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William Cullerne Bown

@williamcb.bsky.social

3.4K followers 1.4K following 3.3K posts

Technology and politics. Newsletter https://bit.ly/3AELZDu Foundations of AI https://bit.ly/3WiYJab Law https://bit.ly/40YL1fU Research Fortnight https://bit.ly/4i0 https://signal.me/#eu/xNzjw2P7XIGjBfdQicHbMp0V5SuVpgCQOeUZNpDRqH-mkt2Tan9G6Y0ZitEKsVkN

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · Nov 17

Today I argue Keir Starmer can only be understood in the context of deep shifts in the character of our politics that are still hard to grasp

open.substack.com/pub/williamc...

Trump, Starmer and the populist tide

Old concepts such as left vs right, trust and class aren't enough to explain the trouble we're in

open.substack.com

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Reposted by William Cullerne Bown

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

This Is Fascism

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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 1d

Lost social status, elite radicalisation, and a new infozone have created a toxic cloud of political disorder.

In this new Substack I consider what brought us here, false prophets, and what might begin to address the malaise: good work and stronger community.

open.substack.com/pub/anthonyp...

Political Anguish

In this second The Economy of Anguish post, I consider how status loss, technology, and the radical politics of the right threaten futures.

open.substack.com

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Reposted by William Cullerne Bown

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 22h

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 21h

British English often uses diminishers as intensifiers.
"I'm upset about that" = I am moderately upset
"I'm just a tiny little bit upset about that" = I am very upset

it's related to understatement, very English since Beowulf: poetryfoundation.org/education/gl...

Litotes

Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.

poetryfoundation.org

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Reposted by William Cullerne Bown

🎃It was a Hotblack night🦇 @invalid-handle.com · 3d

A good read. I’m not against taking money for investment from big tech however the failure to properly regulate or pushback gives at least the appearance of a conflict of interest within government. Which is never a good look

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

When it comes to Big Tech, is Britain becoming a banana republic? My new essay in Renewal. williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/the-ambigu...

The ambiguity of Starmer's relations with Big Tech

His government is a coalition and this has resulted in a split approach to Silicon Valley

williamcullernebown.substack.com

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Reposted by William Cullerne Bown

Warren Oates @warrenoates1.bsky.social · 5d

An important (global) public service announcement from Ed Miliband on the day that renewables have over taken coal as the largest source of electricity.

"Clean energy, it's happening and it's the future."

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Reposted by William Cullerne Bown

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

When it comes to Big Tech, is Britain becoming a banana republic? My new essay in Renewal. williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/the-ambigu...

The ambiguity of Starmer's relations with Big Tech

His government is a coalition and this has resulted in a split approach to Silicon Valley

williamcullernebown.substack.com

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

The basic arrangement in which the council taxes you but central government determines what 90+% of the taxes are spent on is depoliticising. The substance of the choices is separated from the voter. We should be in the game of massively repoliticising.

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

So maybe there is a genuine deficit of left of centre think tanks prepared to do the “dirty work” of thinking about how to grow more?

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

It’s interesting that they all seem to revolve around growth. I am currently reading an anthology of #Accelerate articles. These generally come from the left and are frustrated by some tendencies they see in the left - including focussing narrowly on constraining the worst impulses of capitalism…

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

Ah, that's helpful. Thanks.

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

Well, often it's not that transparent. For example, there is a constant flow of people from the Tony Blair Institute into DSIT, on both permanent positions and secondments. It's obvious there's influence, but to what end? So ideology, funding, who is running the show become important.

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

Which all makes mapping their ideology more important.

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

This is actually a mark of how the idea of a "think tank" has shifted. Originally, it was created by someone/some institution for a purpose. Then they came from outside but were rooted in substantive political forces. Now they can be entrepreneurial ventures of the thinkers.

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, I do sound a bit conspiratorial. But then every think tank is a conspiracy to shape public policy!

William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

For those who aren't so close to it all, there's a bit of work to be done to show what's going on.

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

Though that web page is in fact coy about coming from the Adam Smith Institute.

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

OK! I get it. I guess I'm looking for someone to dive into how the right is seeking to shape Labour policy via think tanks. It's also going on within established think tanks, such as Policy Exchange.

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LeithMotive @leithmotive.bsky.social · 4d

It's worse. There are no intellectuals involved anymore. The right wing, here and globally, makes a feature of rejecting evidence and analysis and views those in the business of intellectual inquiry, in universities, in popular culture, in the media as an enemy to be subjugated.

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 4d

This is my basic theory for a lot of what is going on with the centre right atm

The ideas failed utterly and now there is a total crisis of intellectual confidence

Indy @indy.bsky.social · 6d

It nags at me that people are dancing around the fact that one reason centre-right think-tanks are in an intellectual crisis moment is because we've spent over a decade where lots of their ideas were tried out and didn't pan out as advertised.

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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 4d

I think what happened is all the good people left the established think tanks and set up new vehicles. The Work In Progress people, the British remade people, the lfg people are all from that intellectual milieu imo.

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 4d

I have the same sense, but is this actually documented anywhere?

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 4d

I mean, LFG embodies the problem - it's an organisation founded by people who went from 'pwease will you amend this law on dogs after 14 years, I know you're trying super-hard!' to 'why the FUCK haven't Labour built more prisons overnight'.

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 4d

This is my basic theory for a lot of what is going on with the centre right atm

The ideas failed utterly and now there is a total crisis of intellectual confidence

Indy @indy.bsky.social · 6d

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 4d

Given Kemi Badenoch has supposedly renounced Trussonomics, there’s an awful lot of multi-billion pound tax giveaways, predicated on *extremely* optimistic cuts and savings.

Almost as if she knows she’s never going to have to try to actually deliver any of this.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 4d

Good to see the Conservative Party committed to keeping the deficit down by *checks notes* spending £2 billion giving tax breaks for private education, creating a massive new deportation force and pledging to maintain pensioner benefits.

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