Turning to the sector level we find descriptive evidence supporting our hypotheses that the political capital and the organizational setting of different sectors of voluntary civil society mattered for the impact of the lockdowns and in particular for the reopening of the sectors. 🧵👇

How did covid lockdowns affect different sectors of voluntary civil society and segments of volunteers? We Use a four wave panel running from April 2020 to april 2021 to answer these questions in "Locking Down Civil Society: The Impact of COVID-19" in Voluntas: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧵👇

At the moment I'm thinking a lot about my brilliant (& offline) colleague Oddný Helgadóttir's suggestion that our intellectual priors (read: rationalist assumptions about political behaviour) may not be very helpful for making sense of the world rn

Yes. Plus, nobody’s talking about those files anymore, or the worst betrayal of an ally since Munich…

Cas Mudde spells out what has become largely the consensus among researchers: moving right on immigration will not weaken the far right nor strengthen social democracy. If your reaction is "but in Denmark" please at least familiarize yourself with Danish politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Every Labour MP, SPAD and apparatchik should read this, then read it again. @casmudde.bsky.social with a perfect distillation of why the feted 'Danish model' doesn't work. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

was already feeling insane from the Trump/Mamdani meeting but I now worry that my brain chemistry will simply never be the same

Labour is desperately trying to appeal to Reform supporters. In October, we asked people in the UK if they perceive a party as a "party for someone like them". Only very few people say this for both Labour and Reform. The correlation is negative. Labour is chasing an electorate that does not exist.

Sometimes you need to hear that you're not the only one feeling that way. Yeah, it's sweary; but it's also one of @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com's very best - and that's a high bar.

This newsletter is worth reading, and why is well educated people not identifying being led by their noses into an abyss of ignorance? I can only agree with the last sentence “Our world is stupid and hateful and it didn’t have to be this way but here we are. Fucking hell.”

Smart point about Twitter from an excellent post on the same. For the vast majority of people, being in a place where your every post is met with a torrent of hateful, abusive, personal bile does not make you a more open thinker through 'debate', it huddles you in an intellectual defensive crouch.

Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging. Here’s my response:

In 2023 @tom-clark.bsky.social got me to write a chapter for his book on UK poverty about how immigration limbo, which Labour wants more of, makes people destitute. It was the most distressing piece I've ever worked on. We sent a copy to every MP. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/6081...

@erikvoeten.bsky.social has built his career on one goal: make ideas flow more freely. In this week’s Etched in Marble, we talked about writing, editing, & how to carry arguments beyond academia without losing their complexity. 🪶 New post: catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-... 🧵

Local elections = best-in-class when it comes to entertainment value. Tons of election night backstabbing and drama.

Happy birthday to Thorvaldsen born #OTD 1770. He created the statue of Lord Byron which is in the Wren Library. Read about it here.

Gavelink: www.information.dk/indland/2025...

Election day 🗳️

I’m going to vote in a couple of hours, and I can promise that my vote will not help any social democrats whatsoever precisely because of the arguments below. My vote though will be in the municipality called Frederiksberg in the middle of the Copenhagen area, so for a different mayor.

The Danish Social Democrats who have pursued far right policies on immigration and governs with the centre-right are set to lose in Copenhagen for the first time in a 100 years, while the left looks set to win a major victory today.

One to bookmark for when Labour collapse in London next May

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats are staring down a potential political earthquake in today's nationwide local elections. The revolt is driven by a familiar urban grievance: The skyrocketing cost of housing.

The basic problem with the temporary refugee status policy - especially one lasting up to 20 years - is it leads to very few removals (based on Denmark's experience) but does significantly worsen integration.

I find confiscating people’s jewellery offensive, and yet here we are

Multiple political party websites hacked by pro Russian group ahead of local elections in Denmark. Interference in election campaigns by foreign actors is a deliberate attempt at destabilizing. It is worrying but also important for democracies to build up resilience against this.

An asylum system where asylum seekers are advised to leave a safe haven again to avoid homelessness and destitution isn’t what the generation after World War 2 imagined …

Starmer’s Britain

New publication! 😁 Open access! #poltheory #philsky www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Dunno, man, if you've managed to get your car onto a dinghy and sail it across the channel then you fucking deserve to keep it.

I wrote about the lessons the Danish social democrats want to offer Labour last month, and noted a distinct uptick in Denmark Chat at conference. As I discuss in the piece, I am more convinced by the arguments for Spain-as-model. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

People arriving here by small boat are desperate, often traumatised. Latest figures are 68% of boat arrivals granted asylum (see link) The idea of the govt stripping people of their valuables & then hawking it off literally makes me sick to my stomach migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

"Europe is in a culture war with Trump’s America. Part of this involves Trumpists propping up their ideological allies in European politics. A deeper level involves humiliating Europeans in their dealings with the US." "Trump can only do this because Europeans let him." A must read from ECFR:

Temporary asylum has been done for ages in Denmark, leaves people in limbo despite complaints they do not integrate. As has confiscating personal property. But even the Danes have limits, with a former immigration minister sentenced to prison for illegally separating immigrant families/couples.

One addition: ‘Dark forces are stirring up anger in this country, and seeking to turn that anger into hate’ says Mahmood in the Guardian. Dark forces. Like those that record videos in dark rooms using blurry dehumanised images to spread falsehoods about the impact of refugees in our communities? …

It is impossible to make this up and I could rewrite my letter already. But at least it’s all out in the open now—including that Mahmood has been inspired by Kristi Noem, Trump’s homeland security secretary who oversees mass deportations. For the avoidance of doubt: they employ fascistic practices.

‘When challenged about engaging in far-right talking points, Hom Sec’ rejects that. Well: ‘She is not engaging in far-right talking points. She is choosing to turn them into Govt policy. […] when a policy looks like the far right and is hailed by the far right as being far right, it is far right.’

🌍 42.5m refugees Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. 🇬🇧 548k refugees = 0.78% of the UK population. It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us. My letter to my MP. #asylum #Mahmood 🧵

I mean, taking migrants' property is bad enough, but there is something particularly egregious about focusing on jewellery. Something that suggests the advocates either have not read a book about 20th century Europe, or have read too many.

Imagine having a thumping majority in parliament and deciding to use it for something as squalid as this.

Today seems like a good day to point to @kristinabsimonsen.bsky.social’s recent piece on why (Britian) may not just ‘copy’ Danish migration policies. Political context, negative consequences and mixed public sentiments matter. ukandeu.ac.uk/denmarks-mig...

Hey Labour Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety? We're still over here 👋

It can't be emphasised enough that the Government's current approach: - Increase ILR to 10 years, - Increase Asylum ILR to 20 years, - Removal "immediately" if your home country becomes "safe," - Loss of permanent refugee status, Is exactly the sort of thing they dismissed as radical extremism.

Shabana Mahmood tells Sunday Times it should take 20 years for somebody granted refugee status in UK to secure permanent status (ie, reapply 6 times) if came without permission. Paper says Denmark has toughest settlement timeline (8 years) but UK govt wants longer www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

the piece also claims 95 per cent of claims in Denmark are refused - which isn't true (the grant rate was 48% in 2024, the same as in the UK for the year to June 2025).

This by Mahmood is frankly not only disgusting, but also massively disingenuous. It equates seeking asylum with illegality, there's nothing illegal about seeking asylum no matter the route. It ignores that Labour's policies penalise those in need of protection, and plays to hard right rhetoric.

Immigration policies should be debated on their merits but it is worth repeating that the Social Democrats are on 21% in Denmark and the Greens are on 13% (with other far left parties on another 9%). They're not exactly politically triumphant.

"When the British government recently announced its plan to emulate Denmark’s asylum and immigration system, it framed the move as a way to restore fairness and regain control. But [...] the move raises serious ethical — and practical — questions." theconversation.com/why-the-uk-s...

Efter halvandet års granskning har Energiklagenævnet nu meddelt sin afgørelse: »Energiklagenævnet ophæver Energistyrelsens afgørelse og hjemviser sagen til fornyet behandling … Afgørelsen kan ikke indbringes for anden administrativ myndighed.« www.information.dk/leder/2025/1...

Vi bliver nødt til lige at have den her lidt mere i kog. Det tager langtfra 3 minutter at støtte, men resten af Micks tekst er spot-on!