iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 9h

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode for our series about living in ageing societies, David talks to historian and legal scholar @samuelmoyn.bsky.social about the problem of gerontocracy, aka the rule of the old. Do the young stand a chance any more? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 4h

🔴 We asked Tony Blair's think tank about charging businesses £500k for political access at party conferences and why one of its sponsor's logos disappeared after our reporting last week on TBI's alleged cash for access scheme This is what they said

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Will Dunn @willdunn.bsky.social · 4h

Some tips on writing political slogans (Currently FREE to read!) www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

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Ben Chu @benchu.bsky.social · 7h

Thinking about the impact of the triple lock on the state pension can be confusing as there's a number of interacting moving parts (earnings, inflation, 2.5%). 🤷‍♂️❓ But here's a visualisation that hopefully might help...1/5

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 4h

James Herbert anyone? Devoured them as a young teen (parents didn't have a clue). But perhaps they are still as popular today?

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 4h

Love this. Confess I had measles and mumps and rubella. Oh, and shingles. But that was because there wasn't a vaccine back in the day.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 4h

As Joe points out, "The Conservative Party has become disastrously dependent on the votes of the over 60s." I'm sure they won't make that mistake going forward. Oh, hang on...

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 6h

Voters can respond, as they did when Thatcher was PM, to a leader willing to take tough decisions in the short term that seem to have a pay off in the long term. If Burnham can combine his likeability with her toughness--not an easy trick to pull off--then Labour has at least a chance of reelection.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 10h

Knee, meet Jerk.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 8h

Echoes of Boris Johnson calling the Privileges Committee a “kangaroo court”. Didn’t end well for him.

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Heinz Brandenburg @heinzbrandenburg.bsky.social · 9h

The more I think about it the more absurd it looks what Kellner has done. His calculation assumes that every voter in the country knows who the top two parties in their constituency are and then applies the Yougov rates of tactical voting for each contest. kellnerp.substack.com/p/how-tactic...

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Marios Richards @mariosrichards.bsky.social · 9h

Time for Labour to ditch the rose in favour of a new logo

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LSE British Politics and Policy @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social · 9h

England's strong performance at the PISA results has been attributed to reforms. But one finding stands out: immigrant children outperformed their native peers. Christian Dustmann and Stephen Machin of @cep-lse.bsky.social look into what led to this result. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

England’s strong performance of immigrant children in PISA

England's strong performance at the PISA results has been attributed to reforms. But one finding stands out: immigrant children outperformed their native peers.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 10h

This is excellent - and, if I may say so and if it's not the kiss of death, @alanrenwick.bsky.social would be an excellent choice to serve on the commission.

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 12h

A couple of really radical options - engage in Brussels with why the UK wants to talk and what the EU is actually prepared to offer - learn from what has mostly failed in the approach to the EU question for the last ten years Which would quickly narrow the path forward.

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 10h

Love this. It was not easy to explain to the 7yo though 😂

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Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 10h

Y'days post: Populist tendencies on the UK left, and the puzzle that never was mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/09/popu... The OBR just provides a fiscal forecast. It help make evidence based decisions, rather than finding evidence to justify politically motivated decisions. Is that undemocratic?

mainlymacro.blogspot.com

Populist tendencies on the UK left, and the puzzle that never was

Don’t shoot the messager The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has just published a report on the Office of Budget Responsibility, the ...

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Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 11h

For reference, here are my sums (with all the obvious caveats):

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Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 11h

Sceptical of these numbers. I did the same exercise and found a much smaller bump for the Conservatives. Indeed, working through Kellner's Louth and Horncastle example would suggest he's adding something somewhere, as he suggests the TV result would be Con 44, Ref 37; mine say Con 40, Ref 37.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 11h

Agree but maybe remove the R and the E?

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Whakamataku - Toitū Te Tiriti 🍉 @whakamataku.bsky.social · 11h

60% increase in voter registration from overseas!!!! No, that is not a typo. #nzpol 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 11h

Fascinating. Kellner combines @yougov.co.uk's latest MRP with its new survey research on tactical voting to suggest that Reform would do much, much worse (and Labour and the Tories considerably better) than the MRP suggests. Deets here: kellnerp.substack.com/p/how-tactic...

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Before anyone gets too excited about electoral reform--including, by the way, those parties who convince themselves that they can engineer a new system so it works best for them. It never quite works out the way people want or assume. Not an argument not to do it, though! (doi.org/10.1080/1357...)

This article analyses the process of constitutional reforms in eastern Europe and draws lessons for similar reforms in British politics. It looks, first, at electoral engineering and shows how political actors, pursuing their particular interests, try to turn proportionality back into majoritarianism, and how and why such moves do not necessarily result in their projected outcomes. In a similar vein, it then goes on to analyse parliamentary formal rules, such as standing orders, and demonstrates how attempts to manipulate them can be offset, not just by counter‐manipulation, but by underlying informal rules and cultural norms. Overall, we argue that, because constitutional change is an ongoing and crucially political process, its results are neither wholly predictable nor always welcomed. On the basis of the eastern European experience, we also suggest that constitutional change does not necessarily lead to increased legitimacy of the system, thus undermining one of the major hopes of reformers in Britain.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 12h

Is it too meta to wonder whether she'll read this (and the upcoming book for which it's a taster) and its findings will subsequently feed into her lyrics?

theconversation.com

Taylor Swift: my database of her 123,553 lyrics reveals hidden patterns

Her lyrics prove that Swift can be associated with continuity just as much as change.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 21h

Burnham's speech marks perhaps the best opportunity to replace First Past the Post since 1918. I joined @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social & @lucyfisher.ft.com recently on "The Long View" to explore the history of electoral reform in Britain - & the lessons we might learn. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - The Long View, Electoral reform

Jonathan Freedland takes the long view of electoral reform.

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Daniel Collette @danielcollette.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sure he may be at times insufferable, but his years fronting the Smiths need to count for at least something.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Or one who believes he can successfully draw the proverbial 'dividing lines' (a la Blair and Brown).

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If they want to win in 28/9, trying to grow real wages, keeping the deficit (plus, inasmuch as they can contribute to it, inflation) under control, and fixing NHS waiting lists and times while persuading people they've got a grip on immigration without sounding as obsessed as Reform and the Tories?

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Most striking of all is that this is explicitly a very *pro-politics* speech, a direct rebuttal to the anti-politics that is so widespread. And rightly so: politics can change things, it is an admirable thing to choose to engage in and a duty for us all to step forward and pursue.

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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bluesky reacts to Burnham speech

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Alan Renwick @alanrenwick.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Andy Burnham has announced a National Commission on Electoral Reform. The voting system is the heart of our democracy: this will be a vital debate. The Constitution Unit will work to ensure it’s an informed debate. Look out for our project launching next week examining the options and their effects.

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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 29/09/2026

For instance, the Conservatives felt the brunt of FPTP at the 2024 general election. They won about 19% of the seats (121) in Great Britain despite winning about 24.4% of the vote. Under a Mixed Member Proportional system, they might have won ≈30 more. jack-bailey.co.uk/writing/just...

jack-bailey.co.uk

Jack Bailey | Just Use MMP

Mixed-Member Proportional Representation is the UK's path of least resistance.

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Conor J. Kelly @conorjkelly.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

1/4 🧵 What happens next if power sharing at Stormont collapses over Drumcree? @colinmurray.bsky.social and I have taken a look for @ukandeu.bsky.social. The answer is perhaps less straightforward than you might think. ukandeu.ac.uk/what-happens...

ukandeu.ac.uk

What happens next if power sharing at Stormont collapses over Drumcree? - UK in a changing Europe

Conor J. Kelly and Colin Murray discuss what would happen next if one of the major parties pulled out of the Stormont...

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Keiran Pedley @keiranpedley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Passing the pint test... New @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social polling shows Brits would most like to go for a pint with Andy Burnham.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Every private conversation in Westminster: "Well the triple lock obviously has to go at some point". Every commentator on Burnham: "completely mad to propose getting rid of triple lock - political suicide".

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Ben Rosamond @benrosamond1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

'[T]he requirement ... would be policed through Ofsted inspections and by parents reporting their children’s schools to the party.' A chilling sentence. Would practicing Buddhists (like Braverman herself) or those raised in the Jewish faith (like her children) have dispensation to remain mute?

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