Emile Chabal

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Just in time for the new paperback edition of the book!

I had the privilege of leaning heavily on Dónal to produce this piece - it's brilliant, go read it!

Daytime running lights have been mandatory in Europe since mid-2010s. I can't understand why they're not mandatory everywhere.

Excerpt from an article Eric Hobsbawm wrote in 'New Society' upon his return from a stint as visiting professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank in 1983. Some of the anecdotes he recounted in the piece came directly from his rough field notes.

L’historien Pierre Nora est mort Historien, maître d’œuvre des « Lieux de mémoire », publiés en sept volumes à partir de 1984, le créateur de la revue « Le Débat » est mort le 2 juin, à l’âge de 93 ans.

Nora was one of the great French intellectual impresarios of the postwar period and truly representative of his generation - in all its imagination and dogmatism. www.lemonde.fr/disparitions...

This passage - from an anonymous academic - just sitting there in the middle of the article. Where do we go from here? What does one do with this statement, these thoughts?

Breathtaking: "I always asked myself why people stayed silent during the Second World War as the Jews were being exterminated. I know the answer now looking at Israel, looking at us: because we want to continue living our lives as before and it's too hard to look and speak".

En Israël, des universitaires tétanisés face à la guerre et à l’extrême droite : « Nous, libéraux, sommes dans une impasse » Si la voix de quelques figures du système académique a commencé à s’élever contre le nettoyage ethnique en cours dans la bande de Gaza, la grande majorité du corps administratif et enseignant répugne ...

Excellent, chilling reporting @lemonde.fr on neutralisation of criticism in Israel, focusing on universities. So much to unpack about complicity, power, silence. Struck also by comparisons with eg. Algerian War, Vietnam War, where campuses became hubs of resistance. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

France spent €90,000 countering research into impact of Pacific nuclear tests Documents suggest campaign to discredit revelation that tests contaminated many more people than acknowledged

The longevity of France's nuclear testing in the South Pacific remains one of the Fifth Republic's great scandals. I'm glad the research is showing what we all knew about the cover-ups and the misinformation. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

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States of Ignorance Cambridge Core - European Studies - States of Ignorance

More info about the book here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

States of ignorance: Governing irregular migrants in Western Europe Conversation with the editors & authors of "States of ignorance: Governing irregular migrants in Western Europe" (CUP, 2023)

Fancy learning more about the really cool book I co-authored on Western European states, irregular migration, and the politics of ignorance? Then tune in online to a panel discussion on the book in Birmingham on Thursday, 13:00-14:30 UK time. Sign up below! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/states-of-...

Lol to the fictitious pay figures. But also: the final salary scheme of the USS pension was closed to new entrants in 2011 and closed altogether in 2016.

If you're in Cambridge on Tuesday, come and argue with me about whether Hobsbawm had a theory of capitalism or not!

Can't wait to take this great collaborative book back on the road again!

The Front National: From Systematic Opposition to Systemic Integration? For most of its existence, the Front National (FN) fitted the classic definition of the anti-system party, opposing the founding values, institutions and elites of the Fifth Republic. Now, under Ma...

Or: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Marine Le Pen and the ‘New’ FN: A Change of Style or of Substance? Abstract. The electoral challenge of the far right is an enduringly problematic feature of contemporary French politics. In the first rounds of the 2012 pr

Sure! Yes, it's to do with 2-round electoral system. For English readers, best historical intro to far-right in France is by the sadly-departed Jim Shields, Extreme-Right in France (Routledge, 2007). He wrote more up-to-date articles after that, eg: academic.oup.com/pa/article-a...

Thanks so much!

Bored with the Trumpfest and fancy a primer on what's going on in France? This is the best I could do in 30ish minutes when prompted by the excellent Gavin Esler...

Sure. You can find my e-mail on my university profile as well (or reply to our last communication from April 2022!)

Yes, and I love that the INA have been trolling her with these videos in recent days. Archivists fight back!

V glad this is provoking sensible debate!

No, RN definitely not like ISIS (!), but leadership crisis could really take hold. Or not. Depending on how MLP plays it.

The deluge: France’s 2024 legislative elections Published in Modern & Contemporary France (Vol. 32, No. 3, 2024)

Don't worry, Macron's decision to call an election last year remains a mystery both to everyone around him and the scholarly community working on France! I wrote about that here, with a colleague: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Marine Le Pen s'insurge contre les détournements de fonds | INA

Time to reup this classic video of Marine Le Pen denouncing political corruption and embezzlement in 2004. The hypocrisy is strong with this one, Master Yoda!

www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-...

Marine Le Pen s'insurge contre les détournements de fonds | INA

Yes, it'll be interesting to see how she positions herself at the JT at 8 today. But the reputational damage is real - and the damage to the Le Pen brand. It undercuts MLP's posturing (see video clip: www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-...) and also opens an internal threat to her leadership.

But this fine would be big (it's actually 2m EUR, of which 1m must be paid, ie. cannot be reduced). FN/RN has been close to bankruptcy several times before. So it has serious consequences still.

You are absolutely right that there is no mechanical link btw expenditure and vote share, but it's about institutionalisation of the party. In Fr system, MLP cannot win without a functioning and credible party machine; she has been on that route w/parliamentary successes = more income.

Tbf, as I say in point 4, French politicians have - traditionally - been *far more* corrupt than their British counterparts. I wish I could say France was better in this regard than the UK, but it's really not!

I certainly don't think it "increases" the chance. The question is how far does it damage the party's chances. It's too early to tell.