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.

I’m not so sure about the headline claim, though. The issue is not whether autocrats can be beaten electorally as whether they can be removed entirely from power, and post-2023 Poland shows that this is not easy. Hungary will be even harder.

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...

To mark the 100th anniversary of the General Strike we have a special event planned @ihr.bsky.social on Weds 29 April. Prof Jonathan Schneer will be discussing his new book on the strike alongside Paul Novak, Jon Cruddas, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite & Jim Moher. www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

AFCON drama, delicious, exhilarating

'Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment' bit.ly/3LKB8NF - new article in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'. With contributions from Quinn Slobodian, Priya Lal, Gary Gerstle & Tehila Sasson. @quinnslobodian.com, @priyalalista.bsky.social @tsasson.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Come join our team at FGF: * Communications Coordinator - who will devise & deliver communication campaigns to raise FGF's profile, reputation and reach * Researcher - who will conduct research & analysis in support of FGF projects and workstreams www.futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/vacancies/

Looking for an intellectual treat? @petermandler.bsky.social 's Ford Lectures on 'The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life' begin Thursday 22 January and continue weekly through 26 February in Oxford. #Skystorians

A plea for more people in UK politics to read some Michael Moran

Some pretty worrying shifts identified in this new @ippr.org @yougov.co.uk data: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The IPPR paper by me and @npjgarland.bsky.social is here www.ippr.org/articles/the...

There has been a rise in the number of people who think being British is something you are born with rather than something you can become over the past 2 years

As ethnonationalism re-emerges as a defining characteristic of the Right, equality must return as the distinguishing feature of the Left New @ippr.org paper in today's @theguardian.com

Interested in how you square the circle of “British people who post ‘burn down a migrant hotel’ during race riots shouldn’t be arrested” with “someone who posted pretty objectionable and racist things 8 years before they became a British citizen should be deported” and am sure someone will ask Nigel

And a good morning to everyone reading the “later life” section of Brigitte Bardot’s wikipedia page for the first time

And to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, and will return in Avengers: Doomsday

Carol of the Bells ("Shchedryk") from Ukrainian Defenders at Sofiivska Square, in the heart of Kyiv. Merry Christmas, friends! 📹: miarodriges / Threads

Sort of interesting that the Old Right and Blue Labour get conflated so often, but their views of Labour's history (and the state) are pretty much diametrically opposed renewal.org.uk/articles/pla...

With place and devolution back at the centre of political debate, it’s a timely reminder that those mapping a way forward should look at what has come before. 📘 Read Nick’s essay here:https://buff.ly/ElcnWP3 📚 Download the full collection:https://buff.ly/C34ukiN

In our penultimate 10-year essay collection spotlight, @npjgarland.bsky.social pens a walk through the history of place-based policy — drawing out lessons on durable design, clear objectives, and how community policy connects to economic strategy.

💡As our ten-year celebrations draw to a close, we’ve been reflecting on what the next decade of community business should learn from the last and what that means as we head into a new year.

I could watch a million Benoit Blanc mysteries

This is devastating. It’s hard to absorb such an awful end to such an extraordinary, creative and generous life. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

Study of abstract ideas has a bias towards identifying common ground, and imagining syntheses that are impossible if the practicalities are given any attention whatsoever. Mutual appreciation for the First New Left is (alas) not the foundation for a stable political marriage.

Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.

It is very funny to see Lord Frost writing with such characteristic pomposity on the subject of ‘Silly Sausage Britain’ - and troubling that he seems to have done so off the back of X reactions like these. (@sofiejenkinson.bsky.social is a legend and not at all kitsch.)

I don't think the world of X posters – where people seem to think Mr Blobby has been killed for his meat by asylum seekers who are currently roasting chunks of his pink flesh over a flaming barrel in the car park of a job centre – bears much relation to the reality of life in the UK, if I'm honest.

Child poverty politics: ten years later, Tories still looking down their nose at people... labourlist.org/2025/12/tori...