This is just ridiculous.

Somewhere in the Department for Education, a phone is ringing On October 20th at a bit after 5pm, the UK government introduced its Education and Skills white paper to Parliament, to absolutely no…

I wrote about the stupid white paper.

In summary, with these people in the driver's seat and apparently unbothered by consequences, we're so cooked.

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs

- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero

What a class act this government is. They're going to do a "task and finish" group on education cold spots while explicitly encouraging even more cold spots through policy incentives and funding changes! Genius. The work will never end for that Derby VC.

Edinburgh needs this!

LSE Collaborative Studentship with Trades Union Congress LSE Collaborative Studentship with Trades Union Congress

If you know someone who is thinking about doing a PhD and who is interested in health then please share this advert with them. It is an ESRC funded PhD working on trade unions and health as part of a collaboration with me and the @tuc.org.uk @lsesociology.bsky.social www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...

No need for a moral panic about the welfare system It’s far from perfect, but the UK’s spending is broadly controlled and employment is high

A much needed corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "welfare is out of control" narrative, drawing on research by my colleague @benbgeiger.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/ee67...

📣Upcoming event: "Immigration, Citizenship, and Social Policy in the UK"

Hybrid, University of Edinburgh.

Wednesday 29 October, 09:30 – 15:30.

A one-day workshop on how immigration status shapes access to work, education, healthcare, housing, and safety.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spa-worksh...

the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priest whispers the final canticle to the LLM before pressing the polished plasteel enter key, invoking the Emperor's name while praying for a successful Generation

ICO orders DWP to

"disclose the list of all AI tools DWP plans to place on the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standards Hub"

I.e. publish details of all the AI they are using unless there is a valid reason to keep it secret

h/t @rightsnet.org.uk

When the party's over w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge Podcast Episode · Politics Theory Other · 08/10/2025 · 56m

📢💥NEW EPISODE📢💥 - @philbc3.bsky.social on the ongoing crisis of the Conservative Party and whether there is a way back* for the party that has dominated British politics for two centuries.

*spoiler: there isn't.

Budget 2026: Basic income for artists to become permanent The Basic Income for the Arts scheme will be put on a permanent footing in the Budget tomorrow.

If we are thinking about alternatives to intellectual property, Ireland's Basic Income for the Arts seems like a model worth considering. www.rte.ie/news/budget-...

There's also the vexed question of who counts as a "foreigner". Long-term Commonwealth residents? Irish citizens? No doubt Badenoch has thought it all through ....

Burnham's latest position is Compassite and opens up common ground with the LDs on PR and Europe, which could make a future coalition easier. But the LDs might need to assume a disciplinary position in relation to public spending, which is not a role the party is likely to find easy. 2/2

❗Job Opportunity❗ Postdoc on Studying Parliaments and the Role of Knowledge (SPARK), University of Edinburgh.

2.5 year post, examining your choice of parliaments between our UK and German country cases.

Apply by 29th October: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

British Politics' Midlife Crisis Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

🚨We're hiring!

🌐Research Assistant/Associate to work with @verityharding.bsky.social on the AI & Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO)

💡Research Assistant/Associate to work with @ojgarling.bsky.social on our policy response & knowledge transfer activities

🔗 www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/about-us/car...

“using their university's approved or supported LLM tool, Copilot.”

So much blandly corporate, so much bollocks.

Most people working in this area have known for years that DWP's figures on trends in out-of-work benefit caseloads are complete junk but have struggled to find more accurate figures. Ben has now produced an estimated time series and the discrepancy is huge. Nobody should be using these stats!

🚨 New working paper alert 🚨
Missing summer — and the Tour de France? Don’t worry, we got you covered. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️
In this paper, we show that being on the route of Tour de France reduces far-right voting. osf.io/preprints/so...

Inside Thatcher’s Monetarism Experiment Inside Thatcher’s Monetarism Experiment - The Promise, the Failure, the Legacy; In 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s new government pursued a monetarist economic policy in response to double-digit inflation,…

Offering fascinating insights into one of the most unsuccessful episodes of British economic history, Tim Lankester examines the legacy of monetarism for the economy today.

#UKPolitics #MargaretThatcher #Thatcher

New in paperback:

The Starmer Disaster A free online seminar with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Mark Perryman and Jeremy Gilbert, discussing the politics of the Starmer government.

The Starmer Disaster - free online seminar with @yasminalibhaibrown.bsky.social, Mark Perryman and me. Discussing the recent edited collection, The Starmer Symptom, edited by Mark, published by @plutopress.bsky.social.
October 8th, 18:30-20:30, free.
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-starme...

"Unfunded research" is a phrase I've started to hear a lot. It's misleading, because if it's on your contract, by definition it is funded. It's intended to make people feel guilty for not getting FEC grants.

The best chapter of "Abundance" is the one on research funding. Nobody really knows what works, but the approach of "more detailed pre-approval by funding bodies" has had a fair go and really failed to deliver the goods. And that's research that is.

'Corbynism failed, but Labour risks failure now too if it forgets why he rose' - LabourList Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader on September 12th 2015 was just one of the shocks endured by…

My assessement of the Corbyn years. labourlist.org/2025/09/jere...

Screaming into the void: the class politics of right-wing protest Recent weeks have seen a spate of demonstrations outside Home Office asylum seekers’ accommodation, and national flags hung throughout England, largely in expression of anti-immigration and anti-gover...

"those on the right-wing demonstration scene are often not of the maligned, silent majority which some implicitly lionise them as. The most prominent single social demographic which sets the tone of these affairs is in fact the lumpenproletariat"

Aaron Wells on the class politics of hotel protests

Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation: Traditions, cooperation and influence in North-West Europe, 1945-91 Edited by Gary Love and Christian Egander Skov

I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.

it's not going to be the good aspects, is it 😒

UCU Commons Report from Special HEC – 1st September 2025 By UCU Commons HEC members Headlines: HEC voted by 20-19 in favour of calling a UK-wide statutory industrial action ballot on pay In a farcical vote, UCU Left members voted for a ballot window of 6…

An update from UCU commons on the HEC decision to run a national strike ballot immediately. The close nature of the vote (19-20) really emphasizes the importance of voting for
HEC reps (there’s a ballot out now to vote for new regional reps!).

ucucommons.org/2025/09/08/u...

Our latest @crsp-uk.bsky.social report for @jrf-uk.bsky.social, out today, paints a stark picture for households on low-to-middle incomes, for whom benefits and earnings still leave them far short of a minimum living standard. Hear more from @mattpadley.bsky.social below.