To mark the 40th anniversary of the @britishacademy.bsky.social's postdoc fellowships, I'm at their SHAPE conference today to discuss academic precarity and what the sector can do to better understand and support early-career researchers. Some unordered thoughts (with past threads linked):
You mean to collaborate on writing or just get feedback?
If it's the latter, I think just try emailing anyone who has written recent papers on similar subjects, once you have the draft.
I don't know anyone myself who does this kind of geography, so can't be specific, sorry!
We (@lawrencemckay.bsky.social @williamlallen.bsky.social) have data on this stretching back to 2012 for a forthcoming report on the current academic job market in Politics - and let me just say it's unprecedentedly bad at the moment!
Great to speak with @meganekenyon.bsky.social of @newstatesman1913.bsky.social on location about the result in Gorton and Denton, including the role of party blocs!
Clipped my bit below, but you can watch the whole video here (bonus, there is a cat!):
youtu.be/dUh_1XuAg-g?...
Altered screenshot from The Simpsons. It says "Lionel Hutz ESQ. The peace president? No, illegal wars! Phone 555-" It's been made up to look like the punctuation has been added after the fact, changing the meaning of the statement from a declarative statement to a question and response asserting the opposite.
A lot of my academic focuses on public attitudes about foreign policy and the use of force. The just initiated bombing of Iran lacks many of the components that build and sustain domestic support for military action.
So far I've come up with one rational explanation for Labour's response, which is that maybe Reeves has placed a significant amount of Treasury funds on a very specific accumulator about this May's elections, including Labour losing all their London councils and finishing fifth on projected vote.
Just been told the new Green MP was the woman wandering around Sea Power's Krankenhaus festival with a load of greyhounds last summer, that's about as Bluesky as you can get.
Fascinating new paper by and @elena-amaya.bsky.social and Robert Braun on the role of folklore in shaping far-right support in Weimar Germany: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
I'm so sorry.
Bogdanor probably should read our book The Good Politician about the decline of political trust in Britain. It's ridiculous to argue this started in 2008. www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...
🇬🇧 UK Poll of Polls: 22 February 2026
➡️ Reform: 28% (24-33%)
🌹 Labour: 21% (17-24%)
🌳 Conservative: 19% (15-22%)
🍃 Green: 14% (9-20%)
🐥 Lib Dem: 12% (9-15%)
👽 Other: 4% (3-5%)
✖️ SNP: 3% (2-4%)
@prossertj.bsky.social - sounds relevant to your current interests on ideological constraint...
Nick Vivyan, Chris Hanretty (@chanret.bsky.social) and I have a new book out: “Idiosyncratic Issue Opinion and Political Choice”. The core of the book is making the argument that citizens’ views about political issues neither reduce to an ideological orientation nor to a lack of substance. (1/10)
Thus is a fascinating graph, particularly when you consider national Labour contact rates.
Largely reinforces my belief Labour don't do enough leafleting and that our obsession with doorknocking is a negative
*PSA NEWS* 📢 We are pleased to announce a new partnership with The Conversation @uk.theconversation.com, with a commitment to working together over the next 3 years to achieve shared goals. The Conversation will be our media partner for PSA26 annual conference.
➡️ Full details
!! … ah
Ministers want to get back to the 'better standards in politics' theme - good.
A bill is has just been promised to allow removal of peerages.
But a government bill would also ideally end unregulated appointments to the Lords. As Meg Russell argued months ago.⤵️
constitution-unit.com/2025/07/01/1...
on we go
The haters said the Japanese opposition couldn't do it. And they were correct. Honestly, great call by the haters
Once again the Labour right fail to reckon with the fact that, first, they have to win with the membership.
This is actually mental and the blokes (and it will be blokes) advocating it are entirely detached from reality
The untold story that is told constantly and isn’t really true
Clever and interesting paper on (literally) bridging political cultures
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I was on BBCR4’s Rethink today talking with @benansell.bsky.social about
political authenticity
Research links to follow. With co-authors @viktorv.bsky.social, @drjennings.bsky.social, @jmoss88.bsky.social, @danjdevine.bsky.social, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Peter Mandelbrot. It’s just infinite scandals the more you zoom in.
It's genuinely fascinating how despite Starmer's hatred of Boris Johnson, Boris is easily the PM he's most wound up resembling
All news is local...
🎉 Really happy to see my first single-authored article published in @politicalgeography.bsky.social !
It analyses how inequalities in access to basic services (healthcare, education, roads, and internet coverage) affect levels of rural resentment
👇
[1/5]
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Sir John Templeton once said that the four most dangerous words in the English language were 'this time it's different'.
He was wrong. The four most dangerous words in the English language are in fact 'give Peter another chance'.
