Jim Ratcliffe is best known as the unpopular Manchester United owner and today he has been in the news for saying that 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants'. We need to understand Ratcliffe's as an energy billionaire who made his power and money by closing workplaces and opposing unions 🧵
All this is a propos of a great @drjennings.bsky.social report on why worsening high streets are a huge political problem. Imv that’s correct - high streets are the index of popular declinism.
Of course this stuff works better in slightly larger places, of course it’s hard, of course it takes money and political will. But why on earth should we limit our political horizons to aggregate individual preferences under status quo conditions?
Have seen this take a lot and really disagree. Gov’t could invest in anchor institutions for towns; build FE colleges in town centres; set up childcare co-ops; retrofit iconic buildings and make them into community gyms, etc. We are more than individual consumers - that’s the point of politics!
This is completely shocking. The police and CPS prosecuted a woman for allegedly making up rape allegation, despite strong evidence that she had been raped.
It should have ended people's careers. It hasn't.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Oh finally! Genuinely have been waiting for this. Really enjoyed TR's By Heart at the BAC this year and this one is supposed to be even better. My playwright friends say it's a masterpiece.
Certainly in their current form neither Labour nor Conservatives could do credible anti-politics. It's one reason why I think our current moment is favourable to sub-national politicians wanting to go national. The aura of leadership but not the taint of Westminster.
Really interesting stuff! Would seem to suggest that a progressive party might boost its support by adopting tough anti-politics measures; rent controls; and... pet licenses?
Have seen a few people passing around this story by Tom Stoppard from just last year, talking about how he learned he was Jewish and also much about his family history, and it's quite a read. He really knew how to write. www.huntingtontheatre.org/2024/09/11/t...
Alia I love this!
Gosh, thank you for the kind words! I happen to have a vivid memory from my earliest fieldwork of listening to your Who Holds the Welding Rod essay while clearing weeds at the allotment with locals. Bad ethnographic practice for me to have had my headphones on, but I remember hugely enjoying it.
I genuinely bring up your sociological work on pubs quite often when I'm in the pub with friends, and I don't know whether it's a reflection of me or my friends, but it always goes down a storm.
Ah I'm so glad you got something out of it! Especially cause I've been such a fan of your work
To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?
Disagree on point a. If all this leads to a conversation on how the West Midlands Police needs to reform to be able to keep our jewish friends and neighbours safe, then great, but why hitch it to a demand that racist, violent Israeli hooligans be allowed to misbehave with impunity?
Yes, it was. Read the verdict. When other ultras misbehave we don’t see calls to ‘kill all …’, but that’s what was said about jewish people - in those words - by people orchestrating attacks on MTA fans. Alongside holocaust ‘jokes’ etc. Pretending that’s not antisemitism helps no one and no cause.
This is not true. There was v v vile antisemitism, see: uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=E... (in Dutch). Separately though the Maccabi fans did misbehave in ways that would see any football team face a fan ban, imv.
But both things can be true no? From the Dutch-language reporting: in addition to general hooligan stuff there was v vile antisemitism in Ams. Separately, MTA fans seem to have spat on a woman, threatened to kill another & generally caused havoc. That earns fans of any team a ban, as Ajax was too.
Is Melinda Cooper my favourite social theorist producing work today? I think the answer is yes - and you should listen to this two-parter to find out why she should be yours, too.
Absolutely. In interviews and focus groups in Reform-leaning post-industrial Labour seats, price controls have been the most popular policy all year, even when we heavily caveat with counterarguments. People have been seeing their weekly shop dwindle and they’re tired.
This has made me laugh - nothing could better illustrate the divide between our departments. We sociologists just have Fanon quotes up!
Thanks Tim! Catch up soon?
Haha yesss cheers!
Thanks Ben!
It’s still embargoed for now but feel free to email me - Im happy to send it over
Thank you Jane!
I noticed that too. A disgraceful way to cover it tbh
Very happy with this!
Did you know, for example, that Croydon was once the home of Imperial Airways, which "placed the town on the empire’s maps", and compelled fascists with strong ties to empire to make it their home and organising base?
This @renewaljournal.bsky.social essay is so brilliant - the history of the British far right narrated entirely through its activities in Croydon. Every sentence makes it clear it was written by a scholar with a genuine love for history and for Croydon.
renewal.org.uk/articles/sub...
