Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · 1d

The exact opposite. Tenants currently don't get interest on their deposits. I think they should

4 1 10

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · 1d

Interest on rental deposits. The current system actively punishes long-term tenancy

1 1 11

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · 15d

Just watched this for the first time this week!

1

Reposted by Simon Norris

Colm Murphy @colmpm.bsky.social · 22d

These are particularly critical points that should be much better understood, not just by the government but also by political commentators, journalists, and broadcast bookers.

1 18 34

Reposted by Simon Norris

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · Sep 14

Just a reminder that Starmer's accommodation of the radical right has not paid any electoral dividends to date. It's difficult to imagine circumstances in which it would...

Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · Sep 5

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

8 31 120

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Aug 20

Whose diary's this?

1

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Aug 7

I think there's an argument to be made that we rely too much on nuclear weapons, to the detriment of conventional forces, so we end up having very few non-nuclear options. There's probably a balance to be found, but I'd argue we're balanced too far towards nuclear deterrence at present

1

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Jul 30

Surprised that Austerity wasn't included as an option to be honest

6

Reposted by Simon Norris

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · May 27

Most political punditry misses this fundamental insight from political science.

G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · May 27

The key to winning at both politics and elections is realizing that future opinions — "latent opinion" — is different from what we can measure about public opinion using polls _today_. Future opinion is downstream of both what leaders do *and* don't do today. The future is not exogenous

9 66 380

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · May 27

I'd say also gives further credence to @jamesdaustin.bsky.social's theory that Reform's ceiling is ~30%

3

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · May 21

Maybe, but at least the manifesto they were elected on was a pretty YIMBY manifesto, so they have a clear mandate to act on that. The fuel allowance cut was not in the manifesto and had high cut-through in a way that I doubt planning reform would.

1

Reposted by Simon Norris

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · May 15

Here's a figure from IPCC AR6 Summary for Policymakers showing the linear relationship between fucking around and finding out.

Every tonne of CO₂ we add to the atmosphere makes things worse for us and all other living things.

A line graph illustrating the relationship between cumulative CO₂ emissions and global surface temperature increase. The title reads: “Every tonne of CO₂ emissions adds to global warming.” A subtitle states: “Global surface temperature increase since 1850–1900 (°C) as a function of cumulative CO₂ emissions (GtCO₂).”

Y-axis (vertical): Labeled “Find out” on the left side (as a humorous annotation), with the actual scale running from 0°C to 3°C, representing the temperature increase.

X-axis (horizontal): Labeled “Fuck around” at the bottom (as a humorous annotation), with a scale ranging from 0 to 4500 GtCO₂, indicating cumulative CO₂ emissions since 1850.

A black jagged line represents historical global warming data, rising steadily from near 0°C to about 1.1°C as cumulative emissions reach approximately 2500 GtCO₂.

The graph highlights a near-linear relationship between cumulative CO₂ emissions and global temperature increase, as stated in a text box within the plot area.

Five colored shaded regions (with corresponding trend lines) represent different future emission scenarios (until 2050):

SSP1-1.9 (light blue)

SSP1-2.6 (blue)

SSP2-4.5 (orange)

SSP3-7.0 (red-orange)

SSP5-8.5 (red)

These scenario pathways show increasing temperature outcomes with higher emissions, with SSP1-1.9 leading to the lowest warming and SSP5-8.5 to the highest.

The graph replaces conventional axis labels with the meme-inspired phrases “Fuck around” (X-axis) and “Find out” (Y-axis), emphasizing the consequence of emissions on global warming.

9 150 330

Reposted by Simon Norris

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · May 8

A useful counter to the celebration of Reform as a "working-class insurrection".

It suits both Farage and Maurice Glasman to present the party in this way, but that rests heavily on a particular idea of "the working class" as old, white and male, rather than (for example) young, black and female.

Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · May 8

A quick chart on the Reform UK 'working class' revolution. It is true that Reform support is higher among working class groups but that doesn't make it a majority (or even the most popular) among the working class and more than 1 in 3 strongly disliked the party at GE last year.

4 42 100

Reposted by Simon Norris

Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · May 2

This is why mooting 'ditching net-zero' as the solution to Labour's woes is so silly. It's a policy that is popular with their core voters, critical to progressive voters they need to woo back, and Reform voters are sceptical but it's way down their priority list.

28 130 340

Reposted by Simon Norris

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · Apr 30

I’m all for expanding the social democratic coalition beyond liberals and progressives. But the idea that you can do social democratic politics *in opposition* to liberals and progressives is a nostalgic, self-indulgent fantasy.

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · Apr 30

The Glasmanisation of the Labour Party is a massive risk to them. The Conservatives discovered that if you insult your professional base long enough in a desperate attempt to win populist right votes, they will flock to the Lib Dems and you lose 60 seats. Labour may find similar soon enough.

Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · Apr 30

I had many problems with Blair, but his talk of a modern, open, knowledge-based economy was a breath of fresh air compared to this atavistic, closed-minded economically illiterate shit.

3 24 90

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Apr 8

The BBC wrote a decent article explaining it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Experts dispute Colossal claim dire wolf back from extinction

Independent experts say three white wolf puppies are not dire wolves, as claimed by US company Colossal

www.bbc.co.uk

1

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Apr 8

Just that the Wolves are as genetically Dire Wolf as the Jurassic Park dinosaurs were genetically dinosaur

1 1

Reposted by Simon Norris

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · Apr 4

As the article (in thread) says, outsize SUVs cost the public purse more in terms of strain on the infrastructure & pollution, and are far more dangerous for pedestrians & cyclists. Yes, we should tax them and their usage heavily. Why on Earth should the rest of us subsidise this obnoxious trend?

Caroline Russell @carolinerussell.bsky.social · Apr 4

Large SUVs are too big for parking spaces and dangerously heavy in crashes - time to bring in weight and size based charges?

“In 2024, a record 1,213,385 cars wider than 1.8 metres were sold.”

Guardian article with photo of large white SUV taking up a full parking space width no space to exit the car.

Headline “more than a million cars sold in UK each year too big to fit typical parking space.”

Sub heading “Campaign network calls on Government to prioritise smaller cars and introduce higher charges for SUVs”

99 500 1.8K

Reposted by Simon Norris

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Mar 17

A quick linkedin re-post of my thread here about what seems to be a detectable rise in "WELL WE DIDN'T STOP 1.5C MIGHT AS WELL GIVE UP ON EVERYTHING AND JUST ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE WHICH I'M SURE IS POSSIBLE HAVEN'T CHECKED THIS BUT SURE ITS FINE" vibes

www.linkedin.com/pulse/fossil...

dog on fire meme

It's time to invest in adapting to these new conditions
I tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas
We have failed to limit warming
Scientists didn't warn me

a chart of various ipcc scenarios with the text

ABSOLUTELY STILL UP
FOR GRABS
/
(and the fossil fuel
/ industry continues to go
wild trying to ensure these
also end up in the ‘mostly
- failed to prevent’ category,
let's NOT LET THEM)
| Mostly failed to
prevent 1.5¢ (unless
we get lucky)

4 16 69

Simon Norris @simonnorris.bsky.social · Feb 3

Either that, or it was already priced in