🧵 Thread on new research on gender gaps in “don’t know” responses Some of you will know that my stellar coauthors @hannahbunting.bsky.social @cerifowler.bsky.social @jess-smith.bsky.social @annasanders.bsky.social & I have been working on a large-scale project on “don’t know” responses in surveys.

All the photography in this week's Economist Britain section is by Martin Parr

My favourite of my own papers is on this exact topic (should be free to read) www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Martin Parr RIP One of my favourite photographers. If you don't know his work, dip into the internet; it's a joy.

#7 for my @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast countdown is essential reading (& listening!) for everyone- @peterallen.bsky.social on How to Think about Politics: A Guide in Five Parts newbooksnetwork.com/how-to-think...

Excitingly, my book now has a cover. You can see it here, where you can also now pre-order! www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/no-sec...

"If the government is to have any hope of getting itself back into the driver’s seat of our political moment, of getting its future back, it must start arguing in terms of a bold and coherent vision for the future." @mbarnfield.bsky.social on the budget and the government's empty long-termism

V happy to see this paper out with @chrisclaassen.bsky.social at @bjpols.bsky.social . We argue that nostalgia for Britain's past is an important, distinct opinion dimension which has meaningful consequences for party evaluations and vote choice.

BLOG POST: An attempt to put into words my *feelings* about generative AI and why (a) I don't like being tricked into consuming it and (b) I just don't care about things that are made using it. precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/11/21/a...

This is pathetic, really. I don't see such an obvious swerve achieving anything politically. A ragtag of small taxes gobbles up attention and kneecaps purposiveness. It increases vulnerabilities, including a 2026 rerun. The leadership remains on borrowed time. Nobody becomes happier.

‘However, avoiding and engaging with politics are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Often, both impulses coexist in people, especially when faced with something as simultaneously provocative and exhausting as hard-right populism’. Great column by Andy Beckett. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We are seeing increased illiberalism, and anti-liberalism, in our politics. The Labour party has a responsibility, as a government and as a centre-left political tradition, to counter this illiberalism, which takes different forms. fabians.org.uk/hearts-and-m...

My write-up for The Conversation on how a strategy of "short-term pain for long-term gain" could be losing the government support from the more short-term-focused of its voters: theconversation.com/keir-starmer... Trailed in the FT this morning (www.ft.com/content/e984...)

Latest from our politics of impatience project - some excellent analysis by @mbarnfield.bsky.social showing Labour is losing the jam today voters. Labour sheds support from impatient Britons: on.ft.com/48EaX4h

Great to speak to @greenmirandahere.bsky.social for today's FT Inside Politics about the latest finding from our politics of (im)patience project, w/ @karlpike.bsky.social and @philipjcowley.bsky.social. www.ft.com/content/e984...

I’ve written a response to @samuelmoyn.bsky.social’s recent essay in Democracy Project - agreeing with him about the problem of gerontocracy, but suggesting his advocacy of weighted votes for the young ignores an obvious egalitarian alternative: compulsory voting

This was a lot of fun to do, and with a really engaged audience of students (and future young voters) who asked some great questions.

A delightful but poignant find in a second-hand copy of Ulysses that bought this weekend. I doubt that someone today would think that they could ‘make their life useful again’ after a divorce by getting more involved in politics.

📣 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨 "School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support" Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1080/0140... 🧵👇

Following the success of our spring seminar series earlier this year, we @psapolpsychology.bsky.social are running an autumn/winter series, with four online presentations by great scholars. Please do register and come along to hear about some really fascinating research!

🚨 New article out today in @cpsjournal.bsky.social ! 📄 “Strategic Inclusion Without Transformation: How Populist Radical Right Parties Engage With Women’s Interests” With Bonnie Meguid, @hildecoffe.bsky.social & Miki Kittilson 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...

Super excited to see the second paper from my PhD now published! I find that making MPs' pay and expenses more salient significantly reduces political trust. Raising awareness of the regulator mitigates this effect when mentioning pay, but does not improve trust when expenses are mentioned.

The UK’s voting system is under pressure – is reform possible? A new APPG proposal for a National Commission could offer a fair, open path forward. Read our latest IPR blog by @dmk1793.bsky.social 👇 buff.ly/YMCsBFw

New article out in @bjpir.bsky.social that investigates the #WWE + Welsh Government 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 deal to host “Clash at the Castle 2002” in Cardiff. Mixing nation branding & pro-wrestling literature it analyses how WWE fit the Cymru Wales Brand into its broadcasts. (1/?) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

It was a very great pleasure to appear on one of my favourite podcasts, and to talk with David Runciman about the Past, Present, and Future (!) of electoral reform & proportional representation

The persistence of New Labour ideas and people was something @ntmatthews.bsky.social and I discussed in our paper from last year titled “New Labour and Political Myth”, free to read www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New post out: Today we have a guest post from the brilliant @dmk1793.bsky.social asking whether low turnout is harming growth as well as undermining democratic legitimacy. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/i...

This moment never ceases to excite. Out in shops on 9 Sept...

This article is refreshing not least because it starts from the point of thinking about voters as they actually are, not as we might wish them to be. The key idea — that voters aren’t pundits and political science shouldn’t expect them to be — is crucial.

🚨New book alert!🚨 Thrilled to announce that my @britishacademy.bsky.social Monograph, 'Capital, Privilege, and Political Participation,' will be published via @livunipress.bsky.social later this month. Find details and pre-order (with discount) here: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

I have a new article out at @polstudies.bsky.social. In "Electoral Hope", I make the case that supposedly irrational "wishful thinking" is actually a crucial part of how voters make rational sense of their role in democracies. OA link: doi.org/10.1177/0032...

The UK government has announced the revival of the landmark Pensions Commission, with Professor @iprnickp.bsky.social (Director of the University of Bath’s Institute for Policy Research) as one of its three members. Read more here 🔗 buff.ly/7tL3CN3

It's been a while since we said this but... you should buy our books, especially '20th Century Pub', which you can get direct from us for £13, delivered in the UK. 📚 boakandbailey.com/2025/07/get-...

I’m in the @newstatesman.com making the case for compulsory voting as a response to Peter Mair’s “void”

My new Constitution Society report on compulsory voting has now been published. I argue that low turnout has left the UK with an unrepresentative electorate. This is creating warped incentives for politicians, and contributing to low growth, high inequality, and rising democratic discontent.

20 years on from surviving 7/7 - my experience as a British Muslim @uk.theconversation.com With thanks to my editor @averyanapol.bsky.social theconversation.com/i-survived-t...

I wrote about my often fairly miserable time on the doorstep last summer hearing just how much the public hates politicians, and how Labour hasn't – and maybe can't – deal with the anti-politics that feeds Reform: labourlist.org/2025/07/labo...

I may mention this, occasionally, over the next few months.

New piece on the UK welfare state by me & @gavin-kelly.bsky.social for a special edition of @oxrepjournal.bsky.social We examine the economic, political & demographic forces reshaping our welfare state. academic.oup.com/oxrep/articl...

Latest piece for @thehousemag.bsky.social - on perceptions of prime ministerial power. With added marking. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

It was great to talk to Dave about this book which, following distributional issues that went forever, is now available in paperback amzn.eu/d/6GsDjKl

Our paper “Long-Term Time Horizons and Support for Public Investment” is open access @psjeditor.bsky.social (w/ @karlpike.bsky.social @philipjcowley.bsky.social). Whether the public supports policy that pays off in the long term depends on what “long term” means. doi.org/10.1111/psj.70040

I'm in @opendemocracy.net explaining why unequal turnout reinforces socio-economic inequalities, and why we need compulsory voting to counteract them. In short: unequal turnout skews politics against the young, poor, and insecure; only compulsory voting boosts turnout enough to change this.

“Anti-technology extremism possesses a remarkable quality: flexibility. This characteristic enables it to unite disparate actors – such as anarchists and white supremacists – under a common banner.” 'Stop the Machines' by @maurolubrano.bsky.social‬ is out today in the UK. www.politybooks.com/...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing Mauro Lubrano’s new book ahead of his lively conversation with Sean Fleming. Congratulations on a topical and important book, @maurolubrano.bsky.social

Really excited to be sharing the first edition of the relaunched Renewal - a journal of social democracy, now co-edited by me, @morganj0nes.bsky.social, @lisebutler.bsky.social, and Jack Jeffrey

It leads to a sort of magical thinking, policy-wise, of a kind we are seeing from our government, in which the million 16 to 24 year olds who are not in employment, education or training can be helped while cutting further education:

Art historians are going to write whole PhDs about the cultural politics of Trump and McDonalds.

Our paper "Wishful Thinking in Response to Events" is now out @electoralstudies.bsky.social! w/ @polpsychjoe.bsky.social @florianstoeckel.bsky.social @vittoriomerola.bsky.social @benlyons.bsky.social @jasonreifler.bsky.social et al www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What should pension schemes assume about pensioner spending? A new IPR report by @aidagarcial.bsky.social, Ricky Kanabar and @stevewebb1.bsky.social analyses the spending patterns of over 100,000 pensioners surveyed between 1968 and 2019.