Ok. My understanding of the electoral fraud situation is this. 1. Democracy volunteers put out a statement at one minute past poll close. They said this was at a level they’d not seen before

What I do think, though, is own it: you’re the ones that made a huge political debate happen, so you should be able to fill in the gaps. Don’t light the match then walk away from the firework. These are real places and communities that are being wound up.

At @promarket.bsky.social, @samuel-bagg.bsky.social and Shai Agmon argue that competition policy should pay greater attention to friction between competitors, an insight that favors the neo-Brandeisian approach over the traditional consumer welfare approach.

Democracies today face a paradox: competition feels both too intense and too weak. Polarization is rising at the same moment oligarchs strengthen their hold over the entire political system. How can both be true? That's the question @alfredmoore.bsky.social and I ask in the intro to our volume.

The full text version of Rayner's comments on Mahmood's "earned settlement" proposals is very good indeed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What kind of "competition" should competition policy promote? In a new post, @shaiagmon.bsky.social and I argue that friction btw competitors is key to realizing the social benefits of competition. Yet we routinely ignore it when designing competitive institutions. www.promarket.org/2026/03/18/e...

Hey #poltheory and #polisky folks, check out this new book on Democracy and Competition from @britishacademy.bsky.social and @livunipress.bsky.social, which I edited with @alfredmoore.bsky.social - www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Democracy and Competition, ed with @samuel-bagg.bsky.social is out now! Many thanks to @BritishAcademy.bsky.social, @ycpt.bsky.social, @martinoneill.bsky.social and above all our great contributors: @simonechambers.bsky.social, @shaiagmon.bsky.social, @lisamherzog.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3rc8mbx3

Democracy and Competition, edited by Alfred Moore and Samuel Bagg, sets out to reframe the role of competition in democratic theory. @alfredmoore.bsky.social @samuel-bagg.bsky.social Now 20% Off: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

"would otherwise receive immediate access to welfare and social housing" is BS. Correct: "after 5 years working in a care home, would be eligible to apply for welfare and social housing on the same basis as the rest of us." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Deliberately misleading/disingenous.

Democracy and Competition, ed with @samuel-bagg.bsky.social is out now! Many thanks to @BritishAcademy.bsky.social, @ycpt.bsky.social, @martinoneill.bsky.social and above all our great contributors: @simonechambers.bsky.social, @shaiagmon.bsky.social, @lisamherzog.bsky.social tinyurl.com/3rc8mbx3

My earlier essay on this topic www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/724...

Looks like us ‘bloc politics’ people were on to something after all ;) benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...

It's out! Delighted to have a chapter in this, along with, inter alia @jowolff.bsky.social @alfredmoore.bsky.social @sarahafisher.bsky.social @mgerver.bsky.social @hlandemore.bsky.social @humeiraiqtidar.bsky.social @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social @mirandasimon.bsky.social global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Can We Criticize Experts and Keep Taking Their Advice? My part of a series for Zocalo Public Square. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/can-we-criti...

I feel much safer this morning, knowing that all those sign-wielding Quakers and nuns are behind bars where they belong.

There were plenty of measures that would’ve made it harder for Palestine Action to damage military infrastructure without criminalising statements of support for them. As it stands the Home Office seems to be the best recruiter/promoter for Palestine Action in the organisation’s history.

‘The country has reached boiling point’ latest

Hilarious and disturbing

Another 300 clicks here 🎁! on.ft.com/4ozyZmK Sunday at the garden party for Curtis Yarvin and the new, new right

I spent the day with Curtis Yarvin and the "dissident right" at a garden party in Surrey and wrote quite a few words about it. My cover story for today’s FT Magazine on.ft.com/4ooXS4t [GIFT LINK! 🎁]

"It is time to ensure that the legitimate concerns of ethnic minorities in Britain – about a concerted effort to dissolve foundational social norms against racism, and to deny our status as equal citizens – are heard too" www.easterneye.biz/british-ethn...

These are the top replies, being financially rewarded for posting this stuff, and the explanation offered by the site’s own AI for why it’s like that. Anyway just flicking through the Sunday newspapers reading about some minor content infractions that Ofcom might look into at the BBC/Channel 4.

Government doing no review at all of its use of twitter/x for public comms since 2023 (see last RT) is completely demented. Dismiss what we here think of the platform as partisan bias, but like, the fact is: major corps have stopped advertising there and haven't returned

I think @robertshrimsley.bsky.social is much too kind to Jeremy Hunt here. In time, Hunt will come to be reviled as second worst chancellor in modern times after Kwarteng. In 1997, faced with similar circumstances, Ken Clarke put the national interest first. Hunt salted the earth. Shame on him

Some quick thoughts on reports that the government plans to abolish Ofwat, the water company regulator. I think bringing together Ofwat (the economic regulator) and the environmental regulator (part of the Environment Agency) probably make sense... www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Just make ensure they have time, space and permission to play throughout their everyday lives. Oh, and enable them to walk and cycle for everyday journeys too.

Killer bloody point

Funny* isn't it how all of those mortally offended by "anti-semitism" at Ivy league unis don't seem as bothered by this stuff. *Not funny.

What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.

If the government wants to find the money (£7bn or so) to make up for its welfare U-turn, there's an easy answer - just don't implement the Immigration White Paper. ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration_...

The problem is no one making them seems to understand what made the good movies (1 & 3 only) work, possibly not even Spielberg & Lucas themselves. If it’s not deeply rooted in atheistic Indy’s personal struggle with evidence of a biblical God, it’s just some guy nicking stuff & getting into scrapes

The good stuff in the Bill about making bus franchising simpler would be significantly undermined if this floating bus stops amendment isn’t rejected. Incredible way to wreck the progress made in building segregated cycling infrastructure that actually works for encouraging non-cyclists to try it.

We need more buses and for them to get around easily. We also need good cycling provision. Sometimes, when other ways are not available, we need bus stop bypasses to keep cyclists out of traffic. They have some problems but mostly work fine. Design them well, use them sparingly, but don't ban.

So many genuine problems facing the UK - neither the government nor individuals have enough money, poor public services, threats from hostile foreign powers. That parts of the right obssess about "too many brown people in London" speaks volumes about their lack of solutions to the real problems.

The Tea Party protests in April 2009 had about a third of a million people involved, and the political media treated it like a game changer for the Obama presidency. The No Kings rallies were AT LEAST ten times bigger than the Tea Party protests. Will the press keep pretending Trump is popular?

Police departments have exponentially more control over how officers are recruited, trained, and overseen than a protest does over its participants, but are allowed by a sympathetic press to use the "bad apples" defense to separate deeds from goals and institutions in a way protestors often aren't.

Gov. Tim Walz says Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed last night in “a political assassination.”

If you choose to drive a high-bonnet SUV like a Land Rover or Range Rover then you are putting kids' lives at greater risk. There's not really any way around that. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Amazing how hard it is to write: “Police shoot at journalists.”

Not true. I see you're a luxury watch dealer. I'm also interested in watches. Let me show you how free and easy migration has allowed you to earn a living. 🧵

Today, the Government launches plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the companies involved says London presents a big challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” Except… it doesn't. 🧵

The disconnect between what voters think local govt is for (doing things they care about like roads and bin collections or things they enjoy like parks and leisure centres) and what local govt actually does (social care, invisible to most residents, poorly provided to those using) is not healthy

More generally, this is a moment where we need a _lot_ more social scientists writing clear explainers in the public space. There is enormous value in turning social science abstractions into practical frames for explaining the complexities of the world and what is changing to regular citizens.

this @adambonica.bsky.social piece deserves to be read beside the yeoman work that @donmoyn.bsky.social and @pamherd.bsky.social have been doing. The dismantling of administrative expertise is one of those stories that is so big that pro journalists with beats find it hard to focus on or explain .