Kate Alexander-Shaw
@katealexandershaw.bsky.social
Political economist at LSE European Institute. Reports and Surveys co-editor at Political Quarterly. Into narrative, economic ideas and the comparative politics of crisis. Views all mine
If correct this looks like a perfect storm of UK institutional decay: simultaneous failures of diplomacy, parliamentary scrutiny and media oversight, creating a health and fiscal timebomb. Genuinely shocking
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.Starmer’s goodbye gift to Britain: a US pharma deal that could be more lethal than Covid | Aditya Chakrabortty
No journalist followed Andy Burnham more closely than @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social for ten years at the Manchester Evening News and the FT. The Queen of the North on the King... as.ft.com/r/3ef31e1e-7...
The decade that made Andy Burnham
What 10 years covering the Manchester mayor’s many reinventions taught me about the man who wants to lead Britain
as.ft.com
There's a line at the end of this piece that I think is crucial: "The only way prime ministers can succeed in our system is if those around them are clear enough about what they want to be able to act independently" Mini 🧵...
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew post out: "Burnham's policy agenda" What we know about what he wants to do on the economy, political reform and public services. And whether it can work given all the fiscal and political constraints. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
The study of European politics has taken a crisis-oriented turn. Yet despite a proliferation of new empirical research, crisis remains undertheorised as a unit of analysis in European studies @katealexandershaw.bsky.social, Joseph Ganderson & Anna Kyriazi explore link.springer.com/article/10.1...
What’s in a crisis? Taking contestation seriously in the study of Europe’s crisis politics - Comparative European Politics
The study of European politics has taken a crisis-oriented turn. Yet despite a proliferation of new empirical research, crisis remains undertheorised as a unit of analysis in European studies. Part of...
link.springer.com
"in reality much of the system is focused on ranking children... By definition, the benefits here cannot be universal as the aim is to create a hierarchy" Really thought-provoking read on education and inequality, from @samfr.bsky.social
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew post out: "The gap that never closes" I've spent much of my career trying to reduce the rich/poor gap in education. Nothing's worked. Which has led me to the conclusion that we're thinking about inequality the wrong way... (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
What the- ? Genuinely jaw dropping - a President extorting his own government and, by extension, the American people
Ryan Enos@ryanenos.bsky.social · 3mo agoI say without hyperbole that this is the most brazenly corrupt action in US Presidential history. That it does not immediately lead to impeachment is a dangerous sign of how far the rule of law has declined.
Latest @ippr.org Progressive Review is out, focused on the "abundance agenda" - including @christabelcoops.bsky.social & @katealexandershaw.bsky.social on the politics of growth, and satisfyingly blunt realism from @gilesyb.bsky.social & @colmpm.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/25732331...
IPPR Progressive Review: Vol 32, No 1-3
Click on the title to browse this issue
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
"Andrew was a walking category error... conducting a campaign of international larceny masquerading as public service." Blistering piece by Andrew O'Hagan in @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan · Stay Classy: Mummy’s Favourite
The late queen can be held responsible for much, but nobody could accuse her of seeming to enjoy her role. For the...
lrb.co.uk
We don’t like or approve of most of the people in this constituency, but we definitely should have won
Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 5mo ago"I'm not sure that anyone who voted Green (in Gorton and Denton) works" says Nigel Farage. So not just smearing the winners of the by-election his party just lost, but all of their voters too.
The study of European politics has taken a crisis-oriented turn. Yet despite a proliferation of new empirical research, crisis remains undertheorised as a unit of analysis in European studies @katealexandershaw.bsky.social, Joseph Ganderson & Anna Kyriazi explore link.springer.com/article/10.1...
What’s in a crisis? Taking contestation seriously in the study of Europe’s crisis politics - Comparative European Politics
Comparative European Politics - The study of European politics has taken a crisis-oriented turn. Yet despite a proliferation of new empirical research, crisis remains undertheorised as a unit of...
link.springer.com
New piece from me, on the politics of 'abundance', in IPPR Progressive Review (currently free to read) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Beyond Incrementalism: Can the Politics of Abundance Work for the United Kingdom?
The abundance agenda offers an important provocation to progressives, asking them to think big about the possibilities for growth and economic renewal. Developed in the context of the United States, ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This is a thorny area and I am not an expert. But one insight from being a primary school governor: getting an EHCP requires evidence the child's needs are not being met - evidence of ongoing failure, essentially. This can take until Y6. For it then to be up for reassessement in Y7 would be awful
Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social · 6mo agoTwo new levels of support: 1/ Individual support plans (ISPs) for millions of kids in mainstream schools - incl access to psychologists & therapists etc 2/ EHCPs reserved for most severe SEND children from 2035 - and will be reassessed at next stage of education - eg secondary transition.
I'm sorry but it's very funny to me that the legislature of a G7/P5 country of 70 million is currently drafting the "Fuck This One Guy in Particular Act of 2026." Also, imagine tolerating a system of privilege so entrenched you need to rewrite centuries-old rules just to get at one douchebag.
Steve Peers@stevepeers.bsky.social · 6mo agoUK govt drafting legislation to remove Mandelson peerage, has referred information to the police www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cl...
In an era of populism, universities make an easy political target. Public opinion reflects a growing suspicion, with research-intensive universities distant from ‘left behind places’ . A solid base of citizen support is urgently needed to survive.
Attacking Universities Is Now a Populist Position. We Must Redefine Their Moral Purpose
Britain's universities face an acute financial and moral crisis.
politicalquarterly.org.uk
New article by my brilliant colleague Anna Kyriazi, on the EU’s membership crises
JEPP Journal@jeppjournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago🔥 Troublemakers: What explains EU membership crises? Anna Kyriazi treats Brexit and Hungary’s autocratisation as membership crises. Her article traces how domestic party politics fuelled them and why the EU managed them differently 👇 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Really interesting read on how forecasting errors have all been in the same direction lately (data revisions routinely have output as better than expected, esp after crises) 1/3
Chris Giles@chrisgiles.ft.com · 8mo agoObviously, people will say this is Panglossian nonsense… .. I prefer, “factual” as.ft.com/r/f040c3e5-9... The UK economy is not nearly as bad as you’ve been told
Discussing @neilshearing.bsky.social's "fracturing" thesis with my political economy students this week - if we're at an inflection point for globalisation, where next?
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 9mo agoThe fracturing of the world economy on.ft.com/4rCXzVl | opinion
This is exactly what the recent Trump-BBC 'scandal' was designed to achieve. The BBC is now self-censoring criticisms of Trump in the name of "impartiality"
Rutger Bregman@rutgerbregman.com · 9mo agoI wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
The catastrophic illegal waste dumping in Oxfordshire (see next post) is a direct result of the deregulation-by-stealth I wrote about in 2021, when my dead goldfish became a registered waste disposer. I warned it would let the mafia in. And here we are.🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Britain through the looking glass: my dead goldfish is now a registered waste disposer | George Monbiot
Algernon Goldfish is long gone, but I was able to sign him up. No wonder so many crooks are illegally dumping and ruining our environment, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
I REALLY need to finish my paper on how we can understand "fiscal headroom" as a politically constructed space bounded by an invisible electric fence
Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · 10mo agoI guess I must have imagined a decade of austerity premised on the claim that the bond markets leave us no alternative.
Exciting to see this in print - the first article of our special issue on EU crisis politics and polity formation, by Hanspeter Kriesi in @jeppjournal.bsky.social. Lots more to follow...
JEPP Journal@jeppjournal.bsky.social · 10mo ago🍵 Keep calm and avoid polity politicisation 🤝 Hanspeter Kriesi examines policy politicisation during COVID-19 and finds that, despite tensions, de-escalation and polity-maintenance mechanisms prevented a spillover into polity politicisation 👇 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
If you care about geopolitics, decarbonization, and why Europe seems lost, you can do a lot worse than subscribing to this blog. It's brilliant: substack.com/inbox/post/1...
The Smelter and the Sovereign
The critical minerals story is another way in which Europe’s green transition is a loser in the geoeconomic turn
substack.com
New tariffs for Venezuela in 3...2...1...
Prospect Magazine@prospectmagazine.co.uk · 10mo agoVenezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Last year, Nash Colundalur interviewed Machado, who is in exile, for Prospect: “Is there a risk that I could be put in prison? Yes, certainly.”
I just have no idea who the Tories think the audience is for full bore authoritarianism plus austerity. Very few who want the former want the latter.