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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 18h

Sorry Keith

Reposted by James Meek

sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 3d

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!

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 4d

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?

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 6d

I wrote about Artificial Desire

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

James Meek · Computers that want things

For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

www.lrb.co.uk

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 7d

Great description of the anarchic consumerist authoritarianism of our day

bort @crushbort.bsky.social · 7d

i wonder what it’s like to look around every day and see the country being run into the ground by pill-poppers and secret police and anti-vaxxers and book burners and you go into work and sit down at your computer and you’re the guy whose job it is to come up with new oreos flavors

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 18d

Essential reading from @petergeoghegan.bsky.social

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19d

‘The Telegraph and the Express have already decided that Reform is the true keeper of the Thatcherite flame. Fleet Street support is in any case a declining commodity: many of those I met said they only watched GB News and social media.’

At the Reform UK conference: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Peter Geoghegan · Short Cuts: Reform’s Disaster Capitalism

Reform has been accused of lacking policy: its critics say it’s a party of Farage and his epigones, with few firm...

www.lrb.co.uk

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 20d

The outrages and atrocities fall like leaves, uncountable, ungathered; we're left with a residue of powerlessness and shame
Pic by Abed Rahim Khatib. In Gaza, the body of one-month-old Majed Mohammed Zarab, thought to have starved to death, is brought to his funeral

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Reposted by James Meek

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 20d

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

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Reposted by James Meek

Andrew R @excelpope.net · 20d

Morning everyone.

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 24d

I read it as a threat. ‘Centrists, join our white power crusade or we will kill you along with the rest.’

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Reposted by James Meek

Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 24d

Loath though he is to alienate floating racists, perhaps Starmer could rouse himself to condemn a violent fascist rally teeming with people who want him overthrown and/or killed

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Reposted by James Meek

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 24d

Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them.

This is getting very dark, very quick.

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 24d

Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

Opinion | Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class

www.nytimes.com

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 8

You’re forgetting the most famous Saxon, Hereward the Woke.

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Reposted by James Meek

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Sep 5

look, it might not have worked with the public, but at least it was the wrong thing to do morally

Daniel Devine @danjdevine.bsky.social · Sep 5

We have a paper on how Labour's strategy is disastrous.

There's an exclusive coverage in @newstatesman.com

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

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Reposted by James Meek

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · Sep 5

On the same day in the Telegraph:

The Telegraph

Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement

Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty

Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence

[Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday]

Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent

29 August 2025 8:57am BST

The Telegraph

Money > Property > Second homes

How to avoid tax on your second home

From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net

[Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto]

Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer

29 August 2025 1:21pm BST

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 5

I'm not saying post-Thatcher Britain is a tyranny, rather that China, Russia, Hungary, the US etc show how acceptable people find tyranny if it comes with nice coffee and friendly, efficient retail service.

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 5

Such a wonderful fragment. Rewatching for the infamous coffee twist 3 mins in and it sparked so many thoughts. There was an idea when McDonald's opened in Moscow that it showed why democracy was best, turns out it just showed the tyrants the missing piece they needed
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLsJ...

Alexei Sayle talks to Stewart Lee

YouTube video by British Comedy Guide

www.youtube.com

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 3

Funny how the US can run out of eggs without breaking sweat but can't seem to run out of drugs even when it literally bombs the supply chain

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 3

One of the unintended (and unremarked upon) consequences of the mass privatisations of universal networks has been to divide tax-raising agents into two groups, a private one where it's 'normal' to raise taxes/prices and a state one like the NHS where it's 'normal' not to.

Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · Sep 3

By far and away the UK’s biggest fiscal problem is the belief - which pervades the political class and the Treasury - that it is extremely difficult to raise taxes in an open and sensible way

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Sep 2

Those pesky clues

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Reposted by James Meek

Charlotte Lydia Riley @handle.invalid · Sep 1

“I don’t want asylum seekers to live on my street” is genuinely a wild thing to say as a notionally progressive politician

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · Sep 1

Oh nothing, just the actual Prime Minister telling people they’re entirely correct to drive asylum seekers out of their communities

From BBC news website:

I 'completely get' concern over asylum hotels - Starmer

Starmer is asked how he would feel if a hotel housing asylum seekers was at the end of his street.
"I completely get it," Starmer says, adding: "Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I. I'm completely at one with them on that."
Starmer says he understands why people want the hotels closed and he wants that too "as quickly as possible".
Asked to put a date on it, Starmer reiterates his commitment to do so by the end of this Parliament.
When it's put to him that is four years away, he says he would like to bring that date forward, but does not commit to another date.

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Reposted by James Meek

Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · Aug 30

one of the most concerning things about Reform's polling is that we'd be looking at dozens of other MPs of the calibre of James McMurdock, a piece of human pond scum who served a custodial sentence for assaulting his ex-girlfriend and is now laughing it up with the Nazis over in the other place

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · Aug 29

Actually jaw dropping from James McMurdock MP, even by his standards. We cannot become numb to this.

The far right are in Parliament, and they're trying to normalise outright, vicious racism (same goes for the likes of Rupert Lowe too)

$Ben Obese-Jecty MP @BenObeseJecty Yesterday I wrote to the Standards Commissioner asking him to investigate James McMurdock MP after he appeared to instigate this racial slur, spelling out the word “N****R”, aimed at @SkyNews lobby journalist Mhari Aurora in response to an article by @GuidoFawkes \1 x.com/92spacemovie/s… --- Post James McMurdock MP @JMc… · 43m N 💬 3 🔁 2 ❤️ 10 👁️ 708 Dirk @BarbellOperator · 40m I 💬 1 🔁 💖 7 👁️ 177 Mr C @WessexNativist · 39m G 💬 1 🔁 💖 4 👁️ 97$

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Aug 29

What am I missing here? This analysis is threadbare without acceptance that housebuilders overpaid for land in the first place and can’t afford to build because it would crystallise their losses. If I’m wrong, say so, but price of land should be in the story. No London price for bricks and cement.

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James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · Aug 26

Cash cheques to voters just before the mid-terms?

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