A month ago I looked at what I called Labour's midlife crisis- an obsession with chasing socially conservative Reform-curious voters and ignoring groups of disaffected voters with social attitudes much closer to Labour voters. But some people thought there was method in their madness. Was there? 1/n

Kind of wild that while food assistance was withheld from millions of families, one Trump-supporting billionaire (Ellison) saw his net worth grow more this year than the entire SNAP budget. And the YTD gains of the other four richest men would’ve fully covered salaries for all 2M federal employees.

Let's just say--I doubt the Senator had to lean very hard.

This is really something. Trump/GOP efforts to rig midterms running into serious trouble

"But the true message—the prospective message—is that pardons will be available to everyone who joins him in election subversion in 2026 and 2028. This wave of preemptive pardons is a permission slip, an encouragement for election subversion in the future." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

On this Veterans Day, more than any before, let us remember the valiant service of Black, Hispanic, Navajo, Japanese and other non-white Americans who fought bravely for the ideals of a country that failed to live up to them, and whose legacy a racist GOP is desperately trying to erase.

NEWS: The UK is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/11/p...

“Israeli soldiers have described a free-for-all in Gaza and a breakdown in norms and legal constraints, with civilians killed at the whim of individual officers.” The stories will get worse over time as censorship erodes. But we knew and didn’t stop it. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Thread: part of an ongoing project to erase people of color from military history:

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

I am grateful for the strong commitment to lawful free speech here, but in the spirit of free speech and open disagreement, I don’t think that the position of institutional neutrality outlined by President Kramer in this interview is the right one: blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducat... (1)

We have just published the call for the Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics. These are 3-year fully-funded postdocs that will allow you to focus on your research in a great academic environment. (And with excellent food) www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...

🚨🚨🚨 The jury has reached a verdict. Sean Dunn, aka the DC Sandwich Guy, has been found NOT GUILTY of assault.

(This was obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes $50bn ago. Autocracies - no matter how much oil they can drill, how many foreign advisors they can hire, and how slick their PR - remain highly inefficient at allocating resources in the long run.)

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

Most ppl - in Europe but also watch America last night - absolutely want lower life costs and feel urgency for the affordability crisis, but dont want to compromise a future of technological (competitive!) progress. It is not easy but elites gotta find creative and inspiring ways to do both things.

There’s a number of commentators who’ve criticised the UK’s free speech laws in recent times, with I think some justification. But it’s worth noting that the First Amendment doesn’t defend itself and speech in the US is being criminalised as well.

I truly think this is an underappreciated point that much of the "rising far right" polisci literature has missed. We have n->inf findings that bad stuff leads to far right voting. But why _doesn't_ bad stuff lead to far left (or center left) voting? One big answer: A failure of political supply.

We are hiring an Associate Professor in Politics, Technology and Computational Social Science. The post will be part of our new Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM) and is a joint hire with the Oxford Internet Institute. All details in the job ad below. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

This from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social is a clear and horrifying explanation of the atrocities underway in El Fasher. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I hope it is now obvious why pillars of democracy like universities, the law, public broadcasting should be funded so that they are beyond the reach of financial coercion by hostile agents.

This is a remarkable case of Chinese authorities threatening a UK university into halting research on human rights violations, and the university acquiescing.

A checklist: "The Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Awful: Pentagon officials told lawmakers Trump now claims authority to bomb people merely “affiliated” with “narco-terrorist" groups, Rep Adam Smith tells me. But under questioning, they wouldn't say what “affiliated” even means! Lots of fresh info in my new piece: newrepublic.com/article/2025...

Help shape Oxford’s new MSc in Global Challenges! We’re seeking input from those interested in politics, climate change, or global inequalities. Share your views in a 5-minute survey to help design impactful learning opportunities: forms.office.com/Pag...

@tomfletcherun.bsky.social:""But what is different today, we are seeing a different global reaction. One of resignation... So this is also a crisis of apathy." Apathy to similar crimes elsewhere contributed to this situation. It's why tolerating these crimes is dangerous beyond any one conflict.

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

People ask a lot about whether protests matter. While Trump’s approval rating is driven by many factors, events like the No Kings rallies likely play a role, too. Media coverage and people seeing their neighbors take a stand help convey that disapproval is not just acceptable but widespread.

Massive corruption in plain sight.

If people in government want my longer thoughts on why arbitrarily extending the time to ILR for people who are already here is bad (let alone the mass deportation policies of their rivals), and a sense of what I think a sustainable policy might be, then see: benansell.substack.com/p/select-and...

Agree with this obviously. But don't forget *the government* has also proposed vindictive, unpopular and economically damaging restrictions on ILR which could affect 100,000s of people here now, legally, mostly working. This is now the more immediate issue..

1. Last week, there were 3 Trump corruption scandals in 4 days that would define any other presidency. Most people are probably not even AWARE of all three scandals. 🧵

In a nearly illiterate editorial, WaPo defends Trump's ballroom project, without revealing the fact that the paper's owner, Jeff Bezos, is a principal funder of the project. Shameful conduct all around. bsky.app/profile/bgru...

Really important work by @adambonica.bsky.social. The parallels between the US and Europe are striking. On the one side, tons of evidence that centrism (or anti-immigration) is not a vote-winner for the left. On the other, a center-left establishment that just does not want to believe it. 1/

Why did Indiana University attack and cut its own student newspaper? Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.

A very offline cousin sent this to fam group chat. This story is breaking containment.

One tactic these data guys use online is to dismiss academic work they don’t like by calling it “overly complex” or “disconnected from reality.” I call this anti-rigor propaganda. It’s a move to sour people on serious scholarship when you don’t have better evidence. Adam addresses it in the piece.

These dynamics are definitely in play. BUT this wannabe dictator is also extremely unpopular and those of us with the courage to stand up have the American people on our side. It'll take courage and focus, but democracy can win.

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

Grad students in political science and other social sciences! Consider applying to the great 2-week summer program in Qualitative and Multi-Method Research at Syracuse. Info is here: www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/cen...

Stephen Bush on the extraordinary draft legislation which Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Matt Vickers, Katie Lam and backbench colleagues have proposed in parliament It is a proposal that would seek to deport around 5% of the resident population, including over a quarter of a million with ILR

Another disturbing example of how Trump silences dissent: "the chief content officer for our parent company... stated in a meeting that we should not run articles that could draw the attention of the Trump White House and have them try to shut us down." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Pay attention -- what he means is allowing Democrats to win a free and fair election.

To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?

The costs of the UK’s Global Talent Visa looks a trifle high in comparison to competitor countries - largely through the Immigration Health Surcharge (which critics say is a form of double taxation as they contribute to the NHS through normal tax on their earnings)

Astonishing when you see it like this.

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, and to support emerging scholars, I'd like to buy and mail copies to ten graduate students. If you’re a grad student who’d like a copy, reply or DM me! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

2. Our new analysis suggests that protest events in 2025 have occurred across a wider range of US counties than we observed during Trump's first term. And the current protest movement has already reached deeper into Trump country than at almost any point during the first Trump administration.