Simon Glendinning

Only just caught up with Peter Ross’s beautiful review. Going by last night’s London gig, 100% true: “His concerts have become acts of thanksgiving for his life and work. Now, as he plays these songs for the last few times, that feeling is ever deeper. People had come to let him know he is loved.”

Edwyn Collins leaves the London stage for the last time. What a night at a sold out Royal Festival Hall.

An evening with Edwyn Collins. A testimonial totally deserved. Unforgettable.

Ritchie Robertson - Darkness & Light Ritchie Robertson: Darkness & Light - Goethe: A Life in Ideas by Matthew Bell

Goethe: A Life in Ideas by @matthewgbell.bsky.social gets a sharp, illuminating review from Ritchie Robertson in @litreview.bsky.social! “Deeply learned, crisply written.” Read it here: literaryreview.co.uk/darkness-light-2

The European Union was designed for peace – it is never going to be a war machine | Anand Menon Reacting to the Russian military threat would require the bloc to be agile and decisive. It is many great things, but it is not that, says Anand Menon, director of UK in a Changing Europe

‘Structures designed to diffuse power are utterly inappropriate if the ambition is to deploy hard power.’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Happy first day of the Autumn Term! 🍂

This academic year is an extra special one as we are celebrating LSE’s 130th anniversary 🎂

The theme is centred around LSE’s impact, past and present. Look out for celebratory events, freebies, exciting announcements, and much more from October onwards! 🎉

Jonathan Lear (1948-2025) - Daily Nous Jonathan Lear, Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, has died. Professor Lear was well-known for bringing moral and social phil...

Very sad to hear about the death of Jonathan Lear. So readable and wise. The quote in this article on mourning is wonderful (even if I might disagree that it is exclusively human). dailynous.com/2025/09/22/j...

It was: perhaps and maybe. Turns out that was hard to get a perfect anagram with.

No - it’s right with an extra p. (Why did I start on this…)

No! It’s still wrong… Universal failure.

That many…and (oops, sorry) add a “p” (Total fail trying to get a perfect anagram with these letters…)

The media enabling, especially irresponsible on the BBC, makes me furious.

But some people clearly get a kind of self-righteous pleasure contemplating the prospect of “us” tearing the whole house down, not caring too much how to pick up the pieces, satisfied that “we” will have taken back control.

Be a shaper day man?

This was also Spengler’s attitude towards the closing years of the Faustian world. I often find it difficult to get my head round. But it seems the right thing to do - to go down with the ship, not stupidly “saluting” but actively attempting to salvage whatever can be saved.

I try to keep a measure of respect for people whose views I disagree with. I am rarely confident that there is absolutely nothing whatsoever to be said even for outlooks that look totally off to me. But I have to say I think Farage is genuinely dangerous - and the BBC really needs to get a grip.

“power now needs to be put in the hands of the grassroots” — in the hands of some (other) “me”

But he is also a close third in the unfavourable ranking - just behind Farage-the-most-favoured. Your (justified) bemusement about how anyone could possibly approve of Farage would likely be mirror echoed by the many who do not approve of JC.

One of the best GOP impersonations ever?

Letter from Ed Davey to Keir Starmer condemning Elon Musk for inciting violence and urging unity to defend democracy.

I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday.

As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.

The problem is that ‘this is not who we are’ is coming to feel a little empirically unconvincing. It might help if the PM actually stood up and made the case for a liberal, tolerant and inclusive country.

Keir Starmer really needs to move away from his strategy of legitimising the anti-immigration hostility. It's unbelievably dangerous.

BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage Nigel Farage’s party featured in considerably more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months, study finds

Objective data show BBC & ITV bias.
Reform featured in 49 bulletins between January-July 2025
whereas Lib Dems(with 72 MPs) were in 18% of bulletins, with 35.
Reform referenced in nearly 1 in 5 ITV News At Ten bulletins, but 6% for Lib Dems www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

Is the link broken?

So very sad to hear that my much loved colleague Conor Gearty has died. What a loss to LSE - and far beyond.

Another problem is that UK politics has a serious "pipeline problem".

If Starmer keeled over tomorrow, I've no idea who would replace him.

I don't even know who the frontrunners would be.

There are no experienced, tested candidates in either main party, because UK politics no longer develops that

If you assume Great to be a Good thing, then most things that ppl refer to as such really just means Big.

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

ERC Starting Grants | Academic Grant Awards Three LSE academics win prestigious ERC Starting Grants for research on growth externalities, multinational linkages and border change, joining 478 early-career grantees across Europe.

Congratulations to our brilliant colleague in the LSE Government Department @lsegovernment.bsky.social Carl Müller-Crepon @carlmc.bsky.social on being awarded an ERC Starting Grant for his project "Border Change and Local Development in Europe and Beyond"! 🎉🎉 www.lse.ac.uk/news/latest-...

Is that a yes? Please don’t dance around the question. That’s the exhausting and exhausted old style we surely have to leave behind. UK out of NATO? Eg: ‘Yes - with the UK promoting a new “mostly European” alternative.’ Is that the idea? - and which countries might be part of the “elsewhere” here?

Xi presents his vision of the future - and the company by his side was no accident Not everyone will be buying in, but this was in some ways a vision for a future Xi would like to see: A vision that's centred on Chinese power.

The future. news.sky.com/story/xi-pre...