Interesting piece in the Guardian today on Danish politics from Rune Lykkeberg. It nails elite populism. There are lessons here for Labour’s centre-right leadership here in the UK.
Denmark’s unique political model is in crisis – I blame the boomerang effect
What they were doing was populism for the elites that substituted the legitimate ideological conflict between left and right with an imagined picture of reasonable grownups in the centre and the ridiculous children on the extremes
Crucial Track for 28 March 2026
"Arrival" by ABBA
When they drop you into the timeline, they don't tell you the toilet seats are half a centimetre lower and Arrival wasn't ABBA's first dark album.
Crucial Track for 07 March 2026
"Violin Concerto No. 1: I. Quarter note = 104 — quarter note = 120" by Gidon Kremer, Christoph von Dohnányi & Vienna Philharmonic
Philip Glass again. My friend Michael always took a dim view of him - and I get it. There's a brash cheapness to Glass that even a skilled violinist like Gidon Kremer can't entirely disguise. But if you asked me what was the music of the great American city before the Fall, I'd say maybe because of its brash cheapness: Glass's Violin Concerto 1. You just have to listen to it to know the fascists will hate it.
In the patriarchy, where girls are “underage women”, is it any wonder that journalists struggle with the word “traditional”?
Global survey shows young men and boys hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations: Gen Z males twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands
Was 2004’s NESNO Dominic Cummings’ original sin? Or a mistake he was paid to make? I think about this from time to time when I imagine a Britain that didn’t take the path to sectarian hatred.
Crucial Track for 21 February 2026
"Our Lips Are Sealed" by Fun Boy Three
Can you hear them talking about us? "Our lips are sealed" turned up in my iTunes. I had completely forgotten about this song despite its immediate familiarity.
🤮 “Sir” Robin Wales and “open” Clive Furness announce in Spiked that they are leaving the Labour Party - and will doubtless be joining Reform alongside “Lord” Peter Mandelson.