Vladimir Bortun
@vladimirbortun.bsky.social
Materialist political scientist and lecturer in politics, currently based at St. John's College, Oxford. Working on class politics, far right parties, fractions of capital, political elites, and the European left. From Bucharest.
🔴 NEW Reform UK Accounts Raise Fresh Questions About Origins of Richard Tice Donations By Olly Haynes Read below. ↓
Reform UK Accounts Raise Fresh Questions About Origins of Richard Tice Donations
Newly published accounts reveal a pattern of loans being channelled through firms run by Nigel Farage's Deputy
bylinetimes.com
📢Happy to see our article “Far-righting the mainstream: endogenous drivers of reactionary shifts in western party politics” with @alvarooleart.bsky.social published in Compartive European Politics A short thread 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Far-righting the mainstream: endogenous drivers of reactionary shifts in western party politics - Comparative European Politics
Research on the relationship between the far right and the mainstream has predominantly focused on how far-right electoral success exerts external pressure on mainstream parties, leading them to accom...
link.springer.com
Really happy to see my new article on far-right politics, touristification and the ‘political economy of taste’ published in @bjsociology.bsky.social (open access) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
How Cultural Taste Shapes Recognition and Redistribution Struggles: Far‐Right Politics, Touristification and the Political Economy of Taste
This article connects cultural taste to capitalist mechanisms of redistribution through the concept of political economy of taste. Building on Bourdieusian scholarship on recognition struggles and dr...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
With Burnham there's now renewed talk of politicians' class backgrounds. Here I argue that where politicians are now, economically&socially, might matter more for their politics than where they started from in life. If we care about representation, we need to pay more attention to class destination.
Fabian Society@thefabians.bsky.social · last mo."Without enough working-class politicians, policies risk being calibrated to median or elite experiences" The left often fixates on politicans' working-class origins - but where they end up may matter more, writes @vladimirbortun.bsky.social fabians.org.uk/class-act/
I reviewed for @bjsociology.bsky.social "How the Radical Right Has Changed Capitalism and Welfare in Europe and the USA" by Philip Rathgeb. It opens avenues for transcending the overemphasis on voters & discourse but ultimately remains constrained by it. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
<citation type='book' id='bjos70154-cit-0001'><bookTitle>How the Radical Right Has Changed Capitalism and Welfare in Europe and the USA</bookTitle>. By <author><givenNames>Philip</givenNames> <familyN...
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Nigel Farage launched a “people versus establishment” by-election in Clacton – but which side is he REALLY on? Dr @vladimirbortun.bsky.social joins @zoegrunewald.bsky.social to read the runes. ➡️ linktr.ee/bunker_pod
I spoke on The Bunker podcast about Farage's anti-establishment performative rhetoric versus his actual elite politics. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Missing Link: Economics as Lingua Franca of the Left, see socialistproject.ca/2026/07/miss...
Missing Link: Economics as Lingua Franca of the Left
Leftists struggle with economic issues. In a bygone era, such issues were the subject of endless debate between intellectuals, activists, and the working masses. These debates were not without conflic...
socialistproject.ca
I wrote for @newstatesman1913.bsky.social about the contradictions between Farage's performative populism and the privileged interests he and his party actually defend. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
🔴 NEW: The Far-Right Billionaire Who Is Buying Up French Culture By Olly Haynes Vincent Bollore is helping push France to the right as he gathers a growing empire of publishing houses, newspapers, and film studios across the country Read the full story below.
The Far-Right Billionaire Who Is Buying Up French Culture
Vincent Bollore is helping push France to the right as he gathers a growing empire of publishing houses, newspapers, and film studios across the country
bylinetimes.com
What happened in Makerfield? Some new constituency polling between @persuasionuk.bsky.social & Convergent (most accurate pollster in the race!), covering among other things: - Burnham assembling a coalition Lab needs nationally - 'Get Starmer out' + 'public ownership' at the centre of it. 🧵👇
How does rampant #assetisation and variation in #assetmanagement affect social conflicts? Our special issue co-edited with @theobourgeron.bsky.social in New Political Economy proposes a framework to analyse such asset struggles and brings together 7 papers with key empirical studies. 🧵
If you want to take stock of the business interests behind various far right political projects around the world, this interview with my colleague and co-author, Théo Bourgeron, is a great starting point. www.tni.org/en/article/f...
tni.org
Un estudi demogràfic identifica un retrocés d’un segle en la supervivència de la població de Gaza #UAB
Un estudi demogràfic identifica un retrocés d’un segle en la supervivència de la població de Gaza
Un equip de recerca del CED de la UAB i del Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) ha publicat la primera anàlisi demogràfica...
uab.cat
🟨 Print Edition — Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus How did Nigel Farage’s head of policy move from corporate law to political religiosity? Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed report The post Hedge Funds and Tech Bros…
Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus
How did Nigel Farage’s head of policy move from corporate law to political religiosity? Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed report The post Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus appeared first on Byline Times .
subscribe.bylinetimes.com
📌 ICYMI — The Neo-Nazi and Far-Right Coalition that Converged on Southampton Over Henry Nowak’s Murder — @josiahmortimer.bsky.social There were Nazi salutes and 'White Power' chants on the streets of Southampton, after the Reform UK leader called for "pure cold rage" in response to Nowak's death
The Neo-Nazi and Far-Right Coalition that Converged on Southampton Over Henry Nowak’s Murder
There were Nazi salutes and 'White Power' chants on the streets of Southampton, after the Reform UK leader called for "pure cold rage" in response to Nowak's death
bylinetimes.com
Reform UK Councillor Says Families Who Can’t Afford IVF Treatment ‘Should Not be Bringing Babies Into the World’ Bridget Porter backs cuts to fertility treatment funding in Kent saying that those on low incomes should "cut their garment according to their cloth"...
Reform UK Councillor Says Families Who Can’t Afford IVF Treatment ‘Should Not be Bringing Babies Into the World’
Bridget Porter backs cuts to fertility treatment funding in Kent saying that those on low incomes should "cut their garment according to their cloth"
bylinetimes.com
Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the 1.5° target is out of reach. Meanwhile, wealth concentration has increased massively. These facts are interlinked: wealth inequality determines who causes the climate crisis & who profits from it. @cmohren.bsky.social @wid.world @lseinequalities.bsky.social
Why climate policy has to tackle the question of ownership
Wealth inequality determines who causes the climate crisis and who profits from it, so the low-carbon transition offers an opportunity to redistribute wealth
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Only last month Bilgi University hosted the Historical Materialism conference. Now it's virtually being shut down by the authoritarian-neoliberal regime of Erdogan. Thousdands of staff members and students are suddenly left in the dark. Full solidarity! hmistanbul.org/2026/05/23/s...
Statement Regarding Current Developments at Bilgi University
The operation license of Istanbul Bilgi University was revoked by a presidential decree issued on early hours of May 20. This is where we held our last Istanbul HM meeting last April thanks to the …
hmistanbul.org
🟨 Print Edition — Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus How did Nigel Farage’s head of policy move from corporate law to political religiosity? Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed report
Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus
How did Nigel Farage’s head of policy move from corporate law to political religiosity? Peter Jukes and Nafeez Ahmed report The post Hedge Funds and Tech Bros: Reform UK James Orr’s Road to Damascus appeared first on Byline Times.
subscribe.bylinetimes.com
So it's not even that Labour's strategy to chase Reform voters by being more reactionary isn't working, but there's barely anyone to chase: only 5% of those who voted Labour in 2024 voted for Reform last week. Most voters deserting them are switching to more progressive parties or not voting at all.
Steve Akehurst@steveakehurst.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW: What exactly happened in the local and devolved elections in England, Scotland and Wales last week? @persuasionuk.bsky.social has some new polling out today which offers a first glimpse. Thread here on top line findings from each nation. 🧵
I spoke about Reform and its neo-Thatcherite class project on The Why Curve podcast. whycurve.com/episode/refo...
Reform Government? | The Why Curve
If the polls are right, ReformUK could be in Downing Street in three years. So what would they do with the country? We know they don't like immigrants or...
whycurve.com
Excited to announce that, together with Dan Evans (one of the sharpest sociologists of class today), I'll be writing for @versobooks.bsky.social a book on Reform UK, (provisionally) entitled "Thatcher’s Children: The Rise of Reform". We'll be mapping and unpacking their social bloc & class project.
I’m pleased to see people realising this morning that a Lab>Reform seat change can happen because Lab>others and Con>Reform. The underlying vote flow evidence has been screaming this since autumn 2024 😎.
The red thread that will be running through most mainstream media narratives today and for some time to come: overemphasise the success of Reform to pepare the ground for pragmatic lesser evilism in the next general election. It's all about manufacturing consent in defence of the status quo.
Local elections today across England, regional legislative elections in Wales and Scotland. It's obvious to many people that an anti-establishment alternative to the mainstream parties (Labour, Tories, LibDems) is needed. But Reform is not that alternative. It's more of the same, but more radical.
In this piece for @uk.theconversation.com, I look at Reform's first year in local government: increases in the (regressive) Council Tax, attempted privatisation of care homes, push for deregulation of fracking. But all these face opposition from their own base. theconversation.com/after-a-year...
After a year of Reform UK in local government, the cracks are starting to show
A gulf is emerging between the party’s populist rhetoric and what it does in practice.
theconversation.com
