John Merrick
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
Deputy editor: @the-breakdown.bsky.social
"Leftist pseudo-intellectual", The Critic
johnphilipmerrick@gmail.com / john.merrick@break-down.org
https://www.johnmerrick.co.uk/
"Leftist pseudo-intellectual", The Critic
johnphilipmerrick@gmail.com / john.merrick@break-down.org
https://www.johnmerrick.co.uk/
Pinned
John Merrick
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
· Jan 25
The prophet of the new right
In the life and work of Correlli Barnett, we can find all the most dangerous currents of contemporary conservatism.
www.newstatesman.com
For the @newstatesman.com i wrote a profile of the historian Correlli Barnett, which charts the perils of self-loathing nationalism and the rise of Britain's new right
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
Reposted by John Merrick
This is how Christopher Caldwell begins his essay on Zohran Mamdani for the Claremont Review of Books.
Why are these people such freaks?
Why are these people such freaks?
December 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM
This is how Christopher Caldwell begins his essay on Zohran Mamdani for the Claremont Review of Books.
Why are these people such freaks?
Why are these people such freaks?
Some excellent examples of the International Urban Regeneration Aesthetic in Crewe town centre
December 26, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Some excellent examples of the International Urban Regeneration Aesthetic in Crewe town centre
Reposted by John Merrick
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
Harrison Pitt accuses the King of treachery. Pitt is a Senior Policy Fellow for Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, who also regularly co-hosts podcasts with his ally Tomlinson (who advocates banning all ethnic and faith minorities from public office). Like Lowe, Pitt is keen to dissolve boundaries/norms
December 26, 2025 at 9:08 AM
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
Reposted by John Merrick
Me asking my wife if I can have the day off from Parenting to see Avatar 3 and Marty Supreme back to back
December 25, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Me asking my wife if I can have the day off from Parenting to see Avatar 3 and Marty Supreme back to back
TCW’s wardrobe full of Lemaire clothes and his French chateau does not suggest that he’s lost much by way of professional opportunities
it requires an absolutely staggering lack of self awareness for chatterton to complain that he has lost elite opportunities because he has anti-woke views.
The Other Way the ‘Super Woke’ Left Discriminates
Race and gender aren’t the only categories that determine who gets special treatment.
www.theatlantic.com
December 24, 2025 at 7:44 PM
TCW’s wardrobe full of Lemaire clothes and his French chateau does not suggest that he’s lost much by way of professional opportunities
It‘s incredibly sad to hear that sort of thing from people who unlike me still live here. The taxi driver who took us from the station to my mum’s house described his decision to move back to the town as the worst he’d ever made
Been back in Crewe a day and already had 4 people tell me either that the town is a ”shit hole” or look at me like i’m mentally ill when I’ve told them I miss the place
December 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
It‘s incredibly sad to hear that sort of thing from people who unlike me still live here. The taxi driver who took us from the station to my mum’s house described his decision to move back to the town as the worst he’d ever made
Been back in Crewe a day and already had 4 people tell me either that the town is a ”shit hole” or look at me like i’m mentally ill when I’ve told them I miss the place
December 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Been back in Crewe a day and already had 4 people tell me either that the town is a ”shit hole” or look at me like i’m mentally ill when I’ve told them I miss the place
A century of Marxist debates about ideology and all we needed was a YouGov poll
How good a year do Britons say 2025 was for...
Themselves personally
Good: 36%
Average: 35%
Bad: 27%
The UK
Good: 6%
Average: 24%
Bad: 66%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
Themselves personally
Good: 36%
Average: 35%
Bad: 27%
The UK
Good: 6%
Average: 24%
Bad: 66%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
December 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
A century of Marxist debates about ideology and all we needed was a YouGov poll
Reposted by John Merrick
…. the late Bruno Latour remarked that “Brazil is today what Spain was in 1936, during the civil war: it is where everything that will be important in the next decades is visible.”
gramsci’s Southern Questions Are back!
Subscribe to fernando‘s newsletter
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mer...
gramsci’s Southern Questions Are back!
Subscribe to fernando‘s newsletter
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mer...
Introducing Meridional | Fernando Rugitsky
A new monthly newsletter column by Fernando Rugitsky on the political economy of Latin America.
www.phenomenalworld.org
December 20, 2025 at 8:32 PM
…. the late Bruno Latour remarked that “Brazil is today what Spain was in 1936, during the civil war: it is where everything that will be important in the next decades is visible.”
gramsci’s Southern Questions Are back!
Subscribe to fernando‘s newsletter
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mer...
gramsci’s Southern Questions Are back!
Subscribe to fernando‘s newsletter
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mer...
Reposted by John Merrick
Interesting Morozov critique of @abenanav.bsky.social on the challenge of the non-neutrality of generative AI www.theideasletter.org/essay/social...
December 20, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Interesting Morozov critique of @abenanav.bsky.social on the challenge of the non-neutrality of generative AI www.theideasletter.org/essay/social...
Reposted by John Merrick
Agree with all of this, other than "the right will go 'pro-natalist" - I think what will happen is that much of the right will shift from 'blaming our ills on immigration' to 'blaming our ills on ethnic diversity', which is already happening to an extent.
The UK will celebrate net emigration and depopulation come 2027.
And by 2028 it will start to realise, with an ageing society and low growth, what a really silly thing it has done.
The right will go "pro-natalist", the centre-left will be completely stuck.
And by 2028 it will start to realise, with an ageing society and low growth, what a really silly thing it has done.
The right will go "pro-natalist", the centre-left will be completely stuck.
December 22, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Agree with all of this, other than "the right will go 'pro-natalist" - I think what will happen is that much of the right will shift from 'blaming our ills on immigration' to 'blaming our ills on ethnic diversity', which is already happening to an extent.
At the start of this year I noted in a piece that, while there were murmurings, the British right at least hadn’t succumbed to the talk of remigration that had taken over some European parties. Anyway, what a year it’s been for all the worst people
www.ft.com/content/1ce8...
www.ft.com/content/1ce8...
Year in a Word: Remigration
The idea that ethnic diversity is a threat has begun to seep into the mainstream
www.ft.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:33 AM
At the start of this year I noted in a piece that, while there were murmurings, the British right at least hadn’t succumbed to the talk of remigration that had taken over some European parties. Anyway, what a year it’s been for all the worst people
www.ft.com/content/1ce8...
www.ft.com/content/1ce8...
Reposted by John Merrick
A group of Reform Party members have begun a "Reformers for Remigration" group. It is praised by the extreme Steve Laws, who got 0.4% in Dover
Laws was - madly - on the Reform approved candidate list, until June 2023 when Richard Tice threw him out for advocating deporting Rishi Sunak + myself
Laws was - madly - on the Reform approved candidate list, until June 2023 when Richard Tice threw him out for advocating deporting Rishi Sunak + myself
November 4, 2025 at 6:39 PM
A group of Reform Party members have begun a "Reformers for Remigration" group. It is praised by the extreme Steve Laws, who got 0.4% in Dover
Laws was - madly - on the Reform approved candidate list, until June 2023 when Richard Tice threw him out for advocating deporting Rishi Sunak + myself
Laws was - madly - on the Reform approved candidate list, until June 2023 when Richard Tice threw him out for advocating deporting Rishi Sunak + myself
Reposted by John Merrick
Reposted by John Merrick
And for the longer history see James Vernon’s great piece in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social academic.oup.com/past/article...
December 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM
And for the longer history see James Vernon’s great piece in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social academic.oup.com/past/article...
Reposted by John Merrick
This is a fantastic Keith Bradsher piece on China’s most cutting edge products, including flying taxis and car-sized lunch delivery robots. It crystallizes for me how much the *key* underlying hard-tech innovation is battery production. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
China's Clean Energy Push is Powering Flying Taxis, Food Delivery Drones and Bullet Trains
China’s experiments in clean energy can feel like living in the future. Even when things don’t quite work.
www.nytimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
This is a fantastic Keith Bradsher piece on China’s most cutting edge products, including flying taxis and car-sized lunch delivery robots. It crystallizes for me how much the *key* underlying hard-tech innovation is battery production. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Sadly, I think this is correct. The ability for governments to govern and to deliver on anything like substantive change seems to be basically non-existent.
thoughts on chile:
we are in a position where governments around the world are incapable of meeting the demands of the vast majority of their citizens in any meaningful way, and voters just vote for whoever the opposition is in hopes that things will change or go on sporadic angry rampages
we are in a position where governments around the world are incapable of meeting the demands of the vast majority of their citizens in any meaningful way, and voters just vote for whoever the opposition is in hopes that things will change or go on sporadic angry rampages
December 18, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Sadly, I think this is correct. The ability for governments to govern and to deliver on anything like substantive change seems to be basically non-existent.
Reposted by John Merrick
📚 In this week's newsletter, our favourite writers and contributors tell us the best books they read this year 👇
📚 Books of the Year '25
From the late Mike Davis’s opus, 'Ecology of Fear', to works of sci-fi and essays about the landscape of Essex.
open.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 1:17 PM
📚 In this week's newsletter, our favourite writers and contributors tell us the best books they read this year 👇
Reposted by John Merrick
I was asked by @the-breakdown.bsky.social to talk about a book that shaped my thinking in 2025 and was excited to talk about this one. breakdownjournal.substack.com/p/books-of-t...
December 18, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I was asked by @the-breakdown.bsky.social to talk about a book that shaped my thinking in 2025 and was excited to talk about this one. breakdownjournal.substack.com/p/books-of-t...
Up on the @the-breakdown.bsky.social's substack now is our books of the year!
open.substack.com/pub/breakdow...
open.substack.com/pub/breakdow...
📚 Books of the Year '25
From the late Mike Davis’s opus, 'Ecology of Fear', to works of sci-fi and essays about the landscape of Essex.
open.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Up on the @the-breakdown.bsky.social's substack now is our books of the year!
open.substack.com/pub/breakdow...
open.substack.com/pub/breakdow...
Reposted by John Merrick
Here is the main feature from Issue 26, an oral history of the print magazine in the 21st century. Featuring interviews with Alex Bilmes, Ian Hislop, Jo Ellison, Graydon Carter, Andrew Neil, Richard Benson, Kate Spicer, Chris Floyd and @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social.
www.the-fence.com/rumours-of-o...
www.the-fence.com/rumours-of-o...
Rumours of Our Death
Print Ain’t Dead, Baby
www.the-fence.com
December 18, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Here is the main feature from Issue 26, an oral history of the print magazine in the 21st century. Featuring interviews with Alex Bilmes, Ian Hislop, Jo Ellison, Graydon Carter, Andrew Neil, Richard Benson, Kate Spicer, Chris Floyd and @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social.
www.the-fence.com/rumours-of-o...
www.the-fence.com/rumours-of-o...
Reposted by John Merrick
I wrote about the current state of things for the last @lrb.co.uk of the year.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
December 18, 2025 at 12:32 PM
I wrote about the current state of things for the last @lrb.co.uk of the year.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Someone better be writing a 12,000 word "What Was Bazball?" essay for the @lrb.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Someone better be writing a 12,000 word "What Was Bazball?" essay for the @lrb.co.uk
Reposted by John Merrick
"The bog, once the terrain of anti-colonial struggle, now plays host to vast swathes of global fibre-optic cables and server halls."
ROISIN AGNEW writes on the data centre takeover of Ireland’s peat bogs for ISSUE #2 FRONTIERS 👇
ROISIN AGNEW writes on the data centre takeover of Ireland’s peat bogs for ISSUE #2 FRONTIERS 👇
Bog Communism
Ireland’s bogs were degraded by industrial exploitation. Today, they play host to a growing network of data centres. Can we reclaim them as commons, and restore their value—cultural, social and ecolog...
www.break-down.org
December 10, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"The bog, once the terrain of anti-colonial struggle, now plays host to vast swathes of global fibre-optic cables and server halls."
ROISIN AGNEW writes on the data centre takeover of Ireland’s peat bogs for ISSUE #2 FRONTIERS 👇
ROISIN AGNEW writes on the data centre takeover of Ireland’s peat bogs for ISSUE #2 FRONTIERS 👇
