Adam
@adamcobb.bsky.social
Digital marketing type, European politics bore, language enthusiast, one of those gays you hear about, Eurovision nerd, that guy in the window seat. Next trip: 🇪🇸
This is basically why I find Starmer so puzzling. I’m not trying to suggest that his premiership hasn’t been an utter failure but, over the long arc, the ‘man of public service ’ bit is true. What on earth happened?
Labour MPs & party insiders tell me they’ve never seen Keir Starmer so angry as over Mandelson’s lies about Epstein links.
But those who know him well say that anger has now turned inwards. That Starmer is, above all else, a man of public service, and will be grappling with his conscious this w/e.
But those who know him well say that anger has now turned inwards. That Starmer is, above all else, a man of public service, and will be grappling with his conscious this w/e.
February 6, 2026 at 1:49 PM
This is basically why I find Starmer so puzzling. I’m not trying to suggest that his premiership hasn’t been an utter failure but, over the long arc, the ‘man of public service ’ bit is true. What on earth happened?
Reposted by Adam
If you listen to Blair now, he sounds like someone doing an impersonation of Blair - he's Flanderised himself - but even if you listen to 1996 Blair, he sounds much more mannered and artificial than he did to us in 1996, which is because we've changed, not because the 30 year old recording has.
February 6, 2026 at 11:04 AM
If you listen to Blair now, he sounds like someone doing an impersonation of Blair - he's Flanderised himself - but even if you listen to 1996 Blair, he sounds much more mannered and artificial than he did to us in 1996, which is because we've changed, not because the 30 year old recording has.
A bog standard Starmer speech is probably the closest to a ‘normal’ person giving a speech we get and look how those go down. Mamdani is as polished and packaged as Blair was, it’s just that he and his team is one of the few to have noticed that it’s 2026 not 1996.
(seen a bunch of people sharing this/talking in general about how "normal" Mamdani is but imo this doesn't show a normal person, but an *exceptionally* skilled communicator - a normal person wouldn't react like that to having a speech interrupted by a child! give him his due!)
Child at the podium: “A woo woo woo.”
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
February 6, 2026 at 10:31 AM
A bog standard Starmer speech is probably the closest to a ‘normal’ person giving a speech we get and look how those go down. Mamdani is as polished and packaged as Blair was, it’s just that he and his team is one of the few to have noticed that it’s 2026 not 1996.
This new Sky News thing where they show vertical video reports on a screen in the studio is insane
February 5, 2026 at 11:03 PM
This new Sky News thing where they show vertical video reports on a screen in the studio is insane
I never met him and if I did, it’s only because I used to hang out with Robert Maxwell is quite the excuse.
Mandelson's firm, General Counsel, covered-up Mandelson's relationship with Epstein.
Here's Global Counsel's CEO and co-founder, preparing to tell the press that Mandelson barely knew Jeffrey Epstein.
Who did he check that line with?
Jeffrey Epstein.
Here's Global Counsel's CEO and co-founder, preparing to tell the press that Mandelson barely knew Jeffrey Epstein.
Who did he check that line with?
Jeffrey Epstein.
February 5, 2026 at 1:43 PM
I never met him and if I did, it’s only because I used to hang out with Robert Maxwell is quite the excuse.
Reposted by Adam
It's the Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds for 2026 - no official mechanism to get someone to stop podcasting, so appointing them to paid crown role will have to do
February 5, 2026 at 12:13 PM
It's the Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds for 2026 - no official mechanism to get someone to stop podcasting, so appointing them to paid crown role will have to do
This isn’t nearly at that level but I went to an incredibly fancy gym in Singapore over the summer and you see how it happens. Didn’t bring toiletries? Oh they’re all there, here’s your towel, we’ve planned the workout for you, here’s some hair wax! You can stop doing so much thinking.
If you talk with the most down-to-earth, level-headed multi-millionaires, you see it taking form: So much invisible friction has been removed from their lives in ways great & small that they don't even see, so with best intentions they feel like they can still relate to common folks, but they can't.
If you have a billion dollars or more, you are evil. You don't start out as evil, so it's not like only evil people ever get a billion dollars; it's just that being a billionaire forced you to make a choice, be evil or change how you do things and stop being a billionaire. Billionaires choose evil.
February 4, 2026 at 6:33 PM
This isn’t nearly at that level but I went to an incredibly fancy gym in Singapore over the summer and you see how it happens. Didn’t bring toiletries? Oh they’re all there, here’s your towel, we’ve planned the workout for you, here’s some hair wax! You can stop doing so much thinking.
Reposted by Adam
It's important to balance the bad with the good. youtu.be/EWO1-WE4oNw?...
Get Lucky by Daft Punk on a mechanical organ
YouTube video by The Mechanical Music Man
youtu.be
February 4, 2026 at 12:26 PM
It's important to balance the bad with the good. youtu.be/EWO1-WE4oNw?...
This details at £141 for 1.5 hours. How do I launch a UK version?
February 1, 2026 at 9:44 PM
This details at £141 for 1.5 hours. How do I launch a UK version?
There’s really quite a lot of ‘we’re in a far off place and this is MAD why are we even here??’ in the coverage of Starmer’s visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo that you really wouldn’t get if he’d gone to Washington, New York and Ottawa.
February 1, 2026 at 9:28 PM
There’s really quite a lot of ‘we’re in a far off place and this is MAD why are we even here??’ in the coverage of Starmer’s visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo that you really wouldn’t get if he’d gone to Washington, New York and Ottawa.
This is basically why I miss Eddie Mair. He was excellent at letting people show themselves up without going full Paxman. Even THAT Boris Johnson interview works because it’s mostly reasonable questions until the climax.
The Sultana/Jones interview is IMO Exhibit A on why, on TV*, I think soft questions are underrated. She comes across so much worse with Jones just softly going 'let's talk about ideas' than most politicians do with the 'be berated live on BBC One on Sunday' round.
*broadly defining TV interviews
*broadly defining TV interviews
“Anti imperialism means confronting empire which is why we should leave NATO“ is obviously nonsense and I doubt she could explain or defend it. She’s also noticeably struggled even when sympathetic reporters like Owen Jones try to engage her on economics
January 28, 2026 at 7:42 PM
This is basically why I miss Eddie Mair. He was excellent at letting people show themselves up without going full Paxman. Even THAT Boris Johnson interview works because it’s mostly reasonable questions until the climax.
Someone in my hotel appears to have set up an impromptu karaoke session in a nearby room
January 27, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Someone in my hotel appears to have set up an impromptu karaoke session in a nearby room
The 2010s on the internet everybody!
It was like 5,000 14 year olds trying to analyse media and some of them were dumb! Which is fine! And then turned in a mutually assured destruction industrial complex by bored journalists and YouTubers who decided it was important
January 25, 2026 at 10:38 PM
The 2010s on the internet everybody!
This is a good thread. I think another major problem is Twitter and similar platforms encourage and require endless in/out group switching. It can all look baffling to newcomers who can see EVERYTHING, the temptation to play to the gallery is huge and people always forget they’re in public.
I think Phoebe is right here tbh, the preachiness was off putting to many people, regardless of the politics, which to a minor extent fed the opposite
It's very first-thoughts but: different people were put off by 2010s social-justice sanctimony for different reasons. That it was so off-putting in sensibility cannot have helped matters, but also, plenty overlooked it and did not swing right.
January 25, 2026 at 10:33 PM
This is a good thread. I think another major problem is Twitter and similar platforms encourage and require endless in/out group switching. It can all look baffling to newcomers who can see EVERYTHING, the temptation to play to the gallery is huge and people always forget they’re in public.
Reposted by Adam
crisis across the Chinese military as officers attempt to live on their actual salaries.
January 25, 2026 at 5:16 AM
crisis across the Chinese military as officers attempt to live on their actual salaries.
People basically learned the wrong lesson from ‘defund the police’. That backfired because the average person’s response was ‘wait, if someone tries to rob me and I call 911, there would be no answer?’. ICE does not have that problem.
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
January 25, 2026 at 8:09 AM
People basically learned the wrong lesson from ‘defund the police’. That backfired because the average person’s response was ‘wait, if someone tries to rob me and I call 911, there would be no answer?’. ICE does not have that problem.
Bloke on the train is listening to BAGPIPE MUSIC without headphones
January 23, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Bloke on the train is listening to BAGPIPE MUSIC without headphones
I could turn out to be completely wrong here but the lesson a lot of Europe seems to have picked up on Trump this week is that if they hit back hard, he backs down. Starmer going in hard means others felt the need to and the BBC feel they have greater leeway to then do this.
Christ. Radio 4 6 o'clock news are not holding back in their coverage of Trump's Afghanistan comments
January 23, 2026 at 6:18 PM
I could turn out to be completely wrong here but the lesson a lot of Europe seems to have picked up on Trump this week is that if they hit back hard, he backs down. Starmer going in hard means others felt the need to and the BBC feel they have greater leeway to then do this.
That terminal name. They understood the brief…
More 📷 of the Bermello Ajamil and Zaha Hadid Architects proposal.
January 23, 2026 at 1:40 PM
That terminal name. They understood the brief…
I have new glasses! They are large but most importantly appear to weigh basically nothing!
January 23, 2026 at 11:06 AM
I have new glasses! They are large but most importantly appear to weigh basically nothing!
Yes I still hold my breath in the Clyde Tunnel
January 22, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Yes I still hold my breath in the Clyde Tunnel
I’m normally very much a ‘don’t over-interpret from a few newsworthy events’ guy but what the hell is going on with Spanish railways?
‼️ÚLTIMA HORA | Al menos tres heridos leves en un choque de un tren de pasajeros en Cartagena
Al menos tres heridos leves en un choque de un tren de pasajeros en Cartagena
El tren ha impactado con una grúa pero no ha descarrilado, hasta el lugar del suceso se han trasladado bomberos y equipo médico
www.eldiario.es
January 22, 2026 at 11:46 AM
I’m normally very much a ‘don’t over-interpret from a few newsworthy events’ guy but what the hell is going on with Spanish railways?
Oh crap, Dan’s right
Remember he hasn’t spoken about the peace prize yet
January 21, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Oh crap, Dan’s right
The difference in tone and style between BBC people who mostly cover UK and US politics and those who’ve spent a lot of time in the Middle East (Frank Gardner and Lyse Doucet) is prettt striking. Gardner on WATO is much closer to the ‘this is a huge and long term break’ stance.
January 21, 2026 at 1:17 PM
The difference in tone and style between BBC people who mostly cover UK and US politics and those who’ve spent a lot of time in the Middle East (Frank Gardner and Lyse Doucet) is prettt striking. Gardner on WATO is much closer to the ‘this is a huge and long term break’ stance.