James Butler
@piercepenniless.bsky.social
Writes & talks @lrb.co.uk
You can read Tony's superb dissection of the Latin American new right in the Novermber 6 issue of the @lrb.co.uk - or online here: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
November 13, 2025 at 11:54 AM
You can read Tony's superb dissection of the Latin American new right in the Novermber 6 issue of the @lrb.co.uk - or online here: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I was delighted to speak to Alan Finlayson for the @lrb.co.uk's On Politics. We take on the digital right (and online left), the champions of inegalitarianism, print and social democracy, Farage as influencer and... whether the internet is just right-wing.
October 16, 2025 at 7:41 AM
I was delighted to speak to Alan Finlayson for the @lrb.co.uk's On Politics. We take on the digital right (and online left), the champions of inegalitarianism, print and social democracy, Farage as influencer and... whether the internet is just right-wing.
Few of the challenges to progressive politics are really new. But the massive change in the means of communication, and what that does to politics (which has to be conducted through it), really is new and difficult.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
September 23, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Few of the challenges to progressive politics are really new. But the massive change in the means of communication, and what that does to politics (which has to be conducted through it), really is new and difficult.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
That piece also inaugurates a new strand of the @lrb.co.uk podcast, ON POLITICS.
The first episode features Chris Mullin, Andy Beckett and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on just these problems -- hosted by me. Get yours here! www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
The first episode features Chris Mullin, Andy Beckett and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on just these problems -- hosted by me. Get yours here! www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
September 17, 2025 at 12:39 PM
That piece also inaugurates a new strand of the @lrb.co.uk podcast, ON POLITICS.
The first episode features Chris Mullin, Andy Beckett and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on just these problems -- hosted by me. Get yours here! www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
The first episode features Chris Mullin, Andy Beckett and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on just these problems -- hosted by me. Get yours here! www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
Wrote about the implosion of 'phase two' Starmer's government: the Mandelson affair (volume 3), the cratering numbers, the changing political system, the spectre of Farage and the resurgent right. @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
September 17, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Wrote about the implosion of 'phase two' Starmer's government: the Mandelson affair (volume 3), the cratering numbers, the changing political system, the spectre of Farage and the resurgent right. @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
Truly wonderful, numinous place.
July 4, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Truly wonderful, numinous place.
I did not think I would find myself being thankful for the existence of Peter Hain, but life is strange. He calls proscription "intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong."
July 3, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I did not think I would find myself being thankful for the existence of Peter Hain, but life is strange. He calls proscription "intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong."
I'm not saying I live in the coolest place in London, but it's definitely up there. I try never to take it for granted.
June 28, 2025 at 6:57 AM
I'm not saying I live in the coolest place in London, but it's definitely up there. I try never to take it for granted.
It's always the ones you most expect, eh. edition.cnn.com/2025/06/14/u...
June 16, 2025 at 9:01 AM
It's always the ones you most expect, eh. edition.cnn.com/2025/06/14/u...
The American Years of Lead are going to be really horrible and really weird.
June 16, 2025 at 8:58 AM
The American Years of Lead are going to be really horrible and really weird.
Yourcenar was also a wonderful essayist. Someone should reissue her collection 'The Dark Brain of Piranesi'.
June 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Yourcenar was also a wonderful essayist. Someone should reissue her collection 'The Dark Brain of Piranesi'.
June 10, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Foxes are the tutelary spirits of London. They've lived in King's Cross rather longer than Google.
June 10, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Foxes are the tutelary spirits of London. They've lived in King's Cross rather longer than Google.
I've been thinking about this Pasolini editorial a lot recently. 'What is this coup? I know.' It's a very brilliant piece on being an intellectual in a state where everything is conducted in murk and shadow and conspiracy, where everyone knows and nobody says. www.corriere.it/speciali/pas...
June 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I've been thinking about this Pasolini editorial a lot recently. 'What is this coup? I know.' It's a very brilliant piece on being an intellectual in a state where everything is conducted in murk and shadow and conspiracy, where everyone knows and nobody says. www.corriere.it/speciali/pas...
Calasso: "It is also worth remembering that publishing has often shown itself to be a sure and rapid way of squandering substantial amounts of money."
June 2, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Calasso: "It is also worth remembering that publishing has often shown itself to be a sure and rapid way of squandering substantial amounts of money."
David Blunkett has obviously heard that my preferred parlour game is 'Rank New Labour Home Secretaries in Magnitude of Evil', and has decided to secure his position.
June 1, 2025 at 7:49 AM
David Blunkett has obviously heard that my preferred parlour game is 'Rank New Labour Home Secretaries in Magnitude of Evil', and has decided to secure his position.
honestly pretty gratifying to think Musk has, of his own volition, turned his bladder into something that feels like a Tesco bag full of shattered glass
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
May 30, 2025 at 4:25 PM
honestly pretty gratifying to think Musk has, of his own volition, turned his bladder into something that feels like a Tesco bag full of shattered glass
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...
In fact, Farage allows lots of the 'establishment' to play the roles they're accustomed to and comfortable with. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
May 29, 2025 at 11:23 AM
In fact, Farage allows lots of the 'establishment' to play the roles they're accustomed to and comfortable with. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fascinating character. Looked like a wizard. Built a scriptorium in his garden, and you can see the countless thousands of paper slips - which formed the basis of the OED - shelved up around him. (The OED still has them, albeit in filing cabinets.)
May 29, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Fascinating character. Looked like a wizard. Built a scriptorium in his garden, and you can see the countless thousands of paper slips - which formed the basis of the OED - shelved up around him. (The OED still has them, albeit in filing cabinets.)
Alternative take (Jacques Le Goff): it's all just the (very) long middle ages.
May 26, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Alternative take (Jacques Le Goff): it's all just the (very) long middle ages.
I laughed at this passage in the Guardian's obit of MacIntyre, which captures the disposition of both men well.
May 26, 2025 at 7:27 AM
I laughed at this passage in the Guardian's obit of MacIntyre, which captures the disposition of both men well.
This is the same edition I inherited from my dad as a kid. Also the marvellous late-'60s cover for the Lord of the Rings brick paperback, with its acid-green tree framing. Great era of cover design.
May 23, 2025 at 6:58 AM
This is the same edition I inherited from my dad as a kid. Also the marvellous late-'60s cover for the Lord of the Rings brick paperback, with its acid-green tree framing. Great era of cover design.
RIP. One of the really exceptional and original thinkers of the 20th century. Jonathan Rée's recent appreciation for the @lrb.co.uk gave a good sense of how distinctive a thinker he was. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
May 23, 2025 at 6:31 AM
RIP. One of the really exceptional and original thinkers of the 20th century. Jonathan Rée's recent appreciation for the @lrb.co.uk gave a good sense of how distinctive a thinker he was. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
This is such a miserable, wretched series of sentences.
May 19, 2025 at 2:03 PM
This is such a miserable, wretched series of sentences.