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Philip Stephens

@philipstephens.bsky.social

4.6K followers 270 following 900 posts

Writer, historian, Contrib Ed, FT, Robert Bosch Fellow, Berlin, author These Divided Isles, and Britain Alone (both Faber), British, Irish and European. philipstephens.substack.com, philipstephens.net

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · Apr 17

The book I always wanted to write. How Partition turned the Irish Question in British politics into the British Question in Irish politics. And the extraordinary mix of enmity and intimacy that finally mapped a path to a different future. Now open for advance orders:
linktr.ee/thesedivided...

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 17h

Riddled

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 17h

….until we discovered the answers it gave were fiddled with mistakes and misunderstandings

Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 17h

I think a good part of the populist revolt is a reaction against the liberal economic experiment of the 1980s …another good part is a reaction against the social liberalism of the 60s and 70s …in other words Farage is the counterrevolution

Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you for this

Reposted by Philip Stephens

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

"Milei is amazing. It's Thatcherism on steroids. Cutting and slashing. That's leadership" - Nigel Farage

Milei would be the "template" for my government - Kemi Badenoch

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Rob Archer @robarcher.bsky.social · 3d

A Washington Post poll finds 61% of American Jews say Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and about 4 in 10 say it’s committing genocide. wapo.st/42kNv8o

Sept. 2-9, 2025, Washington Post Jewish Americans poll

Results from a nationwide survey of Jewish Americans on views of Israel, Gaza and other topics.

wapo.st

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Nathalie Tocci @nathalietocci.bsky.social · 3d

Proud of my country these days. In solidarity with Gaza #FreeGaza #FreePalestine

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 3d

I often wonder what young Israeli soldiers and pilots , many of them reservists, feel when they fire the rockets into civilian areas that kill so many of Gaza’s children …do they see them as necessary collateral damage? Have there been any good articles (in Haaretz?) exploring this?

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 4d

Has Labour woken up? Latest post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog analysing how Starmer’s Labour seems to be taking a firmer line with Reform and Brexitism, rattling Farage, but many ambiguities and contradictions remain: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/has-...

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

Today’s opinion poll write ups would be more useful if they all carried a health warning along the lines of …”in 1982 the SDP-Liberal alliance rose to 50 pct in the polls. At the election only a year later its support was 25 pct and it won 23 seats. The Tories won a landslide majority of 144.”

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

Think you missed the point …I my exasperation was not ad hominen

Though I would say …and this is a general not specific point …I would not justify any role just because some people ‘do it for a living”

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

Intention was not to “have a go” at anyone …it’s about the issue not any individual …rather to express exasperation at the constant focus on polls to the exclusion of so much else in the national political conversation …

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Hannah Howe @hannahhowe.bsky.social · 4d

Does any polling company ask the question: who will you vote for in the 2029 General Election?

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

Of course polls have useful information …the problem is elevation to the extent that headline poll nos elbow aside everything else in political discourse …much easier to headline a few poll numbers than try to answer hard questions about the economic/social/ international forces reshaping society

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

I’m afraid analysing polls is now the click bait alternative to serious thought about forces and choices shaping policy and politics …very few analyses attach the huge caveats about swings between early polls and election outcomes …poll respondents know there is not going to be an election today!

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

Oh wonderful …another treatise suggesting that polls taken nearly 4 years before a general election should be taken as a guide to the future …surely there is something more interesting to say/write about ?

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 5d

As Labour conference wraps up, I've done a piece for the Swingometer looking at their record in the polls so far.

Visual summary below...

swingometer.substack.com/p/labour-how...

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 4d

Nigel Farage accuses Keir Starmer of "emboldening" anti-semites.

This Nigel Farage

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 5d

It’s taken a while but Kemi Badenoch now has her prospectus for government. The conservatives would leave the ECHR, scrap climate targets, and copy Argentina’s economic strategy. Oh, and close unisex loos. Not entirely sure it does the trick ….

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Claire Savage (UK not USA) @csav55.bsky.social · 5d

I'm baffled by the endless opinion pieces and analysis about an GE which is 4 years away and elections to be held in May next year. I'm 70, I honestly don't remember a time when this happened barely 14 months after a GE.

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Signe Johansen @signesjohansen.bsky.social · 6d

“Socialism for me but not for thee!” Only if you’re in the global authoritarian-demagogue-chainsaw-wielding network though…💸

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 6d

Javier Milei had to beg a bail-out and already needs another. Argentina's economy is in a tailspin. Gov't bonds and peso in freefall. People starving, throwing rocks at him.

Farage last year: "He's amazing. It's Thatcherism on steroids. Cutting and slashing expenditure. That's leadership."

SHARE!

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 6d

Kemi Badenoch boasted in July she was Britain's Javier Milei.... So she would be happy now joining the Argentine president in begging Trump for a $20bn financial bailout? Thought someone would have told her promising to turn Britain into Argentina was not a great idea.

www.ft.com/content/7108...

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says she is Britain’s Javier Milei

In an FT interview, the head of the UK opposition says voters want an Argentina-style assault on state spending

www.ft.com

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 6d

And who the F is the median voter?

Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 6d

Where does this garbage come from?

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Ivor @ivorbolakov.bsky.social · 6d

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Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 7d

Not a racist?
Former English Master at Dulwich College Bob Jope cited in Michael Crick's Farage biography voicing staff concern that:
“Nigel had voiced views that were not simply right wing but views that were racist”.
He threw Farage out of a class for shouting, “shut up you Jew”.

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