A lover of facts in a post-truth world. Former Sunday Times hack turned comms adviser. It's my irritability that keeps me alive and kicking.

Joined December 2007
Thanks to @barrys SW1 for commemorating this milestone.
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Paul Durman retweeted
MIRAR COMO REACCIONA INFANTINO AL SEGUNDO DE EGIPTO JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
El video no corresponde a la reaccion de Infantino al segundo gol de Egipto. Es de su reaccion en el partido Marruecos vs Paises Bajos el 30 de junio de 2026 en Monterrey. El mismo clip ha sido usado descontextualizado en otros partidos. maldita.es/desinfo/202607… fifa.com/es/match-centr…
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That looks a huge reveal that @StevenBartlett drew from @JDVance.
JD Vance just admitted the White House plan is to take ownership of every major AI company in America. Steven Bartlett brought up Bernie Sanders' proposal that workers should own 50% of the major AI companies. Vance's response: "The president by the way likes that idea too. He likes that idea." Trump's preferred mechanism, Vance said, is a sovereign wealth fund where the US government takes equity stakes in private AI companies. The Vice President literally just confirmed that an administration is planning the most radical economic policy proposed in modern American history. Partial nationalization of the MOST valuable private companies on earth. And the idea originally came from Bernie Sanders, who Vance said Trump agrees with on this point. This is not a small thing: The US has spent 80 years selling the world on the model where private companies stay private and the government stays off the cap table. The countries that did the opposite, with sovereign wealth funds owning slices of their biggest firms, are Norway, Saudi Arabia, China, and Singapore. And the Trump administration told you on a podcast it wants to do the same to Silicon Valley. But the reasoning Vance gave for it is where it gets really interesting... He said the historical analogy that scares him is the original Industrial Revolution. His own words: "Rich people got way richer. And that led to in Europe fascism and communism." He believes AI will not cause mass unemployment but mass inequality, and that mass inequality is what breaks societies. His fix is that workers need a seat at the bargaining table before the wealth gets created, not a redistribution check after. "I think labor unions are a very important model here." And the other thing about AI that scares him is surveillance. His exact phrase was that AI is "fundamentally a communist technology" because it lets governments and corporations watch and score people in ways NOTHING else can. He said he doesn't want a social credit system, doesn't want a tech CEO deciding whether you can buy a beer based on an algorithm nobody understands, and is afraid of exactly that outcome. So here is the full picture: The sitting Republican administration believes AI will make the rich dramatically richer, that this will radicalize the country the way the Industrial Revolution radicalized Europe, that the answer is government equity stakes plus stronger labor unions, and that the second-biggest threat is the surveillance state these companies are building. That is not a Republican worldview. That is not even a Democratic worldview. This is a worldview that has no political home in the United States right now. Most people are still arguing about whether ChatGPT will take their jobs. But the people with the actual power are already past that argument. They are quietly designing the framework for owning the companies that will. The craziest part is how casually Vance dropped it as a sidenote on a podcast millions will half-listen to in the background. If you have money in OpenAI, Anthropic, or anything like that, you should be watching the full thing yourself. What do you think?
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“The world is a fairer, kinder place.” Is it?
'We have far more in common than that which divides us.' 10 years on the message of my dear friend Jo Cox remains as important as ever. The world is a fairer, kinder place because of her legacy.
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More shocking than the John Healey letter. The instinct is that “serious problems can be managed rather than faced”.
We owe those who serve the UK the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it's done. We are failing on both. I’ve spent my whole time in government making that case. Number 10 will not listen, so I am resigning as Minister for the Armed Forces. Letter to the PM below.🫡🫡🫡⬇️⬇️
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Paul Durman retweeted
hunter biden honestly could be one of the best follows on here at the moment
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Paul Durman retweeted
🚨 BILL GURLEY: “I would encourage people to read as much as they can about Anthropic … I don't think they think they're writing software. I think they're midwifing a deity.” JASON: “I know some of these folks … They believe they're so powerful, that they can create God.”
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I keep thinking it’s time to re-read Catch 22. Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
There are moments when I REALLY wish my friend (Catch22) Joe Heller was still alive to hear stuff like this ...all that's stopping shipping is...sinking, death and a bit of destruction now and then
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MSC in one pic
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Transmission at #26, Heart of Glass at #32, Message to you Rudi at #39 and Electricity at #40 - what a year!
NME's top 40 singles of 1979... What a f***ing year!!
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Good to see that Soo Catwoman merits an obituary from @thetimes - complete with references to the Bromley Contingent and pictures of Rat Scabies and Wreckless Eric. RIP Soo Catwoman obituary: punk fashion symbol thetimes.com/article/f07ad80…
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Paul Durman retweeted
“Since the readmission of the Jews to England in the 1650s (thank you Oliver Cromwell) until 1960 (when a Jewish student was killed by fascists), not a single Jew was killed in our country for being a Jew. This is unique in all Europe and the Americas.” thetimes.com/comment/columni…
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Powerful stuff from Irwin Steltzer, once my colleague, I guess. A storm is brewing to spoil the big American picnic thetimes.com/article/79a64dd…
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Dickie Bird's magnificent knock has come to an end. He was so good. And so eccentric. He is completely synonymous with English cricket in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Can't think of another official, in any sport, who was genuinely as famous as the players. Raise your bat, Dickie.
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Charlie Kirk slick tactics dont work against intellectual college kids at Cambridge. SHUT DOWN again, and with laws of the Bible.
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