Scholar
LightNews

Glen O’Hara

Videos

Glen O'Hara is an academic historian, who also writes on politics for a number of publications in the United… more

H-index: 13
Political science 58%
Economics 21%
more

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Do you want a really good book on New Labour and the Blair years? Well you're in luck, because this week you can pre-order my New Labour, New Britain? for a 25% discount at Waterstones... £15! What have you got to lose? www.waterstones.com/book/new-lab...
New Labour, New Britain? by Glen O’Hara | Waterstones
Buy New Labour, New Britain? by Glen O’Hara from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
1 2 7

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
You can now pre-order my book on New Labour for a mere fifteen quid! That's got to be a bargain... Details below. 👇
manchesterup.bsky.social
Manchester University Press @manchesterup.bsky.social · 1d
Our 2026 books available in this promotion:
The trouble with freedom by @melissa-geog.bsky.social
Useful Art by John Byrne
Lying abroad by Carol Chillington Rutter
AIDS in Soviet Russia by Rustam Alexander
New Labour, New Britain? by @gsoh31.bsky.social
Policing the beats by Lambros Fatsis
3 8

Reposted by Glen O’Hara

manchesterup.bsky.social
Our 2026 books available in this promotion:
The trouble with freedom by @melissa-geog.bsky.social
Useful Art by John Byrne
Lying abroad by Carol Chillington Rutter
AIDS in Soviet Russia by Rustam Alexander
New Labour, New Britain? by @gsoh31.bsky.social
Policing the beats by Lambros Fatsis
1 1 1

by Glen O’Hara — Reposted by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
NEW: you can get 25% off my new book about New Labour if you pre-order with Waterstones... just punch in OCTOBER25 and it'll only cost you £15! What a bargain! www.waterstones.com/book/new-lab...
New Labour, New Britain? by Glen O’Hara | Waterstones
Buy New Labour, New Britain? by Glen O’Hara from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
1 4 7

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
One of the reasons I've stepped back from commenting and writing so much is astonishment and some disgust at what people are getting through their phones. I don't have any answers, and tbh 😬😱💀
alastairmeeks.bsky.social
Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 3d
Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.
2 1 24

Reposted by Glen O’Hara, Will Jennings

alastairmeeks.bsky.social
Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.
21 45 340

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Really want to write a history of the 80s and 90s which is about how the lives of most people just exploded into vivid colour.
5 7

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
The LCC planners in County Hall couldn't open the windows because their plans would be covered in dirt and grit. Up to 4,000 died in the Great Smog of 1952. Today? Air quality is on the up and up. 'Yesterday's Britain, A Better Britain' is a sick joke. Never go back. (2/2)
4 5 50

by Glen O’Hara — Reposted by Steve Peers, Robert Proctor

gsoh31.bsky.social
Reading this by m'learned colleague, and the nostalgia for 50s Britain is a crock. Much of the country was an exhausted dump. The Potteries were described as 'seven miles of concentrated ugliness and dirt'. Stoke was full of 'old clay working, old coal dumps, canal and industrial waste'. (1/2)
4 12 56

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Sure and you're ofc right, but it's being discussed only in those IMHO childish terms, so someone has to pull back the curtain a bit?
4

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
PS. A political and journalistic class so insulated it's lost complete touch with the impact of policy on real people, therefore impressed by a bit of Badenoch authentically Being Herself. Who cares if your gran can't get Motability and yet another round of promises have gone down in flames? 🤷‍♂️
7 15 79

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Think of the headlines: Motability recipients who can't breathe properly having their cars driven away; ppl who've been here for decades having in-work benefits stripped; prisons collapsing under the strain. Would all cause immediate Tory u-turns under pressure. Nonsense. (3/3)
1 10 62

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
A load of cuts on 'foreigners' that don't even add up. Cuts that even if they happened would be swallowed by the £30, £40bn the govt needs anyway. A new 'golden rule' that makes zero sense. Worse is the impact on real people. (2/3)
1 6 49

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Coverage of Badenoch's speech was one of the worst examples ever of Westminster Brain and Lobbythink. A litany of nonsense applauded by a policy elite that can't even think three moves ahead. (1/3)
11 53 150

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Just not serious or informed.
1

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Toryworld has shown today that it is fundamentally and utterly unserious, and many journalists have gone along with it - in part cos it gives the story some more legs and a new turn. Very depressing.
1 7 28

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Spectator email comes in and shows why Britain is so screwed. (1) No research curiosity, e.g. on First Time Buyers in this case, (2) focused only on the next electoral cycle, (3) London-centric. Not worth even reading any more.
3 14

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Everything is upside down now: bad is good, left is right, night is day. So it is, no point commenting further. 🤷‍♂️
gsoh31.bsky.social
Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 7d
Yet again Badenoch has shown how the state and the policymaking community hate the young and listen only to the old. And some observers lap it up. We can't go on like this.
1 4 17

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Yet again Badenoch has shown how the state and the policymaking community hate the young and listen only to the old. And some observers lap it up. We can't go on like this.
1 9 35

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
I just cannot comprehend how a massive bung for older rich homeowners, at the expense of sicker and younger people who have to bear all the cuts, is seen as some sort of 'win'. Britain has become a grotesque and narrow place indeed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Kemi Badenoch announces
The Tory leader says the move would help millions buy a home, in her annual conference speech.
www.bbc.co.uk
3 14 55

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Just examined a great PhD in Edinburgh and about to leave for Down South. Totally buoyed up by the thoughtfulness, innovation and engagement displayed in the discussion. Then came out and looked at that disgraceful speech by Badenoch. Leaders totally unworthy of those they purport to lead.
2 14 100

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Speech was about 60% pure garbage.
1

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Today's Badenoch speech has shown the Conservatives to be living in a fantasy land - without detail, without deliverable pledges, without a clue. It was totally disqualifying, yet many commentators are welcoming it. In those circumstances UK public policy may be unsalvageable.
gsoh31.bsky.social
Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 7d
Reaction to Badenoch's speech is everything wrong with Britain's policymaking community. Mostly couched in terms of the politics and her survival. Nothing on the utter garbage of policies that would leave us in an even bigger mess. UK policymaking may be irredeemable.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cl...
Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Kemi Badenoch says - follow live
The party says it would scrap the
www.bbc.co.uk
1 4 19

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Reaction to Badenoch's speech is everything wrong with Britain's policymaking community. Mostly couched in terms of the politics and her survival. Nothing on the utter garbage of policies that would leave us in an even bigger mess. UK policymaking may be irredeemable.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cl...
Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Kemi Badenoch says - follow live
The party says it would scrap the
www.bbc.co.uk
3 12 52

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
This is who Robert Jenrick is.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...
Minister Robert Jenrick ordered painting over of child asylum unit murals - BBC News
Robert Jenrick is reported to have considered the cartoon images in the Dover centre too welcoming.
www.bbc.co.uk
2 16 58

by Glen O’Hara

gsoh31.bsky.social
Here are two of the relevant sections on ECHR in the Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement (Cm 3883, pp 16-17). I'm as moderate a Nationalist as you can possibly be. Without ECHR I would regard the multilateral Agreement as terminated.
2 18 36

Reposted by Glen O’Hara, Martin Paul Eve, Alison Phipps , and 3 more

politicalquarterly.bsky.social
There have likely been 10,000 or more university redundancies in the academic year 2024-25.

@gsoh31.bsky.social, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes, argues that the Higher Education system as we know it is coming to an end.
Where now for Britain’s Universities?
UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.
politicalquarterly.org.uk
4 36 40

by Mark Elliott — Reposted by Glen O’Hara

profmarkelliott.bsky.social
Excellent (but depressing) analysis by @gsoh31.bsky.social on the fragile state of higher education in the UK. This passage particularly struck me. politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...
1 18 58

by Martin Paul Eve — Reposted by Glen O’Hara, McKenzie Wark

eve.gd
This is a must read to understand the context of Britain's universities and their finances.
gsoh31.bsky.social
Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 13d
ICYMI on Tuesday, here's my *new* and *free* short-form summary of what's gone wrong in our universities. This is something of a last word really, because unless the Budget and White Paper do something really radical, the fate of much HE is already sealed.
politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...
Where now for Britain’s Universities?
UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.
politicalquarterly.org.uk
12 20

by Glen O’Hara — Reposted by Glen O’Hara, Steve Peers, Martin Paul Eve , and 2 more

gsoh31.bsky.social
ICYMI on Tuesday, here's my *new* and *free* short-form summary of what's gone wrong in our universities. This is something of a last word really, because unless the Budget and White Paper do something really radical, the fate of much HE is already sealed.
politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...
Where now for Britain’s Universities?
UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.
politicalquarterly.org.uk
25 47

References

Fields & subjects

Updated 1m