All the it’s the policy stupid people need to eat a bit of humble pie here. It’s not that Burnham won’t come unstuck by events. It’s that clearly you cannot divorce the successful implementation of policy from charisma/comms
This week, with Burnham taking office, Renewal will be publishing a short series of reflections on what Burnhamism could or should involve in practice. First up: @ewallis.bsky.social of @locality.org.uk and Rich Bell of @powertochange.org.uk argue for Manchesterism as 'progressive communitarianism'
Manchesterism and the search for a progressive communitarian politics
This week, Renewal will be publishing a series of reflections on the direction that Andy Burnham's new government could or should take. First up, Ed Wallis and Rich Bell highlight the 'progressive com...
renewal.org.uk
Techno-determinism is a theology borrowing the authority of the natural sciences to make a political argument in the here and now about the inevitability of acceleration. But what is shaping the AI race is determined by the artificial environments we have created open.substack.com/pub/democrat...
The Idols of Acceleration
Entropy, Evolution and the Politics of the AI Race
open.substack.com
I do think this piece is vindicated as a political strategy. That said it also covers the dangers of an approach that optimises only for partisanship. Partisanship can help you shift the distribution in your favour. But policy as fan service will blow up if you’re not strategic on where to use it
Morgan Jones@morganj0nes.bsky.social · last mo.Yes exactly – I come back to this by @demofuturist.bsky.social a lot, about needing partisans who will go to bat for you. But tbh I think fan culture (certainly as I have seen it operate) often makes for ... decidedly mixed partisans. renewal.org.uk/blog/why-lab...
I think a good premiership is about making 1-3 really big bets whose longterm benefits dwarf everything else. This is one of them. If Burnham succeeds in rebalancing the current settlement he will have done more good for Britain than any PM in my adult life
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last mo.I am genuinely excited about a PM who will be serious about devolution. If done right it could give people more sense of control about their locality; free up Whitehall to focus on big strategic issues; and make it harder for a future national govt to burn everything down.
Good to hear Burnham champion often overlooked London devolution – London currently keeps just 7% of the tax revenue it generates, compared to 50% in New York and 70% in Tokyo.
Burnham’s speech is what I hoped to see and what I argued for in the latest @renewaljournal.bsky.social The giant we face in the present is the debilitation of democratic agency. But to tackle that we have to orient ourselves towards the future. Imagine! renewal.org.uk/articles/ach...
Achieving England: why the left needs a more imaginative patriotism
A quarterly journal of politics and ideas, committed to exploring and expanding the radical potential of social democracy.
renewal.org.uk
Won’t it backfire for the Labour right if they try to contest a Burnham coronation? Like that just forces Burnham to tack left
Really pleased to have written this piece in the latest edition of Renewal! As a proud Bristolian, I have often been less proud of how its politics play out. Looking jealously at Manchesterism, I took a deep (& opinionated) dive into the (non)workings of devolution in the West of England…
Renewal@renewaljournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoFree to read: @sellottie.bsky.social on the failures of devolution in the West of England, and "Bristolism" as a funhouse mirror to Andy Burnham's "Manchesterism" renewal.org.uk/articles/the...
The far right see an England of vengeance and of cruelty. A catalogue of nice things is not sufficient to combat the poison in the bloodstream of the nation. I argue here we need to take on the challenge of reimagining England’s past, present and future.
Renewal@renewaljournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoSubscribe to read: @demofuturist.bsky.social on why social democrats need "optimism of the intellect", and a more imaginative form of progressive patriotism renewal.org.uk/articles/ach...
Very pleased to be featured here. Some fantastic articles on the future of social democracy
Renewal@renewaljournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoNEW ISSUE: Renewal 34.2 Ft. @kirstymcneill.bsky.social, @daimoon.bsky.social, @demofuturist.bsky.social, @bjoernbremer.bsky.social, @sellottie.bsky.social @anaopp.bsky.social, @dmk1793.bsky.social, Sean McDaniel, John Chowcat, Carla Rocavert, and Hannah McHugh renewal.org.uk/journal/volu...
Burnham in particular must recognise that if he becomes PM he has to be seen as different to Starmer. The entire project is over in 6 months if Starmer 2.0 takes hold as a narrative. That means he has to take at least 1-2 bold decisions that are emblematic, that serve as symbols, early on
Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 2mo agoSay what you will (you already have...) about Blair's intervention but if did at least force me to finish my long promised piece on Pardogatto Progressivism, and the risks for progressives of becoming the parties of stasis not change. benansell.substack.com/p/pardogatto...
Why was this so damaging? It’s not just that it lost voters to greens. Labour lost its most motivated supporters. The distributed network of people who are advocating, framing your policies and defending it passionately. You lose them and the whole distribution shifts negatively
George Eaton@georgeeaton.bsky.social · 3mo agoIt was clear a year ago that Labour was neglecting its progressive flank and it shouldn’t have taken No 10 this long to recognise that reality.
Govt shjould put a stronger civic education duty in the BBC charter. Sharpen it. And make it Ofcom measurable. And ask BBC annually to say how it will meet the civic-democracy remit
David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 3mo agoDisappointed as ever by the BBC's insistence on only discussing local elections in terms of what they mean for Westminster maneuvering, instead of providing any substantive coverage of what might be at stake in terms of actual local government.
Is the Elections Bill up to the job? Guy Furlong argues that the bill is jumble of half-measures, reflecting a lack of any coherent theory of what's wrong with democracy, and of what a better democracy might look like: renewal.org.uk/blog/democra...
Democracy demands more than half-measures
Earlier this year, the government introduced the Representation of the People Bill (the Bill) into Parliament. Speaking for the government during the second reading debate in the House of Commons, Sec...
renewal.org.uk
NEW ISSUE ALERT: Renewal 34:1 The Employment Rights Act and the Politics of Work Guest edited by Renewal contributing editors @stevenklein.bsky.social and @fhpitts.bsky.social along with co-editor @lisebutler.bsky.social renewal.org.uk/journal/volu...
Volume 34, Issue 1
A quarterly journal of politics and ideas, committed to exploring and expanding the radical potential of social democracy.
renewal.org.uk
New post is about what I've learned through a series of experiments aimed at testing how human judgment affects AI systems We need democratic systems to evolve as agentic AI develops - and we can do that through improving deliberative mechanisms. This is my early attempt to show how
Bluesky's vision of social media is so much better than alternatives. The devs are fantastic. Custom feeds are great. But it has to overcome its rep as a place for people who dont like X. The goal is not a perfect little left fiefdom where expression is all within acceptable bounds
James Ball@jamesrball.com · 4mo agoI tend to get dogpiled every time I say this but: as someone *who likes bluesky and benefits from being here* we have a problem. The network is shrinking, not growing. It's shrinking a lot: only about 1.1m people a day even like a post. This time last year it was 1.6m.
What I want isn't always what I think I want. It’s a cocktail that only shakes out when I’m at the bar... New essay on why we need human deliberation to figure it out what we want no matter how capable AI becomes. open.substack.com/pub/democrat...
We don't know what we want and neither does AI
On deliberation and delegation in the age of artificial intelligence
open.substack.com
Does Labour really want to do it like Denmark? I've written about why the strategy is increasingly beleaguered, www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/728...
Denmark's immigration lessons for Labour
Copying the country's tough stance on migration no longer looks like such a good idea
prospectmagazine.co.uk
New piece featured in society for technological advancement If the future is a patchwork of AI agents, each continuously bargaining on our behalf, we risk losing capacity to form political judgments ourselves. Democracies are not built for this… open.substack.com/pub/sotalett...
Beyond Automated Politics: A Response to Séb Krier's AI Agent Economy
Why AI Governance Must Begin with Human Deliberation
open.substack.com
As more and more of society is arranged around a trustless individualism in which you have more and are alone with it, Habermas could not be more relevant. RIP
David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 5mo agosomething very on the nose about Habermas dying just as democratic deliberation succumbs to the mire of short-form video, AI slop, and algorithmic manipulation
New post on an old question: the socialist calculation debate. AI has revived the dream that a central planner might finally replace the inefficiency of the market. The panopticon is probably not realistic but there is a real tendency in which decisions migrate upwards across the economy
Loved Habermas’ unwavering commitment to understanding people with different views & values. Arguing that if we earnestly debate deep differences we will come out better on the other side. Forever changed how I understand the word “deliberative”. RIP www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Jürgen Habermas obituary: philosopher who was Germany’s moral conscience
The eminent social thinker remained in Germany throughout his career to defend the most progressive and enlightened traditions of his native land
thetimes.com
God I hate this idea. People are not one more image of a dead baby away from radicalisation. We don't lack will, we lack any real means to act on our will because the left has ceased to be a political project and become a few thousand people trying to Post their way out of Posting.
If you’re on this app it’s partly because you implicitly buy that enshittification can be combatted with alternative tech. But the dominant attitude here is quite resistant to that idea when it comes to AI or other technologies
What is "deliverism"? Is it dead? And what would its death mean for progressive politics? This essay (kindly published by @samfr.bsky.social) is my attempt to trace five years of trans-Atlantic debates, to set out what I see as the stakes, and to analyse where these arguments have now gotten to:
Is "deliverism" dead?
Lawrence gave his first take on Iran at the weekend and will return to it later this week.
samf.substack.com
I think this sums up well why the Labour right are strategically so inept. They seem believe that an “ideological story” is a list of policies that are a bit radical. Rather than something intrinsically related to the “anger” and identity” of voters he refers to. Labour cannot compete without one
Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · 5mo agoNot sure, I think possibly there might be more to it.
They don't need to "move left" in the sense of adopting Green policies. They do need to stop insulting their own voters. Not the same thing.
Alexander Brown@alexofbrown.bsky.social · 5mo agoWes Streeting criticises people suggesting Labour should move to the left. He says: "They are just as wrong as the people who argued, in the wake of the Runcorn by-election, that we should shift to the right and try to out-Reform Reform." www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
It would be a crime, a disgrace, and a mistake for the government to fail to support the World Service
David Hendy@davidhendy.bsky.social · 6mo ago“I urge the government to back the World Service, to act decisively and confidently about what we can achieve in this space, and to act soon” - Tim Davie, BBC Director-General. A dire warning about the World Service running out of money in just 7 weeks time.