Oxford Brookes University is hosting its regular Think Human festival of the humanities and social sciences between 15 April and 18 April... Take a look at the extraordinary list of events we've got planned. Something for everyone! 👇
www.eventbrite.com/cc/think-hum...
This is a deep error. Pollsters have a pretty good record recently, and they should not give even the impression that they doubt their models - or retreat in the face of the haters and liars. There's a reason why no-one puts out their raw data! Because it's... usually nonsense.
That's funny, I could have sworn he said something about not needing Royal Navy vessels because the war was already won.
You broke it Don, you fix it.
Oh NOW you want the Royal Navy do you? After slagging it off just a week ago? Sling your hook mate, sort out your own mess. You broke it, you fix it.
Man, one of the most depressing aspects of modern scholarship is finding a great article and then looking up the scholar to see what else they’ve done and just catching a glimpse of an abbreviated career hopping between visiting positions and publishing great pieces before disappearing from academia
Trumpism didn't happen overnight. It took decades of lies and hate all over the airwaves to make it seem even vaguely normal or mainstream. We still have time to nip that process in the bud here in the UK. We won't.
bylinetimes.com/2026/03/12/g...
It is of course the case that GB News should not have a broadcast license in the UK. But since the UK govt seems determined to cave in to its sworn enemies, this is part of its retreat.
Today I'll mainly be looking at my public lecture for the @royalhistsoc.org in London on 25 Sept... One thing I'll be talking about then will be the rapid growth of mapping techniques and geographical approaches in the study history. Just a snippet from my list below. 👇
I'm really sorry. You're right, it's no consolation, but solidarity on those trains.
Hundred quid to London, half a train loads of the time, sitting in front of a toilet door that keeps opening and closing onto a broken cistern. No refreshments or water, half electric 💩 train no-one else in the developed world would ever buy.
It's only WFH that has prevented widespread rioting. Still, 'back to the office' or somesuch 💩...
Currently sitting on the train floor, just about crushed into the vestibule on a hideously late GWR 'service'. Absolutely hate and try to avoid any travel anywhere in the UK, but just like our declining universities there's no solutions in sight during my working life so I just accept it really. 🤷♂️
Who wants a last-minute trip to Gibraltar? ✈️☀️
We have a rare, paid opening for an Irish History expert to join the Spirit of Adventure this Sunday. If you have your passport ready and the gift of the gab, we want to hear from you! 🇮🇪
Details in the graphic below. 👇
📧 casting@pastpreservers.com
This is good and worth a read. Here you can see why I've given up most commentary on British universities. Without a complete reboot from the beginning I can't see a sustainable way forward for most of it. Sad, tough but true.
manchestermill.co.uk/why-the-hell...
Well here I am at a very bright but blustery UWE in Bristol to talk about my new book on the Blair years! Did I mention I've got a book out? manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/
Are you around in Bristol tomorrow? Do you want to hear about my NEW book on the Blair years? Well, you're in luck, because I'll be discussing it at @uwebristolofficial.bsky.social's Frenchay Campus from 1.30pm. Sign up below! 👇
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/new-l...
It's, er, me chatting all things New Labour, Third Way, Blairism and the 1990s at The Gilded Acorn bookshop tonight! Next launch: @uwebristolofficial.bsky.social on Wednesday! Do come along if you're in Bristol then...
Another book launch tonight at the Gilded Acorn bookshop in London! I hope people liked it.
In a new episode of @debatedpodcast.bsky.social, @willbarbertaylor.bsky.social speaks to author @gsoh31.bsky.social about Tony Blair's domestic policy and his legacy as a leader and PM.
Listen on Apple Podcasts here:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...
'New Labour, New Britain?' is out now! #booksky
I think yr reference to facts unfortunate there as I think ur confusing massive increases iin top incomes with effects of redistribution (say -10%). Since NewLab was 'running up the down escalator' of globalisation the two can both be true. But I certainly v much appreciate the engagement. 🎩 (3/3)
They'd arg that they were tied in knots by a leftwing Blairite settlement - ECHR, HRA, Supreme Court, devolution, the Social Chapter and much, much more HE. Now there were elements they could unpick (e.g. Sure Start and the near-abolition of rough sleeping), but there were many they couldn't. (2/3)
But he did do that in many ways, tho in some ways he did. Cameron and Osborne were not able to unpick tax credits or the mimumum wage - by far the most important social democratic anti-poverty measures the UK has known since the late 60s. (1/3)
If you halve child poverty and more than half pensioner poverty via redistribution and your aim is to abolish all child poverty by 100%, that's not Hayek. (2/2).
But this was the most redistributionist govt the UK has ever had or is ever likely to have? As the child of a single mum I certainly agree that the 97 cuts were appalling, but they were quickly reversed and massively overhauled as I show I'm the book. (1/2)
But also via what I call 'the culmination of labourism' - national minimum wage, compulsory Union recognition, Sure Start, right to roam, devolution, local areabased initiatives - all explicitly a rejection of Hayek owing much to the German SPD, Giddens, the SDP etc. (PS)
And I wd argue that the reason the late 90s and early 2000s saw the biggest redistribution in UK history by govt action (not inflation) was the philosophical rejection of Hayekianism. Often via variants of neo-*conservatism* e.g. communitarianism and Christian Socialist/ Catholic teaching... (2/2)
But this period saw a massive increase in taxes at the top end tp redistribute to the bottom 10% via much higher benefits and tax credits? (1/2)
Strong agree about £2bn or so a year, but that's a sidebar to basically *abolishing most waiting lists* with 86% non-PFI spend even in capital. And also (1) a proxy labour market policy, (2) a quiet regional policy and (3) decidedly non-neolib.
Strong disagree. Active labour market policies borrowed from the Nordic model mixed with a deliberate evocation and use of the Keynesian full employment mode from the 44 White Paper led up to the biggest Keynesian fight against demand deficit in UK history in 07-10.
I think I was talking outstanding debt. And lots will depend at the margin on variables in the Ts and Cs going forward. Nevertheless, only a v small % of NHS spend was PFI, much as it could be and usually was bad VFM in the long term.
