Tom Griffin
tcgriffin.bsky.social
Tom Griffin
@tcgriffin.bsky.social

Author of State-Private Networks and Intelligence Theory (Routledge 2022). Writing on intelligence history on substack. https://intelligencehistory.substack.com

Political science 30%
Sociology 27%
There is a lot to agree with here - and it comes up over and over again on doorsteps - but its also a huge case of revealed preference.

People want a high street. They just don't want to visit it.

Not sure what can be done aside from huge state subsidy of unviable business.
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World
Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.
www.forbes.com
🚨 Exclusive: Tony Blair isn’t just a big fan of AI — he's now trying to build and sell AI tools to governments

Tony Blair Institute staff have described the plan as 'insane' and compared it to Palantir

New by D4S and @lighthousereports.com 🧵

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/blair-bids...
Blair bids to build own AI tools to rival Palantir
TBI insiders warn of “'insane” plan to transform think tank into a tech company
democracyforsale.substack.com
Yesterday Elon Musk retweeted "white solidarity is the only way to survive". In our numb overwhelmed media environment it barely made headlines that the world's richest man endorsed blood-curdling white nationalism. My brief writeup for @religiondispatches.org

religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...
Elon Musk Just Endorsed Blatant White Nationalism And the Silence is Deafening
On Thursday morning Elon Musk retweeted (with a ‘100%’ endorsement) a post declaring that: If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered. Remember, if non-Whites openly hate White men while...
religiondispatches.org
The level of quixoticism at this point is like Kemi Badenoch spending all day trying to win over Your Party voters. What part of ‘no’ does Blue Labour not understand?
1% of Reform UK voters have a favourable opinion of the Labour Party, compared to 98% seeing it unfavourably, including 89% who view the party *very* unfavourably.

Conservative voters are more sympathetic.
Only Reform voters can save Labour

By Luke Akehurst
1% of Reform UK voters have a favourable opinion of the Labour Party, compared to 98% seeing it unfavourably, including 89% who view the party *very* unfavourably.

Conservative voters are more sympathetic.
🚨 AI Minister Niamh Smyth says it isn't appropriate for the Government to maintain a presence on X and will speak to the Taoiseach on the matter.

Says the European Commission should immediately suspend Grok while investigations are continuing.

More on @virginmedianews.bsky.social
A Mercosur-EU shared market is post-American Transatlanticism

Reposted by Tom Griffin

I spoke with the head of Greenland's largest labor union about the Trump administration's threats over annexation

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘We are not for sale’: chair of Greenland’s top labor union rebukes Trump’s call for annexation
Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’
www.theguardian.com
Only Reform voters can save Labour

By Luke Akehurst
Only Reform voters can save Labour
A progressive coalition simply doesn't have the vote share
www.newstatesman.com

I suppose, really, the should use George Washington's axe.
Wait wait wait, while Americans have to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in new tariffs, Trump is going send over $10,000 to each person in *Greenland*?????????

This is a joke right ?

www.reuters.com/world/europe...
Exclusive: Trump administration mulls payments to sway Greenlanders to join US
U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources famil...
www.reuters.com
Government should stay on X despite the Grok scandal, Keir Starmer's former communications director has said

James Lyons, who worked at TikTok before serving in Downing St, told PolHome podcast The Rundown that quitting Elon Musk's platform would leave a "vacuum" for Labour's rivals to fill
Government Shouldn’t Quit X Over Grok Scandal, Says Former No10 Comms Director
The government should not quit X as doing so would leave a 'vacuum' for its political rivals to fill, Keir Starmer's former communications director...
www.politicshome.com
Makes you wonder how far the collapse of the Rial means that the Khamenei regime can no longer rely on the Basij either
It is very very rare for France to be outvoted - in public Council votes, it has been the least outvoted country every year.

This is also because usually France strikes a compromise. Here my reading is that Macron wants to be seen to be outvoted to evade blame for Mercosur in France.
Emmanuel Macron has just confirmed that France will vote against the EU-Mercosur trade deal.

The vote is scheduled to take place tomorrow. If Italy votes yes, as it has telegraphed it will, there will be a qualified majority in favour and Ursula von der Leyen will be able to sign it in Paraguay.

Reposted by Tom Griffin

New: US spy chief Tulsi Gabbard was excluded from meetings on Venezuela, with aides joking her DNI title stood for "Do Not Invite."
US Spy Chief Gabbard Excluded From Maduro Plan Over Past Views
The White House excluded Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from months of planning to oust Nicolas Maduro because her previous opposition to military action in Venezuela cast doubt on her willingness to support the operation, people familiar with the matter said.
bloom.bg

Reposted by Tom Griffin

interesting reflections from Lou Haigh on Twitter's damage to the very art of politics
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota investigators say they can't access evidence after fatal ICE shooting and FBI won't work jointly on probe.

@reuters.com
The Trump administration's attempt to justify shootings by ICE or CBP personnel as always necessary can be a pathway to legitimising more systematic armed violence against those who oppose Trump and Miller's agenda

Reposted by Tom Griffin

Spent some time in India over the New Year and what strikes me most in retrospect is a clear shift towards seeing China rather than 'the west' an exemplar.

With the obvious caveat that it was just the folk I spoke with etc...

Reposted by Tom Griffin

I get there is a hell of a lot going on, but the media blindspot on climate remains utterly surreal. I simply cannot fathom how anyone can read that list of organisations and not see climate as at least part of the top line, if not the most important aspect of the story.
I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.
Today, on @ppfideas.bsky.social, we're exploring the Home Rule crisis of 1912-14: the closest modern Britain has come to civil war.

It's an amazing story, in which Conservatives supplied weapons to paramilitaries, built refugee camps and fomented mutiny in the army.

So here's a short intro...🧵

Reposted by Tom Griffin

The word “doxing”—and yes, since there’s anti-doxing laws, I guess you could say in a legal sense—means to reveal private information. Like publishing a home address or phone number. Vance and others are trying to redefine it to limit scrutiny into public records.

'Power worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue.' is there an element of what Orwell was getting at in Mandelson's latest?
spectator.com/article/euro...
Kristi Noem accuses the woman who was killed by ICE in Minneapolis of committing an act of "domestic terrorism"

Reposted by Tom Griffin

Reporter: “Why not rule out taking Greenland by military force?”

White House: “All options are always on the table for Trump. Trump's first option is always diplomacy.”

' The new ‘managerial’ societies will not consist of a patchwork of small, independent states, but of great super-states grouped round the main industrial centres in Europe, Asia, and America.' Orwell on James Burnham worth reading in the current conjuncture. www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...
Second Thoughts on James Burnham | The Orwell Foundation
"It is curious that in all his talk about the struggle for power, Burnham never stops to ask why people want power."
www.orwellfoundation.com

Reposted by Tom Griffin

If you want to know what a proper agenda to boost the international role of the #euro could look like, @shahinvallee.bsky.social has written just that. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-g...
A Global Euro | Phenomenal World
With the global monetary order on less certain ground, will Europeans seize the opportunity to make the euro a true reserve currency issuer?
www.phenomenalworld.org

Reposted by Tom Griffin

The gov' is hoping its new comms strategy will help its cost of living policies cut through. So far, they are not. In fact, at the Budget, the most supported policies around cutting energy bills, freezing NHS prescriptions, freezing rail fares were also among the least well-known announcements.