Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Carl Lee

@drcarllee.bsky.social

110 followers 110 following 240 posts

Likes cities, loves Sheffield. PhD geographer and retired university lecturer Latest book "So where are you from?" Geography, Identity and Place.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Carl Lee

Dan Hayes @danhayesjourno.bsky.social · 3d

If you read one thing today, please make it this by @ophiraophira.bsky.social at @manchestermill.bsky.social.

A moving, honest story about the Crumpsall terrorist attack and the long history of Jews and Muslims in North Manchester.

Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story

‘We thought we were the luckiest people in the world to be born in Manchester’

manchestermill.co.uk

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 3d

One of the problems is that governing is hard - completely different from opposition or activist politics - yet most folk see it as 'consumer' offer & with that expectation is both elevated & frequently disappointed. I always thought the historic role of the Labour Party was to be disappointing.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 3d

A recipe for acute instability year after year.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

Broadly true

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

I always discussed with my students what would happen if all transactional payment systems collapsed (a possibility)- how would they acquire the goods and services they required. They tended to leave the seminar rather down-hearted but some argued 'communism' would save us but never could say how.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

Beware of what you wish for - if you usurped the entire capitalist system the reset would be brutal. That's your pension gone, food supply system down, technology grinding to a halt. conflict and chaos. And what would the reset be - who would decide ? Could be fascism, could be anarchy.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

We have 728,000 job vacancies over June to August - this is the lowest since April 2021. Unemployment is but one metric - overall 21.7% of the working age population are not working (disabled/early retirement/ unemployed etc) not an historic low level.
www.ons.gov.uk/employmentan...

Vacancies and jobs in the UK - Office for National Statistics

Estimates of the number of vacancies and jobs for the UK.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

You've some good ideas here but the pathway towards moving towards them is slow and incremental. We need to build capacity and that is generational. In the mean time we have to negoiate the slings and arrows of global neo-liberalism & it isn't easy. Slogans need to be honed into actual policy Tricky

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

I used to think a lot like this but to achieve it you have to develop an autkary outside of global financial markets. Essentially you have to float free of external capital - Cuba is a good example of this - nice country - great people - good education - good health - poor as hell.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

Well David you will not be surprised that with a PhD in Economic Geography I have read extensively on MMT. As Keynes said "Anything you can do you can afford" The key problem is capacity to soak up spending without becoming inflationary. The UK lacks capacity, investment will chase scarce resources

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

Yes it is a challenge on multiple fronts. When I left school in 1981 youth unemployment was 30.8% nationally & far higher in areas like Sheffield. Insecurity was a given then for working class folk as it still is for many today. What sort of plan would you like & how would you finance it?

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 5d

You said 'give them a job' How exactly are you magicing these jobs and if you think it is possible for ayslum seekers why is not also possible to do that for the 100,000s of unemployed young folk? In reality you are venting in slogans without any consideration of the public policy or fiscal issues

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 6d

Give them a job...621,000 18-24 yr olds are currently unemployed in the UK. Would you give jobs to ayslum seekers with claims as yet undecided ahead of the UK's unemployed? Not sure that'll play well with the UK's working class.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 8d

Renishaw (Derbyshire) Harvest - 28th September - two weeks earlier than last year and a far better harvest.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 8d

Miriam is a national treasure.
pbs.twimg.com/media/G2GyW5...

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 12d

Very frothy and indignant commentary on ID cards at present. Personally I am not bothered by it - it will bring us into line with virtually all other European nations. Clearly all sorts of issues around the system would need to be debated - cost - effectiveness of UK gov roll-out - mandatory?

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 23d

This bill has been in train for a long time - hardly 'suddenly cares' but I guess that is the 'spin' you want to give it.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 23d

@sheffieldtribune.bsky.social - not sure they are 'sticking it to power' but it is informed long form public interest journalism. And sister publications @manchestermill.bsky.social and @liverpoolpost.bsky.social

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

The problem is the 'wiggle-room' for different macro-economic approaches - MMT for example - is limited because we have let ourselves become beholden to bond markets. They did for Truss, maybe they'll do for Starmer & certainly would bring a left/green gov to its knees in months.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

Would you rejoin the EU if (as the rules now state) we have to join the € zone with the ceding of ultimate fiscal control to the neo-liberals of the ECB? But PR yes and at least a far closer relationship with EU

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

There was a policy agenda that thre Labour Party set out, some good stuff Whether it was feasible was untested Given Truss's and Starmer's rough ride at the hands of the bond markets I strongly suspect that any left gov on Keynesian steroids would soon hit similar problems - finnacial globalisation

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

You sound nice and entirely well balanced

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

Globalisation has been in train since the 80s. The rise of the far fight is a partial response to this with its return to the primacy nation states. In previous decades it was the left pushing back against supra-national global capital but they couldn't frame a cogent response beyond slogans.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

And in this reply is the arrogance of some of the left who in many cases would rather howl at the moon than build alliances through compromise.

Carl Lee @drcarllee.bsky.social · 24d

The left appears incapable of getting its act together.