Hungary proves populism can be defeated The country has a long-developed method for beating back Russian influence

In 2016, I spoke to veterans of Hungary's 1956 revolution for a BBC radio doc. They told me how student protesters plucked up courage, & began to shout "Ruszkik haza!" - "Russians go home!"

Now Hungarians are shouting it again.

@newstatesman1913.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Guess how many times this Spiked piece - which blames Orban’s loss on ‘identity politics’ and ‘therapy culture’ - mentions that Furedi is literally working for Orban?

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

I am now on this team.

it feels quite bad that it's basically impossible to argue that much of the modern right in the west has become both entirely intellectually shallow and deeply, fundamentally morally corrupt without sounding like a tedious teenage tankie, because it is.....the factual truth

This is the line I was looking for this morning

1956, 1989, 2026

no one is doing it like jd vance, a loser across three continents in a single weekend

It's not just that Orbán losing inspires hope in other competitive-autocratic countries ruled by right-wing nationalist authoritarians. It's that his loss materially changes things in those other countries, because he's been operating as a headquarters and funding source...

People in the Budapest Metro, Hungary, shouting: “Russians, go home!”

Defeat for Putin.
Defeat for Trump.
Defeat for Farage.

But we also replaced one Khamenei with another; empowered the IRGC; did nothing for the protesters, killed over a thousand civilians, including hundreds of children and lost at least 13 US service members, alongside over 500 wounded); left Iran with enough highly enriched uranium to make 10-12 nuclear weapons; gave it greater incentive to try to build them; irreparably tarnished America's reputation; did lasting damage to the US and world economies; depleted our arsenal of scarce missile-defence interceptors; diverted valuable military assets from other regions; empowered Russia with an oil price windfall; triggered further conflict in Lebanon; further eroded domestic and international law; and may have left Iran in control of the most valuable waterway in the world, in a position to earn tens of billions of dollars in revenue per year through tolls, while holding the world economy hostage.

So @jderbyshire.ft.com asked @philgordondc.bsky.social if the Iran war is the US’s Suez moment. He said no, but then pithily and pitilessly sums up how it has been a comprehensive strategic failure. Oof!
www.ft.com/content/0cbc...

The first newspapers were subscription newsletters, reporting on political developments in London. Not sure they actually had names, but that would have worked.

New two party system just arrived in Cliftonville. Wonder how many wards will become Green vs Reform battlegrounds in local elections next month. Suspect quite a few (plus plenty of other new two party contests springing up)

I'm kind of fascinated by the way that people have literally forgotten what town and city centres used to be like on a Friday and Saturday night. Or what town centres and city centres used to be like on match days. Now if some folks get rowdy in a public space it's all '[x] has fallen'

Yes. Which is dramatic but not odd. Reform are torching their reputation all over the place for similar sorts of reasons.

Haha. Cmon. Sign the petition!

I think that's right. And he's right. It would be quite interesting actually to see the armed forces of the five entities compared.

I really want to know what happened here

Hell yes. Get it fucking up you.

Trutin or Putump?

When Trump hit the world with swingeing import duties in 2025, Tokyo's initial dismay at not receiving an exemption was followed by the imperative to strike a deal. Its subsequent agreement to invest $550bn in the US was bluntly referred to by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick as Japan "buying down the tariffs" Under the deal, Japanese companies receive only 10 per cent of profits from investments. "It's a protection racket and Japan cannot escape the extortion," says Estévez-Abe.

Tariffs work differently to how economic textbooks say
www.ft.com/content/2e68...

Yes. Yes it does.

There was planning reform, aiming to speed up building of homes and infrastructure, which this government sees as a broadly deregulatory agenda. There was energy, in which the government is already driving a large amount of investment, and is now trying to speed up delivery on nuclear (deregulation again) and subsidising parts of energy bills (more interventionist). There was capital, with Reeves hoping regulatory reforms will direct more capital towards productive businesses. And most interestingly, there was labour, where Reeves made it fairly explicit that her policy is to raise the cost of labour to try and force businesses to invest more in capital.

@acjsissons.bsky.social and I think Rachel Reeves does have a broadly plausible 'theory of growth', but the government isn't following it to its conclusions
getting-out-of-the-hole.uk/labours-red-...

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago."
If you think it is necessary to be on Twitter to communicate your fact-based worldview, the reality is that worldview is being smothered.

Thiis is you jumping the shark.

The hyperbole is the grift.

It’s not a daily occurrence for you, which is what you said.

I have seen it. And it annoys me too. So yes let’s do something about it.