Very pleasing to see my recent discussion of "Deliverism" and "Popularism" on @ppfideas.bsky.social being used in the Irish Times to contrast the contemporary political approaches of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael

Dónal Hassett@donalh.bsky.social · 3d ago

Justice for @dmk1793.bsky.social who is unceremoniously erased in this Irish Times piece. The comparison between Burnham and Harris flatters the latter- Burnham, for all his faults, would never have behaved the way Harris did with the carer in Kanturk. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

got a text today from an unknown number asking me if I'd seen Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and if I had any thoughts on it ... it turned out to be from a friend's new number, but for a while I really thought it was a devious new scam targeted at heterosexual men

A really good example here of how a "relentless focus on the cost of living" (to quote one Keir Starmer) risks cashing out as short-termism and/or getting in the way of governments actually delivering the kind of outcomes we should want

ThinkLabour@thinklabour.bsky.social · yesterday

Why is it still harder to book a driving test than get Glastonbury tickets? Our latest substack looks at why the driving test backlog still hasn't been fixed six years after the pandemic - and argues the real obstacle isn't logistics, it's politics.

Quotes: "during our period of study (1993-2024), mechanisms designed to regulate spending tended towards input control and short-term decision-making, struggled to support strategic investment and often failed to deliver sustained improvements in outcomes."

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

This is the Nuffield research that the incredibly productive Diane Coyle refers to in this article. www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/publications...

This is a wonderful article on left-wing visions of austerity in the 1970s - anyone with an interest in the subject should read it.

Contemporary European History@conteurohistory.bsky.social · 4w ago

@emile-chabal.bsky.social chose 'The Left Wing Case for Austerity' by @micdido.bsky.social - a 'forgotten history [which] sets out an alternative future in which ideas such as ‘restraint’ or ‘austerity’ might have progressive outcomes' www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I enormously enjoyed recording this PPF episode on Major Douglas’s Social Credit - a crank economic theory of the interwar period that caused immense frustration to mainstream intellectuals (including Keynes, Cole, Hobson and Gaitskell) but whose followers ended up taking power in Western Canada.

Past Present Future Podcast@ppfideas.bsky.social · 2d ago

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In this PPF+ bonus David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about an idea of the 1920s & 30s: social credit, meant to usher in an age of abundance & freedom, producing conspiracy theories & crypto-fascism instead. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Clearly many people have been reading @mwpalen.bsky.social's work

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈@josephpolitano.bsky.social · yesterday

DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...

This is an excellent post that decimates the idea that there is a Truth Police out there actively monitoring bad faith academic work. As most academics and especially journal editors know, a system built on assuming good faith will always struggle against LaCour type fabulists.

Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 3d ago

New post: those wanting Jason Arday to face 'justice' of some kind are not going to get what they want willd10.substack.com/p/how-the-ja...

It's nice to see P&P promoting my article as we approach the anniversary of the 1976 IMF Crisis, when unilateral protectionism was furiously debated within the bowels of the British state. It's open access and free to read via the link below.

Past and Present@pastpresentsoc.bsky.social · yesterday

On advance access "The Political Crisis of British Keynesianism, 1973–1983" by @colmpm.bsky.social (‪@qmpoliticsir.bsky.social‬) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

wp.me/p15p2Q-hlv

Engels to Marx, 4th August 1856 ‘tropical heat which has brought everything to a standstill’

The letter below is not the proof that climate change deniers may be looking for.. The temperature in Manchester on 4th August 1856 was 25C, warm certainly but well below temperatures reached in 20…

wp.me

Some of the defence of him does seem to me to be a British incident of what I was talking about in White Psychodrama (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jopp.12290 - a paper I actually wrote myself! Go cite me) with Repenters falling for a pretty obvious PoC intelligentsia fabulist.

White psychodrama

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

On the blog this week: director of research Dexter Govan speaks with the Bishop of Manchester about the role of the Lords Spiritual. At a time of significant change in the House of Lords, this is a must read: https://consoc.org.uk/role-of-the-lords-spiritual/

What is the role of the Lords Spiritual? An interview with the Bishop of Manchester - The Constitution Society

Dexter Govan interviews the Rt Rev. the Lord Bishop of Manchester about the role of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords.

consoc.org.uk

at some point we're going to have to regulate media platforms

Scott McGrath@smcgrath.phd · 2d ago

🧪 Medical professionals are losing the attention war on YouTube. In a 3,958-video sample, independent creators produced the lowest quality content but captured the highest viewership using exaggeration. #MedSky

'In their loneliness [people] follow the man with the loudest voice, or in these days, the loudest loudspeaker...They suck in mass-produced ideas as a substitute for having ideas of their own: they all shout in unison because they have no one to talk to quietly' (GDH Cole).

feel like one irony of both universal healthcare + childcare is that it simultaneously also creates a new bloc of voters who are likely much more to take risks + be entrepreneurial which may make it harder for social democratic hegemony

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · 2d ago

reading this book (yes, i don't upload everything i'm reading to the book thread, mainly on the grounds people would start debating if i'm actually reading) and yeah one of the largest pressure points for the Middle Precariat is basically both healthcare and childcare it wouldn't get rid of MAHA...

Brilliant PSI campaign poster, 1946. (H/T Mark Gilbert, ‘Italy Reborn’)

Lenin perverted Marxism, invented a new form of despotism, and permanently split the international socialist movement. Without his disastrous intervention, social democracy would likely have triumphed across Europe and forestalled the Second World War.

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 2d ago

I think I might hate Lenin too much to finish my Russian revolution book, every single one of his interventions is so loathsome it actively puts me in a bad mood

Was Social Credit left-wing or right-wing? How did it relate to Guild Socialism? Was it always destined to descend into antisemitism? And is Grimes’s vision of a “decentralised UBI achieved via crypto and gaming” the closest equivalent today? Check out the episode for all thjs and more!

And my boy Charlie Chaplin. Generally it’s this or remonitising silver - ideally both - for your interwar crank opinion former

David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 2d ago

I enormously enjoyed recording this PPF episode on Major Douglas’s Social Credit - a crank economic theory of the interwar period that caused immense frustration to mainstream intellectuals (including Keynes, Cole, Hobson and Gaitskell) but whose followers ended up taking power in Western Canada.

BC followers may enjoy this for the insight into quite why the party that ran the province for 40 years was called that.

David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 2d ago

I enormously enjoyed recording this PPF episode on Major Douglas’s Social Credit - a crank economic theory of the interwar period that caused immense frustration to mainstream intellectuals (including Keynes, Cole, Hobson and Gaitskell) but whose followers ended up taking power in Western Canada.

I think the best way to understand what we are seeing is that it is a combination of political re-alignment and partisan de-alignment

Nathan@nwylabour.bsky.social · 2d ago

I do think it remains to be seen whether what UK politics is currently going through is a permanent transition to multi-party politics or instead a once in a generation realignment which will eventually settle on a new equilibrium

I enormously enjoyed recording this PPF episode on Major Douglas’s Social Credit - a crank economic theory of the interwar period that caused immense frustration to mainstream intellectuals (including Keynes, Cole, Hobson and Gaitskell) but whose followers ended up taking power in Western Canada.

Past Present Future Podcast@ppfideas.bsky.social · 2d ago

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In this PPF+ bonus David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about an idea of the 1920s & 30s: social credit, meant to usher in an age of abundance & freedom, producing conspiracy theories & crypto-fascism instead. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Thought this was excellent on the wider meaning of the Arday affair

Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 3d ago

New post: those wanting Jason Arday to face 'justice' of some kind are not going to get what they want willd10.substack.com/p/how-the-ja...

Justice for @dmk1793.bsky.social who is unceremoniously erased in this Irish Times piece. The comparison between Burnham and Harris flatters the latter- Burnham, for all his faults, would never have behaved the way Harris did with the carer in Kanturk. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Jack Horgan-Jones: Micheál Martin thinks voters reward delivery. Simon Harris is not convinced

Micheál Martin is a ‘deliverist’ at heart; Harris, by contrast, does things, tells people about them, shows he is doing them – on repeat

irishtimes.com

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

The adorable love story behind Wikipedia’s 'high five' photos

Nearly 14 years later, the tale of this iconic couple can finally be told.

inverse.com

IMO the issue is that while while delivering gains is good and required against the far-right, it needs to be combined with an overarching strategy that actually understands how to create hegemony in the face of the far-right

David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 5d ago

What’s funny about this quote is that it is something you hear said verbatim on every part of the European left / progressive spectrum - from Belgian neo-Maoists to ultra-moderate Nordic social democrats

Burnham has talked a good game on rough-sleeping but it remains a notoriously intractable policy problem - this piece in @renewaljournal.bsky.social by a front-line homelessness charity worker cuts through some of the well-intentioned rhetoric on the issue and lays out the challenge ahead.

Renewal@renewaljournal.bsky.social · 5d ago

NEW ONLINE: Andy Burnham has promised to ‘end rough sleeping’ - but what does that mean and is housing enough? Michael Jones examines the challenges to an admirable policy: renewal.org.uk/blog/can-and...

very interesting from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com - cross-over in graph on left coincides precisely with Global Financial Crisis www.ft.com/content/6a35...

What’s funny about this quote is that it is something you hear said verbatim on every part of the European left / progressive spectrum - from Belgian neo-Maoists to ultra-moderate Nordic social democrats

Grace Blakeley@graceblakeley.substack.com · 6d ago

"Centering class, focusing on bread-and-butter policies, and delivering tangible changes in the daily lives of working people is the way forward for the left. We need to show that it is socialists — not fascists — who are delivering for working people." tribunemag.co.uk/2026/07/rise...