The most informative, perhaps the only informative, thing I've seen on the Ceuta migration episode
Nando Sigona@nandosigona.bsky.social · 4d ago#Ceuta: an extraordinary migration event nandosigona.info/2026/07/31/c...
Jonathan Hopkin
@jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social
Professor of the Political Economy of Europe at LSE. Interested in democratic representation and inequality, worried about the survival of democracy. Author of Anti-System Politics (OUP, 2020). Also random thoughts on football, cycling, the weather etc
Nando Sigona@nandosigona.bsky.social · 4d agoThis looks like an important book. It’s hardly surprising though that a system built on rewarding people for churning out papers in the same few journals is not very good at helping us find things out
Rebecca Sear@rebeccasear.bsky.social · 9h ago“The tragic implication of Plümper and Neumayer’s analysis is not that individual scientists are unusually dishonest, but that a system designed to incentivise truth-seeking has been incrementally transformed into one that often rewards its distortion” blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofb...
“The tragic implication of Plümper and Neumayer’s analysis is not that individual scientists are unusually dishonest, but that a system designed to incentivise truth-seeking has been incrementally transformed into one that often rewards its distortion” blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofb...
Is publication, not truth, now the driving pursuit of science? - LSE Review of Books
The Credibility Crisis in Science by Thomas Plümper and Eric Neumayer explores how researcher incentives and publication bias distort scientific knowledge
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Imagine a Democrat President getting handed their ass like this. We would never hear the end of it
John Reed@johnreedwrites.ft.com · 10h ago“Since attacking Iran…Trump’s immediate demands have shrunk from a sprawling list of concessions involving Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile production and support for proxy militias to just one: that Iran allow…Hormuz to return to its prewar state.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
How can Andy Burnham solve Britain’s wealth tax debate? Nesta’s @raviguru.bsky.social and economist @arunadvani.bsky.social explore whether a wealth tax is the right answer for raising government revenue - and the practical tax reforms that could raise billions. 🎧: https://bit.ly/4fOYHQf
Switched on the BBC News by accident (does anyone go there on purpose?) and of course, there they are helping Nigel Farage reset the news cycle
‘Conservatives are primarily about helping paedophiles’ might be a bit of a stretch but the evidence really is mounting isn’t it
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d agoAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
Imagine a media which paid as much attention to the corporate raiders ripping us all off as they do to a few thousand desperate people trying to make their home here
EU Ministers discuss Schengen this week over a crisis that never threatened Europe's free-movement area: no one leaves Ceuta without a border check. Instead, the EPP & far-right allies use this manufactured crisis whose price was paid by real lives to attack Spain's different stance to migration.
every single day I am baffled by the fact that this man - this incredibly, astoundingly embarrassing man - is the one half the damn country built a cult of personality around
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoTrump: “The Winning Shot in the Bedminster Club Championship! Thank you very much to all of those who participated. I won with a 70, & am so honored in that, unlike the rest of the field, I’m given very little time to practice, bc I’m focused on many other things. It’s called TALENT, and I have it”
Few people understand that the UK university system is in crisis, but even fewer realise that many of the people losing their jobs are amongst the best in their fields
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d agoSo it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
Update: over 48,300 people have returned from Ceuta to Morocco. About 1,700 people are still in Ceuta.
Jorge Liboreiro@jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social · 5d agoUpdate: over 37,500 people have already returned from Ceuta to Morocco, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry. This represents 75% of all arrivals. Death toll rises to 57.
I challenge anyone who talks about open borders to try going on holiday without their passport
The far right has discovered democracy’s weak point - if you make up enough nonsense about what is actually happening accountable government becomes impossible
Coach Finstock@coachfinstock.bsky.social · 4d agoHe dumped water we needed in LA to fight the Palisades wildfires into the Central Valley just to fuck us over and it wasted water they needed for the grow season. No one remembers this either. It's insane.
This is the democratic doomloop in action. Americans put their faith in a con artist to fix a failing political system and made that system a million times worse. Ideally people would realise but it’s just as likely they will go double or quits
Seth Abramson@sethabramson.bsky.social · 4d agoThe rest of your natural life—and then some. That's how long we'll be cleaning up the mess of Trump and MAGAism. The nation as it was before is lost. It won't return. What we seek to save now isn't what used to be. It'll be something else altogether. It'll be what we make it.
All very encouraging but this won’t survive contact with the harsh reality that there is no cost free way out of our problems
Reform Party UK Exposed@reformexposed.bsky.social · 3d agoLabour secure highest polling lead since January 2025 as Reform collapse
Important history lesson: Fascism rose partly as a result of the 1918 pandemic.
Bravo Larry. It pains me a former Labour Party member to agree, I just can’t fathom how they thought this could make sense on any level
Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 4d agoGlad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.
This is such abject bullshit. As if refugees are scrambling to reach Spain so they can move to Italy, with its lacklustre job market and insider-skewed welfare state!?!
Jacob Öberg@profjacob.bsky.social · 4d ago🚨🚨 Important clarification: there is no legal basis under the #Schengen Code or the Treaties for unilaterally suspending the Schengen agreement against another EU MS under these circumstances. #ceuta www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...
Upside of this is we might be spared Argentina’s brand of anti-football next time round
John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 6d agobasically for those who like SCHISMWATCH football is now on schismwatch. If FIFA push through their unbelievably corrupt (even for them) corporate sell-off, then Uefa will schism, taking all the european nations with it. And Concacaf (which includes the USA) have all but confirmed they'd join them
so to explain: Infantino effectively announced FIFA (and by definition world football) was literally for sale. he has the numbers to push this through a vote. because lots of smaller national football associations will vote for him. and its one member one vote.
So Concacaf sides with Uefa. FIFA's financial power grab is done. What's funny is Infantino would probably have just about got away with this if it wasn't for the Balogun thing. As i said at the time, that scared the absolute shit out of the European FAs. So they instantly closed ranks on this.
Statement on behalf of Concacaf and its 41 Member Associations | Concacaf
Statement on behalf of Concacaf and its 41 Member Associations
concacaf.com