Stuart White
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stuartgwhite.bsky.social
Stuart White
@stuartgwhite.bsky.social

I am an academic interested in political theory, anti-oligarchic political economy, and democracy. I post in a personal capacity and reposting does not necessarily mean agreement. He/him.

Political science 68%
Economics 13%

Reposted by Stuart White

Delighted to be the surprise guest at the Night Time Economy Summit in Liverpool.

Also great to see Andy Burnham & Angela Rayner supporting too!

Clubs, restaurants, pubs, theatres are struggling - government needs to support!

Reposted by Stuart White

Just a pathetic non-apology. If your intention is to talk about "controlled, well-managed immigration" you don't spout racist bullshit about "colonisation."
Gallup announces, after 88 years, it will no longer track public approval of presidents. Trump's second-term approval rating fell to 36% in December, among the lowest ever recorded by the company. The president repeatedly has threatened to sue media and polling firms that portray him negatively.
🔴 Exclusive: Corporate donations British parties tripled over last three elections

But here's key thing: almost none is from FTSE500/listed companies

It's almost all companies controlled by super-wealthy individuals, or small, opaque firms

New on D4S: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-c...
Revealed: Corporate donations to British politics have tripled
Influential Labour committee chairs call on government to clean up politics as our new analysis finds record £42 million in company donations ahead of last election
democracyforsale.substack.com

Reposted by Stuart White

I’ve signed Art Not Evidence’s @artnotevidence.bsky.social letter to the Justice Secretary calling for limits on the use of art as criminal evidence. Failure to recognize musical & cultural conventions of the genre poses a threat to freedom of creative expression. www.justice.org.uk/news/rapper-...
Rapper Giggs joins 60+ artists and legal leaders in call for limits on use of art as criminal evidence | JUSTICE | UK Legal Reform Charity
Rapper Giggs joins 60+ artists and legal leaders in call for limits on use of art as criminal evidence
www.justice.org.uk

Reposted by Stuart White

Next week Tuesday (at 20.00 CET) Stuart White (Oxford) will give a public talk on the topic 'What is a Fair Economy?" Next, I will give a short reflection, before there is a Q&A with Professor White. Free entry, places on a first-come, first-served basis. It is also possible to watch online.
What is a fair economy?
Do we need utopian ideas to achieve economic equality?
www.sg.uu.nl

Reposted by Stuart White

Labour's @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social written to General Sec Hollie Ridley for 3rd time calling for independent inquiry into Labour Together

"Keir Starmer yesterday promised a change of culture in the party. This will be an early test of that promise”
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/pr-firm-pr...
PR firm probed over Labour Together investigating journalists
Investigation into APCO Worldwide deepens questions for Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons
democracyforsale.substack.com
now that's the power of a union
The Ford worker who heckled Trump during a visit to the company's plant still has his job and "has no discipline on his record," a union official said
Ford worker who heckled Trump keeps job, 'no discipline' for incident
The United Auto Workers union said TJ Sabula remains employed and called out the president for making an obscene gesture toward the worker.
www.detroitnews.com
They want you to believe Starmer's going because of Mandelson. He isn't. He's been on the way out since summer because the polls are disastrous because half the Labour base have gone to the Greens for entirely political reasons. This is why Starmer will go: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Why is Keir Starmer so unpopular?
Britain needs a leader willing to break with the legacy of Thatcherism
www.newstatesman.com

Reposted by Stuart White

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Jesus H Christ Lads I Just Got Back From A Social With My Local Party And They Want Kier's Head On A Plate And Half Of Them Have Joined The Greens And I Just Saw Our Latest Canvas Returns
Threads director Mick Jackson has expressed worry over the upcoming remake’s focus on finding “hope even in the most challenging of times.”

“That one phrase worried me,” he tells Empire. “Hope is not part of nuclear war.”

Read more: www.empireonline.com/movies/news/...
The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the UK’s largest court reporting archive.

This risks undermining open justice, and I believe, undermines the public accountability role of the press by making it harder to see what is going on in the courts.

www.thetimes.com/article/77b0...
MoJ orders deletion of UK’s largest court reporting archive
Courtsdesk, which supports the media in monitoring records, is an important tool for journalists and the move raises concerns over open justice
www.thetimes.com

Reposted by Stuart White

There is an implicit disregard for liberal democracy in all these narratives around the super spin doctors (McSweeney, Cummings etc.) who are allegedly running the country. It turns politics into a sport instead of emphasizing what should count in a democracy: transparency, honesty, accountability

Reposted by Stuart White

The Rise of Oligarchy in one graph.
#OtD 8 Feb 1921 Peter Kropotkin, famous proponent of anarchist-communism, died of pneumonia in Russia. He took part in revolutionary groups in four countries and was a major contributor to anarchist theory. Works by and about him available here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

Reposted by Stuart White

'[Those] who man the lifeboat do not ask credentials from the crew of a sinking ship; they launch their boats, risk their lives in the raging waves, & sometimes perish, all to save men whom they do not even know. And what need to know them? 'They are human beings...that is enough' (Peter Kropotkin)
The Home Office now describes asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants [living in hotels]" with no reference to the reason that these people are in government-funded accommodation is that this government has taken & will process the asylum claim from them in 98-99% of cases of unauthorised entry.
Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example

fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...

*Not satire.
Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune
The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.
fortune.com
I think a lot of politicians & commentators see all this very differently from most of the country. They see it as part of an ongoing story about decision-making, personalities, probity, money etc. For everyone else it’s part of a long series of events: Saville, Huw Edwards, Rotherham & more (1/)
I had to check the date on this three times

‘At home with Peter Mandelson’ in Times magazine *today*

This is how we cover corruption in Britain? Seriously??

Reposted by Stuart White

From Gordon Brown's piece in The Guardian today.

Starmer's Labour promised to clean up politics, promised to ban second jobs for MPs. But has done nothing.

This must change. Cap donations. Ban 2nd jobs. Fines for non- and late declarations.

Reposted by Stuart White

Great to hear a Democracy for Sale story on heads of news on Today on Radio 4

Also very good to see a proper credit for us - as an ‘investigative website’ not ‘a Substack’ - high up in the story

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cabinet office minister used PR firm to investigate journalists' sources
Cabinet office minister Josh Simons commissioned APCO Worldwide for the investigation in 2023.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Stuart White

#BBC #Newsnight with Matt Chorley reduces the Mandelson scandal to political process. Typical insider class coverage of a story abt more: the debasement of power & its abuse by an entire cadre of politicians, advisers & courtiers. This is part of the UK's broken politics.
This is the report I spoke of on #bbcaq just now - ministers tried to suppress it, were finally forced to release it after an FoI, but shamefully only published a redacted version. The first duty of Govt is to protect its citizens - that starts with being honest with us about scale of threat we face

Reposted by Stuart White

For Greens to win in Gorton and Denton, they must rage against the political machine. Me for @bylinetimes.bsky.social: www.bylinesupplement.com/p/for-the-gr...
'For The Greens to Win, They Must Rage Against the Political Machine'
Green Party member Adam Ramsay argues that the Greens need to prove to voters that they are a better way to shake up Westminster than the pseudo-radicals of Reform
www.bylinesupplement.com
For the FES, I wrote a short brief about how mainstream party strategies have fueled far-right success. They move toward more anti-immigration positions to win voters back. This does not work, but shifts public opinion to the right. Parties then react to shifts in public opinion. A vicious cycle.
🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding

Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted

*And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it

Full story:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists
Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.
democracyforsale.substack.com
The 50 wealthiest families in the UK own more than 34 million people combined.

That level of inequality is totally unsustainable.

A wealth tax isn’t radical - it’s inevitable. And the Green Party will keep making the case.

Reposted by Stuart White

The University of Edinburgh has £3.1bn in assets and made a surplus of £43m last year. But the senior management team is still threatening huge staffing cuts while implementing a massively destructive austerity drive.