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Peter Allen

@peterallen.bsky.social
2K followers 660 following 285 posts

Professor of Politics & Co-Director of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath, U.K. / British politics, representation, public sphere / author of How to Think About Politics (2025) and The Political Class (2018)

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Reposted by Peter Allen
David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I wrote this piece a year ago making the case for a National Commission on Electoral Reform (as initially by @appgfairelections.bsky.social). Delighted to see Andy Burnham announce plans for one today.
blogs.bath.ac.uk
Why a “National Commission” is the way forward for electoral reform
Electoral reform is back on the UK’s political agenda as First-Past-the-Post strains under the pressures of multi-party politics. The new APPG for Fair Elections proposes a National Commission to e…
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Peter Sloman @pjsloman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New article! I've written about Paddy Ashdown, 'third way' politics, and the Liberal Democrats' relationship with New Labour in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/jbr....
doi.org
Paddy Ashdown’s Third Way: The Liberal Democrats and the Politics of the 1990s | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core
Paddy Ashdown’s Third Way: The Liberal Democrats and the Politics of the 1990s - Volume 65
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Ana Catalano Weeks @anacweeks.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I’m so happy to share that I’ve been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship at @uniofbath.bsky.social to study how the mental load—the invisible work of anticipating, planning and organizing family life—shapes parents’ political participation. 🤯 www.bath.ac.uk/announcement...
bath.ac.uk
Two University of Bath researchers awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships
They will investigate how the hidden mental load of domestic life shapes political participation and how online behaviour can contribute to violent extremism.
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Hettie O’Brien @hettieobrien.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My latest Guardian long read is about the people trying to get their ideas into Britain’s new government and whether Burnham is really prepared to be that radical. Grateful to the many people who spoke to me for this - read it online or in Saturday’s paper: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
theguardian.com
Labour’s last chance? The people shaping Andy Burnham’s grand plans for Britain
The long read: The new prime minister has declared he wants to end 40 years of neoliberalism. But is he really prepared to be that radical?
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Nick Garland @npjgarland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
To mark Progressive Review's relaunch, we've put together a collection of the greatest hits from @ippr.org's various journals since 1994 - all free to read. Including Jürgen Habermas, Thomas Piketty, Helen Thompson, David Runciman, Will Davies & Jean Seaton. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Reinventing the Left Since 1994: The Best of New Economy, Public Policy Research, Juncture and Progressive Review: IPPR Progressive Review
Click on the title to browse this issue
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Alexandra Jabbour @alexjabbour.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
First time I am plugging one of my papers without being asked to: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Weirdly still a niche topic* in polsci while it's becoming a new norm with potential political consequences *with the exception of work from @profjanegreen.bsky.social Z.Grant, and G. Evans
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Matthew Barnfield @mbarnfield.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I had fun writing the Last Word in the latest (penultimate, I believe) issue of Political Insight. Read for free here: journals.sagepub.com/share/PUST6R... tl;dr: Burnham must continue to take easy short-term wins and keep banging the drum about the long-term vision those short-term wins serve.
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Lotte Hargrave @lottehargrave.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🚨New paper🚨 Very pleased that “Using Gender to Choose: Voter Decision-Making in Low-Information Elections”, coauthored with Ellie Woodhouse, is now out at @jeppjournal.bsky.social. In it, we ask: when voters know very little about candidates, how do they use gender when deciding who to vote for? 🧵👇
static.klipy.com
Happy
ALT: Happy
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Last month, my most recent book ‘How to Think About Politics’ was released in Portuguese with the title ‘Política na vida real’ (trans. Thais Entriel). It is extremely weird but also very cool to see it on sale, a first for me: www.travessa.pt/Artigo/Detal...
A photograph of the book ‘política na vida real’ by Peter Allen.
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Conor J. Kelly @conorjkelly.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The sign up link for my book launch on 23 September can be found below. We have a fantastic panel with @timbale.bsky.social @benworthy.bsky.social and Giada Lagana due to contribute. Please join us online or in Bloomsbury :)
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Latest article for the House magazine, in which I wonder if I have wasted my life learning about leadership elections rules... www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
politicshome.com
The Professor Will See You Now: Defenestration
Lessons in political science. This week: defenestration
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Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · 01/09/2026
The Rainbow Vote now has a cover & publication date. www.therainbowvote.com 🗳️🏳️‍🌈 Please consider pre-ordering, or asking your institution’s library to pre-order! Insufferable self-promotion to follow but I am dutifully celebrating every milestone along the way to publication day in February 😎
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Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray) @boakandbailey.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
BLOG POST: Instead of obsessing over preserving old ones, why not just open new pubs if there's demand? Well... boakandbailey.com/2026/08/why-...
boakandbailey.com
Why not just open a new pub? | Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Our post last week prompted some interesting comments and responses, including a couple which suggested that the market ought to sort it out.
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Robin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
£6.3bn really is a huge gap for unis to fill on research each year It's sometimes said that's what QR is for, but QR is part of the calculation: without it the gap would be close to £9bn The biggest way that gap is filled is international student fees (yellow bar), but we all know how that's going
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Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray) @boakandbailey.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
BLOG POST: “It was startling... to see various people on non-beer social media railing against this policy for reasons like…it’s for Reform voters; pubs are ‘Brexit coded’... it’s just encouraging drinking, a social ill...” boakandbailey.com/2026/08/outs...
boakandbailey.com
Outside the bubble: “Pubs don't deserve special treatment”
It’s a given, isn’t it, that pubs are a good thing and deserve protection? Well, it turns out that many people disagree.
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Karl Pike @karlpike.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I have written a short essay for the IPPR called A Liberalism of Public Things: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A Liberalism of Public Things
The social democratic ideological tradition - including the liberalism within it - should be described more accurately and defended. Liberalism within social democracy is the liberalism of public thi...
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Nick Clarke @nickclarkegeo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
How Place-Based Policy Could Counter Populist Discontent New article in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social with Gerry Stoker, @daisyblackburn.bsky.social and @drjennings.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
How Place‐Based Policy Could Counter Populist Discontent
Resentment felt by people in areas that have suffered from social and economic decline is a significant driver of populist backlash—‘the revenge of the places that don't matter’. An effective place-b...
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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I've written an essay for @ippr.org about why democratic reformers need to expand their horizons beyond trying to finish the work of Charter 88, and should now shift their focus towards rebuilding the public sphere and confronting private power 1/4
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Against Private Power: A Democracy Agenda Beyond Charter 88
Since Charter 88, democratisation efforts in the UK have focused on constitutional reform to change the internal structures of the Westminster state. Today, however, the major challenge for democracy...
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
To quote Mark Blyth, the climate crisis is ‘a giant non-linear outcome generator with wicked convexities. In plain English, there is no mean, there is no average, there is no return to normal. It’s one way traffic into the unknown’. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
There is no ‘getting back to normal’ with climate breakdown | Mark Blyth
As the IPCC report makes clear, there are now only unknown and unfamiliar alternative futures that we can choose from, says political economist Mark Blyth
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Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 29/07/2026
This is devastating news. I can't quite believe it. RIP Glen Hansard. www.independent.ie/irish-news/o...
independent.ie
Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard dies in Dublin motorcycle crash
Renowned musician Glen Hansard has died overnight in a motorcycle crash in Dublin’s Lucan.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
If they were skilled political operators perhaps they wouldn’t be on the backbenches, along with their chief, two years into a Parliament which began with a landslide election win?
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Matthew Barnfield @mbarnfield.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This point is coming up a lot today. Last year, I argued that failure to recognise this would be the downfall of Starmer's "decade of national renewal": theconversation.com/keir-starmer...
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Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray) @boakandbailey.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Instead of a newsletter for July 2026... Notes from a heatwave, where fans, air-conditioning and cold beer are the topics of the day in pubs, bars and taprooms. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/inst...
boakandbailey.com
Instead of a newsletter for July 2026… Notes from a heatwave
As you might have noticed, there’s been another heatwave in the UK, and we’ve noticed signs of drinkers and pubs adapting to this new reality. At The King’s Head the other week we found ourselves sitt...
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 14/07/2026
As an ex media report I can't help looking at the BBC Annual Report, it's a habit I cannot kick, I'm going to stick some things I've noticed in a thread. The tldr to my mind is if you're at the BBC and you're not panicking and trying new stuff and tuning out low level moans you're screwed. 🧵
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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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Ana Catalano Weeks @anacweeks.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
🚨New paper out in JEPP @jeppjournal.bsky.social 🎉 Women are underrepresented in local politics, and the problem isn't only their election but retention. In a survey experiment with 500+ English councillors, we find that family-friendly council policies increase women's static ambition. 🧵
The picture shows the article abstract: Women’s representation in European local governments remains stagnant at around one-third of councillors. One explanation for this longstanding gender gap relates to structural barriers blocking the supply of women candidates, including working practices which are not compatible with caring responsibilities. Yet, so far we do not know whether measures governments can implement to remedy this, including reimbursing care expenses and remote working, increase women’s political ambition. To answer this question, the study uses a survey experiment fielded to local councillors in England (N = 534). The survey manipulates exposure to a bundled set of family-friendly policies in a hypothetical council to identify the causal effect of such policies on static political ambition (councillors’ willingness to run for their current level of office), and explores heterogeneous effects by gender. The introduction of family-friendly policies significantly increases women’s, but not men’s, willingness to run for office again. Analysis of open-ended survey responses further reveals that women councillors more frequently brought up the difficulty of balancing care and work with a political role, while men were less likely to mention this. Overall, the study contributes new evidence about the important role that family policies might play in closing gender gaps in political ambition.
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Liam Stanley @liamstanley.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New article on the MAGA counter-movement against ESG and DEI www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Look out for "Let's Save Water" - a major new campaign to get water demand to a level that future infrastructure can cope with. I'm one of the behavioural scientists involved, and am quoted in this article discussing the various forms of action people can take www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
New campaign urges public to reduce water use as UK emerges from heatwave
Exclusive: £75m publicity drive will ask people to treat water as precious resource and cut daily use by 28 litres
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Me, in the FT on the St Augustine transition in premiers. Also ft Harold Macmillan reading Pride and Prejudice and a reluctant Lord Melbourne. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Why is the Starmer to Burnham transition so long?
Like St Augustine, the assumed new Labour leader appears to want to be prime minister — but not yet
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Democratic politics can't be sustained with this level of disinformation and misinformation. Action needs to be taken.
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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Remember that FOUR week turn around for a £40M call @ukri.org. Turns out it was actually a £60M call. How does this meet the Nolan Principles of Openess? UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs - Research Professional News
Minister makes case for “forward-facing” academic research infrastructure
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Interested in rebellions during the first session of the parliament - which, helpfully, almost perfectly coincides with the Starmer premiership? Here's a piece I wrote for @robfordmancs.bsky.social's substack, giving rebellion rates, lists of rebels, etc. swingometer.substack.com/p/rebel-rebel
swingometer.substack.com
Rebel Rebel
In a guest post, Philip Cowley takes a look at backbench rebellions during Keir Starmer's time as Prime Minister
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David S. Moon @daimoon.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I have a provocatively titled piece in the latest issue of @renewaljournal.bsky.social, in which I propose that among the lessons of the “Epstein files” revelations is the value of a properly directly, healthy paranoia suited to an age of opaque networks, dark money, and unaccountable elites. (1/2)
Title: In defence of paranoia: rethinking
politics after the Epstein Files

Abstract: Th is article argues that a refl exive dismissal of ‘conspiracy’ has left political analysis blind to the routine operations of elite collusion, a failure exposed in stark terms by the Epstein case. It calls for a disciplined, evidence-led ‘paranoia’ capable of tracking power across the opaque ‘parapolitical’ networks that structure contemporary politics.Just as politics itself has a ‘Too Difficult’ box32 – long-term problems such as
climate change or media regulation that are quietly shelved because they are
complex, unpopular, or resistant to accessible solutions – so too, it seems, does
political studies. Structural questions about the influence of security services,
corporate lobbyists and/or organised crime on democratic outcomes are almost
entirely nudged to the margins, bracketed as conspiratorial and excluded from
peer-reviewed publication. Instead, answers are sought where data is more
accessible and ostensibly transparent – elections, legislatures, policy pro-
grammes – and approached in turn from a perspective buuilt upon broadly
pluralistic assumptions. This matters, because despite their relatively small
readerships, the outputs academia produce provides a key evidential basis that
structures wider political discourses.
When political scholarship declines to grapple with these darker dimensions
and subsequently fails those seeking reliable, authoritative sources, it cedes
fertile ground that can, in turn, be exploited by more malicious or misguided
actors. Movements like QAnon weave genuine historical conspiracies – such as
MK-ULTRA, Operation CHAOS, or Project Paperclip – into their narratives of
mass deception. In doing so they blur truth and fabrication to increase the per-
suasiveness of their fantastical claims.33 In short, when scholarship fails to offer
rigorous analyses that take account of the darker workings of power, demagogues
and opportunists readily fill the void.
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The Moe and Barney Simpson’s meme where Moe throws Barney out of his bar but Barney immediately appears behind him once more, labelled “Labour” and “Morgan McSweeney”.
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
"It is one of the accepted hypocrisies of modern British politics that when your side changes PM midterm, it is part of our distinguished constitutional heritage as a parliamentary democracy. When the other lot do it, it is an outrage." @philipjcowley.bsky.social
ft.com
The strange case of who chooses the next Labour prime minister
Around three-quarters of those who can vote in any contest on who succeeds Starmer are not Labour Party members
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Karl Pike @karlpike.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Discussed ongoing research with @mbarnfield.bsky.social and @philipjcowley.bsky.social on the BBC’s Moral Maze yesterday evening - about what the ‘short term’ and the ‘long term’ mean in politics and policymaking. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Moral Maze - Who is morally responsible for Britain's political short-termism? - BBC Sounds
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
A rare chance to join the @britishacademy.bsky.social public policy team to lead on our environmental programme, working closely with academic specialists from our Fellowship and research community. £52k www.prospect-us.co.uk/job/195013-p...
prospect-us.co.uk
Policy Programmes Lead – Environment - Prospectus Recruitment Agency
Prospectus is delighted to be supporting The British Academy - the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences - in seeking a Policy Programmes Lead to join the Public Policy Team, provi...
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Latest piece for @thehousemag.bsky.social, in which I reveal an unknown letter from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, find another letter from Churchill, discover when Sir John Rodgers went to the dentist, and praise the kindness of two former Streatham MPs: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
politicshome.com
The Professor Will See You Now: Luck
Lessons in political science. This week: luck
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
For any Bath/Bristol folks, Darragh is launching his book at Toppings next Tuesday — www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/...
toppingbooks.co.uk
How Gambling Hijacked Sport with Darragh McGee at Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Me on the UK's journey from beacon to basket-case in ten short years.
aa.com.tr
OPINION - Britain's "ungovernable" decade
The seemingly chronic inability of both the Conservatives and Labour to deliver economic growth, decent public services, and strong borders has seen voter dissatisfaction grow and party loyalty shrink...
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Latest piece for @thehousemag.bsky.social, in which I look at Mo Salah and the parasocial contact hypothesis. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
politicshome.com
The Professor Will See You Now: The Mo Salah effect
Lessons in political science. This week: The Mo Salah effect
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Nick Pearce @iprnickp.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I’m off to the launch of the Pensions Commission Interim Report this morning. It sets out our analysis of the problem of inadequate savings for retirement in 2050 and beyond. PN is here, full report to follow. www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Britain is undersaving for retirement warns Pensions Commission
The Pensions Commission has today (19 May) published its interim report on the state of retirement saving in the UK, setting out the key challenges facing the current system and where it will focus it...
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Matthew Barnfield @mbarnfield.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
A write-up of the key findings and points made in this thread on my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/drmatthe... The way I see it, the argument that the public’s irrational impatience makes it ungovernable can’t be defended rigorously because it simply hasn’t been put to the test.
open.substack.com
Testing the public's patience
Even if the electorate is short-termist, it's hard to argue irrational public impatience is to blame for the prime minister's woes
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Matthew Barnfield @mbarnfield.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Is impatience killing the government? Some data and some thoughts. @karlpike.bsky.social @philipjcowley.bsky.social and I found a year ago that people expected noticeable improvements in the NHS, schools, housing well within Labour's first parliament. www.politicshome.com/news/article... 1/7
Graph showing public expectations of length of time for change.
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IPR @uniofbathipr.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
🎧 The recording of our recent event with Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP is now available on SoundCloud and YouTube. Chaired by David Klemperer, listen as Liam explores the forces propelling the populist surge. Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/uniofbath/li... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U0e... #Populism
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
18 months ago, @ntmatthews.bsky.social and I published a paper on the persistence of the mythology of New Labour in British Politics and how it seemed to play a big role in the new government’s thinking. Feels relevant today (open access) — www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
New Labour and political myth
The 1997 UK General Election preceded 13 years of New Labour government. It would be a further 14 years until the Labour Party next held office. Following the initial disavowal of New Labour by man...
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 09/05/2026
Some things to bear in mind for politicians considering spouting nonsense about gilts (again) Me, 300 free clicks: - as.ft.com/r/031c1f71-5...
as.ft.com
How politicians should talk to bond markets
It might be annoying that money is not free but a combative approach with investors is not a great choice
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Some social commentary at the shuttered BrewDog bar in Bath @boakandbailey.bsky.social
The door of the shuttered BrewDog bar in Bath, England. Next to the official logo is a sticker saying “Prick IPA, Scabby Tory Beer”.
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Matthew Barnfield @mbarnfield.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I just published something on my Substack about one reason, among many, why I don't think communicating public consensus on climate change is anything like as powerful a climate policy tool as people make it out to be. open.substack.com/pub/drmatthe...
open.substack.com
Climate consensus communication probably isn't a gamechanger
Why I don't think the best available evidence supports the story that is being told about it
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