Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
@matthewpb.bsky.social
Publisher, Little Island Books @littleislandbooks.bsky.social. The best new Irish writing for young readers.
Pinned
“I am everything the socialists would have me be and a great stumbling block to my own party.” – incredible line Evelyn Waugh puts into the mouth of Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited
February 3, 2026 at 10:03 PM
“I am everything the socialists would have me be and a great stumbling block to my own party.” – incredible line Evelyn Waugh puts into the mouth of Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited
I’m convinced part of What’s Gone Wrong With the Billionaires is the fact they conflate net worth with moral worth while so much their wealth is illiquid. Losing/making millions day to day as the market shifts would drive anyone mad, especially if they think their bank balance = their human value.
There's a point, well below a billion dollars, where the amount of money you have lets you rid yourself of anyone who can be a check on your worst impulses, and replace them with people who tell you those worst impulses are somehow valorous. Rare is the billionaire with someone to tell them "no."
You can look at the Epstein files and conclude that only bad people have billions of dollars, but I think it’s also possible that having billions of dollars cauterizes your humanity
February 3, 2026 at 9:42 PM
I’m convinced part of What’s Gone Wrong With the Billionaires is the fact they conflate net worth with moral worth while so much their wealth is illiquid. Losing/making millions day to day as the market shifts would drive anyone mad, especially if they think their bank balance = their human value.
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
A correction for the ages (from The Guardian's review of 'Melania'):
February 3, 2026 at 8:23 PM
A correction for the ages (from The Guardian's review of 'Melania'):
Yes! Let’s go!
February 3, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Yes! Let’s go!
This guy is completely correct and it’s been driving me mad seeing all the bad faith readings on BlueSky!
I don't think that is what that slogan means.
It means that you cannot provide a non-arbitrary justification for why the settler state is allowed to create and enforce the borders in the first place. It's just special pleading based on the contingent results of military victories and lawfare
It means that you cannot provide a non-arbitrary justification for why the settler state is allowed to create and enforce the borders in the first place. It's just special pleading based on the contingent results of military victories and lawfare
"no human is illegal on stolen land" is a stupid slogan because of the stolen land part. indigenous peoples, whatever that means, also don't have a right to deny the legal protections of citizenship to foreigners
February 3, 2026 at 7:57 PM
This guy is completely correct and it’s been driving me mad seeing all the bad faith readings on BlueSky!
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Reading Ko Banerjea's Another Kind of Concrete, about growing up Asian in '70s South London. He recalls after the IRA bombs in Woolwich and B'ham violence against he and his family, and other South Asians intensified as if being 'non-English' was enough to share the blame - and the punishment.
February 2, 2026 at 10:42 PM
Reading Ko Banerjea's Another Kind of Concrete, about growing up Asian in '70s South London. He recalls after the IRA bombs in Woolwich and B'ham violence against he and his family, and other South Asians intensified as if being 'non-English' was enough to share the blame - and the punishment.
So I think it’s worth considering the difference between confessing and policing a hard boundary between what you do and what’s evil
Finding out that some people's artistic output was not illumination but confession--finding that out as a person is hard enough. As a critic? Whew. Half the reason I wrote Burn It Down is so we can try to unpack how the systems cover for not just normal stress but a host of toxic & horrific patterns
February 3, 2026 at 7:18 PM
So I think it’s worth considering the difference between confessing and policing a hard boundary between what you do and what’s evil
This is a good example of when something completely fake enters the meme canon because people think it’s real because it *feels* real
February 3, 2026 at 7:02 PM
This is a good example of when something completely fake enters the meme canon because people think it’s real because it *feels* real
Seeing a lot of English people expressing disgust at Blair and Mandy, not so many saying “I wish I had voted for the other guys.” Very interesting!
February 3, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Seeing a lot of English people expressing disgust at Blair and Mandy, not so many saying “I wish I had voted for the other guys.” Very interesting!
If Bob accuses Clancy of stealing his favourite paperweight, “But Bob stole it from Gillian!” isn’t a good defence for Clancy
Also where do you draw the line for stolen land?
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
"no human is illegal on stolen land" is a stupid slogan because of the stolen land part. indigenous peoples, whatever that means, also don't have a right to deny the legal protections of citizenship to foreigners
February 3, 2026 at 6:22 PM
If Bob accuses Clancy of stealing his favourite paperweight, “But Bob stole it from Gillian!” isn’t a good defence for Clancy
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Also where do you draw the line for stolen land?
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
"no human is illegal on stolen land" is a stupid slogan because of the stolen land part. indigenous peoples, whatever that means, also don't have a right to deny the legal protections of citizenship to foreigners
February 3, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Also where do you draw the line for stolen land?
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
Is Israel land stolen from the Palestinians? The Franks? Arabs? Syriac Christians? The Israelites?
Was Irish land stolen by the English? The Normans? Or by the Eoganachta and the other Q-Celtic peoples?
It really depends on when you pick
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Hear me out: can we have Gordon back
Gordon Brown writes to Met to back case for investigation into Mandelson's 'inexcusable and unpatriotic' leaking - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
February 3, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Hear me out: can we have Gordon back
Back in Dublin after a few days away and one of the first things I witness after leaving the house is a bus driver stopping not at a stop to pick up two schoolkids who didn’t even wave him down and telling them “don’t pay on just get off at the next stop and tell nobody”
This city has its moments
This city has its moments
February 3, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Back in Dublin after a few days away and one of the first things I witness after leaving the house is a bus driver stopping not at a stop to pick up two schoolkids who didn’t even wave him down and telling them “don’t pay on just get off at the next stop and tell nobody”
This city has its moments
This city has its moments
Who wore it best? Venice edition
February 3, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Who wore it best? Venice edition
What’s happening in the universe where Mandleson won the Oxford Chancellor election
February 3, 2026 at 10:18 AM
What’s happening in the universe where Mandleson won the Oxford Chancellor election
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
The sums involved in the Mandleson–Epstein scandal are the really undignified part for PM. You ruin your career for amounts of cash that are pocket change to a billionaire, and which your expensive tastes will splurge in a few months.
February 3, 2026 at 10:04 AM
The sums involved in the Mandleson–Epstein scandal are the really undignified part for PM. You ruin your career for amounts of cash that are pocket change to a billionaire, and which your expensive tastes will splurge in a few months.
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Epstein's male friends: You have the courage of a lion. You are the truest friend. Our lives are as one. Stand firm Jeffrey. Give them hell.
my male friends: Hey man. How's it going?
my male friends: Hey man. How's it going?
September 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Epstein's male friends: You have the courage of a lion. You are the truest friend. Our lives are as one. Stand firm Jeffrey. Give them hell.
my male friends: Hey man. How's it going?
my male friends: Hey man. How's it going?
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
This sucks, and it gets even worse. I've noticed at least one site has employed a paywall process that even prevents paying subscribers from employing IA-style WARC creation from saving the site, with a script that reapplies the paywall in the WARC context. www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news...
News publishers limit Internet Archive access due to AI scraping concerns
Outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times are scrutinizing digital archives as potential backdoors for AI crawlers.
www.niemanlab.org
February 2, 2026 at 8:55 PM
This sucks, and it gets even worse. I've noticed at least one site has employed a paywall process that even prevents paying subscribers from employing IA-style WARC creation from saving the site, with a script that reapplies the paywall in the WARC context. www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news...
Checking what LinkedIn commenters are saying under posts about Matt Goodwin today
January 27, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Checking what LinkedIn commenters are saying under posts about Matt Goodwin today
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Broke: Britain is a two party political system
Woke: Britain is now a two bloc, multiparty system
Bespoke: Britain is a one party system and that party is Nimbyism.
Woke: Britain is now a two bloc, multiparty system
Bespoke: Britain is a one party system and that party is Nimbyism.
January 27, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Broke: Britain is a two party political system
Woke: Britain is now a two bloc, multiparty system
Bespoke: Britain is a one party system and that party is Nimbyism.
Woke: Britain is now a two bloc, multiparty system
Bespoke: Britain is a one party system and that party is Nimbyism.
What’s happened here is a columnist has been delighted to hear an acquaintance they regard as a something of a lefty say “he’s probably not all bad god love him” and they’ve rushed off to write a piece about how all across the land the mood is shifting among the silent majority
January 27, 2026 at 10:07 PM
What’s happened here is a columnist has been delighted to hear an acquaintance they regard as a something of a lefty say “he’s probably not all bad god love him” and they’ve rushed off to write a piece about how all across the land the mood is shifting among the silent majority
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
“I feel liberated...we can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”
Dollar slides as Trump says he is not concerned with its recent decline
Greenback trades at lowest level in four years as worries over US currency mount
www.ft.com
January 27, 2026 at 9:34 PM
“I feel liberated...we can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”
Reposted by Matthew Parkinson-Bennett
Losing indies on your one issue, the Donald Trump story
One month ago, 49% of Independents had "very little confidence in ICE." Now it's 67%.
NEW Economist/YouGov Jan 23-26: ICE
% of U.S. adult citizens saying they have very little confidence in ICE, according to polls conducted...
Jan 23-26, 2026: 55%
Jan 9-12, 2026: 49%
Dec 12-15, 2025: 45%
today.yougov.com/politics/art...
% of U.S. adult citizens saying they have very little confidence in ICE, according to polls conducted...
Jan 23-26, 2026: 55%
Jan 9-12, 2026: 49%
Dec 12-15, 2025: 45%
today.yougov.com/politics/art...
January 27, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Losing indies on your one issue, the Donald Trump story