Will Davies
@will-davies.bsky.social
Professor @goldsmithsuol.bsky.social, Director of @goldperc.bsky.social - occasional contributor to @lrb.co.uk and others.
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Subscribe for latest writing etc at Williamdavies.blog
Reposted by Will Davies
A piece I wrote about the manufactured ‘impartiality’ panics that greeted Tim Davie’s arrival just over 5 years ago, when GB News was still a glint in Robbie Gibbs’ eye www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
William Davies · Short Cuts: Woke Conspiracies
A British equivalent of Fox News, wherever it may come from, would have its own distinctive character – less...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:12 PM
A piece I wrote about the manufactured ‘impartiality’ panics that greeted Tim Davie’s arrival just over 5 years ago, when GB News was still a glint in Robbie Gibbs’ eye www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The tweets below demonstrate that impartiality was always a trap. If the issues are GIDS and Gaza (which is the implication), it should be possible to report on them without caring what either the Telegraph or Novara say in response. Once you have to 'balance' the two, obviously the former will win
If old farts have gone mean as fuck and viciously reactionary with age, then it’s not clear to me that young people are to blame for this or that it’s obviously them who should shut the hell up.
November 11, 2025 at 7:45 AM
The tweets below demonstrate that impartiality was always a trap. If the issues are GIDS and Gaza (which is the implication), it should be possible to report on them without caring what either the Telegraph or Novara say in response. Once you have to 'balance' the two, obviously the former will win
A piece I wrote about the manufactured ‘impartiality’ panics that greeted Tim Davie’s arrival just over 5 years ago, when GB News was still a glint in Robbie Gibbs’ eye www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
William Davies · Short Cuts: Woke Conspiracies
A British equivalent of Fox News, wherever it may come from, would have its own distinctive character – less...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:12 PM
A piece I wrote about the manufactured ‘impartiality’ panics that greeted Tim Davie’s arrival just over 5 years ago, when GB News was still a glint in Robbie Gibbs’ eye www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
"Hey, student, we saw you from across the bar and really dig your vibe. Can we buy you a drink?"
November 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
"Hey, student, we saw you from across the bar and really dig your vibe. Can we buy you a drink?"
Eventually ‘impartiality’ will mean no human editors, producers or directors, just a vast archive of things that have been captured on camera to be mined, and quite a few things that haven’t happened but might as well have done
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Eventually ‘impartiality’ will mean no human editors, producers or directors, just a vast archive of things that have been captured on camera to be mined, and quite a few things that haven’t happened but might as well have done
Reposted by Will Davies
bro are you fucking kidding me
![quote from the Economist article which says "[study authors] are now looking at whether AI facial analysis can give lenders useful clues about a person’s propensity to repay loans. For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6ofjbklfvptnupad4lxumblw/bafkreia3yctiqd7ejumpd6novxjpiycphtfkc3bdgd573jw37faqdl7o7m@jpeg)
November 6, 2025 at 5:59 PM
bro are you fucking kidding me
Reposted by Will Davies
My new article with @econsocjournal.bsky.social on Gary Becker's analyses on suicide is out! I use Becker's assertion that ‘Most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent suicides’ to reflect on how the late Chicago School framed death and mortality as a choice, thus normalising mortality inequality
‘Most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent suicides’: Human capital and endogenous mortality in Gary Becker’s work
Chicago School economist and Nobel Memorial Prize winner Gary Becker writes that ‘most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent “suicides” in the sense that they could have been postponed if more re...
www.tandfonline.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:23 PM
My new article with @econsocjournal.bsky.social on Gary Becker's analyses on suicide is out! I use Becker's assertion that ‘Most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent suicides’ to reflect on how the late Chicago School framed death and mortality as a choice, thus normalising mortality inequality
The last 15 years of HE policy in the UK:
Gov: act like you're in a market!
universities: OK
Gov: not like that!
Gov: act like you're in a market!
universities: OK
Gov: not like that!
November 6, 2025 at 8:15 AM
The last 15 years of HE policy in the UK:
Gov: act like you're in a market!
universities: OK
Gov: not like that!
Gov: act like you're in a market!
universities: OK
Gov: not like that!
Don't understand. Is John Lewis now selling 12" house records?
November 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Don't understand. Is John Lewis now selling 12" house records?
Irony of Britain's situation is that the recent chancellor most guilty of putting "political convenience over economic imperative" was George Osborne
November 4, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Irony of Britain's situation is that the recent chancellor most guilty of putting "political convenience over economic imperative" was George Osborne
Is the Chancellor actually going to cut national debt?
November 4, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Is the Chancellor actually going to cut national debt?
I appreciate the sentiment but you're not going to convince me that a "take-on" is now a thing I'm afraid
November 3, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I appreciate the sentiment but you're not going to convince me that a "take-on" is now a thing I'm afraid
This is very well argued, and worth reflecting on for everyone between the political centre and the radical Left
On how Ezra Klein's piece yesterday is emphatically different from popularism www.programmablemutter.com/p/liberalism...
Liberalism transforms plurality from weakness to strength
At least it does when it works right ...
www.programmablemutter.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:09 PM
This is very well argued, and worth reflecting on for everyone between the political centre and the radical Left
Looking at this chart, you wonder if the mere fact of the Labour Party being in government is a resentment generator
For the first time in a decade the majority of British adults believe the generosity of the welfare system stops people from supporting themselves, according to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). on.ft.com/3X6VYbZ
November 3, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Looking at this chart, you wonder if the mere fact of the Labour Party being in government is a resentment generator
If he turns out *not* to be a Far Right extremist, great. In the meantime
November 2, 2025 at 8:55 PM
If he turns out *not* to be a Far Right extremist, great. In the meantime
The effect of data analytics on football has been to make it more like rugby union: more focus on set pieces, ‘turn overs’, sheer muscle, yardage and ‘heat maps’, Refs jobs becoming impossible. Arsenal are like a great South African side in this analogy, Liverpool are France, and Haaland is Lomu
November 2, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The effect of data analytics on football has been to make it more like rugby union: more focus on set pieces, ‘turn overs’, sheer muscle, yardage and ‘heat maps’, Refs jobs becoming impossible. Arsenal are like a great South African side in this analogy, Liverpool are France, and Haaland is Lomu
Haaland currently doing for City what Kane did for Spurs for several years
November 2, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Haaland currently doing for City what Kane did for Spurs for several years
This by @maxread.info is really interesting on shift from a liberal-market critique of Big Tech to a (potentially far more potent) public health critique maxread.substack.com/p/platform-t...
Platform Temperance
Notes on a new wave of the Techlash
maxread.substack.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:46 PM
This by @maxread.info is really interesting on shift from a liberal-market critique of Big Tech to a (potentially far more potent) public health critique maxread.substack.com/p/platform-t...
Reposted by Will Davies
Brace for another wave of x refuges
October 26, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Brace for another wave of x refuges
Clinical and really quite damning from @geoffmulgan.bsky.social geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/hollowed-o...
Hollowed out: can the centre hold?
Can the centre hold and resist the far right
geoffmulgan.substack.com
November 2, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Clinical and really quite damning from @geoffmulgan.bsky.social geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/hollowed-o...
Excited to see the first issue of @equatormag.bsky.social now here www.equator.org
EQUATOR
Equator is a magazine of politics, culture and art.
www.equator.org
October 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Excited to see the first issue of @equatormag.bsky.social now here www.equator.org
Blueskyism claims its first IRL political victory?
Tories confirm Chris Philp's bill proposing mass deportation of people with indefinite leave to remain no longer party policy - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
October 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Blueskyism claims its first IRL political victory?
Stop asking why children are obsessed with 'six seven' and start asking why they start every sentence with 'wait'
October 28, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Stop asking why children are obsessed with 'six seven' and start asking why they start every sentence with 'wait'