Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2h

🙄

Useful to remember that one of the largest parties of opposition (who stand to gain most from dissolution) absolutely do not have the national interest at heart. As MLP's conviction for heading up systematic embezzlement for her far-right party interests suggests, this is as helpful as they get

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 3h

#UPDATE France's three-time far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has said she would block all action by any new government.

Reposted by Andrew WM Smith

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 5h

I enormously enjoyed this conversation with David Runciman about the history of compulsory voting, how it came to be adopted in countries like Belgium and Australia, and what it could for British politics today.

Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 5h

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about whether voting should be required by law and what might change if non-participation was no longer an option. Why have some countries made voting compulsory?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 20h

Potentially significant news from France that Macron has met the Presidents of both chambers (Assembly & Senate), which seems to give even more fuel to the fire of a potential dissolution should Lecornu's attempt to find a path forward fail

www.lemonde.fr/politique/li...

EN DIRECT, crise politique : Emmanuel Macron a reçu les présidents des deux Chambres, Yaël Braun-Pivet et Gérard Larcher

Le chef de l’Etat doit consulter les présidents des deux Chambres s’il veut dissoudre l’Assemblée nationale. Sébastien Lecornu poursuit pour sa part ses ultimes négociations et a reçu cet après-midi B...

www.lemonde.fr

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder if we could speed run this whole thing by feeding the last few decades of confected French debates about communautarisme into Google translate, printing them out, and posting them to the party HQs

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

If you wanted to have a listen, it is 48mins into this programme:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

PM - France's prime minister resigns - BBC Sounds

After just 26 days, Sébastien Lecornu is gone. What's next for France?

www.bbc.co.uk

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you, very kind!

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

Just been speaking on the PM programme on BBC Radio 4 about the French political turmoil: a crisis of the Fifth Republic beset by the instability of the Fourth against the backdrop of political extremes as in the Third

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

Lecornu's special mission until Wednesday seems like a desperate response to the fractures within the socle commun, trying to deny political gravity. Surely, every party smells a dissolution on the cards by now, putting the brakes on consensus building

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

Lecornu with a late announcement (after a pep talk with the President)

a man in a suit and tie is holding a microphone and saying `` i 'm not leavin ' '' .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is holding a microphone and saying `` i 'm not leavin ' '' .

media.tenor.com

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 1d

Lecornu with a late announcement (after a pep talk with the President)

a man in a suit and tie is holding a microphone and saying `` i 'm not leavin ' '' .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is holding a microphone and saying `` i 'm not leavin ' '' .

media.tenor.com

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Here's the clip of my subsequent appearance, offering a somewhat live reaction to news of the French PM's resignation

www.threads.com/@france24_en...

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Reposted by Andrew WM Smith

Lottie @sellottie.bsky.social · 2d

It’s happened again

17 500 2.3K

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

I was joking with @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social a few weeks ago that Macron is the Russell Martin of the Fifth Republic in his second term. Keeps playing it out from the back with his pals at PM while leaving things wide open so folk can play straight through

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Will be going back onto France24 to discuss shortly

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Fairly amusing to go on the news and say the new government may well fall by 4pm only to be undercut by the PM resigning before 10am!

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Been on France24 this morning talking about the Lecornu cabinet and the intriguing possibility of it falling before it even sits, as the centre-right react to the appointment of former Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

And he's resigned! Wow!

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Been on France24 this morning talking about the Lecornu cabinet and the intriguing possibility of it falling before it even sits, as the centre-right react to the appointment of former Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Rupture or censure, Lecornu promised. Well... nobody else seems to see the rupture...

Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

This is not, they say, the break with the past they were promised. With 12 out of 18 ministers continuing, that seems fair. Plus, on the left, although use of the controversial 49,3 has been ruled out, there has been nothing tangible in the form of concessions

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Been on France24 this morning talking about the Lecornu cabinet and the intriguing possibility of it falling before it even sits, as the centre-right react to the appointment of former Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

For anyone interested in the #FrenchHistory connection, you can read my 2018 article on the clandestine flights to support resistance (and Jean Moulin crash landing at the airfield): doi.org/10.1080/1350...

Eclipse in the dark years: pick-up flights, routes of resistance and the Free French

This article charts the importance of clandestine flights from Britain into Occupied France during the Second World War as a route of resistance. These pick-up flights were coordinated from London ...

doi.org

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 2d

Been out this morning on a site visit and meeting others involved with the campaign to save the old Air Control Tower at former RAF Tangmere

www.savetangmeretower.com

🗃 #skystorians

Black and White image of the control tower in operation, with an aircraft overhead

The current state of the derelict air tower

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Reposted by Andrew WM Smith

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4d

'The employment rate for 21 to 30-year-olds with degrees is higher than for young people overall, non-graduates in the same age bracket and the general public. They are also less likely to be unemployed or economically inactive.' 2/2

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Reposted by Andrew WM Smith

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4d

There’s...little evidence that graduates are significantly worse off now than in the past....the employment rate among 21 to 30-year-old graduates was 86.5% in 2024, much closer to before the financial crisis (86.9% in 2007), than during and after it (83.6% in 2009).' 1/2

Yes, today’s jobs market is tough for graduates – but AI ...

Figures show that while competition is tight, it’s the economy not tech that is the cause

observer.co.uk

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 4d

Cheers Dion!

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 4d

This looks like a great volume (due out Feb next year)! I'm really pleased that I was able to contribute a chapter. Mine is: "The Bastille and the Roundabout: Popular protest and the revolutionary past of the Gilets Jaunes"

🗃️ #FrenchHistory #SkyStorians

Bryan Banks @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social · 4d

And we have our cover! @cindyermus.bsky.social

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 6d

I was joking with someone recently and coined an excellent history tagline. It is a perfect empty signifier into which can be poured almost any nonsense:

It takes a lot of yesterdays to make a tomorrow

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