One of the daftest things I read on line is the assertion that “you can’t rewrite history” This, of course, is nonsense, history is rewritten all the time, that is how history works. Each generation writes it’s own history, attitudes change, new facts emerge, documents are found in the archives, things are dug up from … Read more
Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been pardoned by President Donald Trump. Zhao—known as “CZ”—was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to breaching US money laundering laws. Binance itself was fined $4.3bn after investigators found it had helped users bypass sanctions. That would be a … Read more
Last week, YouGov retracted a poll suggesting church attendance was rising in the UK. The results, it turned out, had been distorted by bots or AI. This is disappointing given that the research was published last year, and got a lot more attention than the retraction did. To understand why that matters, it helps to … Read more
Foreign influence in British politics is no longer theoretical. Last month I wrote about some unusual patterns of political funding flowing into Reform. British electoral law doesn’t allow foreign donations, but Reform appeared to have found a way around this—using UK-registered companies as a kind of front. It turns out I may have been too … Read more
How much activity on social media is actually real? How much is bots? How much is click farms? And at what point does the distinction stop mattering? Readers with long memories might remember a slightly unorthodox survey I ran a while back: counting PornBots across platforms. The logic was simple—PornBots are easy to spot, so … Read more
Britain has a grooming gang problem — but it isn’t the one you’ve been told to worry about. Advances in technology and the dominance of online platforms have transformed the scale and nature of child sexual abuse. Offenders no longer need to operate in physical groups or specific locations. They can access victims anywhere, at … Read more
Strike!!! Britain is on strike. A massive strike to bring the government to its knees and force a general election. At least, that’s the claim. This isn’t just people refusing to work for a week. The strike also involves not shopping, not going to the pub, not doing… anything. Total withdrawal from society. You didn’t … Read more
The online right are currently having a meltdown over the Fabian Society. For those unfamiliar with them, the Fabians are a middle-class intellectual group historically linked to the Labour Party. They were founded in the late nineteenth century by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, with figures such as George Bernard Shaw among their most prominent members. … Read more
Living in the Lie There is a moment in the decay of a democracy when truth stops mattering — not because people can’t tell what is true, but because they no longer care. We have passed that point. A growing number of our fellow citizens do not merely believe false things; they want the rest … Read more
Asylum Hotels The Anger People are angry about asylum seekers in hotels. I spent a long time trying to contact people who had expressed concerns online, asking them why they were angry. The most common response was abuse. Many resented being asked to explain themselves and responded with more anger. They seemed genuinely stunned to … Read more