Karlo Basta
@karlobasta.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Edinburgh. Nationalism, the state, capitalism, socialism, in a blender. Wrote The Symbolic State: https://tinyurl.com/3jb7juez. Writing Capitalists against Nationalism. https://www.karlobasta.com/
A great piece on an unusual aspect of Britain's state (in)capacity
How Burnham can curb Britain’s tax-dodging shops
The prime minister is missing a simple trick in his campaign to revive high streets: enforcing the basic laws of doing business
ft.com
I've written an essay for @ippr.org about why democratic reformers need to expand their horizons beyond trying to finish the work of Charter 88, and should now shift their focus towards rebuilding the public sphere and confronting private power 1/4
Against Private Power: A Democracy Agenda Beyond Charter 88
Since Charter 88, democratisation efforts in the UK have focused on constitutional reform to change the internal structures of the Westminster state. Today, however, the major challenge for democracy...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
So far he's focusing on high profile low-hanging fruit. With vape shops, also an ever-so-slight dogwhistle too. Much, much smarter than that last guy (but let's see)
Andy Burnham to crack down on vape and betting shops in bid to boost British high streets
Councils will be given extra powers to curb unwanted retailers and ‘bring town centres back to life’
ft.com
I once made a mistake of watching a Christopher Nolan movie and nearly died of boredom. I then made another mistake of watching another, not knowing it was his and ended up on life support. I swore never to repeat that mistake. Fool me twice...
It's all fine & good for journalists, pundits (and academics) to be pointing to how the media has been giving Farage an easy pass, but why is it that it goes unnoticed that the man behind Starmer's rise to power has only been interviewed *for the first and only time* once he got the boot?
Natural monopolies should not be private companies. Rightmove seems a natural monopoly.
In case you were wondering what's going on in Venezuela
That's not a bad tactical play by Farage. Turn the byelection into a sort of referendum on how much people care about the money, and if he wins, he's right. He loses, he doesn't have to spend any time in parliament *at all*. So for him, win-win
Apple flexing its muscle against Trump admin in the end after all. They may kiss his ass but profit is profit
Best I can tell, the biggest knock against Miliband as treasury secretary is that he's too competent. Hilarious. If Burnham picks him, the political reason for bringing in Purnell will be clear.
No kidding they reject it. 10 years of adjustment to an entirely new institutional and regulatory environment, why would they want to go through it again?
UK businesses reject calls to rejoin EU, says CBI chief
Rain Newton-Smith says companies acknowledge costs of Brexit but do not want to ‘reopen the debate’
ft.com
Of all the irritating leakages of tech-nerd jargon into every-day speak, 'compute' (as noun) has to be even worse than 'stack'.
Anyone harping on UK’s return to EU is either delusional or cynical. Europeans would be insane to let us back in
UK would be blocked from rejoining ‘wounded’ EU, says Jean-Claude Juncker
Former Commission president says other countries would ‘cold-shoulder’ Britain because of its closeness to the US
giftarticle.ft.com
Just the latest iteration of century long property-owning democracy scam
I love that Mary Poppins soundtrack has hits like 'A British Bank' and, even better, 'Fidelity Fiduciary Bank'.
Having seen Trudeau the Younger renege on a clear and explicit platform promise of electoral reform once he snuck into government again back in 2015, I'll believe this when I see it.
Labour4PR 🌹🗳️@labour4pr.bsky.social · 3mo ago“Wes Streeting is expected to throw his weight behind electoral reform... [he] has yet to set out his position on overhauling the voting system in the UK, but @theipaper.com understands he is supportive of changing the First Past the Post system” 🌹 #Labour4PR
Political economy of property on Croatian coast can tell you more about socialism and capitalism than tomes of economics books. It is the most fascinating issue I can think of that no academic is writing about.
That Blair piece was bad for more important reasons, but it was also really poorly written.
Another year of this and people will be ruefully watching Idiocracy where the idiots in government were at least smart enough to get average Joe to come in and solve a problem. Or where AI was actually accurate and socially useful.
Tell me more about that exclusive territoriality thing. But don't tell me about the rules-based international order please.
In Iraqi Desert, Two Israeli Outposts Were Kept Secret for Months
nytimes.com
Have British journalists not had enough of saying 'the people want change' on repeat for 10 years?
Always a good day when you get to recommend Harold Innis to a grad student.
