You see how things seem impossible are actually possible. We do love things that makes us feel better than we are, not worse. this is the key for politics.

‘“I don’t think it’s extreme or radical to think that working hard should get you a nice life,” Hannah Spencer said. The speech could once easily have been delivered by a centre-left Labour politician.’ @piercepenniless.bsky.social on the Gorton and Denton by-election. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

Thesis writing diary 39: So far, writing the Introduction of the thesis is the part which I enjoyed the most 🙃 I hate literature review.. Conclusion terrifies me a bit..

People whose lives is already disrupted by unprecedented events will never be able to have a proper life and those people don't see any problem in this!! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

This is a real source of anxiety for the regime in Turkey. It didn't start with Iran but the situation in Iran amplifies it.

This is not a reasoned political response. Labour has spent two years making all the voting groups who backed the Greens feel unwelcome and unheard, and now attacks them for daring to back someone else. They believe Labour isn’t listening and Starmer seems determined to prove them right

Struck by how Hannah Spencer's brilliant victory speech is a broadside against neoliberal meritocracy – like so many other (esp. female working-class) voices right now. This is exactly what Bev Skeggs & I discuss in our new article, 'Social Mobility is a Joke': journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Ok, I need to go back to my thesis really. But thanks for this nice Friday morning, UK 😇

"Working hard used to get you a something. ... And I don't think it's radical to think working hard should get you a nice life" Great speech, talking to what people feel in their heart!

Matt Goodwin does what all the autocrats around the world do (not only Trump): turning democracy's essential processes into a conspiracy. This shouldn't be let to happen ever.

No surprises, surely? Candidate is arrogant charmless TV presenter & hates everything: lose. Campaign is entitled technocracy + smearing left-liberalism: lose. Candidate is local & can make OK speech about how a good job should lead to a good life: win. Normal politics is trying to be born.

Matt Goodwin does what all the autocrats around the world do (not only Trump): turning democracy's essential processes into a conspiracy. This shouldn't be let to happen ever.

Only if someone told this to them before!!

The magic here is punishing Labour without handing victory over far-right. I'm glad that I'm living in a country who is able to do this 💙

Philosopher king lost to a shoemaker. In politics, people always win..

Amid all the talk about why this or that party won or lost, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Hannah Spencer was a great candidate - pretty nearly the perfect pick for this constituency.

In contests where progressives worried about Reform those voters have twice (here + Caerphilly) opted for a *more* progressive left pick to stop Reform rather than Labour who came 3rd. Makes Macron strategy to unite left behind Labour against Reform in May and beyond much harder

they must have been very large families, mustn't they

Bill Connolly died yesterday and he was one of the good ones. It kills me that he was taken while our politics are like this. He deserved to outlive the bastards. I guess we’ll have to take it from here. But let me say: for depth of understanding, empathy & moral clarity, this man had few rivals /1

"And what shall one say of those who would rather throw all mankind out of the window, as it were, in order to save one man in high position...?" Hannah Arendt, "Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship" (1964).

Yes, exactly..

Fantastic interview with Jilly Kay about her recent research into reactionary feminisms. And yes, these weird new kinds of right-wing anti-politics really are, of a kind, 'feminisms'. Check it out here or search for culture, power, politics in any app: culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/02/23/r...

Spinoza’s Multitude, and Marxism’s: free online seminar with Michael Hardt. March 16th, 17:00-19:00 GMT For details and how to join, see culturepowerpolitics.org/from-marx-to... (scroll down to bottom of page)

I can imagine that doing this in the UK is not as easy as doing it in the US but still creepy. There is already a strong backlash against ICE in the US. And what kind of speech that would be? Obviously not a political one. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Bafta 🤦‍♀️At least, it could've been Sinners. UK's biggest problem is the US really!

This week for Silent Sundays, a look back at five lost films made by Bluebird Photoplays with a little history lesson about the filmmakers and stars who made them. Read: oldfilmsflicker.substack.com/p/favorite-p...

And brilliant speech by Emin Alper, who is a great director and won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, reminding us that the worst thing under oppressive conditions is to be and feel alone. He thus says from people of Gazza and Iran to the political prisoners in Turkey are not alone.

Here is the newcomer to my 'authoritarianism by movies' list.. Congratulations to Ilker Citak, whose film Yellow Letters, a drama set in Turkey about creeping authoritarianism, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

"Do we have the will to protect what’s important against the pull of what’s easy? Will we stand for the power of concentration over the shallowness of rapid communication? And if not us, then who?"

This is obviously terrible. But, for instance, this doesn't happen in Turkey whereas some other terrible things that don't happen in the US (yet) happens: the crackdown on the opposition. What I'm trying to say is understanding authoritarianism or democracy as+ www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

In politics, people always win..

I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. Condemning racism and starting to listen to its own base instead of just telling them off is a good start. I wish someone tells the government that political communication is about politics, not merely communucation. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Really important project to coordinate against the far right www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/VWE0ppv...

Trump's love rhetoric is indeed another level. I even don't know how to analyse this..

The decision in South Korea today would not be possible without those people helping their MPs to get to the parliament and stop Yoon from declaring martial law. Their fight mustn't be forgotten.

Accountability matters. A good lesson from South Korea.

The Berlin Court of Appeal has ordered social media platform X to give vetted researchers access to publicly available data linked to Hungary's April 12 election, setting a precedent for enforcing EU digital transparency rules ahead of a contentious vote reut.rs/4c74fpn

Today Turkey's main oppositiin CHP holds its 39th weekly rally in Istanbul, this time in Ataşehir. And thousands will join. I find it quite remarkable. And the first anniversary of İmamoğlu's arrest is approaching...

This sort of framing of stories about 'left behind' places is getting very tired. How have they been 'failed' by politics? They are the product of political choices - which organisations like the BBC have often failed to explain to people.

Reform no longer the favourites to win next election www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/ref...

This is a lie.. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

These are all signs demonstrating that they are not the party that they claim to be: ordinariness, authenticity, being 'one of us,' opening a space for silent majority' etc. Their candidate in Gordon and Denton is Goodwin. But, of course, we need a kind of politics to translate this into politics.

The Meaning of Peter Mandelson. Me & @profafinlayson.bsky.social on the fall of Mandelson and why he ever mattered. Is the Long '90s finally totally over? Would we rather be ruled by the actual Sith than guys who hang around with Steven Pinker? It's all here: culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/02/17/t...

Watch it - a beautiful, powerful tribute to Pretti and Good. An indictment of the violence that took them via the incredible power of gesture and dance. 💕💪

Exactly the kind of piece I need these days when I get lost in the hundreds pages of my thesis and have a looming deadline for finishing the entire first draft!!

feels like a good time to write something about the rhetorical work being done by the word "backlash." it typically implies that the phenomenon in question is a force of nature, or caused mechanically by preexisting circumstances. nothing could be further from the truth.

Just as last legislative threat was thwarted, a new one drafted by AKP against LGBTQIA+ folks in #Turkey. Includes raising age requirement for transition & legal paper change to 25 from 18, and making same-sex engagement/wedding ceremonies illegal & punishable with jail sentences. Horrid stuff.