Ben Worthy | Lightnews

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social · 10h

Shilling for Trump in Brussels: A document we obtained shows how Tony Blair and his institute lobbied behind closed doors for the EU to join Trump's "Board of Peace" and put €€€ behind US- and Israeli-led Gaza reconstruction efforts.

Published with Democracy for Sale, ht @lighthousereports.com

Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 1d

From Sebastian Haffner’s memoir of Berlin 1930-1933, Defying Hitler. Posted without comment.

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 2d

What Happened After Colston? My piece with Maria Ridda for @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

What happened after Colston? | LSE British Politics

Back in 2020, the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was toppled and later thrown in the dock, triggering a national conversation about what to do with the statues and monuments of slave owners. Mari...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 4d

IN NEW ISSUE: How do UK political elites reconcile with a low trust environment? @chrisbutlerpol.bsky.social, @drjennings.bsky.social & Gerry Stoker examine this question in @polstudies.bsky.social: buff.ly/3E6DkuS (OPEN ACCESS)

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social #polsky

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 5d

This is a very important set of insights/predictions here by @davidallengreen.bsky.social. Rather like with Partygate, the government has lost control of the disclosure process. Other actors will now control it, and it is almost certain that more information = more problems and revelations.

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 6d

NEW

Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government

Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters

A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...

Research for Action @research-for-act.bsky.social · 6d

🕵️NEW: Councils getting 'exceptional financial support' from govt sold over £1bn of public assets in last 5 years 😱 we've mapped some of the biggest sell-offs including #Birmingham #Nottingham #Bradford and #Southampton , with £1bn more planned in 2025/26 ➡️ researchforaction.uk/report-flogg...

REPORT: Flogged off – Public asset sales at councils getting exceptional financial support – Research for Action

researchforaction.uk

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 6d

NEW

Three reasons why the Mandelson disclosure exercise will be a shock for the government

Ministers and officials usually are in control of disclosure exercises - but here they will not be - and why that matters

A detailed post by me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/three-reas...

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 6d

There's a pdf version on the Google Scholar cite too

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 6d

MPs cheering Keir Starmer at the PLP meeting "like the troops at Little Bighorn," remarks one exasperated Labour MP leaving the room

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7d

We've had 5 new Prime Ministers since June 2016 Brexit referendum in 9 & a half years
- May (3 yesrs)
- Johnson (3 years)
- Truss (50 days)
- Sunak (20 momths)
- Starner (19 momths, 2 years by July)

Previous 5 PMs lasted 37 years,1979-2016

Average: 7

Thatcher 11
Major 7
Blair 10
Brown 3
Cameron 6

Richard Bellamy @rbellamy.bsky.social · 7d

Details of my book launch are now available - everyone welcome. It will be hybrid for those not in London and recorded.
www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

Defending the Political Constitution: A Book Launch of Richard Bellamy’s latest book

This event is organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.

www.ucl.ac.uk

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 7d

This is what I call in my Parliamentary Studies classes the BIG SECRET of British politics, which explains almost everything since 2015, if not 2003 👇👇👇

Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 7d

There’s a trend among recent PMs of having a poor relationship with and/or not really understanding what their backbenchers’ expectations are and how they view their role (and how that seems to have shifted among backbenchers of all parties in recent years)

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 7d

Since Labour has been in government the lack of preparation and depth of thinking has been apparent but I think one of the biggest mistakes was going to war with the PLP so early. It stunned a lot of MPs to be told they could not even table amendments. This resentment is a massive part of the story.

Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 7d

Parliamentary management matters! It matters when you have a small majority but it *also* matters when you have a big majority. And it takes constant work.

Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 7d

There’s a trend among recent PMs of having a poor relationship with and/or not really understanding what their backbenchers’ expectations are and how they view their role (and how that seems to have shifted among backbenchers of all parties in recent years)

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 7d

Since Labour has been in government the lack of preparation and depth of thinking has been apparent but I think one of the biggest mistakes was going to war with the PLP so early. It stunned a lot of MPs to be told they could not even table amendments. This resentment is a massive part of the story.

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 7d

This great story by @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com is more Brasseye than Brasseye was.

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 8d

mashallah he is gone, to celebrate I've made the piece I wrote last year about arguably the most embarrassing project I've ever worked on free to read: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/so-about-t...

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 8d

mashallah he is gone, to celebrate I've made the piece I wrote last year about arguably the most embarrassing project I've ever worked on free to read: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/so-about-t...

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 8d

It's very important- amid this v serious scandal- that @iandunt.bsky.social reminds of the otherhuge scandal still staring us in the face from the covid inquiry

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 9d

This—by @iandunt.bsky.social—is the best thing I’ve read on the implications of this week’s shitshow for UK government, diplomacy and democracy

Starmer's moment of reckoning

Where is the competent boring government we were promised?

iandunt.substack.com

Ben Worthy @benworthy.bsky.social · 8d

Just as an ask, can I get top 5 Pacific War histories? Looking for good overviews. I know the Toland and Toll works

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 8d

“Returning to where we were means going back to a state of affairs that was manifestly unsustainable. To borrow from the architect of the Democratic Party’s most enduring platform, any recovery that simply restores things will see us all right back where we are now.” @rauchway.bsky.social

We need reconstruction, not restoration—as FDR knew.

Eric Rauchway responds in a forum on “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism.”

www.bostonreview.net

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 9d

Jamelle Bouie hits nail on head: "For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career...cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism."

Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is

www.nytimes.com

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9d

"For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career...cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism." (gift link)

Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is

www.nytimes.com

Eoin Higgins @eoinhiggins.bsky.social · 9d

Concentration camps: stories of as many as 50 people to a cell — men and women in some cases — with no windows and limited airflow, a single camera-monitored toilet, aluminum blankets, no showers and poor quality food.

ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said the allegations of overcrowding and lack of access to lawyers are false.

www.pressherald.com

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 9d

This—by @iandunt.bsky.social—is the best thing I’ve read on the implications of this week’s shitshow for UK government, diplomacy and democracy

Starmer's moment of reckoning

Where is the competent boring government we were promised?

iandunt.substack.com

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 9d

Jacob Lawrence, "General Toussaint L’Ouverture, Statesman and Military Genius," from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series, 1938

A.J. Bauer @ajbauer.bsky.social · 9d

Hold up, Donald Trump is racist?

Lauren Harper @laurenleharper.bsky.social · 10d

The whistleblower complaint against Gabbard was allegedly that info was being classified for political reasons.

Now seems like a good time for the intelligence community IG to have its own FOIA office so you don't have to submit your requests for IG records through DNI headquarters first.

Congress Receives Redacted Version of Whistleblower Complaint Against Gabbard

Significant portions of the document had been blacked out for executive privilege.

www.wsj.com

Andrew Defty @adefty.bsky.social · 10d

ISC also being quite clever here - by getting government to mark which parts of the papers are prejudicial to national security, if ISC then produces a report which does not reveal those 'words, phrase or sentences' the government would struggle to legally block the publication of a report.

Andrew Defty @adefty.bsky.social · 10d

The ISC has published its letter to the PM regarding how it will handle the Mandelson papers. It is a carefully worded and fascinating document not least because the ISC has a statutory relationship with the executive but has unusually been asked to carry out a job by Parliament.