David Mac

@malmesburyman Heller - Something Happened.

I want to read an American postwar novel of high literary merit and I really don’t want to hear that I should read Cormac Macarthy. What should I read?

@malmesburyman @vanikehuman Underworld before any other Don.

@vanikehuman Never read any DeLillo. The Names is in the top of my list. Why Libra?

@PamphletsY Fewer Europeans are buying this fake Russia narrative, though all their leaders still do (or pretend to).

RAUL CASTRO on the Two Party System (2016): "That's the same as if in Cuba we had two parties: Fidel leads one, I lead the other." 😂

We are in a golden age of politics

@CompassOffice Only a fool would trust Labour to honour a deal. (And Labour aren't progressive).

The movement to beat Reform requires progressives to work together, not be adversaries. thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

Two French women throwing grains and coins to starving children in Vietnam, 1900

The Road to Wigan Keir - @philbc3: “At first contact with re-entry into national politics, the great hope of the soft left has capitulated across the board… He looks as clueless and as spineless as the man he would replace.” averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-ro…

I simply do not understand how we, as a country, tolerate the hypocrisy of indicting Raúl Castro for defending Cuban airspace — while our own government celebrates the extrajudicial assassinations of innocent fishermen sailing across the sea below.

This is literally on your website

@egcrossan @jemgilbert Perhaps they remember that the last "rhetorical leftward turn" was Sir Keir's! His lies have made it harder to trust his successors.

@jemgilbert The rise of a left-populist Green Party causes a sharp rhetorical leftward turn within Labour and the (probable) demise of Starmer... and some comrades seem to think this is a bad thing 😅

The extent to which Burnham-scepticism is being framed in these biblical terms is a symptom of non-seriousness. We need to be very sceptical about Burnham. But if the best you’ve got is ‘he’s not Jesus / Moses’ then you’re making no effort to engage with supporters in good faith.

@joecguinan What's left of the Labour membership will buy Burnham's schtick. (They voted for Starmer!) Wider electorate less likely to fall for it.

Burnham is the “do something, anything” panic response in the face of Farageism, without any explanation as to what Burnham will do differently—in political economy terms, not communications—that will achieve a different result from Starmerism. More fake “Change” is not enough!

@SolHughesWriter Heller is no radical (more likely a reactionary) but it is an amazing depiction of the effects of a corporate hierarchy on the individual.

@darkleopard3 I haven't read this one (yet)

(1)That Guardian 100 best books list, if the Guardian was a socialist/radical/alternative paper PLife of the Automobile -Ilya Ehrenburg USA -John Dos Passos The Jungle - Upton Sinclair Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell Germinal-Zola Company K - Willam March..

@SolHughesWriter Something Happened - Joseph Heller

(4)Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow-Faiza Guene Something by Vonnegut ? Add your own best socialist/radical/ alternative fiction in replies im sure we can hit 100

Condemning the Tommy Robinson's rally, Muslim Council of Britain said "why is this rhetoric tolerated and even defended when it comes to Muslims, when the equivalent, directed at any other group, would rightly be met with prosecution, condemnation, and unequivocal political consequence?" middleeasteye.pulse.ly/tj3b3ez3vl

@AydinDikerdem Labour led by another Blairite isthe lesser evil. Again? What a platform.

I think Andy is the only person that can stop a Reform government. I’m all in.

@joecguinan To be fair, this guy seems more Sadiq Khan centrist than Labour left.

Total abdication of strategic thinking. This is why the Labour left is wrecked beyond salvation.

@Peston If the Unions are against Sir Keir and prefer Burnham (and why wouldn't they be), he is finished.

Keir Starmer does not want the Makerfield by-election to be an explicit referendum on whether he should remain prime minister. Which is why he has - just now - ruled out setting a timetable for his own resignation even if Andy Burnham wins that by-election. Truthfully this is Olympic level straw-clutching. It will be just such a referendum, whatever the PM says. As a tactic it reminds me of David Cameron vowing he would not quit if he were to lose the Brexit referendum. What transpired was that Cameron resigned within hours of being trounced by Johnson, Farage and Cummings. But some kind of amour propre is preserved by Starmer’s refusal to pledge to surrender the throne after one more battle. Starmer also says that if someone - say Burnham - were to get the requisite 81 nominations and were to trigger a leadership contest, he would join the fray and fight. If he is to be taken at his word, this isn’t just any old hard ball, but is death-match stuff, with the survival of the Labour Party in the frame. All the important trade union leaders want Starmer to quit, as do a significant number of Labour MPs (I am not going to say “most” because reliable data is not available, though the party is conspicuously split). Starmer is saying “bring it on, if you’re hard enough.” And we have to assume that the Evertonian Burnham believes he is. Starmer’s weekend of ruminating about his future at Chequers has not introduced much in the way of self doubt, for all that he is surrounded by those who doubt him. That is a genius of sorts. Hats off. Maybe as and when Burnham becomes an MP again, he will have the revelation that Starmer and Starmerism are a winning combination, despite the contrary evidence of multiple elections. And possibly Streeting, and Rayner, and Miliband will suddenly surrender any ambition to lead and change the course adopted by their party. Anything is possible in these volatile times. Though I wouldn’t attach a high probability to an outcome that increases Starmer’s job security. What is highly probable is that if Burnham wins and Starmer says he ain’t budging, we may witness the kind of mayhem that could destroy Labour. I am not exaggerating. Their party is so ideologically riven and so weakened by factionalism that an emotional leadership contest that barks like civil war may put paid to any rolling back of the stone and any escape from the grave.

The problem any Labour candidate has now, post- Starmer, is that no-one has any reason to believe a word that comes out of their mouths. We got shafted by Starmer, we're not going to get shafted again by Burnham.

If you look at what Andy Burnham is offering. It is exactly what Keir Starmer said he'd do in his pledges when he was running for Labour Leader. Literally word for word. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me