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Chris Bick

@jchrisbick.bsky.social
145 followers 310 following 35 posts

Senior Research Fellow at IPPR; working on democratic reform, youth politics, and political parties

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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Gassed about PM’s commitment to electoral reform! FPTP is badly outdated — and central to the crisis of trust in our politics. Feels like an opportune time to repost my @ippr.org Progressive Review piece on how PR can help restore faith in democracy and the parties that organise it. Link 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Party Democracy in a Fractured System
Reader environment loaded
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Evan Maple VO @evanmaplevo.com · 22/09/2026
it’s been said a ton already but I really do appreciate mamdani so throughly dismantling the core democrat ideology of “we actually can’t ever do anything helpful or good because of. circumstances”
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Relaunch day is finally here! Progressive Review is back with some brilliant pieces (and also something I wrote). Check out the thread for open access links!
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Out next Spring with @princetonupress.bsky.social !
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What is cost of living populism anyway? And can it work as a political strategy in Britain? All this and more in this piece I was lucky enough to take part in for @ippr.org's Progressive Review. Click the link! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Cost of Living Populism: A Discussion
Could ‘cost of living populism’ offer a way forward for the left? Chris Bick of IPPR sat down with Persuasion UK's Steve Akehurst, the New Statesman's Anoosh Chakelian, and IPPR's Sam Alvis to talk t...
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
"Cost of living populism" is having a moment. This is a really illuminating conversation in @ippr.org Progressive Review, with @steveakehurst.bsky.social, @anooshc.bsky.social and @samalvis.bsky.social. Few of the more interesting points: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Cost of Living Populism: A Discussion
Could ‘cost of living populism’ offer a way forward for the left? Chris Bick of IPPR sat down with Persuasion UK's Steve Akehurst, the New Statesman's Anoosh Chakelian, and IPPR's Sam Alvis to talk t...
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 01/09/2026
⏰ | NEW REPORT: Young people are five times more likely to have no close friends than a decade ago. Gen Z are more isolated, more distressed and less productive. This isn’t a generation of snowflakes. It’s a generation being let down. Read here: www.ippr.org/articles/the...
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Sofia Ropek Hewson @sofiahewson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Political funding is too concentrated, and we can see large donors buy influence. Most of Reform’s funding has come from donations over £100k. In 2023, nearly a third of all money given to political parties came from nine sources. We need donation caps, so politics can be shaped by voters instead.
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Here's my fiscal pyramid of doom from today's IPPR report that has picked up quite a bit of coverage - largely focused on whether wealthy elderly Brits should pay more. But don't worry there's lots more in there to rile you up - property taxes, AI token taxes, progressive consumption tax, and more!
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I've written a little something on party democracy and electoral reform for @ippr.org's Progressive Review. The arg: parties are essential to representative democracy, but FPTP has made the party system dysfunctional. So, fixing parties means embracing PR. Link👇 (it's short! and opened access!)
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I've written about Neets for the LRB. It is odd listening to recent debates about this completely ignore the overwhelming fact of this current crisis, that it is one of inactivity, disability, mental ill-health and neurodevelopmental disorders (as I discuss) www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
William Davies · Young People Are Different: What do Neets need?
The majority of Neets are not looking for work, but living outside of the labour market and the education system,...
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
very interesting from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com - cross-over in graph on left coincides precisely with Global Financial Crisis www.ft.com/content/6a35...
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Great to see my op-ed out in LBC today, which builds on our new @ippr.org report, What is the Left For?, also out today. A short thread 🧵 Op-ed 👉 [www.lbc.co.uk/article/price-caps-ne…] Report 👉 [www.ippr.org/articles/what-is-the-l…]
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
We're sleepwalking into a real democratic legitimacy problem. Falling turnout means we keep returning governments fewer and fewer of us actually voted for. Compulsory voting is the way out — and it's good to see it's getting some traction. Great thread explaining why from my colleague Nick
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Jane Gingrich and I have written an essay for @ippr.org on a fundamental problem, that an age that demands more of the state also suffers from multiple state legitimation crises www.ippr.org/articles/the...
ippr.org
The legitimacy trap | IPPR
In many ways, the public want more government: to shape a fairer, more dynamic economy and protect ordinary people from the consequences of a turbulent wor
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 17/07/2026
Young people aren’t disengaged from politics. We’re just looking in the wrong places. They may be less likely to join parties or unions, but they are talking about politics, protesting and engaging in other ways, often more than older generations. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/741...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Britain’s next generation is all grown up
Alienated, ignored—and stuck at home with mum and dad. Young adults are locked out from the future they’re ready to shape
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 10/07/2026
🗳️ NEW REPORT: Democracy should mean more than casting a vote every few years. It should give people power, purpose and a stake in public life. That is the alternative to the populist right’s politics of resentment and division. The latest from us👇 www.ippr.org/articles/the...
ippr.org
The democratic citizen: Renewing citizenship and the public domain | IPPR
Often, this descends into little more than an argument about eligibility for welfare benefits. This is a disaster for progressives, who find themselves fig
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
🧵 Progressives need to think much more ambitiously about citizenship: it can't only be a debate about the "who" - the boundaries of citizenship. Our new @ippr.org report today makes the case for a new politics of "democratic citizenship": www.ippr.org/articles/the...
ippr.org
The democratic citizen: Renewing citizenship and the public domain | IPPR
Often, this descends into little more than an argument about eligibility for welfare benefits. This is a disaster for progressives, who find themselves fig
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 23/06/2026
New research from us, finds: 1️⃣ Reduced goods exports to the EU due to Brexit have cost the UK economy an estimated £18.1bn per year 2️⃣ This is 0.63% of GDP per year 3️⃣ As a result of Brexit, ours goods exports to the EU are an estimated 14.5 per cent lower than they would have been otherwise
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Kiran Stacey @kiranstacey.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
NEW: Young men are not becoming more right-wing, new study finds - or at least, no more than anyone else. Fascinating research by @jchrisbick.bsky.social and Jasmine Jinadu www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Young men in UK are not more rightwing than older groups, study says
Exclusive: Analysis shows men aged 18 to 25 are less likely to vote for rightwing parties than other age groups of men
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
New @ippr.org report for you, published with my brilliant colleagues Pascale Frazer-Carroll and Jasmine Jinadu. We looked at some common claims about youth politics and find most of them are largely wrong. A thread🧵
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The Milburn Report is out today — and it paints a staggering picture of how hard things have become for young people in the UK. 1 in 8 young people are NEET: not in education, employment, or training. As my @ippr.org colleagues have shown, this could reach 1 in 6 by the end of the decade.
Chart shows increase in NEETs from 2019-2025, broken out by number of which are unemployed and number of which are economically inactive
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 29/04/2026
It’s becoming harder to ignore the growing weight that extremely wealthy donors appear to carry in British politics, not just in scale, but in proximity to key political decisions.
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Did the BBC assume that asylum applications, unlike every other area of society, were completely free of fraud? Seems like a total loss of perspective over their investigation, now into its second day of dominating their headlines
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LSE Business Review @lsebr.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Fifty years ago this year, one of the most powerful labour movements in the world adopted an audacious plan to transform the ownership structure of a capitalist economy in an electoral democracy. blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessrevi...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
What will it take to revive economic democracy 50 years after the Meidner plan? - LSE Business Review
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Meidner plan, Neil Warner looks at the prospects for reviving the “third pillar” of democratisation.
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Ryan Swift @ryanswift93.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
As we @ippr.org have set out though, there is still a strong case for capping donations from all sources, including domestic companies and individuals, to take big money from mega donors out of politics and tackle inequalities in influence.
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Friday news! We're launching the advisory panel for @ippr.org's Decade of National Renewal today. An incredible group of thinkers to keep us in line as we do some creative thinking about what the left should stand for in an increasingly uncertain world. Find out more 👉 www.ippr.org/research-and...
ippr.org
About the advisory group | IPPR
The populist radical right is not just gaining in the battle of votes but is also dominating the battle of ideas: about who the state is for, how it should
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Lots to chew on in the Chancellor’s Mais lecture, but worth highlighting the clear case for an activist state shaping the economy we want. The state’s always been key to shaping how capitalism works - even in its ‘free-market’ heyday - nice to see that discussed so openly!
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Grateful to the wise @jydenham.bsky.social for engaging with my work on nationalism with Parth Patel for @ippr.org. Much I agree with. www.ippr.org/articles/rec...
ippr.org
Reclaiming Britain - a response | IPPR
By engaging directly in a discussion of nation-building it tackles a problem than many avoid. Fear that nation-building must inevitably collapse into natio
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Chris Bick @jchrisbick.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Loved this piece — We’re really not talking enough about what multiparty Britain means for the rest of our democratic institutions which are very much two-party shaped!
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Lauren Leek @laurenleek.eu · 16/02/2026
My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it. open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
open.substack.com
Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They Were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?
How private equity reshaped the local and the postcode tool that shows the pubs most at risk.
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