The letter from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK deserves a serious and immediate response from the leader of Reform UK

This letter from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK deserves a serious and immediate response from the leader of Reform UK

Horrific but essential read by Eyal Weizman. Via @jasminekgani.bsky.social

Book talk - The psychic lives of statues: reckoning with the rubble of empire- Emotions in Politics and International Relations (EPIR) | BISA - Emotions in Politics and International Relations (EPIR) Working Group

🚨NEXT EVENT🚨

📖 Book talk: ‘The psychic lives of statues: reckoning with the rubble of empire’

Discussion of Rahul Rao’s (@rahulraothariel.bsky.social) latest book

🗓️ Monday 20 April, 4pm BST (online)

🔗Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

🚨Registration still open!
The Ideas Lab offers space for deep engagement, discussion, and experimentation across political theory, international politics, and critical approaches to contemporary global challenges.
The fee includes full board accommodation and all activities.

Well worth a listen:

Controlinflation! Ann Pettifor Author of The Global Casino: How Wall St Gambles with People and Planet Rachel Reeves has my sympathy. The government confronts a national political revolt and a climate crisis while big institutions of the state - the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - work against her and the interests of the British people. All of this contributes to the rise of Reform UK. My advice is to restore the government as a transformative, democratic "big green state", rather than a technocratic managerial one serving private wealth. To "kickstart" the economy and restore ecological stability, use the power of Labour's majority to rewire and restructure powerful institutions. One problem is that the Treasury is wedded to market fundamentalism and austerity, its staff incapable of understanding government debt will only fall when investment and economic activity recover from recent crises. It needs a national economic and environmental strategy, such as those that guide China and Singapore. In fact, Reeves should create a Department for National Strategy to lead public green infrastructure investment that will revive private investment in a weakened, risk-averse economy. The Bank uses its "independence" to protect and bail out private global financial markets. Its current policy of quantitative tightening undermines the government's fiscal policy. High interest rates at a time of economic weakness serve the interests of wealth, increasing the cost of private and public borrowing while failing to quell inflation. The Bank lacks tools and legitimacy to tackle inflation. Labour should transfer that role to a new Inflation Control Office, which could use taxes, price controls and even rationing to lower inflation. Then Reeves should change the Bank's mandate, radically: to support the economic policy of the government, not the City. The OBR reflects George Osborne's attack on the democratic legitimacy of the state. Tod…

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social responds @theguardian.com: "Labour is in a mess. Is there anything Starmer can do to turn things around?"

"restore the government as a transformative, democratic “big green state”, rather than a technocratic managerial one serving private wealth" 🔗 t.ly/9ydDM

'Seeing and sensing world politics' with Professor Roland Bleiker - Review of International Studies – The podcast In this episode, we talk about ‘seeing and sensing world politics’, the title of the keynote address which was delivered by Roland Bleiker at the 2025 BISA conference. Roland is a Professor in In...

I'm late to this, but this podcast with @bleiker.bsky.social is well worth a listen:
www.buzzsprout.com/2395572/epis...

Read this. It’s not just germane to schools.

"to ignore the findings of the [Covid-19] Inquiry - to refuse to learn from the evidence and the pain - disrespects the sacrifices of those who held key services together and those who died. It would devalue all of us - and leave us as unprepared for the next pandemic as we were for this one."

U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Hind Rajab Accountability Bill (Exclusive) The Justice for Hind Rajab act, introduced by Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Sara Jacobs, demands a U.S. investigation into the killing of the 5-year-old Palestinian girl whose story inspired Kaouther Ben ...

Sometimes a film can move a mountain.

Dunblane

Offer includes 40% off 'After Grenfell'.

Gregynog Ideas Lab is back! Register now: estore.manchester.ac.uk/conferences-...
Further details at gregynog.blogspot.com. Join us for a week of discussion and collaboration!

I wanted to go on here to pass on that the brilliant political theorist and more importantly fabulous human being Bill Connolly passed away yesterday. This is such a loss, I'll have more to say later but for now my heart breaks.

Gregynog Ideas Lab is back! Register now: estore.manchester.ac.uk/conferences-...
Further details at gregynog.blogspot.com. Join us for a week of discussion and collaboration!

Module 10 Impact on Society Impact Film YouTube video by UK Covid-19 Inquiry

The Covid 19 impact film released at the start of Module 10 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry is a devastating yet essential watch, focusing on how bereavement at that time was so different. According to one witness, Rupinder, it was as if her mother had disappeared or gone missing.
youtu.be/tep8n_v4QuA

When This Is Over When This Is Over - Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic; Academics, activists and artists remember and reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic in an inclusive commemorative overview which honours the experien...

Also published by Policy Press: "When this is Over: Reflections on an unequal pandemic." In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. How can things be different when this is over?
policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/when-t...

'But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.'

What happens when the taps run dry? England is about to find out | Aditya Chakrabortty It’s not just Tunbridge Wells – a country famous around the world for its rain is in danger of self-imposed drought, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

New book tackles funding the investment in UK water that is needed alongside privatisation, arguing that 'The way we charge for water must change... [We need] more progressive bills that reflect the ability to pay'. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... @zackpolanski.bsky.social

Vital intervention @andyburnham.bsky.social. The duty of candour must apply in full to the security & intelligence services & every public service so that no institution can hide behind secrecy. Recent scandals about MI5 as well as Manchester Arena bombing highlight why this is so important.

Fascinating discussion of Anya Berger's involvement in John Berger's work: “The new way of seeing,” Anya writes [in 1969], “suddenly became the normal one and the old way—quite tolerable until then—became abnormal and indeed impossible.” 'Ways of Seeing', credited to John Berger, aired in 1972.

A wonderful film that meant a lot to me. I wrote about that here (open access) www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
Many thanks to Dani House for introducing it to me...

Mohammedali Yaseen Taha reads his poem The Disappeared Oak in English, one of the first Creative Responses published in the Journal of Disappearance Studies, which explores the dimensions of human disappearance, particularly enforced disappearance.

https://ow.ly/3Qa050XMvv1

BMJ has published an editorial calling for #BasicIncome, written by Matthew Johnson and Elliott Johnson, authors of our book 'Basic Income'.

This marks a step toward mainstream endorsement of basic income as a response to inequality.

https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1822

Andrew Meyerson (A&E Dr at Royal London Hospital) Dailymotion video by Sands Films

Dr Andrew Meyerson: brilliant on Sky News just now . See also www.dailymotion.com/video/x9i8yyw

What makes a postdoctoral position different when it’s a Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life junior or senior fellow position? You will be working together with a vibrant community of interdisciplinary researchers, each of them curious about the world-making capacities of AI. Ask us a question…

Trauma Time and Memory in Understanding Gender-Based Violence - Chaeyoung Yong, 2025 This article draws upon Jenny Edkins’ notion of ‘trauma time’ and asks how it helps us to better understand entanglement with past trauma in the context of gend...

📝 Out now in Vol. 53! Chaeyoung Yong argues that trauma time offers key insights into "understanding GBV by highlighting the socio-political nature of trauma and critiquing the linear narrative of healing and restoring the social order."
👇
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

What role do disasters play in global politics? In Vol. 53’s Special Issue, Amy Cortvriend, Lucy Easthope, Jenny Edkins, and @kandidapurnell.bsky.social explore how embodied trauma disrupts the status quo — and may open a path to a new social-political order.

👇
thetinyurls.com/redirect.php...

...Farjana Islam, @ledbydonkeys.org, @honigsbaum.bsky.social, Herbert Woodward Martin, @franfd.bsky.social, Rita Coleman, Matthew Hogan, Mehreen Hamdany, and Gary Younge.