Novara Media

Novara Media is an independent, left-wing alternative media organisation based in the United Kingdom.

Novara Media was founded in 2011 by James Butler and Aaron Bastani, who met in the same year during the protests against the increase in UK university tuition fees. Novara Media is a trading name of Thousand Hands Ltd, and its office and studio is in south-east London.

Hey @TonyParsonsUK - do a voxpop on this question on a high street of your choosing outside of London for @novaramedia?

That would be the definition of ‘getting out’, no? I’m pretty sure what the results would be….but always worth testing a hypothesis…. https://t.co/yyvQ9oSN8y

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 3, 2022

That tweet is pretty much what they do. Create noise outside mainstream media circles, say the mildest dissenting thing in the hope that it gets invited for a 'debate'. Creating more noise, recognition and subs so they can pay themselves.

https://novaramedia.com/2022/10/03/kwarteng-performs-screeching-u-turn-lula-faces-bolsonaro-in-brazil/

AB: "I do at the moment think that Labour would broadly govern like the Tories ... somewhat better, obviously".

"I do love our Friday shows, Michael - they're quite sacred to me"

Sweet.

fwiw I doubt Novara will go full on "hooray Starmer" in the near future because, aside from everything else, it's not a good business decision - the vast majority of ppl who give them money can't stand the guy and would withdraw if the site became that

more likely to have an era of conflicted back and forth ending at a "regretfully, we still encourage you to vote labour" message when elections come around

as I said before, my personal problem with the place is less about its ideological dodginess than the emphasis on low effort punditry which you could get from many free sources

Was Michael "sweet" when he supported an immigration points-based system?

Daniel RF: I agree with most of your comment - it would not be pragmatic for them to alienate their own base. I also think there does seem to be a 'conflicted' attitude emerging, or rather: to my surprise, Walker for instance seems quite keen on a Labour government.

I don't much agree about low effort punditry: as far as I can see, they use experts and people who are based on the places they write about. Brazilian commentator this week one of dozens of examples.

Getting experts on isn't actually high effort tho! I mean it's fine, a necessary part of the picture, the low effort punditry I was refering to was the novara host's own, not the interview sections. As I said, what's missing is actual research based investigative journalism, which is in v short supply in the UK from any corner and near non existant from a leftist pov.

I accept the explanation that they don't have the money for that yet but I do doubt they'll ever be interested in going down that avenue.

hard to trust them not to melt with any proximity to power - they sold out everything else for corbynism when it was big and will sell out corbynism for some kind of "critical" starmerism if that's all there is going in terms of mainstream relevance. I'm sure they do some good reporting but punditry-wise they seem to aspire to be the leftmost mainstream or most mainstream left media and will punch left if that helps them get there

my language sounds a lot more disdainful than I intend it I know it's just a job for most of these people and a huge part of my problem is just bastani

you just *know* they would have supported the british war effort in WW1

Is there not room for an alternative to Novara? That can reach similar or larger numbers of people. Maybe there already is/are, it seems there should be more than enough room for a range of choices in this sphere (whatever this sphere is). They don't really seem to have much competition (unless they're competing with US channels, which I guess they probably are)

I agree with most of your comment - it would not be pragmatic for them to alienate their own base

The low effort comment, maybe, it feels quite...comfortable? like they are coasting. I don't really know who their base is though

I guess Tribune would be that? I will say the Politics Theory Other podcast is consistently more illuminating than Novara for me.

Tribune has a better set of writers and is more consistent with their opinions.

THE OWEN JONES SHOW or Youtube channel is roughly parallel to Novara. I think he talks to relevant people, but I don't think he is as good at this particular job (hosting, anchoring, interviewing, etc) as his Novara counterparts.

Daniel RF: I don't share your impression that Novara don't do investigations, though accept it's not their #1 activity. They claim to have 'broken the Labour Leaks story'; they disclosed new information about the mistreatment of Apsana Begum MP; etc. Rivkah Brown is the main reporter on that front I believe.

Bastani also wrote an article in c. January 2020 questioning the funding and personnel of KS's campaign, issues which were ignored by the people who went on to vote for KS as LOTO.

Novara are kind of first entrants ito being populist leftist media that does social media and attempts to reach young and youngish people where they are. Personally can’t stand any of the men except James Butler. Ash Sarkar I will nearly always defend despite her being daft more often than not cos she gets huge amounts of racism, but I’m reminded of a leftist I follow whose take when she first started to become prominent was “finally there’s someone on TV as left wing as me…but why does it have to be Ash Sarkar?”

Somebody that listens as little and interrupts as much as Jones shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone

Novara aiming at younger and first entrant audience sounds right on paper, but I don't see how it works in practice. They don't really stream, they don't do debates or have people call in, their funnel seems to be mainly from TV stuff, arguing with the likes of Piers Morgan, and its not that clear there's much in the way of insight

They feel like a recreation of legacy media. I think the only reason they're any kind of first step is due to the free advertizing they get on TV shows, and name recognition out of that. And does their audience even skew younger? (not saying it does or it doesn't so if stats show it does fair enough)

I mean they don't do debates on their channel (as far as I'm aware). I don't mean their TV appearances

They didn't break the Lab leaks story, did they? The Begum story isn't theirs either (though Rivkah seems an ok reporter on it). Overall, these stories are widely reported in this left crank ecosystem and they are no better at commentary than a loud twitter account with a Mario avatar.

I don't know if Politics Joe counts as left, I've no idea what the rules are, but just has a quick look and view counts are killing Novaras (off marginally fewer subscribers)

Again, if you curate your twitter it was widely known who Starmer was hanging out with in 2020. These deficiencies are now being turned by Bastani, who is calling Starmer Machiavellic in 2022, when things have turned around purely because of timing.

yeah the Starmer aftertiming by Bastani last week just sums up what a self-serving muppet he is. There are plenty of non-affiliated nobodies on twitter who can comment on politics in a more consistent manner without all the grandstanding that comes from being involved with a content factory or doing all that "watch my video" bollox!

a lot of them seem like the kind of people who have always harboured an ambition to pursue a media career, so precisely the chirpy "influencer" types who are not aimed at grumpy old bastards like me. But I feel like anyone self-assured enough to upload videos of themselves talking shite every day is going to be politically dodgy and compromised because they love doing this shit so much!

This is pure guesswork on my part, but I'd imagine the "younger" demographic Novara targets is probably like thirtysomething millenials. Which is still younger compared to the rest of the UK media, sure.

Thats more or less my reading too, its difficult to see them as any kind of entry point for younger audiences and I don't see the effort or drive to do that. Which leads to its kind of cozy existence effectively advertized by guest slots on breakfast tv shows, and this generally coasting feel

Any left-wing landlords about?

Do I know any London estate agents and/or landlords who would be up for being interviewed for a podcast?

— Michael Walker (@michaeljswalker) October 5, 2022

like he hasn't got the contact details of LRM on his rolodex, the fooking tool. How many of them there are would an interesting subject. From a '21 audit there are 18 Labour MP/Landlords - seems to way too low to me.

Michael Walker has previously stated that all landlords should be abolished.

once you've previously advanced the class struggle by some weak lip service ya get a free pass on NOT advancing the class struggle, sounds pretty solid tbf!

Michael Walker has previously stated that all landlords should be abolished.

How would this work in practice?
(I know one answer is "have a revolution", but within the context of a parliamentary democratic framework, how would it happen?)

It doesn't. From what I can tell, in Germany (not Italy) you have rent controls, restrictions on landlord eviction and standard regulations but even then I don't think this is the case throughout Germany (just from the fact we see a lot more about Berlin in the media here...basically because a lot of writers spend their time in Berlin).

And Walker is a social democrat, he believes in regulation rather than forced land redistribution.

And land is the key fact of life here. The Royal Family are landlords, Universities are landlords, as are many bosses who buy a 2nd home. Many people who grow up by the sea/scenic areas cannot afford to live there as prices are pushed up by air BnB landlordship. It must all be destroyed and the last thing they need is to be talked to and understood in any way.

I agree with Grandpoint Genie - I was not sure what MW was actually proposing.

Was he saying that all housing should be social housing?

I assume that when MW talks to the landlords he will be critical. Or perhaps, as he's interviewing them, that won't be a viable strategy.

tbh my guess is that MW wanted a very specific "unmediated" reaction-shot response from a.n.other landlord(s) specifically to the mini-budget -- you don't set up an interrogation stroke show-trial of an entire social layer and political-economic structure by trawling thru yr own follows (which will at best supply the view from a novara-adjacent sub-niche of the class in question) and for a general whitewashing of the landlord perspective you can just pick up any other paper

i'm not going to say this is NO different from the old far-left nostrum that revolutionaries should read the financial times and ignore the guardian -- not least bcz conflicted dynamics within the hostile forces is useful to know and a reconfiguration of some sort is possibly unfolding right now -- but the differences are more abt the pay-offs of public performativity of yr craft technique than the wisdom the nostrum does contain (which is where you gain the most solid info to help shape tactics and strategy)

the pitiless panopticon of soc-med has actually made tactics and strategy much harder in all political quarters (left AND right), a point that's going to be historically very interesting if we can live thru to a point where histories get written

"the pay-offs of public performativity of yr craft technique" -- i.e. these are self-evidently mainly negative hence our response in this thread

transparency is good not bad but also bad not good to put it in ddd-speak

"the old far-left nostrum that revolutionaries should read the financial times and ignore the guardian"

Bastani repeats this frequently.

worth noting those same "far lefties" are *absolutely banjaxed* by the arrival of the internet and now subsist as tiny grumpy ageing sects

not that the nostrum directly entails this outcome BUT

the pitiless panopticon of soc-med has actually made tactics and strategy much harder in all political quarters (left AND right), a point that's going to be historically very interesting if we can live thru to a point where histories get written

always hard to predict the future but imho the current situation w.r.t. social media makes it harder, coz as far as I can see "social media will be dead within 5 years and the likes of Zuckerberg, Musk etc will be recognised as pernicious more widely" and "social media will continue to burgeon and be developed technically so we all* have (non?)invasive direct brain-to-site interfaces"** are pretty much equally likely outcomes.

* prolly actually not all
** and if you think things are bad now, that's when the sh*t really hits the fan!

"Predictions are a fool's errand" -- Dr Aaron Bastani

"It'll go higher"

my prediction

this:

Everything happens so much

— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) June 28, 2012

but more of it

I've often heard left people say you should read The Economist or the FT because you get into The Capitalist mindset. Well done Bastani for regurgitating this stuff, he'll probably get to work in his beloved media if the world doesn't burn first.

when we are mining asteroids so 15 billion people can take a crap on a 24 carat gold toilet and during adverse El Nino seasons there are no famines because ppl can make synthetic steaks on a 3d printer, then people won't be laughing at him then

If Bastani haggled ppl to read Trotsky I'd respect the trolling.

I get put off by the dissonance between their modern presentation (i.e. pretty good website and slick youtubing) and old fashioned content (not much changed since Tribune of the 80s, ie. on-point but poorly sourced and edited). That said the sweep of reporting on the site was surprisingly broad to me - I had written them off based on Bastani et al’s obnoxious screen presences and the gloomy sense that they’re all en route to being future Parsons and O’Neills

"the gloomy sense that they’re all en route to being future Parsons and O’Neills"

What is the cause of this sense?

yeah I could imagine Bastani going totally Brendan in later middle age.

not sure precisely what i wanted to prove with this but i went off and checked their relative ages:
parsons b.1953
o'neill wikipedia doesn't say but since he wrote for living marxism my guess is not later than 1980; probably somewhat earlier (he edited spiked! from 2007)
bastani b.83/84 (unsure why wikipedia is unsure lol)
sarkar 92

butler doesn't have a wikipedia entry at all but i think he's much the same age as bastani

my half-baked point is that by now the novara kids are all some way older and set in their ways than TP and BoN were when they became entirely unreadable (i suspect BoN was always entirely unreadable)

i guess sarkar still has time to do a tony parsons but this seems quite unlikely

I heard him on a podcast and he was in good form, talking about the "deranged parliamentarians" of the tough-on-China clique. When he was LOTO a ccp official asked him why is one of your aircraft carriers patrolling so close to our sovereign territory, and he added you do realise we've got over a hundred aircraft carriers ourselves.

Actively sub-Harris stuff now.

While recording for @novaramedia in Chichester I came across groups of teenagers saying they support Nigel Farage and Reform.

One of them, a mixed heritage guy doing his A-levels, said immigrants should be sent back.

A really extraordinary encounter. Watch. pic.twitter.com/nmNW5QsFpf

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 27, 2024

Really important work

amplifying what ignorant morons have to say - PEOPLE POWERED MEDIA!

? pic.twitter.com/l6I8epwvPi

— Hannah Williams (@hkatewilliams) July 2, 2024

Bastani, the crypto-fash moron, agreeing with a fascist moron. That's how he gets the clicks.

at this point I'm absolutely believing nothing less than at least half of the novara team are MI5 ops. Laugh away, after I'm dead someone will remember this!

This is quite funny, and sorta recognizable at points but I'm not really sure I buy it.

Ash Sarkar breaks down the real reason British culture is crumbling. Hint: it’s got nothing to do with immigration. pic.twitter.com/dZG9a8AWdJ

— Novara Media (@novaramedia) August 12, 2024

My issue would be: what is it that really broke down in this country, what was small town culture and ritual? I don't know much about it.

She talks about working men's clubs and stuff that I am not sure sounds very appealing. The stuff on America is v weak, British pop and rock culture could start out as a copy but there is its own, very strong, identity there, which also crossed over with say, Caribbean culture.

I feel honour bound to say she mentions English culture not British culture. She seems to be comparing what sound like rural small town communities in France and Italy with post-industrial towns in the UK and that doesn't really work. I'm not sure how different the French and Italian versions of Burnley are from, er, Burnley.

I'm sure it's not the old "why can't be more like Mediterranean countries" cliche but it does sound like it!

I grew up in a rural community which had its culture destroyed, the village school and pub are now long gone, but this is because locals have been priced out by people buying holiday homes and retirement homes and the lack of jobs nearby. Which to be fair is still capitalism.

The erosion of traditional w/c networks of community and solidarity is def part of the story of 20th century capitalism but it happened on a global level, nothing specifically British about it. I suppose the argument could be made that it succeeded more comprehensively here than elsewhere.

Indeed, there is a touristy element to Ash's experience there.

Besides, as she knows much of France and Italy vote for fascism. I am assuming a lot of that vote comes from the small towns she was glowing about but I'd need to look.

a bit all over the place there and not as sharp as she can be sometimes, despite Bastani doing his nodding dog routine. But those hottakes aren't going to make themselves. she even throws in the Denby Dale pie at the end, lol. That's a very white middle class gatekeepered event, and a grotesque example of large scale food wastage. It seems even worse that it started in the 19th century when starving kids were sent to workhouses. One year they fucked it up so bad it was literally a load of putrid rotten meat padded out with raw potatoes. When samplers of it started turning green and chucking up they buried it. Probably some english culture allegory in there

successfully mocked by rich & stu nearly 30 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfbhFA7JY_I

Can't watch that vid right now (I'm not going to watch that vid) but does she point out that a child could kick a ball in the street?

Besides, as she knows much of France and Italy vote for fascism. I am assuming a lot of that vote comes from the small towns she was glowing about but I'd need to look.

I can save you the bother - the answer is yes, and 'twas ever so.

hurtling in out of breath to say eff off to the latte-sipping city types sneering at shrewsbury with their so-called "fist" of "fun"

there may be weird holdover 19th-c rituals in other parts of shropshire (viz the benighted hamlets of WIGWIG and HOMER) but shrewsbury is a large-ish town full of agricultural lawyers and long deracinated
(also the fkn industrial revolution BEGAN in shropshire come the fvck on, that's where and why the fellows who mow the hay all ended up in the potteries w/bright green hair or birmingham or hackney)

also rituals-wise there's this (not sure why the pics no longer render):
if laibach were english how would they manifest…

(oh wait they do, googlew somehow logged me out)

they always picked Shrewsbury as a random place name to use, think due to the odd combo of pronunciation and spelling (though my brother in law is from Shrewsbury and tells me the odd pronunciation is incorrect) as experienced on Midlands Today every evening.

the posher locals and the world at large rhyme the first syllable with ho, but normies say "shewsbury" (to rhyme with the little rodent) and also don't say the first r

Honestly if you listen to left-wing UK journos Italy is basically paradise on earth - because it was sunny in Puglia when they went there, because the Freccie trains were nice. Idk why they don’t even bother to check the 1000s of horror stories online about youth unemployment 🤷🏻‍♀️

— LaGenevoisedeservice (@RightsRobins) August 13, 2024

I was told life was good in Italy.

Italy's real wage misery.

In 2023, inflation-adjusted compensation per employee in Italy was 7.4% lower than in 1999, while real compensation increased by 8.4% in the Eurozone overall during the same period. pic.twitter.com/D6YtsZ5of9

— Philipp Heimberger (@heimbergecon) August 23, 2024

similarly there was that Murdoch journo who had a happy hol in authoritarian Hungry and was commenting that he didn't see any homeless ppl or witness any crime, duh. Fucking pundits and their holiday blinkers.

I haven't really come across any material thats positive about Italy's economic situation, who's been making that argument? Italy's demographics have been a problem for a long time, though they aren't alone in that

Not necessarily saying there might not be positive things to say about Italy's economy, I've just never come across anyone making those arguments

This is the End of the Liberal World Order | Aaron Bastani meets Anne Applebaum

they have simps donating money to them to fund this garbage

I want the most stupid chart you have / no that's too stupid

The conversation was partly a response to these charts from @jburnmurdoch.@lhfang gets a shoutout too. pic.twitter.com/WBzAMIjW91

— Michael Walker (@michaeljswalker) November 16, 2024

The first chart might have been ok if they'd split progressive out from all categories not just white.

The second chart is much worse. The categorization or terminology of "moderate" has to go, it's incredibly misleading. A median voter has absolutely nothing in common with another median voter other than the fact their worldviews will be contradictory in unpredictable ways

That being said, AOC ran an instagram story asking people who voted for both her and Trump to explain their rationale. And she got a lot of responses from people who voted for both, that were kind of sort of similar

Politics and Policy don't seem particularly connected currently though, which maybe explains some of the contradictory things (ie , contradictory to who?)

The thumb is a bit baity, but I was pleased to have a long and very interesting chat with @novaramedia about all things railways and transport.

HOWEVER, since the interview one of their contributors made a series of transphobic posts which I can't ignore.https://t.co/xtNKZWSo3w pic.twitter.com/brmGFqDl66

— Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis) November 24, 2024

The incredibly groveling apology they had pinned to the top of their Twitter account for the last 2 months has moved to their Twitter Highlights now.

People seemed to find it funny they had to make a sizable donation to Community Security Trust.

By they I mean @NovaraMedia.

kudos to the railway guy. This is supposed to be an alternative to the toxic UK media establishment and the best they can do is follow their transphobic talking points and platform some arse from the Young Turks x0=

xyzzzz__ are you really still in on Novara? I never watched/followed them but Bastani & Walker are fucking awful.

Sorry, I completely misinterpreted that tweet - good on him for calling them out. Really just add it to their disgraceful behaviour.

Novara are not looking too credible after that god tier defamation apology to Gary Lubner.

I never followed Novara much as a thing, despite still liking some of the individuals involved xp

you aren't asking me, gyac. But I actually do watch this shit occasionally. Because of Gaza genocide and despicable BBC coverage of ensuing genocide it became a habit. Bastardi & Walker are both utter cunts. Some of the others are good, but am puzzled how they can share any space with these cynical, bigoted turds.

Doesn’t speak well of them.

xyzz has always been novara hater #1, as shown by the begining of this thread

He was a fan of Rivak Brown and I think got tempbanned over something to do with her.

Rivkah Brown

I like Rivkah.

Is James Butler still involved with Novara? I think his LRB articles are usually good.

from what i’ve heard no active involvement these days

Then don't https://t.co/6eaxXFVSr6

— Rivkah Brown (@rivkahbrown) February 18, 2025

So Ash Sarkar has a book out...I just don't read any contemporary leftish writing in book form. But going on a talk with Basto would probably harm it.

I think she realises this to some extent and is taking a short break from NM to promote it.

seems a bit how to win arguments by being nice to bigots and telling a tiny minority of lefty shitposters to pipe down. lefty shitposters are to blame for everything that has gone wrong with broken UK democracy, apparently. Mainly because they are frequently rude to Bastani and are often posting that they wouldn't donate the steam off their piss to NM!

I'm not convinced it will be a book worth reading tbh. Heavy recycled Jordan Peterson talking point vibes.