ProfAFinlayson
@profafinlayson.bsky.social
Prof of Political & Social Theory @ UEA: regularly a political theorist, often a political analyst, always a rhetorician. Sometimes I teach people how to make political speeches; usually they are happy about it. Mostly I study Reactionary Digital Politics.
Rather puts Grant Shapps being rejected as a Conservative candidate into perspective.
Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council election
Joshua Bonehill-Paine, creator of satirical Crewkerne Gazette, has convictions including for harassing a Jewish MP
theguardian.com
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c... Good summary from @jemgilbert.bsky.social and @profafinlayson.bsky.social on what’s been happening with universities, has allowed me to make clearer sense of why I am where I am right now.
Universities in Crisis (part 1)
Podcast Episode · Culture, Power, Politics » Podcast · 16 July · 1hr 14min
podcasts.apple.com
Very timely and very interesting (also very persuasive): The Treasury is "characterised by a paradox of over-control and under-control" prioritising compliance with rules over proper strategy and overall outcomes; hence short-termism, policy fragmentation, poor learning and muddied accountability.
The myth of Treasury control: Understanding the UK's Public Spending System (and How to Fix it) - Bennett School of Public Policy
New research shows that the Treasury's tight control of public spending has come at the cost of a fragmented, short-term system that undermines long-term investment, cross-government collaboration and...
bennettschool.cam.ac.uk
A neglected feature of UK politics: sidelining of a major ideological tradition. "Disraeli-ism", One-Nation" etc. no longer has a home; younger activists are consequently leaving the Party. Hard to see how it comes back but it leaves a hole in the political culture (no, Blue Labour can't fill it).
LBC (@LBC) on X
‘What point is there staying in the Conservative Party, if you’re compromising so many values you don’t recognise yourself anymore?' Cody Butler explains to @Lewis_Goodall why he resigned as chairma...
x.com
Glad 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.
Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says
LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance
ft.com
Seeing some discussion of Burnham’s social media. It’s Ok but I think it’s built on an old flawed ‘retail’ model: comms as news, branding, advertising. Digital politics is most successful when it invites people into a process for collectively understanding things: the ‘party newspaper’ model.
Government withdrawing funding from our national science base - is part of a more general move away from thinking of knowledge as a public good to letting it be private. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
bbc.co.uk
Just finished listening to @jemgilbert.bsky.social and @profafinlayson.bsky.social’s three part podcast series on the state of British universities - such a well informed and lucid analysis of the crisis and its historical and political causes, can’t recommend it highly enough
Universities in Crisis (part 1)
The history of the universities since the mid 20th century and how they have ended up in the current state of crisis.
culturepowerpolitics.org
At some point the question ceases to be ‘can we afford to take back control of these water companies?’ and becomes ’can we afford not to?’. I think that point was a while back.
Gatwick Airport left without running water at both terminals
Bottled water is being handed out to passengers and staff while the issue is investigated.
bbc.co.uk
Emergency Podcast: Burnham Begins! Inevitably, yet indispensably, it's me and @profafinlayson.bsky.social discussing Burnham, the cabinet, and what it is they seem to think they're doing. Listen here or search for Culture, Power, Politics in any app: culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/07/24/e...
Burnham Begins
Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the beginning of the Andy Burnham premiership.
culturepowerpolitics.org
Must-read on Trumpist science policy. Important to grasp it’s not anti-science but anti *public* science. Tech oligarchs can’t build an AI-led fully-vaccinated Galt Gulch to live in forever (without us) after climate apocalypse, if people know how things work & what’s really happening to the globe.
The Assault On Science Funding Continues
science.org
government has responded to the Education Committee's report on insolvency. this is apparently the position on a university failing - Jacqui Smith is continuing as HE minister ...
We must remember the Utøya massacre, and remember it for what it was: a far-right attack specifically targeted against democratic socialist activists. Today, the ideologies of its perpetrator are openly espoused by a global network of nationalist oligarchs as they wage war on democratic societies.
Roberta Metsola@president.europarl.europa.eu · 2w agoFifteen years ago today, 77 lives were taken - most of them young - on an island that should have been a place of summer, friendship, and first ideas about the world they wanted to build. On that day, Norway grieved, and Europe grieved with it. Utøya. Oslo. We remember.
Really excited for Grok to make the historically accurate version of The Faerie Queen next. Followed by the historically accurate version of Star Wars. variety.com/2026/film/gl...
Elon Musk Says Grok Will Make an AI ‘Odyssey’ Film That Is ‘Historically Accurate’ by the End of the Year
Elon Musk has again waded into Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey, saying Grok will make a historically accurate AI version by the end of the year
variety.com
Truly a historic day. A Downing Street speech with no lectern! Someone should commission me to comment on this radical & risky innovation. In Burnham Britain where lecterns have been cancelled on what will we lean when intoning? Is a lectern not an Englishman’s birthright? Did Homer lectern?
I’m ’in conversation’ with Jeremy Deller in Norwich next Friday. Come along. He will definitely be interesting and entertaining. I may or may not be one of those things. www.picturehouses.com/movie-detail...
Norwich History Festival 2026: Jeremy Deller in Convers | Showtimes and Tickets
Jeremy Deller is one of the country’s leading visual artists. This event will explore how he has used historical events in his public artworks and films. Jeremy masterminded the country wide app...
picturehouses.com
My new article with @mihjournal.bsky.social is at long last in orbit. It explores how the neoliberal fantasy machine has used space colonisation to wish away the problem of environmental limits and revive the legitimation of private property.
A “Limitless Frontier”? Neoliberalism, Silicon Valley, and the Commercialization of Space | Modern Intellectual History | Cambridge Core
A “Limitless Frontier”? Neoliberalism, Silicon Valley, and the Commercialization of Space
cambridge.org
I’ll be force feeding my piece down your throats bit by bit for the next few days. This is about why loss of research capability in universities isn’t just a linear bit of market forces but a messy process of universities sometimes doing panicky short term cuts
Masterclass rhetorical analysis from @profafinlayson.bsky.social. Rhetoric isn't just the poetry - it's explaining the world & enrolling people in action. Alan draws out the core contradiction of Burnhamism - he's got the explanation but not the action culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/07/03/e...
Emergency Podcast: The Rhetoric of Burnhamism
We discuss Andy Burnham’s speech launching his formal bid for the Labour leadership. For info, errata and to give us support (Please give us support!):
culturepowerpolitics.org
“Authorities from France to the Netherlands are quietly removing American tech from their systems, adopting European open-source software and urging civil servants to no longer use Microsoft Teams or Office.” www.wsj.com/world/europe...
‘There Is No Going Back’: The Inside Story of Europe’s Rupture With America
Trump’s tariffs, threats against Greenland spurred a rebellion by top leaders; the limits of “flattery diplomacy.”
wsj.com
The main story is that the US has a whites only refugee policy The numbers involved indicate a second one: white South Africans are not generally seeking to relocate to the US, because they don't need refuge This isnt (only) a refugee policy, but a wider whites only 'demographic change' policy
Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · 4w agoBREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
Call for papers: The Governance of Football: Policy, Politics and Possibilities With @policy-studies.bsky.social tobysjames.com/journal-spec...
The Governance of Football: Policy, Politics and Possibilities
Football (‘soccer’) is the world’s largest sport. World cups mark major international mega events, which can trigger economic development, and have wider cultural and political co…
tobysjames.com
This Sunday times story about Farage is properly extraordinary Confirms so much of what I - and many others - have been hearing for a long time and begs *massive* questions about Farage’s finances, rule breeches and more www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Revealed: Nigel Farage secretly funded by convicted criminal
The Reform UK leader did not declare benefits including staff, security and housing by crypto-gambler George Cottrell, our investigation reveals
thetimes.com
Live Rhetorical Political Analysis!
Jeremy Gilbert@jemgilbert.bsky.social · last mo.Emergency podcast with @profafinlayson.bsky.social on the rhetoric of Burnham's speech and the emerging character of his project. Search for Culture, Power, Politics in any podcast app, or listen at culturepowerpolitics.org/2026/07/03/e...
Ballsing it up already? I understand wanting to get your mates in. But I also think that the inability to get over Blair (elected 29 years ago, left office 18 years ago) really holds Labour back.
He could strangle a teenager on camera and they would say he “defied a long-held tradition of presidents not doing that”
Ten years ago today - right after the Brexit referendum - I published this explanation. I think it was pretty good! It mostly stands up. But I underestimated how easily libertarian tech elite types would embrace ethnonationalism. See what you think. www.opendemocracy.net/en/who-won-r...
Who won the referendum?
Brexit should be seen as a series of different responses to globalisation.
opendemocracy.net
