Rob Ralston

Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They Were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next? How private equity reshaped the local and the postcode tool that shows the pubs most at risk.

My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tax plan dissed at Davos | CNN Business Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell was asked about his thoughts on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a 70% tax rate on people earning over $10 million.

edition.cnn.com/videos/busin...

at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Michael Dell strongly opposed any increase in taxes to address social inequalities, noting that he was 'much more comfortable' using their philanthropic foundation to allocate funds than the government

interesting to compare the rhetoric with the reality

'Post-multilateralism': so hot right now

not many public policy positions going in UKHE right now, so flagging this for any followers on the job market

a major victory for the dairy industry, which has been trying to make it incredibly difficult to market plant-based drinks for years

in 2023, i revealed its strategy with @unearthednews.bsky.social and @thetimes.com

unearthed.greenpeace.org/2023/05/20/p...

The purpose is to disincentivize investments in vaccine development

Analysing Net-Zero Discourses in the Context of Democratic Backsliding A fully funded PhD studentship opportunity, open for UK applicants.

Last call for our PhD position to work on the project "Analysing Net-Zero Discourses in the Context of Democratic Backsliding"! Details here, deadline is this Friday, 13 Feb 👇

www.ntu.ac.uk/study-and-co...

If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.

counterpoint: no

Following the first round of voting by secret ballot, no candidate received a majority of votes to be the next Chair of the Plastic Pollution INC. Unless the two candidates with the most votes can reach agreement for one to step aside, the INC will proceed with a second round of voting. #plastics

a round pottery piece with pig eyes and a snout

i think we all need to step back and realize that peak art was made when neolithic pot in the shape of a pig was fired

The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock The stalled multinational effort to protect environmental and human health from plastic pollution is salvageable, with a revamped negotiation process.

for those keeping tabs on the global plastics treaty, INC-5.3 has just convened to elect a new chair (among other procedural issues)

likely to be quite a tense meeting, and one that could be pivotal for a future treaty

Abstract This article compares the historical trajectories of democratic innovations across space and time in the UK by analysing the development and impact of collaborative governance, participatory budgeting, referendums, and mini-publics. This is an interesting country for longer-term analysis. First, the UK has been considered an inhospitable environment for democratic innovation. Second, it has experienced asymmetrical decentralisation of legislative and executive powers from national to subnational institutions. Third, these changes have taken place during a period of democratic backsliding. We analyse how these dynamics are interrelated by charting the trajectory of four types of democratic innovations in four different countries of the UK (space) from the 1970s to the present (time). We find that, after years of limited democratic innovation there has been rapid, although geographically asymmetrical, development in recent decades. We argue that the importance of these differences should not be overstated in relation to democratic deepening. We conclude that, to advance democratic innovations in the UK, a constitutional convention is required.

🆕 article: 'Democratic innovations in the UK: Reflections on historical trajectories across space and time' ⏳ 🤔 by Stephen Elstub and myself.
✅ Open Access www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
✅ Synopsis of trajectories of democratic innovations in the last 50 years across the UK ... in 7,000 words 😮‍💨

the Arsenal game is free-to-air, yet we still pay the price of lee dixon on co-comms

Environmentalists decry ‘crushingly disappointing’ Pfas action plan for UK Ministers’ proposals to tackle ‘forever chemicals’ fail to match tougher stance taken in Europe, say experts

Environmentalists decry ‘crushingly disappointing’ Pfas action plan for UK

the Epstein files are revealing a lot about interest group influence and regulatory capture

because academics typically would never have access to this informal politics, it’s likely scholars working on business power have underestimated the extent to which public interests are being undermined

Sharing an upcoming brief by @ciel.org & @corporateeurope.org, Rachel Radvany shows the "broad pattern" of undermining independent science by industry actors in env't negotiations to avoid regulation. She underscores the need to have strong COI policies to protect independent science.

In our new FOI study we found that Budweiser directly urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to intervene and "ensure" that DHSC removed alcohol marketing restrictions from the NHS’s 10 Year Health Plan.

Health policy should be protected from industry influence.

www.ias.org.uk/report/now-y...

Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads | Center for Climate Integrity How Four Oil Majors Sold False Promises from 2000-2025

For 25 years, Big Oil has sold false climate promises while continuing to fuel climate chaos.

A new report from @climateintegrity.org examined 300+ ads from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, & Shell and identified & different categories of deception.

I’ll email you some articles - look forward to reading the research!

I remember reading a paper ages ago on why Erving Goffman should be considered a major theorist of power - this piece is a nice illustration of why his work on performance is so useful to understanding politics

Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-based

have a few papers in review that examine this issue, and the reality is that ‘circular’ claims often camouflage a reliance on chemical recycling technologies that are toxic and unproven

these claims should be understood as a strategy by corporate interests to distract and delay meaningful action

Global health burdens of plastics: a lifecycle assessment model from 2016 to 2040 Adverse health effects are associated with emissions throughout plastics lifecycles, particularly from production, though the non-disclosure of plastics chemical composition is severely limiting LCA c...

new paper in @thelancet.com estimating the global health burdens of plastics

I think this is one of the first analyses that quantifies the impacts of plastics across its entire lifecycle (from extraction to waste) and highlights the pretty staggering health effects of our current economic system

I always thought this was aimed at people brushing their teeth on long haul flights (fair enough to do so, but the taps don’t make it easy to clean)

I have a paper on the post-politics of multistakeholder partnerships in a new special issue of @cphjournal.bsky.social on 'narratives, agency and resistance in critical public health'

great to be involved in an SI with so many brilliant colleagues and all papers are open access

I found the old app great for quickly checking weather patterns when out cycling

the update has made this feature so much worse - it’s slow, clunky and the minimised window makes it way harder to view than it should be

who knew the Second Cold War would share so much of its aesthetic with Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

I often wonder if being a participant on this show carries real world consequences in terms of personal relationship, career etc

revealing that you’ve trained yourself to lie convincingly feels like it could affect your life beyond the show

how it feels to receive brutal feedback on your article / how you need to pretend to feel in your response to reviewers