By pressuring Mexico to halt oil shipments, Washington is escalating its blockade of Cuba into a direct bid for economic collapse and regime change, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN
THIS year marks the 90th anniversary of the death of the jingoistic populist leader, MP, newspaper journalist, editor and proprietor, serial adulterer, borderline alcoholic, gambler, financier, and convicted fraudster Horatio William Bottomley (1860-1933).
While his name and notoriety are largely forgotten, he cuts a surprisingly modern figure in the age of Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, GB News, Boris Johnson, and TalkTV.
Politically, his views were mutable, geared to whatever benefited him in terms of career advancement and opportunities for financial speculation — hence his journey from Liberal radicalism to nationalist populism. Bottomley’s incredibly successful “patriotic” weekly paper John Bull and recruitment rallies during WWI gave him access and influence over millions.
While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL



