Malte Laub
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maltelaub.bsky.social
Malte Laub
@maltelaub.bsky.social
470 followers 820 following 160 posts
Teaches IPE at the University of Sheffield.
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maltelaub.bsky.social
I'm happy to have joined the editorial board of @gpejournal.bsky.social as an associate editor! I'm looking forward to working with great people on exciting research. If you have ideas for articles, commentaries, or debate pieces, get in touch! bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...
Picture of a GPE journal cover page.
October 31, 2025 at 10:39 AM
maltelaub.bsky.social
So the plan to fend off Reform is to affirm the false Reform claim that there is chaos and loss of control at the border, and to preempt Reform line of arguments by already legitimising their view that values (here: tolerance - but really any) can be suspended to address this imagined master crisis.
Screen grab of BBC article reading: "Reiterating her clamp down on illegal migration, Mahmood says she "will do whatever is takes to secure our borders". She adds: "You will not always like what I do, but until there is control of borders we won't be the tolerant country we believe in."
September 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
The answer could have been so easy. But they are hopelessly lost.
Screnshot from BBC article: "Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the suggested savings "have no basis in reality" and the government were already looking at restricting migrants' welfare access."
September 22, 2025 at 1:34 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Also this from Reeves. Drives me up the walls.
Screenshot from BBC article reading: "Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the suggested savings "have no basis in reality" and the government were already looking at restricting migrants' welfare access."
September 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
I'm used to these sudden realisations of long-term office holders that 'our politicians have failed us all', but it remains astonishing to me that one could suggest that the UK criminal justice system is 'woke'. Virtually every measure suggests the opposite:
prisonreformtrust.org.uk/project/race/
Screen grab of BBC article reading: 'The police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, giving the party its first PCC. Rupert Matthews has held the position since 2021 and served as an MEP for the East Midlands for the Tories between 2017 and 2019. Speaking at a press conference alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, he said the "dark heart of wokeness" needed to be cut out of the criminal justice system. "The self-serving, self-entitled liberal elite who have let our country down time after time are now on notice their day is almost done," he said. "Be they Conservative or Labour governments, everyone knows our politicians have failed us all. They have let this country down. They have let the British people down. Enough. Now is the time for Reform."'
August 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
AI so great, it scans my LinkedIn page and concludes I have a background in "Medical".
July 29, 2025 at 7:06 AM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Ah yes, Johnson (US 2025) copying Johnson’s (UK 2019) strategy of dealing with those pesky parliamentarians. Back then the (UK) Supreme Court declared this unlawful. Not holding my breath here.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...
July 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
The groundskeeper Willie natural enemies meme with middle class people instead of...Scots
June 26, 2025 at 3:41 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Apart from assessment integrity, the possibly greater danger is that students really don't learn (as much) when they use LLMs to write their essays. Not a surprise, but this neuro-study comparing LLM users, search-engine users and brain-only writers really is sobering.

arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...
As the educational impact of LLM use only begins to settle with the general population, in this study we demonstrate the pressing matter of a likely decrease in learning skills based on the results of our study. The use of LLM had a measurable impact on participants, and while the benefits were initially apparent, as we demonstrated over the course of 4 months, the LLM group's participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring. (Kosmyna et al., 2025, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task)
June 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
My talk is part of the 'Migration & Justice' stream of the festival. You can find the other talks here: su.sheffield.ac.uk/events/festi...
The poster for the Migration and Justice stream of the Festival for Social Action, consisting of a collage of pictures showing demonstrations, police officers, and other illustrative images in the theme. It also features the slogan "Challenge Borders, Fight for Justice (and) the rights of refugees and freedom seekers".
March 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Die Linke massively outperformed other parties among 18-24 yearolds, women, and especially young women in cities. This is good news. The party will be needed as will become clear when considering some of the below.
February 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
- The AfD is now the second strongest party and the clear winner of this election, which is a disaster. In the ‘former’ East, it has won in every state overwhelmingly. When Weidel claims that the AfD is now a ‘Volkspartei’ (what Germans call catch-all parties), this seems true for those states.
February 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
- Merz’s plan to halve the AfD vote share (previously 10.4 percent) did not work. The AfD doubled it instead and won voters from the CDU/CSU. There is almost now movement of voters from the AfD to the CDU/CSU.
February 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
FWIW, here are a few reflections on the German election.
- CDU/CSU won, but with 28.6% poorly so, especially given how unpopular the previous government was and how spectacularly it collapsed. I can’t help but feel that a warm bowl of pea soup instead of Merz would have achieved the same result. 🧵
February 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Nach dem gestrigen Votum der CDU/CSU (und FDP) mit der AfD habe ich heute meiner CDU-Wahlkreisabgeordneten geschrieben.
January 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
...but given the reasons stated for police vehicle use, I assume the increase is real and a function of an overburdened ambulance service.
Graph depicting various reasons as to why a police vehicle was used for transport to a POS following a s.136 detention with "Ambulance not available within agree timeframe" as the main reason, with, some variation notwithstanding, around a third of all cases and most recently 35.76 percent.
January 14, 2025 at 6:31 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Other data is less surprising but still stark, such as that police vehicles have comfortably overtaken ambulances as the most frequently used method of transportation to a POS following a Section 136 detention. I wonder to what extent better data quality plays into this...
Graph depicting the share of various methods of transportation to the first place of safety following a S136 detention with police vehicles hovering around 50 percent and ambulances around 40 while the share of "unknown" vehicles has decreased from 20 percent in 2016-17 to around 6 percent in 2023-24
January 14, 2025 at 6:31 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
I've been playing around with data on the use of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act (the section that allows police to detain someone in a public mental health emergency to remove them to a place of safety (POS)). I was not fully aware of the massive increase of A&Es being used as POS recently.
Graph depicting increase of A&E use as POS from 9.51 percent in 2016/17 to 89.36 percent in 2023-24
January 14, 2025 at 6:31 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
October to March in London
December 12, 2024 at 8:19 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
This is true, and not only here in the UK. This from last winter when there were farmers’ protests in Germany that also were policed very softly while climate activists were met with high levels of force. The sign says ‘Imagine there were [tractors] here’
Picture of a Last Generation protestor in Germany whose one hand is glued to the street while she holds a sign that says ‘imagine there were tractors here’ (the word tractor is not spelled out, but two tractors are painted on the sign).
December 12, 2024 at 5:42 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Spielleiter von Rollenspielrunden mit sechs Spielern bei der Terminfindung (März 2027, dann aber wirklich)
November 29, 2024 at 11:59 AM
maltelaub.bsky.social
"Douglas Adams anticipated the Apple watch in 1979."
March 20, 2024 at 4:25 PM
maltelaub.bsky.social
Gathering at King's College London in June to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ian Bruff's hugely influential article 'The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism' and dissect the ongoing relevance/manifestations of 'authoritarian neoliberalisms'.

📣 CfP + details here: cbtansel.net/post/ran10-2...
Poster for the workshop "The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism - Ten Years On"
March 11, 2024 at 10:30 AM