Colm Murphy

Regrettably this is true

I have read almost every single cosmere book (and there are a lot). I'm intrigued as to how they will pull this off. The Mistborn film will struggle, I think, with showing the mechanics of the magic system in a cinematic way. The Stormlight series will struggle with the scale. But I hope it works!

Assisted dying backers could use archaic procedure to bypass ‘undemocratic’ block by peers Exclusive: MPs backing bill to use ‘nuclear option’ of 1911 Parliament Act if it continues to be blocked by Lords

The Parliament Act is not ‘archaic’. The constant possibility of using it is what maintains the supremacy of the Commons, and means the Lords almost always give way.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

James Goldsmith, godfather of British populism Unlike Nigel Farage or Rupert Lowe, Goldsmith told the truth

Excellent essay by @johnmerrick.bsky.social.

www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...

I'd quite like to read a spoof Weber essay: "Podcasting as a Vocation"

A banner from 1884 showing Mr Gladstone under the heading "The Franchise Bill" and above his nickname: "The People's Bill".

‘“Democracy Has Come!” The Third Reform Act & the Making of British Democracy’.

I'll be speaking at the IHR Modern British Seminar on Thursday 29 Jan, on why the 1884 Reform Act is more exciting than you think...

17:30 in London or online. Read on for a taster...🧵
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Looking forward to @robertsaunders.bsky.social's paper tomorrow!

trump has probably destroyed the minnesota republican party for the duration

To stress, I am very much pro investment. I also do not think the current constraints are inevitable, and there are scenarios in which this becomes easier (something I also talked about with the always acute @sampallis.bsky.social). I do think that at the moment they are 'unavoidable'.

Right I see! Yes I think selling the investment in isolation is easier, even if HS2 etc leads to scepticism. But (to extend my cliched example) will you be listened to if the bins are collected only twice a week. Will you be judged in 3 years on an investment that could take 10 to mature.

I think it is difficult to sustain the position that the public is happy, in particular...

Hmm, on both counts they are contestable politically: the public in terms of priorities (see, for example, bin collections and social care and local authority funding); the bond market vibes are getting happier but the difficulties of 2025 were partly because of the increase in borrowing numbers.

Essential reading. Great big picture understanding of the economic struggle the UK has, and its impact on our politics.

I am pro state investment for the reasons you say, but focused on the short term there is a job in selling it - not least because many *will* be thinking of HS2.

On fiscal rules, no I agree that it enabled greater investment and was making the general point re consumption that you note. Word limit perhaps making me unclear.

Charity After Empire Cambridge Core - Global History - Charity After Empire

I'm really looking forward to reading Matthew Hilton's timely new @universitypress.cambridge.org book Charity after Empire: British Humanitarianism, Decolonisation, and Development.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

What Is Centrism? - Karl Pike, 2026 Centrism, an ambiguous political term, requires greater analytical scrutiny. After summarising conceptualisations of centrism – and of a centre in politics – th...

I have a new article just published in Political Studies: What is Centrism? Open access here: doi.org/10.1177/0032...

I note that this is partly dependent on macroeconomic context (e.g. supply constraints), which can change, and I warn against fetishising constraints. But in the context of the last few years, more serious thinking about what (relatively) "zero-sum" politics looks like would have been welcome.

The Unavoidability of Scarcity and Necessity of Political Choice Advocates of the ‘abundance’ agenda dream of a bright future, but in the UK its possibility relies on economic sacrifices in the present. The consequent politics are wicked and demand ideologically i...

The @ippr.org asked me to write about Klein and Thompson's"abundance" agenda for their Progressive Review.

Rather than a choice, scarcity has been unavoidable in the UK recently - with implications for both abundance and more dirigiste supply agendas.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Nigel Farage attended Davos as adviser to Iranian billionaire - www.ft.com/content/7b40... via @FT

Some good sleuthing here.

Further thoughts on this

Agentic AI and Social Science Research Practice Generative AI that follows rules to produce executable statistical code will change social science research practice, for the better and for the worse.

"The big picture takeaway is, though, that as the costs of doing computer work continue to decline, the relative value of being able to read and interpret and understand just went up."

tompepinsky.substack.com/p/agentic-ai...

This is a really useful article for anyone researching British capitalism, especially on the intellectual currents and political contexts of Starmer's political economy.

Interesting discussion in this thread.

Disagree. Often it's more interesting.

But you should read both. Only new books leads to a chronic presentism. You will rely on shorthand summaries of what 'we used to think' or (in academic books) 'the existing literature'; you will not actually engage with how understanding has changed.

Keeping it on your shelf is literally a visual reminder/cue ('oh yeah, that book/argument')

I disagree with this one too. If you were interested in such a theme in 2006, what an ideal book to read again, right now, during a putative crisis of globalisation, to learn more about how assumptions change, and to potentially revise your understanding of the world.

bsky.app/profile/spig...

- If you know the person well, it is often a sure bet, especially in genre fiction or with well-known authors
- Reading widely is a good thing. I am a better person for reading books that I end up not liking.

I violently disagree with this one in Stanley's fun chain.

- All non-monetary gifts are impositions of a kind. If you think this, just give money.
- Some of the best books I have ever read were given to me as gifts, and I would not have read them otherwise.
- You can always stop reading

www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/airport-bo...
Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media