Steven Fielding
@polprofsteve2024.bsky.social
Emeritus Prof, writing (slowly) about Labour’s existential struggles since 1976 for Polity. Knows stuff about politics & culture.
Labour List: https://labourlist.org/author/s-fielding/
Zeitgeist Tapes: https://shorturl.at/nwdO4
Labour List: https://labourlist.org/author/s-fielding/
Zeitgeist Tapes: https://shorturl.at/nwdO4
Pinned
Opinion | This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism
www.nytimes.com
This is I think an important perspective which not just those on the US left need to consider especially as the article is inspired by what Klein describes as Bernard Crick’s “strange little book“ which used to be almost standard reading on many UK politics courses. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/o...
This! This is how you deal with him.
Trump Threatens To Sue BBC Over Misleading Edit Of ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’ https://theonion.com/trump-threatens-to-sue-bbc-over-misleading-edit-of-the-vicar-of-dibley/
November 10, 2025 at 8:41 PM
This! This is how you deal with him.
Reposted by Steven Fielding
If the BBC caves to Trump and hands over licence fee payers' cash to him, it will lose far more from non-renewals by licence fee payers than it would ever risk having to pay to Trump in court
November 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
If the BBC caves to Trump and hands over licence fee payers' cash to him, it will lose far more from non-renewals by licence fee payers than it would ever risk having to pay to Trump in court
Reposted by Steven Fielding
Everyone is a little bit right... and a little bit wrong. Our editor @emmaburnell.bsky.social on what the BBC crisis teaches us about the political moment we're in.
‘The BBC crisis and our half-right, half-wrong politics’ – LabourList
The BBC is in crisis - again. This is not a piece reporting on what has happened. You can't move for those today. Here's the…
labourlist.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Everyone is a little bit right... and a little bit wrong. Our editor @emmaburnell.bsky.social on what the BBC crisis teaches us about the political moment we're in.
Whatever the objective reality, there’s a visceral belief on the right that the BBC is biased against them. Perhaps they should stop reading the anti-BBC press?
November 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Whatever the objective reality, there’s a visceral belief on the right that the BBC is biased against them. Perhaps they should stop reading the anti-BBC press?
Somebody in the Corporation should surely resign over this?
Celebrity Traitors to return for second series in 2026, BBC announces
Celebrity Traitors to return for second series in 2026, BBC announces
Head of entertainment Kalpna Patel-Knight says hit show ‘promises to be just as unmissable as the first’
The Celebrity Traitors will return for a second series in 2026, the BBC has said.
The announcement comes after the comedian Alan Carr was crowned champion of the reality gameshow’s first series last week, after he revealed he was a traitor to the comedian Nick Mohammed and the TV historian David Olusoga, who were faithfuls, taking all of the £87,500 prize pot for his charity. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Somebody in the Corporation should surely resign over this?
Just wondering, what is the point of Lisa Nandy at the moment?
November 10, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Just wondering, what is the point of Lisa Nandy at the moment?
Reposted by Steven Fielding
Made this a few years back with the late great Steve Hewlett - a history of the BBC's many mortal crises:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The Future of the BBC: A History
Steve Hewlett explores the troubled past behind today's debates on the future of the BBC.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Made this a few years back with the late great Steve Hewlett - a history of the BBC's many mortal crises:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
It was affordability that more than anything won those elections.
In New York, Zohran Mamdani showed how it’s done: ‘identity politics’ can win elections | Nesrine Malik
In New York, Zohran Mamdani showed how it’s done: ‘identity politics’ can win elections | Nesrine Malik
New York’s newly elected mayor rooted his campaign in the personal while, ironically, exemplifying the tradition of the American ‘melting pot’, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:26 AM
It was affordability that more than anything won those elections.
And yet having racists on BBC politics panel shows while there’s an actual Islamophobic so-called news channel with the same racists presenting shows on it, none of that merits a peep. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
‘I have to take ultimate responsibility’: Tim Davie’s BBC resignation statement
Full text of director general’s note to staff and the resignation statement from head of news Deborah Turness
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:21 AM
And yet having racists on BBC politics panel shows while there’s an actual Islamophobic so-called news channel with the same racists presenting shows on it, none of that merits a peep. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
She’s definitely running. thehill.com/homenews/559...
thehill.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:19 AM
She’s definitely running. thehill.com/homenews/559...
“Working with Democrats is like going to a strip club — you get a hard-on, but you don’t get laid.” I'm not convinced this good Catholic has read Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum from cover to cover but I like to think that if he did it was in a strip club.
on.ft.com/4nQs7j7
on.ft.com/4nQs7j7
The ascension of America’s Catholic right
Catholics and labour groups are re-emerging as a powerful force in the new political landscape — and their votes are up for grabs as never before
on.ft.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:53 AM
“Working with Democrats is like going to a strip club — you get a hard-on, but you don’t get laid.” I'm not convinced this good Catholic has read Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum from cover to cover but I like to think that if he did it was in a strip club.
on.ft.com/4nQs7j7
on.ft.com/4nQs7j7
Labour's dependent relationship with finance in a nut shell: but will it be a quid without the quo? on.ft.com/4onFrMW
Reeves to urge insurance bosses to increase investment in London
Chancellor due to meet representatives from Lloyd’s of London, Hiscox and Convex
on.ft.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Labour's dependent relationship with finance in a nut shell: but will it be a quid without the quo? on.ft.com/4onFrMW
Happy Days Are(n’t) Here Again? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...
Opinion | Trump Is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again.
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Happy Days Are(n’t) Here Again? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...
I listened while doing my leaflet round for my ward labour party and can definitely recommend this jolly jaunt thru the party’s tragi-comic past. I don’t agree with absolutely everything said here but the opening framework is very helpful in shaping the narrative so pay close attention to that!
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 Welcome back to Origin Story season eight: The Story of Socialism. This week, in the year of its 125th anniversary, @iandunt.bsky.social and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social begin the tale of the UK Labour Party, from Keir Hardie to Keir Starmer 👉 linktr.ee/originstoryp...
#labour #podcast
#labour #podcast
November 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I listened while doing my leaflet round for my ward labour party and can definitely recommend this jolly jaunt thru the party’s tragi-comic past. I don’t agree with absolutely everything said here but the opening framework is very helpful in shaping the narrative so pay close attention to that!
Glasman really has turned into a pay-per-view clown.
With Maurice Glasman and Dominic Lawson calling for the return of the stocks, we find most Britons opposed - although Reform voters are divided
All Britons: 21% support / 72% oppose
Lib Dem: 12% / 85%
Labour: 12% / 83%
Green: 13% / 82%
Con: 28% / 64%
Reform: 43% / 48%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
All Britons: 21% support / 72% oppose
Lib Dem: 12% / 85%
Labour: 12% / 83%
Green: 13% / 82%
Con: 28% / 64%
Reform: 43% / 48%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
November 7, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Glasman really has turned into a pay-per-view clown.
🙄🙄🙄
After 20 complaints news presenter is found to have broken BBC rules by correcting ‘pregnant people’ to pregnant ‘women’ because her facial expression when she did it was ‘giving a strong impression’ of having a personal view about the issue bit.ly/49LV9wK
Martine Croxall broke rules over ‘pregnant people’ on-air correction
The BBC News presenter had 20 complaints against her upheld after she rolled her eyes and changed the phrase ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’
bit.ly
November 7, 2025 at 8:49 AM
🙄🙄🙄
Just ordered the book on which this piece is, I guess, a precis of sorts. But I'm unsure any party leader today can take much of use from its suggestion that we only know where we are going after the Owl of Minerva has flown! But it might make you empathise with them. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/o...
Opinion | The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate.
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Just ordered the book on which this piece is, I guess, a precis of sorts. But I'm unsure any party leader today can take much of use from its suggestion that we only know where we are going after the Owl of Minerva has flown! But it might make you empathise with them. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/o...
Global Britain: an update.
I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Global Britain: an update.
This was bonkers at the time, but seems almost fact-based given how some in the US currently view the UK. Hstorians have looked at how Britons viewed the US but has anybody done a history of how Americans viewed Britain?
"Britain is almost pagan and only a hairline from communism."
Today we shall be remembering evangelist Billy Graham, born 7 November 1918. His London Crusade in 1953 attracted two million visits.
thelionandunicorn.com/2016/06/01/m...
Today we shall be remembering evangelist Billy Graham, born 7 November 1918. His London Crusade in 1953 attracted two million visits.
thelionandunicorn.com/2016/06/01/m...
‘May the Lord bless you real good’
Billy Graham’s 1954 London Crusade (the ‘Salvation Army plus sex’), remembered by ALWYN TURNER.
thelionandunicorn.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:03 AM
This was bonkers at the time, but seems almost fact-based given how some in the US currently view the UK. Hstorians have looked at how Britons viewed the US but has anybody done a history of how Americans viewed Britain?
One of the few comforts I draw from this is that no matter how many drugs this guy takes we are very unlikely to meet him on the other side of the eye of that needle to which Jesus once referred.
November 7, 2025 at 7:15 AM
One of the few comforts I draw from this is that no matter how many drugs this guy takes we are very unlikely to meet him on the other side of the eye of that needle to which Jesus once referred.
Reposted by Steven Fielding
Cold War Steve’s latest is brilliant
incredible photo that's definitely worth at least 1,000 words from Andrew Harnik of Getty
November 6, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Cold War Steve’s latest is brilliant
So Labour should stick to its tax pledge in the manifesto - because ‘trust’ - but not to the one that said it would retain the two child benefit cap. Powell is a gift - but I’m not sure to whom.
The joy of being a non-ministerial deputy leader is you can offer helpful advice like this
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
So Labour should stick to its tax pledge in the manifesto - because ‘trust’ - but not to the one that said it would retain the two child benefit cap. Powell is a gift - but I’m not sure to whom.
A fascinating 1935 adaptation based on an 1899 play, which sometimes becomes melodramatic but always remains slyly comic, of possibly the greatest novel in English literature.
November 6, 2025 at 7:49 PM
A fascinating 1935 adaptation based on an 1899 play, which sometimes becomes melodramatic but always remains slyly comic, of possibly the greatest novel in English literature.
This from the nation that selected Boris Johnson on a landslide. You really are kidding yourselves.
November 6, 2025 at 4:18 PM
This from the nation that selected Boris Johnson on a landslide. You really are kidding yourselves.