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 @ [email protected]
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.
Guess we finally know what was happening here, and why King Salman was looking a little concerned.
November 20, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Guess we finally know what was happening here, and why King Salman was looking a little concerned.
This is only one of the good reasons Watto should be edited out of The Phantom Menace but at least he eventually got what was coming to him.
November 19, 2025 at 3:33 PM
This is only one of the good reasons Watto should be edited out of The Phantom Menace but at least he eventually got what was coming to him.
What the liberal media won’t tell you
November 19, 2025 at 3:23 PM
What the liberal media won’t tell you
2022: AI models will transform the world for the better
2025: at least the unhinged conspiracy theorists can spell now
2025: at least the unhinged conspiracy theorists can spell now
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 2:24 PM
2022: AI models will transform the world for the better
2025: at least the unhinged conspiracy theorists can spell now
2025: at least the unhinged conspiracy theorists can spell now
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
when will the lesson finally get learned? #cloudflare
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
when will the lesson finally get learned? #cloudflare
I don't know why it never occurs to these people to look at what happened to Michael Cohen, or Rudy Giuliani, or Sidney Powell, or any of the other people who Trump threw under the bus for doing exactly what he told them, and say 'no thanks'.
In a highly unusual move, the magistrate looking over the grand jury indictment of James Comey has asked the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, to share her indictment materials with the defense because she may have committed misconduct
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/u...
Judge Says Justice Dept. May Have Committed Misconduct in Comey Case
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:58 AM
I don't know why it never occurs to these people to look at what happened to Michael Cohen, or Rudy Giuliani, or Sidney Powell, or any of the other people who Trump threw under the bus for doing exactly what he told them, and say 'no thanks'.
This is why party buy-in is crucial, and other institutions have to adapt too. My favourite example is the German 'elephant rountable' - a televised post-election discussion between the party leaders. You get a totally different kind of debate that enforces the consensual norms of the system.
I do wonder if the UK electorate are ready for PR. PR would involve parties coming together, post election, to form a govt in the national interest, on a platform they can agree on where each participants gets some (but not all) of what they wanted in their manifestos. It all sounds very sensible,
November 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This is why party buy-in is crucial, and other institutions have to adapt too. My favourite example is the German 'elephant rountable' - a televised post-election discussion between the party leaders. You get a totally different kind of debate that enforces the consensual norms of the system.
Reposted by Dr Nick Dickinson
Agree. In practice the reason why it won't happen is what it would delegitimise is 'Labour's 2024 election campaign and subsequent strategic choices', which are increasingly IMO the tail that is wagging the dog.
I think the conventional wisdom that switching to PR, even explicitly to block Reform, would delegitimise the system is completely wrong. You would get buy-in from every other party, bar maybe the Tories, and it's historically the main reason electoral reform happens. www.jstor.org/stable/2585577
November 17, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Agree. In practice the reason why it won't happen is what it would delegitimise is 'Labour's 2024 election campaign and subsequent strategic choices', which are increasingly IMO the tail that is wagging the dog.
I think the conventional wisdom that switching to PR, even explicitly to block Reform, would delegitimise the system is completely wrong. You would get buy-in from every other party, bar maybe the Tories, and it's historically the main reason electoral reform happens. www.jstor.org/stable/2585577
November 17, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I think the conventional wisdom that switching to PR, even explicitly to block Reform, would delegitimise the system is completely wrong. You would get buy-in from every other party, bar maybe the Tories, and it's historically the main reason electoral reform happens. www.jstor.org/stable/2585577
Kamala Harris absolutely ran on the issues most important to voters. The problem is she was in an administration that voters mostly blamed for those same issues. There wasn’t really a way around that.
Pundits: Why didn't Kamala Harris run on kitchen table issues?
Kamala Harris's campaign speeches:
Kamala Harris's campaign speeches:
November 16, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Kamala Harris absolutely ran on the issues most important to voters. The problem is she was in an administration that voters mostly blamed for those same issues. There wasn’t really a way around that.
One reason for this is that Labour's vote was absurdly stable in raw terms (with a steadily declining trend). So who won an election was mainly a function of how the Conservatives were doing.
November 15, 2025 at 11:36 AM
One reason for this is that Labour's vote was absurdly stable in raw terms (with a steadily declining trend). So who won an election was mainly a function of how the Conservatives were doing.
I just asked Claude to turn one of my lectures into the script for an Adam Curtis documentary and I am not sorry
November 14, 2025 at 8:24 PM
I just asked Claude to turn one of my lectures into the script for an Adam Curtis documentary and I am not sorry