Started a new writing project drawing on my experience as a Labour candidate in the 2026 local elections in SE London. In this post, I explore the remarkable Smile of Hope, a growing charity in Mottingham, and the inspiring stories of its cofounders: fieldnoteslabour.substack.com/p/local-stor...

Very much enjoyed talking to Josephine Burton last week about why political power conceived of purely as violence will...inevitably... fail. www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast-1/we...

This is our Rubicon www.politico.eu/article/dona...

“Westminster memoirs and biographies have tended to dominate publishing, reinforcing a narrow, elite view of political life. But political writing has always existed far beyond Parliament…” Sounds like a fascinating collection.

‘The real question is whether psychoanalysis can liberate us, not just from the violent divisions of our individual psyches, but from the violent divisions and resulting despair of our political moment.’ Amia Srinivasan’s Winter Lecture: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Essential reading

Labour’s 2025 budget focuses on planning reform. But better allocation of the current housing stock can do more to combat the housing shortage than new housebuilding, and more quickly. By leading economist Christine Whitehead.

📯 APS Conference 2026 Trust, Mistrust and Community www.psychosocial-studies-association.org/conference-2...

Concluding words from Jacqueline Rose and Lisa Baraitser at the Birkbeck psychosocial postgraduate conference. Jacqueline says “We need to hold on to psychoanalysis as an anti-fascist tradition of thought.”

For @dmk1793.bsky.social with respect www.opendemocracy.net/en/compulsor...

New piece in @prospectmagazine.co.uk with @davidfeldman.bsky.social and @brendanmcgeever.bsky.social (@bisa-bkk.bsky.social) on recent comments on antisemitism and racism. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/identi... (Thank you to @aloner.bsky.social for such great editing.)

Do this. It's an extraordinary book.

#NewAssociations 46 (2025) has been published. This is the 1st complete issue of the #psychoanalytic magazine Emmanuelle Smith & I have edited. We’ve framed this issue around the themes of conflict & trauma. Email [email protected] & [email protected] for a copy of our editorial

A bold response to the pervasive crisis of UK democracy. Against the flood tide of political disenchantment, should we be thinking about the “duty” rather than simply the “right” to vote?

Read our cover story today, from the great @willdunn.bsky.social. Reeves is painfully aware that reforming the tax system will require a major political battle. But she’s already being battered by endless squabbles as it is. This is the fight she needs to have. newstatesman.com/politics/econo…

For all that has been written about Starmer, no journalist has really been able to access the man within. This unmissable profile is the first to do so: www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Thank you for organising such a fantastic conference Jacob!

APS 2025 - We are ready! See you tomorrow @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social

“We’ve built an economy that profits from making us sick—and calls it progress.” @timjackson.org.uk joins the Cities 1.5 podcast ‪to unpack how growth-at-all-costs fuels illness, inequality—and war. Full episode via ⏯️ cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/... cc #TheCareEconomy #ÖkonomieDerFürsorge #PostGrowth

Brilliant from @mortenmorland.bsky.social on yesterday's UK-EU Summit. And why those shouting 'betrayal' are, thankfully, no longer the adults in the room.

“Behind this anti-establishment mood… lies the nastier promise of Faragism. It is not only that his voters are angry or disenfranchised… It’s that he offers a kind of political desublimation, a pleasurable release of all the prejudicial impulses kept under wraps”

As Jim puts it:

Congratulations to the editors of this exciting new collection, which interrogates psychosocial studies as a scholarly praxis of “creative disruption”. Including a playful piece of my own about Brexit, drawing on @profcand.bsky.social work on political culture: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

And to think, Hunt pushed through tax cuts the country obviously couldn’t afford in a reckless attempt to avoid precisely this scenario. Party before country and it’s ended up screwing both. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A reminder for the next @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social reading group - 6pm tonight! Please join us to discuss the allure of fascism in liberal societies, with Alasdair Cannon and @profcand.bsky.social

Good piece by @morganj0nes.bsky.social. Labour needs to stop trying to win the 2023 Uxbridge by-election. labourlist.org/2025/04/loca...

Brilliant piece. Loneliness, said Arendt, is the common ground of terror. Or as @harryshukman.bsky.social writes: “Wanting connection is a common reason people give for arriving at these groups, and also what makes it hard for them to leave, even if they’re not enjoying themselves.”

‘GDP growth in its modern neoliberal form has obviously come with severe disruption to community cohesion. It creates winners and losers – and the losers really, really mind.’ John Lanchester on what the government gets wrong about growth: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Please join us for our next reading group! Writer and podcaster Alasdair Cannon will be presenting a psychosocial perspective on fascism, based on his timely new book. Thursday 1 May, 6pm. @profcand.bsky.social @tjfielder.bsky.social @heidis-ann.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-allure...?

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...

Catching up on this brilliant @renewaljournal.bsky.social breakdown of rival political economies within Starmer’s Labour. A timely reminder from @dmk1793.bsky.social and @colmpm.bsky.social that tensions are likely to sharpen in the absence of growth. renewal.org.uk/2024/10/15/b...

The new issue of #NewAssociations #psychoanalytic magazine has been published by the British Psychoanalytic Council. It is the first issue published in my role as joint editor-in-chief with Emmanuelle Smith. Subscribe @ www.bpc.org.uk/about-us/new... Back issues @ www.bpc.org.uk/about-us/new...

New @will-davies.bsky.social @theoryculturesociety.org article advances a psychosocial theory of anxiety for the present conjuncture. A valuable contribution to the psychoanalysis of collective life in the aftermath of the GFC, supplementing the continuing relevance of narcissism and melancholia.

Aziz Rana on the US constitutional crisis: ‘Trump and his team are applying the sledgehammer of an unconstrained imperial president to the routine operation of domestic statecraft. This is global authoritarianism come home.' newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Those attempting to find the method in Trump’s madness increasingly sound like conspiracy theorists. Indispensable analysis from @adamtooze.bsky.social on the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ afflicting the commentariat - with characteristic psychoanalytic sensitivity open.substack.com/pub/adamtooz...

Really worthwhile & thought-provoking piece from Rowan Williams @theguardian.com - about the meaning (or non-meaning) of ‘growth’ on the fifth anniversary of lockdown @proftimjackson.bsky.social @cusp.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It was a great session - very timely and thought-provoking. thanks Fintan for your excellent presentation and Tom for organising

In London on 12 March? My friend Alasdair Cannon is hosting a launch event at @housmansbookshop.bsky.social for his new book, ‘Infinite Discontent’. All profit to charities! Reserve your place and join us to discuss the allure of #fascism in contemporary societies. www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

Hope and Despair: Crisis and Opportunity - APS 2025 www.psychosocial-studies-association.org/conference-2...

Do join us for the next @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social reading group on 19 Feb! Prof Fintan Walsh will be presenting his latest research on theatre, performance and post-pandemic grief @noreengiffney.bsky.social @profcand.bsky.social @jacobjohanssen.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/performing...

A masterly overview of declinism, the Right and @arisroussinos.bsky.social NB: in 2003 Tom Nairn wrote: “In the past an important delusion has obstructed our view... the concept of decline… I plead guilty (incidentally) to having helped popularise this quite dumb notion…”

Please join us for the next @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social reading group on 19 Feb! We are delighted to welcome Prof Fintan Walsh to discuss his new book about grief and (post)pandemic theatre www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/performing...

Reminder 👇