Will Jennings | Lightnews

Will Jennings📉🗳️

@drjennings.bsky.social

62K followers 5K following 6.5K posts

I research and write about politics, public policy, public opinion, polls, elections, geography, place, trust. I run on espresso.

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Sociology 14%

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · May 12

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1h

The who? 🫠

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1h

Westminster political commentary repeatedly tells the tale of a a northern industrial working class without *ever* recognising there is a large northern middle class or acknowledging the desirability of class mobility - of people being given opportunities to find better work than their parents.

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1h

Glasman has such a sepia-tinted view of class, and zero ability to recognise the way economy and society has changed - in good and bad ways. Precarity, the new working class - there is lots of good thinking about this. To call him a third-rate theorist would be an insult to third-rate theorists.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 2h

there's a lot to unpack here Lord Glasman

We return to politics. The working classes, he says, saved Britain during the Second World War, yet were repaid with contempt. “The way that my beloved working class was treated under Margaret Thatcher was cruel and deeply disrespectful, and we are still suffering the consequences,” he says. At a time when unemployment is ticking up and six million people are parked on out-of-work benefits, he wants to restore dignity in employment and see an end to the cycle of welfare dependency.

As the Conservative Party was busy selling its soul, Labour abandoned its pro-worker position. “What Thatcher mercilessly initiated, Tony Blair immaculately consummated,” he says. This was manifest in New Labour’s attitude towards higher education. In 1979, roughly 10 per cent of school leavers went to university. Then Blair set his target, encouraging school leavers to move 100 miles from home and dismiss their intergenerational bonds. And, inevitably, “this very beautiful party was colonised by the progressive middle class”.

Reposted by Will Jennings, Pádua Fernandes

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1h

this uh, doesn't seem sustainable

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/g...

Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand

Google’s AI infrastructure chief tells staff it needs thousandfold capacity increase in 5 years.

arstechnica.com

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1h

Neutrality is increasingly problematic in both theory and practice since X became such a toxic platform while so many people continue to use it to consume information.

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 2h

Wrote this a couple of weeks ago. Feels more relevant still after today. And it’s a deficit of self awareness which goes far beyond some members of the BBC board.

Reposted by Will Jennings

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 2h

there's a lot to unpack here Lord Glasman

Reposted by Will Jennings

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 2h

Wrote this a couple of weeks ago. Feels more relevant still after today. And it’s a deficit of self awareness which goes far beyond some members of the BBC board.

Reposted by Will Jennings

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks , and 1 more Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks, Thomas Masterson

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 6h

I've said since Trump picked on Mahmoud Khalil that he was picking his political martyrs poorly.

But this one...

Mark Kelly tweet, showing his medals on a dress uniform, reading:

When I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy and swore an oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school, four space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired – which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.

In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.

Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death.

If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 9h

If you are very strongly ideologically opposed to inheritance tax you can gift your estate away to your kids (7 years) before you die...

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 10h

Literally swam in their pool as a kid.

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 10h

Literally knew them, used to swim in their pool as a kid.

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 10h

Parents managed to avoid a load of IHT by my grandparents cunningly dying before the height of house price inflation...

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 11h

Am not going to link to the piece, but was reading *the* IHT article earlier and suddenly realised "OMG I know these people!".

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 12h

Surely this is just effective implementation of a strict one in, one out policy Tim?

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 14h

This is still correct...

‘Elon Musk won’t stop. It’s time the British government got off X’ | The Observer

observer.co.uk

Reposted by Will Jennings, John L. Cotter, Justin Lewis

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 15h

good to see people keeping a sense of perspective

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 15h

Wake up, this is not a drill!

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Axel Bruns

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 15h

We urgently need to know how many of these accounts have been spreading/amplifying hate, division and instability in Britain. We already know that a foreign actor - Elon Musk - promoted violent overthrow of the government. Has his platform been enabling foreign adversaries to do the same?

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 15h

This is one of the big accounts boosting Tommy Robinson, Farage and Reform and ‘English Patriots’.

It’s Russian.

Collingwood
@admcollingwood
田
Date joined
January 2017
• Account based in
Europe
Veritied since
Since August 2024
>
1 username change
Last on January 2017
Connected via
Eastern Europe (Non-EU) Android App

Reposted by Will Jennings, Jacob T. Levy

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15h

Uhh... those aren't cartoony black-and-white prisoner stripes. They're concentration camp uniforms, blue vertical stripes. It's muddling the two a bit (of course they're variations on the same idea) but the AI slop is obviously pulling from pictures of the latter, it's a very distinct color palette.

Halloween costume of a traditional cartoony prison stripes uniform. Black and white, horizontal stripes.

Auschwitz uniform. Blue and light grey vertical stripes.

Reposted by Will Jennings, Ruth Dassonneville, Steffen Mau , and 4 more Will Jennings, Ruth Dassonneville, Steffen Mau, Markus Wagner, Stuart J. Turnbull‐Dugarte, Tarik Abou‐Chadi, David Darmofal

Reto Mitteregger @indubioproreto.bsky.social · 15h

New Publication with @lhaffert.bsky.social in @ejprjournal.bsky.social!

We study the role of generations in the urban-rural divide, which is increasingly shaping the politics of many democracies.

Studying Switzerland, we show: The urban-rural divide is stronger among younger generations. (1/10) 🧵👇

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 15h

It's not so ironic in that Brexit has not so much been outmoded, as all these vulnerabilities were warned about...

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Will Jennings, Steven French , and 2 more Richard S.J. Tol, Will Jennings, Steven French, Brooke Harrington, Tim Stephens

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 15h

This is one of the big accounts boosting Tommy Robinson, Farage and Reform and ‘English Patriots’.

It’s Russian.

Reposted by Axel Bruns, Will Jennings, Steve Peers

Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 17h

NEW: Nigel Farage is facing renewed calls to explain why he repeatedly aired tropes and conspiracy theories associated with antisemitism during interviews, after claims the Reform UK leader used racist language in his teens.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Farage urged to explain conspiracy theories linked to antisemitism he voiced in US media

Exclusive: The Reform UK leader discussed far-right talking points in web TV and radio appearances between 2009 and 2018

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers

onion person @junlper.beer · 18h

genuinely says so much about what twitter has become that the biggest rightwing grift accounts pushing US fascist narratives aren’t real people and not even close to the united states

Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 1d

Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...

Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges

Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.

www.cnbc.com

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1d

These numbers on the amount raised are already out of date I presume...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

These are HEPI estimates of the 20 institutions affected: I think this illustrates the impact if the tariff is absorbed in full by institutions.

What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 1d

I hope they have a reliable forecast of international student numbers...

Reposted by Will Jennings, Jon Dean

Jonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.bsky.social · 1d

This Labour government’s talent for punishing its own natural supporters without gaining any new ones is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in politics. What on earth are they smoking

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