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Claire Hartnell

@cjhartnell

Mostly systems thinking, complexity & frustration. Finally scratching an itch with my MSc in Human Evolution at UCL. Substack: https://clairejhartnell.substack.com/

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Latest posts by Claire Hartnell @cjhartnell

When this happened in WW2, I believed we called it the ‘blitz’. If I remember my GCSE history, the people raining bombs on our capital city were seen as the bad guys?

08.03.2026 18:35 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Perhaps this is a good faith post but it repeats the false equivalence of invasion of Iran to defence *against* Hitler. The second problem is to conflate mistakes with reckless abandon of norms. Let us remember that Iran stood down & expressed contrition after bringing down Flight 752 in 2020👇

07.03.2026 18:38 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

3/6
It runs a trade surplus because it produces far more than it consumes or invests domestically. In more familiar terms, China runs a trade surplus because it saves far more than it invests, and of course saving is just production minus consumption.

07.03.2026 06:44 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

This is beautiful👇

06.03.2026 20:18 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Qatar warns war on Iran could 'bring down' world economies Qatari energy minister says spiralling conflict in the Middle East will cause shutdown of all Gulf energy exporters

Qatar warns war on Iran could 'bring down' world economies - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qatar-warns-iran-war-could-bring-down-world-economies

06.03.2026 10:51 👍 12 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Link to his brilliant & thought provoking archive of materials here: michael-hudson.com

06.03.2026 10:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The people who listen to Michael Hudson will already know that he is one of the most perceptive geopolitical commentators out there - trigger warning: also cantankerous & fervently anti US - but even I am stunned as his ability to predict every move in this war *before* it happened👇

06.03.2026 10:11 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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NEW

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence

How a close read of public domain documents show how MoD was commercially colonised by Palantir

By me, at FT

www.ft.com/content/5207...

20.02.2026 16:40 👍 1806 🔁 1023 💬 51 📌 23

That's the British problem. We attract capital inflows that go into capital markets/housing & debt instead of infrastructure & business lending. If we keep backstopping crashes, capital will accumulate there. If we force interest rates below the true cost of capital, we perpetuate the carry trade.

20.02.2026 14:41 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
UK government finances better than expected in January The government took in more from tax receipts than expected, official data suggests.

UK govt finances better than expected in January.

Ridiculous single statistic obsession.

Must prioritize public welfare.

Unemployment rising, millions in poverty, unfit roads, unaffordable housing, NHS queues, deindustrialization, endemic profiteering.

Can't rejuvenate without public investment.

20.02.2026 07:54 👍 263 🔁 82 💬 17 📌 3
19.02.2026 07:42 👍 127 🔁 40 💬 1 📌 0

So SCOTUS, with its fabricated-out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine, has actually made American presidents less accountable than LITERAL royalty.

19.02.2026 10:50 👍 11201 🔁 3142 💬 30 📌 139

America: well we must have extended immunity for the president because we inherited the principle of sovereign immunity from British legal tradition, and...

Britain: *arrests the brother of the sovereign*

19.02.2026 11:44 👍 196 🔁 49 💬 10 📌 1
Bas relief of a man sitting on the ground leaning back elbowd bent backward hands trying to hold him up as a lioness sinks her teeth into his throat. the way the man's hair is depicted May indicate that he has kinky hair

Bas relief of a man sitting on the ground leaning back elbowd bent backward hands trying to hold him up as a lioness sinks her teeth into his throat. the way the man's hair is depicted May indicate that he has kinky hair

Lioness Devouring a Man, palace of Ashurnasirpal II (Nimrud, near Mosul), Iraq, ca. 750 BCE

18.02.2026 20:00 👍 1068 🔁 165 💬 43 📌 31

Very interesting evolutionary ratchet right now between US / UK.
Over here: “we’d never get that kind of data dump released”.
Over there “we’d never get someone that high up arrested”.

Long may it continue - this is the kind of US / UK relationship that helps us all.

19.02.2026 12:52 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but in Britain: sleaze, malfeasance and/or incompetence in office - Johnson, Truss lose jobs
Britain: Epstein dealings: Mandelson fired; Andrew arrested
US: crickets. Nothing to see here. The rich and powerful do as they please.

19.02.2026 12:08 👍 430 🔁 126 💬 23 📌 8

First senior member of the royal family to be arrested since Charles I...

19.02.2026 10:14 👍 498 🔁 105 💬 39 📌 17
PIZZA
EXPRESS

BOOK A
CELEBRATION

PIZZA EXPRESS BOOK A CELEBRATION

19.02.2026 10:26 👍 873 🔁 274 💬 11 📌 14

Suspect William & Charles escalated this. Lots of unflattering articles about the late Queen’s judgement. They needed a separation strategy.

19.02.2026 12:20 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh, the grand old duke of york
He ██████████████████
He ██████████████████
And he ██████████████████

19.02.2026 11:06 👍 6084 🔁 1740 💬 68 📌 37
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She never lived to see this moment, but it’s worth remembering that none of this would have happened without Virginia Giuffre.

She had the courage to speak out against power and privilege when it was just her word against Andrew’s.

Thanks to her, justice & accountability may finally have its day.

19.02.2026 10:59 👍 22973 🔁 5474 💬 409 📌 224

So wait! What were they??

15.02.2026 22:16 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It is absolute and utter neglect to let this come this close to the wire just as the US has let most of its overseas broadcasting shutter.

15.02.2026 20:32 👍 809 🔁 259 💬 26 📌 12

It feels like they’ve monetised an eye roll?

15.02.2026 18:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A little too fresh these days.

15.02.2026 17:09 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No! You’re missing the point. We need a radical change in direction. If progressives don’t offer it, we’re going to end up with a fascist government. My objection to the initial post was that, as usual, it tries to diminish Reform as a storm in a teacup. That’s stopping us from necessary change.

14.02.2026 16:53 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

All these very clever people who talk about Dunning Kruger🤔 I guess you’ve read that paper that argues their results are a statistical artefact?

14.02.2026 16:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I don’t know what you mean by the first question & the second part is obvious - do you honestly think the EU wants to engineer regime change in Russia😮 Because that worked out really well all the other times we unseated an authoritarian & then left them to it. Or do you imagine us occupying Russia?

14.02.2026 16:02 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

You may be right for Reform. But there is strong evidence that this group is exploring rightwing politics across Europe & the US. And that this has increased since Covid. I would be very surprised if the same forces weren’t active in the UK. We certainly have the same problems.

14.02.2026 15:59 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Well let’s recommission them to get our economy back up to speed first! That will kill Reform, give us traction over the tech billionaires, get social media under control then we have a better hand to negotiate with Putin. But btw, we need Russia to be OK? Not collapse? That’s how they got Putin!

14.02.2026 15:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0