Author. Co-founder, @stadio. Fellow, @RSLiterature. Honorary Fellow, @StJohnsOx.
Joined June 2010
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My reply to @JakeWSimons is below.
Let’s start with one typical example. The writer Musa Okwonga and I have rather lost touch over the years, but I remember him as a man of great intelligence, sensitivity and good humour. We met at university and, some years after graduating, travelled to Israel together to play in a good-natured writers’ football tournament. We had a good time and as I recall, he loved the country.
Which is why I found his latest Substack essay so disturbing. “Genocide,” it begins. “We should probably start there.” Israel, he writes, is committing that worst of all crimes. Its troops are “using children for target practice”, its politicians engaged in a “process of revenge against the Palestinian population”.
He compares its conduct to the Ugandan atrocities against the Acholi, his own people. “Genocide infects and corrupts everything it touches,” he writes. True enough. Only in the case of Gaza, Musa, it’s quite obviously not a genocide...
New post. Link in first reply
Translated: “I am jealous of the attention my actual coach and players are getting - I’m even jealous of that guy with the big hair - let me have a childish rant for clout”
🚨 NEW: "The UK has been colonised by immigrants," Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told @EdConwaySky.
“You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. “I mean, the UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.
“The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it's 70 million. That's 12 million people.”
He also said of the PM: “I don’t know whether it's just the apparatus that hasn't allowed Keir to do it or, or he's maybe too nice - I mean, Keir is a nice man. I like him, but it's a tough job and I think you have to do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track, because at the moment I don't think the economy is in a good state."
Read the full piece here: news.sky.com/story/the-uk-ha…
In 2021, 60 Jewish associations in Germany warned that the AfD party was "a hotbed for anti-Semitism" (juedische-allgemeine.de/poli…), a party who gave Farage a standing ovation in 2017 as their honoured guest (news.sky.com/story/farage-sa…). For anyone saying "it was all 50 years ago".
theguardian.com/commentisfre… - my new article; if of interest, please share.
ALT Of course, it is in Farage’s interests to stop people from focusing on who is actually using the bulk of resources, because the greediest consumers are some of his funders and friends. Farage’s ultimate message is simple: open borders for the super-rich, closed borders for everyone else. It’s not quite as catchy a slogan as “take back control”, but, as the reality of his true position becomes clearer, it may just take flight. If that does happen, then we will be able to say that the adults in the UK are finally taking Farage as seriously as several of his classmates always have.
Musa Okwonga retweeted
Peter Ettedgui who was at Dulwich college with Nigel Farage,
"My most vivid memories of my school life is Farage repeatedly coming up to me and knowing that I am Jewish saying 'Hitler was right' and 'gas them' which was frequently followed by a hissing sound of escaping gas"
"As the grandchild of a couple who escaped from Hitler and Nazi Germany, whose families left behind perished in the holocaust"
"This was extremely wounding and upsetting"
#Newsnight play the clip of Farage denying the accusation asking, "How do you feel about that?"
Peter Ettedgui, "Really angry"
Musa Okwonga retweeted
A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers
newyorkermag.visitlink.me/45…
Musa Okwonga retweeted
The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza tonight has risen to 52 Palestinians — including 17 CHILDREN.
"Is the Nazi MP who says she's driven mad by TV adverts full of Jews a racist or realist? How many people of Jewish heritage would the German National People’s Party expel? And should Germany be selling tanks to Yugoslavia?" Join LIVE from the Weimar Republic in the year 1931 🇩🇪
Is the Reform MP who says she’s driven mad by TV adverts full of Black and Asian people a racist or realist? How many migrants would the Tories expel? And should the UK be selling fighter jets to Türkiye?
Join us LIVE at 9PM on X & YouTube or on ITV1 at 1045PM as @Peston put these questions to:
🌳Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch MP
🌹Defence Secretary John Healey MP
🏴SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP
🔵Conservative MP Esther McVey
#Peston
Musa Okwonga retweeted
News out of Bara, North Kordofan indicates mass atrocities committed by RSF forces against civilians; large number of killed, injured & detained.
RSF took over the city yesterday.
#KeepEyesOnSudan
Musa Okwonga retweeted
I’ll be speaking with Musa @Okwonga tomorrow as part of Podfest Berlin, the first @madingermanypod live. Come along!
Musa Okwonga retweeted
My sources tell me that D’Angelo has passed. Wow. I have no words. May he rest in perfect peace.
Musa Okwonga retweeted
Two strikes yesterday - one in Al-Kuma by SAF killing at least 16 civilians and one on a shelter in Al Fashir by the RSF, killing at least 53 civilians.
The people of N. Darfur are experiencing a special kind of hell.
At least 16 civilians were killed in a Sudanese army drone strike on Saturday in the town of Al-Kuma, east of El Fasher in North Darfur, local community leaders said.
sudantribune.com/article/305…
Musa Okwonga retweeted
This is madness and I'll keep saying it because it should be impossible but for the power of proper investment in youth football.
There are fewer than 15,000 males aged under 40 in this country.
Stunning @FaeroskFodbold
Musa Okwonga retweeted
A contact of mine has launched a Yoruba tuition business.
The format: 10 minutes of Yoruba a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks at a time.
The aim is to build your confidence and improve your language skills.
Here's a link to a free taster session.
RT
yaptime.co/free-taster-lesso…
“The situation has gone beyond disaster and genocide inside the city, and the world remains silent.”
theguardian.com/world/2025/o…
Musa Okwonga retweeted
A masterclass in clear and concise messaging.
He managed to incorporate several key messages, address pain points and answer the question in a coherent and measured way.
This man presents himself with confident authority - a leader.
It's been a while since we've seen this.
Zack Polanski, "I hear your anger. And I think you're right to be angry. I think we should all be angry when we've had 14 years of Conservative austerity that shut our libraries, shut our community centres, and then to say integration is a problem?"
"How do you expect people to integrate when you've taken away their services?"
"We need to make sure that all politicians are speaking about migration in a positive sense"
"Of course there will be people who have problems with migration. But their problems are, they can't get a dentist appointment; they're not enough council homes; because we've not invested in our communities"
"But none of these are problems of a black face"
"These are the problems of multimillionaires and billionaires, and politicians who haven't taxed them properly"
"We can change that"
"They're all political choices. Let's make different political choices"
The only thing this clip is missing is the Alchemist beat from "Meet the Grahams".
Musa Okwonga retweeted
"You hadn’t been married before, right? Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies." – Alexis Ohanian just checked Stephen A. Smith