Reposted by Daniel WincottLee Waters @waterslee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026These are all still officially Welsh Labour policies. Not that you’d know it. 166
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I think London’s population was declining during the 50s, 60s and (even more sharply) in the 70s. The past was another country. 030
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 16/09/2026If you haven’t already seen it, you might enjoy researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/84... by @jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social and @benrosamond1.bsky.socialresearchonline.lse.ac.uk Post-truth politics, bullshit and bad ideas: ‘Deficit Fetishism’ in the UK 241
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Delighted to see this paper out in the wild. Diolch yn fawr to the editors @bjpols.bsky.social to our anonymous referees and, especially, to my fantastic co-authors @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social and @jaclarner.bsky.social 0115
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 10/09/2026@waterslee.bsky.social acknowledges Welsh Labour’s failures on local gov structures in Wales. And the centrality of effective local gov for effective public services. He also suggests a ‘deal’ Burnham could offer to break this deadlock. Can Burnham grapple with devo realities beyond his slogans? 000
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Should be essential reading for Andy Burnham. The UK gov forcing devolution from the Senedd to 22 local authorities would be constitutionally reckless and illiterate AND counterproductive for Burnham’s policy aims. 123
Reposted by Daniel WincottBen Yong @bymyong.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Nerdy observation from the various UK legislatures: they each call the period between one election and another something different. Westminster = a Parliament. Scotland = a Session. Wales = an Assembly. NI = a Mandate. 392
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I’ve had some other things on and also wanted to let this stew a bit. I’m baffled that Burnham can say Universities are one of 3 key strands of his approach to economic development, without announcing a big change from Starmer’s neglect. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...wonkhe.com"Bizarre meaningless guff": the triple helix explainedThe Spectator hates it, Andy Burnham loves it, but what is the triple helix approach to innovation? 000
Reposted by Daniel WincottLee Waters @waterslee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Why does devolution to Wales face a different test to distributing powers to other parts of the UK? amanwy.blogspot.com/2026/09/ther...amanwy.blogspot.comThere may be trouble ahead...Sometimes it helps to look at things from the opposite point of view to your own: After a generation of devolved Government, with growing po... 196
Reposted by Daniel WincottRichard Wyn Jones @richardwynjones.bsky.social · 03/09/2026amanwy.blogspot.com/2026/09/ther...amanwy.blogspot.comThere may be trouble ahead...Sometimes it helps to look at things from the opposite point of view to your own: After a generation of devolved Government, with growing po... 096
Reposted by Daniel WincottAssociation for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 30/08/2026“the novel’s fizzing exuberance derives from the fun of watching Gray’s keen authorial intelligence finding layer upon layer of unexpected possibility in his one ingenious narrative conceit” @jonathancoe.bsky.social reviews Alasdair Gray’s POOR THINGS in the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...lrb.co.ukJonathan Coe · Gray’s Elegy 054
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 23/08/2026It’s not a conversation I want to continue if I’m expected to intuit what counts as ‘studying intelligence’. 010
Reposted by Daniel WincottStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I think also, intelligence is neither here nor there. Some intelligent people believe in horoscopes, and there is about as much accidental truth in that as there is in race science. 1101
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Also note that if they haven’t always ‘thrived’, there has been some presence of ‘hereditarian’ and eugenic perspectives in UK and US academia throughout the years since 1945. The ‘Eugenic Society’ operated under that name until 1968. 020
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I’d note the distinctive fetishisation of intelligence - particularly a notion of very ‘high’ IQ - around this debate (and among techbros). Even so, while Cofnas may not be ‘stupid’ (whatever that might mean), some have argued his work is derivative, not notably ‘original’. bsky.app/profile/ptrb... 361
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Raymond Williams. Towards 2000. (1985) archive.org/details/towa...archive.orgTowards 2000273 pages ; 20 cm 110
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 22/08/2026It has a long history on the left, as a critique of conventional UK statist nationalism. I think Raymond Williams used (coined?) it in the mid-1980s. And I recall some online use by advocates of Scottish independence around IndyRef time. The very rapid pickup, very different far right usage is odd. 111
Reposted by Daniel WincottJulia Lynch @jlynch13.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Nice to see coverage of this strong study in The Lancet. We really can improve lives measurably and quickly where there is the will to do so! www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comChildren's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zoneChildren's lung capacity caught up with their peers in less polluted areas once a clean air zone came in, a study shows. 074
Reposted by Daniel WincottSiobhan McAndrew @siobhanmcandrew.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Quick lunchtime look at www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i... I wonder whether this is so gender-specific. Women may also have poorly-recognised unprocessed grief over failed cultural promises - with more social pressure to find compensators via children & caringtheguardian.comThe men I see in therapy did everything right. So why do they feel so empty?Many of my clients expected to find fulfillment from their career, marriage and home. Instead, they feel grief 233
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Your work, Tim, models an impressive balance of academic rigour, readability and interest beyond academia. That balance is something towards which it is worth striving. Though I guess most of my work is more narrowly academic, I do aim to improve understanding and move debates on. 100
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 18/08/2026My concern is with folk outside Universities believing these institutions are now populated by a few of the former and a huge mass of the latter. And how this might land with lots of those inside academia - on probation, wanting promotion, facing redundancy. 010
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Universities are in a sorry mess. But this discussion them is overwritten, disingenuous, potentially damaging. Plenty of p-hacking (not just or mostly in the UK) and writing for REF rather than to be read does happen. But the choice is not between being a heroic liar or a ‘mental eunuch’. Ugh. 320
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 16/08/2026pass primary legislation and have, in principle, plenary powers on all matters not explicitly reserved to Westminster. Nothing like that is envisaged for city regions or other territorial entities within England. Using one word to describe both is deeply unhelpful. It sows confusion. 3/3 010
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 16/08/2026in part, a Labour unionist tactic to make the UK Union less unbalanced and nation/legislative devolution less unstable. Though Labour has not undone Johnson’s heavy attack on celtic devo, the arrangements for ‘national’-type devo, that include Parliaments (+a legislative assembly) which can… 2/3 110
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 16/08/2026UK Labour’s is basically confused about what it wants from devolution. Using one word to label devolution beyond and within England is problematic. Now there is a (not yet fully worked up) ‘devo’ agenda to address problems within England. But historically, breaking England into regions was… 1/3 110
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Being randomly allocated to a 2nd year undergraduate comparative European politics seminar group Peter taught changed the course of my life. 020
Reposted by Daniel WincottDr Charlotte Galpin @drcharlottegalpin.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Let’s not forget about the failure of universities. Ever since I was targeted by the Daily Express in 2017 as a result of doing my job I have been asking my university how they are going to protect me and almost a decade later the response is still woefully inadequate. They have no answer. 152
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 05/08/2026If you’re not already doing so, @nandosigona.bsky.social is well worth following for informed and acute analysis of migration related matters. 030
Reposted by Daniel WincottJac Larner @jaclarner.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Two(!) permanent lectureships coming up at Cardiff: One in political behaviour/opinion cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/52... One in British politics (very loosely defined) cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/53... Feel free to get in touch and I'll be happy to answer any questions I cancardiffuniweb.eploy.net 31216
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 23/07/2026In his 60s my late father moved to South Northamptonshire near Banbury. He was hospitalised under the Oxfordshire Mental Health Trust in his mid-60s. When he turned 65 he was transferred to hospital in Northampton. The reason? Adult & geriatric services seemed to have different geographic footings. 020
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Essential reading from @jaclarner.bsky.social on the clear rejoin majority now in Wales. Turns out that English identifiers in Wales contain a distictively large number of folk who are still for leave. blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...blogs.cardiff.ac.ukFrom Leave to Rejoin: Welsh Public Opinion Ten Years OnShowcasing current research, comments and analysis on the law, politics, history, culture, government and political economy of Wales from the Wales Governance Centre. 010
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 15/07/2026@willhaycardiff.bsky.social reflecting on what Wales need to make devolution work properly. And drawing lessons for the (quite different) regional/city region ‘devolution deals’ on which Burnham is hanging the UK Labour govt’s hopes. Essential reading! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comIn Wales, I've seen what happens when devolution isn't done right. Here's what Andy Burnham must know | Will HaywardIn my country, devolution has been the equivalent of giving someone a new electric car without the capacity to charge it. That can’t be the model for the whole UK, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward 1124
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Just leaving this here. May be of interest to @gsoh31.bsky.social nation.cymru/news/cardiff...nation.cymruCardiff University spends more than £10m on consultants in two yearsMartin Shipton Cardiff University has spent more than £10m on consultants over the last two years, according to figures released in a Freedom of Information Act disclosure. A critic of the university’... 010
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 05/07/2026What about UK military leadership & Northern Ireland, Huw? Do symbolic/identity, costs & strategic aspects differ? Did military support the idea that the UK has no selfish economic or strategic interest in NI?Brooke made his speech in early Nov 1990 while Mrs T was (just) still PM. 110
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 05/07/2026I can understand the sense of urgency around defence spending, but there seem to me to be good reasons for securocrats to bother about social cohesion and econ growth just now. And to think about these matters & security in post UK context. A big % of small, slowly growing economy isn’t everything. 130
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Worth noting the stress placed by securocrats on hitting a target % of GDP for spending on defence as the marker of how seriously threats to the state are taken. Are they thinking about what UK break-up might mean for deep-water ports (Faslane, Milford Haven)? 130
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Quite. And the U.K. state is committed to calling a referendum on Irish unity in Northern Ireland if reunification seems to have become the majority view. 020
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 04/07/2026The break up of the UK is not ‘unthinkable’ for all three First Ministers currently in office across the state. Mark Drakeford has been deeply committed to the Union, but his vision is of a voluntary union of nations. Only parochially metropolitan folk can still call break up ‘unthinkable’. 130
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 28/06/2026ICYMI Rhun ap Iorwerth, First Minister, Wales www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...bbc.co.ukPolitical Thinking with Nick Robinson - 'A bad start even before he starts' - Welsh First Minister on why trouble's brewing with Burnham - BBC SoundsRhun ap Iorwerth MS, Plaid Cymru First Minister of Wales. 010
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 27/06/2026I was equally perplexed and pleased: Zohran Mamdani 130
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 21/06/2026The WEN report discusses a wide range of policies and policy experiments, including Sure Start in England. (Now largely abandoned) Sure Start has some potentially valuable positive lessons for a Welsh Government looking to develop childcare - and tackle poverty. 2/2 000
Daniel Wincott @danielwincott.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Plaid Cymru have been developing policy ideas around childcare. WEN Wales has an excellent report, arguing for childcare to be delivered in integrated centres, that aim to provide multiple services at a single site especially for families with young children. wenwales.org.uk/wp-content/u... 1/2wenwales.org.uk 100