Peter Williams
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Peter Williams
@petermwilliams.bsky.social
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Managing Editor, Prospect
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Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
It was a little over three years ago that Keir Starmer promised to do away with the House of Lords altogether as part of his plans to restore trust in politics. Now, he's nominating his own (less than stellar) allies, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social
The PM vowed to abolish the Lords. Why is he stuffing it with allies?
In Matthew Doyle, we are about to get another less than stellar peer. Now is the time for change
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 5, 2026 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
tom-clark.bsky.social
The natural year prayers are for peace, prosperity and harmony

The odds of an embattled PM, however, could actually be improved by an unhappy new year

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/720...
Keir Starmer’s unhappy new year
The natural new year prayers for the PM will be for prosperity, peace and political harmony. His survival, however, could be more likely if those pray...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 5, 2026 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
“Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places...” When @jamesgunn.bsky.social said this, the internet exploded.

@pghoskin.bsky.social on why the director’s comments are unimpeachable—as a lavish new book reveals.
The limits of Superman
Is he an immigrant? An American? A god? An average joe? The answer is all of these things and more, though he still can’t be everything to everyone
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 1, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
“Christmas, as much as it is about anything,” writes @petermwilliams.bsky.social, “is about what we watch”—and we all used to watch Top of the Pops. Should we miss the programme, or should it stay in the past?
I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back
The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Italy has been the “Silicon Valley of populism” since the 1990s—from Berlusconi to Meloni. So Giuliano da Empoli had a headstart in understanding how predator politics works:
Meet the 21st century’s apex predators
Giuliano da Empoli has spent his working life around power. He tells us where its holders are leading us now
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 28, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
petermwilliams.bsky.social
I wrote a little, vaguely festive something on why Top of the Pops was perfect Christmas viewing, but also why it can't be resurrected:

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/musi...
I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back
The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Grokipedia promises a backward-looking dystopia where one conspiracy-minded individual can overturn established knowledge, writes @ethanz.bsky.social.
Elon Musk versus Wikipedia continues an age-old battle over truth
Musk’s Grokipedia wants to take us back to a time when established knowledge was controlled by one opaque voice
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 20, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Top of the Pops is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas Past. A unique archive of pop’s golden age—and the darkness it contained, writes Prospect's @petermwilliams.bsky.social
I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back
The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 22, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
“Other PMs have had powerful advisers—Cummings, Mandelson—yet only Morgan McSweeney has effectively chosen a leader.” Stuart McGurk profiles the back-room fixer who captured the Labour party.
The curious rise of Morgan McSweeney
How a behind-the-scenes fixer captured the Labour party, only to become a symbol of Keir Starmer’s failing government
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Italy has been the “Silicon Valley of populism” since the 1990s—from Berlusconi to Meloni. So Giuliano da Empoli had a headstart in understanding how predator politics works:
Meet the 21st century’s apex predators
Giuliano da Empoli has spent his working life around power. He tells us where its holders are leading us now
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 21, 2025 at 5:48 PM
petermwilliams.bsky.social
I wrote a little, vaguely festive something on why Top of the Pops was perfect Christmas viewing, but also why it can't be resurrected:

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/musi...
I miss Top of the Pops at Christmas, but it should never come back
The longrunning music show is Britain’s Ghost of Christmas past, and a unique archive of pop’s golden age. Yet the past is where it should stay
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Control over copyright, and compensation for their work, is all the security musicians have, and retaining that control is hardly an unreasonable ask, writes @musicclerk.bsky.social.
The silence of Paul McCartney says a lot
The former Beatle has joined other famous musicians to make a stand against AI
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Speaking to Prospect’s @petermwilliams.bsky.social, Giuliano da Empoli warns that, in the age of AI, we’re like Aztec scribes recording the conquistadors… an old order encountering in a superior power it doesn’t understand:
Meet the 21st century’s apex predators
Giuliano da Empoli has spent his working life around power. He tells us where its holders are leading us now
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 2:35 PM
petermwilliams.bsky.social
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Giuliano da Empoli about his new book, The Hour of the Predator, for the latest issue of Prospect - discussing power in the 21st century, the digital failed state, Giorgia Meloni, JG Ballard and much more: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7184...
December 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
petermwilliams.bsky.social
New Prospect out now! A brilliant winter double issue—bumper, one might even say. Highlights include @arusbridger.bsky.social , in his last issue as editor, on Haaretz, Lucy Jones on tardigrades, @katemaltby.bsky.social on Marlowe, and Stuart McGurk on Morgan McSweeney

bsky.app/profile/pros...
prospectmagazine.co.uk Prospect Magazine @prospectmagazine.co.uk · 22d
Our winter double issue has just hit newsstands! Here’s a peek at what’s inside... 🧵

For our cover story, @wblau.bsky.social speaks to Ed Miliband and @billmckibben.bsky.social about renewable energy—a surprisingly hopeful take on our future climate: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
December 17, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
tom-clark.bsky.social
Hats off to @arusbridger.bsky.social as his final issue of @prospectmagazine.co.uk goes off to press

Under him, the mag had a far-sighted focus on the feedbacks between new media, culture & a darkening politics

Witness this pair of covers waking readers up early to GB News & Reform
December 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Trump’s pooping fighter jet video conjures, as Freud put it, the opposite of civilisation: a fantasy of excretion without consequence, of the unfiltered id released from every restrain, writes Sasha Mudd.
The politics of the potty
Trump’s defecating fighter jet is an emblem of a man in revolt against civilisation
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic candidate for New York mayor on a wave of enthusiasm for his left populist agenda. Atul Dev asks: why is the party’s establishment trying to stop him?
www.prospectmagazine...
October 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
“Description is revelation!” Oliver Soden reviews THE POEMS OF SEAMUS HEANEY, a vast new collection revealing a poet who got blood and mud under his fingernails.
In the bogs with Seamus Heaney
For all the beauty of his work, a new collection shows that the Irish poet was rooted in darkness and mud
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
sturdyalex.bsky.social
It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.
Goody-bag merch from Tory Conference branded "When Labour negotiates Britian loses" and signed "Kemi Badenoch".
October 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
In Jeremy Corbyn’s day, Labour conference was practically a lobbyist-free zone. “There was no point in going,” a veteran consultant told @petergeoghegan.bsky.social. But that has changed...
Labour’s conference was thick with lobbyists
Public affairs firms, including those with ties to the party, were representing everything from oil and gas to defence contractors
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
October 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Peter Williams
tom-clark.bsky.social
A provocative & unsparing look at the difficulties of confronting national-chauvinism around the world by Ivan Krastev

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lib...
October 4, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
prospectmagazine.co.uk
A new ITV drama on the phone-hacking scandal, featuring @arusbridger.bsky.social played by Toby Jones, shows us journalism at its worst, but also how reporting can make real change.
Me, Toby Jones and a timely reminder of why we need a free press
A new drama on the phone-hacking scandal shows us journalism at its worst, but also how reporting can make real change
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
September 22, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
benansell.bsky.social
In less jest - yes, it's good if universities can help students develop skills for the labour market. However, the pointless venom of the current government about one of the few world class sectors in the British economy is tiring, enervating and just plain sad. Get a grip lads.
September 19, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Peter Williams
davidallengreen.bsky.social
NEW

Has the government overreached in using terrorism law against Palestine Action?

A disclosed MI5 document indicates that the basis for proscription may be weak

By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
The New York Times has now published a document which sets out the government’s basis for the proscription. This is the “open” version of the MI5 assessment that has been placed before the courts in litigation challenging the proscription. The judges would also see a “closed” version with material not to be placed in the public domain. One hopes the “closed” version is a far more impressive document than the one published, which is a flimsy and unconvincing piece of work. The assessment even admits—twice—that most of the activity of Palestine Action cannot be called terrorism. The document overall reads as if it has been compiled backwards, intending to justify a conclusion that needed to be reached. If so, it will not be the first intelligence document to have been created in such a way. The assessment relies on the group having caused “serious” property damage, which is the relevant statutory test. The problem here is that the spraying of paint and graffiti by the group does not meet the threshold of seriousness. The document also relies on “open source” estimates of the cost of damage which, if one looks at the cited sources, trace back to a claim which the police themselves put to arrested protesters in interview. As such there is a certain circularity: the state is relying on the state claiming the damage is serious.
September 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM