Previously Farage as PM would’ve been a farce because reform can’t organise a piss up in a brewery. But labour are putting in all the infrastructure he could ever want.

Labour is a “godsend” for Farage says the far-right.

A levy on foreign students is one of the closest things you're going to see to tariffs on services - except the UK will be putting it on its own exports... www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Forcing the most vulnerable people on the planet further into precarity is simply monstrous bbc.com/news/article...

We're grateful to all the community & voluntary groups - & local authorities - that responded to our 19th quarterly survey on the Conditions for North-South & East-West Cooperation. Watch the presentation, & read the report, on the findings at crossborder.ie/reports/brie... @benrosher.bsky.social

New paper! Ian Paterson and I explore Scotland’s desecuritisation of immigration, outlining how desecurisation can be an affectively attractive method to pursue the self as well as an ethical ontological security seeking practice. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Very neat article. Congratulations @benrosher.bsky.social and Ian Paterson.

At this point it’s fairly certain that labour will combine digital ID with the bankID system prevalent across the Nordics which means nobody can access *anything* without it. It’ll be the hostile environment on digital steroids. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New paper! Ian Paterson and I explore Scotland’s desecuritisation of immigration, outlining how desecurisation can be an affectively attractive method to pursue the self as well as an ethical ontological security seeking practice. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

once again struck by the way the left always has to moderate itself in left wing areas in case it puts off moderates elsewhere and the right just... never thinks about that? at all?? and no one calls them on it???

This case has always shown the farcical, and inhumane, nature of the Home Office, across multiple governments and Home Secretaries. A scared kid messes up on their claim and it takes 26 years to accept they should have been provided with asylum from the start www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

📣 Anyone working on creative methods in political research and attending @mybisa.bsky.social #BISA2026 next year? We are looking for another participant in our roundtable on zine-making and creative methods as part of @cawpbisa.bsky.social if it sounds like you - please get in touch ASAP!

📢Call for Abstracts📢 Bianca Naude and I are looking to put together a panel on state personhood for #BISA2026! We are looking for new conceptualizations of state personhood, new critiques, as well as reflections on relevant post-2004 disciplinary and political developments!✨ @mybisa.bsky.social

Hello. Does anybody have any good recommendations for introductory literature on sanctuary cities? Particularly in relation to human rights or in the city’s relation to the state.

@benrosher.bsky.social and Aidan Campbell will analyse the findings of the 19th quarterly survey on the Conditions for North-South and East-West Cooperation. Get involved at crossborder.ie/news/complet... 📽️ Watch their presentation on the last survey findings at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApBB...

Pals! @nataliejester.bsky.social and @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social have launched the BISA Critical Alternatives for World Politics Working Group. CAWP is an experimental, creative research space for IR. learn more here www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...; here @cawpbisa.bsky.social and twitter at @cawpbisa

Our latest quarterly survey on North-South and East-West cooperation is open - and we would like to hear your thoughts on the current context for cooperation. crossborder.ie/news/complet... @cfni.bsky.social @communityfoundirl.bsky.social @benrosher.bsky.social @anthonysoares.bsky.social

First day of school. I have my name on a door. And my own office. And a plant!

UK government to reintroduce maintenance grants (rather than loans) for students from the lowest income families www.gov.uk/government/n...

Ok. They’ve pissed me off. I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards: 1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.

For anybody who says we are not a “papers please society”. Bullshit. We have to show papers to travel, get a job, and rent a flat. ID cards would simply make this simpler. Grey economies also exist in countries with ID cards. So for labour to pitch this as anti-migration is simply xenophobia.

Labour pitching ID cards as an explicitly anti-immigration measure is one of the dumbest things this government has done, among a very crowded field.

A couple of points: Why does it need to be digital (i)? Physical cards are easy to carry and don’t disenfranchise the elderly (ii) The EUSS system constantly breaks Will be we able to opt out of whatever AI training the govt will inevitably sign up to? news.sky.com/story/politi...

Have you completed the survey? We're calling on civic society organisations & local authorities across NI & ROI to take part in participate in our survey on the Conditions for North-South & East-West Cooperation. crossborder.ie/news/complet... @benrosher.bsky.social @anthonysoares.bsky.social

We're inviting civic society organisations and local authorities in NI and ROI to respond to our Survey on the Conditions for North-South and East-West Cooperation. Reposts appreciated. Get involved before 6 October: crossborder.ie/news/complet... @anthonysoares.bsky.social @benrosher.bsky.social

NEW The proscription of Palestine Action as a case study of terrorism law Why is the general criminal law not sufficient to deal with direct action groups? Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-proscr... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/09/the-...

If a government recognises Palestinian statehood then it recognises its right to exist. On that basis, that government cannot continue to fund and arm a state that is explicitly trying to destroy the newly recognised state. Otherwise you’re just doing an actual virtue signal.

🔔New ARK Research Update 🔔 The latest Research Update by Professor @katyhayward.bsky.social and Dr @benrosher.bsky.social explores attitudes in Northern Ireland on the constitutional question. Read here ➡️ www.ark.ac.uk/ARK/sites/de...

What this piece shows is that the scheme is already a mess. The Home Office is deporting people entirely at random. Those in detention don't have legal representation. Ten children have been erroneously detained and released. Legal challenges will follow. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Tell me again that Israel is not knowingly and intentionally committing a genocide

More politicians have condemned political violence in the last hour after the shooting of a guy who actively encouraged political violence than they have in the last 2 years of a genocide.

Ironically, it appears that AI chatbots hallucinate for the same reason that students feel compelled to use them: They were socialized in a high-stakes testing culture that rewards guessing and maybe getting it right over admitting when there's something you just don't know.

Chuffed to see my 'insightful' book 'Anywhere But Here' referenced in the @financialtimes.com Inside Politics newsletter.

Why, when governments say they will do “whatever it takes” to stop small boats, do they never do the one thing that will actually work and open safe routes.

People seeking asylum already carry Application Registration Cards (ARC) cards, for starters. Digital id requires you to have access to digital tech, and, despite the rantings of some right wingers, asylum seekers aren't issued with mobile phones or iPads, so many would be unable to access one. 1/

This! Over years the Home Office has successfully created the hostile environment it intended. But it’s not really sure how it’s achieved this. This leaves a huge gap between the formulation of border policy, the responsibility for its enactment, and accountability for its effect.

Hard to tell from this bland announcement just what the government plans for asylum appeals, so I’m trying not to speculate. But I’ve worked in the sector in various roles since 1987 & I’ve seen a lot of policy proposals come & go so I have Thoughts on the dysfunctional way we decide such things 1/🧵

This is about the concept of "continuous immigration vetting," an idea from Trump's first term. Rather than having people be checked for compliance at specific interactions with the government such as a visa renewals, there would be an automated system running constant checks.

We’re one news cycle away from anyone buying Normal People being arrested for financing terrorism.

On the recognition of Palestine A close look at an unconvincing letter from "distinguished" UK lawyers By me Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/on-the-rec... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/08/on-t...

📣 Vacancy for PhD position! 📣 I am looking for a qualitative PhD researcher (3 years, 30 hours/week) to join my ERC project #RESTATE (Refugees’ Political Participation and State-(Re)Making in Displacement), starting preferably on 1 January 2026.

Thank you to all the civic society organisations and local authorities that responded to our 𝟭𝟴𝘁𝗵 quarterly survey on the Conditions for North-South & East-West Cooperation. Providing a valuable check on organisations' views, the results will be available tomorrow. @benrosher.bsky.social

Proscribing Palestine Action can’t hold. They’re not a terrorist organisation, and nobody thinks they are. A vast (and increasing) swathe of the population support their cause. Policing requires consent and that requires a majority acceptance of the law, but most people think this law is an ass.

How do we celebrate getting 2 R&Rs in 1 week?

NEW Constitutional law during a carnival of cruelty Protecting rights when causing pain is the point of policy By me Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/constituti... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/07/cons...

The term “nanny state” gets thrown around a little too easily, but apparently now you have to verify you’re an adult before even being able to access the chat screen in Bluesky.

This is a fucking brilliant paper and you all need to read it

Prof. Alex de Waal, the world's leading expert on famine: "I've been working on this topic for more than four decades, and there is no case since World War II of starvation that was so minutely designed planned and controlled … And every step of it was predicted." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

This is, frankly, all our fault. www.theguardian.com/technology/2... We’ve neoliberalised university degrees to the point it’s a requirement for entry level jobs, rather than for education and intellectual curiosity as a good in its own right…

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... My latest article, "The Declining Kingdom? Emotional Ascription, Emotional Expectations, and Humour in the International Framing of the UK in Crisis”, is now available in @politicsjournal.bsky.social as part of a special issue on Global Britain. 🇬🇧