Right, I'm adding this New Labour book to the pile and calling it a day. It's bittersweet in a way. Twenty years of writing about British policy and planning while it's got worse and worse. But it's still important to say what you think and keep saying it. Meanwhile, salut! 🍾🥂

In case you missed it earlier, my NEW BOOK on the Blair years has arrived! It seems crass to promote it given everything that's happening, but I think it's a fair and balanced take. Here's a non-Amazon link where you can pick up a copy: www.waterstones.com/book/new-lab...

Having had a sneak preview of this at Glen's talk for the London New Liberals, I'm definitely going to be buying this as soon as I get back to 🇬🇧. New Labour's domestic policy is ripe for re-examination as the question of what a centre-left government looks like in the modern day is asked again.

Look what's arrived! It seems crass to be talking about it after everything that's happened this week, but I think my new book on the Blair years is fair, balanced and judicious. Available at all good bookshops: www.amazon.co.uk/New-Labour-B...

What one must euphemistically refer to as 'news' continues to flow in from around Higher Education, and it's very tough indeed out there. Solidarity if you're in the mire, almost everyone is.

I am crushed into the vestibule of a full and standing train. After 8.15pm. What a joke the whole thing is. A country without a transport system simply cannot grow as it might.

I was thinking 'hmmm, probably won't make it to my connection', but that's okay... because it's **running late**! You hear me? Late! Like every other bus, coach and train ever! 🇬🇧

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt's Liberal government will no longer use X for "routine" government communications:

Tried the coach earlier. Got stuck on a queuing motorway in the pouring rain. Now I just want to go home. But it's the dreaded **rail replacement bus** and will take aaaaages. Every single day, every single journey. 😭

Now tell me again how much it's okay that English Lit has collapsed at A-Level and in our universities.

Meanwhile... HS2. 😭

The visceral hatred I've heard directed towards Angela Rayner, why would she even want to be PM? Maybe this goes to the whole weirdness of politics. She could get a decent job, low hassle, go to the South of France or Majorca a lot, chill. Most of them could. I suppose it's a wish to do good, but 🤷‍♂️

How can the other parties not beat this? I mean, seriously? These people should be shouted down in roars of laughter the minute they say this. Just toxic. www.bigissue.com/news/politic...

Dead ahead: years of snobbery, misogyny and hatred about a northern single mum from a council house. So that's not worth looking forward to either.

He's laughing at everyone, and getting richer and richer doing it. No-one can touch him. The worse thing? Many voters who hate this sort of thing will plump for Reform out of desperation.

Most MPs are honest, hard-working and clean as anything. Dragging Parliament through the dirt hurts everyone, especially the weakest in our society. Next time you wonder why governing has got harder, this type of a debacle is one reason.

After everything - Horizon, expenses, Falkirk, Johnson's flat, Covid parties, contaminated blood, 'cash for ash', Cummings, Greensill, Pincher, Murrell, betting-gate, Nathan Gill - well, how did you think voters would feel? I love thinking and writing about politics, but there is a limit.

An awful but deeply revealing story about the structural power of wealthy patriarchal networks is in danger of becoming a story about some... powerful men. Ever noticed how quickly relegated and decentred women and girls in these stories are?

Just got back on the trains. Guess what? It's already late and it's not going anywhere for now. We're not moving cos there's a 'power outage'. Arrrrgggghhhh.

The Labour Party has one mission: to stop the calamity of Reform UK, which in normal times would never get near power, entering govt. We've seen how that goes in the US, and the working class voters Labour seeks to represent would be hurt the most. If they can't even manage that they're a disgrace.

Although there will of course be commentary on the political fallout of the Epstein files, as that will likely be consequential, the number one focus and priority must be absolutely clear: the industrial scale abuse of women and girls by powerful, rich men.

The procession towards authoritarianism in the United States continues apace. Faster even than expected. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

📚New Episode📚 A forty-year slow-motion disaster in higher education is reaching its climax – and Labour is left holding the bag. @gsoh31.bsky.social joins @rostaylor.bsky.social & @hannahfearn.bsky.social to ask if the problems can be solved ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnowpod

The latest Oh God, What Now? is really good on how government policies are threatening UK universities. @gsoh31.bsky.social is excellent here Episode webpage: twitter.com/OhGodWhatNow... Media file: pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffi...

Blair had a strategy: can Labour find one now? Author @gsoh31.bsky.social for @labourlist.bsky.social: labourlist.org/2026/01/blai... His new book, New Labour, New Britain? is out next month. #Labour #Starmer #booksky

Great listen this. Even if it gets four listeners, I want that teased REF deep dive too.

I'll be launching my book on the Blair governments in London on Monday 9 March! Between 6.30pm and 8pm. We'll be at the Gilded Acorn bookshop between LSE and the Hunterian... Come along! Booking details below: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-labour...

In case you missed it earlier, I've been talking to the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast about my new book on the Blair governments and the crisis in Higher Education... Take a listen! megaphone.link/NSR1340804685

In case you missed it earlier, I've been talking to the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast about my new book on the Blair governments and the crisis in Higher Education... Take a listen! www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

I've been talking to the Swedish press about the crisis in UK Higher Education. Read all about it here! www.tidningencurie.se/nyheter/skar...

I've been busy this week... third and last, I've been talking on the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast. A bit about my book, a lot about the disaster now unfolding in Britain's universities. It's an hour, but it's fun: www.podmasters.co.uk/oh-god-what-...

I've been busy this week... Secondly, I wrote for the @bigissue.com about New Labour's housing policies. They cut homelessness, rough sleeping and housing need, but did they leave a big hole where more building should have been? My views: www.bigissue.com/opinion/new-...

I've been busy this week... First up, I wrote about Tony Blair's governments for @labourlist.bsky.social. Like them, loathe them, indifferent to them, he had a strategy. Does Labour have a roadmap now? labourlist.org/2026/01/blai...

Me, on astronomy funding crisis, on the @ox.ac.uk website: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-02... 🔭🧪

Popcorn at the ready: the UKGov Science, Innovation & Technology Committee is about to quiz Sir Ian Chapman about UKRI’s new strategic objectives. Will they ask him about the devastating cuts planned for UK astronomy? Let's hope so. 🔭🧪 📺 Watch live from 9:30am: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

This week I've been on the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast talking a bit about my new book, and a lot about the great university disaster that is now unfolding. Take a listen! 👇 megaphone.link/NSR1340804685

Authoritarianism continues to proceed exactly on pace and on track in the US, just as Kamala said it would and as everyone - red and blue alike - knew it would. edition.cnn.com/2026/02/02/p...

Glen has nailed what is happening to UK universities (again). All the grand strategists pontificating about the UK's future in a post-rules based international order need to realise that one of the critical sectors they tout as "world leading" is on the verge of collapse.

Beyond a tiny hardcore of rich universities, if you are an employee in UK Higher Ed you will be somewhere on the treadmill/ slippery slope below. You'll recognise exactly which step you are on at this moment. Take a look. 👇

In the UK academic recession, you will be at one of these stages since many unis buy the same cuts model from the same consultancies. It is always the same process: *Talk of belt-tightening *Incidental savings (e.g. printing, refreshments) *Travel budgets cut *Promotion freeze (1/4)

Authoritarianism continues to proceed on track in the United States. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

You too can read up on the New Labour era - the books seem to be arriving right now! www.amazon.co.uk/New-Labour-B...

New Labour, new Britain? What did Tony Blair really do for housing? New Labour made inroads into the housing shortage, but ultimately fell short of fixing it. Here's what we can learn, on @bigissue.com: www.bigissue.com/opinion/new-... @gsoh31.bsky.social's new book publishes next month. #booksky

Pleased and proud to have written for the @bigissue.com today, talking about New Labour and housing. You can read all about it here: www.bigissue.com/opinion/new-...

Hey, my train was late and none of the barriers are working at my terminus! So the staff are checking every ticket of a massive queue before letting us through one by one! Just another day on the railways!

What we're seeing with different elements of civic society creeping around with Farage is very much what I call the 'shadow election' - the way in which elites try to anticipate an election and change of power, which in some ways they see as a rubber stamp on their own choices. (1/2)

My own view on student loans - for what it's worth - is that they would be sustainable and supportable if they underpinned a thriving Higher Education system. As it is, the way they're set up is a key part of The Nothing that will eat almost the entire sector. So they can't be defended in this form.

It's as I always say: you can't tell people. The age of broadcast is over. They have to walk on the coals themselves. There's no point heckling people as they do so.

Before anyone gets too angry about this, several things. (1) Universities in the UK, unlike the US, are pretty much under the financial and admin control of central govt. If RefUK moves to wipe them out, as they will, then some will choose life. (1/3) www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

Remember that (1) universities will do absolutely anything to survive; and that (2) they'll make sure other unis close before they'll fail themselves. They will certainly **not** be beacons of resistance - indeed quite the opposite. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...