Typically astute essay from Ben Jackson, which makes the important point that discarding nostalgic "Labourism" need not (& should not) mean discarding a social-democratic politics of equality & fair distribution. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

I sincerely don't understand the hold that the DOGE branding has on people on the left

Agree strongly with this substack.com/home/post/p-...

You Must Take This Long Essay By Three Time Election Winner Seriously (you will already have anticipated the bits you agree with; the bits you don't are if anything slightly wronger than you expected)

Blair putting on full display what is in many ways his special ability - to lay out a political argument grounded in his own view of global trends (globalisation in the 2000s, tech in the 2020s). But… institute.global/insights/pol...

The reactions to this are mainly focused on the move to the right, but what's really striking in reading Blair's essay in full, is how little Labour's most electorally successful politician understands the current electorate. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Really pleased to have had a very nice review of my book (by @sianushka.bsky.social!) in the openDemocacy newsletter a few weeks ago.

🚨 We're delighted to announce that @npjgarland.bsky.social is joining LCEF's Advisory Board. Nick is the editor of Progressive Review, and a Senior Research Fellow in IPPR’s Democracy and Politics team. He previously worked as an advisor and speechwriter to Rachel Reeves MP.

I love these "critics of proportional representation" who have been watching seven years of Governments with sizable majorities under first past the post disintegrate but still stick to the line they learned in A Level Politics. Next level resolution.

Politics in Britain feels increasingly broken. Too many people feel decisions are made to them, not with them. Trust in parliament and politicians has collapsed and the consequences are serious. Today we’re launching a new @ippr.org report on how to rebuild democratic trust in Parliament🧵 1/

In @ippr.org's paper Adapt or Die, with the crazy smart @sofiejenkinson.bsky.social we get under the hood of these political arguments and where progressives can make the public case and how www.ippr.org/articles/ada...

I have a lot of respect for David, who is a v fine economic historian, but this piece reflects a surprisingly poor grasp of both electoral politics and policy substance.

“Mainstream parties are finding it challenging to hold together broad coalitions. We believe Labour can still do so, but not by asking values-driven supporters to set aside the principles that motivate them. Nor can it persuade more right-leaning voters that it has fundamentally reinvented itself.”

Got a bit lost amidst everything else going on, but I remain incredulous that a significant development in this whole saga came from comments made by an NEC member at a private webinar for FTI Consulting.

Realise this is not the biggest issue at stake here, but it will never stop bothering me that commentators took to using "King of the North", rather than the superior (and canonically correct) "King in the North"

Great news and great appointment! There's nobody doing better or more thoughtful work on these issues than Sunder, in my view.

Martin Wolf is right, and I'm glad someone outside the usual suspects is making the argument - sceptics of electoral reform really need to process how different the context for this debate is today than it was in the relatively recent past. www.ft.com/content/1a5a...

I’m afraid it’s John Mackintosh time once again

‘Nothing good can happen democratically if people have nothing to leave their homes for, and no places to meet when they do. Covid and its aftermath have dramatically worsened this problem.’ @will-davies.bsky.social on hyperpolitics. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This is a terrible and deliberately divisive piece of reporting by the Times. Somewhere near the bottom of the article, they admit that actually Muslims prioritise the cost of living above Gaza. It's not even close - cost of living was prioritised by 50%, Gaza by 25% www.thetimes.com/article/5c7c...

This time next week there's going to be a lot of hot takes and spin knocking around, especially re: Reform. I've written a short primer for @politicshome.bsky.social on how to stay sane and navigate the immediate post-election chaos. Thread here too. 🧵 www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

An appraisal of an emergent political philosophy that advocates a large, interventionist state acting for the ‘common good’, informed by Christianity and a critique of free-market capitalism. Karl Pike reviews Matt Sleat's new book Post-Liberalism. politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/review-...

Pleased to once again get the chance to make the case for compulsory voting, this time in a report for Labour Together. I set out why compulsory voting would rebalance British democracy towards a more long-termist progressive politics.

The words “story factory” made me wince, but the argument here resonates. open.substack.com/pub/peterhym...

Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers

My PhD student Peter Wood wrote a brilliant dissertation on postwar homelessness policy that massively changed my understanding of the issues. He'll be speaking about it with other historians of homelessness at @rshc.bsky.social 22 May. Do sign up! homelessnessinpostwarbritain.eventbrite.co.uk

Latest @ippr.org Progressive Review is out, focused on the "abundance agenda" - including @christabelcoops.bsky.social & @katealexandershaw.bsky.social on the politics of growth, and satisfyingly blunt realism from @gilesyb.bsky.social & @colmpm.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/25732331...

Pitchfork’s best albums bracket final is out. lol

Great opportunity for someone here - PhD studentship on contemporary European politics and "mythmaking": www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRB421/p...

‘Luggage’ is an everyday word I don’t really think about and then I realise it means ‘stuff I lug around’ and now I am very fond of the word luggage.

Liverpool, May 1966, photo by Barry Feinstein. When Bob Dylan was playing the Odeon Theatre.

From today, every child counts equal. So if your family are on low wages or fall on hard times - universal credit is paid for every child, not just the first two Cos every child matters - and every child deserves the chance to thrive

CLES is 40 🎉 To mark this moment, our former director and chair, Michael Ward, reflects on how the threat of the abolition of the Greater London Council and other metropolitan counties led to the birth of CLES 🐣 🔗 cles.org.uk/cles-at-40-f...

So great that @dmk1793.bsky.social is on his way to being a PPF regular, always learn a lot from these.

Great article

Having just read about about yet another 'new' Beveridge report - here's a piece by me & @iprnickp.bsky.social on the (mis)use of Beveridge in British politics & what we can still learn from him today. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

There have always been obvious flaws with pointing to Denmark as a model for different parties, operating under different electoral systems, but this seems quite pertinent.

finally watched Casablanca. wild in this day and age for something to actually live up to the hype

Grateful to the wise @jydenham.bsky.social for engaging with my work on nationalism with Parth Patel for @ippr.org. Much I agree with. www.ippr.org/articles/rec...

Incredibly telling Kemi Badenoch interview on Today: - can’t say what she’d actually want UK forces to do - no idea what objective her proposed military action is to achieve - hides from reality that single biggest constraint on British military = her govt’s defence cuts

Why did the People's Vote campaign fail? Could Brexit have been stopped? What lessons can be learned? Join us on 19 March to launch @morganj0nes.bsky.social's new book: "No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second Referendum". All welcome! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/no-second-...

Characteristically insightful from Dr Klemperer. My predictable answer is you have to do both, and both have got harder.

The implicit argument of so much of this stuff is that there is no legitimate role for Muslims in public life.

I did think The Plot Against America had far too much subtlety and not nearly enough twitter in it

Vice has to be up there. Infuriatingly condescending.

Not exactly surprising Matt attracts these people given his own output..will the national media follow up on this? (h/t @benstanley.eu) manchestermill.co.uk/goodwins-gan...

mostly I am tired of people with 3 passports and 6 multinational conglomerates lecturing me on the virtues of ethnic nationalism

From @npjgarland.bsky.social's @powertochange.org.uk essay on the history of place-based policymaking www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...