Jonn Elledge

Annoying journalist, bestselling author, sweary podcaster and so forth. New Book: 31 Inventions That Built Our World (UK, out now) / A Brief History of Cities in 32 Inventions (US, 13 October).

Last Notes

2026-07-12 15:07:08 UTC

"Not for our Nigel these petty, private embarrassments. For a man who remade British politics, in roughly the same way an enormous flaming space rock remade the dinosaurs, only face-planting and then wetting himself in front of the entire planet will do."
The humiliation kink theory of Nigel Farage
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/07/nigel-farage-wants-to-be-humiliated

2026-03-16 10:33:44 UTC

"Tom Tugendhat, who is a very serious person (he was in the army, you know), accused the Bank of “weakness”; while Ed Davey said that Churchill “deserves better than being replaced by a badger” – tell me you don’t want to see that war movie.
Very sorry to tell you I have written about banknotes for the Guardian. (In my defence, they asked me.)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/16/britain-banknote-winston-churchill-badger-wildlife

2026-03-01 09:31:15 UTC

The sign outside the Manchester International Depot, as it was named, for many years read, “le Eurostar habite ici”. Alas, le Eurostar ne habite pas. Look upon my trains ye mighty, et trembler.
When is an international station not an international station?
https://jonn.substack.com/p/when-is-an-international-station

2025-09-24 17:16:58 UTC

"You’ll notice that these quotes come from the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson. That’s because the actual Prime Minister is still missing, presumed shit."
If Keir Starmer won’t even make a moral case against deporting our friends and neighbours, then what is the point of him?
https://jonn.substack.com/p/what-do-we-have-to-lose

2025-08-27 14:22:11 UTC

"Future historians will surely debate at great length whether it was economics or media culture or simple incompetence that led the Starmer government’s moral compass to break. But they surely won’t debate who, out of the Taliban or the people who fled from their regime, were actually the baddies."
Also this week: some notes on the non-existence of purple; and a map of the mid-Tudor world.
https://jonn.substack.com/p/its-just-wrong-and-they-should-say

2025-02-05 14:16:02 UTC

"I’m far from the first to ask this, but – what do they think we elected them for, exactly?" On how I am losing patience with this government's failure to challenge the right.
https://jonn.substack.com/p/but-whats-it-for

2025-01-11 16:35:08 UTC

"These independent processes can gather facts or make recommendations – but it is still the job of ministers to act on their findings. To enquire is not to govern. At times, it can be the opposite." On the current enthusiasm for public inquiries
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/01/the-public-inquiry-industrial-complex

2024-11-26 17:21:52 UTC

"They all, I think, protest too much. This story has been a ray of light in a dark time, and there are few things the public loves more than salacious reports of good people who turned out to be bad."
Me in the New European, on the joy of the Captain Tom saga
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/what-the-captain-tom-saga-says-about-britain/

2024-11-23 12:35:49 UTC

Do you like the REBRANDING of the LONDON OVERGROUND? Do you like WOMEN?
Then please read this delightful guest post in which Isabelle Roughol offers a women’s history guided tour along the newly renamed Suffragette line...
https://jonn.substack.com/p/guest-post-a-womens-history-guided

2024-11-22 09:47:14 UTC

"Most people are not journalists. They are not required to read alternative viewpoints or test the strength of their arguments. It’s not their job. It’s ours." Why journalists should stop berating the public for being in filter bubbles.
Also this week: some common terms from naval language, and a map of left behind places.
https://jonn.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-echo-chambers

2024-11-03 11:51:36 UTC

- reply

https://london.s3proxy.de/media_attachments/files/113/418/875/226/335/962/original/7cb147c132c9ac85.png

2024-11-03 11:09:49 UTC

"The thing about buses, right, is that they’re not very sexy. Agatha Christie did not write murder mysteries set on one; Brief Encounter did not begin at a bus station."
Wrote about how the bus fare cap was better politics than it was policy
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/11/has-rachel-reeves-missed-the-bus

2024-10-12 09:49:54 UTC

"The case for not building the line at all is weak, but plausible. The case for building half of it then giving up there is non-existent." Why the chancellor should stump up for HS2.
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/10/how-to-salvage-the-hs2-embarrassment

2024-09-07 11:56:27 UTC

The ninth of the 14 parts of the second report of the inquiry into the Grenfell fire – the one whose name, as I scanned the contents pages, made me catch my breath – is called, simply, “The deceased”. It runs for 220 pages.
Wrote about Grenfell - and why, even after this long, there must be prosecutions.
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/09/justice-over-grenfell-is-already-overdue