Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 18h

My guess is that Lord Clive lacked A-level standard in any Indian language when he went to work there

The Independent @the-independent.com · 19h

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

www.independent.co.uk

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, but all the state action is in the other direction.

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

See also my piece here: (2/2)

G.A. Cohen on the output bias — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

I think @sarahoconnorft.ft.com is right about capitalism's bias towards output/income over leisure. But an important factor here is the state which favours output because of tax revenues and competition with other states. So framing it as about individual choices only gets part of the picture. 1/2

Are we about to enter an age of leisure? Don’t bet on it

Productivity gains won’t necessarily translate into the embrace of free time — especially in America

www.ft.com

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

Chateaubriand?

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

Entirely predictable, and rather than put the racists back in their box government ministers have mumbled about free speech and how they love flags

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

“The young are voting for the right , er well the men are, er well some of them, they’re not voting left, er I mean they’re not voting Labour. “ Complete drivel from this Columnist of the Year shortlistee

Jemima Kelly @jemima.bsky.social · 2d

For this week's column I wrote about the way that the countercultural intellectual energy of the right - and lack thereof on the left - is drawing in young people, esp men, who would once have been drawn to radical leftist thinkers

on.ft.com/3L72ug5

The fashion for the young: turn to the radical right

The intellectual energy of new rightwing movements is drawing in young people

on.ft.com

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

Well why not both? But who poses the question during a family meal and what makes the author confident of what would happen (in most cases) if they did? Wondering if this ever came up over lunch for the @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com family?

La France face à ses paradoxes : Napoléon, bâtisseur pour les uns, tyran pour les autres

Différentes versions d’une même épopée… L’interprétation historiographique du Premier Empire n’échappe pas aux divergences politiques, argumentées de sujets universels et contemporains.

www.lemonde.fr

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder which of Labour's strategic geniuses thought up "zero tolerance for naysayers" as a catchy slogan?

UK planning to be speeded up with new powers for ministers

Government is adding amendments to infrastructure and housing bill to strengthen scope for more timely construction

www.ft.com

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

Presumably Ahmed would have to concede that there is some degree of legitimate pro-Palestinian expression that *he* is bound to make sure universities protect. If so (!) then universities are required to calibrate exactly in line with wherever Ahmed thinks the boundary lies or risk millions in fines

Universities risk sanctions over Gaza protests, watchdog says

Arif Ahmed says freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to harass and discriminate Jewish students.

www.bbc.com

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

Here’s the story

Bristol Labour councillor suspended over racist comment

Councillor Fabian Breckels is being investigated over a comment he made on Facebook.

www.bbc.com

Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

Bristol Labour have suspended a councillor for an allegedly racist social media post. But tbh, if the same content had appeared in a speech by a Cabinet minister, the lobby would hardly have blinked

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

Finished! Thank you @leaypi.bsky.social for an excellent and moving read. I loved the way Rousseau’s Contrat social illuminated the story!

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

I imagine those in the initial invasion force were professional soldiers. As valuable resources they're probably alive and deployed elsewhere while new recruits get fed into the grinder and die.

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

They are failing us, but these are consequences of much older legislation

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

I read elsewhere that the recruits last 11 days, and ten of those are before they arrive at the front, and that they mostly consist these days of drug addicts and others that the Russians are happy to get killed

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 3d

Well, perhaps more the transition from social democracy to a left-liberalism not all that distinguishable from the US Dems.

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 4d

Interesting piece from @jderbyshire.ft.com. But worth noting that the US has ceased to be exceptional in its lack of a mass socialist party as the vehicles that bore that name in Europe came to bear it in name only over the past half-century or so. What's socialist about Labour, the PS, the SPD?