Civilians slaughtered, nations destroyed, oil fields ablaze: ‘This is the price the region is paying for one man’s ego, another man’s messianic vision, and the impotence of a Europe that just stands by and watches.’
While obviously killing all the little girls is worse, I'm pretty infuriated by this, too:
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/w...
He is usually trustworthy but the other side of the picture is how BBC journalists and contractors are lent upon by the fears and positions of their management, which was less obvious in the past, with for example, Charles Wheeler reports on the USA in the 60's.
NEW | A rare positive edition of the newsletter…
IN PRAISE OF JEREMY BOWEN
His Today programme monologue on Trump, war in Iran, and the history of the Middle East was exactly how the BBC should be reporting on the world.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
The war that began on February 28 can realistically be deemed to be the formal opening of World War III because what is at issue are the terms on which the entire world will be able to buy oil and gas.
Two veteran journalists made a documentary about Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals, but the BBC later refused to air it.
This week on Reveal, we team up with @kcrw.com to investigate why and what it says about the future of journalism:
NEW | THE DARK HISTORY OF THE TELEGRAPH’S NEW OWNER
Analysis in the British press focuses on Axel Springer's attitude to Brexit but a closer look suggests its worldview is just Right for the Telegraph's existing editorial approach
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-dark-h...
‘The Islamic Republic is likely to emerge transformed or weakened in ways not yet visible. But the notion that it would simply dissolve under pressure was always fanciful.’
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi on the US’s war on Iran, new on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...
The Grounds of Planning PART II: @abenanav.bsky.social on Utopia, Socialism, and Rationality
criticaltheoryinberlin.de/podcast/podc...
In the 19thC Engels described the suffering of the working class for which the bourgeoisie was responsible as social murder. The austerity policies of recent times are a continuation of the same responsibility.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The profitability of pharmaceutical companies supported by the US government is attempting to take priority over the health needs of UK citizens.
NEW | ‘The Green Menace': The Daily Mail's newest scary stories for Middle England
Ahead of the Gorton and Denton by-election, the paper's working hard to cast the Green Party as mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-green-...
NEW | A look at how newspapers polish Donald Trump’s babbling as he makes the case for his latest war…
US WAR ON IRAN: A TALE OF TWO TRUMP INTERVIEWS
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/us-war-on-...
2/. The individual suffering and its obfuscation by public bodies, and the public suffering from the worship of private finance enabled by governments. In other words the neo-liberal settlement imposed here and across the globe.
1/. The C4 documentary series Dirty Business (www.channel4.com/programmes/d...) is an example, although and extreme one because water is a monopoly; of the suffering caused by the privatization of public functions; and the excessive faith in markets as a solution to social failures.
There's now a UK parliament petition to sign too...
#DirtyWater #DirtyBusiness
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...
Wrote up the by-election, the Green victory and the conferences for Labour at the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
This is so good
I’m pretty sure this is an AI-generated news story about my newsletter saying I’ll never use AI to write it. nationaltoday.com/us/oh/clevel...
“This is not normal politics. It is democratic decay unfolding in real time.”
I’ve written for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social about the Josh Simons / Labour Together scandal, and what it tells us about the degeneration of British democracy.
tribunemag.co.uk/2026/02/smea...
Excellent piece by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com. TBH, Covid should have done much to cure us of this when we learnt how much we all depend on people whose very real skills are stigmatized as lesser
NEW | Oh, so *now* dirty tricks are bad…
BEFORE LABOUR TOGETHER TRIED TO SMEAR SUNDAY TIMES JOURNALISTS, IT WAS A VITAL SOURCE FOR THEM
The real problem is that the Starmtroopers turned their dirty tricks on Murdoch's men.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/before-lab...
NEW | On Wes Streeting’s late-in-the-day denunciation of Mandelson…
WES STREETING’S MARIAH CAREY METHOD
Just how stupid does the cabinet minister think we are as he denies the extent of his relationship with Peter Mandelson? Very.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/wes-street...
"The recent emphasis on Keir Starmer's "decency" might appear odd even if you only had a passing acquaintance with his track record of duplicity and spite, not to mention his readiness to sack others to save his own skin." More ...
fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2026/02/this...
A review of Christoph Schuringa's A Social History of Analytic Philosophy marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/2251...
