John Barnes

Another story impossible to imagine in any other administration: the president's son goes hunting with a Russian criminal who is part of Putin's security entourage

#NowSpinning Weinberg’s achingly beautiful Cello Concerto with Nicolas Altstaedt taking the solo part. The meditative opening is grippingly gorgeous. What a corker this work is.

Of all the bbc presenters, Webb’s politics are the easiest to read - because he puts them in newspapers and doesn’t even try to hide them in broadcasts His politics are also mind numbingly predictable

As in Hungary, the authoritarian regime in Serbia is being dismantled . “For years, we failed to fulfill our duty. We kept silent, turned a blind eye, reported events one-sidedly, and failed to ask the necessary questions. For that, we owe our viewers an apology,” news anchor Goran Eror said.

By all accounts this is what most of the recent Reform media events have looked like. Bubble well and truly burst

Translation: His world is falling apart.

It's easy to mock Andy Burnham choosing to fix small annoyances when Britain has so many huge issues. I get the sentiment. At the same time, as he fixes more and more and more small annoyances, it does start to boost positive feeling.

Why are the people who accuse those talking about reversing Brexit of "living in the past" never asked about their own plans to rip up an international agreement that was first signed by the UK some 75 years ago?

For Mike Rogers, shielding Elon Musk from any form of accountability is his highest mission. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

Andy Burnham’s government has privately given up on reaching Labour’s target of building 1.5mn new homes by 2029, and ministers will refer to the goal less and less, according to government figures www.ft.com/content/285a...

Red States really dislike colleges and universities because they consistently produce people who don't vote Republican anymore. So they've moving to degrade them, converting them into institutions much more like high schools. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

We’re so used to impunity we don’t even know how to process punity

It now turns out that Elon Musk funded Cornel West's 2024 ballot push in its entirety in an effort to siphon votes away from the Democrats. readsludge.com/2026/10/26/m...

This is just the maddest argument. These people would trap us in poverty to keep a decade old commitment, which no one ever actually made, to an electorate which no longer exists.

“SHOVE THAT BALLROOM UP YOUR FAT ASS!”

Beatrice Keul, testified that she was introduced by Jeffrey Epstein to Donald J Trump, who then brutally raped her in a hotel room in Atlantic City, NJ, and her claims were deemed credible by a panel of the House Judiciary Committee today. The NYT has decided that this is not reportable news.

he saw an ottoman in the crowd and lost his train of thought it happens

Even with all the levers of power he has his hands on, and even with control of every mechanism in the federal government, Trump has been unable to find election fraud. So he's crowdsourcing it now.

Big up to my friends in Newfoundland and for letting me join in on this one.

Glorious, just glorious.

vivek's hairstyle kind of looks like dessert at the cheesecake factory

The man who has spent more money on politics in the last 2 years than George Soros has in his entire lifetime never says anything positive about his guy Ken Paxton. But he does serve up a steady diet of this stuff.

Never trust a guy who wears all his clothes at one time.

Steve Bannon is getting his election denial in early.

Thank you to the hundreds of devoted supporters who were there to cheer me on at the press conference today.

Reform plan to bring back imperial measurements to help boost US trade, not realising that US imperial measurements are different from UK ones. So dense a black hole is empty space by comparison.

Elon Musk not only controls the satellite systems that the Ukrainian army - and other European armies - rely upon, he also controls the algorithms that govern a large swathe of the European information space. Europe needs to decouple from this clear and present threat to their security. My latest

Oxide Ghosts - The Brass Eye Tapes touring again in 2027! www.michaelcumming.co.uk/oxide%20ghos... Michael Cumming is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the transmission of Brass Eye by Chris Morris with another tour + Q&A. Don't miss it. Tickets available now, seeya there. #ChrisMorris

My pal Danielle Koenig shared that her father Walter Koenig passed away last night at age 90. A performer whose kindness and warmth shone through the screen. He will be well remembered.

This went on for the rest of the full hour, at which point the BBC apologised for having to go to the weather and urged viewers to follow continuing live coverage on iPlayer. Forty-one minutes of unfiltered, unchallenged propaganda by a far right party with 8 MPs, now third in the polls. Discuss.

What is the BBC's justification for maintaining this level of coverage of Reform now it has slipped into third place?

If you need AI to plan a child's birthday, you have a problem that AI will not fix

Catching up on the recent Peter Hammill reissues that arrived while I was away. I've always been fond of Fool's Mate's fledgling material, mostly composed in the '60s. However, the real emotional jolt for me with solo Hammill came in 1973 with Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night. Still floors me.

Privatise things, get this.

Bookmarking this for when ICE stuff her in a van.

Monday.

Instant nocturnal animal disorientation and death. How are these geniuses so fucking thick?

Nobody's shocked that Jason Miller is the one posting Bolsonaro's refusal to concede. Trumpworld isn't just watching Brazil, they're coordinating. Same playbook, same people, different country. The authoritarian network is global, and it's poison.

The early days of The Late-Late Breakfast Show were a far cry from its notorious end. Long discussions of TV trivia, awkward attempts at Huddlines-style satire, and Whirly Wheel contestants doing half-arsed cartwheels instead of being fired out of cannons. historyoftv.substack.com/p/week-68-24...

"Lest we forgot: To congratulate any person or business who stops the [fascists] in their tracks at every given opportunity" via The UK Against Hate

Who remembers when it was revealed on an episode of Pointless that Robin Askwith and John Shuttleworth were brothers?

NEW: Trump is a Russian asset. And the UK government is finally waking from its decade-long slumber Read this. And order a wind-up radio. broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-dark-t...

Despite Lula solidly winning the Brazilian Presidential runoff, his Far Right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro is describing the result as “inexplicable” and calling for the election to be annulled. A preview for the US Midterms.

Europe is the future now www.arguably.uk/p/europe-is-...

Reminder that they also did this to Zack Polanski during the Holborn & St. Pancras by-election. Can't help but wonder that was a test run for future elections, such as the one that's just taken place in Brazil