Jonathan Haslam

Fellow, British Academy; Prof, IAS, Princeton (retired); Life Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Emeritus Prof, Cambridge University.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

I gather the clueless but politically correct leader of the Lib Dems was approached by recruiters at MI6 while studying at Oxford.
Another close miss...
Milliband next?

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

The value of US Treasuries held by central banks at the New York Federal Reserve is at its lowest level since 2012 according to the Telegraph. So why is the UK still clinging to them in place of gold?

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

Letter to the Financial Times;
Has the FT no shame?
It notoriously published an editorial "Going, Going Gold" on 16 April 2004 when gold was near a low at just over $400 an ounce. It is now just below $5000 an ounce as you publish an op ed -"The cautionary tale of gold and silver"- suggesting we are in a bubble in precious metals.
If Gordon Brown had not sold gold at "Brown's Bottom" in 2004, just how much richer would the Bank of England now be?
The point is not that gold is in a bubble but that paper money, which consists of nothing more than perishable promissory notes, has no intrinsic value at all. The dollar today in which we price gold and silver is worth almost 100% less than when President Nixon took the United States off the gold standard on 15 August 1971. And as to the pound sterling, it is too embarrassing to mention.
What means of exchange would your readers prefer to be paid in?

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

The UK now owns even more Treasuries than the last time I wrote at $895 billion. Scott Bessent, who in his day killed the pound in the ERM, raised the idea of devaluing the treasuries owned by foreign holders in order to cut the horrific payments by the US Government on US debt. Gundlach, the Bond King, has said that this may indeed now have to happen. So where does the Bank of England now stand? We will own vast amounts of US debt with a declining dollar and we will earn even less for holding it.
The Bank's policies are just as bad as Rachel Reeves, whom it once employed. Perhaps this is where she acquired her financial literacy.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

The UK now owns even more Treasuries than the last time I wrote at $895 billion. Scott Bessent, who in his day killed the pound in the ERM, raised the idea of devaluing the treasuries owned by foreign holders in order to cut the horrific payments by the US Government on US debt. Gundlach, the Bond King, has said that this may indeed now have to happen. So where does the Bank of England now stand? We will own vast amounts of US debt with a declining dollar and we will earn even less for holding it.
The Bank's policies are just as bad as Rachel Reeves, whom it once employed. Perhaps this is where she acquired her financial literacy.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

On 28 May the Director of Russian foreign intelligence, Naryshkin, claimed that "the members of the legendary Cambridge Five in the 1930s came to co-operate with Soviet foreign intelligence largely because they were categorically in disagreement with the policy conducted by London to appease Nazi Germany."
No one would sensibly deny that they opposed appeasement.
But if that were the main reason for their recruitment, why did they then not stop spying once the war was won in 1945 but continued until uncovered by US/UK counter-intelligence?
As their handler in the Cold War, Yuri Modin, noted, they believed in the October Revolution. They were convinced Communists working under cover for the cause that Lenin had fathered
I have an innovative history of the Five, "Moscow's Men", published by Yale University Press in 2027. It is based on the latest releases from the very archive that Naryshkin curates and gives the most complete account of their operations yet in print.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

@DefiantLs Actors know nothing except what is written for them. So ignore their opinions.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

@HoodedClaw1974 Straight from New York.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

@XA11y How do I get into "Chat"? Messages used to come through easily in a normal way. Now they are blocked.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

Steve Rosenberg from Moscow reports on an extraordinary article published in Moskovskii komsomolets yesterday.
The key paragraph says it all:
"Looking at the factual history of our Motherland, it is hard not to see a pattern that is disagreeable to ordinary people: massive geopolitical defeats were at times more useful than brilliant victories. Each military defeat, every shameful peace did not destroy Rus, Russia, but made it stronger and led in the future to frontier expansion and a strengthening of its position."

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

The Sovietisation of Cuba and the Literary Left of Latin America 1959-1970 Kindle Edition by Jonathan Haslam (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

A Russian commentator produces a silly emotional tribute. to Raúl Castro as the Americans indict the former Cuban leader.
But of course the Russians say nothing about saving the régime built in their image from a US repeat of the Venezuelan coup.
Vzglyad: 23 МАЯ 2026, 12:20•МНЕНИЕ

Почему американцы ненавидят Рауля Кастро

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

According to Politico CIA director Ratcliffe was in Cuba this last week “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,’' the CIA official said.
There he saw Raúl (Raulíto) Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services.
Reported in the Russian press without comment.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

@wattsupwiththat Perhaps Miliband should be informed and we can cut the absurd prices for energy that are crippling our economic competitiveness and cutting the standard of living of the people.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

Russian Foreign Intelligence has warned that it knows Ukraine has secured the agreements of Latvia to launch suicide drones from bases in Latvia to attack Russia.

SVR website:

УКРАИНА ГОТОВИТ УДАРЫ ПО РОССИИ С ТЕРРИТОРИИ ЛАТВИИ

[Watts Up With That @wattsupwiththat]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗖𝗣𝟴.𝟱 | 𝗥𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗸𝗲 𝗝𝗿
RCP8.5 is dead. The IPCC has walked away from the extreme scenario that powered most worst-case climate forecasts.

It was never a realistic business-as-usual path. The coal-heavy future it assumed just didn't happen.

Pielke Jr. details the decade it took for the community to drop it.

But the policies and projections built on RCP8.5 are still around.

Read the full article:
https://t.co/Clw8NA6H6X

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

From Justthenews
Surprise arrest during Trump's border crackdown opens door to Cuba-shaking Raul Castro indictment

Biden allowed a Cuban Air Force pilot to stay here and apply for permanent residency. It turns out that the pilot, Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez, served in the Cuban military at the same time that Fidel and Raul Castro ordered them to shoot down humanitarian rescue planes searching for people fleeing the communist regime.
It looks like Raúl Castro could get indicted by the US Government with the same fate as Maduro. It certainly hands a lever over Cuba to President Trump to force régime change on the island.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

Do you want to know how statesmen have always seen the world? Do you want to know the history of US tariff policy before President Trump?

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

This is one of MANY reasons why Reform will immediately repeal the “Online Safety Act”.

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

The Russian authorities are seriously worried about the massed drone attacks that have hit energy installations near the capital and beyond. It has clearly become an issue of credibility for the Putin régime's defence of the homeland.
Vglyad, 17 May 2026.
Военный эксперт назвал необходимые меры против массовых ударов украинских дронов
Эксперт Джерелиевский: Для защиты от БПЛА нужны аэростаты и мобильные пулеметчики

[Jonathan Haslam @HaslamJonathan]

None too bright, woefully ill-informed about international relations and with no status but in desperate search for fame having opted out of the royal family, Prince Harry is quoted in the Russian press as saying that Ukraine allegedly “bravely and successfully defends the eastern flank of Europe.”
It also reported President Trumpt's reponse that Harry does not speak for the British government.
Lenta ru.
24 April 2026
Marina Sovina, "Трамп ответил принцу Гарри на обвинения о недостаточных усилиях по Украине"