David Bent
@davidbent.bsky.social
Founder: Atelier of What’s Next, a studio for initiatives at the frontier of generating a better future.
Edmund Hillary Fellow. Hon Lecturer: UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. Views own.
https://linktr.ee/davidbent
Edmund Hillary Fellow. Hon Lecturer: UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. Views own.
https://linktr.ee/davidbent
Reposted by David Bent
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
Reposted by David Bent
The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."
China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics
The world’s biggest manufacturer now has an interest in the world decarbonising
www.economist.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:05 AM
The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."
Reposted by David Bent
If I have a choice -- one one side, middle-aged academic author with grand 3-volume tome on How to Create the Perfect World (I get two or three of these *a week*); on the other side, someone who boosted heat pump uptake in midsized NYC multifamily buildings by 17% -- I choose the latter every time.
November 3, 2025 at 6:44 PM
If I have a choice -- one one side, middle-aged academic author with grand 3-volume tome on How to Create the Perfect World (I get two or three of these *a week*); on the other side, someone who boosted heat pump uptake in midsized NYC multifamily buildings by 17% -- I choose the latter every time.
Reposted by David Bent
One way to cut immigration is to simply make your country so miserable that no one wants to come
NEW from me:
Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent.
That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀
Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent.
That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀
November 1, 2025 at 9:45 AM
One way to cut immigration is to simply make your country so miserable that no one wants to come
Reposted by David Bent
One of the biggest problems with generational framing in median and political discourse is how it so often does not grapple with idelogical diversity within cohorts.
Boomers produced Enoch fans and New Left, Gen X saw Thatcherites and Punks, Millennials had Boris cult and Corbynites and so on
Boomers produced Enoch fans and New Left, Gen X saw Thatcherites and Punks, Millennials had Boris cult and Corbynites and so on
An inconvenient truth. @turnbulldugarte.com and @emiliabelknap.bsky.social puncture a pervasive myth. "Among young respondents aged 18-25, a very comfortable majority of women reject Reform UK (75%), and a similarly large majority of men in the same age group share the same view (71%)."
Most British young men reject the far right - UK in a changing Europe
Emilia Belknap and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte explain their analysis on the demographics of Reform UK voters in the UK. They argue that while the dominant narrative is that young men are the most likely ...
ukandeu.ac.uk
November 1, 2025 at 10:04 AM
One of the biggest problems with generational framing in median and political discourse is how it so often does not grapple with idelogical diversity within cohorts.
Boomers produced Enoch fans and New Left, Gen X saw Thatcherites and Punks, Millennials had Boris cult and Corbynites and so on
Boomers produced Enoch fans and New Left, Gen X saw Thatcherites and Punks, Millennials had Boris cult and Corbynites and so on
Reposted by David Bent
Kemi Badenoch is absolutely right about this.
At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years
At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years
October 30, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Kemi Badenoch is absolutely right about this.
At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years
At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years
Reposted by David Bent
Reposted by David Bent
Ouch.
"One of the reasons Starmer has become so disliked so quickly is that many voters believe he embodies the system.
"He is almost an AI-generated version of what a politician looks and sounds like"
www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/is-i...
"He is almost an AI-generated version of what a politician looks and sounds like"
www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/is-i...
Is it all over for centrist politics? | The News Agents
A new poll shows a continued decline for Labour’s popularity among UK voters, as parties on the ‘edges’ of British politics - such as Reform and the Greens continue to thrive. Is there any way back…
www.thenewsagents.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Ouch.
Reposted by David Bent
This from a top expert on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
In summary, the outlook is grim. It is highly likely that Thwaites Glacier will eventually be lost, which will destabilise adjoining parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, increasing the committed long-term rise in global mean sea level by more than 3 m.
October 26, 2025 at 9:41 PM
This from a top expert on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
Reposted by David Bent
My column in the @ftweekend.com: Keir Starmer is in trouble because he has not been serious about governing, and the best way for him to turn things around is for him to become serious:
Starmer needs to get serious about governing — and quick
The prime minister has to change or his party will seek a change of its own
www.ft.com
October 25, 2025 at 11:28 AM
My column in the @ftweekend.com: Keir Starmer is in trouble because he has not been serious about governing, and the best way for him to turn things around is for him to become serious:
Reposted by David Bent
A mother with settled status whose child is disabled. The father is British by birth. They have received DLA for the child. A Tory government would deport her?
I'd really like any Conservative who has ever talked about the "party of the family" to explain why this is the right thing to do.
I'd really like any Conservative who has ever talked about the "party of the family" to explain why this is the right thing to do.
A policy this expansive would certainly mean mass stripping of permanent residence status from people with ILR (including pensioners and parents of British children) on a scale far beyond anything any democracy has ever done before. There is no public support for such an extreme policy.
Via @sundersays.bsky.social the Conservatives' draft legislation - absolutely clear that it applies to (and is intended to apply to) legal permanent residents claiming state pension (on the basis of their contributions) or child benefit for British kids.
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
October 22, 2025 at 7:50 AM
A mother with settled status whose child is disabled. The father is British by birth. They have received DLA for the child. A Tory government would deport her?
I'd really like any Conservative who has ever talked about the "party of the family" to explain why this is the right thing to do.
I'd really like any Conservative who has ever talked about the "party of the family" to explain why this is the right thing to do.
Reposted by David Bent
"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral."
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
It’s racist, it’s extremist and it’s immoral
The right is still calling for deportations, and the government is still being cowardly about it. Also: London’s first green belt; some notes on a shark; and some news, on my next book.
jonn.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM
"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral."
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
Reposted by David Bent
Your regular reminder that scrapping ILR for people who have come here and played by the rules, which is what Lam proposes here, is a position supported by 3% of the public
Sunday Times interview Tory "rising star" Katie Lam
She is clear she wants lots of legal migrants to be told to "go home" so as "to leave a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people"
(The interviewer suggests she is scrapping ILR or stripping people of it)
She is clear she wants lots of legal migrants to be told to "go home" so as "to leave a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people"
(The interviewer suggests she is scrapping ILR or stripping people of it)
October 19, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Your regular reminder that scrapping ILR for people who have come here and played by the rules, which is what Lam proposes here, is a position supported by 3% of the public
Reposted by David Bent
“The UK has a system in which a TV channel can pay a political leader almost half a million pounds a year and give him an hour an evening to react to his rivals without breaking a single rule.”
You might think controlling GB News gives you huge influence over UK politics – especially on the right. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as we reveal in this week's issue of @thenewworldmag.bsky.social
Full story: www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-p...
Full story: www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-p...
October 19, 2025 at 9:09 AM
“The UK has a system in which a TV channel can pay a political leader almost half a million pounds a year and give him an hour an evening to react to his rivals without breaking a single rule.”
Reposted by David Bent
fish and chips, the native British dish invented by sephardic Jewish migrants in the 18th century using a vegetable no one on this island had encountered before the 16th
The British Right are just in total freefall into savagery at this point
October 18, 2025 at 11:49 AM
fish and chips, the native British dish invented by sephardic Jewish migrants in the 18th century using a vegetable no one on this island had encountered before the 16th
Reposted by David Bent
The most interesting vote of the night imho and one that foretells a potential apocalypse in the suburbs of the south-east for the Conservatives. More liberal Tories go LD, more reactionary ones go to Reform.
Camberley West (Surrey) Council By-Election Result:
🔶 LDM: 49.5% (+16.6)
➡️ RFM: 25.9% (New)
🌳 CON: 20.4% (-28.8)
🌹 LAB: 4.3% (-11.4)
No WPB (-2.3) as previous.
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2021.
🔶 LDM: 49.5% (+16.6)
➡️ RFM: 25.9% (New)
🌳 CON: 20.4% (-28.8)
🌹 LAB: 4.3% (-11.4)
No WPB (-2.3) as previous.
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2021.
October 17, 2025 at 8:31 AM
The most interesting vote of the night imho and one that foretells a potential apocalypse in the suburbs of the south-east for the Conservatives. More liberal Tories go LD, more reactionary ones go to Reform.
Reposted by David Bent
It's never the comms. Labour's comms is grey because in the absence of a clear strategy for what the government wants to achieve, no-one can defend or articulate what the government says in an interesting or exciting way.
I do wonder if Labour might look at the sorts of people dominating the discourse and dominating the content wars and maybe, just maybe, rethink the sorts of grey figures they routinely put up for interviews, instructed at that to be as cautious as possible. Things have changed. Their comms hasn’t.
October 10, 2025 at 8:10 AM
It's never the comms. Labour's comms is grey because in the absence of a clear strategy for what the government wants to achieve, no-one can defend or articulate what the government says in an interesting or exciting way.
Reposted by David Bent
It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.
They should feel bad.
They should feel bad.
October 9, 2025 at 1:38 PM
It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.
They should feel bad.
They should feel bad.
Reposted by David Bent
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.
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-...
Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
October 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
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.
Reposted by David Bent
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
October 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Reposted by David Bent
Discworld QOTD, from I Shall Wear Midnight
October 6, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Discworld QOTD, from I Shall Wear Midnight
Reposted by David Bent
as always, the most accurate summation of modern politics ever created
October 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
as always, the most accurate summation of modern politics ever created
Reposted by David Bent
Reposted by David Bent
Discworld QOTD, from Thief of Time
September 30, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Thief of Time