WAFR indeed. A superb album of purest sorrow and defiance. Frequently hits the spine.

Oh, and that cover pic is perfect.

Tip-top listening recommendation!

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Trump's Davos speech was the act of a madman and that is the only sensible manner in which it should have been covered iandunt.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

An enjoyable ramble, as always. With the possible exception of 11, I can't think of another numbered Now where side 4 is more satisfying than sides 1-3.

Severe alert handily reminding me that I've only got an hour to get to Waitrose before they shut.

We should try to bridge the gap, instead of picking on each other. Constantly arguing with folks on the same side effectively, (not just on EU-UK relations, but SO many issues) who agree on direction and destination, but suggest a different route or pace, while ACTUAL FASCISM is rising, is daft. 3/3

The steady pace of the crescendo is certainly very effective.

At least Chamberlain got a piece of paper

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

Special Sunday School is coming to you EARLY - as in, the next hour or so - with @snellarthur.bsky.social and @sturdyalex.bsky.social looking at the Trump-Putin nothing-burger and implications going forward. xx

And that's why they got a London Overground line named after them.

FINALLY found time for the first two episodes of Podyssey's new season this WE. Unsurprisingly, it continues the insightful excellence of what came before, peppered with beautifully chosen music/extracts.

The crucial distinction given between 'authentic' and 'honest' needs wider exposure, I feel!

Aesop -> Frasier -> Il Trovatore -> Trump -> Slavery -> Revolution -> Regional language -> Golden Girls -> Forrest Gump -> Velazquez -> Zulu -> Sheherazade -> Populism -> Individualism -> New Testament -> Agatha Christie -> Egalitarianism -> Mirroring -> Collective Consciousness -> Memento -> Japan

Who doesn't love anything that starts with a dolphin and a seagull going at it? Glorious!

Alex Andreou @sturdyAlex · Jul 21 These people need a mental health intervention, not a ministerial brief. Quote Best for Britain @BestForBritain · Jul 21 Meet the Reform UK councillor, just appointed to their top law and order team, who thinks trains are full of people in balaclavas, knives are hidden in every bush, and New York and Chicago are safer than London. ~AA Asmara @AmrIbnHisham They are in London. They even shit on the stairs of the trains station. Google it. 9:44 PM · Jul 22, 2025 · 299 Views

A brilliant summary of 2025. Someone who doesn't live in London telling someone who does live in London to google London, for proof that it is, in fact, a dystopian hellscape. Something I can disprove by walking to the local bakery, or taking the tube every day, or just... looking out the window. 🤌🏽

🧵Introducing the Trump Action Tracker website!

Today I’m launching www.trumpactiontracker.info - a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). 1/14

The billionaire and the tax evading gift shops Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital manages a row of high-profile shops at Piccadilly Circus. So why does his team keeping renting them to students who vanish without paying millions of pounds in taxes?

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

The full version will be on the forthcoming Cherry Mint Koala album 'Connections Drawn', which I had hoped to release at the start of August, but then stuff happened.*

So... Aiming for start of Sept now!

(*life, mostly)

And here's a links page to streaming options, my Bandcamp store and a YouTube playlist:

marknorthfield.com/streaming-links

It was choreographed by a marvellous work colleague Tierney Lawlor, and excellently filmed/edited by Adam Martin Media.

The music uses three themes from Beethoven's 'Waldstein' piano sonata to construct a flowing and emotive neoclassical epic. (The full version is over 7mins!)

Waldstein Fantasia Pt. 2 by Cherry Mint Koala / choreographic video by Tierney Lawlor YouTube video by Mark Northfield / Cherry Mint Koala

Here's something very beautiful for the new Cherry Mint Koala single, out on my Bandcamp and streaming platforms today.

The fluidity and energy of these two dancers (Isobel Staddon & Antony Dearlove) is mesmerising. 🤩

#newrelease #newmusic 🎧

youtu.be/eipm2z2jD4w

This Wednesday: The last best hope for Lords reform No-one is paying attention. No-one gives a damn. But one man is valiantly trying to make Labour stick by its manifesto commitment.

No-one is paying attention. No-one gives a damn. But one man is valiantly trying to make Labour stick by its manifesto commitment on constitutional reform. Tomorrow, we find out if he's succeeded.

iandunt.substack.com/p/this-wedne...

Radicalisation and The Spectator An analysis of the normalisation of racist language on the British right is incomplete without taking note of the role played by the leading political weekly

I found @samfr.bsky.social's piece so interesting that I wrote a sort of companion piece on the role played by The Spectator @thespectator1828.bsky.social in this radicalisation. Sam doesn't mention it in his piece but I think it's an important part of the story. open.substack.com/pub/arthursn...

This is a subject I have yearned for people to take seriously. I can’t imagine a better person to do that than @samfr.bsky.social

Bingeing the very fine #strongmessagehere series on R4. Revealing insight from Sara Pascoe who once had to share a dressing room with Nigel Farage for a 2016 pre-ref event.

She was introduced to him as a comedian, and the door shut. Farage's first words to her?
'I don't find comedy funny.'

Cool. The additional fuck-ups were reliably enjoyable. Best of all tho was toggling between half speed (sleepy/drunk Ian) and double speed (pissed-off butch chipmunk Ian).

This may have slightly distracted from the text, but it was childishly entertaining.

It is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘and.’ 

And it’s equally acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘but’ or ‘or.’

Very few broke ranks - @rolandmcs.bsky.social is a very honourable exception - and so, I'm sorry, but Hannan does not just deserve ridicule. What he, Owen Paterson, and many others of that ilk did to our country deserves condemnation and utter contempt. 8/8

And once you've read Roland's substack piece, read this response to it from Chris Grey for useful added perspective.
#Brexit

Accurate histories are vital. Not least for recognising when certain political players attempt to rewrite the past.

One neatly put sentence in this excellent piece particularly caught my attention:

'In short, the Leave movement had radicalised itself throughout the campaign.'

#Brexit