‘Most things lose their distinctive qualities when they get turned into a number. What they gain is a measure of interchangeability. This works well for organisations that are interested in economies of scale. It works badly for anyone who wants to do their own thing.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘There’s distance between Andy Burnham and the things that make people most angry, or despairing, about Starmer: his response to the Israeli slaughter in Gaza, his dalliance with Peter Mandelson.’
@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Burnham’s vision.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The fashion for dismembering illuminated manuscripts was rampant around the turn of the 20th century and hard to circumvent. Otto Ege, for example, a bookseller and lecturer, cut out pages from around fifty manuscripts to sell in newly compiled portfolios.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
On the podcast: is writing a poem work? In the first of a new series, ‘Poetry and the Turning World’, Sarah Howe and Sandeep Parmar consider the concepts of work and play in the writing process, and explore three poems that address workplace experiences.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
‘The mantra, repeated ad nauseam in those years, was “competition drives up quality,” an assertion that anyone looking at, say, the privatised water companies or privatised train companies might greet with a hollow laugh.’
Stefan Collini on the crisis in universities.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘷𝘦, of course, is a bittersweet elegy – for the old Western way of life, for the era of American expansion, for the cowboy. It’s also, perhaps too subtly, a critique of those things.’
@jrobertlennon.com revisits Larry McMurtry.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The UK ranks last among G7 countries in MMR coverage: in 2024, only 89 per cent of children received their first MMR jab. The figure for Germany is 96 per cent; in France, Italy and Japan it’s 95 per cent; in the US, 92 per cent.’
Edna Bonhomme on measles and vaccines
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
‘Working at 𝘎𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦, JFK Jr’s magazine, was never dull, despite the contradictions emanating from the editor-in-chief – and often because of them. Towards the end, though, the sense of impending trouble was strong and unmistakable.’
A Diary from Inigo Thomas.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The psalms seem deeply familiar, but the not particularly Christian anglophone might struggle actually to provide much...
www.lrb.co.uk
It might be wise not to be too optimistic about Andy Burnham bringing miracles of delivery, and focus instead on his...
I’ve written in the @lrb.co.uk about James Bryce, very carefully brought to life by @stuartjones.bsky.social. Bryce managed to balance academia and politics better than anyone could today. His thirst for prizes seems endearingly quaint, but the decline of the cursus honorum has had its downsides
