Eunice Goes
@eunicegoes
Political scientist at @RichmondUniLdn. Interested in parties and ideologies and quite a few other things. More of a fox than a hedgehog.
Learned so much in @jamesdennison.bsky.social and @andrewpgeddes.bsky.social’s excellent book on What Europeans Think About Immigration. It offers a very sophisticated explanation of how Europeans form their views on immigration and great analysis on the role of narratives.
Steve Bray will be missed in Westminster. I love this story about how he beat the BBC’s high platform with a less than 3 quid pole. magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/08/19/s...
Mixed feelings about Cascais. On the one hand I’m very happy to be back home, on the other I’m disturbed by the changes that mass tourism and the thousands of US digital nomads have brought to the town.
The odd combo of New Labour’s triangulation and Blue Labour results in restarting drilling North Sea oil and gas and bringing Thames Water into public control.
Not yet in Number 10 but disappointing already. Rewarding a politician who revels on daily performative cruelty (while harming the UK economy) with the second most important job in government sends discouraging signals about Burnham. These New Labour era politicians are addicted to triangulation…
Starmer was often compared to Wilson. Well, there are some similarities…(accounts taken from David Marquand’s The Progressive Dilemma.
@benquinn75.bsky.social these are not social conservatives these are far-right politicians and activists, many of them quite extreme. It’s important not to normalise extremist ideologies.
Oh, the heatwave is melting the brains of some powerful people. Some ‘allies’ of Keir Starmer are talking up his chances of becoming the next UN Secretary-General. Delirious Anglosphere stuff.
Tom Nairn writing about England in the 1960s but this could be an analysis of post-Brexit UK: ‘the Arcadian England which appeals so strongly to foreign intellectuals is also the England of (…) permanent economic crisis, bankrupt governments, slavish dependence on the US and myopic expedients’.
It’s quite extraordinary that in 2026 there are people quibbling with the idea that there are predatory businesses. What was extraordinary in that kerfuffle was that there was no one in Ed Miliband’s team who could present a list of predatory companies.
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social showed again why he is very good at politics: he communicates effectively his achievements. Why the Labour has not done something similar about its workers’ rights bill is a mystery (or perhaps not).
As per usual, @stephenkb.bsky.social was in great form in his Inside Politics. His point about Britons attitude to Europe is spot-on and that is why few people in Europe are paying any attention to Wes and Andy. As Theresa May used to say, Brexit is Brexit. Deal with it.
The same ministers who’ve gone along with Starmer’s timid incrementalism for the past 6 years are now worried that the few months of Labour’s leadership battle may delay the tiny incremental measures they were planning to introduce in the coming months…
As Ed Miliband’s name circulates again as a potential Labour leader it’s worth remembering that, as I wrote in 10 years ago, in 2015 he failed to renew social democracy mostly because the right of the party blocked many of his ideas and undermined his leadership. This time things are different…
So much media interest (verging on obsession) on Ed Miliband these days. As @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social argued this weekend Miliband is Labour’s ideas machine. If you want to understand his agenda I gently nudge you to check this book I published with @manchesterup.bsky.social.
Great vibes at the @togetheralliance.bsky.social march against the far-right
Well, my 30 something Iranian neighbour who left Iran when he was an adolescent, tells me that using the Strait of Hormuz as a weapon has been taught in Iranian schools for decades. So, it’s not a ‘new weapon’.
So happy with my cheeky Wednesday matinee at the Almeida Theatre to see American Psycho the musical! It’s an exciting, witty, clever and terrifying production. Truly phenomenal! It was also wonderful to see so many cool young people in the audience.
Kleber Mendonça Junior’s The Secret Agent is more than just the best film of the year; it’s a film to be enjoyed as a dish with many and magically balanced flavours ; it’s a kaleidoscope of colours, emotions, wit and so many stories. And Wagner Moura is phenomenal!
Such brilliant production of Tom Stoppard’s very clever and moving Arcadia at @oldvictheatre.bsky.social. It covers absolutely everything, Newtonian physics, laws of entropy, Lord Byron, romantic gardens, love, lust, ambition and everything in between. You leave the theatre feeling happy rewarded.
Of course Morgan McSweeney has fans in the PLP. He made sure of it when he purged any mildly left-wing Labour candidate and parachuted into winnable seats his pals from Labour Together and from the different right-wing groupings of the party.
Following the @financialtimes.com’s story, any attempt to rehabilitate Peter Mandelson is doomed to fail. Association with such a corrupt and immoral man will taint anyone who will try to defend him.
Something to look forward too. Tiago Rodrigues’s play, which has become an international sensation, is coming to the @nationaltheatre.org.uk! 😊
It looks like the respectable media is working towards turning an incoherent, rambling and mad speech into a rational use of US power.
Such a delight to hear the wit and gentle tone of Julian Barnes. Such a shame that Ian McEwan rambles aimlessly for so long in a conversation that should have been about a wonderful writer’s last act.
That bitter sweet moment: being happy for finally holding in your hands the latest book of your favourite writer while knowing this is last novel of Julian Barnes.
@estrangeirada.bsky.social o teu voto fez a diferença. O Segueo teve o seu melhor resultado no consulado de Manchester.
In two weeks we will know if Portuguese centre-right voters prefer a centrist socialist who respects democracy or a far-right candidate who loves autocrats and is nostalgic of the dictatorship and Empire.