Benjamin Thomas
@benjthomas.bsky.social
Political Ideologies, 20th Century Centre-Right, Neoliberalisms, Thought in Political Parties of UK & DE, Transnational discourses and the conjuncture
benjaminjthomas.net
benjaminjthomas.net
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Benjamin Thomas
@benjthomas.bsky.social
· Sep 10
I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.
I did a write up on some thoughts I've been playing with on the influential role of student activists in the Conservative Party from the 1950s to the 1970s, which I think is a story that often goes missing in accounts of Conservative modernisation (although my thoughts here are probably derivative)
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I did a write up on some thoughts I've been playing with on the influential role of student activists in the Conservative Party from the 1950s to the 1970s, which I think is a story that often goes missing in accounts of Conservative modernisation (although my thoughts here are probably derivative)
What are the odds on Patricia Hodgson to be director general?
November 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
What are the odds on Patricia Hodgson to be director general?
Was writing this week and came across a fairly surprising finding, that the IQ society Mensa was basically a front for the St Andrews neoliberals/Adam Smith Institute. Fortunately, @lcornelissen.bsky.social already wrote this up recently.
keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-adam-s...
keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-adam-s...
The Adam Smith Institute on Race
Explore the controversial history of the Adam Smith Institute's views on race, IQ, and intelligence in this revealing archival research from a groundbreaking neoliberal study.
keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Was writing this week and came across a fairly surprising finding, that the IQ society Mensa was basically a front for the St Andrews neoliberals/Adam Smith Institute. Fortunately, @lcornelissen.bsky.social already wrote this up recently.
keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-adam-s...
keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-adam-s...
A common dinner party conversation topic for me used to be my thoughts on determinism in philosophy, that while hard determinism is interesting, I refuse to countenance it, because if it were true, my accepting it would make no difference, I couldn't choose to accept it anyway.
November 4, 2025 at 5:24 PM
A common dinner party conversation topic for me used to be my thoughts on determinism in philosophy, that while hard determinism is interesting, I refuse to countenance it, because if it were true, my accepting it would make no difference, I couldn't choose to accept it anyway.
On the final day of the New York City Mayoral election, a reminder of this excellent history article on New York, Curtis Sliwa and the history of popular neoliberalism.
It's open access to there's no excuse not to give it a perusal.
It's open access to there's no excuse not to give it a perusal.
Check out this excellent article from Joe Merton on the Guardian Angels and popular neoliberalism. Really great at bringing together Fear City, grassroots neoliberalisation, crime and policing, responsibilisation, and race. Timely given the current visibility of Curtis Sliwa.
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
The Guardian Angels: Anticrime Activism and “Popular Neoliberalism” in Crisis-era New York City
Abstract. Recent historical scholarship has begun to explore the agency of grassroots actors in the ascent of neoliberalism in late twentieth-century New Y
doi.org
November 4, 2025 at 6:49 AM
On the final day of the New York City Mayoral election, a reminder of this excellent history article on New York, Curtis Sliwa and the history of popular neoliberalism.
It's open access to there's no excuse not to give it a perusal.
It's open access to there's no excuse not to give it a perusal.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
The basic problem facing the American right today is that the young radical critiques of the U.S.-Israel special relationship are substantively correct but unlike the left the modern right cannot use the language of universalism and hence you get the antisemitism.
November 2, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The basic problem facing the American right today is that the young radical critiques of the U.S.-Israel special relationship are substantively correct but unlike the left the modern right cannot use the language of universalism and hence you get the antisemitism.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
To follow this a step further, the problem with climate policy, from their point of view, isn’t that it’s bad for profits per se. (Plenty of profit in green investment.) It’s that it requires shifting so much authority over production away from private property owners and into the public sector.
October 28, 2025 at 5:13 PM
To follow this a step further, the problem with climate policy, from their point of view, isn’t that it’s bad for profits per se. (Plenty of profit in green investment.) It’s that it requires shifting so much authority over production away from private property owners and into the public sector.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
Today I write about the recent swirl of think tanks centred on growth and progress. And batshit authoritarians.
open.substack.com/pub/williamc...
open.substack.com/pub/williamc...
Growth, progress and batshit authoritarians
Claiming the future, part 1: The importance of nowism
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Today I write about the recent swirl of think tanks centred on growth and progress. And batshit authoritarians.
open.substack.com/pub/williamc...
open.substack.com/pub/williamc...
Definitely give this a read. It's an excellent analysis of the relationship between civil society and protofascism as well as the personal history of Wilhelm Röpke but it also demonstrates Pavlos's expertise on the topic of depoliticisation.
Just published. You can find it here: pavlosroufos.substack.com/p/a-weimar-m...
October 23, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Definitely give this a read. It's an excellent analysis of the relationship between civil society and protofascism as well as the personal history of Wilhelm Röpke but it also demonstrates Pavlos's expertise on the topic of depoliticisation.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
Last month I went to Global Progress Action, where I found the global centre left less moribund than its UK equivalent, and wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
Morgan Jones | Starmer mixes it up
Global Progress Action was in London at the end of last month, filling Methodist Central Hall with politicians and think...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Last month I went to Global Progress Action, where I found the global centre left less moribund than its UK equivalent, and wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
I've written a new blog post discussing and building on the analyses in the recently published 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation'.
www.benjaminjthomas.net/musings/ashf...
🧵
www.benjaminjthomas.net/musings/ashf...
🧵
Benjamin Thomas - Ashford Hamilton
Pathways of Conservative Europeanism after the 'Social Market Moment'
19 October 2025
I am thrilled to see Gary Love and Christian Egander Skov’s edited volume Conservatism, Christian Democracy and t...
www.benjaminjthomas.net
October 19, 2025 at 11:40 AM
I've written a new blog post discussing and building on the analyses in the recently published 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation'.
www.benjaminjthomas.net/musings/ashf...
🧵
www.benjaminjthomas.net/musings/ashf...
🧵
It's a bit of a shitty attitude to hold but I'm have some measure of relief, for the sake of my intended pipeline of publications, that a key archive is temporarily closed, and thus should limit the risk of my getting gazumped for a future paper while prioritising current work.
September 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
It's a bit of a shitty attitude to hold but I'm have some measure of relief, for the sake of my intended pipeline of publications, that a key archive is temporarily closed, and thus should limit the risk of my getting gazumped for a future paper while prioritising current work.
I've seen a lot of incorrect commentary on the recent happenings with Your Party.
As someone who has a fair amount of experience researching the formation of new political parties that went on to persist and be successful (the German CDU and European EPP):
1) it is not a distinctively leftist
As someone who has a fair amount of experience researching the formation of new political parties that went on to persist and be successful (the German CDU and European EPP):
1) it is not a distinctively leftist
September 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I've seen a lot of incorrect commentary on the recent happenings with Your Party.
As someone who has a fair amount of experience researching the formation of new political parties that went on to persist and be successful (the German CDU and European EPP):
1) it is not a distinctively leftist
As someone who has a fair amount of experience researching the formation of new political parties that went on to persist and be successful (the German CDU and European EPP):
1) it is not a distinctively leftist
We know that most asylum applicants are ultimately successful so a government dedicated to clearing the backlog could just choose to approve all current applications and clear the backlog, no new centres necessary. That this isn't on the table reflects that 'the backlog' isn't really the issue here.
LibDem Lisa Smart,
"We're calling on the Labour government to declare the asylum backlog a national emergency"
"And set up Nightingale processing centres, just like the Nightingale hospitals during the pandemic"
"We need Labour to clear the asylum backlog within six months"
"We're calling on the Labour government to declare the asylum backlog a national emergency"
"And set up Nightingale processing centres, just like the Nightingale hospitals during the pandemic"
"We need Labour to clear the asylum backlog within six months"
September 21, 2025 at 11:49 AM
We know that most asylum applicants are ultimately successful so a government dedicated to clearing the backlog could just choose to approve all current applications and clear the backlog, no new centres necessary. That this isn't on the table reflects that 'the backlog' isn't really the issue here.
Check out this excellent article from Joe Merton on the Guardian Angels and popular neoliberalism. Really great at bringing together Fear City, grassroots neoliberalisation, crime and policing, responsibilisation, and race. Timely given the current visibility of Curtis Sliwa.
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
The Guardian Angels: Anticrime Activism and “Popular Neoliberalism” in Crisis-era New York City
Abstract. Recent historical scholarship has begun to explore the agency of grassroots actors in the ascent of neoliberalism in late twentieth-century New Y
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Check out this excellent article from Joe Merton on the Guardian Angels and popular neoliberalism. Really great at bringing together Fear City, grassroots neoliberalisation, crime and policing, responsibilisation, and race. Timely given the current visibility of Curtis Sliwa.
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...
I would imagine that this newspaper article was probably the first (and only?) to read Margaret Thatcher alongside Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and Jusos.
September 12, 2025 at 8:09 AM
I would imagine that this newspaper article was probably the first (and only?) to read Margaret Thatcher alongside Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and Jusos.
Really dispiriting reading this article about Reeves' comments about regulators to a venture capital and private equity summit. The implied subservience from regulators and government to business, and the finance behind it, is telling.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
September 11, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Really dispiriting reading this article about Reeves' comments about regulators to a venture capital and private equity summit. The implied subservience from regulators and government to business, and the finance behind it, is telling.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.
September 10, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.
I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.
September 10, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I'm chuffed that the edited volume 'Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the dynamics of transformation' is now out, including my chapter 'Britain's social market moment', which includes the most interesting finding from my PhD thesis, the transnational influence of West Germany on Thatcherism.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
What's the oddest thing to see in UK politics this morning?
My contribution would be the new Leader of the Green Party, leading a choral rendition of "Lib Dem fightback", at Lib Dem conference 10 years ago.
My contribution would be the new Leader of the Green Party, leading a choral rendition of "Lib Dem fightback", at Lib Dem conference 10 years ago.
September 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
What's the oddest thing to see in UK politics this morning?
My contribution would be the new Leader of the Green Party, leading a choral rendition of "Lib Dem fightback", at Lib Dem conference 10 years ago.
My contribution would be the new Leader of the Green Party, leading a choral rendition of "Lib Dem fightback", at Lib Dem conference 10 years ago.
Reposted by Benjamin Thomas
One point: central bank independence was the core tenet of neoliberalism, but it was the rise of market-based finance and the deflationary bias in fiscal policy, key features of the neoliberal era, that forced central banks into a position that made political backlash inevitable.
Re: Trump v Fed: Some (very hastily written and heavily edited) reflections on the nature of central bank–government interdependence in the era of crisis and how financial- not fiscal dominance is what should be keeping us up at night. Also Powell is Thomas Becket.
jacobin.com/2025/08/cent...
jacobin.com/2025/08/cent...
August 28, 2025 at 8:46 PM
One point: central bank independence was the core tenet of neoliberalism, but it was the rise of market-based finance and the deflationary bias in fiscal policy, key features of the neoliberal era, that forced central banks into a position that made political backlash inevitable.
Not a personal comment to Evan, but this is how I get a complex. Most of my publications are for history journals, my PhD, with historical cases, was examined by historians, and colleagues from my history postdoc encourage me to more confidently identify as a historian (in addition to other labels)
Once more, with feeling!
4. Every other discipline thinks they can do history but they often cannot
August 30, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Not a personal comment to Evan, but this is how I get a complex. Most of my publications are for history journals, my PhD, with historical cases, was examined by historians, and colleagues from my history postdoc encourage me to more confidently identify as a historian (in addition to other labels)
This job posting at The Guardian is worth a second look. Ostensibly focussed on pitching stories from the newsroom as TV and film dramas (The Guardian is partnered with Sony Pictures), there's interesting language about working early with editors to ensure stories are well presented for adaptation.
Development Producer/Researcher, Film & TV - London, GB-LND job with GUARDIAN NEWS AND MEDIA | 9755956
We’re looking for a development producer/researcher, film & TV.
jobs.theguardian.com
August 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
This job posting at The Guardian is worth a second look. Ostensibly focussed on pitching stories from the newsroom as TV and film dramas (The Guardian is partnered with Sony Pictures), there's interesting language about working early with editors to ensure stories are well presented for adaptation.
A question about the Palestine Action stuff. What does it legally mean to 'support' a proscribed group? I've had a quick look at some official sources and it seems extremely unclear to me (probably because legislation is deliberately vague) and so I imagine the answer is established in case law.
August 18, 2025 at 4:38 PM
A question about the Palestine Action stuff. What does it legally mean to 'support' a proscribed group? I've had a quick look at some official sources and it seems extremely unclear to me (probably because legislation is deliberately vague) and so I imagine the answer is established in case law.