Ben McKenna is Unwell
@benmckenna.bsky.social
Digital information and infrastructure consultant. Southerner in the north, builds things both virtual and real, accidental gardener and 🏴🇮🇪🇪🇸 mongrel. North London is red, and so am I. ¡Venceremos!
Last time I did one of these it got me blocked by Mick Hucknall, but it is absolutely Fairground by Simply Red.
Fuck your favourite song. Tell me your least favourite song. The one that makes you die inside the moment you hear the first 3 seconds.
February 4, 2026 at 9:46 AM
Last time I did one of these it got me blocked by Mick Hucknall, but it is absolutely Fairground by Simply Red.
The Westminster commentariat doing the whole 'We knew he was dodgy, but we didn't know he was THIS dodgy' thing is a bit galling, isn't it?
We knew he was THIS dodgy, how did you - a person whose job it is to know about politics - not know that?!
We knew he was THIS dodgy, how did you - a person whose job it is to know about politics - not know that?!
February 4, 2026 at 9:40 AM
The Westminster commentariat doing the whole 'We knew he was dodgy, but we didn't know he was THIS dodgy' thing is a bit galling, isn't it?
We knew he was THIS dodgy, how did you - a person whose job it is to know about politics - not know that?!
We knew he was THIS dodgy, how did you - a person whose job it is to know about politics - not know that?!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Suuuuuper, super Kev 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Remembering Kevin Campbell, who would have been 56 today
A true gentleman & a fantastic player
Sorely missed, but never forgotten 🙏
A true gentleman & a fantastic player
Sorely missed, but never forgotten 🙏
February 4, 2026 at 8:52 AM
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Suuuuuper, super Kev 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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Me watching Rice and Grealish play for England at Euro 2020
Irish Traitors is incredible.
February 3, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Me watching Rice and Grealish play for England at Euro 2020
Watching the football with my kid and I complained to her about the annoying whiny drone sound in the stadium.
“Dad, that’s Gary Neville”
McKenna DNA
“Dad, that’s Gary Neville”
McKenna DNA
February 3, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Watching the football with my kid and I complained to her about the annoying whiny drone sound in the stadium.
“Dad, that’s Gary Neville”
McKenna DNA
“Dad, that’s Gary Neville”
McKenna DNA
I’m so desperately confused. Why are they in balaclavas? Are the price tags a comment on the soaring price of balaclavas?
February 3, 2026 at 7:56 PM
I’m so desperately confused. Why are they in balaclavas? Are the price tags a comment on the soaring price of balaclavas?
On one hand it’s incredibly hard to get bothered about the Rumbelows, but on the other hand it *is* Chelsea who were playing.
Horrible bastards to a man. Get into ‘em!
Horrible bastards to a man. Get into ‘em!
February 3, 2026 at 7:53 PM
On one hand it’s incredibly hard to get bothered about the Rumbelows, but on the other hand it *is* Chelsea who were playing.
Horrible bastards to a man. Get into ‘em!
Horrible bastards to a man. Get into ‘em!
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This is lily-livered. I absolutely don’t respect but understand if Pochettino doesn’t want to talk about politics and just wants to focus on football, but what’s all this ‘we’ business? If other players and managers have more of social conscience and moral backbone than Pochettino, good for them.
February 3, 2026 at 7:16 PM
This is lily-livered. I absolutely don’t respect but understand if Pochettino doesn’t want to talk about politics and just wants to focus on football, but what’s all this ‘we’ business? If other players and managers have more of social conscience and moral backbone than Pochettino, good for them.
I’m fine calling him Peter Mountbatten-Windsor
Soon, he’ll lose his title, and be known just as plain Mr Peter Mandelson, the former Prince of Darkness
February 3, 2026 at 7:11 PM
I’m fine calling him Peter Mountbatten-Windsor
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Spanish PM Sánchez: The owner of X, himself a migrant, used his personal account to amplify disinformation about the sovereign decision of my government to regularize 500,000 migrants who live, work, and contribute to the success of our country.
February 3, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Spanish PM Sánchez: The owner of X, himself a migrant, used his personal account to amplify disinformation about the sovereign decision of my government to regularize 500,000 migrants who live, work, and contribute to the success of our country.
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Peston here, pretending not to know Mandelson had been advising Sir Kier since the late 2010s. the media class determined to help Sir Kier cut Mandelson loose to obscure their own malfeasance.
February 3, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Peston here, pretending not to know Mandelson had been advising Sir Kier since the late 2010s. the media class determined to help Sir Kier cut Mandelson loose to obscure their own malfeasance.
Look at these names. Viscount Taaaaaffe and Baron Ballymote. I’m sorry, but Britain is not a real country.
Mandelson faces being the 1st person to lose their peerage title via an Act of Parliament in 109 yrs. It was last used in 1917 to remove it from a quartet for siding with Britain's WW1 enemies. It would put him in the same pub quiz answer as Henry Taaffe, 12 th Viscount Taaffe and Baron Ballymote.
February 3, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Look at these names. Viscount Taaaaaffe and Baron Ballymote. I’m sorry, but Britain is not a real country.
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They say boys and girls can't play sports together yet here we see them excelling at Co-Ed Nazi Punching.
MAGA Adult Male assaults Texas High School students protesting ICE
February 3, 2026 at 5:31 PM
They say boys and girls can't play sports together yet here we see them excelling at Co-Ed Nazi Punching.
I'm still not sure whether it's a good or a bad idea to reduce your whole, entire electoral offer down to one policy, but Reform have absolutely done it here.
'Fuck them kids, my pint is slightly cheaper' feels very much like the brexit boomer Facebook uncle's maxim to live life by.
'Fuck them kids, my pint is slightly cheaper' feels very much like the brexit boomer Facebook uncle's maxim to live life by.
NEW: Reform UK says it would re-impose the two-child benefit cap - scrapped by Labour - for most families to fund £3bn support package for pubs.
February 3, 2026 at 4:20 PM
I'm still not sure whether it's a good or a bad idea to reduce your whole, entire electoral offer down to one policy, but Reform have absolutely done it here.
'Fuck them kids, my pint is slightly cheaper' feels very much like the brexit boomer Facebook uncle's maxim to live life by.
'Fuck them kids, my pint is slightly cheaper' feels very much like the brexit boomer Facebook uncle's maxim to live life by.
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they should make a movie series about how it’s irresponsible to use technology to mess with the natural order of things for profit
Xfinity has just released its Jurassic Park-themed Super Bowl ad that features a digitally de-aged Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. https://bit.ly/4rmRhrK
February 3, 2026 at 3:32 AM
they should make a movie series about how it’s irresponsible to use technology to mess with the natural order of things for profit
It's mad that our system is hard-wired for our lords to not face any consequences. Abolish the lot, sick of being ruled over by these teflon crooks.
BREAKING: Lord Mandelson is to step down from the House of Lords immediately.
But he will keep his title as a peerage is bestowed for life - unless government changes the law.
But he will keep his title as a peerage is bestowed for life - unless government changes the law.
February 3, 2026 at 2:59 PM
It's mad that our system is hard-wired for our lords to not face any consequences. Abolish the lot, sick of being ruled over by these teflon crooks.
This is really weird. I've never assessed the potential size of a man's penis with regards his overall level of threat to me. Have I been doing it wrong this whole time?
February 3, 2026 at 1:33 PM
This is really weird. I've never assessed the potential size of a man's penis with regards his overall level of threat to me. Have I been doing it wrong this whole time?
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really can't get over how everything bad politically seems to have been orchestrated by some paedophile and his weirdo rich mates yet we're all still going to pretend they are legitimate viewpoints and not just some bollocks they conjured up to make people angry on purpose
February 3, 2026 at 12:56 PM
really can't get over how everything bad politically seems to have been orchestrated by some paedophile and his weirdo rich mates yet we're all still going to pretend they are legitimate viewpoints and not just some bollocks they conjured up to make people angry on purpose
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Wasn't there a guy who tried that, and literally everyone in the party and the media (including the New Statesman) screamed at full volume until that brief aberration was resolved, putting the shockingly corrupt Sensible Moderates back in charge?
Labour needs to bake morality into how it campaigns and governs.
My @newstatesman1913.bsky.social column on the Epstein-Mandelson story, and the hangover of a post-ideological age:
My @newstatesman1913.bsky.social column on the Epstein-Mandelson story, and the hangover of a post-ideological age:
The Epstein files expose the rot of Mandelson's Britain
New Labour’s dead-end of pragmatism over everything else – including morality
www.newstatesman.com
February 3, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Wasn't there a guy who tried that, and literally everyone in the party and the media (including the New Statesman) screamed at full volume until that brief aberration was resolved, putting the shockingly corrupt Sensible Moderates back in charge?
There was a time in the mid-late 90s where going out clubbing got genuinely so dangerous - stabbings and shootings in clubs, muggings and SA outside - that I ended up going to gay clubs to enjoy myself.
That period had a massive effect on my life tbh, the majority of it good.
That period had a massive effect on my life tbh, the majority of it good.
February 3, 2026 at 12:30 PM
There was a time in the mid-late 90s where going out clubbing got genuinely so dangerous - stabbings and shootings in clubs, muggings and SA outside - that I ended up going to gay clubs to enjoy myself.
That period had a massive effect on my life tbh, the majority of it good.
That period had a massive effect on my life tbh, the majority of it good.
Your annual reminder that Grampa Munster was a comrade.
#OtD 3 Feb 2006 Al Lewis, lifelong socialist and actor who played grandpa Munster in the TV show The Munsters died in NYC. During the Depression he would break into evicted tenants' houses to move their furniture back in, and protested for relief stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1018...
February 3, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Your annual reminder that Grampa Munster was a comrade.
How yer conspiracy theorist da feels walking into work now it turns out the world really is run by a shady group of nonces.
a man in a suit and tie is dancing in front of a wrestling logo
ALT: a man in a suit and tie is dancing in front of a wrestling logo
media.tenor.com
February 3, 2026 at 10:19 AM
How yer conspiracy theorist da feels walking into work now it turns out the world really is run by a shady group of nonces.
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Noam Chomsky - Gnome Chomsky
February 2, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Noam Chomsky - Gnome Chomsky
Why do they call it a monkey’s paw when monkeys have hands?
February 2, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Why do they call it a monkey’s paw when monkeys have hands?
I mean, it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d immediately tell the guy that handles the secret banking affairs of Robert Mugabe and Putin. You can trust that guy not to do anything with the info.
On Mandelson, a friend who has worked in finance and knows what he is talking about writes: ‘The information he leaked was price sensitive enough for anyone with a trading account to make more money than they can spend in a lifetime. Unquestionably needs to be arrested immediately just for that.’
February 2, 2026 at 8:41 PM
I mean, it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d immediately tell the guy that handles the secret banking affairs of Robert Mugabe and Putin. You can trust that guy not to do anything with the info.