📢 UK-based early career researchers — looking for a strong way to kick off 2026? The Fellows in LSE’s Department of Government are organising an Early Career Workshop in late January. Submit your abstract now! 🗓️ Deadline: 28 December 2025 👉 Submit here: forms.gle/QukzsYDSM2Do...

‘On the lesser road, the business of life and death carried on: Roman cemeteries have been found under the Savoy Hotel and a sarcophagus and pottery kiln under St Martin-in-the-Fields.’ Ysenda Maxtone Graham on a biography of London’s Strand. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

📢 Call for Submissions UK-based early career researchers in political science, political economy & public policy: apply to our January Early Career Workshop at LSE. 🗓️ Deadline: 28 Dec 2025 🔗 forms.gle/HXU4DnBq9HmX...

At the LSE we're organizing this workshop for UK-based early career researchers in political science, political economy, and public policy. The workshop will take place on Friday, 30 January 2026. The deadline to apply is 28 Dec 2025. Happy to answer any questions! forms.gle/HXU4DnBq9HmX...

Good Big Read on a curiously under discussed topic. on.ft.com/4irWdsc How London’s housing market stagnated

A thought. In 2022-24 incumbents did terribly everywhere and the most common explanation was voters hating inflation. Today inflation is much lower. And Merz, Starmer & Trump are all deeply unpopular.

2/2 ...the prospect of re-election is one of the main factors keeping leaders honest and keeping legislators loyal. If voters hate governments 75% plus of the time, that may encourage more corrupt, lazy and incompetent leadership, and more chaotic and rebellious incumbent parties.

Rightly lots of debates about growth this weekend - rightly because it was low productivity growth that saw wages entirely flatline during the 2010s.

There's a big divide in how Americans are thinking about vaccines: ♦️83% of Republicans don't want an updated COVID-19 vaccine. 🔷64% of Democrats want to get or have already received an updated vaccine. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/... 🧪

The abolition of the two-child benefit cap, which punishes children for their parents' circumstances, is the best part of the budget, potentially lifting almost half a million children out of poverty. It may also be the part that comes under fiercest attack. So it needs celebrating and defending.

💥 ¿Contribuyen los jueces a la polarización? Según nuestra encuesta, más de la mitad de la izquierda dice que sí. En la derecha, la mayoría cree que no contribuyen.

Are you an ABD needing help with your project? Interested in immigration, autocratization, & religion? Want to spend 2 weeks thinking deeply about interdisciplinary work? This summer school is for you. I'll be one of the instructors helping your think big and rigorously :-) More info below! (1/2)

On the eve of the Autumn Budget, our latest polling finds that *over half* of 2024 Labour voters who are 'finding it difficult' economically have now switched parties. 17% now back the Greens, and a further 17% back Reform. 🧵

2nd edition of our The AI Shift newsletter is out. The question today: could AI be making us LESS productive? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com www.ft.com/content/2480... At the individual level, it's clear we're not reliable witnesses on this Q. At an organisational level, it gets even more interesting...

I’m happy to see this short paper with @fluegeldo.bsky.social on unexpected hikes in voting costs out in @thejop.bsky.social ! doi.org/10.1086/739405 [1/5]

We have just published the call for the Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics. These are 3-year fully-funded postdocs that will allow you to focus on your research in a great academic environment. (And with excellent food) www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...

In our polling with YouGov, since the start of his second term Donald Trump's net approval has fallen 17pts among white Americans (+17 to -1), 28pts among Hispanic Americans (-9 to -37) and 38pts among black Americans (-36 to -74)

NEW from me: Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent. That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀

NEW - Seeking Opportunity in the Knowledge Economy: Moving Places, Moving Politics? - https://cup.org/3LgxVos "moving to opportunity results in... more left-leaning self-identification, and lower support for far-right parties" - @valentinaconsiglio.bsky.social & @thmskrr.bsky.social #OpenAccess

Exciting day: one of my fave colleagues @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and I are teaming up on a weekly newsletter to track what's really happening with AI & the labour market. No hype, just spreadsheets & shoe-leather. You can sign up here to get the first edition at lunchtime today! ft.com/AIshift

Does this description come from 2025, or 2006? Unnerving piece by @brookeamasters.ft.com www.ft.com/content/fddb...

Donald Trump's approval rating in our tracker has fallen to -18, the lowest it has ever been (lower than any point in his first term) www.economist.com/interactive/...

Last week, I successfully defended my PhD in Politics at the University of Oxford. My dissertation explores how politics permeates the modern workplace, shaping collaboration, corporate communications, and civic engagement. More about my research here: www.luiscornagobonal.com/research

@dpzollinger.bsky.social and I are thrilled "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies" is out as an SI at @wepsocial.bsky.social! Its papers explore the foundations of the cleavage pitting new left against radical right parties, and how it compares to the classic cleavages of Lipset & Rokkan: 🧵⬇️

What “variety of capitalism” is this? Asking for a very jaded and tired political economist.

While earlier research suggested the gender pay gap was largely driven by course choices, as men and women took different subjects, the data indicated that men were more likely to prioritise a lucrative career and earn more than women even with identical degrees (3/3) www.ft.com/content/cb0e...

Male graduates are quick to earn more than their female peers, according to Financial Times analysis of official data, with a median annual salary of £34,700 five years after leaving university, 14.1% above the £30,400 figure for women (2/3) www.ft.com/content/cb0e...

Female graduates in the UK fall behind men from the very start of their careers, even when they have taken the same courses, and are out-earned after studying more than four-fifths of university subjects (1/3) www.ft.com/content/cb0e...

This is mostly due to Spain having had a horrific week (Spain-only data below)

Is low turnout undermining growth? open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/i...

Lovely lunch Michael Sheen by @sarahhemm.bsky.social:

Homophobic attitudes have fallen in Western Europe and the United States

🔥 ¿Aire acondicionado de ricos y pobres? El 75-85% de los hogares ricos lo tiene; pero solo el 40-55% de los pobres. Una brecha que reduce tu productividad e impide que los niños aprendan. Y que mata. Aquí los datos 👇

Assistant professors teach courses that are closer to the knowledge frontier than tenured faculty.

Academia is basically a collection of people who got lucky early on and mistook it for genius. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

📝Why has a Bukele-style far-right party emerged in Spain—even though VOX already exists? In our new paper, @javierpadilla.bsky.social, @canalejoalvaro.bsky.social and I explain the unexpected rise of SALF ("Let the Party Be Over") in the 2024 EP elections: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.... 1/3

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference! 📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast
 🗓️ June 18–20, 2026
 📍 ICC Belfast
 📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025 🧵

Small data point on the greenlash. For the first time, EVs get net positive approval ratings in this long-running survey by an insurance firm in Germany. The young and those who drive a lot (!) are most in favour of EVs, the latter have highest "switch rate" of 6.1%. www.huk.de/fahrzeuge/ra...

Coinbase, one of the first (crypto) companies that banned talking about politics at work, going full into anti-system politics in the UK. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0bm...

One by one, the EU is surrendering all the arguments for its continued existence. Economic leverage? Made a mockery by Trump's trade war. Free movement? Currently suspended in 11 countries. Normative power? We fund lagers in Libya. Single market? Effectively an illusion. Rule of law? See: Hungary.

Even in times of sociocultural conflict, a progressive left electorate is more averse to sociocultural *and* socioeconomic inequalities than (far) right voters. New paper with @siljahausermann.bsky.social Palmtag @tabouchadi.bsky.social @stefwalter.bsky.social Berkinshaw tinyurl.com/d42wyb79 1/n

Been a busy year in the data mines.📊 Just published my mid-year roundup: 29 data visualizations on the state of US democracy, tracking everything from judicial resistance to billionaire influence to why Dems have a mobilization crisis, not a moderation problem. All charts free to use:

This research note details the analyses of European Social Survey (ESS) data, spanning 32 countries and over 120,000 respondents, revealing substantial variation in the association between field of study and anti-immigrant prejudice. #EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ buff.ly/NmxkmlS

Western Europe keeps setting new heat records as fastest-warming continent. on.ft.com/3IkdA03

I’m hiring a reporter for London Centric, looking for someone smart who can use a phone, knock on doors and wants to cause trouble. Don’t care if you’ve got qualifications, just want evidence of caring about news. Initial six month contract, pay above national rates. www.londoncentric.media/p/jobs

Skytte prize winners speak out www.ft.com/content/939b...

📣 Mark your calendars: The first-ever EPSS Conference will be held in Belfast, 18–20 June 2026 Organized under our new not-for-profit model. ➡️ epssnet.org/belfast-2026/ More details soon, so watch this space. See you all in Belfast! 🇬🇧☘️

If turnout in the NY Democratic congressional primaries looks anything like this, Hakeem Jeffries will go the way of Eric Cantor.

Exactly as I said after the blackout: voltage regulation was issue, not a lack of spinning inertia, as so many quickly speculated (or asserted). It was an off peak spring day, plenty of cheap solar available, and the grid operator cut it too close, failed to commit sufficient voltage regulation.🔌💡

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government. That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.