Alexander Clarkson
@aphclarkson.bsky.social
Lecturer for European Politics and History at King's College London. Opinions my own. RT not always endorsement.
Also to be found at @APHClarkson
https://www.ullstein.de/werke/die-macht-der-diaspora/hardcover/978354910
Also to be found at @APHClarkson
https://www.ullstein.de/werke/die-macht-der-diaspora/hardcover/978354910
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Just seen another 'but you don't get it! Raising income tax would be unpopular!' It certainly would.
I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:
I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:
Spending Review 2025 (HTML)
www.gov.uk
November 23, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Just seen another 'but you don't get it! Raising income tax would be unpopular!' It certainly would.
I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:
I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:
1950s UK governments still assumed that shipyards along the Clyde would always be worldbeating without thinking much about how a changing global economy might affect them.
As I said at the time this was the landmine in the immigration white paper. It will cost unis much more than they're getting from inflationary rises in domestic fees.
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 11:56 PM
1950s UK governments still assumed that shipyards along the Clyde would always be worldbeating without thinking much about how a changing global economy might affect them.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
can’t really overemphasize how much the constituency for this does not exist
Trump had found an issue more unpopular than his handling of inflation - attacking Venezuela:
www.cbsnews.com/feature/cbs-...
www.cbsnews.com/feature/cbs-...
November 23, 2025 at 11:22 PM
can’t really overemphasize how much the constituency for this does not exist
It's been clear for a while that Labour has no coherent vision for what the strategic purpose of the higher education sector should be.
In all likelihood it lacks any coherent vision for the strategic purpose of quite a few economic and public service sectors.
In all likelihood it lacks any coherent vision for the strategic purpose of quite a few economic and public service sectors.
the thing that scares me about Labour HE policy is that because I work in the sector I can see how absolutely insane it is, which makes me wonder just how terrible their policies are in all the other sectors I’m in less of a position to engage with critically out of lack of knowledge.
November 23, 2025 at 11:39 PM
It's been clear for a while that Labour has no coherent vision for what the strategic purpose of the higher education sector should be.
In all likelihood it lacks any coherent vision for the strategic purpose of quite a few economic and public service sectors.
In all likelihood it lacks any coherent vision for the strategic purpose of quite a few economic and public service sectors.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
This is the kind of thing you would do if you had no idea how to achieve economic growth. It's a stunningly stupid move but only one of many that the government has been making over the last 10 months or so. All those years in opposition and they have no idea what to do while in office. Shameful
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 11:10 PM
This is the kind of thing you would do if you had no idea how to achieve economic growth. It's a stunningly stupid move but only one of many that the government has been making over the last 10 months or so. All those years in opposition and they have no idea what to do while in office. Shameful
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Labour's plan for a levy on foreign student fees makes no sense, unless it's to appease racists who don't like foreign students, or populists who believe in the lump of student capacity fallacy, that somehow they displace domestic students out of education.
November 23, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Labour's plan for a levy on foreign student fees makes no sense, unless it's to appease racists who don't like foreign students, or populists who believe in the lump of student capacity fallacy, that somehow they displace domestic students out of education.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Most accounts on Twitter turn out to be Russian MAGA bots. Here’s why Bluesky has an intellectual diversity problem
November 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Most accounts on Twitter turn out to be Russian MAGA bots. Here’s why Bluesky has an intellectual diversity problem
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
That Abrams's involvement with Iran-Contra isn't regularly mentioned whenever he pops up is an indictment in itself of DC policy journalism
November 23, 2025 at 11:05 PM
That Abrams's involvement with Iran-Contra isn't regularly mentioned whenever he pops up is an indictment in itself of DC policy journalism
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Cracks me up how you could just replace Venezuela and Venezuelans with Iraq and Iraqis and it’d be indistinguishable from something written in 2002
November 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Cracks me up how you could just replace Venezuela and Venezuelans with Iraq and Iraqis and it’d be indistinguishable from something written in 2002
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Legalizing sports gambling made sense, just as legalizing cannabis made sense. But the airwaves aren't flooded with cannabis ads. Why are gambling ads any better?
November 23, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Legalizing sports gambling made sense, just as legalizing cannabis made sense. But the airwaves aren't flooded with cannabis ads. Why are gambling ads any better?
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
There's an argument to be made somewhere between 'bond markets' and 'immigration', which is about asking people to contribute to the public good, and recognising those different contributions. Not holding my breath.
November 23, 2025 at 10:47 PM
There's an argument to be made somewhere between 'bond markets' and 'immigration', which is about asking people to contribute to the public good, and recognising those different contributions. Not holding my breath.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
My point was most people don't know what bond markets are, they don't know how they work, they don't understand how they affect their reality. But they can see their bills rising and they will react positively to any politician who acknowledge their problem and say they will fix it.
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
My point was most people don't know what bond markets are, they don't know how they work, they don't understand how they affect their reality. But they can see their bills rising and they will react positively to any politician who acknowledge their problem and say they will fix it.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
I am of course inclined to focus on the weapon's grade levels of inhumanity, cruelty, discrimination and racism involved in Labour's current policies, but on a purely practical level, they will utterly cripple the country, trash higher ed, the NHS, business etc, meaning everyone suffers.
November 23, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I am of course inclined to focus on the weapon's grade levels of inhumanity, cruelty, discrimination and racism involved in Labour's current policies, but on a purely practical level, they will utterly cripple the country, trash higher ed, the NHS, business etc, meaning everyone suffers.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Okay, fairly obvious, but, despite delusions of some, the UK is not a "main destination" for migration. It's actually a competitive market, jobs, students etc. Between Mahmood's, effectively xenophobic policies, and Reeve's budget targeting international students, the economy as a whole gets screwed
November 23, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Okay, fairly obvious, but, despite delusions of some, the UK is not a "main destination" for migration. It's actually a competitive market, jobs, students etc. Between Mahmood's, effectively xenophobic policies, and Reeve's budget targeting international students, the economy as a whole gets screwed
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
The UK now has a reasonably large contingent of anti system voters and no one in the political establishment seems able to comprehend the idea of them moving left
1. Gauke and Centrists like him aren't wrong about bond markets like they weren't wrong about Brexit
2. If voters feel scammed by the established political and economic order they'll ignore the experience of Gauke or other Centrists and opt for whoever offers to break the system
2. If voters feel scammed by the established political and economic order they'll ignore the experience of Gauke or other Centrists and opt for whoever offers to break the system
November 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM
The UK now has a reasonably large contingent of anti system voters and no one in the political establishment seems able to comprehend the idea of them moving left
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
As I said at the time this was the landmine in the immigration white paper. It will cost unis much more than they're getting from inflationary rises in domestic fees.
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 10:27 PM
As I said at the time this was the landmine in the immigration white paper. It will cost unis much more than they're getting from inflationary rises in domestic fees.
Pretty predictable that the generation of Centrist politicians that underestimated Farage's populist gut appeal from the Right will also underestimate Polanski's populist gut appeal from the Left
November 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Pretty predictable that the generation of Centrist politicians that underestimated Farage's populist gut appeal from the Right will also underestimate Polanski's populist gut appeal from the Left
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
The platform architecture forces convergence: authentic conviction expressed through the same escalating, performative patterns. Which isn't great for functional democracy.
November 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
The platform architecture forces convergence: authentic conviction expressed through the same escalating, performative patterns. Which isn't great for functional democracy.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Although the scale of this is still to be assessed, this is the inevitable outcome of the monetization of the algorithm. Rage-bait becomes a personal revenue model. Nothing about this should be a surprise.
NEWS: I spent the past 24 hours going through major MAGA accounts on Twitter, and a bombshell development has become clear: most of the right-wing ecosphere is being fed propaganda from foreign actors.
This impacts elections. This impacts discourse. This is major. Subscribe to support my work:
This impacts elections. This impacts discourse. This is major. Subscribe to support my work:
NEWS: Major MAGA Accounts on Twitter Exposed as Foreign Actors
A stunning development over the past 24 hours.
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Although the scale of this is still to be assessed, this is the inevitable outcome of the monetization of the algorithm. Rage-bait becomes a personal revenue model. Nothing about this should be a surprise.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
'i hate socialism and that's why i refuse to socialize'
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
'i hate socialism and that's why i refuse to socialize'
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
I do think it's worth addressing that the intellectual lodestar of this government is a gibbering idiot.
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
November 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I do think it's worth addressing that the intellectual lodestar of this government is a gibbering idiot.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
Well, some of us have... Airlines (including Iberia) cancelling flights (which with such a hight percentage of Venezuelan residents in the country and some regions is not something done lightly) from Spain and also Colombia since yesterday.
November 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Well, some of us have... Airlines (including Iberia) cancelling flights (which with such a hight percentage of Venezuelan residents in the country and some regions is not something done lightly) from Spain and also Colombia since yesterday.
Reposted by Alexander Clarkson
In a significant public health achievement, Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles have eliminated measles and rubella, becoming the first sub-Saharan countries to attain this milestone.
Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles eliminate measles and rubella
In a significant public health achievement, Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles have eliminated measles and rubella, becoming the first sub-Saharan countries to attain this milestone.
www.afro.who.int
November 23, 2025 at 4:18 PM
In a significant public health achievement, Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles have eliminated measles and rubella, becoming the first sub-Saharan countries to attain this milestone.