Hello. Former Index On Censorship staffer here. To be very clear, having your request to speak at a society of which you are not a member does not count, in any sense whatsoever, as censorship. nation.cymru/news/uproar-...

Anas Sarwar's failed coup has stabilised Keir Starmer's position, but for his leadership to actualy recover, here are the first things he'll need to do:

A claim flawed in both grammar and history

And the button actually read ‘overloaded’

What a surprise

Private Eye

Britain’s inequitable student loan system ft.trib.al/ybwY34T | opinion

For some, Brexit remains stuck in its Trotskyist phase.

A weak response from Goodwin

Philip Augar is right about the need for a ‘proper debate’ on HE funding; but while recognising the very difficult graduate job market, he also calls for courses with below sector results to be cut. There is obviously a relationship.

It is quite striking that Konstantin Kisin simply denied (falsely) on BBC1 that he had said what he said, word for word, on his podcast.

Why did the Russian Army collapse in 1917? 🪆 Full article: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... In our latest issue, Konstantin Tarasov argues that the 1917 Russian soldier’s "rampage" was a quest for dignity, not just war fatigue. cc: @ktarasov.bsky.social

On almost everything – fraud, polarisation, radicalisation, misinformation – evidence suggests that over 60s are in much more urgent need of online protection and education than teenagers. But that issue gets zero political attention, and is a total non-starter. Nothing good will come of it.

A confusing one from Allister this week, not least because nothing says national pride like a weekly insistence that your country is finished

Recent top political insights from candidate Goodwin

It's like watching a doctor remove all the infected organs and wondering if they'll be enough left to allow the uninfected patient to live.

Doing some research in the National Library of Finland this week, which is an amazing building

New post out: "Who runs Britain?" Politicians complain they are unable to do anything because of the machinery of state. Yet they have more power than ever. What explains this "paradox of executive power" and how can it be fixed? (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...

Very bleak on the graduate job market: ‘In a poll by the Institute of Student Employers, hiring was reduced by 8 per cent in the last academic year and there were 140 applications for each vacancy among those surveyed for a second consecutive year, up from 86 per vacancy in 2022-23.’

Feel the energy!

'Several universities’ undergraduate student intakes fell by between 20 and 30 per cent for this academic year, as many elite institutions reported record numbers.' Sector as a whole accepted 2% more students. Russell Group up 9% (29% of all UK enrolments). 1/3

All fine - every Chancellor says this. But won't move the dial when PM/HomeSec tell migrant workers and foreign students their presence is a "squalid chapter" & are changing rules so as to kick them out. HMT understands damage of current trajectory but needs to act, and soon.

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss tweets that Robert Jenrick is a "trojan horse" who is "getting his orders" from some unidentified shadowy force of global conspirators

I think this is exactly right. www.ft.com/content/2642... Europe must not appease Trump on Greenland

Hard agree. I'm increasingly just zero sympathy for the cowardly chauvinists who can't handle places where lots of different people get along together.

We have an ageing population, struggling public services, and climate change. People might want low taxes, no migrants and cheaper energy, but they also don't want to lie in a hospital corridor for hours or have their house flooded. You can win elections with magic thinking but can't govern with it.

@stephenkb.bsky.social v good on Jenrick defection, opportunity it presents to Tories, unlikelihood of them seizing it giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Reform’s hollow revolution: a wave of Tory defections reflects a Thatcherite tribute act rather than a true insurgency. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

It is really important to understand that the asylum hotel chaos of 2022-24 is a *failed experiment in closed borders* (in contrast to the liberal visa policy) The hotel chaos comes from passing multiple laws that all claims will be refused & to stop processing claims bsky.app/profile/pete...

Good on OfS concerns about grade inflation.

Between The Waves by Tom McTague is very good, and a lot more insightful than others, e.g. Tim Shipman’s gossip Brexit books

Good stuff

ah

Tyranny! They’ve lost it

Suddenly recall this

A good review from Owen Hatherley of Mark Smith forthcoming book Exit Stalin: The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991

Finished The Chair Company, which is excellent, and now thinking about corporate songs. The Frankfurt airport official song still holds up.

You don’t teach Stalin to win peace

Leaving my 6 year old to design her own thank you cards was always a risk, but didn’t anticipate this.

Spiked using Iranian protestors as a prop in defence of a billionaire’s corrosive app.

The remarkable thing here isn't the universal revulsion. Its that two large parties - Reform and the Conservatives - are trying to maintain stances favoured by around 0-1% of the public. Polling like this also suggests that whenever Labour does develop enough backbone to act, there's no going back

The Chair Company is excellent TV

I wonder what Londoners know that the rest of the country don’t?

Latest from me, on an eternally overlooked, sniffed-at issue that is politically huge www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The couple this piece focuses on earn over £300k per year….The cliff edge aside, I’m sure they’re getting by.

Two-thirds of UK voters wrongly think immigration is rising, poll finds

Typically disingenuous take from Matt Goodwin on the government and X

The real complaint is that elite universities no longer perfectly mirror elite private schools.

@martinsandbu.ft.com on the Russian economy www.ft.com/content/8abe...