Brilliant PSI campaign poster, 1946. (H/T Mark Gilbert, ‘Italy Reborn’)
Nick Pearce
@iprnickp.bsky.social
Prof Public Policy & Director, Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath. Trustee at Foundations and HEPI. Chair, Living Wage Commission.
You can still buy the book here! It's had great reviews... (2/2) manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/
Manchester University Press - New Labour, New Britain?
New Labour, New Britain? - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of New Labour, New Britain? by Glen O'Hara
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
A huge thanks to the @lse-ei.bsky.social as my 2 year Visiting Senior Fellowship has just finished - where I extended my 2022 book on liberalism & public policy to international relations & trade. The paper on the topic was published by the European Legacy here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Why Liberals Should Embrace the Demise of the ‘Liberal International Order’
The decline of the Liberal International Order is increasingly acknowledged by observers of international relations. This decline has left liberals struggling to respond to the rise of a more reali...
tandfonline.com
In Dublin this week for university and Pension Commission meetings, and dropped into the National Gallery - it has some great new acquisitions, including this by Hannah Hoch
Britain Beyond Brexit 7 years ago we published @gavin-kelly.bsky.social @iprnickp.bsky.social collection with articles by @duncanweldon.bsky.social @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social @profsob.bsky.social @robfordmancs.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social + more (no £) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467923x...
The Political Quarterly: Vol 90, No S2
Click on the title to browse this issue
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
And after nearly two decades of inactivity, a minor miracle: the scaffolding that has obscured the facade of Alexander "Greek" Thomson's Egyptian Halls for nearly two decades is finally being removed. Hopefully this is the first step towards the delivery of the CPO-backed scheme to save the building
📉 A low-earning household in England could receive up to £125 a month in council tax support in one area, and little or no support in another. New research examines how 313 local Council Tax Reduction schemes create uneven financial outcomes across England. 📑 www.bath.ac.uk/announcement...
I have a provocatively titled piece in the latest issue of @renewaljournal.bsky.social, in which I propose that among the lessons of the “Epstein files” revelations is the value of a properly directly, healthy paranoia suited to an age of opaque networks, dark money, and unaccountable elites. (1/2)
Renewal@renewaljournal.bsky.social · 2mo agoSubscribe to read: @daimoon.bsky.social on how the Epstein Files show the need for "political paranoia", and why social democrats should pay attention to "parapolitics" renewal.org.uk/articles/in-...
Tom is right. Hattersley was a committed and thoughtful egalitarian, as well as a pragmatic politician. Few Labour politicians of his era engaged so seriously with its public philosophy.
Tom Clark@tom-clark.bsky.social · 2mo agoRIP Roy Hattersley. A pragmatic style of politics in unswerving service of radical, egalitarian ends. A rare blend then, which would be rarer still today. www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-kelly-r...
RIP Roy Hattersley. A pragmatic style of politics in unswerving service of radical, egalitarian ends. A rare blend then, which would be rarer still today. www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-kelly-r...
Roy Hattersley, former Labour deputy leader, dies
Committed pro-European who formed half of the so-called dream ticket with Neil Kinnock was 93
thenewworld.co.uk
Love this as a prevention case study: - Low cost, even revenue raising in the short term - Improves health outcomes and reduces costly hospital admissions Shows political leadership is key: - Politically costly for Khan to implement - Did it despite cost savings landing outside GLA
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo agoEmergency hospital admissions fell after introduction of London’s T-charge and Ulez, study suggests
LA fans, Mark E Smith’s sisters and Frank Skinner doing the quiz: inside the totally wired festival on the Fall
LA fans, Mark E Smith’s sisters and Frank Skinner doing the quiz: inside the totally wired festival on the Fall
Featuring cover bands, walking tours and the poet laureate as DJ, The Fall: Futures and Pasts is the ultimate Fall fan experience. But can our writer get through Eat Y’Self Fitter at karaoke?
theguardian.com
We're delighted to announce that the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award 2026 is Julian Hoffman, for his wonderful book, Lifelines. Yannis Tsaousis, the Greek Ambassador to the UK, presented him with the prize at the ceremony at King's College London tonight. Congratulations Julian!
Next of the books shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award is Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard. She highlights Socrates’ discovery that we don’t know how to ask ourselves life's most important questions. For more, see www.anglohellenicleague.org/news
‘Gamer kids are coming out and running some of our autonomous units. We also have autonomous harvesters that literally have gaming chairs with joysticks, so they’re running them like a game.’ From Cow-Milking Robots to Weed-Zapping Lasers, Farmers Are Embracing A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/m...
From Cow-Milking Robots to Weed-Zapping Lasers, Farmers Are Embracing A.I.
nytimes.com
The splintering of the left bloc in Greece is worthy of Sophocles.
Owen Winter@owenwntr.bsky.social · 2mo agoSyriza has gone from 45% to 1% in polls in eleven years. Luckily Greeks can still choose to vote for the Alexis Tsipiras party (polling 15%) or the Yanis Varoufakis party (polling 3%)
Review by Jonathan Parry of H.S.Jones’ new biography of the ‘snivelling professor’ of Anglo-America, James Bryce. Important figure in the intellectual genesis of the ‘special relationship’, even if politically marginal and unsuccessful app.lrb.co.uk/2026/05/22/j...
Jonathan Parry: James Bryce’s Liberalism
Certain Kinds of CarpetJonathan Parry Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect by H.S. Jones. Princeton, 445 pp., £38, JanuaryIf historians are remembered posthumously, it tends to b...
app.lrb.co.uk
NEW BOOK! I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line academic.oup.com/book/62279
Utopia
Abstract. Ideal societies, better worlds, more just and peaceful ways of living: these have long been the stuff of human beings’ social dreaming. In this c
academic.oup.com
I’m off to the launch of the Pensions Commission Interim Report this morning. It sets out our analysis of the problem of inadequate savings for retirement in 2050 and beyond. PN is here, full report to follow. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Britain is undersaving for retirement warns Pensions Commission
The Pensions Commission has today (19 May) published its interim report on the state of retirement saving in the UK, setting out the key challenges facing the current system and where it will focus it...
gov.uk
NEW: A gender gap in the average pension contributions of men and women opens at the time of the birth of their first child, our research finds. The report for the Pensions Commission provides new evidence on how labour market life-course trajectories link to pension saving and retirement outcomes:
Robert Harris, author: Happy 100th birthday to Sir David Attenborough. Doing some research on the Suez Crisis I discover he produced Anthony Eden’s live broadcast to the nation for the BBC nearly 70 years ago. What a career!
C20 Society is saddened to learn of the death of Peter Aldington, at the age of 93. Modest yet highly influential, Aldington was renowed for his domestic housing -particuarly the trio at Turn End in Bucks - and has more listed buildings on the National Register than any other post-war architect (9).
Would you like a video of me discussing New Labour at the University of Bath yesterday? Well, you're in luck, because here it is... Come for the nostalgic Blair-era reminiscences, stay for the technocratic view that 'good at politics' is a thing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHZ_...
Glen O'Hara: How the Blair governments reshaped the country (Institute for Policy Research)
YouTube video by Institute for Policy Research
youtube.com
New report: How can innovation clusters in the Oxford–Cambridge Corridor benefit the UK-wide economy? Published by The Growing Together Alliance with research conducted by us, this report explores how innovation activity in Ox-Cam connects with the rest of the UK. #OxCam #UKInnovation #UKEconomy
Accelerating the UK-wide benefits of connected innovation clusters - Cambridge Ahead
The UK’s innovation economy is often described as a series of world-leading places, from the Oxford–Cambridge Growth Corridor to major city regions across the country. But new research from the Growing...
cambridgeahead.co.uk