William Owen

Congratulations to the Migration Museum

cf. @profdanhicks.bsky.social re. UKLFI attack on British Museum's use of term Palestine, and a similarly weak and obscurantist response by the institution

Labour minister Josh Simons resigns after falsely linking journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network Makerfield MP had been under pressure concerning thinktank’s commissioning of PR firm to investigate reporters

In case you missed this being swept under the carpet www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Is it though? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘The worst outcome’: Green triumph creates new peril for Labour By-election result shows split in leftwing vote which could be replicated at May local elections

FT hasn’t caught up: its not a split in the left wing vote; its a growing popular realisation that Labour is not a left wing vote. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Yeah it’s a bit meta

Try relaxing in front of the TV share.google/4s2npoHxPbZZ...

In an Antique Land by @amitav.bsky.social, recommended by a friend in St Petersburg (!) nine years ago; it got me writing again, and thinking about longer deeper histories, and how they keep popping up.

TALKING IN SHOUTY APHORISMS IS … (complete as you feel applicable)

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence Insufficient details about the US data intelligence company’s recent contract have been made public

For all of you who've heard way too much about tariffs but not nearly enough about the billionaire sons of Apartheid, here's a guest link giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as ‘McCarthyite smear’

Anyone who has read the preface to Paul Holden’s ‘Fraud’ (on the tactics of MacSweeney and Labour Together) won’t be surprised by the strange coyness of the last two paragraphs of this shocking @theguardian.com story www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Oh, and it goes better with this: manlius.substack.com/p/the-epstei...

If anyone has time on their hands, take a look at this: a visualisation of the Epstein network (people and corporate/state/media entities) with relevant documentation and events. Mind boggling. Helps to pick an individual (try Tony Blair) and a single topic/tag. epsteinvisualizer.com?utm_source=c...

A partner at KPMG Australia has been fined A$10,000 ($7,000) after using AI tools to cheat on an internal training course about using AI. The unnamed partner was forced to redo the test after uploading training materials into an AI platform to help answer questions on the use of the fast-evolving technology.

Hero
www.ft.com/content/c30d...

Nigel Farage in answering Nick Robinson's question about why he believes Britain is broken gave an analysis of falling net migration that is demonstrably factually inaccurate. "It is so broken and its declining so quickly that anybody with a dispassionate view can see it. It is quite interesting. Just look at the net migration numbers. 'Oh isn't it good net migration is coming down?' But do you know why? It is because there is an exodus. There is now an exodus.Those who are of a situation and a financial position to have a choice are now fleeing the country in numbers". This is factually incorrect. Net migration fell year on year by 465,00 in the most recent Official of National Statisitcs figures: the year to June 2025. This was not because of an "exodus" (an increase in emigration). It is because immigration fell by 401,000 (to 898,000 from 1.299 million the previous year). That accounts for 90% of the big drop in net migration. The increase in emigration by 41,000 was a minor component. Most of the increase in emigration was of non-EU nationals. British citizens made up a third of emigrants, but there was no significant increasse in British emigration, which was at very similar levels in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025: it is not a significant cause of the drop in net migration. Nick Robinson did tell Mr Farage that he was exaggerating the number of people who don't speak English - and BBC Verify did produce an analysis showing that was a five-fold exaggeration. But this central incorrect claim about immigration and net migration was not caught in the programme, or before broadcast. It should at least be scrutinised and corrected afterwards - so that an accurate account of why net migration fell (primarily a reduction in immigration visas to the UK) can be communicated to the audience.

I have asked the BBC to scrutinise + correct the factually inaccurate claims made by Mr Nigel Farage about why net migration fell in 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'

Here is the link if you want to do something like this.
www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

...And as the public sphere grows ever more performative, at every level from presidential campaigns to online petitions, its ability to influence the actual exercise of power becomes increasingly attenuated." [The Great Derangement] This is the wellspring of apathy.

Amitav Ghosh in 2016 identified: "...an ever-growing divergence between a public sphere of political performance and the realm of actual governance: the latter is now controlled by largely invisible establishments that are guided by imperatives of their own...

NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed Exclusive: in 2025 briefing to Wes Streeting, officials warned reputation of tech firm behind US ICE operations would hinder rollout of data system in UK

The fact Wes Streeting was warned by his own officials that the toxicity of Palantir made the contract less likely to succeed raises, yet again, the question why Government granted it the contract in the first place?

We Can Make an Impact. Sack biased political editor Chris Mason from BBC

'In a subsequent appearance before the Commons, Media, Culture and Sport Committee, [Robbie] Gibb called [Chris] Mason “the unsung hero of covering politics” and said he was “absolutely first rate”. Sign here ...

Well done Katherine!

Putin isn’t really winning. Europe needs to make that clear Behind Russia’s victory narrative in Ukraine is a system under strain. To fight back, the ‘middle powers’ must work harder on their own story

An interesting take on great and middling power alignments and strategies. It ignores huge questions such as tech billionairism and corporate oil interests (as if they have no influence in Europe) but puts former empires and their capabilities in a new perspective. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

That's quite the epitaph: "objectively not a worse PM than Boris Johnson and Liz Truss!" Well done Keir.

Misery for many as rain falls for 40 days in some parts of UK Persistent wet weather is affecting farmers, builders, sports, wildlife – and damaging roads and homes

Guardian sub misses open goal for biblical flood reference www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

..."Writers have urged authorities to recover the collection, including rare pre-1830 editions on Sicilian history, but the library lies in the “black zone”, off-limits even to firefighters – leaving the books’ fate, like that of hundreds of inhabitants, uncertain."

‘We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide People in Niscemi struggle to comprehend loss of homes and businesses and feel disaster could have been avoided

Climate change impacts cultural memory: "Perched on the edge of the mudflow, the Biblioteca Marsiano, a public library, hangs over the void. Its basement holds more than 4,000 rare and historically valuable books.... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Kneecap's explosive speech on the Israel lobby, music industry and BBC YouTube video by Declassified UK

👉 NEW VIDEO -- Kneecap manager Daniel Lambert's explosive speech on the Israel lobby, music industry and BBC, at the @declassifieduk.org summit.

Watch here 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OJB...

Foreign secretary backs Peter Mandelson to be UK ambassador to US Former trade secretary has emerged as the frontrunner, with final decision expected within weeks

… and was “privately rooting for Mandelson”. Although Lammy’s spokesperson did not comment at the time, his team never disputed the article.” Here: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Foreign secretary backs Peter Mandelson to be UK ambassador to US

“David Lammy … has sought to distance himself from the scandal; friends of his told the Sunday Telegraph that he had not been in favour of the [Mandleson] appointment. That is at odds with an FT report in September 2024, which described how Lammy had swung his support behind the former cabinet sec,

Flanders & Swann - 'First And Second Law' YouTube video by notsyort

Thank you! For leading me via Peter Dearden to this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnbi...