What would a critic of Oxford PPE write as parody of a rushed tutorial essay?

Unscramble these eggs

Great. Let’s keep power as centralised as possible. That’ll work well if Farage become PM.

Labour has been the largest party in Wales since 1922 (the longest success streak in any democracy). That looks set to change in the next election, unless something incredibly dramatic happens. This change is seismic on its own, but Labour should take heed for what it means for Westminster too.

No wonder Farage quit worrying and learned to love FPTP

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧵

To put the 14% in perspective it would not just be Labour's worst performance in Wales since it supplanted the Liberals in 1922, but its lowest vote share at any national election in Wales since 1906 (when it only contested a handful of seats due to the Gladstone-MacDonald pact) #senedd #devolution

Oof. Welsh Labour hopes for benefits flowing from partnership with a Labour government have, it seems, been dashed. Is anyone in the UK party thinking about the medium term consequences of Labour losing Wales?

What Happened to Labour's 2024 Voters? Using the recent wave of the @britishelectionstudy.com I look at people who voted Labour in 2024: - How many are still with the party? - How many have left? - Why might that be? TLDR: they've left because of economic issues/concerns, probably.

‘I was there. I kept the receipts. I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was, how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and “baby groupies”’ Powerful piece from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Its correct to call Robinson’s rally larger than any far right rally in history. 3/4 of people on it would say it was not far right, and would deny racism About 1/4 on it may be happy to own racism The ostensibly moderate/peaceful frame is one reason it can go wider than Mosley or Britain First

I’ve looked into this now. I can’t find an example of a far right march or rally attracting much more than 10,000. A far right march on this scale is completely new for the UK.

A moving tribute.

Siaradodd @nyedavies.bsky.social â Nick Servini ar BBC Radio Wales y bore 'ma i drafod cystadleuaeth Dirprwy Arweinydd y Blaid Llafur: Dr Nye Davies on Radio Wales this morning, discussing the competition for the role of UK Labour's Deputy Leader and its connection with a famous Welsh MP:

I’m old enough to remember when Farage railed against the inequity of FPTP www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Apocalypse Now as an aspiration for the US? If this stuff wasn’t so far beyond the possibility of parody, I’d think some folk in his administration were trying to undermine Trump.

Fascinating stuff. Cardiff is in the analysis, but not discussed directly in the text. The report shows its a place for which higher education is critical to the city’s economy. Makes the Welsh Govt’s largely hands off approach to retrenchment and downsizing at Cardiff Uni all the more baffling. 1/3

For years, Nigel Farage has thrived on grievance politics. But why do his “solutions” never solve the problems – and why do voters keep feeling aggrieved? A view by Prof Ailsa Henderson and Prof Richard Wyn-Jones. From #TheConversation -- thanks!

Crucial stuff from @robertsaunders.bsky.social The tendency of judges to cite Dicey as an unchanging point of reference (esp in Brexit cases) contributes significantly to this misunderstanding.

This. I think it's vital to appreciate that the Parliament which originally claimed sovereignty is not the same institution anymore. And that there is no conceivable way of going back to that institution without making governance dreadfully inefficient in the 21st c. So reform must lie elsewhere.

Crucial stuff from @robertsaunders.bsky.social The tendency of judges to cite Dicey as an unchanging point of reference (esp in Brexit cases) contributes significantly to this misunderstanding.

The Union Survey: tracking English political attitudes for 15 years (long hard work excavating these issues from sedimented assumptions about ‘British’ politics). Here’s hoping folk pay attention now English grievance is ubiquitous on the surface of the political news. @theunionsurvey.bsky.social

👇👇👇 Essential reading on common frameworks and what the UKG is doing after its review of UKIMA. Starmer’s Labour still seems to assume that the abrasive stance of recent Tory govts is definitively in the past, not thinking about how to minimise the risk of it recurring. 👇👇👇

👇👇👇There’s a Senedd election next year, which looks set to be historic for Wales and could be momentous for future politics across Britain too. Assumptions developed in a Westminster context are often very misleading for Wales. Follow @jaclarner.bsky.social for key Welsh electoral politics insights.

@robdjones.bsky.social and I are guest editing a special issue of @howardjournalcj.bsky.social which explores the rights of prisoners in the UK and elsewhere. It follows an @slsauk.bsky.social seminar held in Liverpool in 2023, and features a brilliant set of legal academics and criminologists.

UK Government response to the UKIMA review here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686fa1...

Puzzling questions for the Labour Party (Wales and UK): Why is Labour polling 3rd behind Plaid and Reform on Senedd vote intentions? What are the implications of Labour losing ground in the Senedd election in places that have historically sent a swathe of MPs to Westminster?

I find it fascinating how much of modern policy thought essentially resolves as 'a command economy, but in a free market way', and I genuinely think it is because of the influence of video games.

@jcrangle.bsky.social historical piece on the background to recent violence in Ballymena is well worth a read. Growing up in Edinburgh, I recall many folk in the 1980s claiming that fascists had never had a presence in the city. And then watching the NF marching across the Meadows.

The UK looks ungovernable (on these numbers under FPTP)

My own experience of war-torn London is a sense of embarrassment that life is so much better here than in the rest of the country, and guilt that most British people don't get the chance to enjoy it the way I do.

👀👀👀👀👀 Not sure I can deal with the irony thepienews.com/wales-eyes-e...

It’s not just odd instances. ‘The conventional wisdom’ (popularised by Galbraith in the late 50s) can structure whole academic research fields. In social science it is IMO entwined with widespread taken for granted ‘periodisations’ of the past, especially when how/why they start/end is ignored.

This statement amounts to great advice from @stephenkb.bsky.social University students would do well to take note.

🚨 NEWYDD: Dadansoddiad llawn o beth fydd Adolygiad Gwariant ddoe yn ei olygu i Gymru. 💷 🚨 NEW: Full analysis of what yesterday's Spending Review will mean for Wales. 💷 blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...

👇Worth a read. The territorial pattern of public spending (and of raising taxes) is chaotically nonsensical. A bizarre mix of where the Treasury-perceives economic benefits and territorial redistribution. The UK gov treatment of rail spending in Wales is cross-crossed by nonsense of this kind.

‘the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem’: a new catchphrase for the Republican right

Though ‘aren’t the Scots great’ theme (if onlyas 1) trade promoters&2) part of the Union) in Johnson’s 2020 Greenwich speech is rendered so as to appeal only to those Scots who already believe this stuff (Gove?) and English Brexiters gazing at 2020 Scotland in disbelief. www.gov.uk/government/s...

In the wake of GE 2024 Farage called for electoral reform. When did he last repeat this call? Has anyone asked him about it recently?

Are the EU free movement rules wildly out of step with the new realities of work? My new book, the MARKET CITIZENSHIP ILLUSION answers this by looking at the law in action – and it is available now to *everyone for free*! www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do... 🧵on key arguments... (1/10)

Join @danielwincott.bsky.social and Dr Giada Lagana of the Wales Governance Centre for 'Political Change Across Britain and Ireland: Identities, Institutions and Futures', 15/05/25 at 16:00 Hosted by the Irish Consul General in Wales and IACES, this special event features political experts in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿& 🇮🇪:

I forgot that any claim I make about what the newsletter will be in is inevitably superseded by events…

Thread 👇. Relevant for ppl interested in Wales. And for people who might otherwise assume they can understand Wales through English lenses.

These ‘let’s attract the hot-shot researchers’ calls ring very hollow to me. Climate science is a team sport. It takes a whole set of skills. We need to be thinking about how to keep critical -teams- integrated. Nabbing hero-model scientist types is not going to retain institutional expertise.

Wrote this in 2021 (a couple of months before partygate broke). Switching your thinking to Labour vs Reform is just as problematic as it being Labour vs Conservative. The electorate are not two big camps, they are a jumble of different sized ones. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

“Surely, we’ve now got to the stage where the University Council – the supreme decision-making body of Cardiff University – has to look at the competence of our senior management team and ask if they can be trusted to lead us out of this crisis.” nation.cymru/news/univers...

I know we're all focused on the US psychodrama right now, but... what should we be doing in the UK, as our spluttering economy lurches into yet another crisis? I've written a new personal post on what the UK needs to do now... acjsissons.medium.com/what-now-for...

@ailsahenderson.bsky.social considers the implications of our most recent report in a blog post for the @ccc-research.bsky.social. www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/news-and-opi...