Jack Wilkinson
LightNews LightNews
banner
jackwilkinson.bsky.social
Jack Wilkinson
@jackwilkinson.bsky.social
660 followers 220 following 3 posts
PhD candidate in Political Theory @lsepoltheory.bsky.social | Working on democratic theory, social epistemology, and solidarity.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
heldutson.bsky.social
Something compelled me to make this
A screenshot of a mocked-up Guardian headline, which reads: "Ignore the smears: I was never the one who ate a full tub of Lurpack off the kitchen counter." The byline is: "My dog." And there's a picture of my dog, posing with a serious expression, like a journalist. She is a black labrador type dog with brown eyes, grey muzzle and shiny, silky fur on her face, wearing a pink collar. Underneath the headline continues: "Listen, I'm a good girl. I don't know how butter stealers thrive in our political culture, but it's clear there was a failure of moral seriousness." There's then a link to another article, headlined: "Footage of Lola eating the butter, which cost her owners £300, was captured on a dog cam." It's a parody of this article from Wes Streeting in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/09/peter-mandelson-wes-streeting-vetting-moral-seriousness
February 10, 2026 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
jackwilkinson.bsky.social
📣 Call for Abstracts!

Excited to be among the organisers of the 12th annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory (28-29th May)!

Submit abstracts here: forms.gle/ccfeNR21Pn3Y...

Please share among colleagues and fellow PhD Students!
January 26, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
ayoub.bsky.social
The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions.

It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.
The Legislation Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will: 1) Leave the ECHR 2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. 3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill: This Bill will: Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act." The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years: Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT) Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order. These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR. Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds. If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight. Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence Re-entry after deportation will be… The Operational Plan We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property. Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000 Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes. This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Initial Voluntary Return Window A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this. The Deportation Flights The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…
January 26, 2026 at 1:22 PM
jackwilkinson.bsky.social
📣 Call for Abstracts!

Excited to be among the organisers of the 12th annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory (28-29th May)!

Submit abstracts here: forms.gle/ccfeNR21Pn3Y...

Please share among colleagues and fellow PhD Students!
January 26, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
charlottekuberka.bsky.social
📣 Call for Papers:
🗓️ 23-24 April 2026 at LSE

Submit full papers: forms.office.com/e/9qVWeNTK0p

Please share with colleagues & early-career researchers!
January 20, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
celiaestruch.bsky.social
📣 Call for Papers:
🗓️ 23-24 April 2026 at LSE

Submit full papers: forms.office.com/e/9qVWeNTK0p

Please share with colleagues & early-career researchers!
January 20, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
yusufimaadkhan.com
Famously, fascism was defeated in the marketplace of ideas. With debate.
July 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
matildaf.bsky.social
My highly contingent and partial take on Gen AI in Higher Education is this: the biggest problem with Gen AI isn't brazen cheating or dishonesty. It's the normalisation of seemingly minor things being incorrect: call it a 'close enough' mentality.
January 5, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
anjalikdayal.bsky.social
and in framing themselves as the only True Knowers, the data boys fail to understand how they form part of the complicated, contingent outcomes they’re claiming to observe objectively. “We can only respond to poll numbers, not shape action,” is itself a theory of the world that evidence doesn’t back
jamellebouie.net jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Dec 20
data is important, measurement of public opinion is important, but politics also isn't a machine. there are a vast number of qualitative factors at work. and people themselves are unpredictable.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
lsegovernment.bsky.social
"Many Americans are done with what they perceive as an unacceptable status quo." 🗽

Our PhD student @janwasserziehr.bsky.social argues that whilst #Mamdani’s victory surprised the Democratic establishment, it tallies with an increasingly #polarised #US #electorate. 👇🏽

blogs.lse.ac.uk/government/2...
Does Mamdani’s victory show that ‘radical’ is the new normal? - LSE Government Blog
Jan H. Wasserziehr argues Mamdani's victory shows an increasingly polarised US electorate is deserting the 'centre' in search of real change and radical ideas.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
vharting.bsky.social
If you're around London next week, consider joining us for this workshop on alternatives to capitalism! Details below👇
Alternatives to Capitalism Workshop | Vincent Harting | Thursday 11 December 2025 11:00 - 16:00 | STICERD Event
An event from the Cohesive Capitalism Event series organised by STICERD
sticerd.lse.ac.uk
December 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
samuel-bagg.bsky.social
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.

Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.

blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
brunoleipold.com
Truly and deeply honoured
x.com/DeutscherPri...
The Deutscher Prize on X: "🚨 Prize winner 🚨 The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize committee is delighted to announce that Bruno Leipold’s “Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought” has been awarded this year’s prize 🎉 @BrunoLeipold @histmat" / X
🚨 Prize winner 🚨 The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize committee is delighted to announce that Bruno Leipold’s “Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought” has been awarded this year’s prize 🎉 @BrunoLeipold @histmat
x.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
isoldehegemann.bsky.social
I ran a simulated social media experiment with 1450 Republicans to test different fact-checking interventions.

AI produced the largest decrease in engagement with Trump misinformation, outperforming independent fact-checkers and doing so far more consistently than Community Notes.
October 22, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
lsepoltheory.bsky.social
Thanks to Daniel James (TU Dresden) for a great talk on racialized oppression, followed by a great exchange. An absolutely brilliant research seminar.
Daniel James in front of a slide about some challenges for racial eliminativists.
October 17, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
florianfoos.bsky.social
🚨 We have a cool new ESRC PhD studentship opportunity on the topic of political persuasion for someone interested in campaigning, field experiments and/or computational methods @lsegovernment.bsky.social, in collaboration with
@campaign-lab.bsky.social. All info 👇
www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...
LSE Collaborative Studentship with Campaign Lab
LSE Collaborative Studentship with Campaign Lab
www.lse.ac.uk
October 6, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
lsepoltheory.bsky.social
From political philosophy to political proposals via the social sciences. A lively debate, launching Tom Parr's new book. With Becky Clark (LSE), David Axelsen (Essex) and @brunoleipold.com .
October 2, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
martinoneill.bsky.social
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

Starmer’s policy: a transfer of resources from the poorest, straight to the arms industry.
June 25, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
yusufimaadkhan.com
I always knew that one day I’d be able to do something with this meme
2 panel meme of Kadir Mısıroğlu - memri tv meme style. Top panel Kadir leans forward and caption says “There was no one called John Rawls because John Rawls was not an American” Bottom panel Kadir leans back and caption says “His real name was Junaid al-Rāwī! He was a secret Muslim!”
April 25, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
lastpositivist.bsky.social
My theory: the relative decline in power of a certain kinda woke humanities set (post-2020) happened in some part because when a crisis came and America was relatively receptive they just had no workable policies. "Abolish the police" just weren't it, but it was the only slogan that broke through...
lastpositivist.bsky.social lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · Apr 20
I do think that is true, their cultural influence is on the decline. I kinda feel they had the opposite of a Chicago-School moment. Their crisis came and they had no workable ideas to implement therein, and so that was that really.
April 20, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
brunoleipold.com
Really enjoyed talking about Marx and the Paris Commune for this week's episode of Past Present Future
ppfideas.bsky.social Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · Apr 10
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today the definitive 19th-century revolutionary and his definitive revolution: David talks to historian @brunoleipold.com about why Karl Marx thought the Paris Commune in 1871 was the model of a workers' uprising.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
April 10, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
yusufimaadkhan.com
I want to believe 😭
A four-panel meme using scenes from SpongeBob SquarePants. In the first panel, Mr. Krabs (labeled “Me”) is angrily pointing and saying “All right, get lost, all of ya. You’re fired. Go on. Scram.” In the second panel, a crowd of fish (labeled “Political Theories”) is being shooed away while Mr. Krabs says, “Get out of here, you moochers. That’s right, keep moving.” In the third panel, Mr. Krabs turns to one remaining character and says, “Except you. You stay.” In the fourth panel, a goofy-looking clown is smiling with arms outstretched, labeled “Historical Materialism.”
April 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
lsepoltheory.bsky.social
Our PhD student @janwasserziehr.bsky.social is organising an exciting conference on 10th June about AI, consiousness, and morality. Register here: www.eventbrite.de/e/lse-worksh...
April 9, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Jack Wilkinson
kspiekermann.bsky.social
@jackwilkinson.bsky.social told me about this saying today. It will stay with me for a while.
maxineeichner.bsky.social Maxine Eichner @maxineeichner.bsky.social · Mar 7
Russian expression: “It’s a lot easier to turn an aquarium into fish soup than it is to turn fish soup into an aquarium.”
April 9, 2025 at 11:44 AM