Mark Northfield
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marknorthfield.com
Mark Northfield
@marknorthfield.com
Pianist, composer, retropop/classical masher-upper, with occasional satire. One third of piano trio Cherry Mint Koala.

On Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube etc.
Also Insta @cherrymintkoala

Fond of cycling, good beer, my man, our cat.
Pinned
Here's something very beautiful for the new Cherry Mint Koala single, out on my Bandcamp and streaming platforms today.

The fluidity and energy of these two dancers (Isobel Staddon & Antony Dearlove) is mesmerising. 🤩

#newrelease #newmusic 🎧

youtu.be/eipm2z2jD4w
Waldstein Fantasia Pt. 2 by Cherry Mint Koala / choreographic video by Tierney Lawlor
YouTube video by Mark Northfield / Cherry Mint Koala
youtu.be
Severe alert handily reminding me that I've only got an hour to get to Waitrose before they shut.
September 7, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
We should try to bridge the gap, instead of picking on each other. Constantly arguing with folks on the same side effectively, (not just on EU-UK relations, but SO many issues) who agree on direction and destination, but suggest a different route or pace, while ACTUAL FASCISM is rising, is daft. 3/3
August 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
At least Chamberlain got a piece of paper
August 16, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

Special Sunday School is coming to you EARLY - as in, the next hour or so - with @snellarthur.bsky.social and @sturdyalex.bsky.social looking at the Trump-Putin nothing-burger and implications going forward. xx
August 16, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
And that's why they got a London Overground line named after them.
July 27, 2025 at 6:47 PM
FINALLY found time for the first two episodes of Podyssey's new season this WE. Unsurprisingly, it continues the insightful excellence of what came before, peppered with beautifully chosen music/extracts.

The crucial distinction given between 'authentic' and 'honest' needs wider exposure, I feel!
🆕 AESOP II: A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other 🐬

Is truth a set of facts? Might something fake be authentic? Can you contruct a truth out of lies? And why are unreliable narrators more compelling?

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4hZ8...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
8. AESOP II - A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other
Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 26/07/2025 · 1h 13m
podcasts.apple.com
July 27, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
Aesop -> Frasier -> Il Trovatore -> Trump -> Slavery -> Revolution -> Regional language -> Golden Girls -> Forrest Gump -> Velazquez -> Zulu -> Sheherazade -> Populism -> Individualism -> New Testament -> Agatha Christie -> Egalitarianism -> Mirroring -> Collective Consciousness -> Memento -> Japan
🆕 AESOP II: A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other 🐬

Is truth a set of facts? Might something fake be authentic? Can you contruct a truth out of lies? And why are unreliable narrators more compelling?

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4hZ8...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
8. AESOP II - A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other
Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 26/07/2025 · 1h 13m
podcasts.apple.com
July 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
Who doesn't love anything that starts with a dolphin and a seagull going at it? Glorious!
🆕 AESOP II: A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other 🐬

Is truth a set of facts? Might something fake be authentic? Can you contruct a truth out of lies? And why are unreliable narrators more compelling?

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4hZ8...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
8. AESOP II - A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other
Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 26/07/2025 · 1h 13m
podcasts.apple.com
July 26, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
A brilliant summary of 2025. Someone who doesn't live in London telling someone who does live in London to google London, for proof that it is, in fact, a dystopian hellscape. Something I can disprove by walking to the local bakery, or taking the tube every day, or just... looking out the window. 🤌🏽
July 22, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
🧵Introducing the Trump Action Tracker website!

Today I’m launching www.trumpactiontracker.info - a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). 1/14
July 21, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...
The billionaire and the tax evading gift shops
Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital manages a row of high-profile shops at Piccadilly Circus. So why does his team keeping renting them to students who vanish without paying millions of pounds in taxes?
www.londoncentric.media
July 22, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Here's something very beautiful for the new Cherry Mint Koala single, out on my Bandcamp and streaming platforms today.

The fluidity and energy of these two dancers (Isobel Staddon & Antony Dearlove) is mesmerising. 🤩

#newrelease #newmusic 🎧

youtu.be/eipm2z2jD4w
Waldstein Fantasia Pt. 2 by Cherry Mint Koala / choreographic video by Tierney Lawlor
YouTube video by Mark Northfield / Cherry Mint Koala
youtu.be
July 18, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
No-one is paying attention. No-one gives a damn. But one man is valiantly trying to make Labour stick by its manifesto commitment on constitutional reform. Tomorrow, we find out if he's succeeded.

iandunt.substack.com/p/this-wedne...
This Wednesday: The last best hope for Lords reform
No-one is paying attention. No-one gives a damn. But one man is valiantly trying to make Labour stick by its manifesto commitment.
iandunt.substack.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
I found @samfr.bsky.social's piece so interesting that I wrote a sort of companion piece on the role played by The Spectator @thespectator1828.bsky.social in this radicalisation. Sam doesn't mention it in his piece but I think it's an important part of the story. open.substack.com/pub/arthursn...
Radicalisation and The Spectator
An analysis of the normalisation of racist language on the British right is incomplete without taking note of the role played by the leading political weekly
open.substack.com
July 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
This is a subject I have yearned for people to take seriously. I can’t imagine a better person to do that than @samfr.bsky.social
We've also had two posts -

First, me on race and the radicalisation of the British right. And how far the mainstream has moved over the past 20 years.

samf.substack.com/p/blood-and-...
Blood and Soil
Race and the radicalisation of the British right
samf.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Bingeing the very fine #strongmessagehere series on R4. Revealing insight from Sara Pascoe who once had to share a dressing room with Nigel Farage for a 2016 pre-ref event.

She was introduced to him as a comedian, and the door shut. Farage's first words to her?
'I don't find comedy funny.'
July 5, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
It is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘and.’ 

And it’s equally acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘but’ or ‘or.’
June 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
Very few broke ranks - @rolandmcs.bsky.social is a very honourable exception - and so, I'm sorry, but Hannan does not just deserve ridicule. What he, Owen Paterson, and many others of that ilk did to our country deserves condemnation and utter contempt. 8/8
June 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
And once you've read Roland's substack piece, read this response to it from Chris Grey for useful added perspective.
#Brexit
As always, a thoughtful and interesting post from @rolandmcs.bsky.social, but I'm sure he'd accept there is more to say. It wasn't just that Vote Leave included different views, or that it radicalised during the referendum campaign and afterwards. 🧵 1/8
It's Daniel Hannan Day.

Rejoice, Rejoice. Or something....

rolandmcs.substack.com/p/daniel-han...
June 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Accurate histories are vital. Not least for recognising when certain political players attempt to rewrite the past.

One neatly put sentence in this excellent piece particularly caught my attention:

'In short, the Leave movement had radicalised itself throughout the campaign.'

#Brexit
It's Daniel Hannan Day.

Rejoice, Rejoice. Or something....

rolandmcs.substack.com/p/daniel-han...
June 24, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
If you are not concerned by the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation because you think it doesn’t impact you, you are wrong.

This is an authoritarian abuse of power by the government & it curtails all of our civil liberties #r4today
On LBC @zoejardiniere.bsky.social lists 3 previous instances where military aircraft have been targeted by campaigners in order to prevent them being used in war crimes, and she describes the govt banning Palestine Action as terrorists as an abuse of state power.

Well said.
June 24, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
And they have the nerve to describe this plan to rob everyone and give to the rich as a "Robin Hood" policy. ~AA
Reform UK is proposing a "Britannia card" that would let wealthy foreigners pay a £250k fee to move to the UK, and live here exempt from all tax on their foreign assets

What they don't say: it would cost the UK £34bn

Report here, and thread below: buff.ly/gpe2Dpf
June 23, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
Reform UK is proposing a "Britannia card" that would let wealthy foreigners pay a £250k fee to move to the UK, and live here exempt from all tax on their foreign assets

What they don't say: it would cost the UK £34bn

Report here, and thread below: buff.ly/gpe2Dpf
June 23, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
For what the situation in Iran might mean for its people, and for the U.K. and Cyprus, have a listen to Arthur Snell on today’s Quiet Riot

🎧👇
open.spotify.com/episode/346K...
Sunday School: Three's a crowd
Quiet Riot · Episode
open.spotify.com
June 22, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Mark Northfield
Five things to remember about war:
June 22, 2025 at 4:28 AM