Dr Nick Dickinson
@nickdickinson.bsky.social
Political Scientist | British Politics and History | PhD on political salaries (Exeter) | Mst. Modern British and European History (Oxford) | DMs closed, so email me @ n.dickinson3@exeter.ac.uk
These guys are absolutely the funniest sporting body in the world. The IOC is more evil, the FIA is more incompetent, but nothing beats FIFA for shameless corrupt pandering. No notes.
December 6, 2025 at 2:16 AM
These guys are absolutely the funniest sporting body in the world. The IOC is more evil, the FIA is more incompetent, but nothing beats FIFA for shameless corrupt pandering. No notes.
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
Parties of the British left have been notorious for the arguments about what names mean. No wonder this new endeavour chose a name that effectively says nothing.
Your Party: if the name sounds terrible, there’s a good reason for it
Parties of the British left have been notorious for the arguments about what names mean. No wonder this new endeavour chose a name that effectively says nothing.
tcnv.link
December 5, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Parties of the British left have been notorious for the arguments about what names mean. No wonder this new endeavour chose a name that effectively says nothing.
I dug up my old masters thesis on the names of far-left parties in the UK for @theconversation.com to explain why 'Your Party' had such an issue picking a name, and why they eventually chose the one they did. @uniofexeternews.bsky.social theconversation.com/your-party-i...
Your Party: if the name sounds terrible, there’s a good reason for it
Parties of the British left have been notorious for the arguments about what names mean. No wonder this new endeavour chose a name that effectively says nothing.
theconversation.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I dug up my old masters thesis on the names of far-left parties in the UK for @theconversation.com to explain why 'Your Party' had such an issue picking a name, and why they eventually chose the one they did. @uniofexeternews.bsky.social theconversation.com/your-party-i...
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
With lovely viz by @rospearce.bsky.social and analysis by @matthewholehouse.bsky.social.
Plus @robfordmancs.bsky.social's verdict on a creaking system: www.economist.com/interactive/...
Plus @robfordmancs.bsky.social's verdict on a creaking system: www.economist.com/interactive/...
December 4, 2025 at 4:24 PM
With lovely viz by @rospearce.bsky.social and analysis by @matthewholehouse.bsky.social.
Plus @robfordmancs.bsky.social's verdict on a creaking system: www.economist.com/interactive/...
Plus @robfordmancs.bsky.social's verdict on a creaking system: www.economist.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
We analysed 80yrs of elections to consider the possible outcomes if an election were held today. Under FPTP, just a few % points of vote share is the difference between a Reform UK landslide and humiliation.
December 4, 2025 at 4:22 PM
We analysed 80yrs of elections to consider the possible outcomes if an election were held today. Under FPTP, just a few % points of vote share is the difference between a Reform UK landslide and humiliation.
Excellent to see this from The Economist. We are slow walking into a constitutional crisis driven by the electoral system, and very few people are taking it seriously enough yet.
Welcome to slot-machine Britain! Our cover this week is on First Past the Post, the voting system that turns multi-party politics into a lottery.
Featuring our new modelling of British elections: www.economist.com/interactive/...
Featuring our new modelling of British elections: www.economist.com/interactive/...
December 4, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Excellent to see this from The Economist. We are slow walking into a constitutional crisis driven by the electoral system, and very few people are taking it seriously enough yet.
Right but I would also take a bet they're the kind of morons who actually don't understand this line is not in the national anthem any more.
In Aug., the NY Young Republican Club posted a statement to its website in support of the AfD. The statement concluded with the phrase “AfD über alles” in bold, a play on the line “Deutschland über alles,” which was frequently used in Nazi propaganda www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Young Republicans chapter plans to host far-right German leader after ‘I love Hitler’ chat
The New York Young Republican Club will host Markus Frohnmaier, an AfD deputy chairman, at its annual gala after calling for a ‘new civic order’ in Germany.
www.politico.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Right but I would also take a bet they're the kind of morons who actually don't understand this line is not in the national anthem any more.
I’m sorry but did the self-styled party of member democracy use FIRST PAST THE POST (!!!) to pick a name?
December 3, 2025 at 10:29 AM
I’m sorry but did the self-styled party of member democracy use FIRST PAST THE POST (!!!) to pick a name?
Genuinely think the best answer to this for a populist left politician is "...the economists I *will* be talking to will be at the Treasury. The same professionals every government relies on. The difference is the values I bring to the choices and trade-offs they bring will me."
Pinched this video from @cjsnowdon.bsky.social on Twitter because Bluesky has to see it.
Nothing can prepare you for the punchline here.
Nothing can prepare you for the punchline here.
December 2, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Genuinely think the best answer to this for a populist left politician is "...the economists I *will* be talking to will be at the Treasury. The same professionals every government relies on. The difference is the values I bring to the choices and trade-offs they bring will me."
Not to nitpick, but Franklin would likely be dead anyway from firing an RPG like that, sending the back blast into the roof of his helicopter killing or incapacitating the pilot before plummeting to a fiery doom.
December 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Not to nitpick, but Franklin would likely be dead anyway from firing an RPG like that, sending the back blast into the roof of his helicopter killing or incapacitating the pilot before plummeting to a fiery doom.
Always in two minds on this. Specific MPs could obviously fund the costs of serving themselves. But short of IPSA implementing some kind of means test, costing time and money and not saving much (if anything) overall, these kind of stories just delegitimise a necessary system for no reason.
Senior MPs including Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Darren Jones are claiming tens of thousands of pounds a year in taxpayer-funded rent expenses while either calling for or implementing benefit cuts on the poorest
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
Revealed: MPs rack up huge rent expenses while pushing through cuts to benefits
MPs are allowed to rent a second home, but while they are simultaneously cutting benefits for the vulnerable, the cost feels hard to swallow.
www.bigissue.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Always in two minds on this. Specific MPs could obviously fund the costs of serving themselves. But short of IPSA implementing some kind of means test, costing time and money and not saving much (if anything) overall, these kind of stories just delegitimise a necessary system for no reason.
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
Invoking "color revolutions" as a boogeyman like this really goes to show how much these guys have cooked their brains on Russian propaganda specifically.
Sen. Eric Schmitt: "This is the language of a color revolution where you're calling on military men and women to disobey orders."
December 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Invoking "color revolutions" as a boogeyman like this really goes to show how much these guys have cooked their brains on Russian propaganda specifically.
Agree on this too, though I hadn’t really thought about it until reading this and a few others chiming in. Maybe even more importantly (though much more impressionistically, idk) they seem happier and less anxious. Covid absolutely sucked for that group, and we should have done more at the time.
I had the same conversation with a colleague yesterday. It seems to me that students who started university well post-covid have adjusted to significantly better standards of attendance, participation, engagement than 2-3 years ago. AI is a problem but not as much as covid disruption was.
Definitely. I can't generalise beyond KCL, but my classes are incredibly engaged this year. I'm getting asked so many questions on the material. Lesson plans have gone out of the window as the classes carry themselves. Chatting with my office-mate, he was saying it's the same with first year UGs
November 29, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Agree on this too, though I hadn’t really thought about it until reading this and a few others chiming in. Maybe even more importantly (though much more impressionistically, idk) they seem happier and less anxious. Covid absolutely sucked for that group, and we should have done more at the time.
Weirdly enough I actually wrote my masters thesis on the naming conventions of far left parties in the U.K. These are all very distinctly post-old left. No reference to any of the most common 20th century terms: “workers”, “revolutionary”, “communist”, “socialist”, “Marxist”, or even “international”
"Your Party asks members to pick between four names: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many"
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana’s Your Party reveals shortlist for official name
Leftwing party asks members to pick between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Weirdly enough I actually wrote my masters thesis on the naming conventions of far left parties in the U.K. These are all very distinctly post-old left. No reference to any of the most common 20th century terms: “workers”, “revolutionary”, “communist”, “socialist”, “Marxist”, or even “international”
E) Judean People’s Front
F) Tooting Popular Front
G) The Rebel Alliance
F) Tooting Popular Front
G) The Rebel Alliance
November 29, 2025 at 2:10 PM
E) Judean People’s Front
F) Tooting Popular Front
G) The Rebel Alliance
F) Tooting Popular Front
G) The Rebel Alliance
This is sort of the early Labour Party system before the position of General Secretary was changed to thwart Herbert Morrison. It’s why the PLP still has a slightly weird relationship to the party as a whole.
So under the 2nd system, if Your Party won an election (stay with me here), the PM would not be leader of the party? www.politicshome.com/news/article...
November 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
This is sort of the early Labour Party system before the position of General Secretary was changed to thwart Herbert Morrison. It’s why the PLP still has a slightly weird relationship to the party as a whole.
“Have you noticed that the total size of the welfare state is large. And a small unspecified proportion of that will go to foreign nationals. I am very smart.”
Insane indeed
Insane indeed
Reflections on the budget from the head of Students4Reform
November 26, 2025 at 5:57 PM
“Have you noticed that the total size of the welfare state is large. And a small unspecified proportion of that will go to foreign nationals. I am very smart.”
Insane indeed
Insane indeed
“The king can do no wrong, he can only be badly advised” is the most toxic principle you can apply to a democracy and especially ironic in the UK. The PM is that advisor.
Pro-Starmer skeeters so committed to the idea of the prime minister they are perpetually at war with the government.
November 25, 2025 at 8:14 PM
“The king can do no wrong, he can only be badly advised” is the most toxic principle you can apply to a democracy and especially ironic in the UK. The PM is that advisor.
No. This stuff is gonna get some very young people dishonourably discharged, arrested, or worse. It’s much more complicated than this in practice and if Members of Congress want to stop the military doing illegal things they need to do it themselves.
November 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
No. This stuff is gonna get some very young people dishonourably discharged, arrested, or worse. It’s much more complicated than this in practice and if Members of Congress want to stop the military doing illegal things they need to do it themselves.
Sitting the kids down to talk about the dangers of experimenting with empty signifiers
Those who know, know. I wouldn't have been able to resist it either. I can't hear 6-7 without hearing it on repeat alongside all other similarly 'blessed' parents:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Starmer apologises for leading pupils in 6-7 dance
The prime minister performed a version of the viral dance with primary school children, before being told it was not allowed.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Sitting the kids down to talk about the dangers of experimenting with empty signifiers
Weather, or they saw what happened in the first Ashes test and spontaneously ripped themselves to pieces
We had some terrible weather over the past week so all the England flags on the lampposts in my town look like total fucking shit hahahaha
November 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Weather, or they saw what happened in the first Ashes test and spontaneously ripped themselves to pieces
There’s an open door to rhetorically hammer the minority of people who are behind what’s happening in British politics right now. Zac Polanski can’t do it but Kier Starmer can.
Why do people think England flags have been raised on lampposts?
White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%
Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%
Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
November 22, 2025 at 8:10 PM
There’s an open door to rhetorically hammer the minority of people who are behind what’s happening in British politics right now. Zac Polanski can’t do it but Kier Starmer can.
Both the US and Russian governments appear to have no idea what different parts of them are saying to each other. This is a recipe for catastrophe.
Russia flat out rejects Trump's 28-point peace plan: "Even in a reduced military and territorial form, Ukraine would remain a significant danger, requiring us to keep our forces on the western borders."
November 22, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Both the US and Russian governments appear to have no idea what different parts of them are saying to each other. This is a recipe for catastrophe.
This. I especially object to Nazis pissing in my drink but if you remove the politics from the equation it's still no thank you. Not to kink shame anyone.
There are many shortcomings with the Nazi bar analogy, but one of them is that X really isn't so much a 'is it a Nazi bar', it is 'you arrive at your favourite bar. The landlord is busy pissing in a bucket, adding red dye and pouring it in the red wine bottles. Order a glass of white, Y/N?'
November 20, 2025 at 10:17 PM
This. I especially object to Nazis pissing in my drink but if you remove the politics from the equation it's still no thank you. Not to kink shame anyone.