Iain Alexander
@iaingalexander.bsky.social
That’s actually the plot of Hotel California by the Eagles. Where have you been, Clive?
Reposted by Iain Alexander
It is a serious problem for our political discourse that the most consistently astute commentator in the country is someone posting anonymously on social media behind a rat avatar.
June 2016 here. Do you notice how this has been proven correct: there really is no way to appease the reactionary right, who take every concession to their fucknut demands as a new base camp to strike out for more and nastier?
November 17, 2025 at 11:39 AM
It is a serious problem for our political discourse that the most consistently astute commentator in the country is someone posting anonymously on social media behind a rat avatar.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
The debate over whether this is 'fascism' is a silly semantic one in which a small minority mean 'completed fascist authoritarianism' and the vast majority mean 'the people in power say and do things that demonstrate completed fascist authoritarianism is what they want to achieve.'
November 17, 2025 at 9:06 AM
The debate over whether this is 'fascism' is a silly semantic one in which a small minority mean 'completed fascist authoritarianism' and the vast majority mean 'the people in power say and do things that demonstrate completed fascist authoritarianism is what they want to achieve.'
Any SCG MP looking at Labour’s latest grotesque shenanigans, and at the hope — and rising polling numbers — radiating off the Greens, and isn’t actively discussing imminently joining the party actually concerned with addressing the real causes of shit material conditions deserves everything they get
I expect the SCG have all resigned the whip in disgust this morning, right?
I expect the SCG have all resigned the whip in disgust this morning, right?
November 17, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Any SCG MP looking at Labour’s latest grotesque shenanigans, and at the hope — and rising polling numbers — radiating off the Greens, and isn’t actively discussing imminently joining the party actually concerned with addressing the real causes of shit material conditions deserves everything they get
If you can write an op-ed like this and not follow it with resigning the whip, what’s the point?
Stella Creasy MP writes that the asylum proposals of the Labour government are "performatively cruel" and likely to be ineffective in securing control or going after the smuggling gangs
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
ICE-style raids on Britain's streets: that's all Labour's brutal asylum reforms will achieve | Stella Creasy
If we want to ‘stop the boats’, we need to stop the BS when it comes to what creates refugees, and how to respond to them, says Labour MP Stella Creasy
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:20 AM
If you can write an op-ed like this and not follow it with resigning the whip, what’s the point?
Reposted by Iain Alexander
I expect the SCG have all resigned the whip in disgust this morning, right?
I expect the SCG have all resigned the whip in disgust this morning, right?
November 17, 2025 at 9:13 AM
I expect the SCG have all resigned the whip in disgust this morning, right?
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Another chilling aspect... The Tories simply passed a law declaring Rwanda "safe".
Do we really trust that this govt or the next won't resort to similar tactics if this finds them politically convenient?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Do we really trust that this govt or the next won't resort to similar tactics if this finds them politically convenient?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
November 16, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Another chilling aspect... The Tories simply passed a law declaring Rwanda "safe".
Do we really trust that this govt or the next won't resort to similar tactics if this finds them politically convenient?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Do we really trust that this govt or the next won't resort to similar tactics if this finds them politically convenient?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Iain Alexander
I don't know how about literally everyone who was there the first time this lot were in power? Like, did you memory hole David Blunkett or what?
“on article 8 of the ECHR in particular the right to family life ..we want to constrain in legislation the way that that is applied in immigration cases” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells Sky’s Trevor Philips
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
Who would have imagined we would ever hear this from a Labour government
November 16, 2025 at 1:11 PM
I don't know how about literally everyone who was there the first time this lot were in power? Like, did you memory hole David Blunkett or what?
Went to see THE RUNNING MAN. Slightly immersion-shattering to see chunks of it filmed at the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, just down the road — especially the important scene in the ludicrously expensive “general store” stocking bottles of wine priced at nearly a grand. Also Wembley Way.
November 15, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Went to see THE RUNNING MAN. Slightly immersion-shattering to see chunks of it filmed at the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, just down the road — especially the important scene in the ludicrously expensive “general store” stocking bottles of wine priced at nearly a grand. Also Wembley Way.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Pluribus is so fucking good in following up Carol's 100% philosophically correct righteous anger in episode 2 by spending an hour dunking on her for not even beginning to comprehend the unseen labour of thousands of strangers that her little bubble has always been reliant on
November 15, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Pluribus is so fucking good in following up Carol's 100% philosophically correct righteous anger in episode 2 by spending an hour dunking on her for not even beginning to comprehend the unseen labour of thousands of strangers that her little bubble has always been reliant on
Reposted by Iain Alexander
I see we've all decided the gloves are off and the boot is getting put in, to clear the way for Wes. Wonder if they think it will go any differently with a different repellent creature nobody likes?
From Patrick Maguire's sub stack. Says an awful lot, and none of it good.
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
I see we've all decided the gloves are off and the boot is getting put in, to clear the way for Wes. Wonder if they think it will go any differently with a different repellent creature nobody likes?
Reposted by Iain Alexander
“I’m not ringing Spellar”
“Because he’s a horrible neocon bigot and crank?”
“Oh that doesn’t bother me. I simply cannot socialise”
“Because he’s a horrible neocon bigot and crank?”
“Oh that doesn’t bother me. I simply cannot socialise”
From Patrick Maguire's sub stack. Says an awful lot, and none of it good.
November 12, 2025 at 7:20 PM
“I’m not ringing Spellar”
“Because he’s a horrible neocon bigot and crank?”
“Oh that doesn’t bother me. I simply cannot socialise”
“Because he’s a horrible neocon bigot and crank?”
“Oh that doesn’t bother me. I simply cannot socialise”
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Yes, yes, all well and good. But what about his favourability ratings within the Labour Party? Absolute dog shit.
indeed, indeed but let us consider... is Wes Streeting the type of politician this country is crying out for? Desperately on its hands and knees and screaming in the streets? Incredibly: no.
That may be so, but is Streeting an effective communicator with the personality, charisma and charm needed to break through the Whitehall miasma and present a credible alternative to Farage to a media-led electorate? Get this: No.
November 12, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Yes, yes, all well and good. But what about his favourability ratings within the Labour Party? Absolute dog shit.
You don’t ever particularly need a reason to repost this, but it’s always nice when it’s timely
November 12, 2025 at 8:55 AM
You don’t ever particularly need a reason to repost this, but it’s always nice when it’s timely
Reposted by Iain Alexander
The fictitious enthusiasm for someone is going to be overwhelming. It may as well be for the epitome of the 21st century Southern briefcase jobsworth gobshite.
Genuine idiot panicking, or just more playacting bullshit intended to culminate in the leader’s office conceding to a wave of fictitious enthusiasm for coronation of PM Wes unopposed, to calm the angry market gods? It’s usually the most idiotic, insulting and tiresome option, so I’d guess the latter
November 11, 2025 at 10:59 PM
The fictitious enthusiasm for someone is going to be overwhelming. It may as well be for the epitome of the 21st century Southern briefcase jobsworth gobshite.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Need the Safdie Brothers film adaptation with Matthew Mcfadyen as Keith and Martin Freeman as Morgan
November 11, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Need the Safdie Brothers film adaptation with Matthew Mcfadyen as Keith and Martin Freeman as Morgan
Reposted by Iain Alexander
This is even funnier than it just being Streeting on manoeuvres.
November 11, 2025 at 10:50 PM
This is even funnier than it just being Streeting on manoeuvres.
Albeit it’s predicated on achieving astronomical milestones that history suggests are hilariously unlikely, but the board of this company just ratified a trillion-dollar compensation package for this bozo.
Not sure who’s the more whacked-out, them or him.
Not sure who’s the more whacked-out, them or him.
in a long life filled with saying stupid shit this is may be the stupidest shit he's ever said
November 11, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Albeit it’s predicated on achieving astronomical milestones that history suggests are hilariously unlikely, but the board of this company just ratified a trillion-dollar compensation package for this bozo.
Not sure who’s the more whacked-out, them or him.
Not sure who’s the more whacked-out, them or him.
It does seem like the “ceasefire” has served its purpose, though, in terms of quietening the noise that had been building from folks who had spent two years not seeing fit to object to Israeli crimes against humanity, because you aren’t hearing a peep from them about the violations…
Since the ceasefire took effect one month ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622.
How many times has Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire? Here are the numbers
Since the ceasefire took effect one month ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622.
bit.ly
November 11, 2025 at 7:19 PM
It does seem like the “ceasefire” has served its purpose, though, in terms of quietening the noise that had been building from folks who had spent two years not seeing fit to object to Israeli crimes against humanity, because you aren’t hearing a peep from them about the violations…
Reposted by Iain Alexander
There is a (in my view, deliberate) overemphasis of Hannah Arendt’s remarks about the ‘banality of evil’ and regular people doing evil things versus a more urgent point she makes about the farce of trying to locate the evils of the Final Solution in the body of one man because Nazism was structural.
I sometimes worry about this fascination with how apparently normal people can do things of extreme cruelty - I guess it’s good because it makes us more vigilant, I just worry about being bewitched by the charm of the monster www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
‘Hermann Göring loved his kids. That’s what’s terrifying’: James Vanderbilt, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon on Nuremberg
Russell Crowe has a malevolent charm as the Nazi on trial in a compelling new film. His co-stars and director explain how they understood this monster – and the persistence of evil today
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:40 AM
There is a (in my view, deliberate) overemphasis of Hannah Arendt’s remarks about the ‘banality of evil’ and regular people doing evil things versus a more urgent point she makes about the farce of trying to locate the evils of the Final Solution in the body of one man because Nazism was structural.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Sure, though for the past 3 decades (?) the idea of a national culture has p much been undermined by successive governments : cuts to arts funding, walling off access to creative industries to the richest in society, making the UK incredibly difficult to be a creative worker etc.
I reckon a shared national popular culture is just as important (if not more important) than a fact based, impartial news service for liberal democracy to work.
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Sure, though for the past 3 decades (?) the idea of a national culture has p much been undermined by successive governments : cuts to arts funding, walling off access to creative industries to the richest in society, making the UK incredibly difficult to be a creative worker etc.
Tricky one to parse, this.
Because all the signs pointing to the explosion of the genAI bubble point to this being a real harbinger of economic doom…
…but SoftBank’s track record of catastrophically bad bets is certainly a confounding factor!
(Nah, this bad. Confidence-spiral bad, probably.)
Because all the signs pointing to the explosion of the genAI bubble point to this being a real harbinger of economic doom…
…but SoftBank’s track record of catastrophically bad bets is certainly a confounding factor!
(Nah, this bad. Confidence-spiral bad, probably.)
Japanese giant SoftBank said Tuesday it has sold its entire stake in tech giant Nvidia for $5.83 billion.
Click here to read more: https://cnb.cx/49LCIs8
Click here to read more: https://cnb.cx/49LCIs8
November 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Tricky one to parse, this.
Because all the signs pointing to the explosion of the genAI bubble point to this being a real harbinger of economic doom…
…but SoftBank’s track record of catastrophically bad bets is certainly a confounding factor!
(Nah, this bad. Confidence-spiral bad, probably.)
Because all the signs pointing to the explosion of the genAI bubble point to this being a real harbinger of economic doom…
…but SoftBank’s track record of catastrophically bad bets is certainly a confounding factor!
(Nah, this bad. Confidence-spiral bad, probably.)
Reposted by Iain Alexander
I’ve never noticed John being reticent about criticising the public for views he thinks are wrong, but there’s a particular section of the public who basically can’t be wrong about certain topics and it seems that saying they are, is childish student politics.
November 11, 2025 at 8:16 AM
I’ve never noticed John being reticent about criticising the public for views he thinks are wrong, but there’s a particular section of the public who basically can’t be wrong about certain topics and it seems that saying they are, is childish student politics.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
It's also notable, when one watches the whole thing, that neither of the people she's talking to makes this point to her. But then that's how ideological capture works, isn't it. Exactly the way they describe earlier in the show. They are all on the same page so nobody challenges bias.
November 11, 2025 at 7:58 AM
It's also notable, when one watches the whole thing, that neither of the people she's talking to makes this point to her. But then that's how ideological capture works, isn't it. Exactly the way they describe earlier in the show. They are all on the same page so nobody challenges bias.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
What's fascinating here is that as she rhymes off the list of gender critical people at Newsnight pursuing an explicitly gender critical agenda, in the context of a discussion of ideological capture at the BBC, she doesn't recognise that she was part of the ideological capture of the BBC by GCs.
Emily Maitlis admitting she worked at the bbc to try and get healthcare for trans people shut down
November 11, 2025 at 7:52 AM
What's fascinating here is that as she rhymes off the list of gender critical people at Newsnight pursuing an explicitly gender critical agenda, in the context of a discussion of ideological capture at the BBC, she doesn't recognise that she was part of the ideological capture of the BBC by GCs.
Reposted by Iain Alexander
Remember, when journalists just let trans people live their lives in peace, it’s “ideological capture”, but when they use their own personal anti-trans beliefs to lead a campaign to close down the only place in the country trans youth received healthcare, it’s absolutely fine, nothing to see here.
Emily Maitlis admitting she worked at the bbc to try and get healthcare for trans people shut down
November 10, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Remember, when journalists just let trans people live their lives in peace, it’s “ideological capture”, but when they use their own personal anti-trans beliefs to lead a campaign to close down the only place in the country trans youth received healthcare, it’s absolutely fine, nothing to see here.