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John Merrick (@johnpmerrick) profile picture

John Merrick

@johnpmerrick

Writer, editor. New account @break_downradio johnphilipmerrick@gmail.com / john.merrick@break-down.org

 Crewe/London
johnmerrick.co.uk/
Joined August 2026
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Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)Photo by John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
🇨🇳 The BREAK–DOWN Issue 4 is here: CHINA 🇨🇳 Essays and dispatches from Jeremy Wallace, Yan Lianke, Judith Shapiro, Kaiser Kuo & David Fishman, and more, exploring why there's no path through the climate crisis that doesn't run through China.
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
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Would dearly love to review this, if any editors are reading this!
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins (@daniel_dsj2110) profile pictureDaniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
@daniel_dsj211010h
Wow--this should be great from Jedediah Britton-Purdy: "A World Worth Sharing: Raymond Williams—Radical, Conservative, Socialist." A rich and illuminating portrait of a leading figure of Britain’s New Left: press.princeton.edu/books/ha…
A World Worth Sharing

A World Worth Sharing

A rich and illuminating portrait of a leading figure of Britain’s New Left whose ideas about democracy and the influence of mass media speak to us with renewed urgency today

press.princeton.edu
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Recent proof that, a) I’m an excellent salesman, and b) I really need a haircut
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
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Find out what China leading the world on clean energy means in the latest issue break-down.org/tag/issue-4/
CHINA - The Break—Down

CHINA - The Break—Down

When it comes to the climate, China is often described in conflicting terms, from awe over its dominance in green tech to derision over its use of coal. But the many and, at times, contradictory...

break-down.org
Fiona Harvey (@fionaharvey) profile pictureFiona Harvey@fionaharveyNov 10
China is leading the world on clean energy - and the US running out of time to catch up, warns John Kerry #Cop31 theguardian.com/environment/…
US and rest of world must follow China’s lead on green energy, says John Kerry

US and rest of world must follow China’s lead on green energy, says John Kerry

Former US secretary of state says most nations are ‘stumbling along’ while Beijing has ‘hugely accelerated’

theguardian.com
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We're currently JUST ONE print subscription away from the target i set for at the @break_downradio at the start of the year. If you can, drop us a sub for as little as £25 a year and get the best climate writing developed to your home break-down.org/subscribe-now…

Subscribe

Reader subscriptions make our work possible. Become a part of our community from just £15/year (or £3/month) and support vital new writing and conversations on capitalism, nature and the climate.

break-down.org
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This Sunday, i'll be in conversation with director Josh Appignanesi at the BFI imax, following a screening of his brilliant film on COP 28, Colossal Wreck. Tickets available below 👇 whatson.bfi.org.uk/imax/Onli…
COP 2026: Colossal Wreck + panel discussion with director Josh Appignanesi

COP 2026: Colossal Wreck + panel discussion with director Josh Appignanesi

To recognise one of the largest issues we face on the biggest screen in the UK this special event marks COP 31, the annual UN-backed climate change conference this November.

whatson.bfi.org.uk
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Only a couple more days to get your pitches in for the next issue!
The BREAK–DOWN (@break_downradio) profile pictureThe BREAK–DOWN@break_downradioOct 29
🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT: We're opening pitches for ISSUE #5: REPAIR We're looking for pitches that examine climate adaptation, intervention and repair. break-down.org/pitching/
Burned, smoking rainforest with a strip of surviving green at the edge, overlaid by the headline "CALL FOR PITCHES Issue #5 — REPAIR" calling for submissions about ecological recovery and restoration.

ALT Burned, smoking rainforest with a strip of surviving green at the edge, overlaid by the headline "CALL FOR PITCHES Issue #5 — REPAIR" calling for submissions about ecological recovery and restoration.

Mike Davis quote declaring the 12,000-year-old "old world" has ended, followed by explanatory text noting we live in a climate‑changed world and a call for pitches on climate adaptation, intervention and repair.

ALT Mike Davis quote declaring the 12,000-year-old "old world" has ended, followed by explanatory text noting we live in a climate‑changed world and a call for pitches on climate adaptation, intervention and repair.

Call for submissions seeking argumentative essays, geopolitical or political‑economic analysis, reportage, photojournalism and dispatches from around the world.

ALT Call for submissions seeking argumentative essays, geopolitical or political‑economic analysis, reportage, photojournalism and dispatches from around the world.

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Ideas for pitches: How should we rethink cities/housing/agriculture to deal with the climate crisis? How are the global (far) right thinking about adaptation? What will, or should, or could, a future society look like to mitigate the worst of the climate crisis?
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Agreed. The current system gives us the worst of both worlds. But the idea that letting the market rip would make housing cheaper is idiotic. The only way we get affordable housing is if we build it
Iwan Doherty (@IwanDoherty98) profile pictureIwan Doherty@IwanDoherty98Nov 10
Social Democrats need to join the idea that ever increasing "affordable" obligations are not the correct way for the state to intervene to create affordable homes. They are a liberal sticking plaster and we should return to the state building homes out of general taxation
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The media, political and think tank elite come from such a microscopic section of the country that they have no idea at all what the country is really like
John Merrick (@johnpmerrick) profile pictureJohn Merrick@johnpmerrickNov 10
What this really shows is that for much of the country the reality is one of low wages and poverty. The cracks in Britain’s economy have been papered over by the finance and real estate driven boom in the SE. What those like Tom advocate would, of course, only make this far worse
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What this really shows is that for much of the country the reality is one of low wages and poverty. The cracks in Britain’s economy have been papered over by the finance and real estate driven boom in the SE. What those like Tom advocate would, of course, only make this far worse
Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) profile pictureTom Harwood
@tomhfhNov 9
Frankly jaw dropping the number of constituencies where welfare spend exceeds income tax and NI raise. Real devolution would halt the extreme extent of current fiscal transfer away from the productive bits of the country. Funny how our leading devo maxxers never address this.
Image from Tom Harwood (@tomhfh)
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For these guys and their spoddy mates, most people in Britain are just useless eaters, who need to be cleansed. They cannot see the damage they have done
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What does an outbreak of chlamydia tell us about the climate crisis? Only in the Break–Down will you get such cutting edge analysis
The BREAK–DOWN (@break_downradio) profile pictureThe BREAK–DOWN@break_downradioNov 10
We asked Mark Krockenberger four questions about koalas, chlamydia, and what this unexpected story can teach us about conservation in a climate-changed world. Read his full responses on our website now. break-down.org/on-koalas-and…
Koala clinging to a tree branch at golden hour, paired with the headline "4 questions for Mark Krockenberger on koalas and chlamydia" indicating an interview about koala health and disease.

ALT Koala clinging to a tree branch at golden hour, paired with the headline "4 questions for Mark Krockenberger on koalas and chlamydia" indicating an interview about koala health and disease.

A warning that widespread chlamydia in northern Australian koalas—infecting roughly two-thirds to nine-tenths—has ravaged the species, causing emaciation, female infertility, and in some regions determining whether koalas persist in local ecosystems.

ALT A warning that widespread chlamydia in northern Australian koalas—infecting roughly two-thirds to nine-tenths—has ravaged the species, causing emaciation, female infertility, and in some regions determining whether koalas persist in local ecosystems.

Explains that chlamydiosis causes immune-driven scarring of koalas' reproductive tracts and female infertility, spreads mainly at mating (and possibly mother-to-joey or during fights), reducing population reproductive success and resilience.

ALT Explains that chlamydiosis causes immune-driven scarring of koalas' reproductive tracts and female infertility, spreads mainly at mating (and possibly mother-to-joey or during fights), reducing population reproductive success and resilience.

2021 report summary stating environmental stress makes chlamydia spread faster in koalas, paired with an expert quote that heat, drought and habitat fragmentation have escalated chlamydiosis and now prevent koala populations from recovering between events.

ALT 2021 report summary stating environmental stress makes chlamydia spread faster in koalas, paired with an expert quote that heat, drought and habitat fragmentation have escalated chlamydiosis and now prevent koala populations from recovering between events.

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Does anyone remember the guy from the Adam Smith Institute who tweeted about the chicken he cooked that was raw?
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I love Mark Fisher’s work with the passion of someone who he shaped in all sorts of profound ways — but there’s plenty of, with hindsight, baffling aesthetic judgements in his work
Steve Mitchelmore (@Twitchelmore) profile pictureSteve Mitchelmore@TwitchelmoreNov 9
I've not read Mark Fisher because I was put off by an exchange he had with Owen Hatherley in which MF slagged off Sebald and, not in these screenshots, preferred the drearily fashionable JG Ballard instead.
Image from Steve Mitchelmore (@Twitchelmore)
Image from Steve Mitchelmore (@Twitchelmore)
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I’m aiming to read a bunch of Fisher’s work again this month, coming up to the 10th anniversary of his death, so we’ll see how that holds soon I suppose
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Literary criticism is alive and well on the right
Vauban Books (@VaubanBooks) profile pictureVauban Books
@VaubanBooksNov 6
Oh, and Karl Ove Knausgård is a coward. How do you write thousands of pages about coming of age in contemporary Scandinavia yet fail to mention the single most salient socio-historic fact of collective life in these places: their total transformation by mass immigration?
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On Knausgaard, i can't tell you the number of times i've listened to him reading the first chapter of Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival on the New Yorker podcast podcasts.apple.com/za/podcas…
Karl Ove Knausgaard Reads V. S. Naipaul

Karl Ove Knausgaard Reads V. S. Naipaul

Podcast Episode · The New Yorker: Fiction · 1 June 2016 · 1hr 11min

podcasts.apple.com
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There’s a century and a half of struggle in these green spaces. We cannot let people like this ride roughshod over them because their political imagination stops at “line go up”
cask ale communist (@caskalecom) profile picturecask ale communist@caskalecomNov 5
Ada and Alfred Salter - who are memorialised throughout Bermondsey and Rotherhithe - believed workers deserved beautiful, green cities. They were right then, and right now.
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Rotherhithe is my favourite part of London, and it’s all the more remarkable because it’s not been entirely taken over by a bunch of tech bros
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If any Very Rich Person cares deeply about climate and political economy and fancies dropping a massive cheque to an aligned magazine, my emails are open :-)
John Merrick (@johnpmerrick) profile pictureJohn Merrick@johnpmerrickNov 5
I'm going to try to avoid jumping in too deep into the magazine billionaire discourse; but, the problem is not magazine's being funded by rich people (who isn't!) but what is the particular politics that is hiding behind that magazine, and what's its function?
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I'm going to try to avoid jumping in too deep into the magazine billionaire discourse; but, the problem is not magazine's being funded by rich people (who isn't!) but what is the particular politics that is hiding behind that magazine, and what's its function?
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The progress/abundance/just bloody build things stuff, despite some obvious internal dissensus, is obviously a right wing, market fundamentalist one. They do, however, do a good job smuggling that into techy solututionist/Big Think substack terms that track well online
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For the @break_downradio, we interviewed the great @KateAronoff about what the US midterm elections mean for the climate and for climate organising
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
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break-down.org/on-the-midter…
What do the US midterm results mean for the climate?

What do the US midterm results mean for the climate?

Five questions for Kate Aronoff on what a night of Democratic victories means for the climate.

break-down.org
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Here all weekend 🫡
Image from John Merrick (@johnpmerrick)
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Excellent reporting on the “new new right”
Emily Lawford (@emilylawford) profile pictureEmily Lawford
@emilylawfordNov 4
I wrote about Restore and the ever-splintering radical right for this week's @NewStatesman cover story
Image from Emily Lawford (@emilylawford)
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