Ian Webster

Well that's all clear then

We're overjoyed to announce next summer's star-studded line-up of scholars. Join us at Merton College, University of Oxford, 4-12 July 2026, for an unforgettable week of poetry!

This tells us what a Reform government would be like

Why is the Eliot Summer School ALWAYS FUN? We think it's thanks to Director Cuda and all the students! Sign up, join, come or come again to nerd out at Eliot Camp this summer 💪🤓🌻

Perhaps if we think of AI as a market it might give us a reasonable guide on how to regulate it

An excellent, and to my mind, compelling read

It's the time of the philosopher

In my email from Keir (he must have been busy this morning) he tells me that he's "building a country that works for the future." The present can just sod off.

One missing: hire expensive consultants to tell them what five things to do

The metaphor of economic gravity is fundamentally deceptive. Economics does not have any physical forces - economics is the will of the socio-political.

of course... the wonder-full analysis

be gone analysis, examination, and determining... it is time to wonder

Why is this mysterious woman ALWAYS RIGHT? She's the skeleton key to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land... register for the 2026 International Summer School and let's talk about why! tseliotschool.com.

@intleliotsociety.bsky.social @tseliotfoundation.bsky.social thanks @benjuhmuhn.bsky.social art,

Hey what could be better on a chilly Thursday in November than to edit those abstracts destined for MSA/BAMS?

Doing so with the Eliot Society grad reps, of course!

The Waste Land, Halloween edition!

Help me get this word out? Thanks! Scholarships available, full schedule soon

From the FT "Joel Mokyr is known as an economic historian rather than someone who stuffs their papers with whizzy maths. And this is the fourth Nobel in a row to feature a substantial economic history element." Some hope for the economics profession?

though it too has a wiki page

a bunny holding a spiked morning star by lily seika jones text: we must remain whimsical to survive the horrors of this world

Two Thousand Million Man-Power by Gertrude Trevelyan | boiler-house-press "A real discovery." – David Trotter, London Review of Books In its panoramic view of English life from 1919 to 1936, Two Thousand Million Man-Power is no wistful, nostalgic account of its time. Instea...

To complete the re-issued Gertrude Trevelyan set www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...

But there is 'a magic money tree', though technically it is called quantitative easing, used to save the banks in 2007/8. So, why not use it to create co-operatively owned non-profit water companies?

Oh... and one very important skill I forgot: self-direction

Don't think of it in academic terms, but in practical skills that are used: project management, chasing leads, digging out hard to find material, influencing others to accept new ideas... and, of course, long, hard, slog working all hours 😅

A PhD is, by definition, thinking outside the box. In a non-academic setting the idea of being able to take an idea, breaking it down into components, spending time researching and revising those ideas, and writing them up in a convincing manner is novel and not a skill easily found.

Executive pay should fund all consultancy fees. If you need someone else to do your job then you pay for it.

Early onset: It was not (to start again) what one had expected.
What was to be the value of the long looked forward to,
Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity
And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us,
Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders,
Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?

The £34bn cost of Reform UK’s “Britannia card” proposal Reform UK’s Britannia Card would let wealthy foreigners pay £250,000 to avoid UK tax — but would likely cost £34bn and reduce skilled migration.

Though mentioned in the article this analysis ought to be part of the headline. taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/06/23/b...

Eric Gregory Awards - The Society of Authors For a collection by poets under the age of 30

Always an fascinating award to following. Congrats to the winners. societyofauthors.org/prizes/the-s...

The proposed model is clearly nonsense. The current model does not work. Is there an *ideal* model that might be enacted? Grateful for links to proposals that might *fix* things

Shout it from the rooftops...