with the celebrated journalist and activist about ‘junk tanks’, dark money - and how we can fight back

"Like so many of these so-called think tanks, the Tony Blair Institute dances to the tune of its funders"

Was so great to talk about Blair, Larry Ellison, Keir Stamer and corporate capture with @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/george-mon...

REVEALED: The big polluter and arms industry bosses overseeing government departments Two in three Whitehall department non-executive directors have corporate backgrounds - and only one is a trade unionist - analysis released ahead of Labour conference reveals.

REVEALED: the lead non-exec director of the ministry of Transport is the chairman of a company licensed to export arms components to Israel: open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

"Labour MP Clive Lewis says that these findings show how “Britain is being run by a shadow board room”. Green Party leader Zack Polanski said they show that, “when we see how the upper layers of government work, people have been largely excluded and business interests ushered in.”"

And as a playwright. The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus was one of the stand out theatrical experiences of my life. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tra...

It was reading Harrison that revealed to me how we too could have poetry that spoke to our time and articulated the pains and truths of class and work, especially those on his father especially 'Marked with a D'

My family favorite is his wonderful celebration A Kumquat for John Keats (kumquat7.blogspot.com/2004/09/kumq...) a joyful echo of his lifelong refrain on how opposites merge and the unified divides.

YouTube video by realthedeal33 Harrison V Part 1

Salute to Tony Harrison, the great poet and playwright. You can see him reading V here - it's in four parts but seems to be the full film, that caused tabloid disgust at using 'fuck' and 'cunt', terms whose hollow spirit they had generated www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPut... 🧵

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

This is superb, giving lie to the idea that the rise of the far right is simply a problem of bad/mis-information.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

UNTOLD: The Daniel Morgan Murder The Daniel Morgan Murder. Private Detectives. Corrupt Cops. Rupert Murdhoch's News of the World

Okay - so #TheHack ends on the select committee and the cliffhanger about whether Nick Davies can save the Guardian. It’s now going to pivot to the ‘most investigated murder in British history’. If you want to know about that go here

Www.untoldmurder.com

UK officially recognises Palestine as a state Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK has officially recognised Palestine as a state.

A welcome - and long overdue - step. But while it’s necessary, it’s deeply insufficient - and must be accompanied by urgent action to help bring an end to the genocide in Gaza, including boycotts, sanctions and an end to all arms sales to Israel.

In addition to Katie's point, what these takes all miss is a lot of people on the centre and left...haven't actually left X. Continues to be startlingly to me how many people just don't *notice* the degradation of their media environment.

Should the government have used terrorism law against Palestine Action? A disclosed MI5 document indicates that the basis for proscription may be weak

another excellent piece from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on support for Palestine Action not being 'terrorism' www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Decline in Bluesky usage (likes and posts) seems to have stopped in mid-August. Now rising again a bit. Might just be due to a busy time for news but encouraging.

On Corbyn/Sultana bustup: wrote this for @bylinetimes.bsky.social two weeks ago. Neither have read Raymond Williams as Farage looms A colossal opportunity needs a culture shift -@piercepenniless.bsky.social, @leninology.bsky.social & cited @owenjones.bsky.social (rest for subscribers, a snip!)

#WindsorCastle