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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 12d

Completely agree. Being able to do nice things without being super rich really is the acid test

James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · 26d

George Abaraonye takes hard to nail. It’s interesting for orthogonal reasons. 1/ private fleeting moments blowing up to global scrutiny - a la Coldplay 2/ Oxford’s admissions criteria 3/ political reasoning across left and right that is sociopathic 4/ free speech debate 5/ why is Oxford in the news

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Reposted by James Kanagasooriam

John Smith Centre @johnsmithcentre.com · Mar 31

🚨 The UK Youth Poll 2025 is here! 🚨

Young people believe in democracy but fear for its future. They want better politics & financial stability.

📊 Read the #UKYouthPoll2025 now: www.ukyouthpoll.com

@focaldata.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social #Nationwide

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Sep 2

Parenting becoming more effort filled is downstream of so many things - the necessity of dual incomes in some areas, housing, atomised living, geographically dislocated families, a public realm that doesn’t have lots of nice free stuff, a culture of individualism over community, declining faith.

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · Sep 2

My theory is that there is *one* way to raise birth rates, and it is to normalise hands off French-style parenting. France is the only country in the world where the amount of time parents spend on care has fallen rather than risen, and has the highest fertility rate in Europe

Jane Coaston @janecoaston.bsky.social · Sep 2

Finland has this and low birth rates! I’m not kidding, it is literally a global phenomenon.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Sep 2

😂

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Sep 2

I’ve written today for @thetimes.com on how our shortening attention spans are damaging our politics. Another slightly doomery column

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 31

Just read this and it’s a pretty astonishing paper download.ssrn.com/2024/10/20/4...

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 29

It’s in the telegraph, the national, GB news, the canary. I think Ben’s point is largely correct though - we don’t have a equally politically loaded town square since early Twitter and we’re all poorer for it

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 29

The sheer number of non voters towards the lower end of the income spectrum indicates the potential for much higher turnout in a multiparty system

Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · Aug 29

The lovely people @britishelectionstudy.com released the random probaility data which means we can begin to unravel some unanswered questions about turnout in 2024.

A substack to follow but a starter of social class and vote/non-vote. Which party represents the working class? None of the above.

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Reposted by James Kanagasooriam

Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · Aug 29

The lovely people @britishelectionstudy.com released the random probaility data which means we can begin to unravel some unanswered questions about turnout in 2024.

A substack to follow but a starter of social class and vote/non-vote. Which party represents the working class? None of the above.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 29

Clearly not a reference to every single person so I’ve deleted the comment. But the selection is interesting. Organically not much happened which is bens point.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 15

Really enjoyed your piece

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 15

Thanks Richard

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 13

Sorry - We’ve got polling on what people *actually do* re community and it’s rather complicated. Study released end of the year!

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 13

Yup agreed MICs finding similar to our own. But reform voters aren’t necessarily less community minded. Was responding to the other person - not your comment

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 13

This simply isn’t true and not validated by any data.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

We don’t ask people using that word - we use less esoteric language (see the blog)

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

The UK is in a bad place; but it seems campaigners across the spectrum are starting to piece together what might fix our country. Agency.

Substack here open.substack.com/pub/politica...

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

The global public affairs firm Edelman found this in their global trust tracking and found the U.K. to be toxic and world beating in its levels of grievance.

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

Once you realise agency is low in Britain you realise how many things suffer from the lack it - growth, productivity, accountability, positivity. At the heart of our political problems is a culture of grievance so wide it captures some of the luckiest people alive

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

The story of how Britain became a low agency culture is interesting. Lots of candidates. Dopamine culture, the realignment with the centre right tossing Thatchers intellectual legacy, growth in the philosophy of intersectionality, decline of religion (see AA’s concept of grace)

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

When you frame politics as “what could increase individual and group agency” you start to understand why very different political parties are starting to entertain similar policy fixes…

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

The groups that stress people’s agency are the ones that have been making waves across labour, conservative and reform. People want to take back control

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

Our findings reflect work from @moreincommonuk.bsky.social and @luketryl.bsky.social work - agency is likely to be as big a thing in UK politics as the identity / multiculturalism axis over the next 5 years or so

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James Kanagasooriam @jameskanag.bsky.social · Aug 10

Things that drive high agency, high consciousness, pluralist, trusting and optimistic traits are three things.
1/ Money - income and inheritance and a stable familial set up
2/ Mindset (low levels of neuroticism and high amounts of agency)

Hard to pinpoint causation but patterns are clear

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