This is a great opportunity to join the Churchill College community for a term and carry out research on our wonderful C20th history collections. Apply now for 2026/27!

📝 Don't miss this article from the current issue of #BJPIR - Volume 27, Issue 4 (November 2025) 'Why do parties (not) support Universal Basic Income? The case of the UK Liberal Democrats' by @pjsloman.bsky.social 🔗 buff.ly/roRneC3 @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

I've published a new (short) article on 'John Maynard Keynes and Universal Basic Income', which might be of interest to those working on these debates: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Close watchers of political language and the links between British Labour and the ALP might note that Albanese was saying 'our policy stands' about a tax change last week, just days before his government revised it: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

On the Conservatives' £47bn of spending cuts, this feels like a very early stage in the Parliament to be setting out specifics, but I suppose the point is to allow Badenoch and Stride to oppose the tax rises coming in the November budget.

The Starmer/Burnham struggle within Labour has quite big implications for the Lib Dems. Starmer’s old Labour right positioning gives the LDs acres of political space but is hostile to cooperation; the two parties' social and geographical bases are quite distinct. 1/2

First trip to Southampton, and a well-deserved point. Still top!

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

At this stage, the closest parallel to the Starmer government is Tony Abbott in 2013-15: won a landslide on a 'change' platform, tightly bound by pledges, damaged by unpopular budget decisions and given little credit for promises delivered. Starmer and Reeves will hope to find a better way out.

David Marquand’s Intellectual & Political Legacy SI edited by @pjsloman.bsky.social Colin Crouch & Ben Jackson with @emilyrobinson.bsky.social Will Hutton @npjgarland.bsky.social @anthonybarnett.bsky.social Hilary Wainwright Andrew Gamble Jean Seaton & + politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...

I'm looking forward to taking part in the rebooted Liberal Summer School on 12 August - joining Stuart White, Frances Foley and Vicky Pryce to talk about economics and empowerment

Welsh Labour's decision to introduce closed-list PR for the Senedd looks more foolish with every week that passes. STV would have allowed Labour to benefit from incumbents' personal votes and attract anti-Reform preferences

The new Pensions Commission is an important move by the government - surely we need something similar on child poverty, once the ministerial taskforce has finished its work? www.ft.com/content/5208...

New article: bringing two of my research interests together, I've explored what the Liberal Democrats' short-lived support for UBI in the early 1990s and early 2020s tells us about the politics of 'big ideas'. Available open access at @bjpir.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

It's great to see this paper by Ewan Robertson out in Political Studies - a rigorous and deeply-researched analysis of the drivers of in-work benefit reforms

The 1906, 1964 and 1997 governments all took several years to work out a coherent social security policy; some might ask if Wilson ever got there. If the Starmer government is serious about reducing poverty, this is a natural point for a reset and a proper review of the social safety-net.

It's great to see our special collection on 'Governing from the Centre-Left in the 2020s' out in the latest issue of Political Quarterly, including articles on Portugal, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and the US: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467923x...

What would an anti-oligarchic, republican economy look like? UBI? Wealth tax? Workplace democracy? Strong trade unions? Investment democracy? I explore a radical republican economics in my new book, 'The Wealth of Freedom', which is now out online. academic.oup.com/book/60075

Governing from the Centre Left in the 2020s Collection featuring Portugal NZ US Australia & Germany @eunicegoes.bsky.social Grant Duncan @claire-ainsley.bsky.social @emilyrosefoley.bsky.social & Rob Manwaring Jörg Michael Dostal @pjsloman.bsky.social politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...

I'm thrilled to have been published in Past & Present. Diving into the fractious politics of rich-country macroeconomics after 1973, I use the neglected case of protectionist Keynesians to rethink what happened, and why. I highlight statecraft, geopolitics, and Maier's 'territoriality'. (1/2)

This seems like a good time to highlight Rob Manwaring and Emily Foley's recent @politicalquarterly.bsky.social piece on the Albanese government's first term, though the conclusion now feels unduly pessimistic. What should British Labour learn from the ALP? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This is a lovely piece by David Runciman, of @ppfideas.bsky.social. At a time when universities are running away from the lecture, the podcasting boom shows the appetite for serious, long-form and, yes, didactic content by people with specialist understanding. www.theideasletter.org/essay/podcas...

Essential reading for historians of modern Britain.

The most amazing thing here - even more than the Jim Laxer economics - is the way Carney is appropriating 'maîtres chez nous' as a Canadian nationalist slogan

It was a massive privilege to take part in a @politicalquarterly.bsky.social symposium on the life & work of David Marquand in January. My article for the forthcoming special issue has now been published. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Every time Rachel Reeves ratchets up her commitment to her fiscal rules, I'm reminded of Ryan Walter's piece on Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard's surplus pledge ('Economic management, rhetorical tactics and the cost of promises'). It's well worth a read: press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/pr...

A big reason it's hard to make the argument for higher taxes is an ever higher percentage of spending is going to small groups with high needs (social care, disability benefit, SEND, children's care, hospital longstayers...) rather than on visible infrastructure or general services.

The 2024 general election which brought Sir Keir Starmer’s government to power was a strange political earthquake. @pjsloman.bsky.social summarises our new collection. Featuring @kitkowol.bsky.social Caitlin Milazzo, Siim Trumm, @aduggan.bsky.social and more. Read now: buff.ly/4hSqsaq #ukpol

Please join us for this public lecture on 17 March. Who knows what British foreign policy will be dealing with by then...

The full @politicalquarterly.bsky.social special collection on the 2024 UK General Election is now available: a formidable group of historians, political scientists, and analysts. Very glad to have co-edited it with @pjsloman.bsky.social and Ben Jackson. politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...

I'm delighted that Felix Roemer is coming to Cambridge on Wednesday 12 February to talk about his book Inequality Knowledge - a landmark history of poverty and inequality statistics in modern Britain. 5.30pm, Sidney Sussex College, with a response by @pramospinto.bsky.social. All welcome!

New paper on the most disproportionate UK election: how Labour doubled its seat share with a 1.6 point increase in vote share in 2024! With @profjanegreen.bsky.social Out now in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social Link: doi.org/10.1111/1467... Short thread below🧵

"We announced that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU." A remarkable thing to admit. Not hard to see it becoming as politically disastrous as Liam Byrne's 'no money' note...

Brilliant essay by @npjgarland.bsky.social on Labour’s competing intellectual traditions and the case for “old-fashioned, even boring” social democracy. journals.lwbooks.co.uk/renewal/vol-...

My #openaccess paper on 1960s-1970s UK fiscal politics: Unintended institutionalization: how the politics of symbolic fiscal practices shapes economic policy academic.oup.com/ser/advance-...

It's gratifying to see the first few articles of @politicalquarterly.bsky.social's forthcoming special collection on the 2024 general election trickle out online - and in open access form! Available to read right now are... 🧵

I wrote about the Liberal Democrats' general election campaign for the Political Quarterly election special: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...