Peter Jukes
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Co founder @Byline_Media @BylineFest @BylineTimes “Destructive British media” according to the Kremlin. Opinions my own
Articles by Peter Jukes
Against the Algorithm: John Berger at 100
Artists James Fitton, Ruskin Spear, John Berger And John Minton, 16 May 1950. Photo: Frank Lilley/Hulton Archive/Getty Images BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen For many of my Boomer generation, the artist, broadcaster, novelist, and critic John Berger was as essential a guide to our postwar 60s consumer society as George Orwell had been to the decline of the British Empire and the rise of fascism for the generation before. They had many things in common.
Letters
Letters Not for the first time, Peter Oborne (‘Diary’, 20 August 2026) draws attention to the intellectual strengths of the Iranian leadership, as compared with that of the USA. However, his point is rather undermined by the facts that this sophisticated leadership runs a brutally oppressive domestic regime and aims for the obliteration of another state (Israel). This merely serves to demonstrate that education is no predictor of moral virtue.
Saying the ‘Unsayable’: Russian Interference
Burnham’s New Direction Andy Burnham has broken a decade of establishment silence over Putin’s plan to get Britain out of the EU. Peter Jukes reports It has taken 10 years. Ten years since the first evidence emerged of Russian social media accounts pushing for Brexit. Eight years since the FBI’s Mueller Report, and the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee revealing the extent of Kremlin “information warfare” against the United States and the UK.
John Berger at 100
Against the Algorithm GETTY For many of my Boomer generation, the artist, broadcaster, novelist, and critic John Berger was as essential a guide to our postwar 60s consumer society as George Orwell had been to the decline of the British Empire and the rise of fascism for the generation before. They had many things in common. You can create a free account to read 3 magazine articles a month free. Signing up to the newsletter didn’t create an account, so we need your email once more.
‘A Clear Answer’: Russia Intervened in the Brexit Vote
It has taken ten years: ten years since the first evidence emerged of Russian social-media accounts pushing for Brexit. Eight years since the FBI’s Mueller Report and the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee exposed the extent of Kremlin “information warfare” against the United States and the UK. And six years since the Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia Report – which revealed Russian financial-influence operations in UK political parties – was suppressed by Boris Johnson.
Against the Algorithm: The Digital Domain Is the Most Mortal of All
BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen Forget doomscrolling social media. Prepare to be trolled by the dead. It’s probably happened to most of us who have lost a relative, friend, or colleague. Out of the blue comes a calendar alert reminding you of a now defunct birthday, an unread message you regret not replying to, or a cheerful photo album montage of the departed – randomly entering your feed like a thoughtless ghost.
The Digital Domain Is the Most Mortal of All
Against the Algorithm Social media and digital storage are radically changing our concept of time and consciousness of death, writes Peter Jukes BEA CRESPO Forget doomscrolling social media. Prepare to be trolled by the dead. It’s probably happened to most of us who have lost a relative, friend, or colleague.
Yes, Androids Do Dream of Electric Sheep
Blade Runner (1982)Photo: AJ Pics BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen In Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner – set in a dystopian 2019 – artificial intelligence and bioengineering have advanced to such an extent that the only way to detect an artificial replicant is the emotional triggers contained in the ‘Voight-Kampff’ test – because androids don’t experience feelings like humans.
Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed
In January 2026, Peter Thiel delivered four private, invite-only ‘Antichrist’ Lectures in St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University – hosted by James Orr. Photo: James Orr/X BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen With luminaries from Erasmus and Isaac Newton to Alan Turing to Stephen Hawking as alumni, Cambridge University has always framed itself as a centre of scientific advance, progress, and the Enlightenment.
Putin on the Ropes, Trojan Horses on Stage - and Our Future Plans
Over the last week, the key figures of Trojan Horses — Putin, Trump, Farage, and Johnson — are looking increasingly vulnerable. I’m not putting this down to the play reading! But at this hinge of history, the story of what happened in the First Great Information War of 2012-2020 is still deeply relevant. The reading was a bit of nailbiter for me. It’s almost a decade since I wrote a full play (the Day Release second series for Lenny Henry on Radio 4) and, to be honest.
Burnham Wins in Makerfield: Can the ‘Politics of Place’ Now Offer an Antidote to the Poverty of Possibility?
Andy Burnham has made much of the “politics of place”. By choosing Makerfield as the place of his return to Westminster, what does the constituency and its voters tell us about his likely politics?
Scenes from Trojan Horses: Brexit, Trump, Russia - and the Arson Attacks on Starmer
So the die is cast, and so is our show. An amazing cast for our first outing at The Cockpit on 22 June, directed by Steve Unwin, and produced by Ben Dickenson and starring: Tom Goodman-Hill The Emmy & Olivier-nominated star of Baby Reindeer, Two Weeks in August, Humans and Mr Selfridge, will read Vladislav Surkov, Donald Trump and Alexander Nix.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his advisor Vladislav Surkov at the fateful meeting of the Normandy Four leaders in the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on December 9, 2019. I had planned to keep the denouement of this first volume on the Great Information War held back until after the staged reading of the poem on 23 June at The Cockpit. But since it’s the 10th anniversary of Brexit and the EU referendum, the show has a more specifically UK ending.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
The key dramatic scenes from Trojan Horses are going to be staged in a rehearsed reading in exactly three weeks’ time from the date of this post: the 10th Anniversary of the EU Referendum. Appropriate because in the story of Russian information warfare I document, Brexit and Trump were the first two key victories. So here’s the updated cast for the reading, with just one role, that of Alexander Dugin, waiting to be confirmed.
“My Personal Pride and Joy”: Mandelson’s UK Palantir Deal
On 22 July 2025, Britain’s Ambassador to the United States sent a short email to the two most senior aides in Downing Street. The subject line was a name: “Peter Thiel.” “This celebrated techie is in London til Aug 9,” Lord Mandelson wrote to Morgan McSweeney, then the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, and his deputy Jill Cuthbertson.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
Background research Leaked documents show the Kremlin’s influence machine now combines paid influencers, fake citizens and “cognitive strikes” to inflame tensions and shape politics across. PLUS TICKETS FOR 23 JUNE Tickets are now on sale for a rehearsed reading of scenes from Trojan Horses: Brexit, Trump, Russia and the First Great Information War with Joanna Scanlan and Hardeep Matharu, and directed by Steve Unwin.
Reading the Riot Act: Reform UK’s Makerfield By-Election Candidate During the Summer of Trouble
By the time he was announced as Reform UK’s candidate against Labour Mayor Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election, the X account of Robert F Kenyon, the “plucky plumber” who is currently Reform UK’s councillor for Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North on Wigan Council, had been mysteriously suspended.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
This is the antepenultimate section of the last book of Trojan Horses - Brexit, Trump, Russia and the First Great Information War 2012-2020. I’ll probably hold the climax and final twist of this story - NORMANDY FORMAT - till after the staged reading on 23 June, at the Cockpit Theatre. Save the date. Tickets on sale very soon Steve Unwin, about to restage his classic Man to Man production with Tilda Swinton at the Royal Court this autumn, is directing the dramatised scenes from the poem.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
The Bannon–Dugin meeting at the Hotel de Russie in Rome took place in November 2018, and is documented in detail by the ethnographer Benjamin Teitelbaum in War for Eternity: Inside the Movementto Turn Back the Clock (Allen Lane, 2020), reconstructed from extended interviews with Bannon. For the purposes of this poem, the scene has been transposed to July 2019 to coincide with Epstein's arrest on the 6th of that month — the event that closes this book.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
We’re on the final chapter of the last book of this epic about information warfare, and we return to its master practitioner, Vladislaw Surkov, and a fateful meeting with his fellow ‘political technologist’ Konstantin Rykov. For dramatic purposes, I’ve set it in the mountains of Sochi in the spring of 2019, just above the Black Sea, with Crimea to one side, and — visible on a clear day — Surkov’s prototypes of ‘frozen conflicts’, the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Ingushetia.
The Iconography of Destruction
While pundits and politicians ponder the ultimate objectives of the war on Iran which Donald Trump, in league with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched on 28 February, it is worth putting this tumultuous moment in context against the rationale of the American President’s career so far – which has always been a deep and dynamic relationship with the irrational.
James Orr and the Messianic Transatlantic MAGA Alliance Trying to ‘Save’ Britain
Peter Thiel and James Orr at the Antichrist Lectures in Cambridge in January 2026. Photo: @jtworr/X It has been a spectacular rise for Dr James Orr, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, dubbed by US Vice President JD Vance as his “British sherpa”, and named his “English philosopher king”.
James Orr and the Messianic Transatlantic MAGA Alliance Trying to ‘Save’ Britain
8 hours ago A British pub may look informal but it runs on strict rules, from invisible queues to round-buying, tipping and last orders. It's standing room only on Saturday evening at The Guildford Arms, a Victorian-era pub just off Princes Street in Edinburgh. Beneath its ornate ceiling, revellers – three-deep …
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
So I’m nearly there — only one book left to cover a decade of Putin’s ‘political-technical’ solution to his desire to take over Ukraine. In the last book, as Zelenskyy is elected in 2019 the story will culminate in Surkov’s dismissal and the Kremlin’s decision to go for a ‘military-technical solution’. In other words, the Trojan Horses story of information war is succeeded by kinetic warfare.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
To set the scene for these events in 2018, it’s worth going back to the first section of Book 9 here Robert Mueller, Carole Cadwalladr and the Daughter of Time Here’s the draft of the next section of Book 9. Meanwhile, once again, my footnotes (which are a work in progress as this all is) are for various reasons behind a paywall.
Crypto and Overseas Donations: A Threat To Democracy
As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say. As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
Robert S Mueller, the former director of the FBI, who died on 20 March, has a pivotal role in my Trump/Russia/Brexit story. His investigation as special counsel into Russian interference had a personal impact because, as we’ll see, it led to my collaboration with Carole Cadwalladr, and probably changed my life — for good! — as you will see. This opening picks up chronologically from the end of Book 8, and the consequences of Donald Trump’s first presidential election victory.
Chaos and Confusion: Trump Goes To War
As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say. As the name might suggest, the Byline Times podcast is the podcast of the Byline Times - telling you what the papers DON'T say.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
Discover more from Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege Told in a mixture of verse and news - inspired by Virgil, Dante, Milton - and brave fellow journalists like Carole Cadwalladr - this project aims to create an epic poem out of 20 years of democracy under siege Over 1,000 subscribers By subscribing, you agree Substack's Terms of Use, and acknowledge its Information Collection Notice and Privacy Policy. Already have an account? Sign in
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
“Our sources report that former presidential aide and Kremlin ‘eminence grise’ Vladislav Surkov has hastily left the Russian Federation.
From Divine Rapture to Tech Rupture: Why Silicon Valley Supports Armageddon in the Middle East
Ongoing background to my evolving epic Trojan Horses: this latest updated could also be entitled (HT Spike Milligan) Armageddon is a real place. — a dusty, unremarkable settlement — a few miles east of Tel Aviv. Har Megiddo in Hebrew: the ancient fortress hill that guards the Jezreel Valley, fought over by Egyptians, Canaanites, and every empire that marched through the Levant. Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege is a reader-supported publication.
Unspeakable: How Epstein Helped Turn a Russian Podesta Hack into the Pizzagate Paedophile Conspiracy
Discover more from Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege Told in a mixture of verse and news - inspired by Virgil, Dante, Milton - and brave fellow journalists like Carole Cadwalladr - this project aims to create an epic poem out of 20 years of democracy under siege Over 1,000 subscribers Already have an account?
Naz Shah MP on Gorton and Denton Claims: ‘How Do Supposedly “Sectarian Muslims” End Up Voting for a Radically Progressive Party with a Gay Jewish Leader?’
Gorton and Denton’s new Green MP Hannah Spencer celebrates her win. Photo: Andy Kelvin/PA This article first appeared on Byline Times’news website Labour MP Naz Shah has criticised claims by Reform UK that the legitimacy of the Gorton and Denton by-election – won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer – was undermined by “family voting” and “Muslim sectarianism” in the Manchester constituency.
Naz Shah MP on Gorton and Denton Claims: ‘How Do Supposedly “Sectarian Muslims” End Up Voting for a Radically Progressive Party with a Gay Jewish Leader?’ - Byline Times
Labour MP Naz Shah has criticised claims by Reform UK that the legitimacy of the Gorton and Denton by-election – won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer – was undermined by “family voting” and “Muslim sectarianism” in the Manchester constituency. Shah, the MP for Bradford West – whose party’s candidate came third in a seat Labour won with a 13,400 majority in 2024 – told Byline Times that the claims by Reform’s candidate Matt Goodwin and his party leader Nigel Farage “demean” voters.
Reform Attacks Byline Times For ‘Attempting to Derail a Democratic Election’ - Before Blaming ‘Family Voting’ and ‘Muslim Sectarianism’ for Gorton and Denton Defeat - Byline Times
Reform UK accused Byline Times of “attempting to derail a democratic election” for reporting on Matt Goodwin’s academic ties to organisations linked to discredited pseudoscientific race ideology – just days before the candidate lost the Gorton and Denton by-election, claiming this as evidence of “a dangerous Muslim sectarianism” and calling into question whether it was a “free, fair, and democratic election”.
Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege
In light of the Epstein files, I’m constantly revising my account of the US Election year 2016. Here’s my revision taking into account the astounding recent insights They say that Truth is the Daughter of Time. But how she is abused, how she is misused. How long she has to hide, neglected, abandoned On a faraway island or a dark wood, Where to light a torch and draw attention Would alert the dogs to descend upon her. So she waits, guarding her flame, scanning the waves.
Bannon, Epstein, Farage and Johnson and the Plot to ‘Topple’ Theresa May
From left to right: Nigel Farage, Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Epstein and Boris Johnson Newly-released messages between the far-right former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, reveal how Bannon worked with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to “overthrow” Theresa May at the height of the 2018 Brexit crisis in the UK.
The Troll Army and the Paedophile: Epstein, Thiel, and the Obscene Projection at the Heart of MAGA Memetic Warfare
A slightly longer, less informational, piece to underpin Book 8 of Trojan Horses Start with the contradiction. Hold it steady and look at it clearly, because it is almost too obscene to contemplate. The same troll networks that Jeffrey Epstein helped cultivate — the same anonymous boards, the same hive-mind culture he so admired — were eventually weaponised to accuse his political allies’ opponents of running satanic paedophile rings.
Epstein’s Nerds: How the Tech Titans Weaponised Troll Armies to Beat Hillary Clinton
More background for book 8 of the Trojan Horses epic, which I am writing now, in light of the revelations in the Epstein Files 🚨 Newly released Epstein emails revealed a chilling claim: “My nerds taught them that cyber is a weapon.” Exhibit A: Peter Thiel bankrolled neo-Nazi troll “weev” in 2014—the missing link that transformed Gamergate harassment into Trump’s misogynistic meme warfare machine. 🚨 UPDATED: The Missing Link in the 'Monster Power' of Misogyny?
UPDATE: The Apocalypse Network: Dugin, Bannon, Thiel and the Media Machinery of the Dark Enlightenment
O my prophetic soul…. In February 2026, five months after I published this background memo to my epic poem, a new detail surfaced that sharpens the core claim: the “apocalyptic” right is no longer just sharing aesthetics, slogans, or enemies — it is beginning to share a political theology.
In Putin’s Orbit: The Crypto Politics of Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel
When the Russian Sputnik was launched as the first satellite in space in 1957, the West was caught flat‑footed by a moment of technical and cultural revolution which had gone largely undetected over the preceding decade.
In Putin’s Orbit: The Crypto Politics of Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel
When Sputnik was launched by the USSR as the first satellite in space in 1957, the West was caught flat‑footed by a moment of technical and cultural revolution which had gone largely undetected over the preceding decade.
UPDATED: The Missing Link in the 'Monster Power' of Misogyny? Thiel and Weev in Bannon’s Gamergate Assault on Hilary Clinton
🚨 New Epstein files could provide a missing link. In 2014, Epstein’s cyber advisor warned him Peter Thiel was bankrolling neo-Nazi troll “weev”—the hacker who turned Gamergate harassment into Trump’s professional meme army. Elite money met internet rage. Details in Part II. 🚨 In a previous post, I explained how Cambridge Analytica and Russian troll farms used the fear of the Syrian refugee crisis (largely created by Putin) to win the EU referendum.
A Victim All Over Again’: The Mail Trial and the Murders of Stephen Lawrence and Daniel Morgan
Whatever the outcome of the civil trial between various claimants and Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the newspaper group behind the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, the legal claims shed light again on what former prime minister Gordon Brown called “the criminal media nexus” — a circle of dodgy journalists and corrupt police officers circulating around the hub of the private detective agency Southern Investigations.
Trump and Musk Welcome Russian Propaganda After Sanctioning European Disinformation Experts
In what Will Sommer at The Bulwark has described as the first time the “[Trump] administration has offered assistance to someone from Canada”, the US State Department has intervened to reinstate the visa of Laura (Lauren) Chen, co-founder of an illegally funded media outlet aimed at reaching American audiences with Russian propaganda.
Forgotten Elements of Russia's Non-Linear War — Lawfare, NGOs, and Religion
Truth is the daughter of time — and this week, time is catching up with the Kremlin’s architects of hybrid warfare. When the UK government sanctioned Aleksandr Dugin’s think tank, the Rybar Telegram channel, and the Kremlin’s “legal aid” fund Pravfond, it finally named the infrastructure of non-linear conflict, first road-tested against Ukraine in 2014.
Winter Equinox: Russia’s Celebration of Trump’s Strategy Masks a Dying Doom Loop
I won’t repeat the cliche that it’s always darkest before dawn. But I will observe we’re approaching the winter equinox — the longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere — and soon the days will be getting longer. For more than a decade, Western governments have consistently underestimated Ukraine. Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Double-Headed Eagle: Russia, America and the Authoritarian Big Tech Alliance
A mad, manic but completely revealing week in terms of Trojan Horses. Apologies for the multiple posts Within a few days, four clips and tweets together sketched an emerging order. On his War Room show, Steve Bannon is promoted in a clip saying the US should ally with Russia because it is a “devoutly Christian nation” and “our true ally in WWII”.
Musk, Medvedev and the Long War on Europe
A screenshot doing the rounds on X shows a short, chilling exchange which explains everything you need to know about Trump, Russia, Brexit and the tumultuous politics of our era Elon Musk (@elonmusk): “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.” Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE): “Exactly” On one level it’s just another spicy Musk hot take.
From ‘Civilisational Erasure’ to the Fourth Turning: How Bannon and Dugin Captured US Strategy
This story keeps on writing itself in real time. Again - just to stress these are background footnotes to my ongoing Trojan Horses epic, and not fully fledged standalone articles (or I would publish them on Byline Times!) After Steve Bannon’s declaration that the US should join Russia in a holy struggle against liberal Europe, the new lands like a manifesto for a culture war over Europe. Trojan Horses: Trump, Russia, Brexit - Democracy Under Siege is a reader-supported publication.
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