James Leach

The alternative title was "Why HBO Max need to travel back in time and listen to @stephenkb.bsky.social" itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/harry-pott...

Had a good old chin wag with my pal Martin Jameson about Burnham itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/andy-burnh...

It was tough to hand the crown over to Noah but it had to happen sometime.

Congratulations to Noah Wyle's publicist tomandlorenzo.com/2026/10/noah...

Before everyone gets too excited by AI becoming self-aware let's just bear in mind that my Google spellcheck still has no idea which word I am trying to type here

The trade unions resisting a political donations cap in the UK are ragged-trousered philanthropists. Thanks to their delusion that a system allowing limitless donations enhances their power, they're in danger of handing the country to the far-right parties that billionaires support. Burnham must act

Especially as, if you can afford the phone, I'm highly sceptical you can't stretch to a £10 or £15 pair of headphones. No one's suggesting it has to be a pair of Bose Spatial Audio headphones or whatever the hell

“A rational billionaire would see the merits of buying social peace. An enlightened one would acknowledge his debts to federal science, public education and chance.Alas, there are few such super-rich to be found.” Me on the demagoguery against Prop 40. as.ft.com/r/4f1869f4-5...

Why Trump May Have Missed His Son’s Wedding open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

hey, I just met Zeus and this is crazy but he's a swan and I'm having babies

Latest newsletter is live: loved geeking out on the long lost story of The Cage and the Pike TOS that never was. Plus @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk’s piece on why the UK government is nowhere on confronting far right thugs itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/the-week-i...

Really feels like Iran and its proxies blocking our major shipping routes wasn't a coherent strategy until Trump put the idea in their heads. Fucking idiot.

Jesus if someone you knew had been *legitimately* scammed, wouldn't you stop feeling sympathy for them if they gave you this response.

So we’re all going to spend the next four weeks tearing apart everything James Orr has ever published and looking into Cambridge’s hiring policies. Right guys? Guys?

There’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice, a weird, damp towel of a man. Tice’s eyes seem permanently affixed with a look of mild terror, as if he’s constantly worried that he’s going to shit himself at any moment itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/why-reform...

@stephenkb.bsky.social excellent on The News Agents tonight. And got me thinking that we are too eager to divorce vetting scandals from specific institutional context. If Arday had been appointed ambassador to a G7 country we’d be more outraged about the people who vetted him.

Latest post: the four trends to watch to make sense of Reform’s electoral fortunes. itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/why-reform...

Your reminder that Reform clutch their pearls if someone is mean about them but Zia Yusuf can call people traitors to his heart’s content.

To @iandunt.bsky.social’s point, ChatGPT has started saying ”that makes me smile” in responses and I’ve begged it to stop as it’s fucking terrifying.

Sorry to read this. Listened to an interview @lewisgoodall.com did with her back in Feb and she sounded like an incredibly brave and compassionate woman. Natalie Fleet leaves 'triggering' safeguarding minister role www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Agreed. Just seems (for now) indicative of a man who is listening.

Not sure which bits of House of the Dragon S3 are more @stephenkb.bsky.social adjacent - the fact HBO made me wait so long that I’ve forgotten who half the cast are, or that Rhaenyra is making Keir Starmeresque blunders, governing erratically and needlessly pissing off her core supporters.

Dear England already feeling weirdly dated now we’ve turned our fire onto Tuchel. open.substack.com/pub/itsallst...

Why not soothe your distress about England’s first Tuchel era disappointment by reading my gripes about “Dear England”, the rather long winded TV dramatisation of the Southgate era. itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/what-dear-...

Nigel Farage, bins and the perils of going mainstream open.substack.com/pub/itsallst...

I am confused. I thought when Josh Simons quit as an MP to call an unnecessary by-election it was a huge waste of taxpayer funds and an insult to voters?

Latest newsletter has a useful explainer on the differences between Tuchel and Southgate’s managment styles. Plus I read Keir Starmer’s Substack so you don’t have to open.substack.com/pub/itsallst...

Are we sure this isn't Le Chiffre?

But please, tell us again how arbitrary and joyless Net Zero is

What? These are just like those banking ads with the shit performance poetry.

Latest from me: why the myth of Andy Burnham is more powerful than the man - and the unfortunate parallels starting to emerge with both Starmer and one Boris Johnson. open.substack.com/pub/itsallst...

I'm unashamedly writing about Anthony Head in the second week in a row. Namely how he flirts with Sharon Maughan over coffee WHEN HE'S ALREADY ON A DATE WITH ANOTHER WOMAN itsallstorytelling.substack.com/p/the-week-i...

The problem is: like Starmer, he has a strategy of winning. He does not have a strategy for governing (cf his now rowed-back Waspi women comment; his evasiveness about fiscal rules etc.). My prediction: Burnham will resemble Johnson in government.

Ok this analogy from @edzitron.com to describe the stupidity of LLMs made me laugh so hard I nearly fell off my chair.

Not that dissimilar to the argument Dawkins made himself about religion, hence the irony in the Claude Delusion. Something mysterious happens which my science or education can't explain, therefore must be a powerful deity.

Both Thompson and Ezra Klein are symptomatic of this really tedious “I’m just asking questions” liberalism that entertains any old bollocks.

funnily enough there was a kid at my school whose dad was actually Knight Rider

Keir Starmer is accused of not grasping the scale of Labour's problems. But I'm not sure his successors do either. open.substack.com/pub/itsallst...

The plans to make Andy Burnham PM have an increasingly "here's how we get a government of national unity to stop Brexit without Jeremy Corbyn being made Prime Minister" feel to them