Neither the left or right are prepared to face Britain's grave energy crisis. I've written for @theguardian.com on how decades of complacency cannot be magicked away by drilling in the North Sea – or even by hoping that renewables will quickly power everything.

If the #Hormuz strait remains closed, European governments should avoid the huge fossil fuel subsidies they provided in 2022, argue @elisabettaco.bsky.social and @johnspringford.bsky.social in their new @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight. Read here: buff.ly/7gKy4VB

New substack: whereas well-functioning markets can make bad people do good things, political systems can make even good people do bad things. chrisdillow.substack.com/p/in-it-for-...

Two months ago, I was wondering how we would react to the first "earth rise"* image taken in more than half a century. We have just got the image back from Artemis II - but I fear Trump's threat of a "civilisation dying tonight" might distract us Civilisation indeed. *below is an "earth set"

For almost a century generations of scholars and thinkers have tried to understand why the Germans sleepwalked into disaster. Future generations will focus on a different case.

New post in the board games as pedagogical tools series at Active Learning in Political Science, with Jenny Morrison and @michaeltoomey.bsky.social This time we’re playing Daybreak, a game about climate change and international cooperation. activelearningps.com/2026/03/30/s...

This is a good question to address, actually. There's often an intuitive assumption that when a country runs out of money, its war effort will grind to a halt. That's how households and (sometimes) companies work. But those assumptions are really frequently frustrated - countries can push on.

this means it is not open for transit

Ok, let’s do this🙄 We’ll start with an explainer covering: 🕒What is a 15-minute city 🏫What on Earth is going on with Oxford 👽Where the conspiracy theories have come from And then we’ll look at the Telegraph article 🧵 1/25

There’s lots of criticism of this, but to a large extent this should be understood as electoral positioning on the left. A key left criticism of the Greens is that they aren’t sufficiently anti-NATO - this pushes back on that even if it erodes some of the soft left votes that the Greens also want.

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow

US attack on Venezuela is, among other things, a regrettable turn towards petro-imperialism. My take at @goodauth.bsky.social goodauthority.org/news/trump-m...

Curious about the tech billionaires' claims to sovereignty mean for the international order? Check out our @risjnl.bsky.social forum on this topic, organized by the brilliant @maharafiatal.bsky.social!

Good, clear article that allows me to propose once again one of my fave mantras: If you think mitigation politics is hard, you haven’t thought enough about the toxicity of adaptation politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Going through some history of climate politics notes from last week, I realize we dont appreciate enough the climate mobilization of mid2010s and subsequent electoral green wave of late 2010s. That moment was never really meant to be in the cards and we need to better study how we got there 🪡 1/n

The Nation pulls NO punches, from @espiers.bsky.social "There's no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign. Refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins “Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.”

what a humiliating way for don jr. to find out his dad sends birthday cards.

how it feels to contribute to an edited volume

Very happy to see this published online. A thought provoking and beautifully crafted article that suggests we centre ‘being’ rather than active ‘doing’ in classroom. Well worth a read, this will be part of a forthcoming symposium on active learning in the Politics journal.

These are really insane numbers. Even if we only look at formal political offices, billionaires are more than 10,000x more likely to hold a national political position than the average person.

2024 Best Learning and Teaching Article published in Politics @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @sagepub.com @uofglasgow.bsky.social: we are happy to announce that the winner is Dr Donna Smith @drdonnasmith.bsky.social for her work on student communities. Details at: journals.sagepub.com/page/pol/col...

NEW CHART: Trump's "big beautiful bill" & other efforts to dismantle climate policy means the US will add an extra 7bn tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere from now until 2030, compared to meeting its former climate pledge under the Paris Agreement 🫠 www.carbonbrief.org/...

A straw man argument that entirely misses the point. It is the failure to tax wealth properly and redistribute the proceeds of innovation that is leading to resentment about capitalism.

Blogged: why liberal centrists should mourn the decline of the left, because it led to illiberalism & irrationality: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

i think the biggest public relations coup AI boosters scored was calling it “AI.” people genuinely think it is an intelligence, and that when they query it, it is providing reasoned answers

You have to admire Morgan McSweeney's commitment to voter efficiency. Who else could lose so many votes so efficiently less than a year after a General Election?

It's a problem of seeing everything through the eyes of voters - who don't know/care about institutions or voting systems so it's dismissed as unimportant. But it deeply affects your ability to do the things voters do care about.

Bimini Bon Boulash absolutely fucking nails it in this piece. If you don't have the spoons, or simply don't know what to say to your MP, just send them this: metro.co.uk/2025/04/19/a...

Really excited that our @politicsjournal.bsky.social article on the Joy of the Teaching Track ✨ is out! Co-authored with the brilliant @ellenfelicity.bsky.social, Keith Smith, Kalina Zhekova, @rosegann.bsky.social @mlebourdon.bsky.social – we advocate for enjoying our jobs! Polisky SoTLsky

Just published. Paper with @rosegann.bsky.social Victoria Honeyman & Alasdair Blair explores the shape and scope of politics and IR as taught disciplines and how we engaged with this in the @qaa.ac.uk Subject benchmark review. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Parliament has been recalled to vote on measures that may lead to the nationalisation of Britain’s last basic steelworks at Scunthorpe. I’ve written for the FT on the history of nationalisation’s achievements, the selling off of essential industries and why public ownership should be on the table.

For quite some time now, Georgios Karyotis, Ian Paterson and I have been working on an article on how to identify, understand and analyse securitisation success and failure. After a long gestation it has finally been published in International Studies Review. academic.oup.com/isr/article/...

NEW from me in the FT today... The UK's university 'system' is now in freefall. How on Earth did the disaster unfold? Read all about it: www.ft.com/content/0ec7...

Thrilled to see my new article in @pspolisci.bsky.social, published open access on first view today: ‘Student Choice in Assessment: Is There a Subject-Specific Case for Using Assessment Optionality in Political Science Education?’ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

i'm an experienced, award-winning teacher and can teach courses and/or supervise (ma and ba theses) on, among other things: popular culture and world politics, visual politics, human rights, politics of international law, and (critical) IR theory

“It’s a moonshot.” Vienna has a $21 billion plan to end its dependence on imported fossil gas with heat pumps, boreholes and energy efficiency. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

It's been a long time since Private Eye's satire has made me audibly wince, but this is so to the point if it were a knife people would demand it be banned.

“Worn down by harassment and threats, many of Trump’s critics will be tempted to retreat to the sidelines. Such a retreat would be perilous. When fear, exhaustion, or resignation crowds out citizens’ commitment to democracy, emergent authoritarianism begins to take root.”

Enjoying listening to the cut of the episode one of The Energy That Made Modern Scotland which I recorded with @dominicmhinde.bsky.social. We’ll be launching our new podcast series on 20 February. Come along to hear more about how oil and renewables transformed Scotland and why it’s not gone right.

So, after Nick Timothy on "How to win an election" and David Frost on "How to do a great trade deal", the Telegraph adds another to its list of star columnists...

A new British Academy report on Politics and International Relations provision in UK higher education has found that it remains a popular subject, with graduates out-earning national averages. Read the report in full: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/new-rep...

Need some optimism in the new year? Here’s why I’m an energy transition optimist. youtu.be/d2oiBcfUUIo?...

This year, 2025, marks a major milestone in British industrial, energy and environmental history. Fifty years ago, oil began flowing from platforms in the North Sea. Half a century of petroleum production have had profound consequences for our economy, society and politics.

This deep dive on Netflix purposely turning movies into barely distinguishable forgettable slop is so insightful, researched & brutally hilarious. A must read if you want to really know what’s happening to the business AND culture of movies.

Tell me you never interact with real people, without telling me you never interact with real people.

When checking the COP outcome news today think of every climate political scientist who gave incredibly low odds of success to the Baku meeting from day 1. Too many structural factors against progress this year. Absolutely be disappointed, but don’t be shocked.