Bobby Duffy

🔊 “I do think symbols matter…that question...about government being on platforms like X is one that is very much up for debate, and it’s a debate that we’re having"

🤳 Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy on the role of social media in culture war debates at our event last night

🧵⬇️ Full video below

YouTube video by The Policy Institute at King's College London Are Culture Wars Finally Taking Hold? Division, tension and identity in the UK today

⬇️ Watch the full event, with @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social, @ukandeu.bsky.social, @jburnmurdoch.ft.com, Dr Kate Ferguson, Gideon Skinner & @bobbyduffy.bsky.social

A full house tonight, exploring the shifting perceptions & realities of the UK's culture wars w/ @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social , @ukandeu.bsky.social, The Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, @jburnmurdoch.ft.com, Dr Kate Ferguson, Gideon Skinner & @bobbyduffy.bsky.social

📺 Watch live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIZM...

NEW: The share of the UK public who say the country needs to reduce carbon emissions to net zero sooner than 2050 has nearly halved since 2021.

Our study with @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social and @cast-centre.bsky.social reveals a sharp fall in urgency on net zero and support for climate policies

🧵 ⬇️

“Citizen-assembly” events to be held by Home Affairs Committee Citizens with different views on immigration will be asked to come together to debate in a series of events by the Home Affairs Committee

Along with @demos-uk.bsky.social and the Centre for British Democracy, we're partnering with the Home Affairs Committee to deliver a series of "citizen-assembly style" events where the public can come together and debate the trade-offs between legal migration and economic growth 📈 🛂

Is there really a "Quiet Revival" in religious belief among Gen Z? Are young people in the UK and around the world finding religion? Some survey data suggest they are: the YouGov long-term tracker shows that the proportion of 18-to-24-year-olds who say they believe t...

🙏 Is there a religious revival underway among young people – or is it just a statistical mirage?

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social writes about this growing debate ahead of an event we're hosting next week with experts from Pew Research Center and UCL

172,000 children in UK are homeless - Dan Hewitt from ITV outlining this is a systemic, political choice and @kwajo.bsky.social that the narrative shift to see housing as an asset not an essential at heart of crisis @kbrickell.bsky.social @policyatkings.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

NEW: One in five people say they feel suddenly and deeply thankful to be alive on at least a weekly basis, while another one in seven say they never experience such feelings.

Our final study of 2025 explores some of the UK public's deepest and most philosophical emotions 🧵⬇️

This shocked me. I have so many photos of sunsets, clouds, insects, shadows, strangely shaped trees, etc., etc. that I’ve taken to send to others to share the joy I feel. Countryside or city. Whether I start out happy or sad. Never thought others might not feel the same.

One in five Britons feel 'suddenly and deeply thankful to be alive' on weekly basis – while one in seven never feel this way, study finds | King's College London Public views on thankfulness, awe and wonder noticeably vary across different groups

More on our sense of thankfulness generally, based on King-Ho Leung's excellent lecture here
www.kcl.ac.uk/news/one-in-... @policyatkings.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

Out today - 16% of public feel a profound sense of awe or wonder at the universe or nature DAILY, 12% say they NEVER feel that, with an even spread across range between. One of my favourite qs of year - don't often get sense of how different our mental models are

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/one-in-...

"The perception that this divisiveness works has taken hold" – @bobbyduffy.bsky.social spoke to the Associated Press about the "frightening increase in the sense of national division and decline" and the need for political leaders to be responsible with their rhetoric

➡️ apnews.com/article/euro...

ICYMI

The public think people arriving by small boats make up not only the largest share of asylum seekers, but the largest share of *all* immigrants. In fact, it's just 4% of the total number, write @bobbyduffy.bsky.social & @elielcohen.bsky.social

➡️ blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

🔊 "a real problem between the generations is not conflict, it's separation. We are living much more separately by generations than we have at any time in human history"

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social on the latest episode of @peteryork.bsky.social's Culture Wars House Party podcast

🔊 "there's very little overlap now in the attitudes between Republicans and Democrats... you can predict more and more of social attitudes in the US just by knowing your party identity"

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social on the latest episode of @peteryork.bsky.social's Culture Wars House Party podcast

"that [financial inequality] is a fracturing in society more generally but particularly among young people... because wealth is more important to our economic success than income these days"

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social on The Briefing Room on BBC Radio 4 to discuss intergenerational tensions

🔉 "not every Baby Boomer made it big, far from it... the top third have the vast majority of that wealth... that wealth is flowing down very unevenly"

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social on The Briefing Room on BBC Radio 4 to discuss intergenerational tensions, following another increase in the state pension

Interested in intergenerational economic injustice? This episode of The Briefing Room features two of our Fellows @janefalkingham.bsky.social FAcSS and @bobbyduffy.bsky.social FAcSS discussing just that. Find out more and catch up ⬇️

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, Are the old robbing the young? Are we seeing inter-generational economic injustice?

📻 Coming up at 4pm today on BBC Radio 4

CPC-CG Director @janefalkingham.bsky.social @uosmedia.bsky.social will discuss #intergenerational #economic justice, with CPC-CG's @sophiehale.bsky.social @resolutionfoundation.org, + @bobbyduffy.bsky.social & @xiaoweixu.bsky.social @theifs.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️

Incredible examples of huge programmes Tamara Finkelstein has driven - eg so many claim a key role in Sure Start but Tamara has one of best claims to making it happen - great conversation with @michael-sanders.bsky.social at relaunch of King’s School for Government in @policyatkings.bsky.social

“If we want to build a fairer, more inclusive society, we need to understand it first. That’s the power of social science.” Watch Julia Gillard discuss the vital role of social science in a divided world in our 2025 Campaign for Social Science Annual Sage Lecture. 📽️➡️ acss.org.uk/news/watch-t...

"Social science is not just a discipline. It's a way of seeing the world, of asking the questions that matter...Without it, science risks becoming detached from society."

💬 Julia Gillard delivers the Campaign for Social Science Annual Sage Lecture

“Inequality is poisoning our economy and undermining growth - and yet politicians see tackling it as low priority or too risky”

Julian Richer

The public think people arriving by small boats make up not only the largest share of asylum seekers, but the largest share of *all* immigrants. In fact, it's just 4% of the total number, write @bobbyduffy.bsky.social & @elielcohen.bsky.social

➡️ blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsand...

NEXT WEEK: Truth and Trust: The Vital Role of Social Science in a Divided World

Join us and an expert panel, including Julia Gillard, to discuss how social science can still have global impact in an era of political polarisation

🎟️ Register for the livestream ➡️ acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

"The key point is that no-one actually wins a culture war in the end, because they never fully end."

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social on the options available to counter growing cultural tensions and divisions in the UK ➡️ bylinetimes.com/2025/11/11/u...

Life expectancy gap for people with severe mental illness is 'hidden health crisis', study finds | King's College London Most Britons unaware of extent to which severe mental illness cuts lives short

NEW: People with severe mental illness face a significant life expectancy gap, amounting to a hidden health crisis, with the public vastly underestimating the scale of the impact on mortality

New research with @kingshealth.bsky.social & @maudsleycharity.bsky.social 🧵 ⬇️

US-Style Culture Wars Have Come to Britain but Who Is Starting Them? A new study raises stark questions about the link between extreme rhetoric in the media and politics and the surge in voters saying the country is being torn apart by culture wars, argues Professor Bo...

🔴US-Style Culture Wars Have Come to Britain but Who Is Starting Them?

A new study raises stark questions about links between extreme rhetoric in the media and the surge in voters saying the country is being torn apart by culture wars, argues @bobbyduffy.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/11/u...

Imagined immigration is shaping our politics | British Politics and Policy at LSE Immigration has become the number one political priority for the public. But there is one problem: this immigration is imagined, it doesn't really exist.

Is imagined immigration is shaping UK politics?

@bobbyduffy.bsky.social & @elielcohen.bsky.social @policyatkings.bsky.social for
@lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social

📺 "We've amplified and given more space to more extreme views than we would even a couple of years ago"

💬 @bobbyduffy.bsky.social speaks to BBC News about the drivers behind some of the growing culture war divisions identified in our new study with @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social