Ben Ansell
@benansell.bsky.social
Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield & University of Oxford, FBA. http://benansell.substack.com. BBC Reith Lecturer 2023. Host BBC Radio 4 Rethink. Columnist for Prospect. Director, Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM).
Hey losers, 54% is still a majority…
November 9, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Hey losers, 54% is still a majority…
American last names remain undefeated
November 5, 2025 at 7:44 AM
American last names remain undefeated
Intriguing self description from the Times' new US Director of Content. One might question if they got the words the right around.
October 30, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Intriguing self description from the Times' new US Director of Content. One might question if they got the words the right around.
Interview Dan Brown about the Louvre break-in.
October 28, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Interview Dan Brown about the Louvre break-in.
Fabulous Reith Lecture by @rutgerbregman.com. Very nice to be in the audience ;) #reith
October 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Fabulous Reith Lecture by @rutgerbregman.com. Very nice to be in the audience ;) #reith
A democracy if you can keep it
October 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
A democracy if you can keep it
Number 10 making skilled migration policy
October 20, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Number 10 making skilled migration policy
Haven’t read the report yet but this looks to me like another example of adding yet more makework to the immigration process for unclear reasons other than possibly getting mentioned in Politico Playbook.
October 20, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Haven’t read the report yet but this looks to me like another example of adding yet more makework to the immigration process for unclear reasons other than possibly getting mentioned in Politico Playbook.
You will never guess what post this reply was in response to. Bluesky…
October 14, 2025 at 9:06 AM
You will never guess what post this reply was in response to. Bluesky…
Amazing comment below the line on Stephen’s article from someone who can only be described I’m afraid as a Brexit Maoist
October 14, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Amazing comment below the line on Stephen’s article from someone who can only be described I’m afraid as a Brexit Maoist
Perfectly put from @stephenkb.bsky.social and follows on from my piece about both the Tories and Labour negging the PMC groups who were their normal base before they went all in on retirees.
benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...
benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...
October 14, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Perfectly put from @stephenkb.bsky.social and follows on from my piece about both the Tories and Labour negging the PMC groups who were their normal base before they went all in on retirees.
benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...
benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...
Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.
October 8, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.
lol. Fair play @mattyglesias.bsky.social
October 6, 2025 at 6:34 PM
lol. Fair play @mattyglesias.bsky.social
Any Oxford students following me! A chance to win a prize for your college and my eternal gratitude for getting involved with our experimental social science lab.
October 6, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Any Oxford students following me! A chance to win a prize for your college and my eternal gratitude for getting involved with our experimental social science lab.
Couldn’t agree more with this para from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
October 4, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Couldn’t agree more with this para from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
And here is the most striking one - discrimination in favour of (zero) or against (ten) white British people. Look at Reform voters. Absolutely clustering around SEVEN on this scale. Tories are on five and everyone else five or lower. So, here at least is something all Reform voters agree on. 11/n
October 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
And here is the most striking one - discrimination in favour of (zero) or against (ten) white British people. Look at Reform voters. Absolutely clustering around SEVEN on this scale. Tories are on five and everyone else five or lower. So, here at least is something all Reform voters agree on. 11/n
But now we come to some interesting ones. What about discrimination against groups that we usually don't think of as discriminated against: men and white British people. Here is the graph for men. We can see most people are less than five (towards zero- discrimination in favour). But not Reform 10/n
October 3, 2025 at 2:58 PM
But now we come to some interesting ones. What about discrimination against groups that we usually don't think of as discriminated against: men and white British people. Here is the graph for men. We can see most people are less than five (towards zero- discrimination in favour). But not Reform 10/n
And here is discrimination against women - here we see the most overlap so far, with Reform looking a lot like the Tories and again most people believing that women face some discrimination against them. 9/n
October 3, 2025 at 2:57 PM
And here is discrimination against women - here we see the most overlap so far, with Reform looking a lot like the Tories and again most people believing that women face some discrimination against them. 9/n
Here is discrimination against trans people. Again there are party differences though almost everyone thinks trans people face discrimination (above five). 8/n
October 3, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Here is discrimination against trans people. Again there are party differences though almost everyone thinks trans people face discrimination (above five). 8/n
Here is discrimination against gays and lesbians. Here there are slightly smaller gaps between parties. Even Reform are close to the midpoint of five. 7/n
October 3, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Here is discrimination against gays and lesbians. Here there are slightly smaller gaps between parties. Even Reform are close to the midpoint of five. 7/n
Let's look at this by the underlying groups. First the ones that we traditionally think of as discriminated against - ethnic minorities and LGBT people. Here is the graph for discrimination against 'black and ethnic minorities' (BES language). This is on the original 0 to 10 scale. Reform on own 6/n
October 3, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Let's look at this by the underlying groups. First the ones that we traditionally think of as discriminated against - ethnic minorities and LGBT people. Here is the graph for discrimination against 'black and ethnic minorities' (BES language). This is on the original 0 to 10 scale. Reform on own 6/n