Prospect
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A politically independent monthly current affairs, culture & ideas magazine Established 1995 Editor: Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger; https://t.co/bH4LclI7dh
Joined February 2009
No views, no achievements, no experience—so why did Boris Johnson elevate a 29-year-old to the House of Lords?.
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Never has a government expended so much time, energy and money on making its people poorer @jonlis1.
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Buckland and Braverman have destroyed their legal reputations for the sake of their political careers. @davidallengreen.
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“How ironic that it took a prince living in exile to drag out the evidence that the newspaper managers thought they had buried along with the inquiry.”. ✍️ @arusbridger.
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"By the time I came out at 30, programs like Schitt's Creek were finally giving me the thing I didn't know I longed for at 16: everyday, comfortable queer relationships"
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Liz Truss: my part in her downfall: "Reader, it was me, light entertainment comedian @joelycett, who slayed the beast, with a last-minute decision to be sarcastic on a television programme I was appearing on to sell tickets for a standup tour".
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While Boris Johnson's dishonesty over Partygate is serious—really serious—the legacy of his dishonesty over Brexit goes far deeper, writes Meg Russell.
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The treatment of Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont this autumn shows Madrid is causing a wider rule of law crisis.
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Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) is a gender-critical feminist and prominent campaigner on free speech around sex and gender. Vote here:
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“Ricky Gervais would love to be properly ‘cancelled’, I think, but he doesn’t seem able to say anything actually controversial enough to be as controversial as he’d like to be,” says comedian Stewart Lee.
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The playbook of autocracy did not originate in America, but in seeking Julian Assange’s extradition, America has sunk to Soviet standards and revived it. It won’t stop there, writes @Stella_Assange .
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What has the Prince Harry hacking verdict told us?. That a vast number of people in the public eye have, for decades, been unlawfully tracked, trailed, blagged, hacked and spied on:.
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“Half of my phone book is empty now. The numbers belong to people who no longer live,” says a friend who himself is serving in the armed forces. “I don’t even save anyone’s numbers anymore. I don’t want another entry that won’t answer.” .✍️ @OKhromeychuk .
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Michael Heseltine: I can think of no time in my experience when the threat is so evident and the government response so inadequate
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Karen Steyn, a High Court judge, ruled in favour of @carolecadwalla in her libel case with Arron Banks. It was a landmark moment for press freedom. Vote here:
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Financialisation is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies, says @MazzucatoM In the last decade, US companies have spent over $5 trillion on share buybacks. All to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay
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Financialisation is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies, says @MazzucatoM In the last decade, US companies have spent over $5 trillion on share buybacks. All to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay
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"72 per cent of Scottish voters under the age of 24 support independence"
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Compared with what we were promised, the Prime Minister's deal resembles some sort of macabre joke, says @jonlis1
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Find out who is on our list of world thinkers for the Covid-19 age now. Plus: Have your say on the winner and who we might have missed. Illustration by: @richfairhead.
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How has being emotional became obligatory? When I was young, being brave meant hiding your tears. Through bombing, separation, threat of invasion, hunger and death, the ethos of the “stiff upper lip” prevailed, writes Sheila Hancock.
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“An overwhelming majority of Australians want Julian to be freed… public opinion cannot be ignored,” writes @Stella_Assange .
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Tommy Robinson—invited back onto X by Elon Musk after being banned by the platform’s previous owners—is reaching a daily audience of 50m. Musk is an arsonist with a huge box of matches, writes @arusbridger.
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The playbook of autocracy did not originate in America, but in seeking Julian Assange’s extradition, America has sunk to Soviet standards and revived it. It won’t stop there, writes @Stella_Assange .
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Revealed – the inside story of Prince Harry’s battle against elements of the British press. 1/12.
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“Oldham disproportionately has taken a bigger hit than a lot of other places”. As Britain's cities improve, @JenWilliamsMEN finds hardship—and hope—in one Northern town
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The public is no longer convinced that the Brexit referendum was “fair and legitimate,” according to a new Deltapoll survey, exclusively for Prospect
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"This is a dual process of gaslighting and forgetting". We live under a government with a persistent allergy to the truth, writes @jonlis1
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“Just 35% voted Labour. That is the smallest share of the vote ever obtained by any party winning an outright majority, however small”, writes @PeterKellner1. “It must be one of the weirdest landslides that any mature democracy has ever served up.”.
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Tens of thousands voted to choose the world’s top thinker from the 50 names we presented in our last issue. Meet our winner, Cambridge mathematician Caucher Birkar
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Two years since we left, I will keep decrying Brexit for the reckless folly that it is.
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.@JolyonMaugham who has a highly developed grasp of what the law might and might not permit, is its guiding genius. He homes in on cases that connect with people’s outrage at the conduct of government & other public bodies, writes @writerperkins .
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“Boris has more disdain for the constitution than any other PM” Peter Hennessy on changing his mind about some form of written constitution. By @prospect_clark .
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How did the “Wagatha Christie” case ever get to trial? Why did it not settle? And why was it ever brought?.@davidallengreen.
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This approach to inflation assumes that UK households have too much money to spend, and that is why the Bank thinks some spending power must be taken away from them. But this is nonsense. @RichardJMurphy .
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Elon Musk could conceivably slow/shut down left-wing voices on X long enough to swing the US election. “We’ve had CEOs before pick a side and donate a bunch of money, but we’ve never had it happen at this scale. ”—@katieharbath. ✍🏼 @arusbridger.
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A Ukrainian IT specialist sees big problems for the Russian tech sector. "There is now a huge brain drain in Russia. If no one is left who can code, then IT is going to start to disappear.”. ✍️ @dpatrikarakos .
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Having beaten Ukip and outlasted old rivals Boris Johnson and Theresa May, @CountBinface is now running against Rishi Sunak. Can he take the trash out in Westminster?. @ImaanIrfan1 interviewed the man behind the bin.
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Tens of thousands of people voted in our world's top 50 thinkers 2020 poll. The votes have been counted and the results are in.
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In an age of misinformation and discourse, open-source investigations websites like Bellingcat are vital. @TomLamont profiles the founder, @EliotHiggins—a man transforming journalism: .
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Priti Patel’s plans to give Border Force agents immunity for migrant deaths is part of a sinister wider trend, writes @davidallengreen.
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“With enabling legislation, the crucial question is what is being disabled—and why?” @davidallengreen.
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We asked @gavinesler to watch a month’s worth of @GBNEWS to gauge the nature of the messages promoted and framed by its presenters. He survived—just. Here’s what he thought👇.
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In Ukraine, “village after village stands empty; forests, littered with mines, are abandoned; fields are covered in gaping craters instead of crops.” . @OKhromeychuk says the Russian invasion has left her country with a phantom pain .
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It is now clear to all who look: Brexit is a humiliation of historic proportions, says @jonlis1
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Nobody should be forced to face the might of the state in court without legal representation, says @BarristerSecret
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What is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies?. Financialisation, says @MazzucatoM. Over $5 trillion on share buy backs have been spent by US companies in the last decade—all to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay.
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I used to think that all ESG (environmental, social and governance) metrics were just green- and social-washing. But now I think that if we can make them rigorous and accountable, they can really change business, writes @MazzucatoM .
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has put bold new ideas onto the American political agenda–healthcare for all, tuition-free university and a federal jobs programme, among others #TopThinkers19
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"The biggest problem we have today is inertia,"—economist & author, @MazzucatoM, says global warming will finish us, unless we move quickly and with decisive action—across all parts of society and led by government. #climatechange #climate .
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Financialisation is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies, says @MazzucatoM In the last decade, US companies have spent over $5 trillion on share buybacks. All to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay
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The scandal around Cummings’s road trip is a crucial test of Vallance and Whitty's credibility
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The internet is full of oddballs like Father Calvin Robinson, the conspiracy theorist cleric. But why was he ever let near a regulated news channel? Asks @arusbridger.
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Putin won’t be able to deflect blame for much longer.After the rout in Kharkiv, Russia is losing the last shreds of its reputation as a military power. Pressure on the Kremlin is mounting, writes @ruth_deyermond .
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Ministers are slowly forging a Brexit consensus—around an outcome that is legally, politically and practically impossible
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Financialisation is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies, says @MazzucatoM. In the last decade, US companies have spent over $5 trillion on share buybacks. All to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay.
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How do we stem—or even reverse—the damage our constitution is sustaining, asks @JolyonMaugham
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A secretary of state failed to do due diligence before posting baseless allegations on social media, writes @d_a_t_green—and now the taxpayer has footed the bill:.
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It makes no difference who walks in to the negotiating room, says @IanDunt—this is the reason the UK can't call Europe's bluff
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"Global warming will finish us" if we fail to act quickly and decisively across all parts of society, led by government. And it's inertia that's the biggest problem, writes @MazzucatoM .
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I was always proud to be British—but after Brexit, I barely recognise my country
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In cracking down on largely peaceful protests, university authorities—not gen Z—are the real snowflakes, says @PriyamvadaGopal.
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Should we fear for UK democracy?.The chair of the Electoral Commission, which protects the integrity of the vote, last year warned about the threat to its independence and the implications of introducing voter ID. ✍️ @AlexDean94 .
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"This is the legislative equivalent of lounging on a beach while Afghanistan falls.". @davidallengreen .
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Andrea Leadsom is a tough but warm-hearted leader, and would make a great PM, argues @PennyMordauntMP
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Editing the past to tell some stories while silencing others is exactly what public commemorations do—even in the 19th century, the campaign to commission the Colston statue was met with a distinct lack of interest.
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Why do politicians only seem to care about Northern Ireland when they’re attacking Corbyn, writes @SiobhanFenton
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Revealed: Our readers vote for Kathleen Stock as the world's top thinker. Plus the rest of the top ten, including anti-poverty campaigner Darren McGarvey and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. @Docstockk @lokiscottishrap @elonmusk .
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The ferocity of the trans rights debate reflects a faith in the biological classes “male” and “female.” But when stripped of their cultural context, these physical categories are clouded in haze.
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In cases involving political prisoners, injustice is often allowed to continue for the simple reason that it is the path of least resistance, writes @Stella_Assange .
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Gina Miller: "What mystifies me about Brexit is that so few people have been able to approach it rationally"
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"If he is so sure he did a good job, why not let the facts speak for themselves?" . @AdamWagner1 on Matt Hancock's deeply flawed "Pandemic Diaries".
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The @nytimes published a new investigation yesterday into Washington Post CEO Will Lewis’s time working for Murdoch during the phone-hacking scandal. Last month, @prospect_uk broke the story of fresh allegations made against Lewis in the UK courts: . Read.
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Classical music in Britain is genuinely “world-beating”, yet it is being vandalised by know-nothings with a confection of crackpot ideologies, writes @jessicaduchen .
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“My natural disposition, when someone says something stupid, is to just take the piss,” says @ProfBrianCox. ✍🏼 @greengraeme.
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The Privileges Committee's job is no easy task, writes @SirJJKC. "It’s difficult enough to work out what Johnson believes today, let alone what he believed in December 2021. I wonder if he really knows himself.".
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Britain is working hard to leave the EU's nuclear agency. Next, it will work hard to exactly replicate its rules.
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The media magnate Rupert Murdoch had the British ruling class wrapped around his finger despite his company’s extensive use of phone-hacking. When will MPs get angry enough to demand action? Asks @arusbridger
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A Brief Encounter with @bbclysedoucet. @BBCSteveR is a master pianist. In the midst of the #Ukraine crisis, he composed a piece called “Isolation,” saying it was how he felt right now. I listened to it as I looked out on #Kyiv’s eerily deserted streets.
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“They have a remarkable ability, perhaps even a subconscious one, to take our collective cultural temperature.”. @missbarton on what makes @TheNational special:.
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Luciana Berger doesn't owe the hard left an apology, writes @janemerrick23—she was elected by her constituents
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Financialisation is the worst, ignored dysfunction of developed economies, says @MazzucatoM. In the last decade, US companies have spent over $5 trillion on share buybacks. All to boost stock prices, stock options and executive pay.
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Ignore Brexit myths of national decline, says @iandunt—Britain’s open, diverse culture made it better than ever
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"We are seeing politicians move in directions that are deeply and clearly deleterious to basic democratic governance". The @maitlis lecture, published in full 👇.
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The question of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum cuts to the heart of our democracy, says @BenPBradshaw
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Stephen Collins’s cartoon: Autumnwatch. "And you may remember back on Springwatch, we were all glued to our Prime Minister-cam. ". @stephen_collins
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“Ricky Gervais would love to be properly ‘cancelled’, I think, but he doesn’t seem able to say anything actually controversial enough to be as controversial as he’d like to be,” says comedian Stewart Lee. ✍🏼 @greengraeme.
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Murdoch certainly understood that Fox was “uniquely positioned to state the message that the election was not stolen”. Could he have intervened to stop the lies? As he later admitted under oath: “I could have. But I didn’t,” writes @MatthewdAncona .
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Rishi Sunak's communication skills are flat-footed and tone-deaf, writes @jonlis1 .He "sounds as though he is reading out a spreadsheet, or over-emphasises every other word with a rictus smile as though auditioning to present children’s television.".
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