John Merrick
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
Writer, critic, historian, editor etc
Editor: @the-breakdown.bsky.social
[email protected] / [email protected]
https://www.johnmerrick.co.uk/
Editor: @the-breakdown.bsky.social
[email protected] / [email protected]
https://www.johnmerrick.co.uk/
Pinned
John Merrick
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
· Jan 25
The prophet of the new right
In the life and work of Correlli Barnett, we can find all the most dangerous currents of contemporary conservatism.
www.newstatesman.com
For the @newstatesman.com i wrote a profile of the historian Correlli Barnett, which charts the perils of self-loathing nationalism and the rise of Britain's new right
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
Grimly telling comment (well, the little of it that makes sense). for so many of these edgy rwers this is all a big fun game. Which would be fine if it wasn’t in the service of people with actual commitments — to white nationalism, antisemitism, and the worst kind of reactionary politics
November 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Grimly telling comment (well, the little of it that makes sense). for so many of these edgy rwers this is all a big fun game. Which would be fine if it wasn’t in the service of people with actual commitments — to white nationalism, antisemitism, and the worst kind of reactionary politics
Reposted by John Merrick
‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Brett Christophers · Assume the worst: Where our waste goes
Just as Big Oil has repeatedly failed to deliver on pledges to begin decarbonising, so too the promises of plastics...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 4:35 PM
‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by John Merrick
Submissions for ISSUE #3 – AIRBORNE, are now open!
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
Pitching
What We Publish We’re interested in original ideas and clear, compelling writing that breaks down complex subjects for an engaged but non-expert audience. The best guide to what we might like is to…
www.break-down.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Submissions for ISSUE #3 – AIRBORNE, are now open!
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
Reposted by John Merrick
Write for us!!
We're taking pitches for our third issue until December 5th
Send us your ideas for essays, dispatches, photojournalism, memoir, the works!
Full details at the link. 👩💻📚
We're taking pitches for our third issue until December 5th
Send us your ideas for essays, dispatches, photojournalism, memoir, the works!
Full details at the link. 👩💻📚
Submissions for ISSUE #3 – AIRBORNE, are now open!
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
More details 👇
Pitching
What We Publish We’re interested in original ideas and clear, compelling writing that breaks down complex subjects for an engaged but non-expert audience. The best guide to what we might like is to…
www.break-down.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Write for us!!
We're taking pitches for our third issue until December 5th
Send us your ideas for essays, dispatches, photojournalism, memoir, the works!
Full details at the link. 👩💻📚
We're taking pitches for our third issue until December 5th
Send us your ideas for essays, dispatches, photojournalism, memoir, the works!
Full details at the link. 👩💻📚
Reposted by John Merrick
The Danish Social Democrats who have pursued far right policies on immigration and governs with the centre-right are set to lose in Copenhagen for the first time in a 100 years, while the left looks set to win a major victory today.
November 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
The Danish Social Democrats who have pursued far right policies on immigration and governs with the centre-right are set to lose in Copenhagen for the first time in a 100 years, while the left looks set to win a major victory today.
Reposted by John Merrick
fantastic interview on the history, state of research, and problems with geoengineering. Very much in line with my writing on SRM
📢☀️NEW EPISODE📢☀️ Sofia Menemenlis joins PTO to talk about her recent article on the threat of solar geoengineering in the @the-breakdown.bsky.social:
The Sunlight Managers w/ Sofia Menemenlis
Podcast Episode · Politics Theory Other · 11/05/2025 · 46m
podcasts.apple.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:42 PM
fantastic interview on the history, state of research, and problems with geoengineering. Very much in line with my writing on SRM
Reposted by John Merrick
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Plastic Planet | Venus Bivar
Stalled negotiations and accelerating accumulation in the global petrochemicals industry
www.phenomenalworld.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Reposted by John Merrick
In 2023 @tom-clark.bsky.social got me to write a chapter for his book on UK poverty about how immigration limbo, which Labour wants more of, makes people destitute. It was the most distressing piece I've ever worked on. We sent a copy to every MP. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/6081...
Destitute by design: trapped in the immigration system
Migration policy is not only failing people forced to arrive in Britain by
boats. In an extract from a new edited volume, Daniel Trilling reports on t...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 8:36 AM
In 2023 @tom-clark.bsky.social got me to write a chapter for his book on UK poverty about how immigration limbo, which Labour wants more of, makes people destitute. It was the most distressing piece I've ever worked on. We sent a copy to every MP. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/6081...
Excellent, by @kenanmalik.bsky.social, on the resurgence of a deep reactionary strain in conservatism, and the return of overt racism and white nationalism to mainstream politics
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
The real threat isn’t a ‘woke right’ – it’s conservatism’s old demons | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Excellent, by @kenanmalik.bsky.social, on the resurgence of a deep reactionary strain in conservatism, and the return of overt racism and white nationalism to mainstream politics
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk/news/columni...
Reposted by John Merrick
Utterly compelling, deeply alarming. Wim Carton @wimcarton.bsky.social and Andreas Malm's The Long Heat (following Overshoot from last year) sets out the extent to which we are fucked. The planet is overheating. Fossil-fuel capitalism is doing it, and it is not stopping. From @versobooks.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Utterly compelling, deeply alarming. Wim Carton @wimcarton.bsky.social and Andreas Malm's The Long Heat (following Overshoot from last year) sets out the extent to which we are fucked. The planet is overheating. Fossil-fuel capitalism is doing it, and it is not stopping. From @versobooks.bsky.social
Reposted by John Merrick
We're now open for pitches for Issue #3 of @the-breakdown.bsky.social, AIRBORNE, on the importance of air in the climate crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
November 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM
We're now open for pitches for Issue #3 of @the-breakdown.bsky.social, AIRBORNE, on the importance of air in the climate crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
Reposted by John Merrick
For the Ideas Letter, i tried to understand what's going on with the constant summoning forth of an immanent civil war on the British right. Featuring ethnic determinism, remigration, and the strange radicalisation of conservative intellectuals
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
All Betz Are Off - The Ideas Letter
Once solely the language of the far-right fringe, warnings of an impending “civil war” in Britain have gone mainstream, carried by figures like David Betz, a professor at King’s College…
www.theideasletter.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
For the Ideas Letter, i tried to understand what's going on with the constant summoning forth of an immanent civil war on the British right. Featuring ethnic determinism, remigration, and the strange radicalisation of conservative intellectuals
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
Reposted by John Merrick
This rancid trash understands the significance of Labour's anti-refugee policies.
November 16, 2025 at 10:43 AM
This rancid trash understands the significance of Labour's anti-refugee policies.
Reposted by John Merrick
It was very common to be dismissed whenever it was said that Gaza would unravel everything, and this essay really does acutely show how true and poignant that was www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco • EQUATOR
How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart
www.equator.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
It was very common to be dismissed whenever it was said that Gaza would unravel everything, and this essay really does acutely show how true and poignant that was www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Reposted by John Merrick
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by John Merrick
Bumping this, on David Betz, Matt Goodwin and the spectre of civil war
For the Ideas Letter, i tried to understand what's going on with the constant summoning forth of an immanent civil war on the British right. Featuring ethnic determinism, remigration, and the strange radicalisation of conservative intellectuals
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
All Betz Are Off - The Ideas Letter
Once solely the language of the far-right fringe, warnings of an impending “civil war” in Britain have gone mainstream, carried by figures like David Betz, a professor at King’s College…
www.theideasletter.org
November 14, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Bumping this, on David Betz, Matt Goodwin and the spectre of civil war
Reposted by John Merrick
Pleased to post this new Dig ep w/ my partner in all things @triofrancos.bsky.social on her beautiful book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. We go from Chile to Nevada, from dawn of colonialism to geoeconomic conflict between the US and China—and more www.thedigradio.com/podcast/extr...
Extraction w/ Thea Riofrancos
Featuring Thea Riofrancos on Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. The green energy transition requires a vast array of inputs: copper, cobalt, rare earth elements, and the focus of this disc...
www.thedigradio.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Pleased to post this new Dig ep w/ my partner in all things @triofrancos.bsky.social on her beautiful book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. We go from Chile to Nevada, from dawn of colonialism to geoeconomic conflict between the US and China—and more www.thedigradio.com/podcast/extr...
We're now open for pitches for Issue #3 of @the-breakdown.bsky.social, AIRBORNE, on the importance of air in the climate crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
November 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM
We're now open for pitches for Issue #3 of @the-breakdown.bsky.social, AIRBORNE, on the importance of air in the climate crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet.
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
If you have ideas for a piece, send them our way www.break-down.org/pitching/
Reposted by John Merrick
👇
Governments and companies worldwide are increasingly investing in solar radiation management as a "fix" to global warming. Our podcast of the week explores how billionaire-backed research has normalized geoengineering.
With Sofia Menemenlis on @poltheoryother.bsky.social
buff.ly/heeIBDo
With Sofia Menemenlis on @poltheoryother.bsky.social
buff.ly/heeIBDo
November 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM
👇
Reposted by John Merrick
This piece launches our new series on (re)reading radical thinkers for a time of ecological crisis.
Small subscriptions make our work possible—subscribe digitally for access to our fill archive of essays, conversations and journalism for just over £1 a month:
www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/
Small subscriptions make our work possible—subscribe digitally for access to our fill archive of essays, conversations and journalism for just over £1 a month:
www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/
Subscribe
We publish two issues each year in the spring and autumn, with contributions spanning critical essays, journalism, photography and interviews. We also publish regular online-only contributions as well...
www.break-down.org
November 14, 2025 at 8:58 AM
This piece launches our new series on (re)reading radical thinkers for a time of ecological crisis.
Small subscriptions make our work possible—subscribe digitally for access to our fill archive of essays, conversations and journalism for just over £1 a month:
www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/
Small subscriptions make our work possible—subscribe digitally for access to our fill archive of essays, conversations and journalism for just over £1 a month:
www.break-down.org/subscribe-now/
Reposted by John Merrick
"People have to have a language to speak about what other possible futures are available to them,” Hall wrote. One task...is therefore to devise a language that expands the sense of what is possible"
NEW: Casey A. Williams reads Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
NEW: Casey A. Williams reads Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
Reading Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
Stuart Hall’s politics of culture offers the left a blueprint for confronting the climate crisis.
www.break-down.org
November 14, 2025 at 8:58 AM
"People have to have a language to speak about what other possible futures are available to them,” Hall wrote. One task...is therefore to devise a language that expands the sense of what is possible"
NEW: Casey A. Williams reads Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
NEW: Casey A. Williams reads Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
Reposted by John Merrick
Really good long read here, folks
For the Ideas Letter, i tried to understand what's going on with the constant summoning forth of an immanent civil war on the British right. Featuring ethnic determinism, remigration, and the strange radicalisation of conservative intellectuals
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
www.theideasletter.org/essay/all-be...
All Betz Are Off - The Ideas Letter
Once solely the language of the far-right fringe, warnings of an impending “civil war” in Britain have gone mainstream, carried by figures like David Betz, a professor at King’s College…
www.theideasletter.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Really good long read here, folks
The Richard Clutterbuck era!
There’s an excellent BBC documentary about Sandhurst, first broadcast in 1975.
In which officer cadets take part in a long exercise about civil disorder between the hard left and the hard right amid a breakdown in the British state.
#WhatGoodTimes
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
In which officer cadets take part in a long exercise about civil disorder between the hard left and the hard right amid a breakdown in the British state.
#WhatGoodTimes
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Panorama - Sandhurst
First transmitted in 1975, this edition of Panorama is set at Sandhurst, the officer training academy. It follows a group of young men prepare for a life of leadership in the Army.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 AM
The Richard Clutterbuck era!
Reposted by John Merrick
This is part of a new series we'll be running, (re)reading radical thinkers for the climate crisis. If you have pitches/ideas for other writers and thinkers we should cover, then send them to us! www.break-down.org/pitching/
November 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM
This is part of a new series we'll be running, (re)reading radical thinkers for the climate crisis. If you have pitches/ideas for other writers and thinkers we should cover, then send them to us! www.break-down.org/pitching/
Reposted by John Merrick
New: for @equatormag.bsky.social I spent months talking to BBC journalists, from front-line reporters to the former head of the World Service, about how the corporation came unstuck over Gaza. But as I was working on the story, it collided with something... bigger... www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco • Articles • EQUATOR
How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart
www.equator.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:50 PM
New: for @equatormag.bsky.social I spent months talking to BBC journalists, from front-line reporters to the former head of the World Service, about how the corporation came unstuck over Gaza. But as I was working on the story, it collided with something... bigger... www.equator.org/articles/ins...