Tessera
Folgen

Tim Bale

@timbale.bsky.social

Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London & author of The Conservative Party after Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation (now out in paperback). The bits and pieces I do for websites and newspapers turn up eventually at https://proftimbale.com

6332 Posts30268 Follower1265 Folgt
Todd Kendall@alpinemigrant.bsky.social · 23h ago

I read a fair number of these and my overwhelming takeaway is this unanswered question: why do you hate your socially liberal voters so, so much? We’re a fairly harmless bunch and we’ve contributed tonnes in tax etc. It absolutely baffles me.

Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · yesterday

Every piece I read from the ex-Starmer crew has the same flavour- a bleeding over of their distaste for other more socially liberal colleagues in the Labour Party, which has been retro-fitted into an entire explanation for how politics should work, even as it failed when actually tested.

John Stott@jpsastro.bsky.social · 3d ago

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 2d ago

“I believe that the private sector, the people with private wealth, have been disenfranchised". Agree. The government really should allow them to vote like anyone else - and as for preventing them doing so for the rest of their lives when they move offshore: that is utterly disgraceful. 🙄

Peter Hargreaves: Britain cannot afford to lose more ‘big taxpayers’

Lancashire-born entrepreneur who co-founded Hargreaves Lansdown says people with private wealth ‘have been disenfranchised’

ft.com

Maurice Lange@mauricelange.bsky.social · 3d ago

I have a new paper out today on what Andy Burnham needs to do to achieve “the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period”. A coherent (I hope) to-do list, explaining the contingencies and pre-empting potential missteps. Do read the paper in full, but here's a 🧵

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 3d ago

NEW REPORT | The Government wants the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period. Our new briefing sets out what it will take to make that ambition deliver in cities. 🔗https://buff.ly/FwsVDQJ

Brianstorm@rushty321.bsky.social · 3d ago

I’ve just realised I’m not English. My mother’s Irish, my father’s English, so that makes me some kind of half breed mongrel even though I was born here over 63 years ago. Or does having a white face make everything thing ok?

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 3d ago

Going to be teaching it again this year. If anyone knows the best way to encourage hard-up students to stump up for textbooks these days, let me know! I’m going with, “You’ll use this for eleven weeks so it’s only same price as one big Greggs coffee a week - and you can flog it secondhand later.”

European Politics textbook front cover
Dan Snow@thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 4d ago

England is a made up thing. It has no basis in the ineluctable laws of nature. Its extent is defined by Edward II getting his arse handed to him. Athelstan conquering York. The Welsh of Cumbria were incorporated, the Welsh of Gwynedd were not. It is a political idea, an aspiration - not taxonomy.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 4d ago

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the most stereotypically Tory conservative man of the 21st Century, responded to Suella Braverman with a long-form video criticizing her position and rejecting a race-based theory of Englishness, and in response has been ratioed by the increasingly feral British online far-right.

Dom Ramos@corchon1.bsky.social · 4d ago

From Defoe’s ‘True Born Englishmen’: Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, That het'rogeneous thing, an Englishman: In eager rapes, and furious lust begot, Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot. Whose gend'ring off-spring quickly learn'd to bow, And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough: 1/3