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Jonathan Davies

@profjsdavies.bsky.social

Former professor of urban studies and public policy. Independent Chair of Feeding Leicester. Living with CLL thanks to NHS.

437 Posts725 Follower607 Folgt
Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2w ago

Putin might be mad enough and bad enough to try. but he stands no chance of rolling over Poland, let alone Europe. The sabre-rattling of "warfare not welfare" brigade in the UK and Europe should be understood in that context. This is about loss of hegemony and fear of geo-political obsolescence.

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 2w ago

This has been Putin's dream for years: That his country, with GDP per capita lower than Poland, unable to conquer Donbas since 2014, will be treated as an equal to the US and China. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 4w ago

Somebody asked me to define ethno-nationalism. Does this work? "A group claim to sovereignty over land and/or resources, which allocates citizenship rights on the basis of ethnic characterisation".

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · last mo.

Braverman: Yes - I'm a Buddhist, but I believe that all the kids should be coerced into Christian song. No - you cannot simultaneously be "Asian" and "English". Will she take the next step, and declare that only a white christian can be English? Not just yet. www.independent.co.uk/voices/suell...

Suella Braverman can’t say I’m not English

The argument she stumped up on Question Time is insulting, idiotic and – yes – effectively racist, says Sonia Sodha

independent.co.uk

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · last mo.

Ed Sheeran has brought "complexity" back into discussion with his genocide denialism. What are the most egregious abuses of "complexity"? I award first place to Ulrich Beck and Risk Society, which gave late capitalism a free pass. Spawned a lot of "social exclusion" quackery in New Labour years. 🥇

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I'm always surprised to see certain people I worked with in the past taking on PVC/DVC titles, especially those with prior involvement in critique and struggle. So why do it? Setting aside the lure of salary, trappings and power, surely no-one believes they're "in and against the state" any more?

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Ed Sheeran is often charged with producing bland, homogenised, corporate pop-slop. As it is in music, so it is in politics. Sheeran has been remarkably consistent in his political interventions, reciting centrist pieties in relation to both Gaza *and* Ukraine.

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Very much looking forward to meeting the students today, and hearing management explain that a) there isn’t enough work to keep me on full time and b) no, they haven’t got staff to teach modules I designed and taught, starting next week. Does that sound bitter? It should do.

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

There is a slight air of unreality about this. Babies might have survived if the hospital had acted earlier concludes Thirlwall. Always supposing that they were in fact murdered. Will we ever get to the bottom of that? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Ministers vow sweeping NHS changes after ‘devastating’ report on Lucy Letby hospital

Lady Justice Thirlwall’s report concludes three babies might have survived if hospital had acted on concerns about nurse

theguardian.com

Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How serious is this for Trump's efforts to fix the mid-terms? What else does he have up his sleeve? FT reckons that SCOTUS leaves the door ajar for another crack at in-mail before the 2028 election. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Supreme Court deals humiliating blow to Trump by throwing out mail ballot ban

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections

independent.co.uk

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour. But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families. The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that. Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened. Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues. Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me. And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability. I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation. When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب "La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty. That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human. Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
Jonathan Davies@profjsdavies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If the organisers want a GC stage on stage 21, then finish the race on a climb or a time trial. Either that, or the expectation of what it is to be a GC rider will change radically (along Pog lines). He had too much time in hand today, but I'd have hated to see Mas attacked on that route.

Rouleur@rouleurmagazine.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What happened to Grand Tours being 21 stages long? Organisers keep trying to make the final day mean something, but Grand Tours still can't quite let go of a processional stage 21 Read more: www.rouleur.cc/racing/what-...

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I particularly enjoyed the slides reminding us to be respectful, resilient and retain a ‘can-do’ attitude even while management breaches GDPR, sacks 75% of a department, misses deadlines and proposes major breaches of academic regulations and contracts. But we’ve got to stay calm!

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Headlines from the school meeting: 1. We've sacked a lot of you. 2. More of you will be sacked shortly. 3. Here's an awful lot more work to do. No you can't object. 4. Recruitment and outcomes are all your fault.