Naomi Waltham-Smith

Indeed, I think you’re spot on. I’m probably going to argue (whenever I finish the book!) that politicians accurately identifying to whom/what one should listen is a necessary condition for voters to feel they have been heard.

Or in other words, they’re just not that good at listening!

Agree with Jonn on this - it is a monumentally stupid strategy which will only enrage those who find the Greens appealing, most likely increasing losses and making it harder to win back those who have switched.

If the graduate premium is falling, supply-side tinkering won't bring it back Jim Dickinson assembles cross-national evidence showing Britain's shrinking graduate premium is a demand-side problem – and that closing courses won't fix it Jim Dickinson assembles cross-national evi...

'Their most recent task-based analysis in Oxford Economic Papers (2024/25) found that the growth of graduate skills requirements in the British workforce slowed markedly after 2006 – the demand side stalling while supply kept expanding.' 1/2

Waited a long time since I told Keir this to his face at the event when he announced his leadership bid to his constituency (“sought our endorsement”). And it was only fairly recently that Ainsley told Will (I think) on here that Lab knew exactly what sort voter they were after.

Bear in mind this analysis whenever you read some argument for cutting courses that don't pay. Particularly from Brexiteers. Graduating into a bad economy - thank you, Brexit - makes good courses look bad

Labour lost three by-elections yesterday - all to different parties mobilising disaffected voters on their liberal left flank: Greens (see below), Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru.

Starmer/McSweeney strategy of marginalizing the left flank to go after socially con Reform curious continues to backfire

Deputy Head of Research Funding The closing date for applications is 12:00 noon, Monday 2 March 2026.

Deputy Head of Research Funding at the British Academy (FT, permanent, £50,108, deadline 2 March).

The postholder will help deliver a range of funding in Humanities & Social Sciences and manage the BA's relationship with 9 British International Research Institutes (BIRIs).

He notes that the UK is an outlier: in other countries, including the US, the graduate premium has held up during expansion of HE participation. The problem, he argues, is not an absolute oversupply of graduates but the failure to match this with skilled job creation due to broader economic woes. /

@jburnmurdoch.ft.com, along with @sarahoconnorft.ft.com, has been doing some of the best work on graduate labour market woes. In this excellent piece, he underscores that erosion of the graduate premium in the UK is more down to weak productivity than HE intake or financing. 1/2

THREE lectureships available in the Music Department @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @kingsmusic.bsky.social — see advertisements in the thread below.

I like this approach but was disappointed to see the lists of speakers, which doesn’t get before familiar list of sector leaders and political/media elites. The conversation needs to be widened.

Ah! I read “they” as current Labour leadership rather than policies. Even to the extent that what they’re doing perpetuates Thatcherite forms of subjectivation (eg impact of uncertainty on labour markets driving self-improving subjects who assume burdens of training) it’s not purposefully so.

I think it’s plausible to argue that forms of subjectivation endorsed and popularized by Thatcher—the kinds of things analysed by eg Dardot and Laval—that paradigm has been more persistent than often acknowledged and plays a role today in Labour’s own goals and fragmentation of its voter coalition.

A good idea, but the key issue is whose voices are heard on these panels. If these are existing leaders in the sector and public life, he’s unlikely to get the kind of challenge he’s looking for. The debates need to include students, frontline staff, community organisers etc.

That’s what I thought at first, but then it seems it’s legal action from Reform.

Open Positions | Department of Asian & Asian American Studies Department of Asian & Asian American Studies

Academic job announcement! Stony Brook University is hiring a fellow in South Asian and South Asian American Studies.

Good gig in a good department, come be my colleague. Can convert to tenure-track after two years.

www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/asia...

Pollsters who expand the “bounds of reason”—“the Kylies and Eves are just as rational in their analysis”—and suggest politically engaged metropolitans shouldn’t gatekeep rationality just are the (Oxford-)educated elites mainstreaming the far right and thus redrawing the bounds of political reason.

The High Court rules the proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful. What next? This is a big judgment. But not everything has changed

A busy week for constitutional commentary

Some of my drivel

On the Palestine Action court victory - at @prospectmagazine.co.uk within a couple of hours of judgment: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

And later - further points on my own blog:
emptycity.substack.com/p/what-the-p... /

>

UK ban on Palestine Action ruled unlawful Ministers argued the direct action group engaged in a campaign of criminal damage and violence

UK ban on Palestine Action ruled unlawful ft.trib.al/TKbvf6A

Pleased to be a signatory to this in defence of freedom of creative expression. Rushing to the conclusion that music is straightforwardly reflective or derivative of life misses its hugely transformative power in many people’s lives.

Today, the @houseoflords.parliament.uk debates limiting the use of art as evidence in criminal trials. Keir Monteith KC, co-founder of @artnotevidence.bsky.social, worked with JUSTICE to raise awareness of the issue. He spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning. (1/3)

I’ve signed Art Not Evidence’s @artnotevidence.bsky.social letter to the Justice Secretary calling for limits on the use of art as criminal evidence. Failure to recognize musical & cultural conventions of the genre poses a threat to freedom of creative expression. www.justice.org.uk/news/rapper-...

This is rearranging decisions on the Titanic bad

I’ve signed Art Not Evidence’s @artnotevidence.bsky.social letter to the Justice Secretary calling for limits on the use of art as criminal evidence. Failure to recognize musical & cultural conventions of the genre poses a threat to freedom of creative expression. www.justice.org.uk/news/rapper-...

Top barristers and rappers unite to challenge use of rap lyrics in criminal trials - Legal Cheek Concerns over conflating 'art with evidence'

I’m a signatory to this letter in support of Shami Chakrabarti’s amendment and proud to be working on a project investigating the impacts of rap’s criminalization alongside @justicehq.bsky.social, members of @artnotevidence.bsky.social & United Borders. www.legalcheek.com/2026/02/top-...

Hold on, as part of the Mandelson debacle, we just found out the hollowness of the “bond vigilante” narrative — Mandelson and Dimon against Darling, remember? Don’t try and pull this one on us now.

Congratulations! Really looking forward to reading it.

There's no reason to accept this as normal, though. Much of Starmer and Labour's unpopularity is not misfortune but his own doing. Mandelson was a choice. Consistently pursuing policy positions designed to appeal to people who will not vote for you - and alienating core supporters - is a choice.

This morning, the second part of Sir Brian Leveson’s review into the criminal justice system was published.

From quicker prisoner transport to better buildings, it offers many ways to reduce court backlogs without cutting one of the best trusted & proven parts of the system: juries. (1/6)