Hugh Pemberton

@hugh-pemberton.bsky.social

1.4K followers 540 following 450 posts

Recent British history is my thing (political, governmental, economic); armchair strategic studies my secret vice. Emeritus Prof at Bristol. Sometime historian of the UK civil service, more recently of Thatcherism. But often on my allotment these days .. more

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Hugh R. Pemberton, FRHistS, is an academic historian specialising in the late twentieth-century British politics and British social and economic policy. As of 2018, he is Professor of Contemporary British History at the University of Bristol. .. more

Political science 54%

Economics 32%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 4d

This is a thoughtful and welcome counterpoint to the prevailing discourse problematising masculinity
From @jemima.bsky.social | In praise of male courage - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

In praise of male courage

The heroes of Bondi Beach should be celebrated in an era of ‘toxic masculinity’

giftarticle.ft.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 5d

This is good on the government's failure to pivot from funding peacetime priorities to prewar priorities. Yet every day the UK's military inadequacies become more obvious as the Russia threat grows and the US alliance withers. From Robert Lyman
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...

Britain's dangerous defence vacuum

Unless the British government can find money to invest in the country's security, the UK's recent Strategic Defence Review will be a fantasy rather than military reality.

engelsbergideas.com

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 6d

HS2 could have transformed Britain and the experienced shape of the country itself. Instead the Brits managed to cock it up in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. Whole libraries will be written about this disaster.
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...

Why HS2 may lead to smaller, slower trains on west coast main line

Industry insiders are concerned that fewer, shorter non-tilting trains are on order for HS2 — and that journey times will return to those of the 1990s

www.thetimes.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 7d

Excellent diatribe from Alison Wolf on the inordinate length, verbosity, and complexity of modern Parliamentary Bills. One might add, though, that Bills which nobody fully understands might be seen as essentially undemocratic

www.ft.com/content/f49a... via @FT

Behemoth bills are causing hold-ups in the Lords

Rambling, badly drafted government proposals are leading to late nights and endless scrutiny

www.ft.com

Reposted by Simon Hix

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 7d

"Real communism has never been tried"

Paul Marshall: Implementation of Brexit became a fiasco

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 8d

The socialist case for rearmament. From Paul Mason
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/t...

The Socialist Case for Rearmament

MI6 and the UK military are ringing alarm bells. Listen and act

open.substack.com

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 10d

Any tax system that requires a 13 year court case to decide the tax status of supermarket chicken is not fit for purpose. We should have VAT on everything, at a lower rate - www.nesta.org.uk/blog/fiscal-... 2/2

Fiscal options: untangling VAT

VAT reform could stabilise public finances and simplify our tax system – making it both manageable and beneficial

www.nesta.org.uk

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 10d

The problem with the tech elite is not its wealth per se, it's the lack of a moral compass in amassing that wealth
www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue

A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to mini...

www.reuters.com

Reposted by Paul Nightingale

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 11d

Speeches from the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service today make clear the military and intelligence threat to the UK. July's Strategic Defence Review set how the threats might be addressed and was endorsed by the government. So where is the funding plan?

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 11d

The final cover for the book on the Blair governments is in! With some great testimonials on the back... You can pre-order now for the 10 February publication date! Publisher's site here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 13d

There's no doubt the UK faces economic challenges but the present doomerism seems OTT (no, things were not better in the 1970s!). @chrisgiles.ft.com argues the depressive mood is a function of negative reporting based on official forecasts that are increasingly off-beam
www.ft.com/content/5aff...

The UK economy is not nearly as bad as you’ve been told

A huge pessimistic bias in our national accounts leads us to doom and gloom which turns out to be nonsense

www.ft.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 13d

Come on FT, membership of the victorious party almost always plummets in the year following an election - as fired-up new members from the previous year think "job done" and fail to renew
www.ft.com/content/1385...

Labour membership plummets since general election

Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK becomes the largest political party by members

www.ft.com

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Reposted by Albert Weale, Hugh Pemberton

Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 14d

The economy is 7.4 per cent better than BoE expected in Nov 2022

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 16d

In public, leaderships of other NATO countries are being fairly polite about the USA's betrayal of its allies, and of Ukraine. Beneath that surface, though, things are different...
open.substack.com/pub/theline/...

Matt Gurney: 'We will never fucking trust you again'

Some blunt talk for our American neighbours at the Halifax International Security Forum.

open.substack.com

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 16d

Perhaps Labour should adopt a new slogan: "FTSE 100 up 18.9% since we were elected"?

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 16d

A perfect encapsulation of where UK politics now is on the Brexit issue, and its almost inevitable direction of travel. From @stephenkb.bsky.social

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 16d

More news of civil service departments' terrible performance. Time to bring back the 'Mandarins'?
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/civil-serv...

Civil Service Leadership Criticised Yet Again

But they don't seem to notice.

ukcivilservant.substack.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 18d

Absolutely. But I think that's his point - it's not that we don't have a theory of inflation but that implementation of it is hard!

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 18d

As predicted, the grim reaper is relentlessly reducing support for Brexit
open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

The majority opposed to Brexit has reached eight million

Ministers need courage to keep it that way

open.substack.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 18d

This is a succinct demolition of Mervyn King's risible claim that central bankers no longer have a working theory of inflation. It's policy execution not inadequate theory that's the problem
freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/12/05/s...

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 18d

Reports that a Reform UK councillor’s business has been fined £40,000 for illegally employing someone without the right to work in the UK are distinctly chucklesome

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 21d

Nearly choked on my tea on seeing the Spectator quoting Trotsky in its (justified) denunciation of the government's failure to deliver rearmament to counter the Russian threat: ‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.’

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 22d

This is a very useful corrective to Britain's prevailing national obsession with an imagined past in which life was just so much better than it is today. From @adamcorlett.bsky.social

adamcorlett.com/2025/11/30/d...

Don’t Panic: Britain is not broken – adamcorlett.com

adamcorlett.com

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 25d

We should worry less about declining take-up of Arts degrees and more about fixing vocational education and in-work training. It's the easiest route to higher national productivity, higher earnings, and better life-chances for the majority
share.google/PnHGnr3hBsUb...

No train no gain - Learning and Work Institute

share.google

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 25d

I note that the FT chose not to splash the "HMT 'misled' Lobby journalists on budget" non-story on its front page this morning

Reposted by Hugh Pemberton

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 25d

Questions for us as a nation:
*Adapting to climate breakdown
*Demographic transition
*How much immigration?
*Green energy shift
*Rearmament and defence
*Trade with the EU
*Housebuiliding and infra

Not a question:
*Most stuff the Lobby talks about

Hugh Pemberton @hugh-pemberton.bsky.social · 25d

This is most obvious when it comes to Treasury briefings because political Lobby journalists dont have enough economics training to frame the sorts of probing questions that an economics correspondent would ask

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