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Daniel Trilling

@trillingual.bsky.social

18K followers 3.2K following 420 posts

Journalist and author in London. LRB, Guardian Long Read and others. Books about refugees in Europe and Britain's far right. danieltrilling.co.uk for contact details etc

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Jul 29

Good morning, I've written a piece about the prime minister. I spoke to several dozen sources, including government insiders, former legal colleagues and campaigners to ask: what happened to Keir Starmer the heroic human rights lawyer? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

The long read: Given his career as a human rights barrister, it was hoped Keir Starmer would be the PM to restore the UK’s commitment to international law. The reality tells a different story

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 2d

A first foray into podcast script-writing... helped make this series on what to do now that we're overshooting 1.5c global warming. Presented by Laurie Laybourn and produced by Planet B. More things soon I hope!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...

Episode 1: Uncharted Territory

Podcast Episode · Overshoot: Navigating a world beyond 1.5°C · 05/10/2025 · 35m

podcasts.apple.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 5d

Am too far away for more than an occasional visit but I'll go back at some point. Lovely place.

Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 5d

That's the one.

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 5d

I am not religious, but when people's places of worship are attacked, as when their homes, schools, libraries, etc are attacked it is an attempt to destroy the connections between us. That is what antisemitic violence aims to do.

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 5d

The last time I went into a synagogue, I found out it had the Torah scroll rescued from what had once been my family's synagogue in Berlin, shortly before Kristallnacht. I was the first person in my family to see it in over 80 years.

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 6d

Will try to have something more constructive to say eventually but this is unbelievably spiteful and stupid.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights

People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 7d

Once again, if you're interested in how and why a leading human rights barrister can end up suggesting the UK might water down its commitment to such protections as the absolute ban on torture in article 3 of the Human Rights Act, ECHR, etc...

Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Jul 29

Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

The long read: Given his career as a human rights barrister, it was hoped Keir Starmer would be the PM to restore the UK’s commitment to international law. The reality tells a different story

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 9d

Labour's current position is that it's racist to make life much harder for people who have immigrated to the UK legally, but also that it will make life a little bit harder for people who have immigrated to the UK legally. The morality of that aside, what is the message here to the Reform-curious?

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 16d

Won't put me off, and as you can imagine I have lots of experience dealing with this but it is disgusting nonetheless - and doubly so that those working to provide practical support to people in the immigration system have to put up with it.

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 16d

I am and I do - but thank you!

Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 16d

Just to illustrate how much worse it's got, I have received more abuse over the past year and a bit - including death threats and a large volume of antisemitism - for what I write than in the previous 15 years of covering migration and the far right put together.

Phil Cole @phillcole40.bsky.social · 16d

More than 150 lawyers and refugee NGOs report being ‘pressured into silence’ by far-right protesters.
At least two groups supporting UK asylum seekers have closed their offices after credible threats to their safety
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

More than 150 lawyers and refugee NGOs report being ‘pressured into silence’ by far-right protesters

At least two groups supporting UK asylum seekers have closed their offices after credible threats to their safety

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 19d

Last year I wrote for @lrb.co.uk about the families of Majella O'Hare, a young girl killed by a British soldier, and Tony Harrison, a British soldier killed by the IRA, who were campaigning together against the Legacy Act - and the vested interests supporting it.

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

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Bob From Brockley @bobfrombrockley.bsky.social · 22d

2/ This by @trillingual.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk from June (ostensibly a review of @leninology.bsky.social’s important book, but much more than that) is a brilliant account of the new global and UK far right.

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

Daniel Trilling · Is this fascism?

Are we, as Richard Seymour suggests, ‘in the early days of a new fascism’? In Disaster Nationalism, Seymour...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 22d

From my Guardian long read on Keir Starmer the human rights lawyer. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

The long read: Many of his supporters hoped the prime minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has been curiously mixed

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 22d

If you want to know what the UK government's position is on its obligations under the Genocide Convention in relation to its support for Israel, here's what it argued in court this summer.

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RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · 22d

An independent UN commission has concluded that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Israel committing genocide in Gaza - UN commission

An independent UN commission has concluded that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

www.rte.ie

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 23d

Had a few conversations recently that make me think, for the first time in ages, there are some exciting things happening in media. This is one of the highlights: Equator, a new magazine set up by Nesrine Malik, Pankaj Mishra, Jonathan Shainin and others. Sign up for info here: www.equator.org

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 26

I wrote this with the aim that it would be a durable piece, relevant every time there's a flare-up of far right violence or as far right ideas make further advances into the mainstream. Hope people find it useful.

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Aug 25

‘Are we, as Richard Seymour suggests, “in the early days of a new fascism”? In 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, Seymour argues that in trying to understand the new far right, we have been looking in the wrong places.’

@trillingual.bsky.social on far-right populism:

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

Daniel Trilling · Is this fascism?

Are we, as Richard Seymour suggests, ‘in the early days of a new fascism’? In Disaster Nationalism, Seymour...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Daniel Trilling

Chris Marsden @chrismarsden.bsky.social · 26d

So brilliant. RIP Conor Gearty, the British government's essential critical friend

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 27

Regardless of whether Reform's deportation plan "works", if they get a chance to try it - like the Tories' Rwanda policy, or Trump's deportations - it will ostentatiously torment thousands of people and further engrain racism in British politics. It must be opposed on that basis.

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Félix Antonio OVEJERO TORRES @felixaovejero.bsky.social · Aug 27

¿Esto es fascismo? Tribuna de @trillingual.bsky.social
en la revista Nueva Sociedad
n9.cl/qh9vf

¿Cómo comprender este fenómeno? ¿Qué fuerzas podrían hacerle frente? ¿Hasta qué punto sirve pensar todos estos fenómenos bajo la etiqueta de «fascismo»?

@ccoo.bsky.social @crisfaciaben.bsky.social

¿Esto es fascismo? | Nueva Sociedad

El libro Disaster Nationalism, de Richard Seymour, plantea que no solo hay que centrar el foco en los líderes carismáticos ultras, sino en un estado de ánimo más amplio, en un caldero hirviente que me...

n9.cl

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 26

I am trying to offer the equipment in the very limited way I can

Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 26

I'm suggesting it could be either... but that a bit of flexibility in thinking about how things might turn out would help

Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 26

I agree but my aim there was to challenge a tendency I've noticed over the years: "why are we worried about the far right? The centre-right [or indeed, centre-left] are doing enough damage as it is..." (We now have the added problem that distinctions between mainstream and far are collapsing ofc.)

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 26

I also wrote it in the hope that I would never have to write it again, but... you know...

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