80% of people i spoke to said this essay changed their life
(sample size - 10: 4 relatives, 4 friends, 2 strangers)
vox populi, vox dei
nybooks.com/articles/2024/10…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
‘I wish you could see it all, but really, what more do we need to see beyond what is happening at the sharpest end in Gaza? The problem isn’t that we don’t know, but that so little changes despite our knowledge.’
This week’s column from Palestinian occupied territories
‘All the tools at the disposal of those who want the world to act – journalism, protests, outcry and outrage – cannot end this catastrophe, cannot even capture its gravity.’ theguardian.com/commentisfre…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
“I could only watch helplessly as the most respectable parts of the Western press not only egged on a war based on fraud, but also helped heavily racialize it.” New: Pankaj Mishra on Gaza, decolonization, and the failures of journalism. nplusonemag.com/online-only/…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
“The most fundamental problem with polling is that the phenomenon it claims to record—public opinion—has no coherent meaning or existence.” —@swajcmanearle go.nybooks.com/3XKsfWp
I wrote a long essay for @nybooks about how the polling industry conquered politics nybooks.com/articles/2024/10…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
This week’s @TheTLS, featuring Noel Malcolm on sex and the church; @DavidMarkHerman on Aharon Appelfeld; @swajcmanearle on fixing Britain; @KathrynMaris on Genevieve Taggard; @kidisalright on Billie Holiday; @RogerDom1 on anchovies; @irinibus on art brut – and more
'It was once said that to be born British was to have won the lottery in life. Failed State suggests that, relative to being born in neighbouring countries, it is now somewhat of a misfortune.'
My review of @Samfr 's book in this week's TLS
the-tls.co.uk/politics-by-re…
Lol
We have some major announcements today here at The Spectator.
Fraser Nelson is to step down as Editor, after 15 incredibly successful years. He leaves the magazine modernised, digitised and with more readers than ever before. I am delighted to say he will continue to write for The Spectator and will become Associate Editor.
Michael Gove will become the new Editor on October 4th, pending final approval from Acoba. Michael was a journalist for 17 years prior to entering politics and becoming One of the longest serving cabinet ministers of the past 100 years.
Alongside his political and journalistic nous, Michael brings a love of books, philosophy, art, opera — and a mischievous sense of humour. He is perfectly suited to the role, and I can't wait to work together.
Charles Moore has been appointed non-executive Chairman of The Spectator, with the specific brief of safeguarding editorial independence and the soul of the publication. Having been associated with The Spectator for more than 40 years, as a former Editor and most recently columnist, there can be nobody better suited to this important role.
As Publisher of The Spectator and CEO of the group company, I will be responsible for overall strategy and ensuring that the various moving parts work well together. I am excited to work with Michael and Charles to bring the wit and wisdom of The Spectator to new audiences.
It's an honour and it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's go!
As the Germans said of themselves after the Second World War, as Israel may finally discover: Man kann sich totseighen - you can triumph yourself to death
From @TariqAli_News, in 2006
Quite a soft way to talk about Stalin but ok
'The lesson from both France and the past 14 years of Tory rule is clear: pandering to xenophobia does nothing to halt the far right, it simply pushes the political conversation in its favour.'
My reaction piece on Farage's entry into parliament theguardian.com/commentisfre…
I wrote about the Tories' flirty fighting with Farage for @guardianopinion theguardian.com/commentisfre…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
I wrote this for @LRB on the dehumanisation of Palestinians in #Gaza in UK newspaper front page photographs. I found only a tiny handful of images in which Palestinians were named. Israelis, on the other hand, do not face the same treatment... lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/april/fr…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
Really important piece by @ella_clair , one of our former @UCL_SPRC Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies MA students, about Britain and the end of slavery as part of the @guardian Cotton Capital series. theguardian.com/news/comment…
Some fascinating added context on this from @lionel_trolling - including an exchange between Trump and the architect Philip Johnson in 1992. 'You'd make a great mafioso,' Johnson says. 'One of the greatest,' Trump replies. unpopularfront.news/p/mob-bo…
My latest for @nytimes - where I try to understand how Trump can run a 'law and order' campaign with his mugshot as its image nytimes.com/2024/03/25/opini…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
‘We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. Never before have so many witnessed an industrial-scale slaughter in real time.’
Pankaj Mishra's Winter Lecture:
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/…
My latest for @nytimes - where I try to understand how Trump can run a 'law and order' campaign with his mugshot as its image nytimes.com/2024/03/25/opini…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
'Long periods of Tory rule are not the expression of the country’s essential conservatism, but the outcome of the party's disproportionate ability to stamp conservatism on the national character.'
This week's column
theguardian.com/commentisfre…
Chevalier de Pas retweeted
I got a prize and gave a talk. It didn't go as planned, and this wasn't the talk I'd prepared. But I'm glad I got to say this. zeit.de/kultur/2023-12/masha…















