Miles Metcalfe

Three dancers, moodily lit from behind.

Dancers at the Newham Civic Awards, 4 March 2026

A young man in a black suit with a black turban is waiting in the wings, holding his speech, waiting to go on stage, lit by purple lighting from the stage.

Councillor Amar Virdee at the Newham Civic Awards, 4 March 2026

Crucial Track for 07 March 2026: https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/03/07/crucial-track-for-march.html

👩‍⚖️ Hello boys. Half the electorate in Newham is women.

In the patriarchy, where girls are “underage women”, is it any wonder that journalists struggle with the word “traditional”?

"Global survey shows young men and boys hold more traditional views about gender roles than older ge... https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/03/05/in-the-patriarchy-where-girls.html

🤖 So, when Claude targeted a girls’ school, that was a hallucination?

🌀 Going in circles this morning.

📉 Britain: a country where managed decline is too aspirational.

🤖 The AI is absolutely whack on intelligence and life. Maddest conversation I've had with autocorrect for some time.

Was 2004’s NESNO Dominic Cummings' original sin? Or a mistake he was paid to make? I think about this from time to time when I imagine a Britain that didn’t take the path to sectarian hatred.

😠 Why is Matter commissioning so broken?

Crucial Track for 21 February 2026: https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/02/21/crucial-track-for-february.html

Why we’re leaving the Labour Party Lifetime members Sir Robin Wales and Clive Furness explain how their former party has become unrecognisable.

🤮 “Sir” Robin Wales and “open” Clive Furness announce in Spiked that they are leaving the Labour Party - and will doubtless be joining Reform alongside “Lord” Peter Mandelson.

Labour: neither racist nor transphobic enough

Crucial Track for 07 February 2026: https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/02/07/crucial-track-for-february.html

When Maga oligarchs control the platforms, it isn’t really a debate about ‘free speech’ | Rafael Behr The debate over banning under-16s from social media should raise deeper questions about who controls democracy’s digital infrastructure, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

Banger of a piece from Rafael Behr in the Guardian on the regulation of social media.

www.theguardian.com/commentis…

The Epstein files: literal evidence you are living in the patriarchy. What will change? My guess: absolutely nothing.

🛌 This morning I was glad to be woken from my dreams

❓ Will Peter Mandelson be joining Reform next?

No 10 asks police to investigate Mandelson’s leaks to Epstein due to concerns over ‘market sensitive information’– UK politics live PM’s spokesperson says information should not have been available ‘to anyone who could potentially benefit from it financially’

An interesting thing about the Mandelson-Epstein affair is that no one is expressing any surprise at Mandelson’s venality and corruption. Yet until recently the media treated him as a “serious politician”, albeit controversial. Which leaves me wondering, what is it that political journalism does?

💡 I mean, is it so difficult for government to govern in the interests of the electorate rather than on behalf of the rentier plutocracy? There's no harm in trying, right?

Press any key: https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/01/21/press-any-key.html

I feel the same way. I wish I had hope.

Sadly, you are right.

Yet our shameless press are unmoved.

Black and white photo of a large, illuminated sign-board showing a female grocery worker, advertising the charity Grocery Aid that helps impoverished grocery workers in the UK. It is night time. Behind are high-rise buildings and a data centre.

The UK grocery industry, which receives a massive government subsidy of in-work benefits for its workforce, still will not pay a living wage.

↩️ My new year resolutions are never serious, but this year one was. I broke it already and I feel a little sad.

I wonder how British populist right politicos and their propaganda wing in the media would sell an American invasion of Greenland and the end of Nato. Wartime nostalgia? Comeuppance for cheese-eating Euro-surrender monkeys?

"Speaking to fellow advisers before Christmas, [Downing Street Chief of Staff Morgan] McSweeney said this would not be a “year of promises” but a “year of proof”, when public services would begin to improve and bills star... https://lastchance.rodeo/2026/01/01/speaking-to-fellow-advisers-before.html

🎆 As you celebrate new year, remember the commensal pigeons and other birds who are very, very frightened by the flash and banging of fireworks.

🛒 Fights break out in supermarkets across East London on day one of the great mascarpone famine.