James Meek
jamesmeek.bsky.social
James Meek
@jamesmeek.bsky.social
Writer, London
Reposted by James Meek
Issue 47.22 is now online, featuring:

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on the green energy transition and North-East England
Clare Bucknell on Robert Frost
@jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on American post-liberalism
and Maureen N. McLane on Claire-Louise Bennett’s new novel.

Read online at www.lrb.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
In keeping with the Pope's anathema on clickbait, I offer this article about Reform, Jeremy Corbyn, Shakespearan railways, batteries, jobmaking and the Northumbrian town of Blyth
‘It’s always been odd that Faragism, a tendency that is bound to make small gods out of Nelson and Raleigh, should have such a hysterical loathing of wind power.’

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Reform and the green energy transition, published online early:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Ten-Foot Chopsticks: The North-East Transition
The ghost of the industrial revolution haunts Britain. The language of today’s politicians, of unlocking and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by James Meek
I guess it’s a compliment that the top story on BBC London’s TV/online output today is a direct lift of a month-old London Centric story? But once again the BBC is consistently the worst news outlet for actually remembering to credit others.
November 25, 2025 at 7:52 AM
A lot of commenters have internalised the Trump-Putin delusion that Ukrainian resistance is 'Zelensky's war' and his corruption-related weakness is a good time to get him to end it. In fact the Ukrainians angriest about Ze & corruption are generally those most against giving Russia this much
November 23, 2025 at 4:08 PM
One way of getting Trump’s world view is that he only sees three kinds of people: squatters, tenants, and landlord-developers. Palestinians, Ukrainians, Greenlanders, Canadians, are squatters. Armies are bailiffs. Putin, Trump and Prince Salman are landlords. Israelis and Europeans are tenants.
November 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reassuring how easy it is to tell that the spate of fake book club emails I've been getting 'offering' to read 'my book' are AI-written. Beware the niche scam
November 19, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by James Meek
When I arrive at the party
November 19, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by James Meek
Everyone I have spoken to in Ukraine’s top offices and parliament as well as civil society says knives are out for Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s polarizing chief of staff and architect of his system of power. Great time to re-read my FT Magazine cover story on him: on.ft.com/4macDWE
The polarising power of Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s other wartime leader
President Zelenskyy’s right-hand man is fuelling concerns over creeping authoritarianism
on.ft.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:27 PM
'We'll break our pledge, but we'll tell you to your face that we haven't'
November 14, 2025 at 10:53 AM
I swear to God this guy was ahead of me in the queue at Toad bakery today and he looked so head in the clouds but he took the last pain au chocolat
‘Lanier’s songs moved many of his contemporaries. Herrick called him “rare Laniere” while John Donne said he “gave a life and harmony to all that he set”.’

Alice Spawls on the rediscovery of a portrait of one of the most intriguing figures of the 17th century.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Alice Spawls · On Nicholas Lanier
The portrait that I came across so unexpectedly at Frieze Masters doesn’t have the prestige of the Van Dyck or the...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Brilliant, place-grounded essay from @sachahilhorst.bsky.social about Reform powering on through its seemingly irreconcilable contradictions
Reform’s aesthetics of industry
Renewal 33.2_HilhorstRenewal 33.2_Hilhorst.pdf110 KBdownload-circle In North Nottinghamshire, Reform UK present themselves as the party of workers, community and coalmining heritage. But this image...
renewal.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 10:58 AM
It was odd that Ukraine’s main response to the mass destruction of its large conventional power stations by Russian strikes last year seems to have been to repair them so they could be destroyed again
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies conduct major operation to expose corruption in Ukraine's energy sector
Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) are carrying out large-scale searches related to corruption in the energy sector, including at former energy minister and current ...
www.pravda.com.ua
November 10, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Great and brave reporting by the upstart startup Sheffield Tribune. A reminder that the internet is still available for the proper reporting of ‘local’ news if you do it right
Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Nigel Farage, man of the people.
(Courtesy @chrisgiles.ft.com)
November 3, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by James Meek
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
October 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by James Meek
This story is jaw-dropping. "Chinese-run facilities have recently been discovered in the Philippines and the desert outside Dubai. In 2022, Chinese scammers took over the shuttered Seaview Hotel on the Isle of Man...". @alexclapp.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... @lrb.co.uk
Alexander Clapp · Pig Butchering: Scam Gangs
If it were a national economy, cybercrime would be the third largest in the world, behind only the United States and...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Trump style makes me think of its antecedents, which makes me think of Napoleon III, which makes me think of Flaubert, which makes me think of this from Julian Barnes in the new LRB
October 29, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by James Meek
October 27, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Having read this none the wiser why the Met chases these petty crims in helicopters instead of following the stolen phone which is literally telling you every second where it is
The phone theft victims and the battle to catch the snatchers
One officer said pickpockets fly in from abroad and fly out once they've amassed a haul of phones.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 26, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America
October 24, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by James Meek
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:16 PM
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Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one
October 14, 2025 at 8:33 PM
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Omg Portland REALLY understands the mission.

Pass this on. We need this movement nationwide 🔥🔥
October 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by James Meek
I don't know where this revisionism has come from about the suffragettes - people saying "if the suffragettes were around today, they'd be considered terrorists."

The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
October 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Are the childhood transgressions of bullies, dodgy business people and trolls not classified as 'neurodivergence' because society deems it normative, or is it that educators are cowed by controlled, self-possessed, confident aggression and deceit in a way they aren't by autism & hyperactivity?
October 4, 2025 at 12:34 PM