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Professor Christopher Painter

@prfchrispainter.bsky.social
1.3K followers 831 following 863 posts

Politics and statecraft. Beware of blind alleys serving nefarious interests. Emeritus Professor, BCU. Posts in a personal capacity, as an academic and citizen.

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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 17h
There is no denying that Burnham's Conference speech was an accomplished performance. The challenge for him now is, having raised people's hopes, not dashing the high expectations thereby created, whilst dancing on a fiscal pinhead.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Autocrats have no interest science (except where it promises to further entrench their power); no interest in truth; and no interest in humanity. That's why each one is ultimately doomed to fail. The more invincible they feel the more vulnerable they become.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Trump doesn't understand economics. He doesn't grasp climate science. Nor does he even comprehend medical science. He's hopeless with statecraft on the international stage. His obvious shortcomings on human intelligence means he's ill-equipped to deal with pros and cons of artifical intelligence.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Obscene concentrations of wealth are threatening the very fabric of our societies. It's essential that these runaway levels of inequality rise to the top of the politcal agenda, if any kind of stable equilibrium is to be re-established. www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
theguardian.com
Global leaders urged to join initiative to fight extreme inequality
More than 1,500 academics and economists sign letter, calling growing gap between richest and poorest ‘a policy choice that can be reversed’
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The sinister impact - every which way - of the mega-rich on the very foundations of democracy. Countervailing pressures and powers urgently required. Elon Musk is a bigger threat to British democracy than crypto billionaires observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk
Elon Musk is a bigger threat to British democracy than cr...
The foreign-based tech mogul is using the X algorithm to influence British politics in more sinister ways than the £72m given to Reform last week
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Trump's words carry little meaning any more. So many empty threats confounded by events. A President living off vacuous rhetoric rather than grounded in the real world. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Trump calls EU offer to Canada of associate membership ‘laughable’, while threatening tariffs
US president warns over ‘hostile act’, as Canada seeks to move closer to the EU and diversify its defence ties
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Far from Making America Great Again, Trump provides an exemplar of the strategic folly invariably accompanying unchecked power. The United States - and rest of us - are paying a heavy price for the abandonment of virtually every constititional principle that underpinned the American Republic.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trump is an utter fool, convinced the only valid repository of knowledge lies in his gut and totally incapable of absorbing actual evidence. BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm... Trump criticises AI boss who called for slowdown and says only guardrail needed is a 'smart president' - BBC News
bbc.co.uk
Trump criticises AI boss who called for slowdown and says only guardrail needed is a 'smart president'
Stock markets fall in the US, Europe and Asia as Anthropic boss Dario Amodei says AI development should be slowed "to reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong".
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Democracy for sale! Burnham urgently has to get his act together on capping political donations. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Christopher Harborne matches £36m Reform donation of Ben Delo
Party leader, Nigel Farage, ‘humbled’ by contributions from billionaires as Harborne addresses ‘media speculation’
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Quite apart from the fact that no one can believe a word Trump says, any blatant attempt by him to bribe American voters for the mid-terms will be more than offset by the inflationary effects - reflected in prices and interest rates - of his reckless domestic policies and foreign adventures.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
As expensive, disrupted and extraordinarily damaging fossil fuels are eclipsed by renewable sources of energy, Trump celebrates a neo-colonial deal to access Venezuelan oil and gas (which will take some years to come to fruition). Nothing spells political dinosaur more than this foolhardy obsession!
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Something both Trump and Putin need to get into their stubborn heads. You cannot simply bully other countries into doing your bidding!
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Conflicts and disputes in which Trump is involved - Gaza, Iran, tariffs - are never resolved. They continue to fester. Confrontation rather than conciliation is his default position. Where decisive intervention would make a difference, he's a pussy to malign autocrats or never-ending war merchants.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Yet more lives lost because of the total irresponsibility of social media platforms and their owners. This posting anarchy simply cannot be allowed to carry on. BBC News - UK minister urges social media firms to remove dangerous driving videos www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK minister urges social media firms to remove dangerous driving videos
Defence minister Luke Pollard says "there's no place" for social media trend showing people driving the wrong way down roads.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Commission an immediate public inquiry to ensure we never see a tragic death like Dr Arday's again. goodlawproject.org/s/abb8a1
goodlawproject.org
Jason Arday: Demand a public inquiry now | Good Law Project
Commission an immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press given its contribution to Dr Arday’s tragic death.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
So many recent problems are due to disregard for mainstream scientific, economic and diplomatic advice: austerity; Brexit; a botched Covid pandemic; climate emergency; and strategically catastrophic wars. Special interests or political hubris have prevailed. Trump has epitomised this new Dark Age.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The theory that Great Powers can impose their will on others with impunity in the context of a collapsing international order is starting to look seriously suspect, what with Russia's gridlock in Ukraine and Trump's strategic humiliation in Iran.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Re-watched Oscar-winning film, The Deer Hunter. How the Vietnam war tore apart the lives of a friendship group; indeed a war tearing apart American society. Fast forward to 2026. Not only do we have a President who was a draft dodger at that time, but has torn US society apart all over again.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Putin has calculated that time is on his side in Ukraine. Ukraine's allies need to ensure instead that, as time goes by, Putin's terrorist state becomes progressively more vulnerable. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Nato to ‘urgently’ get air defences for Ukraine, as Zelenskyy warns of surge in Russian missile production
After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This is not 'pragmatism'. It is gross irresponsibility in view of the extreme weather events of this Summer. It will merely add to the net global sum of carbon emissions, when the imperative is to do exactly the opposite. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas
PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Political bounces these days two a penny. What that suggests is voters are attracted to novelty, looking for immediate outcomes well nigh impossible to deliver, given prevailing financial and geopolitical realities. Marginal resource shifts are no substitute for longer-term structural reforms.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Starmer got it right on Ukraine; Trump fundamentally mis-read the omens. Starmer got it right on Iran; Trump, by contrast, sinking in a quagmire of forever Middle East wars.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Everything touched by 2nd Trump presidency has proved a fiasco: DOGE: ICE; tariff policy; fossil fuels; undermined confidence in vaccines; cultural dumbing down; alienated allies; claiming Ukraine had no cards to play; Middle East intervention; Board of Peace; and corrupting FIFA World Cup rules.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The world will only become a safer place once Netanyahu, Putin and Trump have all been removed from office. They are looking politically vulnerable, because of the impact on themselves, but also on each other, of their respective strategic military follies.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A fly on the wall insight on just one dimension of the fractured world in which Starmer had to try to effectively operate: Trump's White House cesspit. Shocking, even withstanding all that we already know. Tina Brown on Trump’s second term observer.co.uk/culture/book...
observer.co.uk
Tina Brown on Trump’s second term | The Observer
The former New Yorker editor reads the definitive account of how the 47th president learned to govern on impulse, greed and revenge
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Good to see a front-line commentator pouring cold water on the fatally flawed idea of a Burnham coronation. Remember Gordon! Why Labour should take a beat before parachuting in Andy Burnham observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
Remember Gordon! Why Labour should take a beat before par...
There are considerable risks to installing the new MP for Makerfield at Number 10 without a searching test of his mettle
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Precedents suggest those constantly on manoeuvres to occupy the highest political office in the land rarely turn out to be the national saviours they perceive themselves to be.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
It's now becoming abundantly clear not only that Trump's intervention in the Middle East turned out to be an embarrassing strategic calamity for the United States, but also that Trump is losing his bet on Putin having the stronger hand in Ukraine.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
A very welcome piece demonstrating how far-right culture war claims are driven by ideology not evidence. The real threat to civilisation is when we allow these ideologues to erase the truth. observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk
‘Two-tier Britain’? The reality is far more complicated t...
The idea of “two-tier” public services has been weaponised by right-wingers wanting to whip up “pure cold rage” against immigrants, but in so many areas the concept simply does not stand up to scrutin...
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Badenoch chasing Farage; Farage chasing Lowe; Lowe chasing Robinson. All chasing one another in a downward, self-defeating and ugly spiral.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
The D-Day landings were infinitely more successful than the debaclè over which Hegseth has presided in the Middle East! BBC News - Hegseth attacks Europe over migration with beach 'invasion' D-Day speech www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Hegseth attacks Europe over migration with beach 'invasion' D-Day speech
The US defence secretary was speaking in Normandy, 82 years after allied forces launched their operation to liberate Nazi-occupied north-western Europe.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Farage has done untold damage to the British economy by being instrumental in Brexit; enormous damage to British society by inflaming ethnic tensions; and incalculable damage to the probity of British politics by countenancing obscene levels of funding from disreputable sources.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Trump badly miscalculated over Iran. Looks like same may apply by cosying up to Putin over Ukraine. Despite continuing deadly bombardments, aerial attacks against determined adversaries cannot compensate for lack of success in a ground campaign. It's Putin who is increasingly the desperate one.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
If Burnham finds his way into Downing Street then, yes, there is a high probability that Labour will revert to its comfort zone. It doesn't take too much imagination - or advice from former Prime Ministers - to work out the likely consequences of that for general election outcomes.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
What the renowned 20th C philosopher, Bertrand Russell, observed about far right politicians: "first, they fascinate the fools. Then they muzzle the intelligent."
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
The political chameleon that is Andy Burnham. So much so that his commitment to 'change' the Labour Party now entails endorsing most of the strategic policy positions of the Starmer Government. observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk
Whatever your fantasy of the perfect Labour leader, Andy ...
The mayor of Manchester’s critics see him as an opportunistic chameleon, but it’s exactly this pragmatism that appeals to his supporters
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The political language that Burnham deploys is redolent of a country long passed into history. The UK is highly pluralist, using whichever criteria, but including socioeconomic indices. Romanticised notions of working class belong to Orwell's Britain, not its 21st C variant.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Having run aground in the Middle East, Trump looking for another country he can bully without consequence. The hot favourite is Cuba.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Streeting and Burnham: we need to be back in EU: not any day soon; but one day; in the long term. Sounds remarkably like the very incrementalism they are supposed to despise. And now Burnham appears to have done a complete U-turn on rejoining the EU!
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Reposted by Professor Christopher Painter
Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
The Political and Media Myopia That Has Paralysed Keir Starmer’s Government Distorted and biased media coverage and short-sighted politics in Westminster have both prevented Starmer's Government from reaching its potential, argues Professor Chris Painter
bylinetimes.com
The Political and Media Myopia That Has Paralysed Keir Starmer’s Government
Distorted and biased media coverage and short-sighted politics in Westminster have both prevented Starmer's Government from reaching its potential, argues Professor Chris Painter
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The latest leadership instability is as much a crisis over the ethos of political journalism in this country as a trauma for the UK's political system.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Trump and his 'peace envoys' have become almost superflous to the situation in Ukraine. They have few cards left to deal in doing Putin's bidding. That country is showing an increasing capability to determine its own future with the support of European allies.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Every advance of the nationalist right makes the world a more uncertain, unsafe place, leading to yet more economic dislocation. Everyone suffers, but especially those from demographic groups most likely to vote Reform - as already seen from the impact of Brexit.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Whether it be financial scandals or related conflicts of interest. A dysfunctional running of local authorities they already control, with high councillor attrition rates and poisonous in-fighting. Or seeking to replicate the chaos Trumpism has unleashed on US in the UK. Reform is the toxic vote.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The spike in UK government borrowing costs should concentrate minds. It is just a foretaste of what is to come if there is protracted political instability over coming weeks.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Just one more corruption scandal on Reform's doorstep! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Dig deep! Reform frontbench promotes JCBs after £200,000 donation from firm
Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
King Charles in Washington. A triumphal articulation of the chasm between British and Trumpian values. Trump reduced to the petty political pygmy that is his real essence.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
The political circus continues in Trump's America. Nothing is quite what it seems!!
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
An on-going security threat in Europe from Putin's Russia; turmoil in Middle East; a US President in severe cognitive decline whose idiocy is causing yet another energy crisis; climate emergency accelerating. What's the obsession of the UK media! Who said/did what, when over Mandelson's appointment.
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Professor Christopher Painter @prfchrispainter.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
The Trump White House now makes Monty Python sketches seem like masterly documentary vignettes.
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