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Steven Fielding

@polprofsteve2024.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.4K following 9.7K posts

Emeritus Professor of Political History. The Labour Party and other currently lost causes. “'Tis a muddle, and that's aw.”

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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 2h
I should’ve read it before I posted that! But I think it does cross the line rather and he’s pretty egregious in its Recycling. But then I’ve become quite the anti-fan of our friends in the north over the years.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 2h
I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a lot of of Recycling of themes and plot lines from Our friends in the north. It’s an interesting example of self plagiarism.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 17h
A former teacher of mine mentioned the discussion, so that’s why I listen to it. He was as flabbergasted as I was.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 17h
It is clear that the blood & soil idea of American identity is now perhaps inevitably infecting the British right. What is most disturbing is this discussion suggests even those conservatives ostensibly opposed to hard right nutters have fallen into line with this way of thinking - as has Robinson.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 19h
There is a sense which all 3 seem to believe that English people resent being told they don’t have a proper identity but: how many resent this & who is saying it? No facts or figures or any evidence other than what the laziest commentator can get away with is produced or asked for.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 19h
I’m not at all surprised that in its final segment yesterday the editor thought it appropriate to discuss Braverman’s claims about English identity with 2 right wing commentators who basically agree she’s correct - with Nick Robinson organising the consensus. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Today - 08/10/2026 - BBC Sounds
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
So all of a sudden, we are taking Caroline Lucas seriously are we?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
But the role of the media here in shaping how people think about leadership over the long-term is probably more important than the everyday distortions that it usually brings to politics.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I think that is even more the case now given how disappointed so many people are with the outcomes of liberal democracy.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The public - at least as mediated thru our media - appears to have little interest in democratic forms and hanker for an authoritarian kind of traditional ‘leadership’. That hankering has always been there and those leaders that can’t perform it are usually in trouble.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Polanski‘s Today interview was instructive but not for the obvious reasons. Put aside the anti-Zionist thing: the substance was about ‘leadership’. His defence that the Greens are a grassroots party butters no parsnips in our political culture esp when journos taste blood …
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“Just sayin’”. 🤔
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
If you’d looked at that result for Labour and forgot about the context, thats an amazingly good performance for a governing party in a midterm by-election.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Why would Burnham dispose of a huge majority in favour of becoming merely the largest party in the Commons?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I chose the wrong week to submit a pitch to the Archive Hour. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
BBC to cut raft of Radio 4 programmes including You and Yours
The corporation said it would be investing in a new consumer programme, while announcing more cuts.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s what they’re letting happen to higher education…
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
What a difference an Andy makes.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It passed the time waiting for my left side of my mouth go numb. Thanks.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Apart from the interval at a Michael McIntyre gig?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Does anywhere have a more subdued atmosphere than a dentist’s waiting room?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s the realism I admire so much.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I’m with you on that. I’ve given up counting the clichés and stereotypes and the number of times somebody rings Temple up but then says they can’t tell him something vital over the phone and have to meet him in some club or dodgy venue. He never seems to learn.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I did it once and it took longer than it would’ve done on the train and that’s saying something.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I’m absolutely flabbergasted about how Francis Durbridge established himself as a supposed Master of Mystery as whenever I’ve heard or watched anything he’s been responsible for it’s been absolute drivel albeit so bad it’s good. He makes Christie look good which I think is his greatest crime.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Steve meanwhile shouts in the distance: “lookout Paul!”.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If this conclusion to a PaulTemple is like every other conclusion to a Paul Temple, after Paul Temple has fingered the guilty person they will make a dash for it being afraid presumably of a Paul Temple fingering rightly preferring a quick death by throwing themselves out of a window.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
So it turns out this greedy swanker escaped the crushing tax regime of … the Cameron government. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/oc...
theguardian.com
‘I reside in Monaco’: billionaire said to have quit UK over potential wealth tax had already left
TaxWatch contradicts claims about David Reuben’s departure and questions stories of super-rich exodus
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
And we all hate Paddington Bear, don’t we: we’re famous for it.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
So Badenoch is going to give a Tax break to the already Rich one likely to be enjoyed in their 60s or 70s. That’ll make a popular with everybody else.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
If if I was Labour, I’d put out something which leans into that. She’s also a bit obsessed with Burnham’s eyelashes, which is a bit weird.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
She has an unerring lack of grip on popular sentiments outside of what X is saying.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I have my doubts about Hague, but I can’t see her ever serving in somebody else’s cabinet now.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
No historical comparison is perfect, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Conservatives, should they survive, will find themselves suffering one or two further election defeats - and if they do get back into office, Badenoch won’t be the leader.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I wrote this in June 2024, but I think my historical comparison still holds especially now Badenoch is determined to ‘unite the right’ while Reform is doing somewhat better than simply clinging on. spectator.com/article/does...
spectator.com
Does the fate of Foot's Labour show what could happen to the Tories?
Michael Foot’s Labour party faced disbelieving voters in 1983; could Rishi Sunak's Conservative party meet a similar fate?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Will Mirren play my corpse?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Does anybody know of one of those left/right online surveys that doesn’t involve you having to pay money or giving out your email address?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I’m not sure if this bizarre toilet seat cover is meant for Rangers or Celtic fans.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I seem to remember how Kinnock was, I think the term was kebabbed, over Labour’s unilateral policy in 1987. And he had a more credible response to questions than poor old Kemi.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
😳
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
There used to be many more of these near Wythenshawe hospital the last time my dad was there in 2025. Now there’s just this solitary sorry specimen.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
He wasn’t in the room and he wasn’t involved.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
In one of the Daily Mail’s regular updates as to how terrible the 1970s were, AN Wilson claimed TUC general secretary Len Murray had his own private train… I’m not sure if he’s in need of medical attention or he’s always been a fantasist.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
You amaze me!
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
So this is Autumn.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Luckily, I don’t have to do dirty things like that anymore.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It was for research. I’ve also read the complete works of Edwina Currie.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Iron Dim more like - amiright?
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Having read a few of his, I guess we need to call them novels, they could’ve also mentioned how excruciatingly bad they were. They were perhaps his greatest crime.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Who knew the Saint was an anti-racist? www.instagram.com/reel/DeFHxD4...
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is a bit like the curse of Tutankhamun’s Tomb or the Carry On curse… ie nothing to see here but some fevered imaginations.
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