Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Neil Warner

@neilwarner.bsky.social

4.9K followers 2.7K following 650 posts

Researcher in political sociology at LSE. Interested in history & political economy of socialist parties and labour movements, economic policy ideas including socialisation of investment & economic democracy.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · May 5

I have a new article out on wage-earner funds, a famous attempt at economic democracy in Sweden in the 70s & 80s. It explores the funds' defeat, emphasising the issue's stronger resonance with businesses compared to workers & the Social Democratic Party
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

26 81

Reposted by Neil Warner

Hakan Sandal-Wilson @hsw.bsky.social · 5d

I'm looking forward to chairing this event and learning from Dr Afaf Jabiri!

lsegender @lsegender.bsky.social · 6d

Join us for an urgent conversation with @afafjabiri.bsky.social, discussing Palestinian women’s experiences and politcial life under conditions of settler colonialism and forced displacement!

Chaired by @hsw.bsky.social

www.lse.ac.uk/gender/event...

3 5

Reposted by Neil Warner

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 8d

I enormously enjoyed this conversation with David Runciman about the history of compulsory voting, how it came to be adopted in countries like Belgium and Australia, and what it could for British politics today.

Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 8d

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about whether voting should be required by law and what might change if non-participation was no longer an option. Why have some countries made voting compulsory?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

4 14 36

Reposted by Neil Warner

Bracknell Forest Community Climate Action @bfcca2025.bsky.social · 23d

Golf courses take up more land than solar farms.

3 40 82

Reposted by Neil Warner

Renewal @renewaljournal.bsky.social · 29d

NEW ISSUE: Renewal Vol. 33 No. 2

Published amidst far-right mobilisation and a Reform surge, the new issue of Renewal (guest co-edited by @sachahilhorst.bsky.social) features activists, journalists, and academics analysing the radical right threat and debating how social democrats can respond

Volume 33, Issue 2

A quarterly journal of politics and ideas, committed to exploring and expanding the radical potential of social democracy.

renewal.org.uk

1 11 17

Reposted by Neil Warner

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · Sep 14

It was a very great pleasure to appear on one of my favourite podcasts, and to talk with David Runciman about the Past, Present, and Future (!) of electoral reform & proportional representation

Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · Sep 14

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

For the first episode in a new series about the ideas that could help democracy work better David talks to @dmk1793.bsky.social of the Constitution Society about proportional representation. When will we get serious electoral reform in the UK?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

6 23 75

Reposted by Neil Warner

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · Sep 16

SNB: SWF

on.ft.com/4noL9xP

Switzerland’s US tech ‘whale’

[FREE TO READ] Swiss National Bank has more than $42bn invested in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta

on.ft.com

2 3 19

Reposted by Neil Warner

Common Wealth @cmmonwealth.bsky.social · Sep 16

Welcome to Rip-Off Britain.

A country remade by privatisation.

Our latest project — Who Owns Britain? — explores how a radical experiment transformed our society and shapes your life.

🧵

5 110 170

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Sep 14

This is a government that, for lack of belief in anything else, has basically decided to adopt self-hatred as its ideology

Hugh Brechin @hughrbrechin.bsky.social · Sep 14

good that Keir has broken his silence this morning to ... continue posting on a website run by a man who yesterday addressed a far right rally to call for his overthrow, while not in any way addressing said far right rally

A post this morning from Keir Starmer on Elon Musk's X in which he welcomes American financial investment into the UK and makes no comment on other matters

1 5

Reposted by Neil Warner

Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · Sep 13

Loath though he is to alienate floating racists, perhaps Starmer could rouse himself to condemn a violent fascist rally teeming with people who want him overthrown and/or killed

46 310 1.3K

Reposted by Neil Warner

Morgan Jones @morganj0nes.bsky.social · Sep 3

Labour has been quietly going quite hard on "community empowerment" – possibly because it's one of the few halfway coherent theories knocking around the party about how to tackle anti-politics. I've spoken to a lot of people about it for @newstatesman.com:

www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

Labour’s secret plan to thwart Reform

New legislation could unleash a transformation in community empowerment.

www.newstatesman.com

5 17 59

Reposted by Neil Warner

Lisa O’Carroll @lisaocarroll.bsky.social · Sep 1

The Guardian has today printed the names, and where possible, images, of all the media workers killed in Gaza, as part of an international day of action involving more than 150 media organisations.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The deadly toll on journalists in the Gaza war

With foreign media barred, Palestinians have reported alone, facing the ‘most deliberate effort to kill and silence’ them ever

www.theguardian.com

11 1.1K 1.9K

Reposted by Neil Warner

Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki @mierkezat.bsky.social · Aug 28

I’m very excited to share that my paper “Cleavage theory meets civil society: A framework and research agenda” with @eborbath.bsky.social & Swen Hutter has now been published online in ‪@wepsocial.bsky.social‬ (w/ open access funding thanks to @wzb.bsky.social‬!)

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

8 35 110

Reposted by Neil Warner

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · Sep 1

Very few social-democrat-vs-democratic-socialism vignettes can rival Sweden's future finance minister getting photographed in parliament scribbling ‘wage-earner funds are a fucking piece of shit.’

From @neilwarner.bsky.social's excellent recent article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

3 9 40

Reposted by Neil Warner

Gemma Gasseau @gemmagasseau.bsky.social · Aug 27

Thanks for flagging this Neil! Here is the working link: www.exploring-economics.org/en/discover/...

The political economy of water | Exploring Economics

This introductory text explores the political economy of water by defining the subject and examining its key issues.

www.exploring-economics.org

1 1

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 27

Thanks Gemma, sounds very interesting! Link doesn't seem to work for me?

Reposted by Neil Warner

Christoph Sorg @christophsorg.bsky.social · Aug 26

Organizing this workshop with @solveigdegen.bsky.social and @cominsitu.bsky.social, in case you'd like to join via zoom:

hu-berlin.zoom-x.de/j/6969547647...
Meeting ID: 696 9547 6478
Passcode: 800441

registration here: criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/democr...

4 8 17

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 22

"Never before has the FRC had to return so many times to the same crisis; a stark reflection of how suffering has not only persisted but intensified and spread until famine has begun to emerge...As this famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed"

Famine confirmed in Gaza City for first time, UN-backed report says - live updates

Israel says

www.bbc.co.uk

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 21

FT podcast on Peter Thiel contains some seriously mad stuff from Gillian Tett, who seems to really appreciate how Thiel's "Socratic, intellectual questioning approach" leads him to explore interesting new ideas about how dictatorships are good
shows.acast.com/ft-tech-toni...

Reposted by Neil Warner

Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · Aug 20

In 1926, Sheffield became the first major British city to come under Labour control. Published six years later, 'this little volume shows what was actually accomplished by a Labour Council with socialist ideals'.
www.principle5.coop/wp-content/u...

Cover of pamphlet entitled Six Years of Labour Rule in Sheffield 1926-1932

8 19

Reposted by Neil Warner

Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · Aug 16

"Carbon financiers continue to worry about a future in which Big Green States decide that substantive penalties on dirty finance would rapidly scale up climate finance by redirecting capital flows."

@danielagabor.bsky.social

After Seville | Daniela Gabor

COP30 in Belém

www.phenomenalworld.org

4 4

Reposted by Neil Warner

Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · Aug 13

LIFT THE BAN - SEPTEMBER 6TH

We can now announce that the next mass action to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action will take place on September 6th at 1pm, in Parliament Square.

We are looking for 1,000 commitments before confirming the action.

Register at: www.wedonotcomply.org

4 82 100

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 15

Kites for Palestine on the north end of the Isle of Iona

1 1 5

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 10

From Oban in west Scotland: "Stop the genocide now"

1 3

Neil Warner @neilwarner.bsky.social · Aug 10

The Whitaker report 40 years ago
"saw Ireland’s propensity to send people to prison as excessive, but the rate of incarceration today is more than twice what it was"

Politicians want to ‘look tough’ on crime, but locking people up in dysfunctional prisons is not the answer

There is something very problematic about the current political approach to crime, repeatedly cramming more into prisons

www.irishtimes.com

1 3