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Sonny Loughran™️

@sonny101.bsky.social
187 followers 309 following 73 posts

I write about Britain for The Economist

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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The army magazine has a great piece out about "the return of horsepower" in modern war Particularly obsessed with the guy who hand stitched a ghillie suit for his horse (which, predictably, looks sick)
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
County lines - and the stabbings they exported from the cities - have evolved into internal lines. Great reporting by @sonny101.bsky.social on drugs markets and knife crime www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Why do Brits feel as though violent crime is getting worse when it is not? One reason is that the geography if violent crime is changing - thanks largely to changes in Britain drugs market (the counties need ket too!) My latest for @economist.com
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Jeremy Vine is Britain (and why Brits still love Radio 2) My latest for @economist.com
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
too kind sir
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Joel Budd @joelbudd.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Fine piece on the enduring appeal of Radio 2, by @sonny101.bsky.social That’s right: the hardy band who make up the Britain desk at the Economist are working through this unpleasant summer. We appreciate it when you read our pieces! www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
If you want to understand modern Britain, listen to BBC Radio 2
Jeremy Vine’s show is a microcosm of Britain
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
Blighty newsletter: On safari at the Liz Truss festival of ideas
The conference “was billed as the launchpad for a new era of British conservatism”, writes Sonny Loughran, our Britain correspondent. “It felt more like the end.”
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I went to CPAC GB for The Economist. It was... interesting
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
On politicians (not) passing the football test
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
There are plenty of ways you can measure the Premier League's global popularity. My favourite? Google trends data
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Your good news for the day - football attendance is booming outside the premier league
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Britain has too many deer
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Love this
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Hi David! I'm writing a piece about BBC radio for The Economist and would love to ask you a few questions if you'd be up for it - please could you follow me back so I can DM you? Thanks!
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Huge W for bluesky this
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
These are truly insane times
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Insane thing for a White House Press Secretary to say Trumpism is a Christian nationalist movement sorry not sorry
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Authoritarians have always understood the power of information better than democrats I wonder how much Trump/Musk social media strategy is informed by Russia successes (& otherwise) in the information war Hard to see Musk (and X) these days as anything other than MAGA’s chief information warrior
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Anne simply doesn’t miss
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 27/01/2025
American social media companies write the algorithms that determine what voters read; moderation systems are opaque; political advertising cannot always be tracked. Do European democracies, or any democracies, really have sovereign elections anymore? www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
theatlantic.com
Can Europe Stop Elon Musk?
He and other tech oligarchs are making it impossible to conduct free and fair elections anywhere.
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
He’s like an AI programmed to deliver the worst footballing opinions possible
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
It’s classic Trump - not a direct threat of violence, but an obvious willingness to accept violence against his political opponents (the Jan 6th pardons being the most brazen example)
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
The saddest thing about watching Musk’s self-radicalisation, that Harris touches on here, is the opportunity cost. The soon-to-be worlds first trillionaire is almost certainly going to put those resources towards some abject nonsense
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
God I’ve been waiting for Sam Harris to spill the tea on his beef with Elon and it does not disappoint open.substack.com/pub/samharri...
open.substack.com
The Trouble with Elon
I didn’t set out to become an enemy of the world’s richest man, but I seem to have managed it all the same.
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
was great having you in as ever - come back soon !
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Best nugget of info Bluesky has given me yet
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Baller
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Doing the lord’s work 🙏
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
This is bad - the West continues to lose the information war (in part) because we have managed to polarise the topic of disinformation itself Peak times www.france24.com/en/live-news...
france24.com
US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Repub...
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
I know nothing about poetry but I’m obsessed with the Kipling poem in the 28 Years Later trailer It’s about the maddening effect of endless marching on soldiers in the Boer war The recording is over 100 years old and its so haunting I literally can’t stop listening to it youtu.be/s9RYG-iMdx0?...
youtu.be
'Boots' by Rudyard Kipling - recited by Taylor Holmes
YouTube video by Vizler András
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Anyway if anyone wants to pay me to define the perfect pub for the 21st century I am literally right here and talented xx
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
He does have this weird idea that beer is better in a China mug? Haven’t tried, probably won’t, sounds weird Can’t get it all right
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
…in more ways the one Orwell definitely split the G
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Particularly interested in this part where he talks about pubs as community places and not just crack dens for alcohol Also note his recognition that excluding children, in practice, means excluding women With loneliness etc through the roof, he kinda nails it Ahead of his time…
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
We were talking about the joys of the old man boozer on R2 today and I was reminded of George Orwell’s incredible essay on the qualities of a great pub a genuinely hilarious and insightful read on what seems like a trivial topic from the 🐐
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Seen people dunking on this and though idk about dictators themselves being doctors, cognitively/emotionally speaking, authoritarianism is 100% associated with feelings of disgust (and therefore purification) that are rooted in an evolutionary aversion to disease etc Soooo kind of a based take?
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
That makes so much sense for some reason I read it an act of charity to the women of Waterloo 🤡
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Free for women
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
If you are the social media manager for a massive international organisation plz just don’t post this i am now on a prepping website buying essentials for my bugout bag
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
so wild isnt it - my favourite nuclear submarine factoid is that the UK's sub commandos are supposedly meant to listen into Radio 4 in the event of a nuclear strike silence apparently means that Britain has ceased to exist
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
i'm reading Annie Jacobsen's book about nuclear war and it includes some genuinely insane details about how the end of the world would actually go down like the US President having 6 mins to decide how America should respond to a first strike while being evacuated from the White House - crazy
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
A (not so) quick thread on disinformation and its growing place in inter-state competition 🧵 1/
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
weird weird times
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
The distinction between mis- and disinformation is sooo important yet is so often missing from mainstream discussion I just wrote a piece breaking down disinfo and information warfare as waged by Putin’s Russia - I hope it underlines the disinfo side of the problem! quillette.com/2024/11/24/t...
quillette.com
The Kremlin’s Bots, Trolls, and Influencers
Russia’s information war against the West is a comprehensive, coordinated effort to manipulate the information ecosystems of entire societies.
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The gap between these two lines directly correlates with my mental well-being
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
truly remarkable statement from a former Israeli defence minister and IDF chief of staff “Ya’alon said that Israel’s leadership, driven by far-right elements who seek to resettle Gaza, was taking the country down a path of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip” www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-e...
timesofisrael.com
Netanyahu's ex-defense chief Ya'alon warns Israel on path of 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza | The Times of Israel
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Sonny Loughran™️ @sonny101.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Craig Jones is such an asset to bjj
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/11/2024
How outrage drives the spread of online misinformation. New work from @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social with Bluesky luminaries @klonick.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, @williambrady.bsky.social and colleagues. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2829
science.org
Misinformation exploits outrage to spread online
We tested a hypothesis that misinformation exploits outrage to spread online, examining generalizability across multiple platforms, time periods, and classifications of misinformation. Outrage is high...
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