Some nice touches here: - Julius Caesar had coins minted with his face on them "weeks before his death" - The lifespan of the American republic looks about right: 1776-2026 - Also, given that Trump is going to be on both sides of the coin: heads he wins, tails you lose

Listening to Lisa Nandy on Radio 4 trying to defend the 'digital ID' scheme. It all sounds a bit half-baked. Strong suspicion that this, along with local govt reorganisation, risks being a distraction that takes up loads of political capital for little benefit, and may not even end up happening

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This is terrific on Charlie Kirk. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I had never heard of him before Wednesday. After having read up about him since, I'd agree that "I won’t celebrate his death, but I’m not obligated to celebrate his life, either" www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Witnesses Assumed Charlie Kirk Shooter Was Just Ordinary Gunman On School Campus

Oops BBC News - Great North Run medals show Sunderland instead of Newcastle - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is absolutely magnificent www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

The normalization and rationalization of the often authoritarian, erratic and nonsensical behavior and policies of the Trump administration by most of the business, media, and political elites shows how shallow the support for democracy, let alone liberal democracy, always was in this country.

Not really a surprise: whilst analyses of this nature inevitably involve a lot of guesstimates, countless studies of local govt reorganisation show that it rarely saves any money and instead leads to citizens feeling less affinity with their local council www.bbc.com/news/article...

I'm in a German supermarket for the first time in a while, but will always struggle to get my head around the juxtaposition of overt tobacco advertising on the one hand, and cigarettes openly on sale with vivid health warnings on the other

What an incredible series #ENGvsIND. Right up there with the Ashes in 2005, but with an even more unforgettable finale. 3-1 would have been unfair on India, who probably should have won in Leeds and it feels about right that the teams are still even after 25 days

Sad to hear about Ozzy. I was pretty into metal as a teenager, but for some reason only began to appreciate Sabbath's role in defining the genre later. Clearly he had been ill for some time, but it's still a bit of a shock after the farewell gig the other week. RIP

My latest paper with Antje Otto, Wolfgang Haupt and the late Kristine Kern (RIP) is now out. "Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies?" features in npj Climate Action. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Fascinating charts depicting how the growth of clean tech in China may well herald a massive geopolitical shift in power away from the US over the coming decades 👇

www.bbc.com/news/article... This is good news in principle, though I await the details with some trepidation

This is great from @adamtranter.bsky.social on the need to ensure we put pedestrians at the centre of any shift towards autonomous vehicles. Particularly this bit www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

👇 "Well, you tell me. You're the one asking the question" I'm not sure this is how interviews are supposed to work... 🤔

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...

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I remember Michael D Brown after Hurricane Katrina, but this is taking political appointees to head up FEMA to another level of ignorance and incompetence 👇

Nice to see the Guardian pick up on a new @lgstudies.bsky.social article by @alexnurse.bsky.social. The paper examines the often toxic nature of debates around local cycling infrastructure, and how cycling activists sometimes adopt counter-productive tactics www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...

This is terrific from @jamesrball.com. Particularly this bit

Friends and colleagues have been asking how to support me and my Politics colleagues caught up in this. You could sign this: www.change.org/p/end-unnece...

Really thinking* that the public won't like the Austrian entry as much as the juries *hoping

Developments in stage sets & video projections at #Eurovision in recent years have been remarkable. It's almost like producers are making music videos in real time. For TV audiences the songs are increasingly just part of an overall 'product'. I've no idea what those in the arena make of it...

Ok, if Sweden doesn't win this, they have been absolutely robbed. Head and shoulders above the rest I reckon #Eurovision

👇 Lovely to see this blogpost about the 'adaptation gap' in European cities come out. The post highlights key messages from our new paper in Nature Climate Change.

Really pleased that the latest article by Diana Reckien, Attila Buzási, @martaolazabal.bsky.social, Paris Fokaides, Filomena Pietrapertosa, me, and Monica Salvia is now out in Nature Climate Change. We suggest that 'inconsistencies' in planning contribute to the adaptation gap rdcu.be/elElX

Oops. Durham Reform councillor resigns only a week after being elected, because he was a council employee and therefore ineligible to stand for election. From the article, it aeems he might be the first of many. www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...

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It's not a deal, because the president can't make trade "deals" on his own, & every media outlet should stop being lazy by using "deal" or "agreement" in the headline & instead do journalism & explain to readers/viewers that all of this is wildly illegal & not how it works. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Wondering how long it will be before Trump takes credit for the new pope being American. And then how long before he distances himself, once it becomes clear that they disagree fundamentally on key issues of human rights

Great that we've got another snooker champion from outside the UK and Ireland. It's been coming for some time, and Zhao Xintong will probably be the first of many world champions from China

Official: electricity is now woke

👇 this is terrific on the evolution of anti-bureaucratic sentiment in modern democracies

New: "Dynamism and stasis in the climate policies of German cities between 2018 and 2022", by Antje Otto, Wolfgang Haupt, me, Kristine Kern (RIP) and Annegret Thieken. We update our 2021 study of mitigation and adaptation in 104 of the largest German cities link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Oops www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...

📢A new study from @uniofbath.bsky.social shows London's low emissions zones have had major benefits for human health and the economy, with a 10.2% decrease in respiratory issues following LEZ implementation, an **18.5%** reduction in sick leave, and annual public health savings of over £37 million.

It's always a bit weird watching football in an athletics stadium, but there's nowt like lower league football on a bank holiday weekend. Gateshead vs York - two promotion/playoff contenders near the top of what should really be called England's Division 5

Two plus points of my hotel here having arrived in Birmingham: - it's located just by the Black Sabbath Bridge, which I didn't even know existed - the staff offer everyone a free drinks voucher in exchange for every day you don't ask them to clean your room. Great idea to incentivise this

En route to Birmingham for the 75th annual conference of the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social. I'll be presenting a paper in a @psalocalpol.bsky.social panel, based on Bethany Rex's fieldwork into how municipal museum managers negotiate austerity and pressure to generate income to continue operating.

On Tuesday, we have our third panel: 'Actors & Networks in Local Governance' Tue 15th, 9.30am, Dhani Prem, Exchange 🪑 Joanie Willett 📄 Karina Retamal 📄 @neilpye72.bsky.social 📄 @ariannagiovannini.bsky.social 📄 @martonbene.bsky.social 📄 @peckersley.bsky.social

Looking forward to presenting at this @psalocalpol.bsky.social panel of the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social conference in Birmingham later this month. Bethany Rex and I examine how staff in austerity-hit museums responded to drives for greater income generation to keep their institutions running.

Great to have @psalocalpol.bsky.social now on Bluesky, and thanks a lot to @jacknewman.bsky.social for taking over our specialist group communications. Give them a follow! 👇

👇 Yep. Me too

The kids are very happy that I'll no longer be able to bore them with my favourite #NUFC factoid: the last time Newcastle won a domestic trophy, they beat York City in the semi-final, and only after a replay. Great to watch today's match with a bunch of Geordies at Whitley Bay cricket club

I'm always a bit reassured when folk put inverted commas around the "department of government efficiency", because obviously it's not a real department. But also, as @donmoyn.bsky.social says, "Doge" has nothing to do with efficiency. "Department of Government Extermination" would be a better name

Happy spring everybody

Latest annual @lgiu-local-gov.bsky.social 'State of Local Govt Finance' report includes anticipated warnings around more Section 151 notices. Officers' opposition to mergers is also unsurprising, but suggests reorganisation will be far more difficult that the govt expects lgiu.org/publication/...