Chris Bertram

True, but the dynamics are different insofar as people get their attention focused on necessary alliances after R1. So not sure about the same effect in practice.

If Labour doesn't want to introduce PR then a French-style 2-round runoff system would at least enable voters to bin the Faragists

There was quite a fashion for short books a few years ago: Polity/Wiley did some (I published one with them) and Palgrave did their Pivot series

Home Office may forcibly remove child asylum seekers from UK in handcuffs Move is part of scheme to target families for expedited voluntary removals before enforced removal proceedings

“Are we … the baddies?” ask a few Labour MPs.

Cruelty to immigrants is not what my party stands for. It’s time for True Labour, not Blue Labour | Stella Creasy We must get back to the party’s roots before it is too late. That means embracing difference, rejecting division – and fighting for opportunities for all, says MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy

Nice to know that there are still a few Labour MPs with principles, such as @stellacreasy.bsky.social. But like Cassandra their warnings will be ignored and Labour’s leaders will blame everyone but themselves for what follows

Shabana Mahmood accused of mimicking Trump as she announces asylum plans Home secretary’s proposals to overhaul immigration system include end to permanent refugee status

Ghastly stuff. And though Mahmood herself is terrible, successive PMs have chosen Home Secretaries from minority backgrounds (Javid, Patel, Braverman, Cleverly, Mahmood) to deflect anti-racist criticism of objectively racist policies

There’s been a murder…

Congratulations!

Report shows UK-EU couples face 'arduous' system post-Brexit A study finds post-Brexit visa requirements for EU nationals has led to separations and trauma.

Excellent research from Katharine Charsley and her team. The Home Office has been sitting on the MAC MIR recommendations for months and has done, nothing.

Library scene (Wings Of Desire 1987) YouTube video by Elza Gvelesiani

World Book Day

Because being opposed to Trump's war makes you a supporter of the Iranian regime? Disgusting stuff, but they do it every time.

Iran Calls Torpedoing of Ship by U.S. an ‘Atrocity’

Reminiscent of the sinking of the Belgrano, also an atrocity

Saw Le belle Hélène in 2024: French G&S isn't it?

Gen Z Beowulf Beowulf, a new prose translation into Gen Z. - - -Fam. The Spear-Danes in, like, pre-Boomer days And the kings who ruled them served courage and gr...

"Fam. The Spear-Danes in, like, pre-Boomer days
And the kings who ruled them served courage and greatness, straight facts.
We have heard of these princes’ GOAT campaigns"

Rétropédaler is an excellent verb

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Just his pick-up line, I suppose.

Restoring order at the border speaks to Labour values. Without that, we won’t be able to do anything else at all | Shabana Mahmood Our approach, unlike that of the Greens and Reform, is in step with the British people. They don’t want extremes – they want a system that is managed and fair, says home secretary Shabana Mahmood

" 'More Labour.' These two words sprang from the postmortem into last week’s Gorton and Denton byelection loss."

I don't even know what the beginning of Shabana Mahmood's article means. Maybe it means that she thinks doing more of the same will bring the voters flooding back?

Europe Abandons Both Integrity and Influence on Iran In response to Trump’s strikes, European leaders have created an alternate reality to escape their hypocrisy.

"Europeans have chosen ... to reconcile their values and beliefs by inventing a parallel reality. They continue to profess norms but apply them to an imaginary world in which Iran woke up one morning and attacked Israel and its Gulf neighbors"

BBC News: Shabana Mahmood is introducing harsher restrictions on asylum, Conservatives think she hasn’t gone far enough. That’s the framing. No place in the story for those of us who think she has gone too far then.

Bernie Sanders’ billionaire tax would soak about 900 people to fund $3,000 checks for the middle class

Sounds fucking, great. Oh, you think it’s a bad thing… Fortune magazine.

What I Learned About American Men in My All-Male Book Club It’s a Tuesday night and after work I’m meeting up with six other guys at a nearby British pub for a couple of pints and some fish and chips. But we aren’t gathering to watch Premiere League footba…

It took me a moment to realise that this "British pub" is actually located in America (rather than this being about Americans who live in Britain), but I suppose "Premiere League football" (sic) should have been a clue!

Well

A remarkably convincing performance from Benedict Cumberbatch

Rupert Lowe's fascistic rant in today's Telegraph exults in prospect of deporting millions and banning kosher. He cites AJP Tayor saying that before 1914 an Englishman could get by hardly noticing the state. Taylor also delights in passport-free travel and open borders. Did Lowe actually read it?

Thanks! I’ll try to get hold of it

Doing my first philosophical work since retirement that I think of as other than hackwork, on epistemic justice and migration/refugees. First outing for it was on Monday (notes, but no proper text yet) and I think it went ok. Will present in Reading in June, but also open to invitations.

FULLY FUNDED PHDs IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

I'm looking for *two* PhD students to join my ERC project on refugee-led approaches to displacement justice. The positions are funded for four years, and you get to join our lovely community in Bristol. Please share widely!

philjobs.org/job/show/30997

Apologie du terrorisme : un responsable CGT du Nord finalement relaxé Condamné à un an de prison avec sursis en première instance, Jean-Paul Delescaut a été relaxé par la cour d’appel. Celle-ci a estimé que son tract de soutien au peuple palestinien, bien que « maladro…

Abuse of "apology for terrorism" laws to criminalise solidarity with the Palestinian people ignored by those who drone on about "free speech". But is currently greatest threat to freedom of expression in Europe and US. Good outcome here, but only after the trauma of arrest and a judicial process.

‘Treat us fairly’: skilled workers face having their dream of settling in UK snatched away As government mulls doubling requirement to 10 years, the uncertainty is putting many who came to Britain to work under strain

People explain the real impact of politically-motivated changes to the settlement rules on their lives, the Home Office responds with "We make no apology ..." IME people in power who use the "no apology" formula know full well that they are doing something very wrong