Shakuntala

RIP Baudrillard you would've loved this episode of imperial decline

Shabana Mahmood vows to stick with hardline migration policies after byelection defeat Home secretary will defy ‘plain wrong’ calls from unions and leftwing MPs that she is alienating Muslim voters

By taking a far-right approach to immigration policy, cracking down on rights and placing it high on the agenda, Labour has not just turned its own voters away

It has mainstreamed far-right politics and strengthened Reform, both politically and electorally

Them doubling down should be unforgivable

Shabana Mahmood vows to stick with hardline migration policies after byelection defeat Home secretary will defy ‘plain wrong’ calls from unions and leftwing MPs that she is alienating Muslim voters

Does Starmer support Mahmood's determination to double down on a visibly failing strategy (politically *and* economically).

If so..

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Wrote about how the incredibly thin-skinned leadership of Palantir sued a small Swiss publication for publishing a deeply researched article that was only mildly embarrassing for the company (about why the Swiss gov't keeps ghosting them).

Deaths of 22 children in Channel due to ‘catastrophic failure’ by UK and France, NGO says Project Play finds UK taxpayers are funding ‘record child fatalities’ and ‘repeated violence’ against children in northern France

Deaths of 22 children in Channel due to ‘catastrophic failure’ by UK and France, NGO says

China solar boom helps energy emissions fall slightly in 2025 Official statistics show 0.3% decline even as total power demand rises

China’s energy emissions fell 0.3% in 2025, despite a 3.5% rise in energy consumption. The drop was attributed to its massive renewables buildout, driven primarily by solar power.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand has entered the chat

Top Barclays executive to lead UK banking supervisor Katharine Braddick’s appointment to PRA comes as government seeks to reform regulation to boost growth

Top Barclays executive to lead UK banking supervisor.

She will also serve as one of the BoE’s deputy governors

Expect more deregulation.

Revolving doors and cognitive capture is now the norm in the regulatory structures.

A regulator can't promote industry and protect people from corporate abuses

From Ambition to Delivery: How the Next Scottish Government Can Transform Health Scotland can modernise its NHS with a national patient app and faster rollout of proven technology, shifting care toward a preventative model.

In case anyone was wondering what the Tony Blair Institute is up to, they’ve just published a paper advising Scotland what to do about the health service 🚨🚨🚨
(Many of Starmer’s ideas for the NHS are EXTREMELY similar to ideas published by Blair’s org…)

institute.global/insights/pub...

As an academic born and raised in Denmark who researches and writes about Danish politics, I can confidently say that Cowley has no idea what he’s talking about. The piece is full of factual errors and falsehoods

SEND help Everything you need to know about the government's special educational needs plans

New post just out:

"SEND help"

Everything you need to know about the government's special educational needs plans.

Covering: the problem the govt are trying to solve; key proposals; three big issues that will cause problems; and the politics.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/s...

Really concerned to hear the Defence Secretary refuse to rule out UK's involvement in future strikes on Iran.

Iraq lessons must be learned.
Further escalation in the Middle East makes us all less safe.

Starmer must rule out UK involvement immediately.

AYMAN: Can you tell me where Iran killed thousands of Americans in America?

ANNA PAULINA LUNA: I said they are responsible for thousands of Americans being killed

AYMAN: Where?

LUNA: Are you serious right now?

AYMAN: It seems like you don't want to have a good faith conversation

I keep thinking about the people for whom $400K is a small number and how they are the reason people for whom it is a very big number have to hustle like this

Please keep circulating this so that people who have $500 to spare see it

Vanderbilt Will Stop Providing Gender-Affirming Surgeries to Trans Adults The hospital cited “operational limitations” for the decision.

Horrifying and also as predicted. This is genocidal shit. The only hospital in Tennessee that offered this kind of care. www.them.us/story/vander...

We need to be really clear that this kind of incident is going to make it harder for communities to find missing children in legitimate scenarios

This puts kids in more danger than they were already in because of ICE

Two options for voters in Gorton & Denton.

Greens or Reform?

Generic white dude who programs @westbynoreaster Why then did you take down the “Einstein” chatbot? 1:22 AM · Feb 26, 2026 · 67 Views Advait Paliwal @advaitpaliwal · 16h Cease and desist Generic white dude who programs @westbynoreaster · 15h Really? Presumably from Canvas/Instructure, right? Advait Paliwal @advaitpaliwal · 7h Due to the name Einstein

In utterly DELIGHTFUL news, Adwait Paliwal, the desi techbro behind the cheatbot Einstein AI which claimed it could log into Canvas and do/turn in your assignments for you has been forced to take down his website.
He'll likely be back, and there are others like him in abundance, sadly.

You mean to tell me that after a year and a half of being shat on by the Labour leadership, left wing voters decided to give someone else a go? Labour’s “it’s us or reform” message didn’t work because they’ve echoed Reform’s rhetoric since taking power?

Well I never. Who could have seen this coming

This is very bad. Handing CNN to Bari Weiss/David Ellison is very, very bad.

I gotta say, being like "I support trans rights, BUT" while the government is making it impossible for trans people to *survive* is actively helping the government get what they want. And I don't think I've ever seen a legitimate critique follow, it's just repeating more anti-trans propaganda

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

The richest man owns X.

The second and third richest men control Google.

The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.

And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.

See the problem here?

I know, I know, allow people to change etc but saying “before I got thrown in a concentration camp I just assumed all the people being thrown in concentration camps deserved it” is CRAZY

I know it’s difficult right now, but I insist that you seek and enjoy beautiful things, even if it seems frivolous or irresponsible in the face of overwhelming horror. I want you to feed yourself artistically, spiritually, and literally, because you can’t Do The Work when you’re starving.

This one hits hard.

I truly can’t handle reading this news about OpenAI’s disregard for public safety on the same day as I saw Sam Altman equate the energy use of AI models with the energy use of humans, reducing humanity to a resource calculation to be managed so he can pursue his AGI god.

I’m just so disgusted.

Infinite justice | Shakuntala Banaji 6:30pm Mon 16 Mar | Shakuntala Banaji | Ticket Required | Free public event at LSE

✨ Save the date! Registration is now open for @banaji.bsky.social's Inaugural Lecture "Infinite #Justice".

Prof Banaji will explore how #media, education & #tech shape our ideas of love and dignity.

📅 Mon 16 March 6.30pm
📍 #LSE & Online
🎟️ Register: lse.ac.uk/events/infinite-justice

#LSEEvents

It’s like these doofuses have just discovered a 1980s titling machine.

Jesse Jackson, longtime civil rights leader and presidential candidate, has died The civil rights leader died "peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has died. He was 84.

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...