This is the same group that seems to have an open invitation to appear on every single BBC political programme going, without ever declaring their funding

this shit is just beyond parody, man

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

When will people in power start standing up and speaking out against this effing piss-take? 🤔

21st century British patriots: living in France and using their elected office to promote foreign powers' interests against payment! 🤮 At least the story starts getting a little bit of airtime - although nowhere near as much as the enormity of the scandal would deserve! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Oh look. There really are "no go areas" in England. And they're marked by St George's flags www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Really good by @newsagents.bsky.social about the coup at the BBC. The cui bono? question is key here: Billionaire-owned right wing competitors trying to sink our public broadcaster. Crucial time for the BBC. Let’s hope HMG makes the right move next. Oh wait! 😒 www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC. This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting. iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Yep. And to think that so many people think this man is some sort of hero is such a sign of our twisted times.

Oh dear Lord! 🫣😱😳🤯🤷🏼‍♂️

I’m intrigued by reporting on the Caerphilly by-election. I mean bookies had Reform to win. They didn’t. Focus in the media (even the good ones) is on Labour losing. We expected that. Reform non-win is the bigger story here? Compare with reporting on Dutch right-wingers coming second. 🤔

Superb reporting by @peterjukes.bsky.social in @bylinetimes.bsky.social on Farage, Putin & Nathan Gill. The sort of reporting you’d want the BBC to do and should really be career-ending for Farage if @teamlabouruk.bsky.social or the Tories knew what they were doing! bylinetimes.com/2025/10/04/t...

Are mainstream economists losing influence over policy making? "The ‘Appallingly Bad’ Dismal Science: Of the Increasing Irrelevance of (the Wrong Kind of) Economics" www.gerhardschnyder.com/blog/2025/8/31/the-appallingly-bad-dismal-science-of-the-increasing-irrelevance-of-the-wrong-kind-of-economics

❓ Does the British state have what it takes for its industrial strategy? ❓ Merve Sancak and I doubt it. Importantly, it lacks the willingness to be 'anti-business' in the right way to be 'pro-business' in the long run... Read our piece on Encompass Europe: encompass-europe.com/comment/does...

"The UK is very good – much better than most European countries – at integrating migrants, because most Britons, and most migrants, want integration... The rhetoric and policy we saw yesterday will take us backward to a much uglier, and more dangerous, place." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is interesting: UK Labour are not only digging their own electoral grave by adding water to Reform’s mill, but also undermining centrist/progressive parties’ case against anti-immigration in other countries! 👏🏻 Well done Keir!

That went well. Alienated your voter base and MPs, Reform voters still hate you and The Mail still drags you because, unlike Reform, they don’t think you really *believe* in racist policy. I mean, who saw that coming? *points at self* You win by stopping this bullshit.

Spot on by @pmdfoster.bsky.social ! 👏 The most astonishing thing though is: It is so obvious and yet none in Labour seems to take notice/understand/act...beyond frustrating seeing the country slip into Reform's dirty grip...

All this while refusing to call out Brexit as one of the main factors for Britains low growth and the rise in immigration after “Brexit got done.” Which allows Farage to evade his responsibility for the situation he now so happily exploits. This all helps only Reform.

The Farage effect. Pretty stark. bsky.app/profile/adam...

Super interesting piece in the FT on MAGA’s appropriation of René Girard’s philosophy of mimetic desire and scapegoating! 🤯 Fascinating how one of the most anti-intellectual movements in recent times draws inspiration from a “deep-thinker”… on.ft.com/3YGjRZh

If true, depressing and stupid, negatively impacting on Labour's growth focus & screwing one of UK's few strategic advantages & success stories, when overseas students aren't even the focus of anti-immigration ire - which won't be deflected by this.

This 100% 👇🏻 …

Frantically learning all the wrong lessons. People who want Reform policies will vote Reform. People who want Labour policies ... well, perhaps they'll just have to vote Green. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Hey British media, It’s no surprise that if you give Farage the run of the place, he’ll start winning. Time to do your actual jobs and start interrogating him on his Brexit shitshow, his funding, his Trumpiness, his idiotic manifesto, his real plans for the NHS… instead of drumrolling him into No.10

Yes Keir, we’ve noticed! 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️

How does this come as a shock to anyone? It was crystal clear that this would happen given the government’s policies! 🙄

“[In 2024] Labour won more votes than all other parties combined [in Runcorn]. Yet less than a year later, Reform has captured the seat, overturning a majority of 14,700.” By McSweeny/Starmers logic that’s bc in July 2024 Lab was more like Reform than it is now? 🤔 theconversation.com/reform-wins-...

“Telling voters the Reform leader is right, but they shouldn’t vote for him, is no more likely to work for Labour than it has for the Tories”…Yepp seems blindingly obvious…and yet somehow Labour seems hellbent on trying and defy basic logic and experience!

Sadly Labour’s conclusion from this defeat will probably be “Oh look we need to be more like Reform to win” rather than “Oh people don’t like us trying to imitate Reform” - Hopefully they’ll start looking at polls to realise people are less bothered about foreigners, more about climate than Reform!

Nigel Farage still insisting that he has "never ever, ever suggested anything other than the NHS should be free". Here's what he's said in the past behind closed doors

Under my glorious rule, anyone contributing to the Comment pages of the Telegraph would agree to have the headline tattooed to their forehead should circumstances demand it…

Important post in fhe @bylinetimes.bsky.social on media ownership in the UK. It seems increasingly likely that British public and authorities will only wake up to the danger of having right-wind illiberals in charge of the media when it’s too late… …see Hungary journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🔴How a ‘Populist’ Media Has Mainstreamed the Far Right Right-wing daily papers in the UK do not represent ‘public opinion’ – they simply reflect the radical right views of those ‘who own and run them’, argues Julian Petley bylinetimes.com/2025/04/29/f...

Good news for those who were 'really sorry to miss' my inaugural lecture "From state to market and back?" The recording is now available: www.lboro.ac.uk/inaugural-le... Check it out if you want to know what a buff-fronted owl (picture by Gustavo Pinto) has to do with political economy.

Amazing week at OP Jindal Global University in Sonipat (IND)…living Loughborough University London’s philosophy of “taking context seriously,” i.e. not studying international business from East London, but from Delhi, Nairobi, etc

@uclssees.bsky.social Our Special symposium with @gerhardschnyder.bsky.social is out in the Journal of Institutional Economics It includes 4 papers exploring: ‘Crisis and persistence: dynamics of institutional changes at the interface between formal and informal institutions’ [A thread]

What do hurricane Katrina, a sovereign debt crisis in Greece & military coups have in common? Find out in our post on the UCL SSEES blog about a new special symposium of the Journal of Institutional Economics that I co-edited with @elodiedouarin.bsky.social blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/2025/0...

Fascinating to witness the complete transformation of the right-wing ‘law & order’ parties into ‘crime & chaos’ parties! 😄 www.politico.eu/article/mari...

We took over the giant screen at Farage’s big rally in Birmingham

🤮

My Favourite Conspiracy Theory: America does not exist! www.gerhardschnyder.com/blog/2025/3/23/my-favourite-conspiracy-theory-america-does-not-exist

🤮

“Devastating benefits bill” says Starmer Yet it’s the lowest in Europe and 42% of the ‘Welfare’ spend is on Pensions 🤔

Labour arithmetic: £65bn in sickness & disability benefits p.a. = devastating www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... >£570bn hidden in tax havens + >£5.5bn of revenue p.a. lost to tax evasion = not a problem 👍🤪🙄 committees.parliament.uk/committee/12... taxjustice.uk/blog/how-muc...

Ever wondered why JD Vance considers universities and professors his enemies? (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FR6...) Why right-wing populists hate academics and academia so much? 1/2

Unsurprisingly Viktor Orban's reaction to the mass protests in Hungary over the weekend was threatening a crack down on 'foreign-funded' journalists (alongside NGOs)... www.rferl.org/a/hungary-ma... 1/3

And this 👇🏻 is why authoritarian politicians hate universities…