Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 2h

He’s built his life around 2 big UK parties and now faces a continental spectrum of groups getting 20-30% at best. It could all go haywire, and probably will. Which raises the question: what would it take to get Starmer et al to see the urgency of electoral reform?

Reposted by Ian Christie

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d

Somebody help me, my electoral system, he is very sick

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 1d

New YouGov Westminster poll:

RFM: 27% (-2)
LAB: 20% (-2)
CON: 17% (+1)
LDM: 17% (+2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

8 44 290

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 3h

Not all that comforting with an electoral system of First Past The Post, designed to work with 2 big bloc parties and now confronted by a continental spectrum of parties who struggle to get over 30%.
Almost incredible that Labour doesn’t see the danger in FPTP and go for electoral reform.

1

Reposted by Ian Christie

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 23h

My only comfort here is that when you add up the numbers the non-science denying, reality-adjacent, vaguely progressive parties are - as they almost always are - in the majority. Still deeply worrying though.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 1d

New YouGov Westminster poll:

RFM: 27% (-2)
LAB: 20% (-2)
CON: 17% (+1)
LDM: 17% (+2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

1 2 8

Reposted by Ian Christie

Wolfgang Blau @wblau.bsky.social · 21h

‘US energy isolationism’ was a new term for me today.

1 1 7

Reposted by Ian Christie

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 15h

A fine piece of writing there from Sam Leith

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16h

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

2 17 42

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 3h

Have you considered changing your coffee intake?
Be that as it may, this could be the start of the next Smyth novel.

1 1

Reposted by Ian Christie

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 4h

Dreamt it was the end of the world and the hands of all the clocks started bending slowly outwards. Morning.

5 2 28

Reposted by Ian Christie

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 3h

Something oddly cathartic about Kemi Badenoch making insane policy pledges

1 2 10

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 3h

The daily photo.

At the Berlin Wall, October 1983.

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 3h

Sam Fankhauser on the reckless and idiotic Tory plan to scrap net zero target - which puts UK climate leadership at risk theconversation.com/tory-plan-to...

Tory plan to scrap net zero target puts UK climate leadership at risk

The country has enjoyed a unique period of consensus and stability under the Climate Change Act, which the Tories now want to scrap.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Ian Christie

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d

BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

86 540 1.3K

Reposted by Ian Christie

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 14h

All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16h

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

31 300 1.2K

Reposted by Ian Christie

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 1d

Both the dotcom bubble and the sub-prime bubble were underpinned by theories as to why the growth might be 'real'. Now we have Bezos et al saying "but what if bubbles are *good*?" like a post-Keynesianism for billionaires

1 6 15

Reposted by Ian Christie

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 1d

Has there ever been a bubble with so much reflexivity regarding its status as a bubble as this one? www.ft.com/content/6cc8...

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

2 9 30

Reposted by Ian Christie

n+1 @nplusonemag.com · 1d

It’s hard to identify anything functional about Trumpian stupidity, which is less a form of organizational inertia than a slash-and-burn assault on the very things—universities, public health, market data—that help make the world intelligible. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...

Stupidology | William Davies

The challenge posed by this political crisis is how to take the stupidity seriously without reducing it to a wholly mental or psychiatric, let alone genetic, phenomenon. Stupidity can be understood as...

www.nplusonemag.com

16 34

Reposted by Ian Christie

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 22h

Jenrick latest

1 6

Reposted by Ian Christie

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

More in the breathless, breaking stop-the-presses, and not at all confected story, that judges, before they were judges, were involved in practising law. Take 5 seconds to appreciate just how hard into "swivel-eyed loon" Robert Jenrick is being allowed to lean:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

13 46 170

Reposted by Ian Christie

[The Great War & Modern Memory] @ps9714.bsky.social · 1d

Famed #primatologist Jane #Goodall gave an interview on Netflix's show "Famous Last Words" that would only be released after her death. Goodall shared some #candid words about world leaders.

5 63 230

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 13h

We need names. DM is open.

Ian Christie @ianpchristie.bsky.social · 13h

Johnson - you can count on him to tunnel beneath rock bottom and the bottom of the barrel.
Next up for climate policy backsliding - I suspect it'll be James Cleverly. And so far - not a peep from the Conservative Environment Network. As with the GOP faced with MAGA, spinelessness is the norm.

Reposted by Ian Christie

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 14h

Missed this from Boris Johnson. Truly shameful, even by his standards.
www.spectator.co.uk/article/bori...

Boris: I went too far on net zero

The former prime minister may not be at Conservative party conference, but he’s still managing to create headlines. Boris Johnson has admitted he went ‘far too fast’ on net zero when he was PM, conced...

www.spectator.co.uk

6 3 11

Reposted by Ian Christie

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 20h

BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THIS NOW, NORTHERNERS! Who knows when they'll let me out in public again?

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 7d

I am to be let out, and poked until I speak. My first talk in AGES - please do come along, if you're in the north-east. Books, birds, all that sort of thing. www.nhsn.org.uk/events/richa...

Richard Smyth: A Nature Writer at Large

An evening with nature writer Richard Smyth in the NHSN Council RoomRichard Smyth is one of the UK's busiest nature writers. His most recent book, The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell: Finding Wild ...

www.nhsn.org.uk

4 8

Reposted by Ian Christie

Wolfgang Blau @wblau.bsky.social · 15h

The experience that prepared me well - psychologically - for working on climate issues, the energy transition, and the dialogue with hard and soft climate denial and delay-ism are my decades in digital journalism and newsroom transformation.
So, so many similar patterns in how incumbents think.

1 23

Reposted by Ian Christie

Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 14h

I think I finally know who Theresa May was describing when she talked about the "anywheres". And they are all in on the Reform Party.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16h

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

5 11