ProfAFinlayson
@profafinlayson.bsky.social
Prof of Political & Social Theory @ UEA: regularly a political theorist, often a political analyst, always a rhetorician. Sometimes I teach people how to make political speeches; usually they are happy about it. Mostly I study Reactionary Digital Politics.
This isn’t as mysterious as some seem to find it. It’s not so much about the actual individuals (or the government as such) but how they have come to embody/exemplify a ‘class’ of affectless, rule & procedure bound people we encounter at work (especially) & who are also ruining sport, TV etc.
‘There’s a real dislike, even loathing’: why voters hate Starmer and Reeves
Allies concede the prime minister and chancellor have made mistakes yet the level of disdain towards them is still striking
giftarticle.ft.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:36 AM
This isn’t as mysterious as some seem to find it. It’s not so much about the actual individuals (or the government as such) but how they have come to embody/exemplify a ‘class’ of affectless, rule & procedure bound people we encounter at work (especially) & who are also ruining sport, TV etc.
“We dig, we dig repetition”.
Adam Smyth (@adamwithbooks.bsky.social) asked people to film themselves reading Rousseau’s Confessions:
‘The idea of lots of people repeating the same claim to singularity seemed interesting.’
Read and watch a clip on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
‘The idea of lots of people repeating the same claim to singularity seemed interesting.’
Read and watch a clip on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Adam Smyth | Like No One in Existence
In September, I invited people to record themselves reading a short passage from an English translation of Rousseau’s...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
“We dig, we dig repetition”.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
From the White House to the conspiracy media-verse, at what should be their moment of greatest strength, MAGA simply cannot stop both constant covert sniping and the occasional outright brawl.
MAGA is eating itself alive
From TPUSA to the White House, the feuds are spiraling out of control.
www.motherjones.com
December 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM
From the White House to the conspiracy media-verse, at what should be their moment of greatest strength, MAGA simply cannot stop both constant covert sniping and the occasional outright brawl.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
The White House has been caught.
The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
December 20, 2025 at 12:33 PM
The White House has been caught.
The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
This - on the digitisation/financialisation of cultural works - is worth a read. It shows how these changes in production have affected the aesthetic form of music. Showing how digital/asset capitalism changes the ideological aesthetics of Politics ought to be a major concern of Political Studies.
The Same Stream Twice | Rob Arcand
Two recent books, Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine and Andrew deWaard’s Derivative Media, explore the consequences of these technological intermediaries for the music, film, and television industries. While P...
www.nplusonemag.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:11 PM
This - on the digitisation/financialisation of cultural works - is worth a read. It shows how these changes in production have affected the aesthetic form of music. Showing how digital/asset capitalism changes the ideological aesthetics of Politics ought to be a major concern of Political Studies.
A representation of entrenched inequality not just between generations but families. The politics which follows is a vast ideological effort to justify that inequality as natural & necessary, to ridicule critics & distract opposition while ignoring the fraying of society that is its consequence.
December 20, 2025 at 8:50 AM
A representation of entrenched inequality not just between generations but families. The politics which follows is a vast ideological effort to justify that inequality as natural & necessary, to ridicule critics & distract opposition while ignoring the fraying of society that is its consequence.
Putting to one side the objective wrongness of this, for Labour politically, it’s wildly misconceived. There is already an asteroid hurtling in their direction and, far from deflecting it, this is an invitation for all the asteroids to hit them at once.
Electoral Commission responds to potential election postponements
We are concerned by the possibility of some council elections in May being postponed, and even more by any further postponement to those which already had been deferred from 2025.
www.electoralcommission.org.uk
December 19, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Putting to one side the objective wrongness of this, for Labour politically, it’s wildly misconceived. There is already an asteroid hurtling in their direction and, far from deflecting it, this is an invitation for all the asteroids to hit them at once.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
🚨 NEW BLOG
Labour have won every election in Wales for 100 years, but they are on track to (badly) lose the 2026 Senedd election - why?
@jaclarner.bsky.social and I have looked at new data, which shows how support is shifting within (not between) Wales's blocs!
blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...
Labour have won every election in Wales for 100 years, but they are on track to (badly) lose the 2026 Senedd election - why?
@jaclarner.bsky.social and I have looked at new data, which shows how support is shifting within (not between) Wales's blocs!
blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...
Consolidation, Not Conversion: Understanding Wales’s Ongoing Realignment
Showcasing current research, comments and analysis on the law, politics, history, culture, government and political economy of Wales from the Wales Governance Centre.
blogs.cardiff.ac.uk
December 17, 2025 at 9:10 AM
🚨 NEW BLOG
Labour have won every election in Wales for 100 years, but they are on track to (badly) lose the 2026 Senedd election - why?
@jaclarner.bsky.social and I have looked at new data, which shows how support is shifting within (not between) Wales's blocs!
blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...
Labour have won every election in Wales for 100 years, but they are on track to (badly) lose the 2026 Senedd election - why?
@jaclarner.bsky.social and I have looked at new data, which shows how support is shifting within (not between) Wales's blocs!
blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...
Labour & Conservatives polling at 10% vote share in Wales. It's a Plaid vs Reform stand-off (two very different kinds of nationalism). www.itv.com/news/wales/2...
www.itv.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Labour & Conservatives polling at 10% vote share in Wales. It's a Plaid vs Reform stand-off (two very different kinds of nationalism). www.itv.com/news/wales/2...
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
You'd think we could devise a way of flagging student work for AI use that didn't require the marker to put in more effort than the student did on the original submission *and* still write constructive feedback on that submission #grumpymarkingday
December 16, 2025 at 2:18 PM
You'd think we could devise a way of flagging student work for AI use that didn't require the marker to put in more effort than the student did on the original submission *and* still write constructive feedback on that submission #grumpymarkingday
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Revealing on how much AI uptake is currently being driven by investor expectations - transmitted via boards - rather than people who actually execute stuff. Of course, if you're not an actual doer it is much more likely that you will be tempted by magical thinking.
A completely unhinged post from the head of Norway's oil fund: to hunt down the "leaders" of groups resisting AI implementation in companies and "remove" them
archive.ph/r0u2r
archive.ph/r0u2r
December 16, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Revealing on how much AI uptake is currently being driven by investor expectations - transmitted via boards - rather than people who actually execute stuff. Of course, if you're not an actual doer it is much more likely that you will be tempted by magical thinking.
The PM has taken an unequivocal position on the fate of a bus shelter in north Norfolk (a familiar issue to those of us on Norfolk TikTok). The text of this early day motion in support of the bus shelter is giving unadulterated “Passport to Pimlico” vibes (not the PM’s usual frequency I’d wager).
Sheringham bus shelter - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament
That this House notes with grave concern the plans of Norfolk County Council to demolish Sheringham’s historic bus shelter; recognises that the shelter is of Streamline Moderne art-deco design, dating...
edm.parliament.uk
December 11, 2025 at 6:19 PM
The PM has taken an unequivocal position on the fate of a bus shelter in north Norfolk (a familiar issue to those of us on Norfolk TikTok). The text of this early day motion in support of the bus shelter is giving unadulterated “Passport to Pimlico” vibes (not the PM’s usual frequency I’d wager).
On the upside, crises make it easy to invent essay questions: “‘Having made Atlanticism a central part of its claim to be a responsible party of the British establishment, Labour finds itself in a dilemma now that US policy is explicitly hostile to UK & European interests & independence’. Discuss.”
December 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
On the upside, crises make it easy to invent essay questions: “‘Having made Atlanticism a central part of its claim to be a responsible party of the British establishment, Labour finds itself in a dilemma now that US policy is explicitly hostile to UK & European interests & independence’. Discuss.”
You spend years honing skills in the analysis of the logics behind ideology and identity and then the Telegraph just goes and makes it all obvious.
December 11, 2025 at 11:57 AM
You spend years honing skills in the analysis of the logics behind ideology and identity and then the Telegraph just goes and makes it all obvious.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.
December 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.
People loudly opining about the decline of our culture/civilisation are looking in the wrong direction. Look this way…
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 5:21 PM
People loudly opining about the decline of our culture/civilisation are looking in the wrong direction. Look this way…
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
I love to catch up with the avant garde of Tory opinion
December 3, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I love to catch up with the avant garde of Tory opinion
I jumped into a Wikipedia hole & am now pitching a Netflix series about the 18thC acting/producing/Laureate Cibber family. No need to Bridgerton it up: money; succession crises; threesomes; restoration decadence; a woman disguised a man working as a valet etc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlot...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlot...
Charlotte Charke - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 3, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I jumped into a Wikipedia hole & am now pitching a Netflix series about the 18thC acting/producing/Laureate Cibber family. No need to Bridgerton it up: money; succession crises; threesomes; restoration decadence; a woman disguised a man working as a valet etc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlot...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlot...
I am in some ways an early-adopter, & very online but I’m sceptical of so-called AI for all the obvious reasons. Yet I’m
curious so I read this with interest.
It’s interesting. And I see it. I don’t feel it.
At one point he asks the AI what would happen if everyone had nuclear weapons (1/4)
curious so I read this with interest.
It’s interesting. And I see it. I don’t feel it.
At one point he asks the AI what would happen if everyone had nuclear weapons (1/4)
How AI has made my life better
And why is my experience so different to everyone else?
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 8:20 PM
I am in some ways an early-adopter, & very online but I’m sceptical of so-called AI for all the obvious reasons. Yet I’m
curious so I read this with interest.
It’s interesting. And I see it. I don’t feel it.
At one point he asks the AI what would happen if everyone had nuclear weapons (1/4)
curious so I read this with interest.
It’s interesting. And I see it. I don’t feel it.
At one point he asks the AI what would happen if everyone had nuclear weapons (1/4)
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Very much enjoyed going back to UEA yesterday, where I did my undergrad degree, to speak to my old pal @profafinlayson.bsky.social's engaged, smart politics students. Any chance to repeat my various war stories from the volatile borderlands of media, government, research and comms.
December 3, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Very much enjoyed going back to UEA yesterday, where I did my undergrad degree, to speak to my old pal @profafinlayson.bsky.social's engaged, smart politics students. Any chance to repeat my various war stories from the volatile borderlands of media, government, research and comms.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
All this budget news, claims, counter claims is confusing, but two things of consequence.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
December 1, 2025 at 1:09 PM
All this budget news, claims, counter claims is confusing, but two things of consequence.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
Stirring stuff from the PM today. Stuff off, Gloomsters!
December 1, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Stirring stuff from the PM today. Stuff off, Gloomsters!
It’s a problem that ‘did you mislead?’ is an easy question to ask if you have limited understanding of (or interest in) economic policy. It’s also a problem that our archetypes of politician are now all characters in conspiracy theories; it’s a problem for Labour that they never go on the offence.
December 1, 2025 at 8:28 AM
It’s a problem that ‘did you mislead?’ is an easy question to ask if you have limited understanding of (or interest in) economic policy. It’s also a problem that our archetypes of politician are now all characters in conspiracy theories; it’s a problem for Labour that they never go on the offence.
Reposted by ProfAFinlayson
If Reform gets in, they should submit the Cambridge Divinity faculty as an impact case study
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
If Reform gets in, they should submit the Cambridge Divinity faculty as an impact case study