Lise Butler

Launch Event: The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow Join us for the opening of a new exhibition that explores how people from 1900-present have tried to glimpse, design, or control the future.

Manchester and area friends: Join us for our launch of our British Academy funded exhibition ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’ on December 2nd! There will be speakers, drinks, and nibbles. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-eve...

If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.  It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...

Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.

Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇

renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...

A writer very dear to my heart named Dave Wingrave (who is not on here) published his first piece in Harpers last week - a short story set in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus about conflict, division and what happens after it.

The Renters' Rights Act may be the first law to improve my life Labour should make more of a fuss of these long overdue reforms

Very glad to see the solid, sensible protections of the Renters Rights Act at least get some recognition in the NS - as a renter in London who has experienced the blight of bidding wars etc the dearth of mainstream media coverage has been stunning.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!

All that is solid melts into posts: an interview with Will Stancil In recent years, the American researcher (and committed social media poster) Will Stancil has emerged as one of the most prominent and vociferous critics of materialist theories of politics, and of th...

I did an interview where I talked at length about why liberal analyses of how to win elections are wrong, why social media matters so much, what’s changed, what’s the same, why Marxists are deeply unsuited for this moment, how people think, and more.

renewal.org.uk/blog/all-tha...

Looking forward to this!

Congratulations to our contributing editor Sacha!

Everybody wants growth, but how can we get it? Jimena Valdez makes the case for a growth strategy that embraces international students and immigration, now online for @renewaljournal.bsky.social

Huge thanks to @anneliesedoddsmp.bsky.social for this fascinating and timely lecture on the social democratic response to big tech. Look out for the full lecture, forthcoming in our end-of-year double issue.

Reform’s aesthetics of industry Renewal 33.2_HilhorstRenewal 33.2_Hilhorst.pdf110 KBdownload-circle In North Nottinghamshire, Reform UK present themselves as the party of workers, community and coalmining heritage. But this image...

So much talk about Reform voters, but I'm yet to read much about their lives beyond tropes and excuses ('legitimate concerns').

I've been back in the midlands to interview people and learn more. Here's my piece on them and Reform's attempts to present itself as a community-minded, pro-worker party:

A Q&A I did earlier this year with about digital political culture. Some might find it relevant to current events. The tl;dr is that it’s all different but it’s also the same: people want and need a vocabulary to think with & things to do to feel like agents in their lives. Who gives that wins.

The new issue of @renewaljournal.bsky.social, themed around the far right, is out now and it couldn't be more timely. Free to read articles by guest editor @sachahilhorst.bsky.social, @profafinlayson.bsky.social and Cailtlin Prowle. Subscribe here to read the rest: renewal.org.uk/journal/volu...

I join the now abundant discourse about Abundance. A good book but more importantly a bellwether book for the orientation of the center-left. But like many, they hope we can engineer a way around politics and put things back in the hands of competent technocrats...I am not so sure...

If Labour has any political strategy at all it should be seeking to appeal not to the people who participated in the protest today, but to the majority of the public who are alarmed by it.

“As social democrats we must be clear that AI is ultimately parasitic on our collective endeavours”

Anneliese Dodds speaking at the @renewaljournal.bsky.social Rita Hinden Lecture tonight. Her talk identifies the "tech bros", and the systems they oversee and interventions they make, as a threat to "free and fair democracy". She argues the left should focus strongly on protecting democracy.

Really enjoyed this evening’s @renewaljournal.bsky.social lecture from Anneliese Dodds.

She’s right that delivery in government is necessary but not sufficient. Labour must protect democracy and be a voice for humans in the age of AI.

#Labour #AI #democracy

Anneliese Dodds MP takes on the dominance of the (tech) bros in our democracy in her fantastic inaugural @renewaljournal.bsky.social
Rita Hinden Memorial Lecture

Excellent explainer!

Final reminder that Anneliese Dodds's lecture - on the Labour government, the challenges of new technology, and the need for a new, internationalist collectivism - is TONIGHT, and will be followed by a drinks reception.

Tickets are free, and we still have some left, so sign-up on Eventbrite below:

A reminder that this event is tomorrow at City St Georges. Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of our co—sponsor the Finsbury Institute. Attendance is free but booking required here: www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

A reminder that Anneliese Dodds, who resigned from Starmer's government, is giving the Rita Hinden memorial lecture for @renewaljournal.bsky.social on Tuesday. With the government in obvious distress and a deputy leadership contest imminent, I am intrigued about what she will say.

This is interesting because it's yet another indicator of the 1970s being memorialised in political culture nostalgically and positively, not as the years of "crisis".

@lisebutler.bsky.social spotted this in a Starmer speech from a few years back and now we see it on the radical right.

The Chris of It All Last week the Labour Party shed two Chrises. On Wednesday, the whips suspended Chris Hinchliff MP, for persistent rebellions against the government. On Saturday, Chris Worrall’s defection to the Conse...

"The YIMBYs of the party must speak to a Labour vision for Britain, not shoehorn the word Labour into a pre-existing single issue campaign"

@mcortonscott.bsky.social assesses the current state of Labour YIMBYism, after the departures of Chrises Hinchliffe and Worrall

The right wants us to think Britain is on the verge of ethnic conflict. The truth is worse than that | John Merrick In blaming problems on migrant ‘outsiders’, prophets of decline are paving the way for harder borders and mass deportations, says John Merrick, deputy editor of the Break-Down

Back in the Guardian, on the rise of racialised declinism
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Such a pleasure to present new work on the Third Way, feminism and family policy this morning at @bshsnews.bsky.social - for a panel on New Labour and (Social) Science with Jacob Ward, Jon Agar and Melanie Small

Great to have had the chance to work with @lisebutler.bsky.social and Jane Elliott on this exploration of social science rhetorics of persuasion- looks like being a great book

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Modern British History maternity leave cover (7 months in first instance) teaching position, predominantly 20th century, UCL History Dept. Starts 1 October 2025. Friendly department with excellent students and great library resources. PhD required. Deadline 24 July.

Also delighted to see that it is available in a paperback form for a relatively reasonable £29.99 🥰