I’m not getting into the merits of the whole Arday story but - come on, word count is bullshit and the people in academia who care about word count need to get a life.

Emma Yeomans@yeomans.bsky.social · yesterday

Calls for the Office for Students to investigate Liverpool John Moores University, after it passed Jason Arday's PhD thesis despite plagiarism and the thesis being 38,000 words over word count. He says received just one supervision in 2.5 years. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

If you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...

Several UK universities nearly ran out of cash last year, says report

Almost a quarter of higher education institutions were left with less than 70 days of cash to cover costs

ft.com

I think this is the key to Italian (and Spanish, arguably) food culture: high average quality, not a long upper tail of the distribution. Applies to eating out but also eating in. Everyone* can put together a 7/10 meal, but far fewer people have sourdough starters or ground their coffee beans.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 4d ago

One reason why inter-railing in Italy is such a delight is it is so hard to eat badly. For good and for ill, the meals I think about the most are in London, New York, Paris, but Italy is the master for “I had a meal in a small cafe in a tiny town/in a train carriage/a garage. It was 7/10.”

A fascist party founded just months ago polled 8.7%, ahead of the Conservatives, in the Manchester mayoral election. What’s happening on the right of British politics is terrifying.

Election Maps UK@electionmaps.uk · 5d ago

Greater Manchester Mayoral By-Election Result: 🌹 Craig | LAB: 47.2% ➡️ Astley | RFM: 21.0% 🌍 Coggins | GRN: 12.2% ◼️ West | RES: 8.7% 🌳 Eckersley | CON: 7.7% 🔶 Kilpatrick | LDM: 2.2% 🙋 Farmer | Ind: 0.6% 2nd Round: 🌹 Craig | LAB: 66.3% ➡️ Astley | RFM: 33.7% Labour HOLD.

🚨New paper Like most things in democracies, achieving climate action in the form of sustainable policy needs a significant amount of political mobilization. We investigate when & where this is more likely to happen across places on the climate frontline: the Global South🧵 📌 osf.io/preprints/so...

I had no idea public sentiment had moved this far this fast.

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social · last wk.

Economist/YouGov poll ask "Should the U.S. arrest Netanyahu if he comes here?" 49% yes 27% no Men: 46% yes 35% no Women: 52% yes 21% no White: 47% yes 21% no Black: 53% yes 13% no 18-29: 58% yes 17% no yougov.com/en-us/articl...

Italy is changing its electoral system (again): the fifth reform since 1993. I wrote for @laderafrutal.bsky.social's Fruits & Votes blog on how the new bonus-adjusted system works, why the government wants it, and its political implications. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/i...

Italy is changing its electoral system (again)

Nicknamed the “Stabilicum” by the right-wing coalition government that introduced it, this would be the fifth major electoral reform in Italy since 1993.

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

The US Ambassador to Italy is in the middle of a 2-month voyage around various locations in the country on board his personal mega-yacht and it is costing the Italian state €115k a day in extra security expenses for a total of €5m.

Our latest voting intention sees cross over. Labour move ahead by 4. Their first lead since March 2025 & highest share since Nov 24 🌹 LAB 28% (+4)
⏩ REF 24% (-2)
🌳 CON 22% (nc)
🔶 LIB DEM 12% (+1)
🟢 GREEN 8% (-3)
🟡 SNP 2% (nc) N = 2061| Dates 24-27/7| Change w 22/7

New publication out in @epsrjournal.bsky.social! We know young voters vote for different parties and hold different attitudes than older citizens. What we know less about: whether they also care differently about political issues. Using novel experimental survey data, I show: they do! 👇

“Nothing else matters?” Salience differences between young and old | European Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

“Nothing else matters?” Salience differences between young and old

cambridge.org

The Times corrects its splash story headlined "Migrant care workers bring dozens of family members." The Times got this totally wrong. It then used its own error as the basis for an editorial calling explicitly for forced expulsions of people living here legally. www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...

What started as a peaceful protest and celebration in Berlin ended in devastation. Thoughts are with all those who did not make it home safely yesterday. 🖤

🚨 Job Alert 🚨 We're hiring a six-year Postdoc @stawi-univie.bsky.social, starting in Oct 2026 (or thereafter). Research: political representation, party competition, institutions, political economy, political behavior, or related fields 📅 Deadline: 20 Aug 2026 Apply here: tinyurl.com/dyf9bt7h

The Burnham cabinet is no good news for PR. The constitution brief has been bunched with Intergovt and EU Relations, and given to Hamish Falconer, who to my knowledge has never said anything on the matter. Only a couple of (mildly anti-PR) statements from Louise Haigh at the Cabinet Office.

Mehr Details zum Paper gibt es außerdem direkt hier bsky.app/profile/krau...

Werner Krause@krausewe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New paper out in the @thejop.bsky.social (w/ @christinagahn.bsky.social) Do opinion polls shape election results? Using both cross-national data and a survey experiment, the answer we find is yes - though it depends on how we communicate polling results. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Paredes is a strong late entry for 2026 FIFA Peace Prize.

Justicia.

OK I did not see this coming, but it makes perfect sense in the context of the ongoing series of politics as "Absolute Cinema": Péter Magyar supports chess grandmaster Judit Polgár for head of state. www.facebook.com/story.php?st...

This is very good. I'd add that the WASPI compensation stuff was an early red light. It's important that Burnham succeeds and is given a chance - because the alternative is Farage. But - like with Starmer - the feeling is that there's no "there" there.

James O'Malley@jamesomalley.co.uk · 2w ago

I'm worried that Andy Burnham isn't serious (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/is-andy-bu...

Direct foreign interference in British politics - we have rules against foreign governments funding parliamentary groups, but this is fine?? Seriously?? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Trump administration to grant $12m to groups founded by UK conservatives Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young

Exclusive: Controversial grants are part of package criticised as misuse of public money to influence European politics

theguardian.com

🗳️ Electoral Reform Alert 🗳️ Yesterday, the Italian Lower House approved a new electoral reform, now headed to the Senate. This would be the fifth major reform of the electoral system in Italy since 1993, and it could bring an even more radical right-wing party into the next government coalition. (1)

A forensic review of how the bottom fell out for Starmer - really worth your time. My reading of the polls is that the Winter Fuel Payment cut is a major flashpoint, bigger than thought at the time and than other crisis moments (Mandelson, riots, farmers, island of strangers, Polanski, Gaza).

Steve Fisher@stevefisher.bsky.social · 3w ago

New post from me on what did, and what apparently did not, contribute to the decline in support for Labour over the last two years (Substack version): open.substack.com/pub/election...

Long-standing followers from the Other Place may be surprised to learn that I’m now a passionate supporter of the Spanish football team.

(As the cradle of industrial modernity, England is devoid of magical thinking. A post-superstitious nation that cannot see that "it's coming home" is obviously a jinx, an incantation summoning a 90'+2 defeat from the depths of an ancient well into which all previous generations knew not to shout.)

oh dear they will never live this down.

Very belatedly sharing this because the last months were busy: The limits of appraisal theory for political emotions is out in Political Psychology! @gijsschumacher.bsky.social, @mrooduijn.bsky.social and I ask whether appraisal theories of emotion work the same way in politics as in everyday life.

The limits of appraisal theory for political emotions: Evidence from two U.S. surveys

Emotions, such as anger and anxiety, play a central role in political behavior and are extensively studied by political scientists. However, political science has largely adopted psychological theori...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

📖 A new BJPolS article in which we develop and test the concept of ‘partisan intolerance’ - the gap between a person’s willingness to interfere with contentious activities by in-partisans versus the same activities by out-partisans - and we find high levels of partisan intolerance in the UK 👇

British Journal of Political Science@bjpols.bsky.social · 3w ago

From May 2026 - Partisan (In)Tolerance and Affective Polarization - https://cup.org/4ud30Lm - James Tilley, @tmbejan.bsky.social & @sarahobolt.bsky.social #OpenAccess

🚨We are hiring a two-year postdoctoral researcher (80%) at the University of Zurich within the new Horizon Europe project WELFAIR on the political implications of technological change, demographic ageing and rising inequality. The full job ad is here: tinyurl.com/3b6ddm25 Apply by August 9, 2026.

It was great to speak to Iván and Shonah of the University of Vienna's brilliant student-led IPW podcast about the state of British politics, Starmer's woes and Burnham's prospects. (This was recorded before the Farage donation scandal broke out.) open.spotify.com/episode/1Zp0...

The End of the Two-Party System in the UK? (with Dr. Leonardo Carella)

IPW Podcast · Episode

open.spotify.com